One of the things I hear the most, and which is one of the most depressing things that you can hear from an artist is, “No one cares about my band and I don’t know why.” And I get it, that shit sucks and often it can feel like there’s no way out. But this is an important question – if you have good music then shouldn’t it all come together?

Well, no. There’s actually a whole swathe of reasons why people might not care about your band. These boil down to three key points. In brief – you probably aren’t posting enough, you aren’t giving people a reason to care, and scariest of all – maybe your music isn’t that good after all.

You Aren’t Posting Enough

This one drives me fucking bananas. Bands all the time will say, “Oh, no one cares about our music” or “Social media doesn’t work for us” when they only post once a month. How is anyone supposed to find out about you and care if you are never fuckin’ around? Seriously, this should not be complicated.

What you need if you want to grow is what Jesse Cannon calls constant sustained promotion. If you don’t have that, then you are putting yourself at constant risk and essentially guaranteeing that people are not going to see what you have to offer.

You Aren’t Telling Your Story

Here’s another one that drives me up a wall. Bands will post a bunch on social media, but their Instagram captions are just like “Us playing live” or their Tiktoks are just randomly uploaded videos with minimal context. People need to understand who you are if you want them to give a shit.

It really doesn’t need to be complicated. All you need to do is make sure people understand who you are and why you do what you do. This can take the form of long Instagram captions, TikToks where you directly address your audience, or really any manner of tools, but the story needs to be there. If it isn’t then no one will care.

Maybe Your Music Needs Work?

This is a brutal one, but one that I see rear its ugly head time and time again. Sometimes people go for it, but their music still needs work. They don’t want to accept that people just don’t like their songs. They could not like their songs for any number of reasons, but if they don’t have music people care about they’re kind of fucked.

This is why it’s important to have honest friends – or better yet a good producer. You need people to tell you when your songs are too long (the biggest issue with rock bands), your mix flat, or any other number of issues. I know this really sucks to have to admit to yourself, but having that level of honesty and self-awareness is really important.

These are all insights that it can suck to hear, but they are important things. You need to make sure that you are consistently posting and that you are telling a story that people genuinely want to hear. Beyond that, if you realize your music needs improving, then go in and do that. It’s only going to benefit you in the long run!

Matt Bacon (IG: mattbacon666) with Dropout Media is a consultant, A&R man, and journalist specializing in the world of heavy metal. You can read other articles in the series by clicking the “Bacon’s Blog” hashtag below. Matt can also be heard on the Dumb & Dumbest podcast, which he co-hosts with Curtis Dewar of Dewar PR. Matt has contributed over 100 articles to Doomed & Stoned.

One of the things that I see bands continually screwing up, despite reams of good advice about this subject available throughout the internet, is interviewing. So often artists get an amazing opportunity for an interview and they just screw it right up. I wanted to talk about how to fix that.

The cardinal sin most artists make is that they simply don’t talk enough. They don’t give the journalist enough to work with, making it awkward for both parties. Then, of course, in written interviews they don’t view that as the opportunity it is. Finally, realize that by being good at interviews you actually open the door to more!

Why You Need to Talk More

This is one a lot of people mess up. They give short responses to the interviewer and the interviewer doesn’t know what they are supposed to do. An interview is supposed to be a conversation, not just you providing one or two word answers to questions that were hoping to reveal something new about you as an artist.

When you are being interviewed, try your best to tell stories and bring everything around to what you are trying to push. That’s what I see a lot of the most talented interviewees doing. They let people into their lives and share more around the music. They do more than answer the question, they elaborate on it.

Written Interviews As Guest Posts

When someone offers you the opportunity to do a written interview, then treat it as a guest post on their blog. A lot of the same rules apply here as do to interviews: do your best to talk more, tell stories, and elaborate. One thing I routinely suggest to bands for all of your answers, no matter how long: add another two sentences to the response.

One of my favorite hacks for this is what my dear friend Tucker Thomasson of Throne of Iron does. He simply uses text-to-speech on his answers for written interviews and then goes in and edits them for clarity. This lets him easily and quickly handle these interviews without it being an ordeal.

Being Good At Interviews Can Open The Door For More!

Whether you are scoring your own interviews or you are getting a PR person to do it for you, realize that word gets out. If you’re fun to interview and people have a good time talking to you, then you will have more opportunities. If you’re only doing 1-2 word answers, then people won’t be as interested in talking to you.

You see, it happens all the time. The artists who have charisma and who are fun to talk to end up getting cred within the close knit world of music journalists, who will want to interview them again and again because it’s fun. Shocking how that works. So be a fun interview and it will lead to more down the road!

Interviews don’t have to be like pulling teeth. Rather they are just another step on a crazy heavy metal journey we are all on. Just focus on giving good long answers, treat your written interviews as guest posts, and realize that by doing this well you open yourself up to even more opportunity!

