BandsOnABudget

This is a tumblr blog brought to you by the staff at Bands On A Budget. We are cool nerds helping out independent bands. We post stuff we dig and things we make.

[bandsonabudget]

Van or Astro-Van? You decide with this limited edition t-shirt illustrated by Philadelphia artist Joe Shefski. This one of a kind thread features the River City van and trailer as well as the planet Saturn. Get yours: http://dnld.it/1HqKaU0

[bandsonabudget]

Van or Astro-Van? You decide with this limited edition t-shirt illustrated by Philadelphia artist Joe Shefski. This one of a kind thread features the River City van and trailer as well as the planet Saturn. Get yours: http://dnld.it/1HqKaU0

[bandsonabudget]

Limited Edition design 2 of 4 for River City Extension's 2015 release, Deliverance. We will be releasing a new design (on sale!) weekly, so stay tuned! Order your Limited Edition tee now: Rivercityextension.com

[bandsonabudget]

Deliverance tour tees on SALE! They won’t last! Get yours: rivercityextension.com

[bandsonabudget]

FLASH SALE! We are over the moon with our latest customer service rating. We won't stop until we are a 10, but in the meantime we are thanking our customers with 10% off full priced orders now until 5pm tomorrow! Use code WELOVEYOU and we'll return the favor: www.bandsonabudget.com

[thefrontbottoms]

We’re playing some June dates around Bunbury Fest with our friends in LVL UP! Grab presale tix here - http://TFB.ducatking.com

06.04 - Cuisine el Locale - Somerville, MA 06.05 - PhilaMOCA - Philadelphia, PA 06.08 - Mahall’s - Lakewood, OH 06.09 - Metro Gallery - Baltimore, MD

[bandsonabudget]

Get it: http://dnld.it/1ACFRjE 

[professorupdog]

Updog

[bandsonabudget]

Metallica bassist's 'dream show' highlights Music in Film

Awesome recap of what happened right here in ‪#‎AsburyPark‬ this past weekend! Article via Asbury Park Press

[bandsonabudget]

If you haven’t seen it yet, check out our #interview with Joe from #rivercityextension! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGlQvw0mhAE

[bandsonabudget]

We're excited to announce our new partnership with #TheParlorMob! Their #bandmerch will now be available online!  http://buff.ly/1DGax8u

[bandsonabudget]

THE NETFLIX OF VINYLS

In our weekly series, BandsOnABudget.com goes through the dregs to bring you the best in DIY focused news, tips, and advice on the topics of touring, marketing, promoting, social media, PR, & more.

1. WHEN SHOULD YOU RELEASE NEW MUSIC?

A few weeks ago, the International Federation of Phonographic Industry (IFPI) announced that starting this summer, “new albums and singles will be released at 00:01 local time on Fridays.” This international release day has been put in place for a few reasons, but mostly because staggered release dates don’t make much sense anymore. With the digital age changing the way that fans consume new music, it’s just easier to release things on the same day. At least, it’s easier for most major artists, but what about the smaller bands? With T-Swift and Beyonce taking over the weekends with their releases, it might be better for your band to stray away from those days when releasing your singles.

2. THE NETFLIX OF VINYL

Yes, the Netflix of Vinyl. This subscription based media company is reworking the ways in which we consume vinyl. In case you haven’t noticed, everyone is listening to records again, resulting in a 52% increase in vinyl sales since 2013. VNYL is hoping to continue this trend with their vinyl delivery service. Basically, users choose from their list of categories (or #vibes, as they call it), then VNYL sends you a batch of hand-picked records. You keep what you want, then send back what you don’t like.

3. SEVEN TIPS TO GET SPONSORSHIPS FOR YOUR BAND

Sponsorships are a mutually beneficial arrangement between two or more groups. Most artists can get free custom band merch, show promotion, and credibility through these partnerships. For companies, they usually benefit by creating public awareness, increasing sales, and building their credibility by working with a band. These tips will show you how to get your band some long-lasting sponsorships.

