The Music Biz Intro
Most young people who want to get into music see the finished product but don't realize the hard work involved and many other people on the sidelines making it all happen like managers, producers, recording engineers, etc.
Most people won't make it as top performers but you might find a job you like in music out of the limelight.
The situation nowadays is that large corporations own the record companies, the radio stations, the big music websites and the TV music networks so they control what gets out there to the mainstream. To top it all off, the music industry is probably the most competitive industry in the world.
There are so many bands and singers. If you saw the quality of some of them playing nightclubs who don't have a record contract with a big label, you'd realize the chances of anyone making it in the music industry is at least 50% fluke/ luck.
If there are great musicians out there already, playing in little dives because that's all they can get then what are your chances if you're just another generic, pretender clone?
That's the funny thing about the music biz. There's no rhyme nor reason as to who makes it. Some great musicians don't get the big contracts while some punky kids do.
It's a tough world. There's image, talent, luck and street smarts. If you get an opportunity, you have to exploit it preferably without selling your soul even though lots of people sell their souls to make it which is wrong because it defeats the whole purpose of why you should do anything. You should do whatever you do to honor who you are and not sell out to put on some phony image just to make money.
Identify one true musical talent beyond the hype and packaging. Who has their own voice and style and are not just another generic act?
I'm not impressed by anyone who doesn't create their own songs or does tacky perfume ads on TV.
There is a lot of sex appeal involved with getting a record producer interested in you. If that record producer wasn't attracted to Shania or Eileen (her real name), she would be another aging wanna be singer right now. She ain't got nothing that special that at least a thousand other girls in the music biz could do.
It's like that old Brady Bunch show. Greg got the part of Johnny Bravo, rock star, cuzz he fit the suit.
If you manage to become a pop star, try not to sell your soul in the process simply because you'll have more longevity if you have your own style that people like.
There are plenty of transient pop stars but very few truly great, inspiring musicians. Most current pop stars will be all but gone from the so-called in-crowd in five years.
Try to make it with good music. Don't flaunt yourself or rely on a lame gimmick. Try to be modest and humble because there will come a day where you will either look back with shame on what you've done or others will do you in because nobody can stand an arrogant jerk thinking they're a star, more special than the rest of humanity because you sing a song.
In the final analysis, you're not really helping anybody in a concrete way, you're just singing a song to give the flakes of the world a moment of transient pleasure because they're too stupid to know that happiness comes from living by an inherent standard within themselves, not from consuming pop culture entertainment.
Great songs have worth because they inspire people and make them feel good but most pop music is generic background stuff. It doesn't have the quality to make people feel deep emotions.
Once you pass 35, even if you're one of the few still on the frontlines of the music biz, your days of having young, naïve teenage groupies will be numbered.
Unless you got true, original talent, it's a fickle business and don't you forget it. It will take some luck and you will probably have to sell your soul although you will never admit it to yourself.
The self-delusion is monumental. They all think they're pure, real artists making it on their talent. Yah, sure. Why would a great artist have to flaunt their bodies? If I wanna see naked bodies, I will watch a porno not a music video. If I wanna see or hear music, I want it pure.
I don't know what the supposed appeal of Alanis or Avril are spozed to be. By the time this book gets out, they should be has-beens if true talent has anything to do with it.
There aren't too many great talents out there. Most people are middle of the roaders who either imitate what they think is cool or get packaged into an image by a large corporation.
By being an average talent, it puts success in the realm of chance/ luck. If the winds are blowing your way, you will make it. If not, you will play dives for ten years then wake up and get a real job.
There are many small indepenent labels and alternative ways to get your music out like through the internet and live performances but this is a hard, tedious road.
You have to sell yourself all the time and you had better be good so a major label sees you then packages you for mass consumption.
For the moment, it's still the only way to make it big, to be good enough to be packaged by a major corporation into some kind of musical entity.
The only way the independents get radio or music TV airplay is if they're really, really good and the public really, really wants to see and hear them which is very rare.
After all, music is just a commodity like anything else. The major corporations have got the packaging down so well that they can sell just about anything to the mostly under 25 very impressionable young target audience who, in my opinion, are easily manipulated while thinking they're free and wise.
To be a performer takes travel, promotion, being both a people and a night person, working in nightclubs, concert halls and other venues and along with this, drinking and doing drugs which is generally part of the lifestyle.
As a musician, you have to practice all the time, you have to write your own songs and produce/ record them in the studio, that is, unless you're just a generic pop culture product.
You have to love what you do and have some kind of gift for it, it's that simple. It has to be in your blood so much you'd do it for free because something inside of you says you have to.
A lot of people get incredible stage fright before performing. Can you handle it?
You have to love it and be cool about it, get around and circulate with people to get known and find or get found by the people who can help you.
You will probably have to do music as a part-time gig for awhile while you support yourself with a so-called real job.
Get out there and perform any way you can; nightclubs, private parties, weddings, high schools, colleges, concerts, recording sessions, TV commercials, movie soundtracks, TV shows, church, etc.
You have to get out in front of people, do the grind of playing a nightclub circuit for awhile until you start to feel the reality of it.
Be A Working Musician/ Pop Star 1
You gotta love the life you lead and lead the life you love.
Most true-blue musicians, not the manufactured pop stars you see on TV, live most of their lives playing dinghy nightclubs, jamming with friends in endless recording sessions and creating songs that very few people will ever hear but they don't care because they were meant to live that bohemian lifestyle as the soulful musicians they are.
That's real, the slick videos you see on TV are largely a fantasy, the realm of a few pop stars most of which are seasonal wonders with short lives in the music industry. There are very few tried and true musical pop stars who have made a career out of it.
