Student bands have difficulty marketing themselves; mediums such as WHJE provide some exposure

By Kelsey Binion

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It takes a tremendous amount of organization and talent to form a band. One has to find time and space to practice, as well as discover musical talent among students and procure instruments. On top of that members must organize and audition for concerts and gigs. That doesn’t leave much time to let the general public know about the band and get them to attend its shows.

That’s a challenge for bands that are more serious about creating music into a career and are looking for the best ways to promote themselves among the sea of local artists. According to senior Michael Gospel, his band, Jammin’ Bread, and its members get together when their schedules are open. For Gospel, promoting the band isn’t a top priority, but it’s still a challenge.

Luckily for them, there are several media outlets to help promote local groups. Events like Houndstock, coming up on May 16, gives student bands a rare opportunity to play in front of their peers. But for some of the bands that are chosen, Houndstock is only a starting point if they want exposure.

Jammin’ Bread has had the opportunity in the past to play at Houndstock and just recently at this year’s Dance Marathon.

“We had a captive audience at Dance Marathon because it was at the part in the marathon when students had time to listen to music and dance, plus they didn’t have anywhere to go. They seemed to really enjoy it and cheer us on,” Gospel said.

Another way that bands promote themselves is by giving CDs or information about themselves after their performance. However, that is not an option Gospel said his band pursues.

Gospel said, “We didn’t hand out anything out at Houndstock like other bands did. Instead, our band posts videos of our music on YouTube. Also, we post information about concerts on Facebook.”

In addition to these measures, many bands have taken advantage of the radio and television department here.

WHJE station manager Brian Spilbeler said, “The biggest thing now is the Internet. Many bands have Facebook pages and MySpace pages, and there is also iTunes. Pertaining to the radio, they (the bands) can e-mail MP3s, mail CDs and call in for airtime.”

Furthermore, Spilbeler said WHJE is currently developing a local band library, so listeners can hear more local than recorded artists. The station also plans to open the radio for local bands to play on the air, interviewing them in person and doing live broadcasts of their performances.

According to Spilbeler, while the radio station is willing to help local artists, it is not trying to market them or provide commercial service for them. This is consistent with CHTV’s policy.

CHTV station manager Hal Espey said, “There are few opportunities for new artists to get significant exposure on television. One problem they all face is just the huge number of available groups trying to gain attention. Most of the time television only offers a few guest spots on different types of variety and talk shows, or on cable outlets like VH1 and MTV. These types of appearances often are of artists that have already had some success.”

Espey said it seemed to him that college radio and especially the Internet are where the greatest chances of exposure come from. Low-cost video and audio gear also allow many groups to make their own demo CDs and music videos. The CDs are also given free to local media in hopes of airplay.

According to Gospel, with the many bands in high school, it can be hard to let students know about each band and what kind of music each performs, but the prevalence of other media outlets can help in the process, especially if those bands know where to look.

Gospel said, “Even though we don’t have a lot of publicity for the band, students can find or listen to some of our music on YouTube. We kind of just get involved as we go.”