Everyone, try and e-mail bands about RBN! Part 2

[TheOzone]

Originally Posted by sonicnerd23

In regards to #3, I'm not a charter or anything directly involved in RBN, but I still want to email my favorite bands telling them about this. What do I do?

My advice was for authors. For non-authors:

1) Be respectful - As I said, grammar and structure is collapsing nowadays. Be respectful, have a greeting and salutation, no "liek u shld tot b in RB & do da RBN", and treat them as the professional artist or manager they are.

2) Be clear - Tell them exactly what the Rock Band Network is and the possibilities could of taking part. Did you know there's been over 40 million downloads already and this was months ago that number was released?

3) Suggestions - Let them know they can do anything from their catalogue, but point out one or two you'd like and give a good reason why. That might help you get exactly what you want.

4) Redirect to an author - Give them the email address or Web site of an authoring company. RG Studios, Rhythm Authors, or even (especially) me. My address is admin@theozoneradio.com and I'm the owner of Ozone Entertainment if you would like to use me.

Hope that helps.

[trg007]

Originally Posted by TheOzone

1) Be professional

Originally Posted by TheOzone

Yeah, they can go suck it.

How funny.

Just the fact that you're talking about potential deals that aren't finalized is kind of unprofessional. If they work out, great (the MMPR theme would be killer!) but if something falls through you'll look like an ass.

[Charron]

Originally Posted by TheOzone

Well, I don't want to give away my successful format, but I can give tips for authors.

1) Be professional - Digital media is my business, and as the digital age has been growing, formality on online communication has been disappearing in general. However, this is a business deal you're proposing, so regardless of the medium you're using it must be professionally presented.

I use a greeting and salutation, as any letter should. Formally introduce yourself and some background on your business that relates to the RBN.

2) Be clear - Don't throw bullsh*t into your email just to sound fancy. You're wasting your's and their time. Clearly let them know it regards the RBN and tell them exactly what that is, as well as where they can go to learn more. When discussing authoring songs, tell them exactly what that means. Let them know you're seriously interested and don't leave them guessing.

3) Offer your service - This is extremely important for authors, though you'd think it's obvious. Tell them you're interested in providing them the service. Otherwise they think you're just asking them go go out there and get involved without actually getting them involved.

4) Leave contact information - No, just having your email address in the "from" part doesn't cut it. Put it in the actually body as a way they can reach you to discuss it further.

And, of course...

5) Ask the right person - The webmaster of their fan site or a moderator on their official forums won't help you. Managers and the actual band can.

Hope that kinda helps you guys out. Don't go stealing all my potential clients though, save some for me.

Also, I find it weird that I'm scooping up all these people from the "big authoring companies". Yeah, they can go suck it.

Well, I was going more the non-author route since I didn't want to look like I was trying to sell something. But even then I was kinda trailing off after point #2... suppose I should get a proper author site built up and go this route. (I don't work in digital media so I'm a step behind you, but then again I don't anticipate asking Duran freakin' Duran!)

Originally Posted by trg007

How funny.

Just the fact that you're talking about potential deals that aren't finalized is kind of unprofessional. If they work out, great (the MMPR theme would be killer!) but if something falls through you'll look like an ass.

This is the entertainment business, it's all about looking like an ass.

[CCDaDon]

Originally Posted by Charron

Well, I was going more the non-author route since I didn't want to look like I was trying to sell something. But even then I was kinda trailing off after point #2... suppose I should get a proper author site built up and go this route. (I don't work in digital media so I'm a step behind you, but then again I don't anticipate asking Duran freakin' Duran!)



This is the entertainment business, it's all about looking like an ass.

Just ask Rush Limbaugh and Gwen Stefani!

[TheOzone]

Originally Posted by Charron

This is the entertainment business, it's all about looking like an ass.

Absolutely correct. I look like an ass all the time, but if you're too scared to look like one, you'll never takes chances and have an opportunity to succeed.

[sonicnerd23]

Originally Posted by TheOzone

My advice was for authors. For none authors:

1) Be respectful - As I said, grammar and structure is collapsing nowadays. Be respectful, have a greeting and salutation, no "liek u shld tot b in RB & do da RBN", and treat them as the professional artist or manager they are.

2) Be clear - Tell them exactly what the Rock Band Network is and the possibilities could of taking part. Did you know there's been over 40 million downloads already and this was months ago that number was released?

3) Suggestions - Let them know they can do anything from their catalogue, but point out one or two you'd like and give a good reason why. That might help you get exactly what you want.

