There is an age old argument that vinyl records sound better than CD or uncompressed digital audio. This is a very subjective argument that to this day, I believe, is impossible prove. However, I believe that a good quality vinyl record played on a high quality sound system produces a fantastic sound with a character and warmth that provides a completely different, and to me, a more pleasurable listening experience.

The reason I’m writing this article is that there is still demand for vinyl. Yes, not only are we still buying it, but reports indicate that sales are gradually increasing. A lot of what I’ll say in the article may seem obvious to an older generation of engineers and producers; however, there is younger generation of digital natives that may have never experienced the glories that vinyl can bring. If you’re a band, engineer or producer working on a vinyl release, there are a few techniques you can apply to get the most out of your recording. In my opinion, a mix is always subjective; however, we also need to work within the constraints of the technologies we’re using. Hopefully, the following will assist you in achieving a better sounding mix for your vinyl release.

It should be recognised as one of the main differences between an analogue vinyl recording and digital audio is the dynamic range. CD quality digital audio will have a dynamic range of about 150dB, where a vinyl record can produce anywhere from 70dB to 90dB. It is possible for vinyl to go higher, but these figures are a good starting point. It is good bare this in mind when handing over the mix to the mastering or cutting engineer. If the levels are too hot for the medium, the engineer will need to attenuate the signal, therefore possibly severely altering the sound of your mix. I want to keep this article about being creative however; it is worth noting that digital signals are measured in dBFs, whereas analogue signals are measured in dBVU. More information on this can be found here. It is also worth talking to the mastering engineer as he/she will be able to advise you.

There are areas within the frequency spectrum that need to be treated differently with vinyl. In the digital domain it is common to add compression or add limiting to the high frequencies to increase the perceived loudness. This method does not translate well to vinyl. If you can visualise the stylus in the groove of a record, it is moving through a series of peaks and troughs, narrow and wide, which causes the head to vibrate. These vibrations are then converted to an electrical signal which is then amplified and the passed through the chain until the sound is reproduced through the speakers. Again, if you can visualise the grooves as sound waves, higher frequencies are smaller and more frequent and cause more vibrations to the head. This can then cause overload from the amount of work the head needs to do and therefore compromising the sound quality by adding distortion, and potentially damaging the equipment. I’m not saying don’t use compression or limiting on the high frequencies, but be aware of what overdoing it can do. The cutting stage is the opposite of what I just described, where the cutting head is vibrated using an electrical current to cut the corresponding grooves into the record.

Low frequency content needs to be tackled differently. Try to centre the low frequency element to your mix. I understand it may be a creative choice to have two simultaneous basslines panned left and right, but this can cause phase problems when cutting the disc and render the disc unplayable, or at least unpleasant to listen to. There are ways around this at the mastering stage by cutting the low frequency content however; this will again alter the sound of your mix. It is better to recognise this at the mix stage and achieve a result you’re happy with before it is sent to the mastering engineer.

With the influx of music production and technology tools and software, and the constantly increasing power and affordability of processing power, it is easy to get creative with whole load of processor plugins on your mix. This is fine, but I suggest taking a step back and taking a different approach when mixing for vinyl. It is easy to add a compressor to the kick drum to give it that extra punch however; there are other ways to achieve similar results which translate better to vinyl. It is also advisable to be very aware of clipping. In the digital domain, clipping can be masked and dealt with, but it does not transfer well to vinyl.

Vinyl is a great medium for dynamic music and I’m a believer that great dynamics and EQ can be achieved at the tracking stage with good mic placements and performances. However, sometimes this is not possible due to lack of resources and time. In addition, as a mix engineer, it is common to be handed stems that have been recorded elsewhere by someone else where you have no input on the recording process. Instead of loading up that compressor to achieve the punch or volume to get it to cut through, try using EQ and balancing with the other instruments. Listen out for the harmonics and a little notch here and there can make all the difference. Careful panning and reverb can also bring instruments out in the mix. One thing to be very aware of is the length of your tracks as the vinyl disc is limited to how much information in can hold at good quality. Make careful decisions about the running order, or sequence of your tracks on the disc. The outer grooves a less susceptible to distortion so place your killer and loud tracks here, and your softer and quitter tracks towards the centre of the disc.

