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Split Rail Records out on own |
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Tuesday, 23 January 2007 |
by MALLORI MORRIS
Intern News Reporter
“Hit the promotion hard, sell your name - they’re not going to come to you.”
These are the words of advice Patrick J. Ferrell, a senior interdisciplinary studies major, gives garage bands seeking fame and stardom.
A garage band, by definition, is a band just starting out in the
musical world seeking recognition and following by local venues and
surrounding communities.
Bands typically start this way and grow more popular with increased fan base and word of mouth.
With the introduction of Appalachian State University’s first record
label, Split Rail Records, launched this past fall, several classes in
Hayes School of Music have been designed to teach students how to own,
operate, manage and produce musical artists.
Kim Wangler, advisor of Split Rail Records, taught “Music and
Entertainment Industry” last semester, a course designed to teach
students about the industry and how it operates.
Wangler assigned the class a project that required her students to be fictional managers for an upcoming band.
The students were separated into teams and told to get a band up and running using methods or their choice.
The students then had to write their plan on paper and Wangler chose the top three groups. The class voted on the winning pair.
John D. Morris, a senior music industries major, and Ferrell were the winning pair.
Morris and Ferrell said they chose to take the assignment from a
realistic standpoint and not a “strike it big fast” approach like some
students chose to do.
The team suggests bands or musical artists to first begin small. They
recommended booking local shows and gigs to produce a fan base and then
start traveling outside their region.
The team then suggests recording catchy music. Morris said using home
recording equipment could help keep the cost down, especially for new
bands with little money to start with.
Ferrell recommends using as many free promotions as possible. One very
popular venue is MySpace.com. MySpace allows users to create accounts
and share music with thousands of people locally or nationally.
Morris said MySpace allows users to “friend blast” other users so bands
can add thousands of “friends” at one time depending to the genre of
music they like.
With Internet publicity, artists can begin underground reviews of their
music while still playing gigs, which doubles their publicity.
Morris said the most important thing is recording music.
Discmakers.com, a popular CD duplicating Web site, is recommended for
producing CDs.
Discmakers also allows bands access to CDBaby, a site used for
distributing music for underground bands through Emusic and iTunes.
Ferrell said Discmakers is popular because it is easy to use and affordable for an upcoming band.
From there, the pair suggests bands begin making a Web site, producing
merchandise and networking with larger bands to play gigs outside of
their region.
This exposure could eventually lead the artist to sign with a record
label. Morris warns, however, bands should stay semi-independent so
they can keep more of the money they make.
“The artist should have creative control of their music and own their
music. The record company should be a partner with the band,” Morris
said.
In order to succeed in the musical world, musicians must first have the
talent it takes to make it big and secondly be willing to work hard,
Ferrell said.
“Only a handful of bands write really good music people can connect to,” Morris said.
Morris works as an intern with Severe Records in Nashville, Tenn.
He will graduate in May and hopes stay in Nashville and continue working with the music industry.
Ferrell plans to graduate in fall 2007 and continue working with the recording and production side of music.
He currently works on street teams, which are groups of fans devoted to spreading a band’s name, for four record labels.
After graduation, Ferrell plans to move back to New York, where he
interned with two record labels last summer, and continue studio work.
Wangler said Split Rail Records is in negotiations with two bands they
offered contracts to last semester. Neither band has signed contracts
with the label as of yet.
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