Sweet Catastrophe

How to make a successful band:
1) Don’t promote their new album in any way. Don’t even release a music video beforehand. In fact, make sure no one, even the die hard fans really know for sure when it’s coming out…
2) Change their perfectly great image to one that’s completely cliche and doesn’t catch the eye at all.
3) When you DO release the cd, make sure the artwork is completely bizarre. It helps if the band doesn’t even truly know what the point/connection is.
4) Do risky things with which songs you actually put on the album. It doesn’t matter if you choose the best lineup ’cause certainly that will just motivate all the casual listeners to go out and buy copies everywhere so they can get all the different songs that should’ve been on the album in the first place.
5) Create a ‘fan club’ with higher pricing than even the artist they’re fucking OPENING FOR on tour and with that, get started on taking away all the things the die hard fans (who have kept the band above water for so long) stick around for.

Yeah, so Geffen made a ‘fan club’ that you can join for $40 for exclusive online chats, pre-sales, front row seats, exclusive meet and greets, and all sorts of other extras. If the pre-sales are supposed to be worth paying $40 a year, it’s probably safe to assume ticket prices are about to double in the Lifehouse world. I have a feeling meeting the guys by the bus to stand around and talk after shows is going to soon become non-existent with the introduction of the meet and greets.

It’s hard to think about because Lifehouse isn’t really marked by following through on ‘extras’ but at the same time, Geffen has changed a lot. How am I supposed to convince people they’re worth listening to when they pick up the album and see some ridiculous album artwork and pictures of the band looking like every other popular band right now….?

I don’t want Lifehouse and Geffen to be friends anymore. I know they still have some say in things, but this is not Lifehouse. This is what Geffen is pushing Lifehouse to be and I hate it.