Matt Bacon (IG: mattbacon666) with Dropout Media is a consultant, A&R man, and journalist specializing in the world of heavy metal. You can read other articles in the series by clicking the “Bacon’s Blog” hashtag below. Matt can also be heard on the Dumb & Dumbest podcast, which he co-hosts with Curtis Dewar of Dewar PR.

One of the conversations that has come up time and time again in my time in the music industry is the relative merit of pay to play. Is this a scam designed to destroy artists? Or does it make sense when you really think about it?

I wanted to break down a little bit about why we have pay to play, why its often bad and on the flip side, when you should accept it. It’s all a tricky process, but the more you understand, the better off you will be.

Why Pay To Play Came To Be

This much is simple: bands lie..a lot. They continually tell promoters, “We will definitely bring 30 people to this show!” and then don’t. Every time. And it’s the promoter left holding the bill at the end of the night. Now obviously the promoter has a job to do too, but why should they take a chance on a new band who are unproven?

This is why these guys fall into pay to play. They want to be able to make sure that they can cover their expenses and that the band who assures them they can sell thirty tickets will actually sell thirty tickets. And the thing is – a lot of these promoters make it easy. They often let the bands sell tickets for cheaper than you get them at the door or online. If your band can really draw thirty people, shouldn’t this be the dream come true?

Why It’s Bad

Frequently these setups aggressively take advantage of smaller artists. They present unrealistic expectations of bands, or expect bands to pay money up front for the privilege to sell tickets. This is where things get dangerous, because suddenly you’re being asked to deliver in a way that you couldn’t possibly.

The worst variant of this is the all day two stage festival. This is where a promoter gets a bunch of bands to sell tickets to open for a big touring package, but then puts all the locals on a small second stage that no one checks out. Other variants of this involve you selling tickets only to find out that you’re performing at 4pm on a Tuesday. Be careful about that shit!

When It’s Good

Pay to play is fine in my opinion when it’s a realistic goal for a show that genuinely benefits your band. Don’t do pay to play to be on a local bill, but if you’re going to open for a dope band in your genre whose crowd is a perfect fit for you… then that could really work out.

The classic example I always use is when we did the Exhorder reunion tour. The local opener had to sell fifty tickets. But if you can’t sell 50 tickets to an Exhorder show in New Orleans then maybe you shouldn’t be opening for them? It’s really that simple.

Anyway, pay to play is complicated. As a general rule it’s probably something you want to avoid but it’s not something you need to completely condemn. It exists because bands are difficult to work with. It’s bad because frequently it involves people taking advantage of artists, but sometimes it just makes sense. Use judgement and go from there.

Matt Bacon (IG: mattbacon666) with Dropout Media is a consultant, A&R man, and journalist specializing in the world of heavy metal. You can read other articles in the series by clicking the “Bacon’s Blog” hashtag below. Matt can also be heard on the Dumb & Dumbest podcast, which he co-hosts with Curtis Dewar of Dewar PR.

One of the things I’ve kind of been running into with my consulting clients lately has been this idea that like… me and the guys on my team can frequently just make things happen because we’ve all been involved in this community for a long time and just know a ton of people who can help us out. It’s something you have to build. I just wanted to talk about how this works so you can generate more opportunities.

Really what a lot of this comes down to is that you get out what you put in. Not 1:1 of course, but if you put a lot in, you get a lot out of it. This is because the music industry is meant to operate in sort of an anarchistic tit for tat way, even though it doesn’t always. What you do about that dictates the level of success you will have. Maybe you can even leverage it into creative opportunities!

Contributing In The Music Business Is Not 1:1

I think the common advice is ‘Book a band from a city you want to play in your city, and then they will book you in their city.’ If only it would be so easy. As anyone who has tried this could tell you, show trades very rarely actually work out, even though they are a great idea in concept and one you shouldn’t ignore.

The thing is – the music business isn’t a 1:1 transaction. It’s more like 10:1. That is to say for every ten cool things you do for others, then one cool thing will happen to you. I know this sounds intimidating but as you grow your ability to do cool stuff for others will dramatically increase meaning its a lot easier to get cool stuff done for you.

How To Handle This

So obviously it’s no fun when others around you fail to achieve even the modest task which was their charge. However – by blowing up in peoples faces you are only causing more trouble for yourself. I think you just need to appreciate that this is the way people are and your anger is not going to do you any favors.

Instead just take a note and realize this isn’t someone who is willing to help you, right now or maybe ever. Maybe they have different priorities, or they don’t get it or they’re just someone who you shouldn’t be dealing with. Accept it and move on, the longer you stay stuck on it the more you will go crazy.

Creative Ways To Leverage

One of the interesting things that I think will probably help you a good bit is to figure out a scalable way for you that you can help the community with, and again, realize you need to do a bunch before you get any meaningful reciprocation.

