Clap Your Hands Say Do It Yourself

While I'm not a massive Clap Your Hands Say Yeah music fan, I am a HUGE fan of their business model -- which is based entirely on the (savvy) use of social media. Recently, Ugly Bobby said something dumb about their sales (see #47) because the CYHSY manager, Nick Stern, sent Bobby Lestat this email message below, which kinda sums up just who's going to define success from here on out. Hint: we are!

Hi Bob,
As usual, I'm shocked by your attitude towards Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. I'm convinced you haven't listened to their new record, and I'm saddened that the model created with this band isn't given more recognition by the one person who has called for all the changes we've actually put into practice. To call what we're doing "IRRELEVANT" undermines every single email you send out.

"There's no buzz here, nobody cares."
I don't know what world you're living in, but I think selling 19,000 records in a week means lots of people care. Maybe you're talking about that traditional buzz you're used to, the barrage of radio and video, snipes and singles, playing the game. This is a band that's never made a video, never played with Nickelback at a radio show, never done all those things every other band is forced to do.

The marketing/publicity/radio/video budget for this record is under $15,000. They made a record, they put it out. And they live much better than 95% of all bands I've worked with, including the vast majority of acts I worked with during my time at a major - all this while owning their masters and publishing, touring in a bus, and not being forced to do anything they don't want to.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUIsP23LTk0

You're so fond of using Pollstar numbers to prove people don't care about bands - go check out ours, from around the world. You'll see the band has been headlining shows for a year now, and maybe 5 or so haven't sold out. Check the numbers from last time they were in LA, two sold out nights at the Fonda. Check out the numbers in Tokyo, London, Paris, Hamburg, Minneapolis, Boston, Chicago, Seattle....go look Bob, you'll see that people do actually care ALOT about this band.

Last year you made some list of 25 things that band's should or shouldn't do. CYHSY had followed 24 of them, the one exception being that they played Letterman. I can never fault a band for wanting to play that show. It's fun playing on the same stage the Beatles played on. But seeing as how we're pretty much your poster children, I'm amazed you don't show us more respect. And go listen to their music. You might actually like it.

Nick Stern
Manager, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah