Band With a Mission? Not a chance.
NOTE: This blog has moved and this post has moved with it.
Please cruise over to: http://www.samsongs.com/2009/07/band-with-a-mission-not-a-chance
and continue the dialog!
I must have hit a nerve. As you recall a few weeks ago I wrote a blog entry about Band With a Mission, a company that purports to provide worthy bands and artists the opportunity to showcase for industry professionals. My original post had more of a somber tone because at the time, I felt that all of my years of touring and recording still did not put me out of reach of the few companies scouring Myspace and Sonicbids to dupe unsuspecting, eager musicians looking for their slice of the pie. To recap, I was sent an email “form letter” about how much Indevo Records loved my song and that I should come showcase in Nashville. I went online to register for the showcase and saw that I had to pay $199 for the “privilege”. After I turned it down, I was contacted by phone at which point I turned the offer down again. It seems my hard work and songcraft still meant that I had to pay Band With a Mission $199 to showcase in Nashville. I politely explained that I’d played several showcases, been signed to two separate record deals and that paying for a showcase didnt make sense and hung up.
Fast forward. Many of you have emailed to thank me for my candor and insight into Band With a Mission. Some have posted comments. Well lo and behold the good folks at Band With a Mission found the blog and felt inclined to post a comment with upwards of 20-25 different grateful testimonies from the bands they’ve “helped” with their insightful feedback. Here’s the deal folks: if you go to a showcase to receive insightful feedback, you’re not ready. First and foremost, showcases dont happen much anymore. Bands cant afford to travel the distance and labels are scaling back A&R costs, meaning travel expenses are all but dried up. That means that the A&R rep is not coming to see you play at your local Wild Wing or church youth group retreat. Labels are signing bands now on a referral basis. A producer may take a stack of cds he’s just finished to the label to listen to. A band may build some ridiculous level of buzz that would warrant label attention or the band has an in with an industry insider. That’s how it works nowadays. Ask Andy Hull from Manchester Orchestra. I watched that tidal wave happen first hand and I can promise you Band With a Mission had nothing to do with it. Aaron Shust is another one. He came into the studio to make a worship record for church. He walked out and sold 3000 copies to the congregation. The producer believed in the album, passed it along and viola. Now he’s AARON SHUST. There are always exceptions so Im sure someone can and will prove me wrong. But there wont be many.
Let me be clear, I dont think its bad to seek feedback for your craft. I am just insulted that companies like Band With a Mission seek to profit from it. There are many very good ways to seek feedback and development advice without paying a dime. Make a contact at your local radio station that plays your genre of music. Ask them if they’d be willing to offer any critique. Find a local producer who’s making lots of records and ask if he/she will have a listen. Play open mic nights at respectable venues and pass out comment cards to the audience. All of this will get you the same information that it seems everyone is paying Band With a Mission for.
And lets talk about what a band needs to really, really be label worthy. Its simple. You need a song or ten that truly moves the room. This song sticks in everyone’s head from the first note to the coda and causes an emotional response. Think Switchfoot’s “We Were Meant to Live” or John Mayer’s “No Such Thing”. See? You’re singing them both right now. Thats the kind of songs you need. Next, you need a ridiculous stage presence. Whether youre standing on stage strumming your acoustic guitar or you’re pogo jumping like Toby Mac, you need the skill to instantly engage everyone in the room. Musically, you need to be spot on, never miss a note, perfect. If you’re not, practice until you are. The words, “I played these songs fine last week when I opened for Casting Crowns” should never cross your lips. Every performance has to be other-wordly level good. Also, hone your craft. If you sing, get voice coaching. If you play piano or guitar take as many lessons and classes that you have time for. If you only know one instrument learn another one. You wouldnt want a plummer to fix your leaky pipes if the only training he had was fixing his pipes at home. You want a pro. Pros know their craft and then some. Berklee School of Music offers online courses and summer classes if you’re the student type. If that is all together. You need a GREAT BAND NAME. A name that is catchy, fits your sound and is easy to design graphically. For all you Christians out there, calling yourselves “Higher Calling” is all well and good but it doesnt say much and is even harder to put on a tshirt. You need a brand. Think “Starfield” or “Manchester Orchestra”. After that, you need a real web presence. Not Facebook or Myspace. Those are ancillary social platforms. You need a website with your own domain name. The site needs to be well developed and easy to navigate. It needs to include your incredible songs and aweome logo of your unforgettable band name. It needs to have your direct contact info. Once you have all of that, I promise promise promise the right folks will find you.
If you get an email from Meagan at Indevo Records or Band With a Mission. Delete it. Save your money, get back in your garage, third bedroom studio, or practice space and keep plugging away. Your time will come. From time to time I’ll post articles that I think will help up and comers hone their craft. I will also create a page that will house resource information to assist you on your journey. Feel free to contact me directly if you have an urgent question. If you get contacted by Band With a Mission definitely contact me before you spend a dime. Now Im on a mission.
I’ll always be here to help. And it wont cost your one penny…
Sam
What positive mission are you on… what are your own personal goals? Feel free to email me directly and I may be able to help you.
darn right. it’s a simple notion: if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. my band and i went down to nashville for a christian music conference called “feedback”. the winner got a management/booking deal, as well as some publicity and radio prizes. besides charging us each $10 a meal for a chick-fil-a sandwich and bag of frito lays, they asked bands to pay over $600 apiece. they told us they would sponsor us, and we went for free, but still paid hotel and gas (of course) to get there. the idea was to get “valuable feedback from industry professionals”. half of the critique sheets we got back were blank with random scores, or said stuff like – “first song was not great, second was worse”. not really constructive. only two or three felt like the panelist was actually competent to be providing anything but a layman’s take on our band. BEWARE of this conference – it was a total rip-off and provided little usable feedback at all. http://www.feedbackconference.com
hey i just got contacted by them. i told my band about it and everyone is willing to put up for it but i don’t even know if there legit?
Hi Bryan,
Its not that I dont think they are legit, but more if I think they truly have YOUR best interests in mind. I have received several emails from artists and bands that have performed band with a mission recently and unanimously they have declared that it was not the best use of their time or money.
My take would be this: if you are at a point that you’ve generated serious buzz around your band (management interest, booking agents, considerable draw locally, etc.), you have some contacts at any label in Nashville, and you have perfected your show, then I would say that you should consider it. If and ONLY if, you can bring your own label reps, booking agents, entertainment attorneys, or managers out to see you play live. You can use the opportunity to create your own showcase. Dont go there expecting BWAM to do more than listen to you and provide some feedback. If you have not yet generated this kind of buzz, then I would strongly urge you to save your money and not make the trip.
I hope this helps. Please feel free to let me know your decision. And dont hesitate to contact me if you have more questions.
Sam
bryan,
my band participated in bwam in march. we paid the showcase fee and traveled all the way from baltimore to nashville. nothing came of this trip. we have a legit following, decent sales record, and good musicianship. we were told by bwam that we would benefit from a ‘development deal’. i was like, great, refer one to us. never heard back. it’s not that our band didn’t ‘hit the mark’. it’s that this showcase is PRIMARILY to get feedback about your band.
i was once told by my publicist (whom i respect very much as one of the FIRST people in the business who didn’t take my money and run) that if they hunt you down and ask you to pay money, it’s just a business. it’s not, unfortunately, because your band is special to them. they do hundreds of showcases, solicit thousands of bands, and have next to no success stories.
i have searched for and attempted countless “shortcuts”. but no matter who or how much you pay, the only way to “make it” is the hard way… which requires more heart, sweat and tears than money.
peace, c.
Very well said. I agree wholeheartedly.
Sam
If the rep’s at BWAM like what they hear, you better believe that they will connect you with label reps, booking agents, entertainment attorneys, and management.
Think of the music business as a business. If you provide them with a good opportunity to make money, you’ll obtain all of the connections you’ll need to succeed. Imagine also that you are going to a corporation with a sales pitch… make it a great one!
Good point. I dont disagree with you entirely. Again, my biggest beef with BWAM is that they charge money for this “opportunity”. Honestly, with any business you want to develop your product (songs, live show), market said product (build fanbase), and monetize that product (cds, song licensing, live shows, merchandise, etc). Once you’ve got a sound business that is earning money AND growing then and only then should you seek to partner with anyone that can help you earn more and grow your business.
