The Cycle

Indie bands use alternative promotions

Bands signed to the Fueled By Ramen Records, including Panic at the Disco, Phantom Planet, and Fall Out Boy, use blog posts, creative Web sites, collaborative tours, and endorsements of each other as ways to promote the bands. The label’s founder John Janick’s “instinct for grass-roots promotion has made Fueled By Ramen one of the few labels that consistently scores hits with alternative rock,” the reported today.

One example online is Panic at the Disco, which turned its Web site completely white, offering fans hidden clues about the release of its new album Pretty. Odd. Offline, many of the bands at Fueled By Ramen were found and endorsed by Pete Wentz of Fall Out Boy, one of the label’s first success stories. Bands go on tours together and mention each other at shows and through blog posts. On May 1, Fall Out Boy’s to-do list mention on its blog included getting the new album from Fueled By Ramen band The Cab.

“Fueled By Ramen has its acts promote one another as well as the company itself, as indie labels have done since the 1960s heyday of Motown and Stax,” the Times reported. “But Mr. Janick has brought such cross-promotion into the Internet era, where fans of one band are just a click away from information on another on the label’s Web site.”

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