The best thing to do is put yourself in the mindset of your potential audience. The majority of vinyl junkies I know invest a lot of money in their audio systems. Some even build special, acoustically treated listening rooms. Don’t worry too much about achieving loudness at the mix stage. Try and achieve a good balance and level for the mastering engineer to work with but remember, your audience probably has a sound system that’s very capable of going very loud, at their preference. A lot of DJs still use vinyl as well as digital, but most club systems will run through compressors which will level everything. The difference between highly compress digital music and more dynamic vinyl in this environment is that the digital files may sound flat through the club system, whereas the vinyl will have that natural punch which sounds fantastic at high volumes.

I’m not dictating that you shouldn’t be creative with the tools that are available to you. However, by being aware of the constraints of the medium and the preference of your audience can yield some great results and deliver a product that is of extremely high quality.

P.S. Another thing to remember about your vinyl release is the packaging – but that’s another story……

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Adam added that he is open for any questions you may have. He is most easily reached via Twitter: @sonics60 or you can ask your questions in the comments below.

In the next couple of days I was able to reach the acquaintance whom brought up ‘an itunes for indie bands’ and mentioned that I was going to do this and I would give him a piece of the action if were to be successful. He wanted to be a full partner. I was very apprehensive since he had zero experience, however I also knew that I could teach him what I knew as we went along and that if he really wanted it, he would learn quickly just from researching alone. He promised he would give it his all and was ready to put up his share of the money it would cost us to get things rolling. My own online (non-music) business was thriving, so even if I had to cover the majority of the expenses I could still easily finance it. I decided to give him a shot as long as we made everything legally equal. I’ve had bad experiences with business partners before this and I believed I was taking all the right legal precautions so I didn’t get screwed again. My new partner and I went to a corporate lawyer and had the corporation and our concerns all drawn up. We signed the necessary documents and began dreaming up phase one of our new online digital music store.

We studied other social and music websites to see what people responded to. At the time MySpace was huge, Facebook and Twitter were just coming into the mainstream, a lot of bands liked PureVolume, no one (or not many) knew of TuneCore, barely anyone had heard of ReverbNation and Bandcamp wasn’t even in existence. I know I’m missing some others in there, but my point is that we had a lot of room to build something special and to be the first web-based music community doing it.We were fairly confident that we couldn’t go anywhere but up, from there. We had a great business model and good plans to continue building to an online music behemoth.

For those of you unfamiliar with what became the website PLUGOLA, let me explain. It’s a social music community where artists have full control over their music, from ownership to pricing. I had been marketing on the Web since 2000 and I wanted to be sure it was built with the necessary tools and incentives for artists to properly market their music. We incorporated your typical social features of the time, sales and play stats, rankings, automatic SEO, download codes that could be printed directly to cards for artists to pass out at live events, financial incentives for music fans to share and re-sell music, a music locker and a fairly elaborate shopping cart with different payment options. From a music fans’ point of view we programmed the site to only display music from their favorite genre, a music locker and, as I just said, music fans could re-sell( or ‘Plug’) music and earn a commission for each sale. Not to mention, we were the first place outside of iTunes where music videos could be bought and sold! On paper, I couldn’t see this not working.

It ended up taking almost a year for it to be ready for launch. The work and frustration that went into the programming and design is enough for another full blog post, so I’ll spare you the details for now. We had also been rounding up and meeting with investors and several parties really wanted to invest. They hadn’t signed anything yet, but they pretty much had told us that there’s a check waiting for us. We had to tie-up a few loose ends in the legal department, then the money was in our hands.We had worked so hard up to this point I think it was such a sigh of relief that we took our sweet time with all the legal stuff. The market was getting bad and these investors began to have second thoughts.