If it was meant to be, you will do it. Aside from playing live, you might get some studio work, generally recording sessions at either of the three major music cities; NY, LA and Nashville.
If you're good, you will make a demo, pass it around and get a record deal and/ or get your own website, do some distribution from there and maybe get some play on college radio stations because the mainstream radio stations generally only play what the corporations want because they're probably owned by them.
Whereas in the past, it was payola under the table, nowadays it's legal payola because they're all part of the same few corporate interests.
If you're really tough, you will make your own CD and market it yourself by playing live as much as you can. If a big corporation comes across it and likes it, you will get a record contract with them.
You have to move to a major music city and impress a record executive enough with your demo so he comes see you showcase your talents live.
If he likes what he sees, he will sign you, give you an advance to record a CD then package a media tour and radio airplay to try to get you known out there amidst all your competition.
You might get a manager to try to book gigs for you and get a record deal for a 10 to 15% commission of your earnings.
In my opinion, the so-called pop music of today has degenerated into crap over the past fifteen years or so. Before then, there was an objective standard as to what was hummable, what had a clear melody to it but nowadays it's all these fake artists imitating all the crap they hear called hip-hop or something like that thinking it's music.
Anybody can become a star with a cool-looking video that's played over and over again. You don't have to sing, just speak the lyrics.
Be A Working Musician/ Pop Star 2
To make it big in music, you have to start with one great hit and/ or a gimmick that appeals to your base audience, teenagers, usually a sexy looking guy since girls buy most records or a vampy cool looking girl that teenage girls want to imitate.
For a male musician to appeal to young guys, you either have to be studly masculine and/ or rebellious. Most guys look for sexy images in porn, not music so it's not guys buying the CDs of female vampy pop stars. It's girls trying to be cool.
The music industry is based partially on talent, partially on luck and partially on gimmick. You might be one or the other or a mixture of the three.
By and large, most music releases on the charts is generic crud making it because of image, repetition and connections. This is the domain of the industry insiders, the big shots of the record companies who decide what goes and feed it to their buddies on video TV and the radio stations.
Your job is to break through the literally thousands of individuals and groups like yourself to be able to produce real good music that stands on its own or to have some hook that the naive youth, who buy most records, will relate to and identify with as either cool or rebellious.
There are some no-talent rappers and punk rockers out there who got about as much talent as there is in my butt but they're making it because they project these images for the young, stupid people to spend their money on.
Your first course of action, whether you decide to go solo or not, is to find a group of musicians like yourself and get some music happening. In my opinion, the gimmicks are cheap. You know who I'm talking about.
You probably have to join your local musicians' union and get a manager who will book you into local clubs or book yourself into clubs while you're in college or working regular jobs.
Recording equipment is now cheap enough such that you can create your own recordings at home. I suggest you become a master music mixer and try to create the best work of art you can by using your synthesizers and mixers.
It doesn't matter how you create it as long as the final product sounds good. Prince got discovered by creating his own recordings. They thought it was a full band but it was just him.
You will probably have to play top 40 stuff whether it be country or pop in order to get the gigs to play dance music to make money.
Meanwhile, work on your original stuff and try to develop your own unique sound. If you develop a local following, that could be your ticket into the big time if people get to know you.
The whole scene is to develop a nice sounding love song or a pop song that people can dance to or hum to that makes them feel good.
Good rock songs make it occasionally but the big thing is the love song/ ballad type thing because it cuts across all demographic boundaries.
Consider the home grown American appeal like Springstein or Mellancamp who've written those blue collar, Americana type songs. America is ready for another one of those. It could set you up for life. Don Mclean's American Pie was his one big life song.
Never underestimate Bob Dylan. I'm waiting for someone like him to come along with social conscience songs.
Many musicians move to L.A., New York or Nashville and end up competing with thousands of others for low level jobs in dive nightclubs while they search for the big contract.
One time, I lived next to a big community hall in Los Angeles which was used as a practice studio. I saw hundreds of wanna be rock 'n roll bands pass through there all the time, night after night, all the same, all generic, all clones.
I used to do dope with some of these guys since I was just a young guy hanging out then. One guy I knew in a heavy metal band came over all excited because he had just shot his first music video. I watched it with him and while he was there beaming, I couldn't get over how generic it was next to all the other videos on MTV. They're all the same, so stupid.
I recently saw one on TV. A professional wrestler's daughter was trying to break into the music biz so she gets on some show with her famous father, they show her generic music video about some cheerleader schtick and then her old man is there beaming and I'm thinking, "What another piece of generic crap. The world needs another dipstick pop star like it needs Duff promoting clothes for some department store."
That's cool shit or should I say the bomb. Are those people really that out of touch with the nuts & bolts of the real world?
The problem is that this has become the modern fairy tale, the theme of movies and TV reality shows, become a pop star, in effect become packaged as a cool person in the in-crowd to make money quickly by sucking in all the lonely, lost people of the world who buy into this stuff looking for an emotional connection.
That's it right there, give all the lonely, lost people a sense that you're their friend connecting with them.
Maybe it's a sign of aging but I'm not impressed unless I see and hear something original, done with sincerity and written by the performers. To me, musical talent has nothing to do with cute choreography as with Brittany and Justin.
They portray that as the flyest thing around, a half dozen or so of them sashaying with their dance moves in synch but it's been done so many times that it's generic by now. Move my emotions with the music alone and I will be impressed.
If you really think you got it, you might try for the big city right away but in my opinion, the best approach is to play small gigs and develop about five or six really great original songs, try to get some local air play and some local connections to send your music to the big record companies.
