On this blog we often talk about how you need to blog, use Twitter and play live as much as possible to build a following. If you want a career in music this is probably your best chance, the theory is that the more you do, the more chance you have of making things happen. However there is another way, but it’s not easy and there is even less chance of success.
Recently WU LYF, a band from Manchester, UK built a massive audience online by refusing all interviews and having no web presence apart from a confusing web site. KCRW said “Wu Lyf’s biggest selling point is the ability to maintain mystique at a time when everything is out in the open”, by not using social media they have made themselves remarkable and worthy of press attention. They seemed to come out of nowhere, no one knows the names of the people in the band and their photos feature them with handkerchiefs over their faces. A few of the biggest music blogs started writing about them and their fan base built from there.
Of course this does go back to when artists were far less connected to their audiences. From the KLF to David Bowie to Zeppelin bands used to have very little connection to fans, no Twitter or Facebook chats or blogs. They seemed to live in a different more exciting world, they were legends, whatever the reality. Bands who refuse to play the social media game are bringing back some of this mystery and excitement, they are being remarkable.
The problem with this method is getting the buzz going in the first place. You need to have amazing, fantastic music that people want to share and you need to get it to a few influential people who will spread the word for you. The ideal way would be for this to happen organically, a friend just happens to give your amazing track to an influential blogger and in a matter of days you are well known across the world. This rarely happens but there are a few ways to make these connections. You can hire a PR person who already has these contacts or you can try and build a few relationships online yourself with a few influential bloggers. Remember the more influential bloggers get thousands of emails daily, to build a relationship you will need to be remarkable and persistent but not annoying. This is very difficult to do and it may well be worth investing in a PR person who has already built up these relationships over a long time.
A lot of these bands do still have a team around them leaking tracks to influential blogs, posting web content and listing gigs on sites such as Live Unsigned. Someone still needs to do that stuff, it doesn’t happen by chance. In the case of WU LYF they have been gigging for several years and have an established management team including industry veterans who had worked with Factory Records. As usual, overnight success takes years to achieve and all is not as it seems.
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Tags: blogging, KCRW, Live Unsigned, Manchester, playing live, WU LYF