4. MUSIC BUSINESS ADVICE FROM 5TH CENTURY B.C.

As much as you might dislike a good history lesson, there is always something to learn from our ancestors. This lesson comes from the work by the Chinese general Sun Tzu. Although he wasn’t necessarily in a rock n’ roll band, his universal advice and philosophical teachings still have the ability help those in the music business.

5. THREE BRANDING LESSONS FROM MUSIC’S BIGGEST SUPERSTARS

J. Cole, Lady Gaga, and Dave Grohl are not only musical superstars, but they are teachers too. Whether they intended to pursue this career path, or they just happened to fall into it, lots of lessons can be learned from them. With the ability to reinvent themselves and own their art, these three are true branding masters.

Check back every week for our weekly web roundup. Have any hot tips or web content you think is worthy? Send it our way to [email protected] or link us in on Facebook!

[bandsonabudget]

Our favorite bands have some awesome merch on their online stores! Check them out. http://shop.thefrontbottoms.com/ http://merchwerks.myshopify.com/collections/river-city-extension-merch

[bandsonabudget]

At BandsonaBudget.com we are all about making custom merch for bands, brands, and businesses. We love to help our customers create an awesome final product as much as we like getting to know them in the process. After partnering with River City Extension for quite some time now, we were very excited to see the band participate in our interview series. Prior to the release date of their newest full length album Deliverance, Joe gives us the breakdown of the band's biggest influences, best performances, and weirdest stories.

HOW DID THE BAND FORM?

The band formed in Toms River in 2007, the summer of 2007, and it was like this acoustic project that I had started. Initially, I was arranging a lot of stuff and saying this is exactly how it’s going to sound and over time, especially on Deliverance, we found members that were collaborating really naturally together and understood each other in the studio and on stage. I still write the songs but it’s started to be more of a band effort to arrange the records and to put together the final picture.

WHAT CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THE NEW ALBUM?

So we have Deliverance coming out on march 10th, it’s our 3rd full length record, it’s our favorite record. I don’t know if anyone – if every band says that maybe, every band says that about a new record – but it is the truth. And then we have the tour coming up and that starts off March 5th and 6th at Asbury Lanes and tickets are on sale at rivercityextension.com – it’ll be a whole U.S. tour.

WHAT KIND OF MUSIC HAVE YOU BEEN LISTENING TO LATELY?

I’ve been listening to the new Cymbals Eat Guitars record a lot – a lot, a lot, a lot – we’ve all been listening to that record, and we really like it. I saw one of their songs posted online and I listened to it and I bought the record and I got into it. I listen to that, and I’ve been listening to Leonard Cohen a lot. I got into Leonard Cohen sort of over the holiday season. And the new Sun Kil Moon album, Benji, we’ve all been into a lot and some Radiohead.

WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE BEER?

My favorite beer of all time is Yeungling Lager, and we do love craft beer but I mean we’ve tried so much beer in America and overseas. I just went to Belgium recently and was trying beer over there and everything but I’m never not in the mood for a Yeungling.

ANY ADVICE FOR NEW BANDS?

Well if they’re a new band and they’re just starting up and they’re younger than I am they probably don’t know who Cake is. But Cake was this band from the 90’s – very important, they had a great sound –and their lead singers name is John McCrea. Buddies of mine were in this band in the north west and when they were coming up, Cake was coming up. My buddy saw John McCrea on his bike one day and he said “John, do you have any advice for up and coming musicians?” and John said “yeah I do,” he said “if you suck quit now.” The first time he told me that I was kind of like weirded out by it, it’s kind of shitty thing to say but I thought about it since then. I mean it’s probably been 5 years since he told me that story or maybe longer and I realize that what he means is, if you think you suck, if you don’t believe that you can do it then there’s not a chance. Because on the way up there’s going to be plenty of people telling you it’s impossible or what your doing doesn’t matter or it’s not this or it’s not that or that you should stop. So if you think you suck then you don’t have a shot at it.