By November of 2008 we were ready for a public beta launch. Suddenly, my business partner was nowhere to be found. He wasn’t showing up for appointments and he wasn’t returning my phone calls. During some routine accounting, I figured out why I hadn’t heard from him. He had spent thousands of dollars from the company account on personal items, paid some personal bills and took a vacation with his girlfriend. He was already in the hole with me personally for a few thousand dollars, since I covered some of his share of business expenses. Needless to say, I was extremely upset. When I was finally able to corner him, I found out that he had quit his job months earlier thinking we would “be rich by now”. He was completely out of money. I was mildly sympathetic, but the majority of the stolen money was spent on luxuries. I tried to keep my cool and be open minded, so I gave him a second chance as long as he paid the money back. He agreed. He walked out the door and I never saw him again until a few months later when I finally forced him to sign over his rights to the company (otherwise he was going to jail). It was an unfortunate turn of events, but I persevered because I really believed in PLUGOLA and thought I could pick up the pieces as I went along.

That same month news of the economic meltdown had become widely known. All of the investors backed out of the deal. The little money we still had was already spent on some website upgrades. My already-in-existence, once thriving business had also took a very hard hit from the economic collapse. I had lost approximately two-thirds of my own income, because of this, so I could longer fund it with my own money, either. All work on the site was halted. My only option was to work really hard in hopes of saving Plugola. For the next few years I did everything I could think of to keep the site afloat, including paying for two servers out of my own pocket. The problem was that I couldn’t get the majority of artists to actually use the site. Once they registered and uploaded their content they rarely returned and almost never used any of the promo tools. I practically begged for feedback, but got nowhere.

After roughly two years, and few other similar sites doing a much better job, I realized that if Plugola hadn’t picked up any traction by then it wasn’t going to. My attention began to turn elsewhere in the music industry. As disappointing as the end result is, I learned SO much! I wanted to share this story so any aspiring entrepreneurs can learn from these mistakes, as well. Here are some good lessons I took away from a miserable experience (in no specific order).

1. We built the site way too big – It makes sense in our heads to build something bigger than the competition and anticipate the flood gates opening when the site is launched, but that school of thought doesn’t translate well in today’s start-up world. It wasn’t until I read the 37Signal’s book, “Getting Real“ where I began to realize this was a big part of where we went wrong. We needed to start with the bare minimum and build from there.
2. We took too long with investors – We had investors waiting to cut us a check, but we got lazy when it came to the legal red tape. Had we taken care of all that right away, or better yet, before we even met with investors, we would have had a decent amount invested before the American economy collapsed. I don’t blame them for wanting to back out.
3. We spent money before we had it – I knew this was a bad idea, but something inside me told me to roll the dice anyway. I should have listened to my gut, rather than all the reasons I made up on why I HAD to spend that money. Doing this just dug us a deeper hole before we were ever in one.
4. Bad choice of a partner – Not everyone has the same work ethic or vision, and character matters a lot. Never again will I partner with someone with little to no experience in the start-up world. Most people are all talk and will promise you the world, but when it comes down to doing the actual work and making good business decisions they are nowhere to be found. He wasn’t the only partner I had this experience with.
5. Partner quit his job with dreams of riches – I warned by partner a number of times to hold on to his job, at least, until we can cut ourselves a regular paycheck. He quit his job dreaming of limos and reality TV (I’m not joking about that), ultimately leading him into a very difficult situation. He did steal, but I don’t think he would have if he didn’t put himself into that position.
6. Not all good ideas guarantee success – I’ve been learning over the years, not only from this experience, that great ideas are everywhere and rarely are just the ideas enough to be successful. It takes very hard work, the right execution, a dedicated team, good timing and a little luck in order for a good idea to be successful. Don’t be fooled by stories of overnight success. Most ‘overnight success’ stories are of people who have spent many years failing before they finally got it right.
7. You can’t do it all on your own – I’ve tried many times on my own and it just doesn’t work. You’re spread way too thin and it’s tough to focus on what really matters. You need a team to handle most of the important things. It may be one other person or a team of ten. It can be very hard to trust others, especially strangers, with your baby; but you have to. Try to be open-minded about your employee/partner decisions, but not naive.
8. Upgrades were competitive, not needed – When we spent the money we didn’t have for upgrades to the site, we did upgrades that were to only keep up with the rash of other similar digital music stores that launched around the same time (ie: Bandcamp). They weren’t necessarily needed for the site to operate. Technically, it was wasted money.
9. I built the site for marketers – While designing the tools artists would need to market their music correctly I forgot one very important factor; I was building all this for experienced marketers and not a typical Internet user. The tools were easy enough to use, but only experience would know how to tie it all together and make it work for them. Keep it simple.

