Endorse This...

The subject of endorsements, while providing brief turns of comedy here on AI, is a bit sticky. Obviously, Audio Damage gets many requests for freebies (I’d say we average about 5 a week) and I put the funniest ones up here, as you well know. I ignore the ones from nobodies, and I write personal letters to the somebodies explaining why our answer is “no.” I often have to research the nobodies to determine that they are, in fact, nobody, rather than somebody. This isn’t easy as there are almost as many bands as there are music consumers, it seems.

There’s also many artists who we unwillingly endorse, like Josh Douchebag And The Double-Ended Buttplugs, but we’ll leave them out of the conversation for the now. Here’s my question:

Is your buying decision, as a musician consumer, ever affected by the artists that endorse a particular product?

Speaking strictly for myself, the answer is “no,” and this has informed Audio Damage’s policies. Back when I was famous and stuff, I had many endorsements. The only one worth a shit was Korg (which, at the time, was also Vox, Premier, Marshall, and Parker – everything a band needs, basically). Most of the other stuff we got for free we used simply because it was free, not because it got us some sort of signature sound. Perhaps that’s a bit different when you’re at the level where you’ve got Custom Shoppe products you helped design, but very few musicians are at that level, so the point is sort of moot.

In any event, I’m willing to admit I’m wrong if a sizable majority here say “I bought Plug-in X specifically because Producer Y mentioned it in Interview Z.” Now, you have to keep in mind that Producer Y is mentioning Plug-in X because he got it for free, not because he necessarily wanted it. I did the same thing in interviews, a fact I’m not necessarily proud of, but needs must. If you’ve got search skillz, you can no doubt hunt up a Guitar Player interview where I sing the praises of the Parker Fly loud and long, or Keyboard interviews where I describe the Trinity as the best synthesizer ever made.

So, how ’bout it? Currently, if an Audio Damage product is mentioned in an interview, it’s because the person using it bought it, which lends the comment a certain credence. If we changed our policy, that would no longer be the case.