The most important thing to a band is not their music, not their level of musicianship and not their song writing abilities. It’s their name. All those other thing will change over time, hopefully for the better, but their name is the constant in a career of change. Like any other product the brand name is what eventually sells the product. How many times have you asked for a Coke when all you meant was a soda? A Pepsi or even a Seven Up would do just fine but they gave you a Coke and the Coca Cola Company made money off you because you said the word, Coke.
A band’s fans don’t really buy music, if they did, bands would only sell singles because what other product can you think of besides songs that you buy a dozen at a time? Eggs? One egg is pretty much like the eleven other eggs in a carton but each song on a CD is different. How often have you bought a CD because of the hit single just to find that all the other tracks are nothing at all like the hit? Then why do people buy CDs? Why do they buy band T-shirts or posters or stickers or even concert tickets? It’s not because of the music but because of what the band represents. The three minute single on the radio is simply a commercial for the band’s point of view and philosophy. We become attracted to what they represent and their name becomes the brand name for their particular trip. Some bands actually make more money selling their name on T-shirts, caps, posters, pins, stickers and other merchandise than they do on CD or concert ticket sales.
Think long and hard on your name and then protect it. Contact the United States Office on Patents and Trademarks in Washington D.C. or go to their web site to learn how to copyright your name. Keep in mind that some words and proper names cannot be copyrighted but the name designed as a logo can be protected as a trademark. Why bother? Well for one thing, if your band is called say, The Owls, and you’ve spent years touring and building up a following in the Southwest until a major label notices all your hard work (and the money coming in) and wants to sign you but there is another band called The Owls in the Northeast, you’ve got a problem. If they’ve been using the name longer than you have then they can keep you from selling your records in the Northeast as The Owls. So, don’t sell in the Northeast? The record company isn’t going to want to invest in a band they can’t sell throughout the entire country. Change the name? If you change the name you just negated all the hard work you’ve done which attracted the record company to begin with. All those people that already like The Owls won’t be able to find you anymore and all the people who have heard of you and are interested in seeing you won’t know who or where you are. For the record company to build up the name recognition again from scratch takes away the reason they wanted you in the first place. Protect your name and do it early. Set up a web site at least that clearly indicates who constitutes The Owls, where you’re from and how to contact you. At least the domain name registration of www.The Owls.com might supply some proof of the date of origin.
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