Our newest compilation "Tasty Democracy " will be in stores worldwide on Feb22nd, you can pre-order your copy now at https://itunes.apple.com/album/id1449113663

The comp has music from Crowhunter, Lovey , Helvete inc, Consumer Culture, The Methmatics Capital Offender, The Electric Prophets, Raven Tree, Rew Starr, Build The Wall, Lafayette Gilchrist and The Godz.

​The band "Lovey" has been getting a lot of attention lately, so they are releasing a new single to coincide with their short tour of the Mid-Atlantic,this spring.

The song is "Attention Deficit" and will be released by Manta Ray Records on 4-8-17, The song will be distributed on the Sony music platform, The Orchard. The song will be available in over 450 store networks.

"We have already had Lovey and a few of our other artists attracting attention in the lucrative mobile app/gaming industry.One in particular in Australia, is interested in the band in particular" said Mike Diamond, Operations Director of Manta Ray Records.

The single follows the EP "Seppuku" that the group released last september. More info on Lovey can be found at http://www.loveytheband.com

The new Hard rock compilation EP from Manta Ray Records features some of our hardest rocking groups including Doghouse Swine, The Methmatics, Mongoloidian Glow, The Electric Prophets, Lovey and more ! get your copy today! 

https://www.amazon.com/Music-World-Order-Vol-Explicit/dp/B01NACQ3U2/ref=sr_1_1?s=dmusic&ie=UTF8&qid=1485376981&sr=1-1-mp3-albums-bar-strip-0&keywords=music+for+the+new+world+order+vol+1         


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Alex Vans new EP is released today in stores worldwide through Manta Ray Records. Go to www.alexvansmusic.com to find out more about this dynamic indy-rock powerhouse. Give it a listen  ​https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/buy-american-vol.-1-ep/id1102018980

Ever wonder what the point of submitting your music to your local college station if they just aren't going to give it a listen? Below are some tips to get your music noticed and possibly some play on your local radio!

From the first touch

Add something bulky to your submission.along with your CD. A t-shirt, toy, a hat, etc. Anything that may feel bulky in your package, will peak curiosity, and will most likely result in your package being opened.

Swag 

Basically a no brainer right? Stickers, Buttons, download cards, or other types of merch are always appreciated and looks great on the wall of your local radio DJ.

Know who to contact

Though it is a good step to contact the music director directly when submitting, it may not be the quickest way to get your songs heard. A little digging and you will find College Radio shows that specifically play your genre. 

ATTN: DJ Stumpy is a better way to get your project noticed rather than ATTN: Music Directer.

Radio Drops

"Hi This is John from Yar Ninja Pirate and you're listening to WJKJ"

Burn a couple radio drops onto a CD and submit it with your kit for an extra boost. It shows the station that they weren't just a passing thought on your radio campaign, and usually results in some play.


 

A Quality Press Kit

• Radio One-Sheet 
• Including Band Info and Contact Info
• Swag
• Stickers, Buttons, Hats, Radio Drops, Etc
• Contact Information
• Valid email, phone, and website
• 2 Hard Copy CD's
• Well done recording with a good Mix and Master
• Any other fun things you'd like to include!

Contact
Still not getting replies? Follow up time! Try contacting the station, Make sure to wait at least 2 weeks after submitting to give the music director and DJ's a chance to look over all the awesome things you've delivered!

Submitting your music to all these stations are hard work and it can be tedious. But you don't have to be alone. Manta Ray Records (A Distrophonix Affiliate), Offers to help you put together both Touring and Radio campaigns for your artists.

Here is some good advice from our friends over at sonicbids.

 Every band knows having a Facebook page is essential to reach new fans and have a healthy online social presence. For many, their Facebook page even replaces an official website. Beyond the lure of accumulating likes, the platform can be a powerful tool if you make it work for you. Here are seven oft-ignored features that bands need to use, now.

1. Ads that creatively target audiences

The most popular way to target fans is geo-targeting, which allows you to find users by geographic location including country, state, city, and town. You can even target people within a given mile radius. Don’t forget, however, that you can also target fans using other criteria.

Factors like age, gender, education, place of work, likes, and interests are all viable options you should take time to explore. What do these factors mean for your band? Consider key players and organizations in your city that are music influencers and tastemakers. Target local booking agents or media outlets in your town. Endless possibilities are at your doorstep if you think outside the box.

