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Top 5 Music Business Mistakes of 2010 (#4)

Top 5 Music Business Mistakes of 2010 

#4 Apples to Oranges

On the off chance that the title of this article is a piece of slang that was unique to my parents (I ran the title by someone who was baffled by the fact that a music blog would be discussing fruit) I am speaking about comparing two things that can’t be accurately compared.  I have found that is very common for artists to have the belief that exposure = sales and that all songs and all artists if given the same exposure would get the same response from the public.  This issue gets especially cloudy when an artist is comparing his or her own career to the career of someone in the public eye.

The most hate mail I ever got was from an article I wrote that contained the words “Great bands make great managers”.  Musicians and managers alike hated this statement but it is one that I still stand by.  What did I mean when I said it?  Well, there is an old (and awful) saying I heard in my record company days – “You can’t polish a turd.”  There were simply some acts back then that no matter how much a label spent on getting them on Radio, MTV and on great tours they just never connected with people.

Many things have changed in the music business but I don’t think this has changed at all – sometimes all of the exposure in the world just doesn’t matter.   I get into a ton of trouble using the word “great” so let me clear that up for the comments you are writing in your head about how much Nickelback sucks and how could Lady Gaga and Kesha possibly be considered great and how I don’t know what I’m talking about…  First off you should know that on any given week I actively dislike about 90% of the top 200 albums on the Billboard charts.  Secondly I neither know nor do I think it is entirely knowable why something connects with a mass audience and some things don’t.  I do know that some artists seem to be opportunity magnets and many more are not.

Back to the statement about managers – very few people refer to managers without successful clients as “great.”  Even if a manager does everything right and gets his or her clients exposure, if they don’t yield results very few people take notice of that manager’s ability.  There are other times when you can’t seem to stop opportunities from arising for a song or for an artist and contrary to popular belief this really isn’t always related to an artist’s team.  Yes- a good team can bring in great opportunities and tip the balance in an artist’s favor but generally speaking it is as much the music as the artist’s handlers that makes things happen for an artist.

We see this phenomenon in a much more overt way with viral video in the digital age.  People either see something and pass it on to their friends or they don’t.  I always find it interesting when someone sets out to “Make a viral video”.  Barring a Trojan type virus that would automatically make a video play every time someone turned on their machine (please don’t do this) there is no way of predicting what will be viral and what won’t be.  You can market and spend all you want but some things catch fire and other things just don’t.

Okay, I have probably beaten this point to death and depressed a bunch of you.  Not at all my intent and not at all the focus of this article.  If such things are believed to be truly out of your hands then what is an artist to do?  My suggestions are two-fold:

One:  Acceptance-

Acceptance is not the Acceptance of failure.  It is the acceptance that if you are doing everything you can to promote yourself- at this moment in time it may not be your turn to be widely embraced by mass media.  Enduring and building the best you can is sometimes all you can do until the stars align for you.

Two: Growth-

It could be the passage of time alone might make the world ready for your music, stranger things have happened.  If it were my music career though I would err on the side of caution and make sure that I put the time in to get better at my craft just a little bit every day.  Perhaps your abilities are just a tweak away from being ready to react with people in a different way.  The Plain White Tees released “Hey There Delilah” a few different times before a version of the song finally caught fire.

While I never heard the words come directly out of his mouth Ahmet Ertegun was often quoted as saying “A hit will find a way”.  I think there is a very real feeling that is not at all subtle when you have hit upon a formula with a song or with a group that is really connecting.  I also think that there is no telling when (or if) that moment will ever grow in to being.  Until such time keep improving your craft and stop comparing yourself to others – it tends not to do any good.  If all the exposure in the world was suddenly heaped on you- you might not be ready for it yet.

Originally Posted and Written by MusicianCoaching.com 

Top 5 Music Business Mistakes of 2010 (#3)

#3 – Poor Planning

Once again, I don’t mean to appear unsympathetic.  I know first hand how difficult it is to remain objective once you have put your heart and soul into a project but I have to point out that I have seen far too many careers that have suffered greatly due to poor planning or even worse – no planning.

It sounds ridiculous but something as simple as writing out a list of goals for your business can force you to clarify that vague plan you have in your head – I highly recommend it as I have made the mistake of winging it one too many times when an organized written document would have saved me time, effort and expense.  When I am at my best I find that I am often re-visiting revising such documents for my business because I am continually moving closer to my goals.  When I am at my worst I am unable to carve out the time to extract myself from daily distractions to reflect on the big picture.  I am certainly not saying it is easy but it can be done.

