WRITE A LETTER OF SUPPORT
From the IO Crew

Have you ever thought of how often that the guys have taken time to show us how much they appreciate us? So often, they have taken the time to sit down and write letters to us and send them to us via the Street Team. They have spent many hours chatting with us, autographing items, posing for pictures and so much more. And then there was the latest letter that they wrote to us while they were at Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey. Doesn’t it feel great to know that they miss us and remember us? Isn’t it nice to know what they are doing? Doesn’t it feel great to know that they are still there?

From what we know, the guys are very much like us. They would love to know that we are still here, that we miss them, remember them, still support them and would like to know how we feel about them and their music.

Also, we understand that J Records wants to gauge the level of interest there is now for O-Town. With a spring tour still in the planning stages, they need to know how many fans there are, where their fans are, how they support O-Town and why. Perhaps they need a consumer survey of sorts.

We have heard that at least some staff at J Records feel that there is insignificant support for O-Town. While these are not exact quotes, they are a fair representation of what has been said: “If O-Town still has fans, where are they?” “Why didn’t they buy O2?” “Why didn’t they make ‘These Are the Days’ and ‘I Showed Her’ hits by requesting them at their radio stations?” “When the TV show went away, the fans went away, too.” “O-Town is a boy band and boy bands are not popular anymore.” “Those who were O-Town fans have left O-Town for more popular bands like Good Charlotte.” “We promoted O2 just like we promoted their first album. Fans and the general public just don’t like their music now.”

We have seen posts on our board from fans expressing a great deal of frustration over the many times and length of time that O2’s release was delayed and J Records’ insufficient promotion of O-Town. We believe that many fans lost track of O-Town when neither O2 nor even a lead single was released last July. J Records says that they did just as much promotion for O2, but from the public’s perspective, many did not know about O2’s release. Without the TV show to promote the album, J Records needed to do more promotion, not just the same as they did for the first album.

Devoted fans were excited about the songs that they had seen and heard performed in concert from May to September--songs that were written by the guys or to which they had input, like “From the Damage” “American Game” “Death Wish” and “Favorite Girl.” Yet no single or CD was released while they were touring. After the touring was over, J released “These Are the Days” as O2’s lead single. Many casual fans and listeners didn’t even know that this Bon Jovi-ish song was O-Town’s new single. Then there were several pleas from the Street Team begging fans NOT to request the songs too much, only to request the songs at one’s local station--and only if they had the song on their playlist. Then “I Showed Her” was released. And again, there was no tour or any significant promo to support it.

The boys have written many letters to us. Now it is our turn to write letters to them. You can let them know that you are still a fan and why, what ways you have supported them and why and that you are looking forward to seeing them and where. What makes O-Town special to you? How are they different from other artists? From what we have read on our board, O-Town wasn’t popular just because they were on TV or because or a trendy boy band.

While we hope that all O-Town fans will write letters, please do not start a petition or a form-letter campaign. Please do not bombard any phone numbers or email accounts. We have been told that such tactics are ineffective. What we have been told would be most effective and appreciated is polite, thoughtful, sincere, informative, focused and well-written letters sent through the mail.

This is not "an Inside O-Town project." Please do not associate your letters to Inside O-Town. While any fan site or group can copy this, your letter will lose much of its meaning if you say that a fan site or fan told you to write. These letters will mean a lot more if they just come from you.

Again, the purpose of these letters is to allow O-Town and J Records to see just what support they still have and why. They will have the greatest impact if they are focused solely on that purpose. Please reserve discussion about other artists, questions, requests, advice or criticism of O-Town, J Records, their staff or O-Town’s management for another time.