The big record companies get thousands of unsolicited demo tapes everyday. You might as well send them yours but it's still just an outside chance.
You have to try to find one manager or a small record producer who believes in you and work up from there. If the music works, it will work with the big companies. They will seek you out and seduce you away from the small company.
After you make a record, it won't sell unless it's promoted all to hell. That means playing gigs, going on TV shows, etc. Your record company and management have to pump you up by using their clout to get you played on radio and TV and get into music magazines.
If your video makes it to MTV, call them during request times acting like a fan who wants them to play it.
If you're super savvy and tough, you could go totally independent, record your own CD, sell it over the internet, send it out to record companies, magazines and anywhere else you can to get some recognition.
If you get some contacts, you could start producing and signing up other bands. That's where the real money is without the hassle.
Be A Working Musician/ Pop Star 3
I've seen many rock bands pump out the generic stuff and they think they got it - big deal, it ain't gonna fly. You can make up a cheap gimmick or name to further promote yourself but don't get too crass.
The reality for most musicians is endless gigs in small nightclubs where the locals get drunk and don't really give a damn about your music anyway. It's just background to them.
The problem is the competition. With the small record labels coming on the scene, the issue becomes one of exposure. Your manager/ producer has to go around to radio stations and bribe and/ or woo them to play your record over the 100 or so new releases they get every week.
If you make a video, do yourself a favor and don't embarrass yourself with stupid antics like in 95% of the videos out there. Just keep the focus on a live performance without the artsy fartsy bull. Keep your day job and keep plugging away.
Books about music go from #780-789 at the library. Find record company addresses in certain corporate directories at the library like the Thomas Register, thomasregister.com or in the music magazines.
When you send your demo, send a little one page bio about you and your band with a photo. Some bands get full fledged publicity packets made up in a neat folder with their logo on it.
There is a pop academy in Manheim, Germany that offers courses in how to be a pop star. Its two programs are pop music design (how to be a pop star) and pop music business for behind the scenes.
I met one guy at a live gig in an average sized nightclub who was a popular guy when in his twenties but now in his early forties was an artist with no groupies.
He was pretty cool because he was real about it. He laughed when I asked him about groupies. He was doing it because it was what was in his soul by then. He wasn't a stud/sex symbol anymore. He was just an artist-musician.
He took it all in stride. I thought it was the coolest thing in the world, this guy who was a cool looking stud twenty years ago and now he's playing live gigs in little dives because he defines himself as a musician no matter what.
Be A Working Musician/ Pop Star 4
Many, many people are attracted to the music industry because they think it's a fun, frivolous life full of easy money, lots of sex and drugs.
It looks that way when you watch it on TV, a slick performance that makes it all look so easy, effortless and fun but the truth is that it's very hard to make it in the music industry even if you're good because of all the competition. Millions of people either wants to sing or be in a band.
Some people get big record contracts but often there's no rhyme or reason as to who will get the big record contract and be manufactured as a pop star and who won't. It's not just about talent. It's about luck and being in the right place at the right time such as a particular record producer decides to give you the green light.
It's not that simple, not like an on-off switch where you get the big contract and you think all your problems are over. You have to be manufactured a certain way to appeal to a lot of people. You have to culture an image such that the consuming public want to fork over money to buy your music and go to your concerts.
There is no formula for this. Your managers can package you and try to hype you up but if you don't have a certain "it" factor, you're not gonna make it. Granted, some pop stars don't have the "it" factor but make it because they literally hit you over the head by promoting the hell out of themselves but most music fans want to see something about a person or band that makes them think they're cool.
Regardless of whether you're aiming for a record contract with a mainstream company or want to make it as an independent musician, it's all about marketing and shameless self-promotion because there's so much competition out there for a piece of the pie.
Don't listen when people tell you they don't want a record contract with a big company because they have no control. The truth is that it's the simplest way to make money as a musician. Let them do all the marketing. You focus on what you do, the music.
If you don't have a manager who's an insider in the biz and knows what he's doing, try to get one by being a good musician with a professional attitude of showing up at all gigs and putting on a good show.
Music managers will come looking for you if they hear you're good. If not, look them up through your local musician's union and send a few of them a demo tape with an offer to see you perform live.
Some people and bands still make it on gimmick alone but it's not like the old days. There is so much generic, copied stuff and so much average music out there that nobody will pay attention unless you're exceptional, unless you have some kind of unique, original sound or good energy on stage. Cute only works for teeny boppers.
A manager or record producer looks at you to determine two things:
1.) Do you have a look and the music that will appeal to some people and sell records?
2.) Are you disciplined enough to show up at gigs on time and do interviews without embarrassing yourself?
Unless you're exceptional, you're like a thousand other bands so at the very least, be professional from the beginning.
Make up an impressive demo package, complete with a DVD of a live performance. Have a cool cover (the cover of your press kit), a cover letter, demo CD, DVD of a live performance, band biography, band photograph and media articles or reviews if relevant.
Regardless of who you send this demo to, it will be one of hundreds they have so they give it a look and a listen for a few minutes and based on that, they either decide to check you out more or reject you.
Keep it simple. Don't go overboard on the hype. Let your music speak for itself. Anybody should be able to tell what your image is in a few seconds.
The standard professional band photograph is black and white, 8"x10".
These guys in the music biz may have been fans at one time but being in the biz has made them wise up to see that it's a business so they're only thinking about the bottom line, can they sell your records. They don't care how brilliant the music might be or how profound the lyrics are. All they care about is can they sell records.