2. Page pins and boosted posts

Facebook utilizes a very specific algorithm: if your post receives little to no comments or likes, it will sink to the bottom of the news feed and become virtually invisible. If the opposite happens, your post will remain at the top as more and more activity rolls in.

Bands use many strategies to capture attention, but sometimes even the best creative ideas don’t yield the desired results. If you think your content is engaging, but it's just not seeing the response you want, consider pinning a post to the top of your page or boosting it. For a small price, your Facebook post can be "boosted" to reach a wider audience, or can be freely "pinned to the top" of your page's timeline for a maximum of seven days. 

3. Profile photos and cover photos

The cover photo and profile picture are the only two areas where Facebook users can manipulate the appearance of their page and go “all out.” Develop this space with different photos per section: real life photos and promotional photos.

Real life photos of the members of the band should always be prominently featured. These photos can be live performance shots, behind the scenes moments, or press-worthy looks from photo shoots. Promotional photos vary across the board, but they must provide information to fans and promote your band. Focus promotion on newsworthy events and branding designs. Examples include graphic logos, album artwork, a band photo that includes a list of upcoming tour dates, etc.

Think creatively and constructively about which photos to use so that your cover photo and profile picture are not in the same category. For example, if your profile photo is your album artwork, your cover photo should be a picture of the band.

4. The "about" section and contact info

Include an active email address that you check regularly. If a promoter is looking for your band online, one of the top results in a search engine query will likely be your Facebook page. You don’t want to miss out on an opportunity because you forgot to include youremail. 

Make sure all band links are present, including your band’s official website. If someone visits your Facebook page, they should be able to click and link directly to all of your social media accounts and your site. 

5. Effective content updates

Bands should focus on sharing four kinds of content: new music releases, upcoming events, behind the scenes candids, and glimpses into their personal, everyday life.

It goes without saying that bands should share new music releases and tour dates, but don’t oversaturate your Facebook page with only these kinds of posts. Now more than ever, fans want to feel personally connected to their favorite bands. They want to know where you're playing next and what you ate for breakfast. Make sure the content you share on Facebook is of a wide variety, but keep it within the realm of your artistry. No one wants to see a timeline full of selfies, memes, and cat photos.

6. Tagging venues and festivals

Perhaps the biggest mistake made by bands is not tagging venues and festivals in their posts after being booked. When you tag any Facebook page, your post will appear on their timeline, which helps you connect to the event and possibly their built-in crowd.

Have you seen the phenomenon where bands turn their backs to the audience to take selfies with the crowd? One big benefit is that fans can tag themselves in the photo and then share it with their friends on social media. Win-win!

7. Responding to fans

As stated before, music lovers don’t only want to read about bands and watch them perform. Fans champion a personal connection and want to feel like they know the person behind the music. Take the time to respond to your fans when they write you messages or leave comments on your Facebook page. Set aside at least 30 minutes of your day to monitor your social media sites. As your career grows, you probably won't have time to respond to everyone, but there are ways to combat volume. For example, set up a Q&A onTwitter and let your fans know ahead of time that you'll be available for a live chat. 

 

Kaylee Bugg is an account coordinator at Sonicbids. She is a singer, songwriter, pianist and actress from Atlanta, Georgia. A graduate of Berklee College of Music and former talent buyer for the Red Room @ Cafe 939, she also helps manage an independent band from Boston and produces musical theater events.

THE GODZ BACK IN THE STUDIO AND LOOKING AT FESTIVALS

Larry Kessler and the GODZ band are back in the studio to make new tracks for an EP due out next spring … They are in talks with various festival organizers about doing some select dates this spring to promote the new E.P. 

Something Complex frontman Josh and his lovely wife Jenn Mack (Then be lions ) , brought little baby Alex into the world this week . Mother and baby are doing just great and we are so happy for them.

 

From our good friends over at Grassrootsy , here is a great guide on booking gigs:

As I painstakingly work to finish booking my Fall tour, this post has popped into my head. If you have other questions that you find yourself asking on a regular basis, stick them in the comments section.

