Is Fanatic really done?
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That email was a bit cryptic. Twitter, blog, website not updated since April 21.
"My fanaticpromotion.com email address is no longer operational. Fanatic's founder/president Josh Bloom will continue on solo. And, you will be hearing from me soon in a new venture. "
Perhaps Idolator can get to the bottom of this or hipsterrunoff can comment on the Fanatic brand? -
Hello? Why should this be a surprise to anyone? I'm surprised any company bigger than Toolshed (which had only 2 people full time, now down to 1) could withstand this past year.
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no offense to Fanatic, but i can't remember the last time they had a really exciting band on their hands. might've been in 2005 with Sufjan before Daniel left and started Force Field.
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i've gotten stuff from them regularly right up until i got the email from dave last night about fanatic closing/scaling back. and i got a press release from bloom today about somebody.
also, i would agree with you dave, except for pomegranates. i was excited about them, but that might be because i was a fan from the get-go. but still, they've had some moderate success. although i can't say i attribute that to fanatic. -
Yeah, that record's solid.
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Worried about the economy.
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This e-mail came today from Josh Bloom:
Hey all -- well, here we are again! It’s just you, me and the music. I realize many of you may have heard that Fanatic let go of its staff yesterday. It’s true. Fanatic is once again just me on the phones (along with the help of some trusty interns and a partner that is much better with money than I am!)
When I started to take on employees in Fanatic’s third year, I sort of knew that I didn’t really know what I was doing, and also that it would take me away from what I really loved -- giving people shit until they paid attention to the bands I thought were great!
And now I’m back to that -- I really do believe that to be an effective promoter, you have to know and love what you are talking about. And as the guy who chooses to work these records that aren’t “cool” until I say they are, it was always unrealistic of me to expect anyone to be able to convey what I loved as well as I could.
So, I thank you again college radio for the opportunity to do so. As the indie promoter stratosphere has become more stratified, with tons of records being promoted, and tons of pressure to play them, it’s important to know that while you have probably not heard of anything I’m sending you until you hear from me about it, I believe personally in these artists, and I’m grateful and appreciative when you give them thoughtful attention.
Don’t worry about being cool. You already are. You just don’t know it yet. Listen. Just listen. Sorry for the run-on sentences. I dropped out of high school. Fanatic -- still here, fuckers! Love, Josh. -
dang. that adds a whole 'nother level to the drama. i got the initial email but not the one from bloom.
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What's "college radio"?
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Very possible that just went out to college radio...I'm on so many goddamn e-mail lists that I couldn't tell you what is what anymore. WOXY isn't a college station, but we report to CMJ & maintain relationships w/ the college promoters because those are the people who send the music we play.
I wouldn't think that, in this day & age, just focusing on the college radio side of things would make much sense. You'd really still have to hit press & online promo to get hired on most projects (I would think) because the online/blog promotion is growing and the other fields, not so much. Maybe he just needs to put it on life support for awhile, but I have to say that if every record Fanatic has sent over the last year to 2 years were things that Josh REALLY believed in & loved, it says to me that we don't share a lot of the same tastes. -
"if every record Fanatic has sent over the last year to 2 years were things that Josh REALLY believed in & loved, it says to me that we don't share a lot of the same tastes"
That goes with all of us. I doubt I've seen many people blogging about Fanatic artists......
I didn't get the email but I haven't been getting any returns on the artists I've been interesting in writing about. -
This is why I cut down to half time (or less) at Toolshed. It's important to me that if I am doing online publicity/promotion, I'm working on projects I like. We've scaled back, big time, but have some great artist projects coming up: Vandaveer, Sharon Van Etten...still working Dukes of Stratosphear, upcoming XTC re-issues, Jill Sobule, The Milk & Honey Band, O+S...many other great artists pitched, but no commitment yet. It's tough to get "label" projects though, like we used to with Merge, Touch & Go, Asthmatic Kitty, Secretly Canadian, etc...so much of the work we have traditionally done for them has gone inhouse, and everybody's trying to save money.
It's really tough going out there. Traditional publicity has to be hurting even more (I'm sure they have had to drop their fees a LOT). -
Oh wow Wendy, you're working with Vandaveer? That's awesome, because Mark and I were talking about who should do his press, and Toolshed was one of the folks I spoke highly of. So you're welcome, haha.
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Me too, actually. Go Vandaveer!
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Go teamwork!
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Awesome. Mark did mention a few of you guys had recommended. I actually saw him down in Indianapolis a number of years back for the Midwest Music Conference. I think Joe Long and Eric Harvey told me about him, maybe Craig Bonnell. He was the best thing there that year. Have also run into him a few times when he was playing with These United States recently.
Thanks guys! -
these united states. i want to have those dudes children, which might be a tricky proposition for me.
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I'll pass that on to Jesse, ha-ha.
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i think i may have told him that once or twice, haha.
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Sorry to see Fanatic trimming things down, but as it has been said, its the nature of the biz right now.
I will give another "hooray" to the Vandaveer + Toolshed deal though, happy for that. Wow, MMS 2006 feels so long ago Wendy, but I remember Mark's solo set being awesome and The Apparitions being one of the best things I saw that weekend. I miss MMS... -
me too. good times.
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Hey all, I just found this thread -- I had no idea folks cared this much -- it feels pretty great. Anyways, I don't have a lot to say other than that I am doing what I've been doing all along -- promoting music, bands and artists that I'm into and trying to get paid for it. Fanatic is still here -- why would I bail on such an awesome brand that I worked so hard to build??? Bottom line is that I ran the campaigns at Fanatic by myself for years, so I'm doing it that way again. I enjoy working with clients and artists directly and it makes sense during these times to scale back, ya know??? If you don't think what I'm working is exciting, rest assured that I do and will be telling you about it when I call!!! Thanks much. Best, Josh Bloom
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Things are cleared up!
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