We need to quit ‘sugar coating’ the music business. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great business, as long as you understand the bottom lines.  Most artist or at leas the ones I communicate with frequently do not understand the amount of time & work one must commit to to become successful.

It’s sad that most artist are seeking what they think is  that ‘golden parachute’, a label deal. Which really tells me, how uninformed they are about where the state of the music business is heading. The internet & technology are making it possible to be successful without having to deal with what Major labels are now offering  their rip off  “360 Deals”. Label deals, today, must be a WIN/WIN for all parties involved, or they should be passed on. Most artist have no ideal about what’s going on, in the business side of music, therefore they sign many years of their careers away to what they think is ‘stardom’.

Having an unlimited budget will help move your career  along at a faster pace, but, no amount of money will guarantee you of artistic or business success in this business.

Artist will only become successful when they fully understand the difference between friends & true blue fans.  TBF are what generate the income for them to continue to tour & have funds in the bank to pay expenses.  How many TBF will move your career towards success?  For our clients we suggest a mininium of 5,000 & prefer 10,000 to insure supporting a band, your music team, & all associated expenses required to move towards success. Remember, on average, each TBF will spend $100 / year on your shows & your merchandise.  How does an artist get to these numers of TBF? How about starting with 1 & asking them to find a minimium of 5 more, etc.  If this is done religiously, in 3-5 years, you fan base will be at these levels.  Yes there are many ways of accomplising this, which will be detailed in another article.

Many of the artist on My Space don’t have bands; they have no idea how many songs they need to do a 1,2,3,4,5 hour gig; they don’t have a standardized play list; they don’t know enough songs that will enable them to customize their play list according to what the venue owners expect for their clientele; they don’t have a following; they don’t understand most venue owners could care less about how great they can sing, instead the venue owners want to see how many fans dance to each song you play, which leads to more sales; so on and on.

It’s time every artist understand the music business, both the art & the business side. It can be very rewarding as long as each artist & their band know  the amount of work they must do each day to keep the wheels of their music machine turning in the direction of success.

No matter how great a musician you have if they are not willing to do their fair share of work to promote you & your music, cut them, they are not team members & have no right to any of the successes you achieve through you hard work.

Success equals:

1. Good Singer/Singers

2. Great Entertainer  (Including band members)

3. Good/Great Songs

3.1 Songs must make a connection
3.2 Songs must creates moments

4. Fans that support & show up (having 20,000 fans on My Space that don’t show up or buy your tunes, equals very little success, it does however waste a lot of your creative time)

5. Great team around you…this includes your band.

and

Don’t forget how important it is to have a knowledge sound person/engineer….acknowledge them, thank them, they are one of the unsung people in the music business that are so important to putting on a successful show.

and

Don’t forget to experiment with mics. Yes the Shure 58′s have been the workhorses of the industry for many years, but, great workhorses need to be retired at some point…that is if you want your sound person/engineer to deliver the best sound possible to your audiences/fans.  What mics do we recomemnd?  Basically any that improves the quality of your voice through the sound board. We do know there are mics. that work better for females than males. Any example would be the Electoro Voice ND-967. Just make sure the artist knows how to use it properly & the sound engineer knows where it’s cutoff limits are, so he can adust this mic’s channel properly on the board.

–End

Reply 2009.01.03 at 08:24 AM