I would love to hear BWAM’s justification for seeking out any and everyone on myspace and offering them the chance to play for industry reps. That is just not how it works. Period. Now if BWAM was targeting people with 35k friends on myspace, who have three independently released albums and were selling out a local venue, then that would make sense. Im confused that a band with 100 friends, limited experience and no catalog is being offered a chance to play for an industry rep. Further clouding the scenario is that the band has to pay for the privilege.
Thank you for commenting. Im looking forward to your continued contribution to the conversation.
Sam
i also wonder why there are these “personal” myspace profiles emailing on behalf of this organization. why the convolution? seems like the business could simply contact the artist on their own. though i don’t know what it accomplishes, it sure feels like just another way to be tricky.
Haha….yeah, my band “The Trust Project” just left band with a mission. Driving through Ak as we speak. They liked our songs, our style, our look, our stage presence. Pretty much everything. BUT….it wasn’t “perfect”. its amazing how many thousands of dollars be wasted in the Christian music industry. I would recommend spending your money on self promotion. Even in the Christian industry, people want more money, and they are more than willing to “consult” and give advice for a price. I recommend picking the brains of other musicians. We get better advice from some of the signed bands that we’ve played with for free. Christian music industry is not for the weak….
And Dan, you can always feel free to pick my brain as well.
Peace and one,
Sam
Hey Sam (and everyone who commented), thank you for this blog. We were just contacted by BWAM, and it’s very helpful to read about the reality of this situation.
Best wishes to all,
Joe
On behalf of everyone, ‘youre welcome’ Joe. Im glad that we could provide a little perspective on how BWAM operates Hope to talk to you soon.
Sam
Hi Sam and all.I was contacted a few days ago with a general ” Hello Indie Artist” offering a proposal of recording songs with a producer at a studio in Nashville and a national radio release.It has an attached cost of approx $1,200.I did showcase in 09 in London ( live in UK) and the assessment was favourable.The proposal was said to be a private one which is not on the website.Naturally I am curious as to what to do.I do have a track record reaching No2 in the India charts last year on a compilation album with further releases again this year.I am also releasing an album with radio promotion accross US through Tinderbox Music this year.From the comments it all sounds a bit negative.It may need more than one brain to make a decision or maybe it’s an easy one given the comments on here.As an Indie Artist there are always associated costs involved.I was signed to Universal briefly in the 70s and became aware that associated reductions from royalties to pay for recording etc was standard practice.Of course in those days there were no blogs.
Pete
Hi Pete,
Thanks for stopping by. Here’s my take on your question and I welcome others to share their opinion as well:
The first thing I look at when being approached by a third party vendor (and that’s what this company is) is “what’s in it for them”? In this case, its simple: money. Next, I ask “what’s in it for me?”. That’s a harder question to answer because musicians are by nature emotional creatures that tend to create a “need” based on excitement of the situation. Its always wise to take a step back and assess things using a cost/benefit exercise. My questions to you would be: how many songs will your $1200 get you; who is this producer; what type of equipment does he work with; (pre-amps, mics, DAW, etc.) who has he produced; will he send you some demos; will he retain any ownership of the recordings; how exactly will you make your $1200 back selling the song(s) you record;
These are just a few off the top of my head and I welcome others to chime in here but you get the picture. If the answers are: one song, a guy just starting out, recording on a PC using Acid and a Tascam mixer in his spare bedroom, that hasnt produced anyone yet, asking for 50% ownership, and you just want a song to give to your friends. Then I would have to say run the other way.
The simple answer is this producer is probably trying to build a catalog and bring in some business (the economy affected everyone) and he’s phishing on Myspace. At the end of the day, $1200 is a lot of money no matter what your situation. I would wrap my hands around that $1200 and not let go for anything.
Hope this helped you get the gears turning. What’s the website called? I’ll check it out and ask around.
