Music Endorsements

Recently I was poking around the myspace accounts
of bands who were 'friends' on my son's band's myspace.
Because his band has been connected with 3 labels and
had 3 cd's and 1 ep released throughout the world I
am always interested in other bands and their longevity.

One positive aspect of a label affliation is the clout the
publicity & marketing teams can afford a band. These
folks will pitch their artists accomplishments to major
music vendors seeking to add their artists individually
and occasionally collectively on their rosters. These
endorsements are not easily acquired. An artist must
have at least cd distribution in the United States. If a
music vendor (selling guitars, amps, drum sticks, drum
kits,cymbals,strings,drumheads,etc.) does not particularly
care for your cd the label must wait till the next cd release
to pitch the artist again. This can be a process that takes
many years to accomplish. My son's band has painstakenly
gone through this process to acquire quite a lengthly list
of endorsements plus an endorsement from Jagermeister
for not only their original band but also for their hometown
'cover' band which locates club dates at home to fill their
calendar.

The point of this rant is to explain that sometimes you can
be deceived by the appearance of a band's website. Back
to checking myspace. A local band is quite savvy in their
set up of their myspace and has recently revamped their
look. I noticed that they now listed a bunch of music vendors.
I was surprised to see this-knowing they have not released
a national distributed cd. Then, again, I do see many 'independent'
artists on various rosters. In most cases 'indedendent' artists
are usually studio or session artists who play for various singers.
When checking the vendor logos I was not directed to their
website or artist list. So, I delved deeper and did not find
their artists on the vendor sites.

When you suddenly become impressed with the endorsements
of a band-take the time to check each company's website artist
roster to verify this. There is a long, hard fight for this recognition.
It's nice to let the public know which equipment preferences your
band has-but many of us mistake that for a true 'endorsement'.
Maybe a disclaimer by these bands letting the website user know
that they are not on a particular artist roster would be something
to consider.