I guess that comes down to believing in yourself really care about what you’re doing make sure you’re putting your best work forward and be yourself and believe in yourself. You need to have a clear mission [of] anyone that’s going to come in to help you. Because that may happen and may not happen for a long time and may happen right away. There will be plenty of people telling you how to do this but you have to know better than anyone else. So know yourself and believe in yourself and believe in what you’re making and don’t let that be compromised.

WHY BANDS ON A BUDGET?

I’ve never thought about learning from anyone else like Bands On A Budget. everything just turned out really good everyone is really hands on, turnaround is super quick, the prices are really good, and it’s like Danny told me, really we’ve been able to do everything. Every time I ask him if there’s something that we’re able to print or get in by a certain time or whatever it is we need to do they’ve been able to make it work for us and we’re very grateful for that.

Thanks to Lakehouse Recording Studio for letting us do this session and this interview. Deliverance is out March 10th on Anchor & Hope Records and you can pre-order it oniTunes or rivercityextension.com

[bandsonabudget]

Fresh new designs on the way for River City Extension! These shirts could make you fly (but probably not).

[bandsonabudget]

NEWS YOU CAN USE: HOW MUCH DOES IT REALLY COST TO MAKE A RECORD?

In our weekly series, BandsOnABudget.com goes through the dregs to bring you the best in DIY focused news, tips, and advice on the topics of touring, marketing, promoting, social media, PR, & more.

1. WHO’S READY FOR SXSW?

The annual Texas festival is shaping up to be quite the party this year. With only a few days left before the commencement of SXSW 2015, a few names are still being added to the list. Artists like Spoon, J. Cole, and Portugal. The Man are just a handful of musicians who we can expect to see this year. SXSW has added a full list of new 2015 showcasing artists on their website. With artists from all over the globe, this list will definitely show you which artists to keep your eyes on this year.

2. THE POWER OF SAYING “NO”

Being a musician (or just working in the music industry) is one of the most difficult tasks to take on. It requires countless hours of work and endless amount of money, yet it barely gives back in the short-run. Because of this, opportunities always seem so grand and extravagant when they finally appear. But much too often, musicians say “yes” to every situation that lies before them. Although we’re not trying to tell you to turn down opportunities that could potentially further your career, we are suggesting that you can spread yourself too thin. Sometimes, focusing on one important task is much better for your musical careers.

3. HOW MUCH DOES IT REALLY COST TO MAKE A RECORD?

MusicSUBMIT blog writer Michael Corcoran describes the recording process that the Rolling Stones went through in 1972, while they were recording Exile on Main Street. After moving around from studio to studio, in various countries, the band spent about $2M on the album. Don’t freak out, we promise that it doesn’t have to cost that much to make a record! Back in those days, bands would go into the studio without doing any pre-production, and sometimes without a song. They would begin the writing process in the studio (and pay an hourly fee to just jam). Thankfully, things are a bit different these days. Lots of work can and should be done prior to even stepping into the studio, substantially lowering costs. Check out the rest of Corcoran’s blog post and see how much your band should expect to spend on a full length album.

4. USING SPOTIFY PLAYLISTS TO BOOST FAN BASE

There’s usually a nice feeling of accomplishment once your music is listed on Spotify, but the job isn’t over yet! Just because you posted your music onto the streaming service doesn’t mean that everyone is going to listen to it. Creating and sharing your own Spotify playlists can be one of the most effective ways to increase engagement. Red Bull and Coca Cola are just a few brands that have taken complete advantage of playlists.

5. 12 RADIO PROMOTION TIPS

How does your band get on the radio? At first, it might be easier to aim for smaller radio stations. College stations and local stations are always a great starting point. But an over saturated market place still makes it difficult for radio stations to listen to your music. These 12 promotion tips will get your music into the right radio DJ’s hands and hopefully on the air.

Check back every week for our weekly web roundup. Have any hot tips or web content you think is worthy? Send it our way to [email protected] or link us in onFacebook!

[bandsonabudget]

Interview Series: A Rocket To Mars

Interview Series: Jersey-based band A rocket to Mars. gives us their biggest influences, best performances, and weirdest stories.