ARTISTS ASK: JOHN JACKSON (LEGACY RECORDINGS)

posted in: Music News

Often these days it seems that the amount of buzz a band has about them and amount of fans they pull out to shows aren’t always related. I’ve seen much blogged about bands play to 15 people in their hometown while bands that are consistently bringing out good crowds can be completely neglected by the press. In all honesty, which is more likely to catch your interest and why”the band with the buzz or the band with the bigger draw? –Matt, Big Bang TV

... John Jackson responds

As both a working musician and an industry professional, I’d have to say that the answer lies somewhere in the middle. Obviously as an artist you want your music to be accepted (and enjoyed!) by critics, but there is no substitute for direct fan interaction. You can have all of the buzz you want, but without actual human beings absorbing your music, it’s tough to really get a gauge on how it effects people. That said, regional live shows are incredibly difficult to put on if you’re doing it all yourself. Booking and promotion are generally the bane of any artist’s existence, so there is no substitute for positive reviews or buzz that get generated online ”particularly considering how immediate the transaction can be to actually acquire the music and how easy it is to have that transaction flow back to the artist themselves.

What I would have to say is both in abundance. Also missing from the process for most independent musicians is that key connective step between the buzz and the live shows. The plethora of Web sites for which artists need to maintain profiles and actively network are great, but also incredibly ubiquitous. What we’ve ended up with are the digital equivilant of the “demo pile” in the A&R man’s office of old. There are so many artists that have fantastic looking profiles and music for sale at iTunes that they all effectively have their own record deal, which in effect means that none of us do. It’s the promotion aspect of the equation that was what record labels were so good at”and that artists weren’t expected to deal with”that’s now missing.

-John Jackson, Guitarist The Mercury Seed, Senior Director of Content Development Legacy Recordings

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