Members mstreck Posted August 26, 2012 Members Share Posted August 26, 2012 One local band uses crowd pics that aren't theirs on their promo posters. Another band posted an audio demo that wasn't actually theirs. Another band puts fake gigs on their schedules to make it look like their playing out of state. These are actively gigging bands - and not a bunch of kids, either. Now, I've always been an "honesty is the best policy" kind of guy (I'm still not super keen on using tracks, but that's another hundred threads), and the stuff that these other bands are doing really offends me as someone who works pretty freakin' hard trying to honestly promote our band with no budget. Granted, we've done some tongue-in-cheek promo vids, like a fake newscast, but it's pretty obvious that we're not trying to pull a fast one on people. What are bands in your markets doing? I'm not talking about painting yourself in the best possible light - I'm talking about out-and-out deception here. Before anyone calls me out on it, we're beginning another tongue-in-cheek promo run that uses actresses posting webcam videos to our fb site fighting over who loves us more *(the first in the series has been posted and we are waiting for the second one). I know that's not "real" but it's also not something that we are going to pretend is real. We're going to let everyone in on the joke and ask our real fans to post videos telling us what they like about the band. To me, this is still keeping it real - but I can see some other bands doing something like this but never pulling back the curtain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members roamingbard13 Posted August 26, 2012 Members Share Posted August 26, 2012 I don't see what the point is. So you land an extra gig or two because you lie in your promo materials, and then give the venue your actual product. They see that you are full of {censored}, and you don't get rebooked. Or does it not happen that way? So I don't think we ever would. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tim_7string Posted August 26, 2012 Members Share Posted August 26, 2012 I'm pretty much a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) kind of guy, so I don't BS the public when I'm putting out promo, pumping up credentials to outrageous levels or anything like that. I will try to present it in the best possible light, of course. I obviously got some professional photos shot for my own website as well as for my band. This alone makes a band appear serious as a performer because it's an investment of money. Having your own website with a dot com, same thing. I'm super-picky about video, so we don't have much of it up. I'm hoping that will change soon now that we are getting better and tighter as a band. About the only thing I have seen other bands do that I think is crossing the line is putting up videos of their group on YouTube, then logging in as a different user to comment on their own video: "Oh, these guys are so awesome!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mstreck Posted August 26, 2012 Author Members Share Posted August 26, 2012 I don't see what the point is. So you land an extra gig or two because you lie in your promo materials, and then give the venue your actual product. They see that you are full of {censored}, and you don't get rebooked. Or does it not happen that way?So I don't think we ever would. The three bands I mentioned in the OP aren't overselling themselves to clubs. Nor are any of them bad bands. In fact, two of them gig quite often. It's more like they are misrepresenting themselves to their fans (or maybe to potential fans). And I don't get that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members toddkuen Posted August 27, 2012 Members Share Posted August 27, 2012 One time we made up posters that, on first inspection, looked like we had just completed a tour of some ridiculous place, Reykjav Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Lee Knight Posted August 27, 2012 Moderators Share Posted August 27, 2012 What we used to do was... Come up with a great testimonials from a few local celebs. Like very popular DJs, one of the younger hipper newcasters/weather people, a sports personality, other competing, local music personalites. Then we'd write it ourselves and go to them for approval. They almost always agreed with a laugh. And sometimes you'd say something funny and get them to agree with it also. Like a local DJ saying, "I was really drunk but I'm pretty sure the sounded great." But we made sure we got approval. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members FitchFY Posted August 27, 2012 Members Share Posted August 27, 2012 There's definitely a line between being cheeky ("We just toured Iceland!" and fake cat fights) and lying about your band. That's just classless and they get the bad karma they're sure to receive. Fortunately, I can't claim to have seen that much around here besides the usual boasting of "we're the best band around" kind of nonsense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wheresgrant3 Posted August 27, 2012 Members Share Posted August 27, 2012 It really is bottom of the barrel and pretty classless. Not much you can do about it except market harder and smarter. The band with the fake dates I'd write on their FB page "Hey I'm going to be in that town that weekend... tell me how I can get to this gig." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SpaceNorman Posted August 27, 2012 Members Share Posted August 27, 2012 It really is bottom of the barrel and pretty classless. Not much you can do about it except market harder and smarter. The band with the fake dates I'd write on their FB page "Hey I'm going to be in that town that weekend... tell me how I can get to this gig." I've got mixed emotions about this one ... I've worked with several projects that maintained a sparse calendar - intentionally. The band only wants to play a couple of nights a month. However, neither does the band what to see anybody jumping to conclusions about quality based on the fact that they only want to book a couple of gigs each month. I don't see anything wrong about blocking out those dates by posting a simple "Private Engagement" next to those dates. I certainly wouldn't lie about playing public gigs in far away places on weekends the band decided not to book - neither do I feel compelled to tell the world I'm taking a weekend off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members toddkuen Posted August 27, 2012 Members Share Posted August 27, 2012 There's a fine line between out-and-out lying, fanciful or cheeky promotion, and sales and marketing. One reason I always like to see unedited live video with live sound is that it quickly cuts to the truth as compared to band "promo" materials. I don't like to make things up either. Private Engagement level stuff seems fine - its your business. Cheeky is okay if its fun and doesn't really mislead (we assumed that people would be smart enough to figure out the band playing in a crappy bar was not likely to be an international touring act). Is it out and out lying to take your best studio audio recordings and dub that into promo video? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mstreck Posted August 27, 2012 Author Members Share Posted August 27, 2012 It really is bottom of the barrel and pretty classless. Not much you can do about it except market harder and smarter. The band with the fake dates I'd write on their FB page "Hey I'm going to be in that town that weekend... tell me how I can get to this gig." Ha! I'd have to get a friend to do it. They'd know me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mstreck Posted August 27, 2012 Author Members Share Posted August 27, 2012 What we used to do was...Come up with a great testimonials from a few local celebs. Like very popular DJs, one of the younger hipper newcasters/weather people, a sports personality, other competing, local music personalites. Then we'd write it ourselves and go to them for approval. They almost always agreed with a laugh. And sometimes you'd say something funny and get them to agree with it also. Like a local DJ saying, "I was really drunk but I'm pretty sure the sounded great."But we made sure we got approval. That's definitely shows that you didn't take yourselves too seriously. If I saw it, I'd think it was hilarious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MDLMUSIC Posted August 28, 2012 Members Share Posted August 28, 2012 The main problem with lying is that when you're found out, then nobody believes you when you tell the truth. I think there's some kind of story about that involving sheep and a wolf. I do remember one time long ago when a club wouldn't book the band without a demo cassette (I told you it was a long time ago). The drummer in the band took one of those "The Wooden Nickel Band plays Today's Top Hits" cassettes and re-recorded it about 6 times, until it was hard to make out exactly what it sounded like. He sent the club owner that cassette and landed the gig. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mstreck Posted August 28, 2012 Author Members Share Posted August 28, 2012 The main problem with lying is that when you're found out, then nobody believes you when you tell the truth. I think there's some kind of story about that involving sheep and a wolf.I do remember one time long ago when a club wouldn't book the band without a demo cassette (I told you it was a long time ago). The drummer in the band took one of those "The Wooden Nickel Band plays Today's Top Hits" cassettes and re-recorded it about 6 times, until it was hard to make out exactly what it sounded like. He sent the club owner that cassette and landed the gig. Wow. Did he keep the gig? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.