Unfortunately, I will be shutting down Plugola in the next few weeks. The amount of sales we made I could count on both hands and I just can no longer afford to keep it going. However, I would hate to see such a good application go to waste. If you think you can salvage it, I would be more than willing to let it go for a reasonable offer. It does some need some work, but mainly in the upgrading department and perhaps a few adjustments to your liking. There is nothing broken about it, only that we couldn’t afford to keep up with the rapidly changing music/tech world. If you think you might be interested in taking it off my hands, please shoot me an email: support@plugo.la and we can talk details, before February 15, 2012. If no one is interested, it will be gone forever after that date. We will be keeping the name of Plugola Inc. for our company, however.

I hope to hear from some interested parties soon, but if not, please avoid some of the pitfalls we ran into when building our first REAL tech start-up.

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UPDATE: Just to clarify, only the website PLUGOLA will be closing. The company Plugola Inc. (and this blog) will be moving forward with our other music projects: Hifidelics and Flexi of the Month. The @plugola Twitter feed will continue, as well.

Back in July of this year I was looking for a relatively inexpensive way to get the wheels turning with Hifidelics. If you have ever tried attracting active users to a website (or profile) you know it’s no easy task. If you’re on a shoestring budget, such as us, you must come up with innovative ways to get the word out since a professional advertising/marketing campaign is not an option. My initial thoughts were to find a way to present Hifidelics on a smaller scale, or at least a smaller release-a Hifidelics-lite, if you will. This would be a challenge since I’m not part of an active band myself, so I had to get artists involved.

I thought back to music promotional materials from when vinyl’s golden years and the only thing that stood out to me, and was even remotely similar to Hifidelics, was the flexi-discs that would come in-between the pages of music magazines. However, flexi-discs are super flimsy and I wasn’t imagining any attractive ways  in presenting them where they held any real value (until much later of course). After a bit more research I learned about Polish postcards and amazingly I also found a manufacturer that still produces them. I knew little about the postcards before this; I didn’t even know they had an actual name, but I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect format to pursue for this project.

Hifidelics was originally conceived based on Sub Pop’s ‘Singles of the Month‘ Club, where for a one-time fee subscribers would receive one new music single each month.  A lot of things happened before we abandoned that aspect of Hifidelics and took it to where it is now, but I always loved the concept of the ‘club’ and I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to bring back to table.

I finally opened Flexi of the Month in late July, updating our blog with as much behind-the-scenes content that’s not completely boring. The participating bands can be found (listened to) here — first flexi-disc, second flexi-disc and the thrid flexi-disc.

Flexi of the Month — Introduction from Hifidelics on Vimeo.

If you would like to literally get your hands on some great, new music and try something different we would love to have you as a subscriber! It’s only $24 for a three-month subscription (shipping included in price) and membership is limited to the number of records produced for each artist, which is only 250. To sweeten the deal even more, we will be donating all proceeds to charity.

Please visit the Flexi of the Month order page for full details.

My idea is to go to you and the public and ask for photo submissions of some of special edition vinyl records, like what you see below. I put together this interactive photo collage (just mouse over the image) of some of the slick, cool and creative record releases I know about. Let me know what you think and if you like it, we can get others involved and do more just like it.

If you would like to see this same collage on a larger scale, I have it on a tumblr blog.

My house burned down in the central Texas wildfires. I snuck into my barricaded, burning down neighborhood through the woods on my mountain bike to rescue my vinyl collection.

While the above quote may be a bit extreme (and dangerous), it really does show the level of emotion music-on-vinyl lovers have with their records. You may have also noticed he made no mention at all about a CD collection or saving his iPod. Those are all replaceable objects where vinyl usually has a lot of sentimental value to their owners. There always seems to be a story or memory associated with our records. Hollywood even made a hit movie devoted to the subject, starring John Cusack; and that type of relationship with music has been seriously lacking since the CD and digital music made their appearance. Could this be one of the reasons why recorded music sales have declined so much?

