I wrote this in response to the public collapse of an 'indie awards' event that was probably never really about the artists in the first place... I made quite a bit of effort not to name the person but then they blocked me when they read this which probably proves my point.
First up - It's worth noting that I did think about an indies award thing last year as an alt-grammy thing but someone popped up saying this other one existed and to be honest I'm not a votes / favourites kinda guy so I left it. Mine was more of a alternative thing with stupid award categories anyone could win.
In the light of the recent Twitter meltdown with the so called 'indies' I wanted to say a few things... firstly I am very lucky with the community I have built / am building in this scene, you’re all beautiful people who are generally lovely to each other - thank you and keep it up!
Secondly - there are so many of these things out there. Some are genuinely created by super passionate people trying to do a good thing. Some aren’t. Either way before you go down this route you have to consider a few things...
Things like is this actually worth it? Is this someone with 2k followers behaving like they’ve got a million? Or someone with a 100k with zero engagement? Neither is going to help you
What do you win? A real award? A Twitter post? Money? Recording time? It’s like the BBC Introducing thing sometimes - Does it mean anything if everyone has the same accolade? Or is there actually something in this that can help you move forward?
Will you actually win? I question the popularity contest stuff to be honest. Oh here’s a bunch of names go vote - who do you think is voting on this stuff? Person with the most followers wins... what does that mean?! The person running it is the only one who wins here...It’s similar with a lot of battle of the bands shows. Charge all your mates to go see your band so they can vote for you and some other dude gets all the money. Fuck that, run your own show on and you’re already winning.
I get why people do these things. It’s a carrot - like a lottery ticket. Millions play in case they win but most of us never do. The difference is that the lottery win could be life changing, whereas an indie award run by someone largely anonymous probably won’t be
I’d also check the creds in a bit of detail on that point. What does the website look like? What are they saying? How are they promoting you? I’m always dubious when someone says 10,000 people voted for something when their website looks like it costs a fiver
Do they charge you? Some do. Don’t pay for stuff like that! Save the money and make your own award on photoshop if you want it that badly!
As I understand it the one that blew up was ripped off in some way by another radio station. I don’t know the details. This is frustrating, but the tirade of cancellations and accusations following that was bizarre and damaging. All the bands are apparently getting sued (for some reason) and it goes on and on... I'm not going to credit this particular outfit with links or specifics as they don't deserve it, you just need to know they went crazy!
the point is I would have stayed well away to begin with based on some of the checks above. Not that I could have guessed it would go down the route it did - more that it always felt like someone trying to gain personal notoriety through the success of others. And that’s a dick move.
Final thought is that no one needs an award in music unless it’s a fucking Grammy and even that’s a bit flaky these days. The Mercury prize used to be good but even that is about who has the best PR now. Just be lovely to each other and remember - you already rock!