Hey Everyone!
Here goes another week at the Space...so where is my mind?
***IN THIS ISSUE OF THE 380 WEEKLY:
I. This week at Space Radio.
II. The not-so weekly bulk package rant.
III. Upcoming Space initiatives.
IV. Diary of a Texas Girl lost in the Midwest.Begin transmission:
***THIS WEEK AT SPACE RADIO***
You should have all gotten the BURGESS SHALE CD, and hopefully it is swimming
around nicely in your bountiful review piles at this very moment in time! This
is a *FEEDBACK* campaign, so I am really looking for nice overall one-liner
responses of what you think of this CD to report back to the band! (You don't
really have to give detailed track info, just a summary feeling-type statement.)
These are my favorite type of projects, so have fun with it!
....AND ON THE WAY TO YOU ALL THIS WEEK VIA POST, is my *NEW* band baby: RACHEL
STAMP, They're from the UK, and again, these folks know how to rawk hard!! (We
mailed it out on Thursday, so you should have it mid-week!) I am sure that all
of you now have this name stamped on your brain, or you should *very* soon!!
This is a really cool CD, and totally deserves the attention of college radio
at large! ...And guess what?! It *ISN'T* an Industrial record!! (Yes, negative
to popular belief I like other types of music too!) Anyway...if you haven't
heard me say this like 10 times over yet, it is like A.F.I. meets Cheap Trick!
It should totally rock your socks, so please make this one a priority!
***THE NOT-SO WEEKLY BULK PACKAGE RANT***
***follow the stars to skip to the meaty part of my mailing rant, or read on
to know exactly why...
So, we also have a big seasonal package on the way to you guys...I don't want
to hack too much on the contents just yet, but I will say that I came up with
a rather nifty idea to help improve our bulk packages!
Hopefully by now you all know that I am cut the bull-shite kind of girlie, so
I figure it is best to just be straight with you all! (So you understand what's
really up, instead of just making up wacky excuses!) First a little history
lesson: So basically, much like AAM Sunday Service, our bulk packages are an
economical way for bands to get their stuff out there without breaking the bank,
and the added bonus of getting yours truly and the Space staff as little telephone
cheerleaders!
Typically, all the CDs in the package are meant for your overall general free-form
pleasure, like your basic Trojan, or whatever...but we also realize that there
are CDs in the package that are best suited for specialty programming at some
places--I really do try hard to know what works at your station and what does
not! (Needless to say, you should try to spin everything to decide on your own
too...cause I can't say I haven't ever been wrong on my programming predictions
for stations!)
That said, it is quite possible that we might have say, an electronic artist
that is on a tight budget who can't afford the mailing costs of a diversified
RPM and Top 200 solo promotion in our packages! (This does not mean they suck,
or don't care enough about their band to spend the extra bucks to ship it alone...or
whatever.) First, take into consideration that including packing material to
ship a single CD cost about $2 and some change a CD...There are currently 500
+ Top 200 reporters, and 200 + Specialty CMJ reporters, depending on genre...and
we won't even talk about adding in the other non-CMJ and commercial stations
that are out there that we service. *NOW* consider that you are mailing out
300-500+ CDS depending on who you are servicing albums to--then, do the math--it
comes out to about $600 to $1000 in postage related costs to do a good solo
promotion of a CD--and that is just the mailing costs alone, and not the promotion
aspect!!
Now also consider that most truly indie/DYI bands make less than you do...
***Anyhow...there seems to be a reoccurring problem with getting specialty stuff
to the right director, with just the CD itself sticky labeled for specialty
within the bulk packages...coming from a big station myself, I know it is just
too easy for those CDs to get lost in the shuffle. So, to make a long story
shorter, I came up with the idea of PUTTING SPECIALTY CDS IN A SEPARATE ENVELOPE
WITHIN THE PACKAGE--so that it is easy to decipher that it is for whatever specialty
director.... hopefully this will help you Music Directors out, and help our
indie-specialty artists out also! So basically, IF THE CD IS FLOATING AROUND
NAKED IN THE PACKAGE IT IS FOR YOU TO LOOK AT...IF IT IS IN ITS OWN ENVELOPE
IT IS FOR THE SPECIALTY DIRECTOR IT IS LABELED FOR.
Make sense?
PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF THIS WORKS OUT!! It does tack on some nice extra time
to package everything this way. (It's almost 9 PM on Friday night, and I am
*STILL at work!* ...But if it helps out my specialty artists, it is so totally
worth it to me to do!!)
End Rant.***UPCOMING SPACE INITIATIVES***
These releases are coming in the mail to you SOON from Space 380!
RACHEL STAMP, Oceans of Venus, Captiva/Underground Inc.
GEBRAUCHE-MUSIK, Precursor, D.A.D.
LOU DOG, 61 Old Depot, Betty Jane Records
ANAYA, S.T., Search Informatica
VELVET FREEZE, Wearwithal, Independent
***DIARY OF A TEXAS GIRL LOST IN THE MIDWEST***
So now to my little personal section of this rather LONG and tedious email!
(If you actually made it down this far, thanks!)
This week has been a lot more mellow for me...special high fives go out to everyone
who asked if my rents were ok after the freak fire last week at my home back
in Texas, and the welfare of my stuffed animal collection... So basically nothing
horrid or outstanding has happened to me personally this week, except for seeing
"School of Rock," and the fact that I am now telling everyone I meet
to "STEP OFF!"
...So I will tell you a little story about my friend Jason that is staying with
me from NYC, aforementioned in last week's email! (All diary entries are guaranteed
100% true, BTW.)
See, at this point I am referring to Jason as very similar to owning a cat that
talks. (Or being a pet-rescue worker.) He's been here almost two weeks now,
and he basically kicks it at my apartment while I am at work, and eats my food--he
promises he will leave before I go to CMJ, but I was getting kinda worried.
(If you've ever seen "Reality Bites," Jason has been in a very Winona
place lately--more on that later!) So anyhow, he just broke up with his girlfriend,
and it has been pretty brutally annoying to kick it with him lately. (He whines
a lot!) After spending a week watching him wallow in his misery and house-shoes,
I finally decided what he really needed was a good confidence building "chicks
dig it" makeover...
First I forced him to get rid of the "I don't care about life anymore,"
post-girlfriend grow-out mullet he was developing, and made him get a pompadour.
I also made him shave, I chia-petted his goatee, and plucked his almost mono-brow,
and left him with "manly" but nice eyebrows. (Lately I've taken to
calling him my "Make-Me-Pretty" Jason, and for some reason he doesn't
seem to appreciate this?) Once I finally got his head in order, I then explained
to him the true importance of shoes...see you can pull off his slacks and band
T-shirt look, if you have the right kicks...but if you are wearing plain black
Reeboks, (The "I work at McDonald's" kind.), well then you're sending
the totally wrong message to babes, right? Suffice to say I think he's looking
pretty yummy now, and has a good chance of getting back on the dating wagon
once he *FINALLY* leaves the safety of my little corner of the world, and makes
it back to life in the City!
OK...so back to the Reality Bites comparison...well pre-makeover Jason called
his psychic friends on Keen to find out if he and Jenny would get back together,
last weekend. (I must reiterate here, THIS STORY IS COMPLETELY TRUE!!) So, the
psychic lady was like, "You will get back together in 3 weeks, 3 months,"
or never... Basically, whatever psychics usually say. So then he asked if he
went into local politics back home, if that would be good or bad for their future
relationship. So the lady goes, "It should be fine, but there is still
a lot of stigmatism towards gay couples in this day and age." Jason was
like, "Um, my girlfriend's name is Jenny, I'm a guy, and I am not gay!"
The psychic lady goes, "Oh, I am sorry I thought you were a woman!"
Now, I think that's a pretty harsh ego-blow when you're paying 99 cents a min,
eh?! (BTW, Jason sounds like your typical guy from Long Island, and definitely
male...so I was totally rolling on the floor when all this went down, and he
came in from the porch swearing like a cabbie and telling me what had happened!)
So the moral of this weeks diary: Um, yeah...so if the psychic you're calling
can't even tell if you're a buck or a betty, then they prolly aren't psychic--and
I have a key to the school elevator you can buy to get to the special kid's
pool on the roof.Transmission out.
--9A
----
Nina @ Space 380
Space 380 Music Promotion
http://www.Space380.com
radio@space380.com
888-909-4380
AIM: TankGrrl23