Be A Working Musician/ Pop Star 5
Record companies have artist & repertoire representatives also known as a&r reps to check out new talent and decide whether to sign them or not. A&R reps are humans with emotions. If your cover letter is arrogant, they'll pass.
If they think you might be good, they won't sign you right away. They want to get a feel for you so they'll want to talk to you then see you play live.
Find the names of a&r reps on some music websites and in some music directories like the College Music Directory, The Musician's Atlas and a number of others.
Ask the people in the local music biz if they know of any managers or record executives.
Play live as much as you can. If you get a chance to play at a festival or a showcase even for almost no pay, do it because chances are there's a music scout in the audience looking for new talent.
You could send out a demo to everyone on your list but it might be better to call them and ask them if they're currently looking for new talent and what type of music they specialize in.
If you have the normal musician's experience, it will be a lot of no responses and some rejection letters. I can't tell you how an unknown pop singer or band gets signed except to keep playing live and keep polishing your demo package. If you get to the end of the list, you have no choice but to start sending demos to the people at the front of the list all over again.
Like I've said dozens of times in all my articles about trying to make it in the world of entertainment, there is no rhyme nor reason as to why some talentless band makes it and a great band with original music doesn't.
You just have to be true to yourself, believe in what you do, set up a presence as an indie musician but keep trying for the big record contract.
At some point you will doubt yourself and contemplate whether you should be more commercial, whether you should sell out the soul of your music to make it more glittery. Some people do and make millions. Some people don't and they're still unknown.
Once you get a record contract offer, you need either an entertainment lawyer or a manager to negotiate the details for either a set fee, a percentage of the gross or both.
There are some important questions like:
How many CDs will you do with the company?
How much money and royalties do you want?
What is the advance?
Who owns the copyrights to the songs?
The record company gives you x number of dollars to create the CD then when they sell it, they take that money out of the profits before they start to pay you the royalty.
If they don't recover expenses, you get nothing. I heard that for every ten bands a record company signs, one ends up making the big money to make up for losses on the other nine. I don't know if it's true. It's just what I heard. It sounds pretty bleak, kind of like anyone's chances of making it big in the music biz is a crapshoot at best regardless of talent.
Be A Working Musician/ Pop Star 6
There is no manual. Everyone has their own path to success.
The secret to making it in the music biz is passion, perseverance and a thick skin that can take constant rejection. Those starry-eyed visions MTV, movies and TV shows put forth about being plucked from obscurity because you're so special and thrust into mainstream success almost overnight are illusions geared to sucker young people into buying into the rock 'n roll fantasy lifestyle.
The true path to musical success except for the very few lucky flukes is long, hard and competitive as hell since every other musician is indirectly competing with you for the consumer buck.
Work hard, hold onto your inspired passion and take your licks in the arena of rejection because that's the normal path to success in the biz. Create music that will be critically acclaimed as well as be hummable pop music.
You have to constantly write and rewrite material, heed criticism and find a positive direction to your life, even when it feels like nobody gives a damn about your music, that you're just another pop culture pretender with delusions of grandeur. You have to believe that your music does something positive for the world.
Work at other jobs to pay your bills and save money for studio time or buy your own equipment to record. Learn your craft and carve out your own niche. Accept the fact that you do it because you love the process and may never get rich or even solvent from it.
Security is only as good as your current product. The challenge and fight never ends. Shannainai might be hot stuff as I write this but she's getting close to middle age. She will be put on the backburner of public consciousness soon as the young ones replace her. Her music is generic pop.
Some old dude like Elton John or Phil Collins can still sell product because they're music creators with their own sound.
Virtually every female pop star with a sexxy image is basically a pop culture product, selling a gimmick of coolness and subtle sexuality but any thin chick with a voice can do that. She will have her day then it will be over just like with Tiffany, Mariah, Madonna and Whitney, all has-beens by now, at least to me. There's something unappealing to watching tired-looking middle-aged frumps trying to act sexy and cool. You are what you are. I think one of them is taking steroids to fight aging.
It's young people who buy 90% of the CDs. If you ain't under 30 years old, it's very rare to get a record deal with a major label and sell lots of product.
Accept music as a business. Accept producers as business leaders who can help shape songs into something marketable for mass consumption.
Business and artistry are opposites in spiritual orientation but they are bedfellows, albeit strange bedfellows. You can't be one or the other. You must be both. Retain your original reason for being an artist but be smart about the business end of it.
The guys called The Bay City Rollers were playing gigs left and right while their song Saturday Night was hot but their manager ripped them off. They had nothing at the end. Billy Joel, Leonard Cohen, In Synch and tons of others were ripped off by their managers because they left money management to others. When you do that, you will get ripped off. It's human nature to steal money when the opportunity presents itself.
Keep writing songs. Collaborate with others. Buy some computer music recording equipment and record your own stuff.
Publicity and bringing attention to yourself or you band is as important as marketing a new consumer product. Get a marketing book at #658 at the library. Shamelessly market yourself. Believe in yourself to the extreme. Sell like a used car salesman.
With thousands of bands everywhere looking for exposure, you need creativity both for music and marketing your music. You have to do it for yourself before anyone is going to invest in you.
Focus on who your music resonates with, who the potential audience is and cater to them. Do things on a small level to pick up fans.
All bands must have a website to post bios, concert dates, reviews, music samples, etc. Give your music to as many people as possible. People have to know you exist before they even consider buying your music.
Put free music on the internet. Make up t-shirts with your band logo on them and give a few away at gigs to cool looking people who look like they get around.
Be yourself, true to who you really are. Have integrity. Don't fake it with gimmicks.
If you're going for a band as opposed to solo, getting along is important for the collaboration to create music and tour without fighting. Fighting or differences are good to a limited extent because they help with the creative process, this angst that has to be released.
Wear cool clothing on stage.
Believe in yourself, keep creating music, hang around with people in the biz and play in public.
Great musicians sweat with effort all the time. This is the lifestyle of a true artist.
Great musicians accept the fact that they're never always on or in but work through the lows. Bad gigs happen.
A real musician does it because it's his life as opposed to the pretender doing it to party, get rich or get chicks.
From a distance like on TV, the lifestyle looks glamouros and fun but in reality, you need to find comfort in either or both:
Your music.
Your bandmates.
It gets lonely on the road. There's the old cliché about the rocker playing for hundreds or even thousands of people one minute then be sitting in a hotel room wondering where's the party. This is more typical than the glammed up image you see on TV.
My final warning is cash flow management. Music is not rocket science. There are expenses on one side, money taken in (assets) on the other. A few sleazy promoters and record companies will pad the expense column which is taken out of the gross before you get your cut of the profits. Be savvy enough to ask to look at an itemized list of expenses.
If you're really smart, you can manage your own gigs, manage the money yourself. It's not hard with a website. You can book gigs, arrange your own transporation, pay hotel bills, band members, etc. and keep the rest.
Be A Working Musician/ Pop Star 7
If you play live a lot, you might get some exposure and some big-wig might come out to see you live in order to decide whether to represent you as an agent, take you on as a manager or give you a record contract but don't bet on it.
If you want an agent, manager or record contract, unless you have excellent networking abilities, you have to do it the same way all the other obscure artists do. You have to cut a demo CD, possibly a music video, get lists of music agents, music managers and recording studios then send hundreds of copies of your demo out and hope someone bothers to listen to it, likes it and calls you.
Just remember, most people in the music biz don't waste much time listening to unsolicited tapes and there are thousands of bands and musicians sending these people their demos too which is why some musicians don't even bother with this route.
They play live, set up a website, sell CDs or downloadable music through it, promote themselves and if they get a record contract from a big producer, that's fine but if they don't, they're still in control of a moderately successful career in music.
Don't buy into the lie that the best musicians make it. Many don't. You need some kind of hype or marketing behind you. The big record companies know how to do this. They have the ability to manufacture a mega-selling pop star like nobody else. An independent musician, no matter how good, just doesn't have that kind of clout to get his music on radio stations, music TV networks and in thousands of record stores.
That's why everybody still wants the recording contract with the big studio even if they are going it alone as independent musicians. It could be the difference between fame and wealth and playing in dives, barely getting by. Look at Shania. If that dude didn't spot her, decided he wanted to marry her so he made her a pop star, she'd be another generic singer today.
Cutting a demo is not exactly easy. Even though you can do it with a computer, it still takes work, know-how and money to create all the sounds you want.
There are recording studios in every city that rent themselves out to musicians on an hourly basis complete with an engineer and even back-up musicians if you're willing to pay.
If your music is exceptional, you can record it in your garage and the music execs will feel your greatness. This is how Prince was discovered.
You can find duplication companies in the phone book or on the internet. You should get a snappy cover for your CD.
If you need money, play at any live gigs in order to earn enough to cut your CD.
The government arts programs and some non-governmental music organizations help young, unknown artists cut CDs. Some organizations give out straight money to deserving artists to help them get established. Look in the Foundation Directory and grant books or grants.gov. I cover grants in some of my other books like the business book.
Be wary of shady characters. Don't pay for studio time upfront. Pay a bit when you arrive and the rest at the end of the session. Don't pay an artist upfront to draw your CD cover. Wait until he's done to pay him. You can create your own with Photoshop or the free one, Gimp.
All wise bands or singers are versatile. They can do several styles of music, not just all heavy metal or all soppy love songs. Show your creative range on your CD.
Make the demo no longer than 30 minutes. That's enough time for anyone to decide whether you're worth it or not.
Place the strong pieces at the beginning. Go from the strongest to the worst.
You can play someone else's songs for the demo but if you release it publicly, if it's not public domain music, you'll have to get permission from the owner of the song and pay royalties for using it. This counts for parts of songs too. If you use some of the melody without paying, you could get sued.
Huey Lewis & the News sued the Ghostbusters song as a rip-off of I Want a New Drug. They settled out of court. Rappers sample all the time without permission and if the record goes big, they have to pay.
You can find some public domain music at loc.gov or better still, create your own. That's what true artists do.
If the rights are owned by someone other than the songwriter such as a publishing company or a music manager, you will need to get a mechanical license before you record that work. You can find out who owns the songs you want to cover through the following organizations:
bmi.com
American Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers
1 Lincoln Plaza
NYC 10023
212-621-6000
ascap.com
Society of European Songwriters,
Authors & Composers
10 Columbus Cir.
Nyc 10019
212-586-3450
You have to credit the songwriter on your CD cover.
If you write your own songs, get them copyrighted at the Library of Congress, loc.gov. It's about $35 a song or you can put a bunch of songs together and copyright it as a songbook or a song list.
Find a studio through a referral from friends, through the phonebook or go to studiofinder.com.
Most studios are for profit. Even though they are kindred spirit musicians like you, they still have to earn a living. The quality of studios vary greatly. You have to look around and find a good studio. Maybe the local music college has one you can use on the cheap.
Since they charge by the hour, be as efficient as possible. Go in knowing exactly what you plan to do and do it as fast as possible.