Identify your skills and go from there? Can you draw? Cool, now you do shirt designs. Can you write? Dope now go be a journalist. It doesn’t matter, just remember no one likes someone who goes around begging, they want to work with people who do cool stuff in a meaningful way, to do otherwise is a mistake. That’s simple.

So yeah, the music industry isn’t as easy as it could be, and the sooner you accept that the happier you will be. Instead just let all the bullshit slide and don’t work with those people again. Come up with some creative ways to leverage your skills and go from there. That’s all you can do.

Matt Bacon (IG: mattbacon666) with Dropout Media is a consultant, A&R man, and journalist specializing in the world of heavy metal. You can read other articles in the series by clicking the “Bacon’s Blog” hashtag below. Matt can also be heard on the Dumb & Dumbest podcast, which he co-hosts with Curtis Dewar of Dewar PR.

Festivals are coming back! We beat the virus (mostly) and we can (mostly) return to live shows as before in the next few months. The question, of course, arises: how do you get your band onto a bunch of these festivals to take it to the next level? That’s a question as old as time and one I want to break down for you.

Getting onto festivals really becomes a matter of networking, having a quality product, and then being among the easy people to work with. If you can establish those three things, you’re going to really be getting somewhere meaningful fast.

Networking Into Festivals

This is really one of the keys in the whole game. Sit down and identify 10 festivals appropriate to you. Then start to do some research and see who from those festivals you can reach out to and start to build a relationship with. This is going to take time, but that’s only natural – you’ve got to accept that if you want to really move to that next level.

When I talk about networking with festivals, by the way, really make sure that you are focusing on festivals that are somewhat accessible to you. You’re not going to get onto Rock On The Range just because Sleep is playing. You want to focus on the festivals that bands in your direct community are playing.

Having A Quality Product

Shockingly enough, festival promoters will listen to your music before booking you. They will also look at live footage, music videos, and social media presence. At the end of the day, they need to be selling tickets and making sure that their fans have a good time. Why should they offer you some random opportunity if you’re not up to the task?

Realize, then, that people are going to stalk you a little when you submit to a festival and ensure that you are going to be clearly capable of delivering the level of set that this festival is expecting. If you have a bad festival set that almost makes the whole thing even worse. It gives you a bad reputation.

Being Easy To Work With

This is the other key that I think people miss out on all the time. If you’re the band who are fun to work with and quickly answer emails and aren’t dicks about money, you are going to get more opportunities. When it comes down to it, there isn’t that much money to be had anyway, so why not just be cool and see what happens.

It’s important to work hard to be a part of the community and connect with people in a meaningful way. It’s only by doing this, by being that motherfucker who is eager to be a part of this community and to engage, that you are going to really start to get opportunities on a meaningful level.

Ultimately, festival booking doesn’t need to be that hard. It just comes down to being able to network, having a good product that opens doors, and then being extremely easy to work with. Without that you’ve got nothing.

Matt Bacon (IG: mattbacon666) with Dropout Media is a consultant, A&R man, and journalist specializing in the world of heavy metal. You can read other articles in the series by clicking the “Bacon’s Blog” hashtag below. Matt can also be heard on the Dumb & Dumbest podcast, which he co-hosts with Curtis Dewar of Dewar PR.

One of the things that people really screw up – and which can really make or break their careers – is having a good artist bio. If you don’t have a good bio, then people are just not going to take you seriously. If you do have a good one, then you set yourself up for a ton of opportunity down the line.

I wanted to break down some tactics I’ve used to make a great bio. These include focusing on the key details, keeping it broad strokes, and then building out a few variants of the bio for different platforms.

What You Absolutely Need To Have

A good bio needs to make sure to have a few core details that really give people a sense of who you are. These include things like when you formed, what kind of music you play, what your big achievements have been, and what you hope to do in the future. Make it clear what you are trying to promote. A bio around a new album should talk more about that, than your sophomore EP released six years ago.

It’s amazing to me how many artist bios forget to mention that a band has done four US tours or opened for some big act in their genre. You want your bio to be about how great you are – a brag sheet. Labels and festivals are going to read it when considering you for events. Be sure to make it obvious how special what you are doing really is.

Don’t Get Too Specific!

Now while you want to include a lot of juicy details in your bio, you don’t want to get too specific with it. By this I mean no one needs to know about your first three bassist who are on no recordings. No one needs to know about every shitty local show you played to ten people.

A good way to prevent yourself from getting too specific is to limit the length of your bio. Usually I try to keep the long format bio to no more than fifteen sentences, unless the band has really accomplished a lot. However, I’ve written some bios for pretty huge bands that stayed under the fifteen sentence mark, so don’t get too carried away.

Have A Few Variants

Think about all the places your bio is going to show up. You’ll see it on your website and in your EPK for sure, but also on Bandcamp and Instagram. These places have different uses and size formats. So why would you have one big bio for all of them?

