Kevin Buckle: Bands must learn how to make a name for themselves

I've been listening to some new Scottish artists recommended for 2018 but have discovered how hard it can be to find their music.
Bands seem to prefer Facebook to music sites like Bandcamp (Picture: AP)Bands seem to prefer Facebook to music sites like Bandcamp (Picture: AP)
Bands seem to prefer Facebook to music sites like Bandcamp (Picture: AP)

Often there are links to Facebook, rather than say Bandcamp and most of the names were very poorly thought through when it came to Google.

I joked on Twitter that with so many workshops for musicians these days there was clearly none on picking a good name. This actually raised a fair amount of discussion and I really do wonder why bands so often don’t think their names through.

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A classic mistake is that bands will change the spelling of a word slightly, which of course does solve the Google problem but when people hear the name of the band they will not know the spelling and get it wrong. Even when folk see the name they will often not spot the different spelling. It really was frustrating the effort I had to go to to listen to some of the bands.

The problems were often repeated with artists’ social media presence. I’m not a great believer in all the “advice” handed out to young people these days but when they get the basics wrong so often I do wonder what advice they get.