Bob Olhsson wrote on Tue, 26 April 2005 09:59 |
Which would you have acted on first, a tip from some kid behind the counter of a record store that came to you by way of your sales department or the next demo in "the pile" that was addressed to you personally but came from somebody you had never heard of?
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Well i was a staff producer FIRST, so not the most active of A&R weasels...
But I was probably AS likely to listen to either.
If someone made contact and convinced me it was something worth hearing, i'd listen.
And I listened to everything that came in to me.
But i didn;t take blind mailings, in part because that was company policy at both labels (RCA and Columbia)
I was actually leery of sales or promo dept. "tips" as they tended more to the generic "what's on the radio NOW" stuff...
But I was always open to one musician mentioning another one to me.
And of course it's great to find it on your own...
which leads to:
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What percentage of bands you went to check out were told that you had been there if you decided you weren't interested and the band hadn't been expecting you at the particular gig?
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I often went to see things that I wasn't sure about and didn't announce my presence or make a big thing out of it.
And if it wasn't for us, I might NOT tell them I was there... unless the manager or someone rang the next day and asked.
The only time I WOULD say something is if it was a near miss that i felt some input might bring closer.
I don't think in general that a band has too much to leaqrn from people who pass on them.. unless a pattern emerges.
Really you want advice from people who GET you, not people who just don't!
The exception is the pattern... such as, 4 different guys say 'love the band and the songs but the singer has to go..." or something equally unanimous.
Which is rare.