What I generally do is I break my bios into three variants. There is the long variant (this is your standard three paragraph bio). Then I do a single paragraph bio that is really just a compressed version of the three paragrapher. Then I look at the bio and compose a 1-2 sentence slug that can be used for shorter social media bios.

So yeah, writing a bio doesn’t need to be a terribly involved or scary process. All you need to do is focus on a few key details while making sure you don’t get lost in the weeds. Then write a few variants for different platforms and you’re done!

Matt Bacon (IG: mattbacon666) with Dropout Media is a consultant, A&R man, and journalist specializing in the world of heavy metal. You can read other articles in the series by clicking the “Bacon’s Blog” hashtag below. Matt can also be heard on the Dumb & Dumbest podcast, which he co-hosts with Curtis Dewar of Dewar PR.

So one thing that I don’t think people in this scene understand is the importance and scale of the outreach you need to have to grow. The thing is, it’s all hand-to-hand combat. The more you engage, the further along you will get. What I wanted to do was break down how to engage.

First I want to talk about how to find people to reach out to at scale, both those who are aware of you and then those who are not aware of you. Then I want to turn around and talk about reaching out to higher level people at scale and how to do that in a way that leads to sustained growth.

Reaching Out To Existing Fans

So this is one of my favorite tactics I rarely see people do. Go and start to send direct messages to all the people who comment on your posts. If you don’t have a lot of commenters go send direct messages to the people who like your posts. Just start reaching out and saying thank you. It’s not spam if it’s your way of showing gratitude.

One tactic I like to use is film a quick video saying thank you and sending it to everyone who is engaged on Instagram, just as a way to show gratitude and show people that I give a shit about them and am glad that they are in my content universe.

Reaching Out To Potential New Fans

Here’s a secret that’s so obvious you’ll smack yourself for not thinking of it sooner. The people who comment on some of your favorite bands posts are generally the biggest fans of that band. Furthermore, they are generally people who are very active on social. What this means is if you follow them and reach out about both being fans of the same band, or even just comment on their posts, they will follow you back and engage with you.

Furthermore, what I see working very often is going under relevant hashtags to your genre. So for most readers of this blog, it will be tags like #doommetal #stonerrock, etc. and then engaging with the people who post in their socials. If they give enough of a shit to engage their own audience, they will give enough of a shit to engage with you.

Reaching Out To High Level People

When it comes to reaching out to a high level, you just need to appreciate that they are just people like you and me. They are just motherfuckers out there trying their best. If you can reach out in a human way, then you are going to really start to get somewhere.

One way to really make this work for you is to reach out with a specific question or compliment, especially if you can find out it’s something that relates to a specific interest of theirs. The more you can connect on that level and be like, “Hey, we both like fishing, let’s talk about that!” the more likely you are to open a door. Everyone loves talking about their passions – give people a chance to do that and you will be rewarded.

As you can see, reaching out to your existing fans as well as new fans doesn’t need to be hard if you put some logic behind it. The same goes for reaching out to high-level people. It doesn’t need to be as intense as I sometimes think people make it out to be in their heads. Just do it!

Matt Bacon (IG: mattbacon666) with Dropout Media is a consultant, A&R man, and journalist specializing in the world of heavy metal. You can read other articles in the series by clicking the “Bacon’s Blog” hashtag below. Matt can also be heard on the Dumb & Dumbest podcast, which he co-hosts with Curtis Dewar of Dewar PR.

So one of the things that I think people need to be spending more time on is their band photos. This is such a crucial component for bands and people often don’t really invest the time in it that it merits. We’re a visual species and it’s important to operate with that in mind.

What I wanted to do really fast was break down some of the core mistakes bands make with photoshoots, what you should do instead, and then ways to help make your photoshoot become an indelible part of your band’s brand and create some really positive visual associations with your music and what you are doing.

Mistakes Bands Make With Photoshoots

So there’s a few big mistakes bands make with regards to photoshoots. The biggest one, and the most frustrating, is when bands try to just use a cell phone picture. Maybe this worked in high school, but if you’re trying to be serious, then using a cell phone shot as your band pic is just going to make you look like an amateur.

Another core problem is when bands try to make their photoshoot funny. If you’re a joke band, then go for it. But if you’re a band trying to sing about serious stuff, then treat the art with some measure of respect. Ultimately, you need to realize that if you don’t take your band seriously then the people around you won’t take it seriously. That simple.

What You Need To Do

It’s honestly super worth it to hire a professional photographer, ideally a professional band photographer. You kind of get what you pay for with photographers, but even paying $150 to someone can get you a pretty decent photog. They really take it to the next level.

The other thing is to try to have some sort of synchronized look between the members, even if that look is “We all wear doom band shirts.” It looks weird when three members are wearing Sleep shirts and the fourth guy is wearing a suit or something. You want it to have a sort of clear, put-together presentation for the band. A confusing photo will just make fans confused.

How To Take It To The Next Level

So this is the exciting part. The really good photoshoots are really good because they have an overarching theme. Not only that, but they have some sort of tie-in with the record that’s being put out. Take a look a the recent Black Dahlia Murder photos, for instance – they use lighting that is similar to the core colors of the album art.

Beyond that, I think that any time you can get a good amount of photos from a shoot you should get them both horizontal and vertical. This makes it way easier for publications to feature you, especially magazines. Generally when I work with a photographer, I ask for at least four horizontal and four vertical shots to use in the promo campaign.

Anyways, photoshoots are really important and these rules should be able to help you keep your shit optimized and stop you from looking like an idiot. Just avoid core mistakes, focus on working with professionals, and then see what you can do to take it to the next level. This shit works.

Matt Bacon (IG: mattbacon666) with Dropout Media is a consultant, A&R man, and journalist specializing in the world of heavy metal. You can read other articles in the series by clicking the “Bacon’s Blog” hashtag below. Matt can also be heard on the Dumb & Dumbest podcast, which he co-hosts with Curtis Dewar of Dewar PR.

I’ve been talking with clients a lot lately about the law of attraction, but I’m realizing that it sounds a little bit woo-woo to those not in the know. The law of attraction, in case you weren’t aware, is essentially the idea that if you put out good energy and positive vibes then that will come back onto you. I know it sounds crazy, but it works.

I wanted to break down the ways it can impact your life, in terms of relationships being built, opportunities that you get, and then of course what the long term impacts are. And yes, it will be in the context of band stuff, but most of what I’m about to talk about can apply anywhere in life.

Relationships

This is the place where the law of attraction can be really exciting. Here’s why. Real recognizes real. That simple. If you’re real and hustling and doing stuff with your band, then other people will want to come do stuff with you and you will meet the other hustlers with stuff going on in your scene. Meanwhile if you’re a complainer who does nothing, people won’t want to help you.

Have you ever noticed how all the people who are actively doing things in your scene seem to be friends? Yeah, there’s a reason for that – because they all are working hard to elevate each other. There’s no gatekeeping, it’s just that you aren’t doing enough to really be a part of their club.

Opportunities

Once you start to build up good relationships then you get good opportunities. Again, you get what you put out. So if you show that you are actively working to get more opportunities and expand your band, then people are going to want to collaborate and give you even more opportunities. It’s really that simple.

Once you get the ball rolling and consistently show that you’re not just sitting around at home being emo, you’re going to seriously grow. I don’t think people understand the power of this. I, as a guy with some influence in the biz, want to give opportunities to people who will actually act on them. Not someone who will complain it’s too hard.

Long-Term Effects

This is where it gets interesting. There’s something tied into the law of attraction called the flywheel effect. It’s essentially the idea that once you get the ball rolling, things will start to just pick up to the point that you can’t stop expanding and getting new opportunities.

The problem, of course, is that you need to start getting something done so that you can get the ball rolling. The first step is the hardest. That’s why you use the law of attraction. You start reaching out and engaging with the people you want to be connected with and then slowly they will start to turn around and connect with you.

So hopefully that makes sense. The law of attraction isn’t magic. It’s just people wanting to collaborate with other real ass motherfuckers. It’s fed by the fact that if you show you hustle when given opportunities, you will get more. Then eventually that will turn into a veritable monster of a band!

Matt Bacon (IG: mattbacon666) with Dropout Media is a consultant, A&R man, and journalist specializing in the world of heavy metal. You can read other articles in the series by clicking the “Bacon’s Blog” hashtag below. Matt can also be heard on the Dumb & Dumbest podcast, which he co-hosts with Curtis Dewar of Dewar PR.

I see a lot of bands who have gotten very, very quiet on social media during COVID. This is a mistake. If anything, you want to be louder on social during COVID so that people are ready for when you return. But whatever. Not the point. What I wanted to do was break down three types of social media posts you should be making that you probably aren’t.

These are: the merch sale post (which makes you money), the general questions for the fans post (which gets you engagement), and then the shoutout to a friends band post (which helps to strengthen relationships). Let’s break these down one by one.

The Merch Sale Post

This is the one that will make you money and which I see people not doing. Really it’s just about letting people know that you have merch up for sale and that they should be buying it. It doesn’t need to be fancier than that.

This can be as simple as a post that says:

“Hey, did you know we still have some shirts up for sale on our bandcamp? We especially love the [insert] design! But watch out – supplies are limited so you’re going to need to act fast before we run out!”

The General Questions For Fans

I love these sorts of posts because they get people involved and give them a chance to really become a part of the overarching thing. People love being able to share their opinion and giving them some sort of platform (even if it’s just in your comment section) is always going to foster discussion which is, of course, supremely valuable!

