Dictatorship vs. The Collective

One thing I find fascinating about the band dynamic is that essentially a band is a collection of "wills" all willing themselves into an end result. This leads to a big soup of chaos and often times complete destruction of an otherwise friendly and enriching journey as musicians.

Over the years I have experienced several different variations of the "Collapse". That place where the band hits a certain plateau and then falls flat on it's face, often times right before an ascension in some form of progress or direction. One thing I will cover in a different post is what sadly can be seen as the fear of success, and it seems to be a very strong trait amongst musicians.

From the outset I have a very strong opinion that a band must decide whether it falls under the "will" of a dictatorship, or if it can flurish in the realm of the collective. The dictatorship is an understanding that the creative force in the band drives the decisions and asks, but is not guranteed, complete band participation. The collective is an agreement amongst all members (to the point of a written agreement) that every member shares equal share, and ever member participates in every process, with equal energy.

Over the next two days I will dissect each in it's own entirity, with a rant on the good side and the pains of both sides of the fence. I have my preference, but before adding any influence either way, I will try my best to share my objective obersavations of each.

The Dictatorship...how to conquer...nicely.

While the word Dictatorship sounds harsh, the context in which I am presenting it is more on the level of an owner of a business, not a CEO type, but a true owner of a business. In most of the bands I have been in the most effective method was when the person with the passion behind the project, was the soel voice in final decisions. I have been both the leader and the follower, and as long as everyone knows their role going into it, there is often far less tension and creative differences than the Collective approach (more on that tomorrow).

Briefly some of the up sides

1. Things get done fast
2. Few hands in the creative cooking pot for final decisions
3. Allocating tasks is centralized

Some of the downsides

1. Over time the tendency to want input will arise from the unofficial collective
2. Burden of cost falls on the dictactor
3. A lazy dictactor means a waste of time for everybody

One thing I focus on as a dictator is to value the opinions of the musicians around me. Realizing peoples strengths and using those strengths, while muting the weaknesses by not calling on them, can really help guide a creative process. I have surrounded myself with people I trust to contribute things that I am unable to contribute, and thus my vision becomes stronger by managing the process and guiding the unofficial collective. On the flip side if someone brings their chaos into the mix, it is real easy as a dictator to remove the problem.

This concept really only seems to work when you as a musician really want to drive the project, and everyone else really wants to only be involved as a musician, not a band member.

The Business Side Part 1 - AllMusic.com

Sending your product to allmusic.com is mandatory. Don't think why, don't ask why, Submit your finished CD to this website. It has many benefits.

1. When you decide to join the Recording Academy as an artist, this is the site they use to validate your existence.

2. Wikipedia editors look here to see if you have the necessary three works of art to be a artist with a bio on wikipedia.

Basically it is one of a thousand sites you will want to put your music on this happens to be a more important one than most. You existence on this website shows that you put a little more effort and thought into your music career and are really trying to be the Little Engine that could.

The Publics First Glimpse - Part III The Checklist

One thing that helped us when the Mystic Nation was getting set release our first CD was to sit down and ponder all the ways we could reach the audience. Regardless of the cost, we listed everything we could think of to help market our cause. Having a CD is great, but if nobodby knows about it, you might as well not make a first run of 2000 CDs.

Everything from matchbooks to a music video. It was amazing at how many ideas this spawned and from that we managed the list down to specific action items to pursue.

Basically it is a wave, once the first set of tasks is taken off, the next phase I pursued, and on and on.

It sounds like a simple idea, but it was an approach I had never seen taken in the 5 or 6 other bands I had been in, and the productivity and focus because of the list proved to me that it was a valuable tool.

Going over the top with organization, I highly recommend Microsoft Project. If you have the patience and organization skills, this is a very powerful tool. At this point you are starting to run your career like a business, with intent and focus, not just hoping you will get discovered playing in a coffee house.

The Publics First Glimpse - Part I - The Choice

This blog probably should have been written prior to the thoughts on sonicbids.com. sonic bids is a site to promote product. So I thought I would recenter my thoughts and focus on the main attraction of being an artist...the product and moving out of the garage and becoming a professional, with a professional recording.

The process of going from a garage band to professional band is actually simple by definition. Most people think being a professional musician or band means that one is signed to a Major or Minor label. This is just not the case. As an artist or band, once a physical/virtual product is created and is available on the market for purchase, it is at that point one can call themselves a professional. Dream for the big time, in the meantime develop reality towards an end game, a series of goals capable without someone else getting you there.

Which brings me to the debut work, or initial product, the first recording.

A decision for a new band or artist needs to be made at this point. The question to ask after you as an artist or band rehearse enough to feel you can play live is, do we record a demo to get shows, or do we go all out and complete an EP or Full length body of work?

Budget and time, the two worst enemies of an artist or band. This choice is not an easy one and take s a bit of commitment. It will be the first real test of an artists or bands resolve. Regardless of the decision, the next blog will cover

Regardless of the answer, in order to move any further as ones own little engine that could, this step is mandatory and the sooner one has product, the sooner a artist or band can utilize most of the tools and tricks discussed in this blog.

A beginning...

This blog will serve a purpose to condense as much infomation about tricks and tips and things that have worked and not worked over the years in the do it yourself music business. I am only an authority on the subject in my own world, so take the info with a level of seriousness or counter with even better information, or we can even be sarcastic all day long.

There are plenty of books out there on the art of being in a band, the key difference here is...I am not trying to make any money off you. The idea to blog this stuff really came to a head when I found myself repeating the same type of info to musicians I know, over and over, so this is a way to place all the info in one central location and let the feedback, if any, roll in and expand on the concepts.

I want this to serve as a communucation point between people who don't expect a label to hand them something, and honestly, don't care if they do. A place to express frustration and triumph with all the excellent tools available to the indy artist or even to the hobby musician looking to at a minimum get their product on the market and in distribution.

Over time I will go through several commercial sites that are beneficial...but I want to make clear I am not endorsing the use of these tools, merely pointing them out. I take no reponsibility for anyones failure or success along the way. Just because it worked for me, does not mean it will work for you...and there are many reasons this may be the case, but I am not one of them.

If you have any links or tools worth mentioning, please feel free to email me at goliath@mysticntion.info , provide me with the basics and I will do some research and report back on the blog.

Now let's go do some discovery!