In no particular order…

1. Is it Worth the Trip?It’s not a home gig? 
Then you need to decide if you’ll be wasting your time or not. Nothing like driving home from a gig that was 4 hours away and saying to yourself, Wow I cant believe I just wasted a tank of gas for that!.

2. Will it Move Me Forward?
Will the show put you in front of a new audience? Will it be a a door opener? Will it be a resume builder?  In every situation (or as many as possible), you want to be playing for new potential fans in addition to existing ones. You don’t want to be a fly on the wall b/c anyone can do that. Make sure the shows you pick truly allow you to show off your talent and uniqueness. This will be what moves you forward.

3. Do I Want to Do it?
Sometimes you have to play the sucky gigs that pay well in order to play the good ones that don’t. But with those exceptions aside, you just shouldn’t take gigs you’re not excited about. Nothing worse than playing a show because you felt you had to. You never have to do it.

4. Is This the Right Room For Me?
Don’t play rooms that don’t make sense. If you do alot of covers, you’re not going to go over well with an audience that goes to shows for original music.  If you don’t play covers, you most likely wont go over well at a 4-hour long gig. If you’re a rock band, playing in a listening room just wont work for your sound no matter how much you like the space. Be smart in your room-picking decisions.

5. Can I Draw People Out?
Truth be told, you could be playing in the same city and on the same street, but it’s often much harder to pull people out to a venue that’s under the radar verses a venue that everyone knows. Sometimes you have to pick the venue with the better reputation simply because you know it will increase your turnout by 20 people…even if it means you’ll make less of a cut or have a harder time dealing with their management.

6. Can I Fill The Room?
If you cant pull out 100 people, don’t play the larger room.  Filling a small room is exponentially more important than scraping to fill a larger room.  Also, keep in mind: just because you can fill a room in a city on a Friday night doesn’t mean you can fill it on on a Monday. Consider date of event, time of event, and whether its an all-ages or 21+ crowd. These little details factor heavily into the night’s turnout. 

7. Is it Worth the Work?
Nothing wrong with a little work, right? Right! But there’s also nothing worse than lugging all your equipment, spending your whole evening setting up, playing, and tearing down only to get paid $50 to play to a crowd that didn’t even notice you were there. It wasn’t worth it…especially if you didn’t make some serious new fans or sell alot of CDs. You’re wasting your time. Re-evaluate and ask yourself if this type of gig is helping you reach your long term goals.

8. Will The Other Artists Pull Their Own Weight?
If there are 3 bands on the bill, each band should be helping to promote. You should not be doing all the work…and if you are, you should get out of that situation quickly. If the money is being split 3 ways, then each group needs to contribute what they can to make the show a success. No slackers allowed. It’s not fair to the people who are working their butt off.

9. Will I Go There Again?
This isn’t the average question most of us ask, but it’s a good one. Try to play in cities that you want to visit on a regular basis. When you consistently visit that city every 2-3 months, building a following becomes very easy and systematic. But when you’re playing cities that you’ll never return to, its hard to build upon your fanbase in that area. Read: ”How to Get From “Local Artist” to “Touring Musician”.

10.  Is it Good Money?
Money isn’t everything.  Trust me. Making money is secondary to making fans. Once you make die-hard fans, the money will come. However, making money is still important if you are a working musician.  Some terrible gigs are worthwhile simply b/c they pay. When you are considering whether or not to take a gig, it is often important to consider whether or not it will pay. It can also affect your booking process and you may have to leave your Fridays/Saturdays open only to paid gigs (maybe until a month out) before giving them away so quickly to pro-bono events. 

Ok, so use these questions to guide your booking process and let us know if it helps!
Good luck!

Well, here comes the summer and we are officially through half of 2014. We hope that everyone in the Manta Ray Records family is having a creative and productive year. We have some new programs and exciting campaigns that we are working and putting to use on our artists. We are currently scouting new acts for this coming year, if you know of some fresh talent send them to us.
musicsubmissions@mantarayrecords.com

Studio Offers

This month were offering 10% off any professional product pkg or major project booking, including E.P. and full album projects.

We will also offer the rate of $30.00 an hr ( 2hr minimum ) if you mention this blog offer when booking.

Good Triumphs over evil!
(at least this month)

This quarter’s hot artists have been our inspirational and Christian artists with a lot of activity. There has been a lot of buzz about Timika Petersen, few chosen and Stereo. They are a dynamic 12 piece inspirational group that is tearing up the Carolinas. They are hitting major Christian events in the area, check them out!