Some questions that are easy and work are:

• “Where do you want to see us play when live music returns?”
• “Who are some of your favorite bands right now?”
• “Where are you from?”
• “Whats the first band you want to see after COVID?”

There are a ton more like this but this will get your mind going.

The Shoutout Post

This one is incredibly valuable because it helps to document, and ideally cement a relationship. When you show people you have a real relationship and build that up then you are infinitely more likely to get somewhere meaningful with them. It’s also good because it shows to other people how you are interconnected within the scene.

These posts also can be simple. Usually the formula I follow for a good shoutout post is something like this:

Check out this awesome track from our good friends in BAND. We really like this track because REASON. I remember when we first met them at EVENT and we knew we would be friends because [reason].

When you add the specifics it really makes it real.

Anyways, if you’re running low on content, here are three ideas that will propel you forward. You will always win by pushing your merch, asking your fans general questions to get them engaging and shouting out your peers. Simple as that.

Matt Bacon (IG: mattbacon666) with Dropout Media is a consultant, A&R man, and journalist specializing in the world of heavy metal. You can read other articles in the series by clicking the “Bacon’s Blog” hashtag below. Matt can also be heard on the Dumb & Dumbest podcast, which he co-hosts with Curtis Dewar of Dewar PR.

So one of the big issues I have with a lot of bands’ social media is that their pages are horribly formatted. This encompasses a variety of things, but I figured it would be worth breaking down some of the more important aspects to help you cover your ass and deal with a little bit less aggravation about all this stuff.

Long story short, a lot of you are screwing up your profile pictures (and header shots), social media bios, and the basic post formatting. When you learn to master these things, social media will suddenly become a lot less of a drag.

3. Profile Pictures and Headers

This is a big place a lot of y’all are screwing up. You want your profile picture and your band picture to both be pictures of you and your band. They should be focused on establishing brand presence and letting people engage with what you are about. You don’t want your picture to be an album cover or something.

The ideal for headers is a video header showing your band performing. I understand that that is hard to come by. My overall point is: get content that is formatted for each space and that features the people in your band. It’s really that simple.

2. Social Media Bios

People tend to drop the ball on this one. Your bio needs to be clear and concise, quickly addressing a couple key points. Namely: what kind of music you play and where you are from. Maybe include your label. But it should be that basic.

Furthermore, on Instagram, you should include a few relevant hashtags in your bio like your genre, for instance, because this helps visibility. Try to format this to take a minimum amount of space. Don’t be one of those bands that uses weird spacing conventions for a huge bio unless, of course, that ties into your aesthetic. Otherwise, it just looks like a boomerism.

1. Post Formatting

This is the one that drives me bananas. You don’t want to have hashtags on your Facebook posts. I know it’s easy to crosspost from IG, but it makes you look lazy. Don’t look lazy. That makes labels like you less and it’s just generally a weak move.

Furthermore, you don’t want to have a bunch of emojis in your text. Emojis are best added at the end of the text. Otherwise, you look like someone’s weird aunt who sends them a million chain emails. Maybe you’re being meta, but if that’s the goal you had better really understand how internet communication works. This isn’t an easy thing to figure out.

As you can see, there isn’t a huge mystery behind social media. It’s just a question of sitting down and working out crucial things like perfecting your profile picture and header, getting a good social media bio in place, and formatting your posts so you don’t look like a boomer. Easy as that.

Matt Bacon (IG: mattbacon666) with Dropout Media is a consultant, A&R man, and journalist specializing in the world of heavy metal. You can read other articles in the series by clicking the “Bacon’s Blog” hashtag below. Matt can also be heard on the Dumb & Dumbest podcast, which he co-hosts with Curtis Dewar of Dewar PR.

Music PR is a key piece to the band promotion puzzle that I think a lot of people ignore. However, it is crucial to getting featured on sites like this one. For those not in the loop, a PR person is essentially the guy who goes out and pitches you to various blogs for coverage. It’s crucial if you want to get people writing about your band.

This is important for a few reasons. First and foremost, it lets you get in front of the eyes of your audience. Beyond that, the improvement to your overall web presence is amazing (in more ways than you would think!) and, of course, it just gives you more ways to build connections and expand your brand. Let’s break it down.

Getting In Front Of More Eyeballs

It’s crucial to get more press, because you want to be able to get in front of more eyeballs. The music press is where the music nerds go to learn about the cool new bands. As it turns out, the music nerds are the people who are likely to be early adopters of your band. Getting in front of these early adopters is a huge part of why you should hire PR.

Furthermore, if you’re lucky, these outlets will post about you on their social media, and if you’re early in the game then odds are they have a much bigger presence than you do there. This is another amazing way to grow and one that is extremely underestimated in the broader scheme of things.

The Improvement To Your Web Presence

This works in a few different ways. On the most obvious level, it gives you a bunch of cool stuff to post, and it ensures that when people google your band’s name they see a bunch of coverage. That’s an awesome opening salvo and initial way to start learning about things. It can be dramatically helpful to get you moving.

Beyond that though, when there’s more internet buzz about you it benefits other things. Most interesting to me is that Spotify is constantly crawling the web. They track if you are being talked about. If they see a bunch of articles about you – guess what? They’ll put you in a bunch of algorithmic playlists! As a general rule, the more articles about you, the more various algorithmic tools will actually go in and help.

Building Connections

This is a big one that people don’t think about. If you really take advantage of a PR campaign and engage with journalists, those connections end up becoming very valuable. Why? Because journalists know a lot of folks in the industry, and frequently journalists are folks in the industry. I know a ton of label employees who moonlight at cool magazines, for instance.

Additionally, having good articles written about you helps to give you that sort of added credibility, and that makes people see you are real. Which band seems more legit? The band with the premier at Metal Injection or the group who you can’t seem to find any press coverage on at all? Yeah, I thought so.

So in summary, PR really matters and is crucial to getting you over that next hump. It’s the way that you are able to really start to get in front of more eyeballs, improve your web presence (and benefit from that in auxiliary ways), and naturally build relevant connections. These steps are crucial to reaching the next level with your band. So yeah, hire PR. It works.

Matt Bacon (IG: mattbacon666) with Dropout Media is a consultant, A&R man, and journalist specializing in the world of heavy metal. You can read other articles in the series by clicking the “Bacon’s Blog” hashtag below. Matt can also be heard on the Dumb & Dumbest podcast, which he co-hosts with Curtis Dewar of Dewar PR.

Going up against trolls is a really hard task in the music business. It’s something that I think we all need to deal with at some point, because that’s just sort of the brutal nature of the internet. I wanted to help you with this as it’s something that I think throws a lot of people off, especially early in their music careers.

The thing is, you have to see trolls for what they are and furthermore you need to realize that the best way to kill trolls is with kindness or making fun of yourself. Remember, engaging anger with anger is going to just make you shoot yourself in the foot.

Realizing What Trolls Are

Trolls are sad. Really simple as that. They don’t have some grand design, they’re just lonely assholes with nothing better to do. Seriously, think about what life must be like for some of these people. They’re going on the internet to make fun of random people they don’t even know so they can feel good about themselves.

When you are armed with this information, it becomes a lot easier to handle trolls and deal with their stupidity. I think this perspective really helps folks understand how to deal with them. It becomes more of a matter of pity than anything else at that point.

Killing Trolls With Kindness

One of the keys with trolls is to kill them with kindness. One of my favorite tactics is to act like the trolls comment was actually a compliment. So if they say, “I hope you die because of your horrible music!” then you could reply something like, “Oh, so I can make good music in heaven? Righteous!”

I know it sounds silly, but so often when you turn the other cheek trolls don’t even know what to do and generally just go and leave you alone. It really helps to make things a little bit easier to deal with. I know it’s not always easy in the moment, but trust me above all you do not want to engage trolls with anger. This just leads to further frustration.

Why You Don’t Fight Fire With Fire

Look, most people understand trolls are just random losers from around the internet. They aren’t clever and they don’t have anything going on. If you go in and engage with those people then you are getting dragged down to their level. That’s exactly what they want so they can beat you over the head with their anger.

Don’t give other people this power over you. It gives them free real estate inside your head. Don’t try to troll back because they don’t care, trust me. Instead, just focus on sharing the love and realizing that trolls are just losers who you can’t really do anything about other than say a kind word and try to help be a little less crap.

Anyway, dealing with trolls is an art form. It’s not always self-evident and does require a bit of trial and error. Ultimately, you just gotta realize how sad trolls are, kill them with kindness, and make sure you never get down to their level which is how they win.

Matt Bacon (IG: mattbacon666) with Dropout Media is a consultant, A&R man, and journalist specializing in the world of heavy metal. You can read other articles in the series by clicking the “Bacon’s Blog” hashtag below. Matt can also be heard on the Dumb & Dumbest podcast, which he co-hosts with Curtis Dewar of Dewar PR.

So a lot of people are having a hard time getting their bands together to do proper live streams. And I get it. It’s hard in an age of COVID and different band members having different risk levels and all that other stuff. This is not a period of time where we can get through things clearly or easily.

However, there’s a variety of live streaming types you can, in fact, do. These vary a lot in scope, but I wanted to break down some of the big (and easy!) ones. These can be anything from a more basic musical performance, to a simple Q&A sesh. Then, of course, there are the video game streams. How could we miss that?

3. Basic Musical Performances

This is the easiest one, and honestly I’m surprised more people don’t do them. For those not in the loop, what I’m talking about here can be anything from acoustic covers of your songs to classics or even just warmups and shredding on your own.

