So we’re finalists in this Pick the Band contest. It seems like a pretty great thing. Pick the Band seems like a great idea. They bill it as the first fan-run record label. I guess then it makes sense that they want “fans” to pick the winning band in the contest. So, it will be an online voting thing with music videos, almost identical to the Coldplay contest we were in a while back.
It’s tough because we’ve been in so many of these online voting contests and I am pretty sure that they’re never really about whether a band is good or has actual fans. It’s just more of a question of how many of your friends you can nag into voting. This doesn’t always result in the “best” or even “better” bands winning. We were actually really glad to see our buds in The Luxury win the Coldplay contest and we hope that someone equally strong wins this contest.
We’re participating and we’re in the running for the prize (playing a show at The Orpheum with Black Kids and Vampire Weekend), but we’re really quite burnt out on online voting contests. Let’s see, there’s been: SPIN Band of the Year (we were finalists on merit, but then lost in the online voting), Lollapalooza (we lost), SPIN Hot Pursuit (we got into the finals without doing any fan voting as an “editor’s pick” and then we dropped out of the finals because we didn’t want to sign the contract), WFNX Last Band Standing (again chosen as a pick bypassing the voting and then we won the whole thing), and the list could go on for paragraphs…
Reflecting back on these contests, I am reminded that we do very well based on merit, but not so well based on online voting. Why? We’re just not so good at making people go out and vote for us. We feel sort of guilty and like we’re taking up too much of their time and energy. In the past, we’ve gotten a lot of votes, even when we didn’t win. We know that is because there are a lot of you that get some joy from getting behind us and helping us to succeed. We really do appreciate that and feel like you all contribute to the spirit of this band and of our successes. So, in a few days, voting will begin. We hope that you will support us at that time and we appreciate your help. However, we won’t go crazy nagging you, so chances are, we will lose the contest. This will make us sad, but we will take comfort in knowing how much support we receive from all of you and that when judgment is based on merit alone, we usually do much better!
Rock on!
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