Sam
Hi Sam,
Your reply is helpful as it allows me to focus on the issue.The deal is a recording in a working studio with Producer Steve Allen( Kirk Cameron,George Jones,Bob Carlisle, Mac Powell. http://www.myspace.com/pastorsteve and national radio release by Chris Chicago which is all managed by the third party Bwam.The royalty is airplay paid through ascap etc maintaining 100% rights of publishing.So I guess it is reliant on if and when it is played on the radio to get the return on the paid fee.The request was for songs with three days in a studio.I have met Chris Chicago before who seemed a gent but I don’t know his credits.You only get a guarantee in high street store I know so I have not decided yet.
I am not on here to bash Bwam but gain a further understanding and perhaps to help others who may pass by on this blog who may also have had a similar request.
Pete
Pete,
Just to let you know – I received the exact same offer via email, as did s few other artists I know of. Just be careful!
Thanks, Corrin
twitter.com/corrincampbell
Hi Corrin
Thanks for commenting.
I was hoping to hear from someone else that has been offered this on here.So are you considering it or not and what about the other artists you know,can they blog on here too with a view.
Cheers, Pete
Thanks for sharing your experience Corrin. This is great information. I’ve made some calls to folks and so far, all of them say that this is not the way to go. To a man (and woman) the consensus is politely decline the offer.
Sam
I also just received this offer via Sonic Bids. No mention of money or a fee was brought up, but I only emailed back and forth a few times so far. Reading this and a few other messageboard threads leads me to believe that if I lived in Nashville again, maybe I might pony up $199 for that, but the travel and hotel costs just don’t factor in for a ‘feedback’ type situation. If reps from specific labels were guaranteed to be there, it would be a different story I would think.
Well said sir. My wife saw the e-mail and asked me if I was going and I told her “no way!” She claimed I was cynical and I claimed she was naive. A quick google search found your well written article about an old game thats been played by music con men for years.
Cheers,
Mitch
We’ve received an offer to showcase also, and although I dismissed it at first we began seriously considering it. We were sent an email with a reference to our MySpace. My main concern is that they wouldn’t have labels/managers/booking agents at the showcase appropriate to our style of music. Most of what I’m seeing as signed acts and labels they’ve worked with are Christian bands/labels and modern-pop-rock sounding bands and that isn’t our genre. After research including finding this blog I’m thinking that there won’t be ANY label reps or management/booking agents present, just a panel of judges, which is far less appealing. We are less interested in being ‘signed’ and more interested in finding quality representation in the form of a booking agency or manager. Has anyone had a positive experience with BWAM regarding management/booking relationships? Anyone not in the pop rock or christian music genres had experiences?
Thank you all for posting this stuff!!! A got this link from a friend who beat me to the punch.
I just received an email from a BWAM rep who suggested we travel to Nashville to showcase. Again, it all seemed too good to be true (which I should have immediately seen, but I’m still trying to believe in my heart that people are innately good). The biggest red flag for me was that anyone can sign up and spend a ton of money to travel to Nashville to “showcase”. It’s not as if these reps are seeking bands out and doing their homework, then inviting them to a private showcase. Their “weeding out” method is to eliminate the bands that do not want to pay the $199. That hardly seems like a “weeding out”. How about weeding out bands that are a) not that talented, b) do not have a big following, or c) do not have the 2:30 radio friendly songs with sing-a-long verses and choruses that the majors want to hear? My band is a progressive-metal band out of PA (“spiritual”, but not a “Christian” band) with songs that have running times from 4:30 – 13:00 minutes and multiple changes throughout. We are nowhere even close to the 2:30 VERSE- CHORUS- VERSE- CHORUS- BRIDGE/SOLO- ENDING CHORUS “major label” formula, which should have been an instant flag for me. I asked the rep if this would be worth our while because we do not have this formula and she totally dodged my question.
It is EXTREMELY irritating that there are companies out there that prey upon hungry musicians just trying to “live the dream”. This may not be a completely illegit company, but I’ve read enough testimonials and have seen enough red flags to know that it will not be money well spent.
Thank you very much Sam!
PS- Speaking of scams, stay VERY far away from a company called TALENT 2K (www.talent2k.com). They got me in 2002.
