Why record companies won't help your band here

[Jerseystar]

Well for Singapore...hmm...to be honest myself for instance have never bought a local band CD except in the early 80's to 90's where we have what we call Cassettes which is much cheaper and affordable. During that time, an original cassette cost about $6 and the pirated ones cost $2. Now how much is a CD? Not many can afford. And priorities are often better off for foreign bands. Now a days, many downloaded free music. How can the artists survive?

We are all to blame for this including myself. The sad truth, nothing but the truth! Hehehehe!!


Saluti!
Tetragrammaton

It's part of it but not the big picture. For instance if there was only one person who would buy a local CD for every 1000 people who wouldn't, a larger population will definitely allow a band to sell more and maybe hit a respectable sales target. In general.

Also, for the longest time, record companies bring in overseas albums probably because they know these will sell more than local acts. Another reason why they wouldn't sign local bands probably because it is bad business to do so and affect their sales that they can get with overseas acts. I suppose they might consider signing a local act IF and ONLY IF they can sell loads and loads of albums.... if you can't make money from such a band why sign.

The question is are the elements really in place in a country like Singapore for a local band to create mania and that's the only way they can sell a shitload of albums domestically?

 

[kongwee]

Simple. How many other cantonese musicians or bands do they compete with? They compete with themselves, as they are practically one of the few places that uses Cantonese as a FIRST LANGUAGE.

Singapore uses English as the first language. Imagine how many other bands from America, England, and all other parts of the world use English? We got more competition than that of Cantonese bands.

Wrong analogy dude

Yup, that why our market cannot grow. We even don't feel that we can compete. Nobody will help us to develop our own music industry.

 

[theliverevolution]

It's not that we cannot compete, its just that not even locals are listening to us. If the locals aren't listening to local music, it would be harder to bring it out of Singapore. Of course, this day and age of digital distribution has made it easier. Its just that how you going to convince others to do so

And, your analogy of using Hong Kong to compete with Singapore is not entirely applicable. Hong Kong has lesser competition than compared to Singapore. Yes, Singapore has like a thousand times more competition than them

So what?

That doesn't determine our fighting spirit

 

[a beautiful world]

Simple. How many other cantonese musicians or bands do they compete with? They compete with themselves, as they are practically one of the few places that uses Cantonese as a FIRST LANGUAGE.

Singapore uses English as the first language. Imagine how many other bands from America, England, and all other parts of the world use English? We got more competition than that of Cantonese bands.

Wrong analogy dude

The competition in the US is way tougher than Singapore. There are class acts playing in random pubs and on the streets in Boston and New York who are incredible musicians, some better than our local professionals. Many of them will probably never get signed. Singapore provides a very good platform for musicians, because audiences are actually quite tolerant. Sure, if you want to get some money playing in a pub, you'll have to play covers. But the bottomline is quality. In Singapore, you can get away with a little bit of off pitch singing, and sometimes unspiring songwriting. In the US, you're not even going to get into a major pub in the big cities. To do well, local bands need to produce very, very good quality. Good vocals, good musicianship, very good songwriting are really just basic hygiene. To get that, talent isn't enough, a lot of practice is required. People have to take proper lessons, and be humble. Only then, maybe, will one of the major labels even bother considering promoting a local band. Without these basic factors, no matter how much someone markets a band, it's not going to make anyone any money. I don't really think it comes down to a cycle. If the local scene genuinely ups the quality, I'm sure it will reap the rewards.

 

[MaCcA]

^ Very nice take Mr A Beautiful World!

totally agree with u...too much blaming of the environment...too little focus on self-improvement

 

[theliverevolution]

My point was to point out that the competition for Singaporean bands is that we face equally as good, or maybe better quality in other parts of the world because we use English. It has nothing to do with "blaming the environment"

There are good quality bands here already. I sent a few local mp3s to my friend recently in Australia. She came back telling me that some of her friends enojyed the tracks to a great deal that they wanted me to send them the whole CD.
I sent them my physical copies by airmail soon after that.

And its like that everywhere. There will always be good bands and crap bands no matter where you are in the world. Its jsut that in other coutries, due to bigger population size, there are more good, unrecognised bands in numbers

Of course, the reverse is true as well

 

[Aragorn777]

locals not supporting locals.

YES! Singaporean bands need the support of Singaporeans before moving out into the world! But i don see the support man! Just a few years ago, i went for the Avenged Sevenfold concert. IT WAS AWESOME. But the band that opened up for Avenged Sevenfold was a local band. When they came on to play, the crowd boo-ed them and was wanting them off stage. Then i went for the Fall Out Boy concert where hey monday opened up for FOB. Everyone was cheerin hey monday on even though some of us had no idea who they were. Maybe because Lead Singer is damn hott??? haha but still, what im sayin is local bands do not have enough support from our own people. It really affects me man, no singaporean band is gonna make it big in the world?

 

[Jerseystar]

I hope nobody misses the point here that it is about how much you can sell and how many people are in your market. The more the people, the bigger your margin.

You guys should never be afraid of competition. If you are it only means one thing that your music isn't good enough. If it truly were that good, it will speak for itself. At the end of the day, its like which stall's Chicken Rice is better. It is not the stall itself but the product which people are drawn to. If it tastes better than the other one, then of course people will naturally like yours more. If there are really many many Chicken Rice stalls around, the only way to make yours stand out and get noticed is by being better than the next guy/band. Stop blaming it on the density of the competition because what I'm stating here in this thread is to do it DIY, everything from the album sleeve to the the cold calls to pubs, booking agents etc. It is YOUR TOUR so who you competing against when you tour alone as a band?

