From rehearsal rooms to arenas + get in front of bookers
Bypass: Music Industry News for Independent Artists
Saturday edition • 3 min read
How Two Bands Blew Up From Their Practice Room
South Arcade and Haku. (ハク.) blew up the internet with a tactic so advanced, so diabolical, you need a PhD in psychology just to figure it out. You might want to sit down for this one.
They filmed themselves rehearsing.
We'll give you a moment.
How They Did It
They didn't have to grovel for a record deal, and they certainly didn't have to spend their rent money on some consultant who went to Berklee. There's really no strategy to it, and that's what makes it genius. South Arcade goofing off mid-practice or Haku's lead singer spitting bars is way more relatable than anything UMG's marketing team can muster up.
How You Can Too
Got a phone? Great, you're already halfway there. Post a clip where someone messes up. Post another where the room sounds like a basement because it IS a basement. Authenticity is the real currency, and good luck trying to buy it.
BandPitch: Get In Front Of Bookers
What's Up
A song, you can upload to the entire world in under four minutes. But getting a festival booker to open your email? That's a different ball game entirely. Who knows? Could be months. Could be years. Or it could be never. The people behind BandPitch are tired of watching that story play out.
So What
They said it best, "Artists are no longer lacking exposure—they're lacking access." Can't argue with that. Building an audience is only the first step. You still need to get attention from bookers. Lucky thing, BandPitch treats access like it's part of the job and not some invisible side quest.
Now What
If you're tired of sending out cold emails and getting no response, not even a rejection, check out BandPitch. It's free and paid tiers give you access to direct pitching. And worst-case scenario? Oh, wait, you're already in it.
6 Billion Reasons Why You Should Take TikTok Seriously
What's Up
Guess what just clocked 6 billion track saves in a single year? Go on, guess. That's right, TikTok's "Add to Music App" feature. TikTok probably thinks blurting out numbers like this will have us going, "Uh, big number." Well… it worked.
So What
Yeah, yeah. TikTok drives views, not real listeners. You've heard it. We've heard it. Everyone's heard it. But dude, 6 billion saved converting directly into streams is definitely not nothing. Sienna Spiro put out "Die On This Hill"; no one knew who she was, then TikTok happened.
Now What
Your music needs to be on every DSP TikTok's Add to Music connects to. If it's not, you're literally leaving saves on the table, and that's just sad.
While You Were Making Music…
👥 YouTube expands likeness detection to entertainers [but what'll happen to the doppelgängers?]
🎟️ Live Nation offers $30 tickets to 4,000+ shows from April 29 [a broken clock, etc.]
Today's edition by Jordan F.
For indies who ship music, not excuses.
Related News & Guides
NI finds a home + someone's buying fake fans
inMusic Brands acquired bankrupt Native Instruments, preserving Kontakt, iZotope, and Plugin Alliance for producers. Marketing agency Chaotic Good Projects was exposed for running fake social media accounts to manufacture artist hype, with its website subsequently wiped. An AI clone of Stick Figure's "Angels Above Me" reached #2 on the global Shazam chart, generating tens of thousands in royalties for an unauthorized TikTok account.
Bad week to own a song or a Songkick account
The U.S. Copyright Office proposed a 43% increase in copyright registration fees, drawing pushback from A2IM and indie music advocates. AI company Suno acquired Songkick, transferring user account data, concert history, and Spotify listening habits to a company facing copyright infringement lawsuits from UMG and Sony. Ticketmaster maps are filling with empty blue dots as unsold tickets and cancelled tours signal fan resistance to high ticket prices.