Is your end goal to 'get signed' or to be great at what you do?

I would suggest that it's always better to focus on the latter, then if the former occurs, all well and good.

Plenty of rubbish bands get signed and implode long before a sophomore album is even written.

There are parallels with skateboarding (wait, hear me out!), I used to know so many people who were obsessed with 'getting sponsored', they forgot why they got into it in the first place, because it's great!

to get your name known. Certainly in London. I've been told this by numerous music people that this is important.

Having your own club night helps as well, if you think about it many indie bands over the last few years have had their own club nights (Kaiser Chiefs, Clor, The Horrors) this helps you build contacts and make friends with other bands, and essentially "build a scene" if you're booking bands with a certain aesthetic.

And of course writing good songs is hte most important thing.

I do kind of feel a bit jaded with the music industry though as everyone i know who are signed either know someone quite high up in the music industry or are related to someone who already is in music (for example the nephew of the singer of Shakespeare's Sister). Or they are very rich.

But if you can't beat them, join em! I've joined a band recently who have shitloads of contacts in the music industry and know lots of famous bands personally. If we can consistantly write decent songs maybe we'll be okay...

don't tell anyone about your band until you've got good (see also all the slagging george pringle gets on here because people saw her play her first gig or simply it's no their thing). wait until you've found someone to help develop what you do and bare in mind it took kate bush 3 albums of major label funded development to get proper good. so by this i don't mean good by some friend who vaguely likes music and comes to your gigs standards but good that you all honestly believe what you're doing is as good as you aspire for it to be and its ready to sit alongside your heroes and not because you sound exactly like them. music is just going to standstill if people don't start raising the bar so i think this is really important that any bands ambition should be about being something special, rather than about being 'signed' or "making it, whatever that means..."

then don't go sending your music to labels, that's everyones first mistake. aim for the periphery, that's how you start a buzz and make people want to hear your band. think about how you've heard about music and how you develop a natural relationship with it, that's exactly how a&r people work too, they either have a vision or they act like a sheep and very few people have vision (kaiser chiefs were rubbished as some tuneless also-ran at their first post-parva gigs and no a&r would touch bat for lashes). you can build the buzz by giving stuff away and doing what los campesinos and year before them mystery jets did on these boards but not really jagging themselves but being part of the furniture.

first, when you've hopefully found a nice producer to give you a day or two to produce something half-decent sounding, you should send it to the booking agents, press officers, lawyers and managers of your favourite acts - most of whom are now easy to track down because of the web or just turn up to the bands show and give the band a copy each (easily done via the merch stall) and add an extra copy for their manager and the gigs promoter so that hopefully you can get some supports if they like what you do.

be sure that the package looks and feels special, it's worth working a few extra shifts or taking money from a show to ensure the first impression is intriguing. pay a graphic designer or artsy friend either some money or do some of their chores or something. i know it sounds crap but i remember johnny borrell handing out his demo wrapped in a bow to everyone in the guestlist queue when yeah yeah yeahs played the barfly and it did, it seems, get him some gig offers and a manager, who then helped do the rest.

however, having said that, the above only makes sense if you wanna sign to a major and to be honest, getting a record deal isn't the be all and end all nowadays, not even bands 'on the map' as it were can get deals or make money doing what they're doing. youthmovies, redjetson, thisgirl and jeniferever all lost me a lot of money, despite the fact they were released on really small budgets but even small is still about £30k just to cash flow the release and staff involved in it and yet you're still the bad guy, who gets all the blame when the distributer cocks up or vans breakdown or the press give a bad review or you're not at every london gig and get little thanks when they don't sell enough records to break even (with about £4 now coming back from the distributer per record that's about 7000 record sales and the last sonic youth barely sold 10,000...). and yet i love and am really proud of releasing all the above records but you can see why it doesn't make sense to release any more of them when it's so quick and easy for people to share and download a record for free.

too many bands just want to be in the industry schmindustry and they suck!

first and foremost just work on being a good band, writing great songs, build up contacts, playing good gigs and not taking every single gig offered - pick and choose carefully.

if you're really good, word of mouth will follow and some decent press exposure too. keep writing, keep gigging, more contacts. people will come to you instead of you having to hassle them.

release a record on some indie label, then some major (or trendy indie looking but still major offshoot of a major) will come along and snap you up. job's a good un!

http://www.wired.com/entertainment/music/magazine/16-01/ff_byrne?currentPage=all

if you want to be in a band/ or be involved in the music business because of a perceived need for 'success' or greatness, then you're ultimately going to fall on your arse eventually.

Like sean says, I think the people who are willing to put up with the long haul, do it because they HAVE to or because they love it so much they can't NOT.