Friend them : https://www.facebook.com/TheFewChosen

Closely behind them are Sparkie and the Tones of Joy, a fantastic gospel quartet that is getting massive amounts of airplay in several major and mid radio markets.

On the secular side, we’ve seen major movement from Baltimore Rapper Lil Tae, Kaoru Yamazaki, and those hard hitting rock powerhouses in Kill Betty.

We enter the Asian and Russian Markets as Yandex joins our network

We have added the Russian markets with Yandex, this is a major retailer and the leading streaming service in Russia. We have already seen a lot of activity across the board since they joined the Orchard. Many of our groups are receiving heavy international play, The Godz in particular racking up, tens of thousands of streams from all over the world.

Spring Radio sampler

Our 2014 Spring radio Sampler was so good, we decided to make it available to everyone. Featuring some of Manta Ray Records hottest artists, Juice Bruns, Something Complex ,Noble Animals, Alex Vans, Cherry Tree, Kill Betty, Psykotic Melody, 3pm, Red Carpet Whiskey and others pick up a copy here

http://www.amazon.com/2014-Spring-Radio-Sampler-Explicit/dp/B00JQOFSB2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1402015765&sr=8-1&keywords=2014+spring+radio+sampler

Beats for sale

Our producer and artist in residence Auddio Viddeo or AV has finally put out a page with some of the beats that we have for lease and for sale. We have beats both for songs for sale and free promo beats to use on your giveaways, give them a listen and then contact us for more info!

Noble Animals – Tour and Record

Noble Animals are in the studio recording the follow up to the Bueno Bueno EP, they have been working with Manta Ray Records producer Kyle Stevenson on a fantastic new batch of music, that is going to open up our favorite “animals “ to a huge audience. The new songs are phenomenal. The band will be starting a tour in September for the Northeast. Stay tuned for more details.
Go friend them on facebook now! https://www.facebook.com/NobleAnimals
Look at those smiling faces , how can you not friend them?

The GODZ interviewed

The Godz, specifically Larry Kessler, were interviewed for German based Psychedelic Baby Magazine and should appear in next month’s issue. The article includes stories about The Godz, Jimi Hendrix, Mehr Baba, Sonic Youth and others. It also talks about upcoming tour plans and possible new recordings. A must read for any Godz fan!

http://psychedelicbaby.blogspot.com/

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Its-Psychedelic-Baby-Magazine/132214110131581?sk=timeline

Juice Bruns

Rapper Juice Bruns received airplay all across the country with his song Crossroads during a nation wide campaign with Howard Rosen and associates in Los Angeles. The record was on a national college radio promotion for over 10 weeks. It was played at many college stations across the country. The Music Director of the top college station in the country, WTBU, raved about the song and everyone is looking forward to see what this young performer’s next move is.

Locally, this young rapper is making a splash as well. Juice headlined an appearance at Loyola University this past April, and plans to do many more college shows this year.

Check out his song “Crossroads” from Manta Ray Records in digital retailers World-Wide!

http://www.amazon.com/Crossroads/dp/B00I5AHVR2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1402176621&sr=8-1&keywords=Juice+Bruns

Something complex

Josh and Drew of Something complex have been doing shows in support of their latest release on Manta Ray Records Catharcism. They recently did the 2nd in their series of shows with Gallery 788 “Alternative Hip-Hop in Hampden, look for the next in the series, coming soon.


https://www.facebook.com/somethingcomplex

Psykotic Melody

News from the PM camp is that they have parted ways with Lead singer Quazi moto and have signed Dennis Shockley to the group. The group quickly re-cut one of their songs with Dennis on vocals and debuted the song with Matt Davis on 98 rock WIYY fm here in Baltimore. The next night the headlined at the Ottobar and pushed it to the limit with Dennis singing. They will be back after a brief time off for re-tooling the show and they promise to be back with more surprises.

Friend Them : https://www.facebook.com/psykoticmelody1

Look for new songs by Ama Chandra, Yella Jesus, A.V., The Godz, Kill Betty. Psychotic Melody and others from Manta Ray Records

If it rocks Baltimore, we’re on it.