I know these ideas sound basic, but truthfully I’ve seen them go great for people like Trevor from Haunt or Duncan Evans. The key is consistency so fans know to tune in. But still, a lot of guys out there have taken relatively basic ideas and turned them into veritable profit streams. (Get it? profit streams. I know, I won’t quit my day job!)

2. Q&A and Direct Fan Interaction

This one requires the most fanbase, but can lead to a lot of sales. If you do live question and answer streams regularly, you don’t even need to lean on having a big fanbase, you’ll just slowly start to convert people. Folks are starved for content from their favorite artists, so go out, engage, interview bands on your channels, have fans stream along with you –- the world is your burrito!

That being said, doing a live stream like this can really backfire. Make sure that you have something to talk about already before you go live. Otherwise, you’re just going to shoot yourself in the foot and look like an idiot stammering to himself. But if you have a topic in mind, it gives you something to lean on and it can inspire questions.

1. Video Game Streams

This is the one everyone is talking about and that people seem to either really love or really hate. I get it. The idea of playing video games for tips is either something that destroys artistic integrity or that is a childhood dream come true. Only do this if it is authentic to you.

What I would say, though, is watch some of your favorite underground bands’ Twitch streams. Some, like Howling Giant or Trevor Strnad of The Black Dahlia Murder are really awesome. It’s just another way to engage with the band and learn more about them. Plus it builds on itself, meaning with consistency you are only going to grow and grow and grow.

I know none of these are easy, but they certainly can be done with less gear than a full on live stream. Not only that, but a lot of them are fun! After all, the musical stuff is probably along the line of what you were doing anyway. Meanwhile, doing a Q&A and engaging with fans is vital. As per video game streams, make them authentic and they could be a huge leverage point for you.

Matt Bacon (IG: mattbacon666) with Dropout Media is a consultant, A&R man, and journalist specializing in the world of heavy metal. You can read other articles in the series by clicking the “Bacon’s Blog” hashtag below. Matt can also be heard on the Dumb & Dumbest podcast, which he co-hosts with Curtis Dewar of Dewar PR.

Few things are more frustrating than a social media post that goes nowhere. It happens all the time. We take the time to actually make a post. It takes time and energy and thought. Then it gets four likes. How do you run posts that actually get engagement? Fortunately, I’m here for you.

Given that I have been studying this stuff for years, I’ve learned a thing or two about running a successful social media post. What I have found is that it comes down to an effective caption, having easy to digest content, and then making sure that your content tells a story. Let’s break it down.

3. Effective Captions

This is the biggest place I see bands falling down on Facebook and Instagram. If you don’t have a good caption that clearly outlines what the post is about and gives people a reason to engage you are shooting yourself in the foot.

My personal rule is when posting a memory or something I just try to add two more sentences. This forces me to add details people can connect with, or even better tell some sort of story that might make the post a bit more relatable. Which is a better caption: “Live at St Vitus Bar” or “Live at Saint Vitus Bar last October with our homies in Tombstoner (Who rip btw). I remember our bassist Johnny got ripped and it was hilarious. Shoutout to Dave for booking us!” The second right? And it wasn’t even that hard to do.

2. Easily Digestible Content

This is a huge one. Don’t post poorly formatted content or blurry shots or shit that just doesn’t make you look smart. You want to make sure your posts have a decent level of audio if its a video and that no matter what they are formatted to the platform. That is to say, no hashtags on Facebook and no random @ signs either.

If your content is nicely formatted and well lit, it becomes much more digestible and easy to embrace. If people see that you actually are trying and give some semblance of a shit they are going to be much more likely to want to engage with your content. So often I see bands getting upset they aren’t getting anywhere, but it’s a photo that looks gross, or has a ton of text in it, or just doesn’t make sense. Make your content visually engaging if you want to get reactions.

1. Telling A Story

Humans are special, because we tell stories. This is how we communicate ideas and this is how you make people connect with what you are doing. If you aren’t telling stories, people won’t understand what’s going on. It’s tied into what we discussed earlier with having a long caption. You need people to have a reason to connect.

This can come across with a single picture (maybe it’s a cool shot of you playing to a ton of people) or it can come across your entire feed. Look at how a band like Ghost makes a point of each post fitting into the larger than life Ghost narrative. The point being, when you post a piece of content you need to ask yourself, “How does this fit into my larger overall story?”

As you can see, we can all sort of access higher levels of post success if we take the time to have an effective caption, create content that is actually worth connecting with, and tell a potent story. When you do this you are practically guaranteed to have growth.

Matt Bacon (IG: mattbacon666) with Dropout Media is a consultant, A&R man, and journalist specializing in the world of heavy metal. You can read other articles in the series by clicking the “Bacon’s Blog” hashtag below. Matt can also be heard on the Dumb & Dumbest podcast, which he co-hosts with Curtis Dewar of Dewar PR.