4) Redirect to an author - Give them the email address or Web site of an authoring company. RG Studios, Rhythm Authors, or even (especially) me. My address is admin@theozoneradio.com and I'm the owner of Ozone Entertainment if you would like to use me.

Hope that helps.

Thanks!

[Dastard]

Started a correspondence with Steve Green, the bassist for Breakwater, classic funk band from the late 70's. They're getting back together and recording new material, so hopefully we can at least get new stuff from them if not their classics. Still waiting to hear back if they're interested. Who knows, might get some Steve Green solo stuff while we're at it.

For those not familiar, they had a few funk hits and notably were the sample source for the main melody of Daft Punk's Robot Rock (The original is Release the Beast off of their Splashdown album). Really solid funk band with a most excellent entourage (RIP Kae Williams Jr.)

[MrOwn1]

Originally Posted by Charron

This is the entertainment business, it's all about looking like an ass.

Totally.

[Legendary Z]

I just e-mailed and sent MySpace messages to the two bands I want in Rock Band the most that haven't been in the game yet/e-mailed by someone else already.

Scar Symmetry:
http://www.myspace.com/scarsymmetry

The Exies:
http://www.myspace.com/theexies

[sonicnerd23]

Okay, I wrote up a letter for Dokken (though I'm unsure they'll reply, as it's going in a fanmail inbox). How is it?

Dear Dokken,

I really enjoy your music. In fact, I have the entire Tooth and Nail album on my iPod. Because of this, I was wondering if you would be interested in participating in Rock Band Network. Basically, what it is is you can take your master recordings, make note charts for them and put them on the video game Rock Band. Have you heard of the video game Rock Band? It's a franchise that, ever since its birth, has gone on to rake in millions from video game sales and downloadable content sales. There are 800 songs available for Rock Band, with 14 full albums available and over 250 different artists covered, and since October 2009, over 60 million DLC song purchases have been made. Rock Band Network is an expansion of this, except this time, the actual artists are the charters! Here's how it works, pulled directly from the creators.rockband.com (link to that site) page:

"You'll be able to take the stems from any master recording (which you own of course) and create MIDI charts for each instrument using the Reaper Digital Audio Workstation equipped with our free authoring plugins. Audition the track on your Xbox 360 console to make sure it rocks properly. When it’s good to go, you'll package everything up and share your track with the RBN community. When you’re satisfied with your track, upload it to this site so that your peers can evaluate it. Anyone in the Creators community will be able to download and audition the track on their own Xbox consoles, and they’ll give you valuable constructive feedback that will help you revise your work and make your track as fun and challenging as possible. When you upload your song to the Creators site, it will be immediately available for any other Creator with a [Microsoft XNA] Premium Account (which is 99 bucks a year) to download and audition. Your peers will post valuable, detailed feedback on your song. Once you and your peers agree that your song is ready for primetime, you’ll submit it for peer review. Once it passes peer review, your song is released into the world. All your hard work will have paid off, literally. Once your song is approved, it will go straight into publication, available for purchase to millions of Rock Band fans in the Rock Band store and on the Xbox LIVE Marketplace. And you'll get a cut of every sale."

Remember, you need an Xbox 360, an XNA subscription, a copy of Rock Band 2, your master recordings, Reaper Digital Audio Workstation (along with the plugins!), and Magma Transfer/Packaging Tool (for transferring it to the Xbox 360 in the first place). You can get Reaper, its plugins, and magma by following this link (link to the tools page on the creators site). Also, if you don't know how to make midi charts, you can always contact people who will gladly do it for you. Some examples are Ozone Entertainment (link to Ozone Radio), which you can contact by e-mailing their boss at admin@theozoneradio.com, and Rock Gamer Studios (link to their website), which you can reach by contacting staff@rockgamerstudios.com

You can submit any song from your catalogue, but I have some suggestions.

Tooth and Nail: By far one of your most underrated songs. It's got energetic vocals and great instrumentation, especially Lynch's solo. I mean, that solo is shredding! As far as I can tell, many Rock Band players love a good challenge, so this'll most likely be a song that most RB players will want to get.

Dream Warriors: Another kickass song. Even though it's not as challenging as Tooth and Nail would be on all instruments, it still would be a song that would rake in a great deal of money due to it being one of your most known songs.

Remember, if you want to submit songs with the words "s***" or "f***" in them, you'll have to edit those words out due to RB being a T-rated game. For more information about making songs for RBN, go here (link to the spec).

I hope this can serve as a new way of promoting your music.

Your fan,
[my name]