…is there anything more soulless than a downloaded collection of music then compressed onto your i-pod?…

Artwork and packaging are other major factors in vinyl’s appeal. A lot of people are unaware that at one time records were sold in plain cardboard jackets. In 1939, record companies really had no idea how low their sales were until a graphic artist named Alex Steinweiss proposed to Columbia Records that he design original artwork for the jacket covers. Sales skyrockted after that and a record’s art and packaging became an important part of record album. Not just because of sales, but because music fans came to expect it. Part of the thrill of getting your hands on a great record is studying the artwork.  Some people would even hang the jackets on their walls, like a poster. A lot of underground artists have always understood this and have continued to release records that could be described as a works of art themselves. Unfortunately, since CD’s and ultimately digital music has come into play, the packaging and artwork has become almost non-existent. Most people will be satisfied with convenience over quality, but there will always be a smaller group that will gladly pay for music that can be held in their hands and proudly displayed.

While the record was doing it’s thing at 33 1/3 rpm we would sit and look at the record’s artwork. We’d smoke cigarettes and drink cider as we wondered if there was ever going to be anything as important as our records…

Part of Hifidelics’ goal is to encourage and assist artists in releasing non-traditional vinyl records (of any size, length) where music fans feel a connection and are excited to get their hands on it.  Let’s work together to give them a record that will encompass quality, creativity and emotion.

If you’re interested in learning more about Hifidelics.com and how it works, please visit our post: Hifidelics – Crowdsourcing Vinyl Records

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[This is a mirror post from the Hifidelics Blog]

As you may already be aware, part of the Hifidelics experience is in artists releasing very limited edition records in their own packaging concept. While artists DO have the option of releasing black vinyl in your standard cardboard sleeve, we strongly encourage they push their creativity and release something grand; a limited record that everyone must get their hands on. Admittedly, there are not a lot of examples out there to get the creative juices flowing if you don’t already have a concept in mind. So I collected a few of the interesting recent vinyl releases I have run across in the last couple weeks for some inspiration.

Someone on Twitter was showing off some of his vinyl gems and this photo caught my eye. It’s a limited edition 12″ ep with grooves on only one side and a stenciled image on the other, from Chicago Thrash Ensemble. It comes complete with a nice, clear jacket and a baseball card collection of the band members. Apparently, there were only (100) copies pressed. Please keep in mind, on Hifidelics it’s not just about  the record, but the full presentation. If you have other artwork that goes with the record that is just fine.

I just stumbled across this video today. It’s a handmade booklet of records from old Reader’s Digest books, from PIAPTK Records. Pages include band artwork, while other pages contain a 5″ vinyl record in a pocket. Labor intensive, yes; but it’s very cool and it’s something that will never be reproduced.

Last, but certainly not least, is a 2011 double-vinyl release from Explosions in the Sky. You really have to see all the angle views of this, because it’s pretty darn incredible! I’ve never seen anything like this release, but I know you can beat it; or at the very least, match it’s cool factor.

Hopefully these examples spark some ideas to start putting your plans into action. I’m getting anxious! I want to get some records out by you guys! :) If you have any questions or need to discuss some things about your release, please feel free to contact me: hifidelics@gmail.com

UPDATE: If you’re still looking for more inspiration, our sister project; Flexi of the Month posted a video of another clever release concept – a booklet of flexi disc records.

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[This is a mirror post from the Hifidelics Blog]

I’ve noticed that a lot of artists seem to think that uploading their songs to Soundcloud, or any social network for that matter, will be enough for music fans to find them. The phrase, “build it and they will come” is only half true. First, you have to show them the way. There are a lot of artists out there and if there isn’t a clear path to your music (and/or website), it will likely get lost in the giant sea of bands. Targeting a specific niche of music fans is exactly where you should begin. This is no easy feat on Facebook or Twitter, but on Soundcloud it’s all about discovering new music and getting feedback. So they have the tools necessary to allow the right people to find you.