In fact the opposite should be true in that instead of being afraid of the competition, each band should help out other bands out by telling them about available gigs and stuff. Never backstab another band because that's what kills a scene.

 

[theliverevolution]

YES! Singaporean bands need the support of Singaporeans before moving out into the world! But i don see the support man! Just a few years ago, i went for the Avenged Sevenfold concert. IT WAS AWESOME. But the band that opened up for Avenged Sevenfold was a local band. When they came on to play, the crowd boo-ed them and was wanting them off stage. Then i went for the Fall Out Boy concert where hey monday opened up for FOB. Everyone was cheerin hey monday on even though some of us had no idea who they were. Maybe because Lead Singer is damn hott??? haha but still, what im sayin is local bands do not have enough support from our own people. It really affects me man, no singaporean band is gonna make it big in the world?

Who opened for A7X then ar?

That's also a big problem here. Have to agree that even Singaporeans aren't supporting local bands, no matter how good they are. Quite some time somebody wrote (on this forum) about how LiveN'Loaded sucked cause they were bringing "trash" (when he was refering to bands like AVA, VR, plainsunset, etc)

That only goes to show how myopic Singaporeans can be
(no offense to those who have glasses though)

 

[smurfpiss]

What's with this obsession with major labels?

 

[Jerseystar]

What's with this obsession with major labels?

Exactly...

 

[Hifi182]

[

i think some other reasons like some singaporean which from china still always listen the songs from china, they never listen rock , what a shame!
so yea, we really need local support !

 

[MaCcA]

My point was to point out that the competition for Singaporean bands is that we face equally as good, or maybe better quality in other parts of the world because we use English. It has nothing to do with "blaming the environment"

Correct me if i'm wrong but the key point u have been pointing out is that the locals are not listening to local bands right. That is "blaming the environment".

I have seen many instances where there have been support for local bands. Jack and Rai opened for Lifehouse and Daughtry, response from the crowd was gd. Shirlyn and the UnXpected has garnered numerous fans as well. The Great Spy Experiment, opened for Daughtry as well, also has plenty of support. I remember attending Rock the Sub at Timbre, which is a showcase of local rock bands, good response too. I'm sure Electrico has done really well as well.

I'm pretty sure there are many more bands who have built a strong local fan base.

On the other hand, locals who do not have faith in local bands might not actually be a bad thing. Having lower expectations makes it easier to impress them.

If the music is genuinely good, I don't think most people will reject it just because it is local music. If they do, there must be a better reason than to just blame the country of origin of the music.

And we're not even talking about getting major labels yet. That has a whole new dimension to it.

Make music for music and the rest will follow.

 

[Jerseystar]

On the other hand, locals who do not have faith in local bands might not actually be a bad thing. Having lower expectations makes it easier to impress them.

If the music is genuinely good, I don't think most people will reject it just because it is local music.

Make music for music and the rest will follow.

Absolutely.

Its similar like a carpenter blaming his tools or his town for not buying (supporting) his works. At the end of the day, its probably his workmanship that lets him down. But that's just part of it.

If you guys all read my post right, forget about major labels and do it your own because now is the best time to gig because the playing field has been leveled because of the advent of technology. Who cares if you can't get local support? There's a bigger market beyond our shores.

 

[GUYrenCE]

hi..aplogies it's like 230 am now so apologies if you have a had time reading.


well,this is just my point of view

but first. what's a record label means to you? i don't think we need
cause wake up people
we had the best labels in the scene
why do you need more?

i think we need
distributor + management team


hmm..basically forget about getting sign
because at the end of the day you don't pay

for major label . look at Michael Jackson

read about his life


Independent label .. look at DOPE
read about them

please be smart . we're living in digital art world now
as far as your home space is Available for this amount of
solid albums .. you will only have this .

yest it's true that download kills
but did you know that downloads kills more label then the artist?


just like what slipknot says:
music is dead.music is art
art is priceless

also. im not trying to say that im in the scene for this long
but bands in here really doesn't have any humble /time management

be it organize shows or anything that needs to meet bands
it's always late .. from my exp .. the latest band i ever meet
3 hours late.
also. living singapore there's no way you can give your 100% commitment in band
bands like blessthefall for example : they are not getting pay at tours/shows
they're making money with T-SHIRTS and solid records
Well . of course getting Sponsorship


i think we should ask ourselves this question
" are you really ready? both mentally and physically prepare
to go on without food/$$ /bath ,shave , shelther
are you up for it?"

that's all
once again apologies!

 

[Jerseystar]

i think we should ask ourselves this question
" are you really ready? both mentally and physically prepare
to go on without food/$$ /bath ,shave , shelther
are you up for it?"

that's all
once again apologies!

You forgot... medicine when you really need it... and the answer to your question is yes. I've been there, done that and I'm still smiling. Didn't realize what I was getting into when when I started but when I look back, kinda sad cause it's tougher than how you describe but do I regret? Not a chance.

But seriously. Even distribution/management companies still are businesses and businesses will need to make profit not a loss and as long as the factors don't favour profit, (at least for local English bands), I'd doubt that it would change anything.

 

[GUYrenCE]

yeah ! you're right

 

[panz3rr]

In conclusion, just strive for the best. work hard as hell to make it big or go around. If its meant to be, it will happen for your band. You make good music? Im sure one day you'll earn something out of it. Just keep trying. If it doesnt, make better music then see how lor. Bands here should think about getting better each day. That way quality music will arise! Chances of your rock/pop star dream will increase!

 

[GUYrenCE]

yeah! nice said.

 

[zullio]

Who opened for A7X then ar?

i think it was Vermillion.