Rock and roll is heartless and cruel. For every band that "makes it," there are probably a hundred that don't — and frequently, their success or failure has little to do with the quality of their music.
That doesn't mean that obscurity = quality, or popularity = terrible-ness. To the contrary, most music that becomes popular does so because it does a good job making listeners happy. So, thanks to the 20th-century record companies who made sure only the best music got recorded!
(Cough)
Uh, yeah. Let's not kid ourselves; if George Martin had followed Decca's lead and rejected the Beatles after hearing their 1962 demo reel — well, the world would be a very different place today. And 60 years later, that demo reel would still be lost and forgotten in a Liverpool basement somewhere.
Which is kinda-sorta where "Rick & Fritz's Shoulda-Beens” comes in.
No, we don't have anything in our vault that's of Beatles quality — but we do have a ton of great music that was incomprehensibly passed over when it was initially submitted for label approval, or was sadly never sent in for label approval in the first place, or whatever. The point is, there's an extraordinary amount of great music that the world has never heard, and what we do is find it, and share it — but (importantly) we try to do so thoughtfully, letting the artists tell the stories behind their music through our podcasts. Some of these stories are tragic, but an equal number are fun, hilarious, or inspiring. And they’re all worth listening to.
We are not a record label. We do not own, nor do we seek to own, any of the music you'll hear in our podcasts. We are journalists and curators, and we work in collaboration with our artists to tell the untold stories behind their overlooked music. That is all.
We do have expenses, and we think we put enough sweat equity into each episode to merit modest compensation. That's why, with our artists' approval, we offer listeners the opportunity to purchase songs featured in these segments. (Yes, "purchase" -- selling mp3 files may be hopelessly old-fashioned, but it's the best way to pay our partner artists a fair wage for their music.) The typical asking price for these songs -- usually only available via shouldabeens.com -- is $2.99 each. That's less than a cup of coffee! The money earned through these purchases is split, 60% (artist) / 40% (us), which we think is fair. Any net revenues from merch or other stuff we sell for our artist-partners is similarly split.
So welcome aboard, and thanks for (hopefully) subscribing and buying stuff that makes our artist-partners a little money! If you know of a band that you think merits the “Shoulda Beens” treatment, tell us about them behind the “Submit a Band” tab. We’re cantankerous and opinionated, and we may not think that your favorite band is as good as you think they are — but we promise to listen to anything you believe the world really needs to hear.
Thanks!