I have no idea how you get signed. Find a music journalist who likes your band and is willing to promote you, get a following on myspace. Add a bazillion friends to myspace, have a rich/ famous dad - it worked for Lily Allen!!!

If that is who you are, then you will find a way to get there. Even if you make a twat of yourself in the process. I'm constantly sending my shit to people to look at (I doubt they ever do and it probably ends up in the bin) but I feel like I'm at least being proactive in attaining my dreams... even if the reality of that is somewhat far removed.

I think in essence, even if you're good... you still need some of that magic sparkle dust from the good luck fairy, also known as 'being in the right place at the right time'.

Your question really depends upon what you hope to achieve, as everyone before me has already said.

I think a common mistake a lot of bands make is thinking that by signing to a major label they've "made it", when in actual fact it's only just begun. The workload goes through the roof and the pressure, I can imagine, must be insane. The constant demands to deliver new and better material, all the promo which comes with it and if at the end of the day people decide not to buy your records, you're sacked, effectively. Depending on the deal you signed, this can cause more problems than the obvious disappointment of failiure, but can also lead to serious financial issues.

Wherever you want to take your music, one of the most important things you can do is be creative. I ranted about this on http://blogscarymonsters.blogspot.com last week but I'm currently getting somewhere in the region of 20 bands contacting me every day. Some write lovely emails and have clearly taken the time to research the label, others send generic messages to hundreds of people fishing for anything and a few think that adding you on Myspace and leaving an arrogant "we're the next big thing" comment on your page is the way forward. I'd be interested to know how many bands have actually been signed that way. I'd wager a man with no arms could count them on his fingers.

Attractive packaging of CDs is good. The aesthetic of a band is important, and by that I don't mean you have to be good looking, but things like your website design, your promo photos, the front which people will see, basically.

Getting frequent, and well suited shows is important, although not always as easy as it sounds, especially when you're starting out. Keep plugging away and you'll get there, though. I remember trying to book This Town Needs Guns first tour and really struggling just to get them just 4 shows. Now they're being offered things all of the time and could probably play 200 gigs a year if they wanted to.

Making friends with as many people as possible is good, too. And by that I don't mean go out and be horribly smarmy with industry folk, I mean wear a smile and be polite at all times. If someone takes the time to tell you they like what you're doing, appreciate that. Sounds obvious, but it's something some people don't bother with.

Having money to spend on things can help (and afterall, if you're in a band with 5 members, buying 200 blank CD-Rs and burning a few each takes very little time or cash) but it's certainly not essential. Learn to do things on a budget. Why spend £10k on advertising when 90% of the people seeing it don't even know who you are? Target your audience and find creative ways to reach them. Online media is brilliant for that. Myspace and Youtube have become a staple in every bands career and identity now, but there are many more options out there. You don't need to chuck cash at these things to make them work, just take some time to research and plan.

And as Sean said, don't do anything until you're ready. Take your time writing and rehearsing and get some tracks recorded which you're 100% proud of. If I get one more band email saying "listen to our new recording. It's only bass and drums at the moment, and it's far from being our best work, but we really think we're ready to be signed" I think I'll quit this business and move to a country where music is illegal.

with Lex Records, who are a subsidiary of Warp. Warp are doing their music vid. I am so fucking pleased. They have worked hard and been an act, doing the circuit for at least four years now. It's very much about networking as well as talent. They deserve it. They have worked so hard and I am sooo pleased for them.

www.myspace.com/heartbreak1

Like self release, self distribution and like that? Pipe dreams of the highest order?

if it doesn't come bursting out of you

in spite of everything,

don't do it.

unless it comes unasked out of your

heart and your mind and your mouth

and your gut,

don't do it.

if you have to sit for hours

staring at your computer screen

or hunched over your

typewriter

searching for words,

don't do it.

if you're doing it for money or

fame,

don't do it.

if you're doing it because you want

women in your bed,

don't do it.

if you have to sit there and

rewrite it again and again,

don't do it.

if it's hard work just thinking about doing it,

don't do it.

if you're trying to write like somebody

else,

forget about it.

if you have to wait for it to roar out of

you,

then wait patiently.

if it never does roar out of you,

do something else.

if you first have to read it to your wife

or your girlfriend or your boyfriend

or your parents or to anybody at all,

you're not ready.

don't be like so many writers,

don't be like so many thousands of

people who call themselves writers,

don't be dull and boring and

pretentious, don't be consumed with self-

love.

the libraries of the world have

yawned themselves to

sleep

over your kind.

don't add to that.

don't do it.

unless it comes out of

your soul like a rocket,

unless being still would

drive you to madness or

suicide or murder,

don't do it.

unless the sun inside you is

burning your gut,

don't do it.

when it is truly time,

and if you have been chosen,

it will do it by

itself and it will keep on doing it

until you die or it dies in you.

there is no other way.

and there never was.