A Great Summer Of Music

This summer has seen a lot of high quality releases in both the christian metal and rock genres, with Haste The Day, Mychildren Mybride, Norma Jean, A Plea For Purging, Impending Doom, In The Midst Of Lions, The Showdown, For Today, Children 18:3, Ivoryline, and House Of Heroes all releasing much anticipated, critically acclaimed albums. With a market so seemingly flooded, it has become harder for each of these great releases and artists to get the attention they deserve. That’s where the bands have truly showed what they were made of. In true DIY fashion, these bands have spent nary a day at home this summer, in favor of a life on the road in support of these latest releases. Be it Cornerstone Festival, Purple Door, Sonshine Fest, Warped Tour, or Scream The Prayer these bands have been true road warriors. Along with the constant touring, the bands got creative with selling their merchandise. Quite a few of the bands mentioned above were selling their latest albums on tour for $5, while the labels were selling it for $10, at the same festival. Included in this cool way of marketing their product, were some of the bands getting early releases of their albums so they could sell them on tour, not only would the consumer get a great deal, they also would get the album before release date. This brings me to the masterful job House Of Heroes did of selling their album Suburba. Not only were you able to buy it a few days early, you also were able to pick it up digitally for $2.99. Yes that is not a misprint, you read that right, $2.99! It’s great to see bands with spectacular releases have such a high degree of business savvy. It’s one thing to release an album, but a band needs to be able to have a desire for marketing and promotion, especially in this economy where it seems as if every distributer is having financial trouble and is having to cut back on spending I.e. meaning fewer copies of albums will be in stores. I encourage you to check out the new releases by the bands mentioned above. While your at it check out their older albums as well. You never know you might find your new favorite band.