The more practiced you are, the less you will have to edit and splice. If you listen to a cut and decide you don't like it and want to re-record, don't waste time listening to more of it. Cut it off and re-record it.
Warm up before you get to the studio to save time once you get there.
Bring back-up instruments and extra things like guitar strings, drumsticks, reeds, etc.
The days of cassette tapes are over. It's all about CDs and mp3s nowadays.
After you get your master CD, first make up a back-up copy then find a duplicating service and run off a few hundred to start.
The cover matters. It's the old packaging, hype bit. Plain covers don't attract the eyes of managers, producers or agents, funky-looking ones do. Hire an artist or use Photoshop software to create a good cover.
Cd duplication companies often offer to cover artwork which could be the easiest way for you. Do a rough diagram of what you want and they'll create it on computer software.
If you're really cheap, you can copy your own CDs on your computer. If you need burning software, try deepburner.com or nero.com. They even sell multi-drives such that you can record 4 CDs at one time.
Be A Working Musician/ Pop Star 8
Most musicians don't make much money selling their CDs, tapes and other paraphenalia, they make it the old-fashioned way, selling tickets to their live gigs.
A few bands without bigtime record contracts and mainstream media exposure might develop a local reputation wherever they live and make a reasonable living touring nightclubs across the state, region or province but there are still venues for unknown bands as long as they can fill three sets or so with reasonable sounding music.
Many nightclub owners don't care who the band is as long as they can play some top 40 hits such that people come in to have a dance and a drink.
These are what I call the mainstream nightclubs but in the big cities nowadays, you got bars that specialize in one type of music only; top 40 pop, jazz, oldies, hip hop, punk, alternative, etc.
I've known one band that has about five different schticks. They can change their appearance and roster of songs depending on what their client wants. They are versatile.
Live music in lounges is not past its prime, it's just undergoing changes. When I was a young dude in the late seventies and eighties, going out to the disco or the lounge was the thing to do. That was the culture back then.
Nowadays, you got all the technology entertainment products for the home and a general attitude of health such that many people don't drink alcohol that probably cuts into the lounge business but girls and guys alike like to go out, meet people and dance.
People still love to dance to current top 40 hits and standards of the sixties to the nineties. If you can provide that kind of music, you will find gigs.
The economy in general affects the music industry. The worse the economy, the less people spend on entertainment. The better the economy, the more they spend on entertainment.
Chances are that if you're any good, you will join the local musician's union and have either an agent or a manager who will book gigs for you but you have to be in control of your own destiny too by going out looking for gigs and even creating your own.
In fact, many musicians are down on agents because unless your band is currently hot, to the agent, you're just one act of six or more that he has and he will only book you if someone calls looking for your type of band. Chances are that he will not aggressively promote you.
The old school mentality was that an agent or manager saw a band, fell in love with them then worked like hell getting them publicity but nowadays, this doesn't happen much. An agent takes on a handful of bands he feels alright about and becomes the order-taker for them.
It's not like old Colonel Parker promoting Elvis. It's more like a guy in a room answering calls for orders. He has no strong love for any of his bands.
In my opinion, this is due to the nature of bands nowadays. All I see is clones. When I see an original band, I don't like their music. They are original but the music sucks.
It's hard to be fresh, inspired and mainstream. When Outkast came out with that hit song in 2003, that was the freshest thing I had seen in awhile.
You have to promote yourself then as a result of that, hand out your business card and promo kits and people in the biz call you directly for gigs.
Beyond the agent whose job is to find gigs and record contracts, many bands hire a business manager who takes care of the money. He collects the pay cheques, pays the expenses, books hotel rooms, etc.
He could be a rip-off artist. Either hire someone you trust like a close relative (spouse, parent, sibling or offspring) or do the business end yourself. Be wary of business managers. Watch your own money. If you want cautionary tales, check out Billy Joel and the Bay City Rollers.
It's no secret that the music biz is feast or famine. When you're hot, everybody wants you. When you're not, nobody will give you a gig.
I was surprised when Sony dropped John Denver's record contract. At one time in the early eighties, he was hot. He even had his own TV show. I loved his double live album. He had some of the most beautiful music I had ever heard in my life. I remember listening to it stoned in the back of a car driving across New Brunswick. He was a great musician but hardly anyone pays him or his type heed anymore. All these country "stars" nowadays are clones down to the corny cowboy hat.
Be A Working Musician/ Pop Star 9
For anybody in the know, music is a tough way to make a living. It's not like the few pop culture flukes you see on MTV. It's brutal for most bands and individual musicians. It's not enough to practice your craft, you have to be a business person, promote yourself and seek out gigs on your own.
The bottom line is that except for young people under 25, music is not a big deal in the lives of the average adult. So what if you've got a great song. There are a thousand others out there too and besides what can a song do for me but make me feel good for a few minutes then after I've heard it a hundred times, I'm ready for another song.
In comparison to the daily demands of life such as paying bills and earning a living, music is way at the back of priorities, something done for a bit of casual leisure when all your work is done.
Celine Dion might sell several million of her CDs worldwide but she's one of the few flukes and you don't see the massive amount of promotion and publicity that go along with this.
Just be realistic about the music biz. Some young people under 25 might think you're cool but most people over 25 simply don't bother with music much.
Having said all that, music is an act of the soul. Those that do it for the right reasons have no choice but to follow their souls. To this end, it can be an interesting lifestyle because you get to stay inspired by writing songs, practicing and playing live gigs plus you meet a lot of people and even get some groupies here and there.
The sad part of the music biz nowadays is that a few corporations control most of the mainstream venues. They are conservative by nature, stick with their old acts and simply repackage them, the net result being that new acts have a hard time breaking into the mainstream corporate music industry.
