A note to ALL BANDS ON SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES:
Sending shitty spam messages via email, over MySpace, over Facebook, over whereeverthefuck is the QUICKEST WAY TO MAKE EVERYONE IGNORE AND/OR HATE YOU.
Want to show no credibility? SEND ME A FUCKING CUT AND PASTE EMAIL.
Want to show how condescending you are? PRETEND LIKE YOU’RE “TALKING TO ME” WHEN I KNOW AN AUTO-NAME ADDED “Caustic” TO THE GENDER NEUTRAL “LETTER TO ME”.
Want to see pissed off potential fans? SEND ME AN EMAIL ABOUT YOUR SHOW YOU WANT ME TO SEE THAT’S TWO CONTINENTS AWAY AS IF YOU THINK WE LIVE IN THE SAME APARTMENT.
Want to annoy fellow bands easily? SPAM THEIR MYSPACE COMMENT BOX WITH A LINK TO YOUR NEW DEMO THAT NOBODY FUCKING CARES ABOUT.
Please.
Do that.
It’d go over like fucking GANGBUSTERS.
Twits.
C A U S T I C 
People still use MySpace for things?
I get more hits on myspace now than I did 3 years ago when it was huge.
facebook just has no interest for me at all. if i were a school kid or a stalker however, it may hold some appeal…
but caustic, you’re on the money. if bands take the time to talk to me, collab with me etc., i’m open to their stuff, but –
for the million who have bots do everything and pretend they’re actually running things and talking to you – or just spamming the shit out of my profiles day in/day out – they can fuck right off right away. no time for that kind of shit, on myspace or anywhere else.
if i do send out ads for my music or art i do it via my bulletins, blogs, or send a message/comment personally to the few people who may give a shit. the rest know where to look if they want something, as i hate spam as much as anyone else.
i spend literally 1 hour a day deleting comments on myspace. the worst is when someone just embeds their player in the comments.
RIGHT ON! IVE BEEN RANTING ABOUT THIS EPIDEMIC OF BOT-MARKETING FOR A WHILE NOW. I THOROUGHLY ENJOY YOUR BLOGS, AND I MUST SAY YOU ARE RIGHT ON THE MONEY WITH THIS ONE. IM SO TIRED OF GOING TO MY BANDS INBOX AND SEEING THESE SPAM MESSAGES “HEY THERE’ B.S. ABOUT THEIR NEW ALBUM OR WHATEVER, THINKING THAT IT MIGHTVE BEEN SOME REAL NETWORKING STUFF. PROPS MAN! CALL OUT THE ROBOTS! NEVER STOP.
-MIKE @ MELTED CASSETTES.
Makes you wish that MySpace/Social networking sites were full of real people, instead of bands 95% of the time
Also, it makes one wonder – do any of them really reach to people these days? Hell, I at least take time to thank them for a friend request/add whenever somebody pops up, but sadly I don’t get anything in return. But this isn’t about me.
This really ties in with the laziness of many bands. None of them try to get in touch with their audience, it’s all about the ever-growing buddy list. Soon, MySpace will be 100% bands and nobody will give a shit.
Agreed! I gained mad respect (already had plenty, though) for “That1Guy,” (strange-instrument-making and playing feller) when I got a show announcement on MySpace from him, and realized it was singly-written, instead of a form letter. I actually emailed him to let him know how much I appreciated that, and he responded, saying how much he hated band-spam, too.
well said, & as a “real person” on myspace the same applies to non-bands as well. there was a time when i had almost every artist i like added to myspace but the spam became so fucking annoying & intolerable i deleted every band cos i just stopped giving a shit about the latest release/show/flyer/blog/bathroom update thanks to it all being constantly shoved down my throat every time i logged in.
these days myspace has become 95% band wank/spam fodder while “real” internet people have moved on to other networking sites where they can communicate with each other without all the force-fed ego driven band bullshit. it also pisses me off that takes about 10 minutes to scroll down to my inbox because there’s just that many ads on that site now.
so yeh, non-bands don’t give a fuck about bands either, matt. ;)
I always enjoy reading your blogs, as they are often quite humorous, yet informative. You seem to have your head on straight.
But this one was so relevant that I actually wanted to comment. It’s about time someone called out these so-called “artists” on their incessant spamming. It is definitely annoying enough to discourage me (and others, I’m sure) from wanting to be a fan of these bands.
Is it just me, or is it also annoying when you befriend a band that you are legitimately a fan of, and then you start getting bands trying to add you because they saw that you are a fan of band X, as if you care about their watered-down souless ripoff crap?
What ever happened to good old word of mouth? That usually weeded out the quality music from the junk.
On a side note, I found out about your Caustic because I used to play bass in the NY alt-metal band Caustic (that you mentioned in an old blog awhile back) and one of our fans brought it to my attention that another Matt Caustic existed. Since then I have quit that band in order to pursue my own style of music, bought a bunch of studio gear, and am in the final stages of recording a solo industrial/electronic alternative metal cd, and probably have a lot more in common with what your Caustic does than what my old band does.
What’s funny is I’ve never called myself “Matt Caustic”– it’s how I’m referred to by other people (probably easier than saying Matt Fanale OF Caustic). I always find it weird since the NY Caustic’s Matt Caustic actually refers to HIMSELF that way, and there’s already been enough confusion on that front.
Ai ai ai.
Thanks for commenting- pleasure to meet you:)
I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to refer to you as that, I’m just so used to talking about the NY guy. He originally went by his real name, but it’s really long and most people can’t spell it (Bagarozzo), so he took on the stage name. Plus I think he has a thing for Static X (Wayne Static/Matt Caustic). He even rocks the braided goatee like Wayne and wrote a song that sounds very Static X.
During the time I was in the band I was never really comfortable with the idea of another artist having the same name, but it’s HIS project, so there wasn’t much I could do about it.
Nice meeting you too man. I often read your blogs, so I’ll probably comment from time to time. I like a lot of what you have to say on here. It makes me wish more artists would take the time to open up to their fans and peers like that. Great job. And it was quite cool that you put up your cds on bandcamp so that more people could check out your stuff. Thanks!
Ehehe, oh no worries man– I don’t really get upset by it at all:)
“Want to annoy fellow bands easily? SPAM THEIR MYSPACE COMMENT BOX WITH A LINK TO YOUR NEW DEMO THAT NOBODY FUCKING CARES ABOUT.”
This drives me crazy, especially when I didn’t make the friends request to begin with, just added em.
I combat this somewhat by needing to approve all comments, though I guess if you get a ton a day that’s not such a hot idea.
But, I don’t. So when I see a comment from a new band that added me, and it’s just spam advertising, it gets ignored. Sorry, my page is not your advertising space.