Complete Your Profile

First and foremost, be sure your biography and links are added to your page before you start promoting yourself. I can’t tell you how many times I have come across some really great music only to discover there is no real band name present (just a person’s name) or it isn’t clear who the artist is, and there are no links to their website/social sites. That is pretty much the end of the road. I have no idea where to go from there. If I really enjoy the music I will try a quick search in Google or Facebook. It’s even more frustrating to learn that they are elsewhere on the web, because it would have just been so much easier if they would have linked to these destinations in the first place. I wouldn’t count on fans going to that length to seek you out. For the best results, you want to take as much work out of it for fans, as possible. Just click on “settings” and then “advanced profile” and you can add your bio and site link(s).

Advanced Profile

Add Your Meta Data

Each track you upload has it’s own page and it’s own control panel. By adding all the correct meta data you can really increase traffic to your music and ultimately to your website and/or the links you just added. This will help your search engine visibility, as well as, search within the site.

• Description – Do not stuff this area with keywords. You will want take this opportunity to really talk/tell about your songs.
• Image – Be sure to add an image for EACH track. Good images always attracts eyeballs. It will also increase listens and when/if someone shares your song on Facebook, it will look pretty so people don’t just scroll right by it.
• Type/Genre – This step is pretty self-explanatory. I was going to say to add the correct genre, but some of the made-up genres is what peaks my interest to begin with.
• Tags – A lot of sites use tags to categorize content these days, but I get the feeling that a lot of people don’t quite understand how they work. This results in good content being in the wrong place & the people you’re aiming for will more than likely never find it. Think of tags as keywords or categories. On SoundCloud, most people add additional, or more targeted genres as their tags. This is the correct way. Take a look at their tag cloud and click around a bit. You can get an idea of how the tags work or which tags are popular.
• Select License – Again, this is self-explanatory and easy to do.
• Show More Options – Clicking here you can add label info and/or links to your digital store or videos.

Track Info & Meta Data

You have your profile set-up, your tracks uploaded and all your meta data added. So, now what? Now the fun can begin! It may take a little time to get things going, but it will be worth it in the long run.

Start Following Other Artists

You don’t want to just start following bands/people blindly. You will want to target your specific niche or genre of bands and fans. Unless you already know where other similar artists are on the site, the best way to do this is just to type in your music style into the search or use the tags function. In my opinion, it can’t hurt to go the extra mile and listen to a few tracks of each artist before following them. Not only is it polite to your musical peers, but this is also so you know who you’re lining yourself up with and hopefully developing some sort of relationship. Leaving good comments on their tracks (do not spam your stuff here) will expedite communication with fellow musicians and a lot of times their fans will visit your profile, and listen to your tracks, as well. Every time I leave a comment on someone’s track I notice an influx of visitors and new followers, and I’m on there just as a fan/listener. Be sure not to abuse this, though.

Join Relevant Groups

While you’re on other artists’ profiles, take a look at some of the groups they belong to and join the groups where your music fits. It’s free and there are no annoyances (spam, emails, etc.) after joining. This is where the real listens from relevant music fans will begin.

You should see a “share a track” button next to the “join group” button. From there, click on “select an already uploaded track” under “Choose File”. Voila! You have just added one of your songs to the group. All the fans of that group will have the opportunity to check out your music. If you repeat this several times every week, you should develop a nice flow of organic listens and hopefully new fans/followers.

Some Observations on ‘Groups’

• A lot of music bloggers search and find new music here.
• Some ‘Groups’ require that your music be approved first.
• It appears you can submit the same tracks to the same Groups, but you should wait a period of time before doing that.
• Try not to submit all your tracks to the same group at the same time.  I would recommend no more than one (1) track a day per Group, depending on the size and popularity of that group. This way it will provide a steady flow of new listeners, rather than just one quick burst.

Additional Comments

By now, I’m sure you have heard a million times about how important communication is these days for artists. To assist in building your fans base, it’s important that you respond to all comments and/or questions. I’ve seen a few artists go as far as asking people who left comments to share the track on Facebook or with their friends. I’m not sure how effective that is, but if an artist I liked asked me I would probably do it just to help out. If you become popular within the Soundcloud community responding could end up being a full time job. So you will have to use your judgement on what works best for you.