Overall, the market for live music is as follows:
Weddings, high schools, private house parties, private events, country clubs, casinos. Etc. You must play top 40 stuff
Professional event planners and caterers who plan parties and events for corporations, organizations, etc.
Nightclubs and bars, hotels with lounges, mainstream and specific category like country, heavy metal, etc. Look for hotels with live entertainment and make your pitch. Try the following:
6c.com
ahla.com, american hotel and lodging assn.
ahma.com, american hotel and motel assn.
motelmag.com
mytripandmore.com, links to major airlines, hotels, car rentals, etc.
wordofmouse.com, reviews of hotels, restaurants, travel and entertainment.
yahoo.com/business_and_economy/companies/travel/hotels
If you're really resourceful, you will contact resorts and hotels in foreign countries that have live entertainment. Do your research in my travel book or on the internet.
Get my education book for info about colleges. You can send out promo kits to their entertainment department one at a time or join the National Assn. for Campus Activities, naca.org, which books entertainment at colleges. Get booked to go to one of their showcase auditions where college promoters from all over the nation will see you play. Go to cdbaby.net/derek/college.
Cruise ships. Refer to the later section.
Fairs, festivals, circuses, etc. Book through agents or contact them on your own. Refer to my travel book for leads. Try the following:
conventionbureaus.com
culturefinder.com
eventseeker.com
eventsource.com
eventguide.com
eventplanner.net/cities/usa/tourist
eventsworldwide.com
expoguide.com
eventcal.com, current events.
fairsnet.org
festivalfinder.com
festivalseeker.com, canada.
festivals.com
festivalsdirectory.com
House concerts, concerts performed at houses where the artist and his friend, a homeowner, split the take. Try the term "house concerts" in search engines.
Do-It-Yourself concerts or dances. This is similar to house concerts in a bigger venue. These events work if you have a regular following but they are a lot of work and take a lot of planning. Small theaters and nightclubs are more amenable to this idea than large ones.
You rent a community center, church hall, theater, lounge area in a hotel, open field, etc., do your own advertising, decide what it will be, either a concert or dance, get a temporary alcohol serving license if you plan to serve booze, promote like hell stating it will be a good time and hope a lot of people show up.
It's a lot of work to set up your own gig. If it works once, do it next month. If it really works, try a bigger venue. The risk is that you have to pay the fees upfront. If people don't show, you lose money. There is insurance to buy and even safety and bathrooms if you're doing an outdoor gig.
A way to offset rent is to try to make a deal with the owner. Offer a nightclub owner to play for free in return for the cover charge take which is low enough such that he won't lose regular customers and he still makes his money on his booze and food. Or approach a theater owner and offer him 50 percent of the door take while he gets to sell soda and popcorn too.
Charities and benefits, some you do for free for exposure, some you do for pay.
Busking, street musician. This is profitable in some areas like the Toronto subway system where they give out licenses to worthy artists who pass an audition. More importantly, it might give you enough exposure to get a recording contract.
I saw stories like this on the news, people playing in the subways, some bigtime record producer sees them and gives them a contract. The pay is not shabby either; a hundred or more dollars in cash tax-free everyday if you're good.
Beyond this there is a circuit of busking events and music festivals all over the world. Some people follow major events and busk on the streets. They might go to Mardi Gras, the Indianapolis 500, the Kentucky Derby, Gay Mardi Gras in Sydney, Australia, the fringe festival in Edinburgh, Scotland, the Jazz Festival in Montreal, etc.
Many musicians go from performing to take other jobs in the music industry like agent, promoter, producer, etc.
Be A Working Musician/ Pop Star 10
For most people, there will be no magical nirvana moment when you've done enough to be set for life. You will constantly play gigs for an average sum of money but it's nothing like the bigtimers do. This is the way it is.
There are only a few superstars in the entire music biz and of all of them, most are fleeting. They will be gone in five years. Very few are lifers like Paul Anka, Elton John or Phil Collins.
You have to call people asking for gigs, develop a good website, send out promo kits, play benefits, go out to clubs and other venues to meet the owners and promoters, offering your services, even for free for a night or two so they can check you out.
Your website has to make your band look good, have stuff for fans, offer CDs, photos, t-shirts and concert Dvds for sale and also have a place where you are promoting yourself offering to perform live gigs to anyone interested.
This is sometimes called an electronic press kit. Put an icon on your website called Electronic Press Kit or EPK which is your promo kit in cyberspace. They click on, they see your picture, hear you talking about the band then see a clip of you playing live.
Learn a bit about movie-making from the other sections in this book in order to make a video of yourself playing live and possibly make a creative music video with artsy stuff on it.
One way to get free live footage is to volunteer to play at a benefit that will be on TV or volunteer to play for your local cable access channel then use that as your promotional footage. If all else fails, hire a wedding videographer to film you.
Keep your promo photos current in order to avoid negative repurcusions. Some people have not changed their publicity photo in 15 years because they want potential bookers to see them as young people but this just creates bad will and fools no one. It is enough false advertising to void a contract.
Include a phone number, fax number and e-mail address so that prospective promoters can contact you. Offer free music downloads and live video streaming on your website.
Do what you have to do to get listed on major search engines. Offer an e-mail mailing list which is a free e-mail newsletter you send out to anyone who wants to subscribe.
There are now websites coming out that are gigfinders. They present possible gigs, anything from a child's party to a big concert. You can submit an offer that you will do that gig for a set fee. Send them an e-mail telling them to go to your website to check you out. From there, they might want to see a promo kit, meet you or see you perform live before they decide.
