The jilts (with a lower-case ‘j’, they insist) are an indie-rock group from Manchester. They have been together for three years and have built a steady following both in their home town and in London, where they played six times last year to crowds in excess of 500. Their music is edgy but accessible, guitar driven and punchy. They have produced two EPs so far, both under their own steam. A local Manchester radio station will showcase this band next week by playing two of their tracks on five occasions during peak times. In addition, they have a huge Myspace fan base. They have just agreed to support another new band on tour – Gringly Man – who have just signed to a rival label on a five album deal.
12 comments:
For The jilts, my major distributed independant record label would offer 15% royalties, with a £50,000 advance up front for all the 5 band members to live off and produce new material and then we would keep a 5% reserve as insurance. We came to this proposal because the band write their own music, have an established fan base and also and some radio time. Also, by going on tour with Gringly Man, we would be looking towards signing them up before any rival label did and before the tour takes full flight.
My major distributed independent record label (Elmo Needs Lemonade Records), would offer The Jilts 15% royalties from revenue, with a 5% reserve as insurance, because they have been together for 3 years now, and when you spend a long period of time around the same people, falling out's tend to happen. My record label would also offer a £50,000 advance for the 5 band members to live off of. It may seem like a lot, but because they are touring with Gringly Man, who are signed to a rival record label, by offering them a large advance, they'll be more inclined to sign with us. However we would keep them on the tour, as this provides a good opportunity for publicity.
We also made this offer based on their already established fan base, public radio airtime (which will make the listeners aware of them and buy there albums)and there ability as musicians to write their own songs.
Putting my personal taste and interest in music aside:
I see some potential in The jilts, mostly because I believe that they show a latent of representation whereas a broader audience may be able to relate to their content, as opposed to the other ‘contestants’.
I’m concerned that The jilts may have limited success seeing as the success of a band tends to be inversely proportional to the amount of similar bands already out there. I can name over 10 indie bands with similar characteristics to The jilts off the top of my head.
I believe The jilts will have very little physical appeal, and since the sexual symbolism as an element is out of the window, I expect The jilts to provide a better-than-fantastic vocal performance in order to compensate for what they cannot provide, sadly.
The potential target audience for The jilts is teenagers of all ages, along with Young adults of both genders.
Away from logical thinking, a reason I’m interested in The jilts is because my competitors, Matt Vicker and Elmo Needs Lemonade have shown interest as well, and I’d like a piece of the action, in which I trust their judgement.
To ensure they do their best, my offer to The jilts is slightly more complex:
Should The jilts manage to sell +100,000 units at the week of distribution, I will give them 25% royalty.
Should The jilts not manage to sell the aforementioned, I will only give them a pathetic 10% royalty.
Regardless of aforesaid contract, I will be giving the band two instalments of £25,000 over the course of a month, in which I expect them to head the lineup for 2 gigs with bigger bands I have signed earlier.
Should the lineup plan fail, and I for some reason still have faith in The jilts, I will boost sales via providing them with some Radio 1 “Lounge” time.
Seeing as The jilts are still small, and fairly ‘unwanted’, I will also publish their tracks online, on stores such as Napster, Itunes and Spotify to allow audience to download singular tracks at cheap, or possibly free, as a part of a promotion campaign.
The jilts (with a lower case j) are perfect for the true independent label i represent. We are currently looking for a more accessible band to introduce a new wave of music. We belive that The jilts possess this quality.
One way in which popular music is outlined is how mainstream it is. Normally fans follow less well known bands as mainstream music is exploited and overplayed. I belive The jilts will always remain a band widely supported when they become more mainstream whilst maintaining interest.
We agreed to offer 20 point royalties to a band as a whole.
An advance would also be offered of around 15,000-20,000 depending on our impressions of the band when we arrange a meeting.
To ensure smooth record sales we will offer a 10% reserve against returns.
Whilst they may look like a typical Indie band, they have potential to be something else.
Its all about the music man!
The jilts have big potentual and are the industrys awnser to the kooks and the like, the already have a huge fan base and have 2 EPs already, they have a big fan base on myspace and its ever growing. Also they are appearing on the radio and that will get their name around so advertising is as good as done :D A major distributed independant record label such as the one im repesenting would offer 60,000 in advance with a 20% royalties so they cant say no! :D and only a 10% reserve as we are certain their music will sell (especialy if i have anything to do with it... mwhahaha!......) their tour with 'Gringly Man' will help boost advertising and mean they get an even bigger fan base.
We at Elmo Needs Lemonade Records in association with Drunken Elephant Productions, would create a viral video campaign using popular channels from Youtube and Revision 3, this would give us a wide spread audience as channels like Film Riot and Ray William Joihnson are watched by thousands, much like the band Weezer did. Would schedule at least one band member to appear on pannel shows like Never Mind The Buzzcocks, and also schedule performaces on shows like Alan Carr Chatty Man, Brandon Flowers lead of the band The Killers has done this.
We could produce merchandise like t-shirts, bags, badges and jumpers/hoodies. We would also want to get them in the public view by having actricles about them placed in musical magazines such as Kerrang! and Rolling Stone Magazine, like Red Hot Chili Peppers.
We would create a seperate group of supporters/fans called "The Commited", much like The Killers have "The Victims",the band will be able to communicate with their fan base via Myspace, Facebook etc.
Furthermore, we would want to secure a merchandise deal with a large producer of musical insturments such as Yamaha or Gibson, not only would this supply us with exclusive models, but it also serves as publicity for both sides.
Working with mobile producer Apple, it will be able to give us a wide spread advertising campaign as Apple is globally known. We would also supply Vidzone app for the PS3 with exclusive live videos and certain b-sides, with the PlayStation franchise being globally known, our band would benefit from this.
Keep a couple of blogs based on the career of the jilts and a blog of what they get up to in their daily lives for the hardcore fans. The video blogs will be sponsored by jack daniels. The career blog will also include vital information such as tour dates, release dates and recording dates. Charity events for poor countries and gigs for comic relief and children in need. The girl wears a bikini and boot and a cowboy hat and all the boys wear hats and boots and what clothes they want.
First, I'd like to note that due to increase in competition, I'd like to increase the royalties I'm offering The jilts by 5%.
For an advertising campaign, I see no point in the hassle of advertising broadly, since the jilts are somewhat niche.
I think it'd be most suitable to advertise using online music outlets, particularly Spotify, because it has a functionality that only displays my adverts based on what the users listen to, so for example, I could specify my advert to be presented to people who download a lot of Indie music. Et cetera. This method is also cost effective which would be great, seeing as I'm offering the jilts a bloody fortune.
Along with that, I'd like to host the band on 4Music (Or Viva), because it's on Freeview, meaning it's likely to hit a broader audience segment. In terms of theory, presenting the band on Viva could function as a synergy of thoughts whereas the audience will relate the fact that both the channel, and the band are new to the music industry, yet the band IS successful, because the channel is.
This probably makes no sense what so ever, but I get what I'm on about ;)
@Tim - that's all that matters!
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