There are two main areas in which musicians seem to flounder the most.  Probably not coincidentally they are two of the most important events in a musician’s life – Music releases and Touring.

Music Releases:

With regard to music releases I am always surprised to hear how many people will start looking for a promotion and marketing strategy after their album, single or E.P. has been released.  While it is never too late for someone to start such efforts it is probably a good idea to start thinking of such things the minute you enter the studio or even the minute you start writing the next release if possible.  I have said it before and I will say it again that websites have ceased being billboards and have become like 24 hour news channels.  With this in mind it is important to collect as much content (Journaling, photos, videos, rough mixes, live takes etc) from the writing and recording process as possible.  “Why?” You might ask.  Simply because there are only so many ways you can say to the people who you hope will care about your music that you have a new record coming out.  If you’ve collected no material about the making of your latest product you will not have nearly as many interesting ways to hype your release.  Saying “New record coming next week” is not nearly as interesting as even a goofy video of you spilling Bong water on the console (not that I recommend it).

Another rookie mistake (and again – I empathize – I really do) is rushing a product to market.  I watch artists record an album, master it, order a few hundred CDs and schedule a release so they can get it out to market as fast as humanly possible.  Oh, I get it, you are excited and you have made sacrifices to create your latest work and you are anxious for the world to hear it.  Resist this at all costs.  If possible have advance copies of your CD or digital album in the hands of those who can expose it to more people than you can (Journalists, music supervisors, bloggers, morning TV shows, local radio, podcasters, promoters, club owners or even your most successful friends in music for a testimonial about your work).  Make sure that you have all of your marketing and promotional materials in hand to the best of your ability – a bio, an EPK, compelling live footage, press clips, artwork, a video (even if it is just the album artwork synced up with your single).  Make sure you have events lined up – a record release party, a listening party, a Ustream concert, a house party, some kind of album giveaway, a tie in with a local retail store – anything that gets people talking and anything that exposes your music to new people.

The longer you promote a record the better chances it has of doing something…  try your best to line up several months worth of marketing and promotional ideas if possible.  The most obvious of these of course is…

Touring:

Think about touring for a second.  You have a new release or you finally got transportation to take your act on the road – what is your plan?  I’ve watched countless acts bleed money on cross country tours before they have even built up their own home market, let alone several regional markets.  I suppose that’s okay if you’re in your early 20s and just want to compare the taste of beer in New York to the beer in Los Angeles (it’s the same as near as I can tell by the way.  Pizza though?  A different story – don’t leave New York).  Most of the good agents I know tell me that barring very exceptional gigs it is generally not worth touring in any market unless you can revisit that market every 3-4 months to maintain and build a following.  What this means for most on a budget is concentric circles around your hometown.  It is much easier to do several three day weekends or pull the occasional sick day on a regional build than it is to take two weeks off of work to visit a dozen markets that you won’t revisit more than once per year.

It is generally not worth touring any given market unless you can find some kind of support in said market.  This can be as simple as family and friends with a place to crash or a good opportunity like finding a local act that does well to trade gigs with.  If you pick five markets to target there are only so many college radio stations, indie record stores and local readers you have to service and create relationships with.  Yes- easier said than done but it is do-able.  Prior to this step is of course making sure you mean something in your home town so you will have a crowd to trade on with other out of town acts.

This post turned into rather random musings about releases and touring but I urge you to write out a plan and think about having a long term strategy for record releases, tours and your career in general.

Originally Posted and Written by MusicianCoaching.com 

Top 5 Music Business Mistakes of 2010 (#2)

#2 – Unreasonable Expectations

Roughly twice per day I get an email from a musician who tells me that he or she “just wants to get to the next level.”

In my head my first response is usually “Oh that’s easy just press Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right A B Select Start.”  (This got you many extra lives on the game Contra for Nintendo)  For better or for worse – there is no special code for the elusive “next level” in the music business.

This kind of message is always a bit disheartening as I am pretty sure that when I ask people who send me these messages to clarify their needs they either will not have defined it for themselves or they have just started out promoting their businesses in the last 2-3 months and they want Jay-Z’s phone number (Which I don’t have by the way).

Yes, that is absolutely an extreme example and no- I’m not suggesting that everyone out there has such a warped perspective but I do find that people unfairly compare themselves to people who have become icons.  If you look around long enough you will find that most overnight successes were not so overnight.

