A single for rock radio... Options

[Whiskey]

... the marketing of this album truly baffles me. (longtime lurker, first time poster, btw).

I think this album is actually a lot better than I expected it to be after hearing The River and Mystery. Album sales that don't even get the disc into the top 50 proves that Epic didn't know what they were doing.

There are five songs on this album that I think are extremely good. Show, Sofia, Where do we go from here, Home, , and the best song LIVE has done in years: Night of Nights.

Release one of these as a single to rock radio - the same stations that provided LIVE with a career in the first place and built up their fanbase. This whole attempt to angle at adult contemporary stations is silly because songs like The River, and Heaven off of BOP aren't SO good that they are going to bring in new fans. They might not even inspire people to buy albums.

But if you realease a song that rock radio will play - I think of the songs that I mentioned, all but Home would get airplay on rock radio. It'll remind longtime fans that the band has a new album out (becasue it hasn't been promoted, at all) - and will help sales.

Not that sales are an all-important - but when we start talking about opening week sales of 20,000 or whatever it is, that's when labels start considering major acts to have gone bust, and it becomes more difficult to release albums... and not to long after that you see the band performing at County Fairs and whatnot.

And we all know this is far too good of a band to let that happen...

Random things to introduce myself to the board:

Absolutely love the version of Supernatural from unplugged, but if you've never heard the Vic Chesnutt original, you need to download it today. Amazing.

Favorite songs from each album:

MJ: Beauty of Grey
TC: Pillar of Davidson
SS: Lakini's Juice
TDTH: Where Fishes Go or The Distance
V: Overcome
BOP: Rivertown/Like I do
AWAKE: We Deal in Dreams
SFBM: Night of Nights

Live is my 2nd favorite band of all time, just behind Pearl Jam...

[edstipe]

... the marketing of this album truly baffles me. (longtime lurker, first time poster, btw).

I think this album is actually a lot better than I expected it to be after hearing The River and Mystery. Album sales that don't even get the disc into the top 50 proves that Epic didn't know what they were doing.

There are five songs on this album that I think are extremely good. Show, Sofia, Where do we go from here, Home, , and the best song LIVE has done in years: Night of Nights.

Release one of these as a single to rock radio - the same stations that provided LIVE with a career in the first place and built up their fanbase. This whole attempt to angle at adult contemporary stations is silly because songs like The River, and Heaven off of BOP aren't SO good that they are going to bring in new fans. They might not even inspire people to buy albums.

But if you realease a song that rock radio will play - I think of the songs that I mentioned, all but Home would get airplay on rock radio. It'll remind longtime fans that the band has a new album out (becasue it hasn't been promoted, at all) - and will help sales.

Not that sales are an all-important - but when we start talking about opening week sales of 20,000 or whatever it is, that's when labels start considering major acts to have gone bust, and it becomes more difficult to release albums... and not to long after that you see the band performing at County Fairs and whatnot.

And we all know this is far too good of a band to let that happen...

Random things to introduce myself to the board:

Absolutely love the version of Supernatural from unplugged, but if you've never heard the Vic Chesnutt original, you need to download it today. Amazing.

Favorite songs from each album:

MJ: Beauty of Grey
TC: Pillar of Davidson
SS: Lakini's Juice
TDTH: Where Fishes Go or The Distance
V: Overcome
BOP: Rivertown/Like I do
AWAKE: We Deal in Dreams
SFBM: Night of Nights

Live is my 2nd favorite band of all time, just behind Pearl Jam...

Great post, and I do agree on some accounts, especially about the marketing for this album being shitty, at best.

However, I disagree that trying to rediscover a niche in the rock radio market is the way to go with SFBM. I feel this way for a few reasons.

Firstly, SFBM simply is NOT a rock album, it is a pop album. Although there are a few songs on the record that have some slight rock edges to them (Sofia and Show, mainly), there isn't enough to promote the record to rock fans and try to sell it as a rock album. If that were to happen, the rock fans who went out and bought SFBM expecting a good rock record would walk away disappointed and ultimately turned off to the band as a whole.

Secondly, and more importantly, today's "rock radio" is nothing like what it was when Live was being played on it. In fact, the "rock" stations that used to play Live have largely stopped playing even their older stuff, while the "adult contemporary" stations that now exist are the only ones who play any of Live's stuff, new or old. Simply put, the adult contemporary stations are not only the most logical place for the band to be pushing their music, but the only place left to do so.

A few other points to respond to yours:

... and not to long after that you see the band performing at County Fairs and whatnot.

I actually saw Live performing at the L.A. County Fair a couple years ago.

Live is my 2nd favorite band of all time, just behind Pearl Jam...

Pearl Jam fucking rules.

[SJN1279]

Two very good posts. I was one of the most vocal against releasing Like I Do from Birds of Pray as a single. This was because Heaven because of a great push from Geffen was getting strong airplay in the Hot A/C format and I felt since Simple Creed didn't do great on rock radio that Live was finished in the market.

However, since Epic couldn't get The River into rotation and have struggled to find airplay for Mystery(even though it was played on the highest rated show of the year) they need to refocus their efforts to where Live started. Releasing Night of Nights would be a bold move for Live and label and it was one that should be done this summer to coincide with the upcoming tour.

Epic has shown no commitment in pushing Live's singles, but maybe rock radio would embrace Live once again. Its a smaller format and Night of Nights fits it perfectly. It also is a very catchy and classic rock song. I think it would do well.