5 THINGS THAT ARE WORTH SPENDING MONEY ON
IF YOU ARE A NEW ARTIST MAKING YOUR WAY IN THE WORLD THEN YOU MIGHT NOT BE OVER-FURNISHED IN THE DISPOSABLE INCOME DEPARTMENT. IT’S A STEREOTYPE BUT IT MORE OFTEN THAN NOT IS TRUE NEW THAT BANDS IN THE EARLY STAGES OF THEIR CAREERS DON’T HAVE A LOT OF CASH. THIS BEING THE CASE YOU WILL WANT TO MAKE SURE THAT WHEN YOU ARE SPENDING MONEY ITS NOT FRIVOLOUS. YOU WILL HAVE TO MAKE SURE THAT ANY MONEY YOU DO HAVE IS SPENT ON THE RIGHT THING
Equipment
Don’t feel guilty about spending money on equipment. Just because it’s extremely good fun doesn’t mean that it isn’t also very important. Whether you’re adding to your pedal board, getting a new mic or a new tom for the drum kit it’s all going to enhance the sonic quality of you as a live act. Of course don’t go insane and buy pedals you don’t need or a trombone that you can’t play. But we would say most of the time adding to your set up can only be a good thing.
Rehearsal time
You’d have to do a lot of rehearsing to get to the point where you doing too much of it. Whilst it might feel like you are overplaying the songs in the rehearsal room, you may be bored, this is hard work, as soon as you get out on stage, full of adrenalin and fear you will be so happy you know these songs back to front and in front of that adoring crowd you won’t feel bored of that song at all!
Recording
Recording is an emotional and exhausting experience but completely worth the time and money as long as you are ready. There is no use getting into the studio after 10 hours rehearsal and 3 gigs and proclaiming to the world “This is our sound.” Give yourself time to form a unit and develop a strong set of songs. Then and only then get in the studio and prepare to put the time and money in. It’s worth paying the extra here. You’ll be glad when listening back that you did.
Web design
As a band you’ll want a hub from which all your gigs, social media and merchandise can be found. This along with videos, photos and a biog not to mention a look that gets across your identity and sound. These are things worth paying a graphic designer and a web host for. Obviously you don’t need to employ Rothko to do it, he’d be too expensive and even if not he’s too dead but do make sure the people behind it are competent. The website really should look professional.
Gigging
Now, we know what you’re thinking, and yes, in an ideal world gigging would be something you would make money from but for now those days are in the future. In the words of the wall street bankers, who very few musicians have any desire to take advice from, “Speculate to accumulate”.
You may have to rent a room, you may have to pay to advertise, you may have to drive a long way to gig. This is all part of building a fanbase. Obviously, recoup as much as you can through tickets and merch but sometimes you might be at a loss. Even if this is the case the fans you aquire may be fans for life you’ll more than make the money back if things go according to plan. One thing we wouldn’t advice is doing pay to play gigs. If a promotor wants money from you upfront to play a gig then they aren’t a real promoter, steer clear.