Hello Sam, last fall we received the exact same offer and showcased in October. We also got the same developmental deal offer that most of these folks also got. Shortly there after we received the offer of reduced recording fees and radio airplay. The day we showcased there were roughly 10 or so artists there. One whom drove from Maine to Nashville in a jeep with his mother and girlfriend. A few of them were really not very good at all, yet gave up their hard earned dollars for a “shot”. I can’t say this is a scam per say because they do provide exactly what they claim to provide.. there were three “industry looking” guys in the room when you play.. and they do give you a written report. But the stories I’m reading here are all sounding so “scripted” to our own experience.
May God continue to bless your ministry. ~ Brian
We just came back from this so-called showcase in Nashville. Now, even with the lowest expectations that we had of the outcome, the experience itself was a major disappointment: poorly organized event with production value of some provincial high school establishment (which was especially surprising since the rented facility for the event was top notch). But then again, it’s not the gear, it’s the people. And in this case, we were supplied by a novice (or completely unprepared) sound engineer who was scrambling for a 4th vocal mic at last minute, he did not even bother fully mic’ing the drum kit (1 kick mic and 1 overhead on a 6 piece kit?) and when we asked whether he needed us to run through a 30 second segment of a song (to check the levels of guitar and bass), his reply was “That’s what the first song is for”… ahem. For a mere 3 song showcase, this just seemed bizarre… but, later on, it became very apparent that this event had nothing to do with actual music performances, the same as having a very odd panel of 3 judges which included a lead guitarist from emo-pop-punk band Paramore, a former (i.e. no longer employed) VP of A&R at EMI, and a young (and visibly nervous) kid that introduced himself as Austin Cook, VP of Band with a mission. After we were done with our 7.5 minute set of 3 songs, Austin pulled us out to a private lounge area and attempted to give us his on-the-fly critique of our performance. It’s hard to describe the nonsense that we heard coming out of this guy, one thing was clear – he has as much knowledge about music (or music business for that matter) as any consumer-level person shopping at Best Buy for discounted CDs of ‘Nsync (sadly it’s no joke, he actually mentioned them in his little speech). I could go on and on, but the bottom line is that it seemed that nobody actually heard our material because the notes on our performance lacked specifics and were full of generalities that could be applied to virtually any act in the world. To top it off, we were given a quick lecture on what makes a good radio-friendly song, this tidbit of information was delivered in a manner of a kid reciting grown-up things without any real understanding of the terms’ meanings. Our verdict is: Stay Away.
Hello and THANK YOU! I was just contacted after I put my EPK on Sonicbids. You saved our bands cookies-cash-greenbacks! I did e-mail “Katherine Murphy” back and asked if the offer to come to Nashville was bonafied….no response yet, but I assume I will not be hearing back from her. If I do, I am armmed with the info you provided. Thanks….felt a little too good to be true.
Theresa
I also got ripped off by Band with a Mission, they cam to the UK in 2009 and I paid over £450 (Almost $900) to showcase to them. While other bands/artists were showcasing, I was standing behind the “judges” and one of the 3 was just surfing on Facebook. I also got the emails of hype saying that you are great and we’d love to meet you etc… Turned out to be a huge disapointment and waste of money.
Thanks for saving me time & energy. After several years, these guys are still attempting to make a nickle or two off of optimistic artists. I just read through their Terms & conditions. Transportation, lodging & meals are on me PLUS $190 to BWAM, oh, and another $36 fee just for good measure. Maybe I could interest them in purchasing this beautiful historic bridge I have over in Brooklyn…….
Guys…. thanks for the info I was thinking about checking out BWAM and then stumbled upon this post… great info.
Rock on!!!
Ron
http://www.rongreenetunes.com
http://www.facebook.com/rongreenetunes
http://rongreenetunes.blogspot.com
Thanks for all of these posts! We were just notified by BWAM asking us to come to Nashville to showcase. They found us via Sonicbids. They even specifically mentioned one of our songs in particilar. I questioned it, even though it was the most legit looking one I’ve seen to date. Thanks for everyone saving me a lot of time and a lot of money!!!! God bless, and may God open the right doors and windows for everyone.