I know that many musicians see themselves as artists and don't wanna know anything about the business end of the biz. Unless you're a superstar with trustworthy management, you're a fool if you don't watch the business end of biz.
I see myself as an artist of life which is fine for me but when I'm around other people, I act like the most agreeable, friendliest guy around. I'm not trying to impose my "cool" bohemian views on anyone else. I'm past trying to impress other people. I live for myself but this is a big problem in the music biz.
The music biz attracts all kinds of narcissists, egomaniacs, artists, pretenders and misfits trying to get attention for themselves, much of it misguided. They think the fame or popularity will fulfill them somehow but they don't realize it's all transient.
The people in the crowd are there for an experience to make the scene in a community of people. They don't much care who the entertainment is. That's the excuse for them to gather to see a bunch of other people in the same place, feel a sense of human community for a minute and maybe meet the love of their lives.
Beyond this, anybody who is that stupid to be a groupie or fan of anyone else is someone I consider so weak and lowly as a human being that I wouldn't be interested in knowing them or befriending them.
Entertainment is just entertainment to me. Nobody impresses me but a few good magicians and illusionists and even then, it gets thin because there are about ten different types of tricks and that's it. Even the good musicians don't sound so hot live as opposed to the studio.
The music industry itself turns some people into egotistical hotheads and stresses others out to the point that they become mentally ill.
This is because of the rejection and the uncertainty of your future viability as a musician at any moment in time. It's not like accounting where you can still crank numbers in a backroom even if you're depressed. If you're a musician, you have to be around people. Your mental illness will show.
Since music is largely a young person's business, many musicians are immature. They come off like self-centered idiots when they think they're being cool.
I saw some footage of the former lead singer of the Doors, Jim Morrison, now passed on but it was the kind of stuff any mature person would be ashamed of, childish, ignorant antics while being interviewed. If he was alive today, he would be ashamed of it but he thought he was being cool at the time.
Madonna says she isn't ashamed of her antics in the past but there are a few clips of her in the movie Truth or Dare where she insults Kevin Costner and Warren Beatty and they take it because they're too polite to call her on it but the fact is that it is rude behavior by anyone's standards. It speaks volumes about her real character. Leopards rarely change their spots. Scrooge did but he was a fictional man.
My point is that if you're a professional musician, act like one. Do your crap on stage but once you get off, you're out of character.
You now become the sensible, down to earth person who can talk human to human to anyone. Don't put on airs acting like some cool, deep, mystical, spaced out, far out advanced artist. You're not fooling me.
There was a black dude, Flava Flave, wearing a clock necklace who had a reality TV show for awhile where he was acting like someone living in a fantasy in his own world but I'll bet when the cameras go off he's a lot more down-to-earth than that.
People like me know it's all an act so be yourself. Be of sound mind and body, be clean, take care of yourself.
Playing gigs into the late hours, drinking, smoking, screwing groupies and doing dope are fun for awhile but you have to save yourself for the long-term. It's better to be a middle-aged marathon runner still in the game than to burn out and fade away.
In the old days, the hippie, grunge look was cool but nowadays, the music biz is business. You wouldn't wear jeans to a business meeting so don't do it when going to meet a client or producer.
As a final point, don't believe what you see on MTV. It makes it look like the music biz is a fun, easygoing, big, happy family. This is a lie. It's a cutthroat, competitive business. A few people luck out to sell big because of a gimmick. They become flavor of the month. A few have real talent. Everybody else is struggling.
It's great to get airplay in small markets and get good reviews but all is for nothing if you don't have a good promoter trying to get you a good record deal, get you on MTV, on mainstream radio stations, in music mags and get you on tours with the bigtime insiders. This is the only way to make it big. Promote endlessly to the bigtimers. Find somebody who believes in you who will work hard to promote you.
Don't wait for a record deal. buy some music software and start recording your music in CD form now.
The music biz is made up of many local areas and many small radio stations. The serious artists tries to connect with them all. Only the flukes get on MTV and sell a million records based on that alone.
Everybody you meet in the music biz, you should write down their contact info then put key word modifiers describing what they do so whenever you're looking for something like, say drummers, for example, you type in drummer and the sdearch function of your software will call up all the drummers in your database. Try indiebandmanager.com.
Be friendly. Don't always be selling yourself.
Be A Working Musician/ Pop Star 11
The hard part of being in music is that it's not necessary and there's so much of it anyway for free on the radio and on the internet.
You need to eat, you need a toilet, you need gasoline. You don't need music. Sure, a handful of people get incredibly wealthy but most don't. It's a real tough business. When you look at the odds and see the competition then realize that music is a minor affair in just about everybody lives except for teeny-boppers and aging women trying to recapture the easy-breezy feelings of youh, you start to get real.
Only do what inspires you. If the process of the music biz is draining you as opposed to inspiring you, get out. It's a hard business except for the few flukes who get almost instant mainstream stardom. It's not realistic to think you will be a star.
Aim at earning a decent living until you're 35 or 40 then either get into an offshoot job in the biz (agent, booker, producer) or get into another profession. Hang on after 40 if you want but most people except for the true diehards are tired of touring by then.
Ask yourself what are the record executives, the agents and the fans looking for. Write out your ideas then try to be like that. Get rid of your ego. Try to please them. Don't put on a fake image. Be real. Be polite. Follow the Golden Rule.
In this biz, selling out is an oxymoron because everybody sells their souls. They rationalize it to themselves that they're not selling their souls but extreme artists end up alone and penniless. Wise pop culture artists have enough business sense to give the people what they want.
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