I was fortunate enough to work with Kid Rock in the 90s and most people remember when he arrived with his first big single “Bawitdaba”.  What most people forget (or never knew) is that ten years earlier he was signed and subsequently dropped from Jive Records, signed an indie label deal (with a label that went out of business), put out two records on his own (before such things were as turn-key as they are now) and built up a network of over 50 very active street team members all over the U.S..  Prior to “Bawitdaba” was also a single called “I am the Bull God” that only mid charted at radio and there were moments where one could feel that the culture of Atlantic Records could have gone either way in supporting (or not supporting) his career.  There is an obvious lesson in such perseverance and I know many people who would have given up over any one of those setbacks let alone the whole string of them.

Perhaps Kid Rock is another example that is too large or too exceptional.

How about this?

The majority of people I encounter don’t appreciate that it takes a long time (often many years) to get anyone to care about you or your music.  Most people need the time to get better at what they do.  It takes a ton of mistakes and gigs where you say to the crowd  “Be sure and tip your bartend…Oh…. You are the Bartenders and waitresses…” I don’t think people appreciate that those kind of gigs are the formative gigs where musicians get better at what they do.

I keep hearing the implication that the Internet was supposed to usher in this era where anyone and everyone could make a living at music.  Really?  So everyone is a rock star?  That means there is no one in the audience because everyone is on the stage.  That would all of a sudden makes my accountant a rock star…  God forbid!

This is what I’ve learned about expectations being around the business of music for the last eighteen years – I hope it takes you less time to learn these things than it took me:

1)   The artists who seemed to make a living / become well known were simply the artists who were still artists ten years later

2)   You can look around and compare and despair almost no matter who you are.  I wonder if Chris Martin from Coldplay laments that he isn’t Bono or if Bono laments that he isn’t Elvis…

3)   The awful saying “It’s a marathon – not a sprint” really does apply.  Far too often I see people blowing their budgets and wrecking their credit on high cost / short term promotional strategies over the course of weeks when better investments would be strategies that endure.

4)   People who don’t invest in their careers (with both their money and time) don’t grow their careers.

5)   Those who were consistent in their efforts tended to fare better than those who were sporadic.

Posted By Musician Coaching on December 30th, 2010

www.musiciancoaching.com

Top 5 Music Business Mistakes of 2010 (#1)

What are the top 5 Music Business Mistakes that artists in business for themselves make? This is a great question. I came across this blog and found this article helpful.

Mistake #1

Waiting

Sounds innocuous enough, right?

We should be good at waiting given all of the waiting that goes on with the craft of music.

Waiting on our fellow notoriously late collaborators, waiting on getting things tracked right in the studio, waiting to load in, waiting on sound check. There are a million things that we have to hurry up and wait for before we even get to the business side of things. This is of course not the waiting I am talking about though.

The biggest mistake I have seen in the past year (although admittedly it is certainly not unique to 2010) is that people wait on outside help to starting their businesses. Anyone who has tried to raise money can tell you that it is easier to raise money when you have momentum with a project then when you only have a blueprint and some high hopes. This is in no way saying that I think people do everything themselves. DIY in my opinion is a condition of last resort but a condition that almost all of us are stuck with at some point or another.

Keep this in mind – when you are someone looking for outside help from someone like a potential manager or an agent you have to remember that you are asking someone for their time. Given that time = money – you are in fact asking someone to invest in you and your company. When you are preparing to approach someone for help of this kind ask yourself “What would make me invest in an artist’s career?” When I ask myself this question I almost always come up with wanting to see that my time and money would be going into a business is already showing signs of life. I would want to see that in spite of or in addition to what my eyes and ears tell me that real consumers are responding to this musician’s material. Generally speaking those artists who have a spark and have a fledgling business are people who didn’t wait on outside help to get those businesses going.

I will let you in on a little insider secret – since the un-bundling of the album EVERYONE is making this shit up as they go along. There is no hard science to the initial stages of breaking new artists – it is a series of best guesses. Since no one is ever going to care about your career more than you do (at least I hope not) you may as well give it a try for yourself. Even if you fail you will no more about the job and be better qualified to find the right person who compliments your strengths and weaknesses.

There will, of course, be times when you are forced to wait for circumstances to change. It happens to all of us no matter what business we are in but I urge you to find ways of making these periods productive. No matter what major event in your career is looming large – get out and play, meet people and record as much as possible and remember – there is never going to be a perfect time to start that next phase of your career. Something will always be in your way if you let it.

Posted By Musician Coaching on December 30th, 2010

www.musiciancoaching.com

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