I’m not trying to upsell you to premium memberships, or anything, but it’s something you may want to seriously consider. The free/basic membership doesn’t have all the metrics and customization capabilities that you may need. If my steps work well for you, taking it to the next level may require you getting more information on who is listening to your music and who is promoting it.

This will help you start to building a relevant following and attract new ears to your music. If your music is good, it will get the attention it deserves. You just have to show the right people the right path to find it.

If you have any tips you would like to share, please feel free to leave them in the comments. We always like to hear what is working for others!

UPDATE: I just got word that Soundcloud has added their own tutorials for getting the most out of their service. You can view it at Soundcloud 101

What a dick, right? Keep in mind that this is some band no one has ever heard of besides maybe a few of their friends and perhaps a couple outsiders in their own town. You would think any artist, let alone one whom no one has heard of, would be happy to have fans interested enough in them to catch them live. Especially with status updates like, “WE REALLY SHOULD BE SIGNED” and “We sound awesome”. Not this band. Their brilliance is above us peasants who support them…or USED to support them.

I wanted to show artists this as a lesson. There’s no quicker way to drive away your fans than talking down to them or taking them for granted. And without any fans playing music is pretty much just a hobby. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not a big shot within the music industry, but this band doesn’t know who I am. I could have been their break, or at least pointed them in the right direction. This reminds me of this quick video by country artist, Big Kenny:

I’ve been on the other side, too. In the early ’90s I played in a touring band. We were playing a venue in Omaha called, The Capitol (I think), when a young guy approached my band to introduce himself & tell us about his band. I don’t recall being rude to him, but we blew off the brief conversation as just some local musician that was a ‘nobody’.  Well, that was a huge mistake. We learned a big lesson in humility. They treated us very well in Omaha and our heads were too swollen to realize the opportunity we just ignored. That musician who approached us was in some little, unknown band called, 311. So, yes, it’s true. You never know where the next great opportunity will come from.

As for the band on Facebook, they will never get anywhere with that attitude. Their arrogance tells me that they are only playing for themselves anyway. And even worse than that, I noticed one of their logos is a blatant rip-off of Steve Albini’s first band, Big Black‘s first album, Lungs. They even use Steve Albini’s face in their logo! This is also a BIG no-no. Don’t copy someone else’s image. Especially so blatantly.

I was speaking with an artist the other day and he was very interested in using Hifidelics, but he didn’t feel that he, nor his fans, would be ready for a full-length LP. He went on to ask if it was okay if he were to release a split 7″ with another artist. Yes, you absolutely can do this!

When we first announced that Hifidelics was open for beta, I purposely didn’t mention record sizes, colors, shapes, etc. because I didn’t want to plant anything in anyone’s mind. Now I’m realizing that may have been a mistake if artists are thinking we require your record to be an LP only. That is definitely not the case. To end the mystery, below I have posted a bunch of options. Of course, traditional colors/sizes is also acceptable.

Record sizes: You can go as small as 5″ and as big as 13″.
Record colors: Record can more-or-less be any color you would like. Custom colors are doable, but can be tricky.
Vinyl designs: Here I mean the design within the vinyl; two-tone colors, splatter design, etching, etc.
Record shapes: Again, just about any shape you would like, however shapes cannot be too intricate.

If you (or you label) would like to start-off with a single, just to test the waters, that’s perfectly acceptable. If you would like to do a split record, or even a compilation, that’s fine too. Hifidelics is set-up for its members as ‘profiles’ and ‘projects’. Whether you are an artist or a music fan, all profiles are the same. From your own profile you can start a ‘project’ and easily add other members to the project/record release.

If you are an artist and considering taking the plunge into Hifidelics, please get in touch with me before you begin your project. We can discuss your plans and I will help you get set-up. In the meantime, if you would like to know how to prepare, please see this post, “How to Prepare for Hifidelics“.

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[This is a mirror post from the Hifidelics Blog]

I was actually scouring the web for a particular video when I came across this one. The video clocks in at just under six minutes and it shows how they silk-screened (1000) album covers for an upcoming release. I found it a great example of how artists could document some great behind-the-scenes footage. Perhaps the video is a bit more professional than what some artists are able to produce, but it’s just an idea I thought I would share with you.

[This is a mirror post from the Hifidelics Blog.]