While the article itself does discuss the notion of whether bands from prior decades would make it today, the bulk of the article actually focuses on how artists need to look at and approach the music industry of today.  Much of the advice and observations are things that I’ve posted about before and plan to explore more fully once the site’s at 100% – ideas such as the importance of playing locally and the death of the major labels, which are prominently mentioned and are ideas that I happen to agree with.

John Hartmann, a former record company executive and manager is quoted as saying:

“If you can’t make it at home, you can’t make it anywhere,” he explained. “If you can make it at home, you can make it anywhere. You don’t need a record company, you don’t need a tour.”

Hartmann recommends concentrating on a 100-mile radius around where you live, noting that if you’re act doesn’t have an impact there, then something may be wrong.

I’ve found that artists that concentrate on where they are now and what they’re doing tend to do better than artists that try to take on the world all at once. If you’re just starting out and you obsess over national exposure and “getting signed,” then you probably won’t get either. If you set your sights on your local scene and getting exposure there, then your chances of success greatly increase… and if you make enough noise locally, someone will hear you in the larger world.

I have a teenage son who tells me his pirating music is no big deal. Since he is a musician himself, I point out to him that someday that’s going to be his money people are stealing. But he remains unphased.

He tells me the record sales make money for the record label, not the artist. He says that the artists make all their money from touring and live concerts. He thinks the pirated music promotes the concerts and therefore helps the artist make more money. I still don’t allow pirating in my house.

But tell me what you think – as artists out there having your work “shared,” are you just glad to have it being enjoyed, or does it bother you? Admittedly, he is stealing music that is recorded by major record labels, so maybe its different than the independent musician working for his living. But I’d still like to hear what you think.

Thanks,
Valerie

The good new is, you’re right.  The bad news is, you’re wrong.

You’re right in that your son shouldn’t share music and make himself prone to getting sued by the RIAA.  It seems that in going after file sharers, the record industry has created an income stream.  By taking part in file sharing, your son would be liable to pay thousands of dollars in a settlement fees to support an obsolete industry.

It sucks but it’s true.

Your son, however, is completely correct in his assertion that he is not stealing from the artist.  The truth is that the record industry has been milking the artist since it began.
The business end of the record industry essentially exists for manufacturing and distribution and that’s it.  The artist creates a product and handles most of the real heavy lifting as far as making a salable product.  Once that’s done, the rest of the industry takes it, packages it and sends it to the world for a profit.  Once they’ve done that, they begin to collect the proceeds; but the money that comes in doesn’t get split up just yet.  In fact, the initial sales of the record never really make it to the artist because the record company usually turns to the artist to recoup the costs of producing and promoting the record.
Now the term “piracy” assumes that there’s a monetary component to downloading music.  While it is true that this material is copyrighted intellectual property, your son has neither paid for it nor is he profiting from it.  If he were taking this same music, burning it to a CD and selling it, or heavily sampling it, or somehow reproducing it and calling it his own that would be piracy, bootlegging or violating a copyright.  He is simply sharing the music, which is where some of the controversy comes in.
Labels argue that this sharing eats into their bottom line.  While it may true to some small extent, chances are that a track downloaded from a file sharing or torrent site would not have been otherwise bought by the person doing the downloading.  It’s simple math really; the typical file sharer might download several thousand songs, the majority of which they would probably never have purchased due to how much it would cost.  A typical downloader might download an entire album that contains one song that they know or like just to see if they’d be into the rest of the album.

Back in the day, before I owned an iPod and could sample and buy individual songs on iTunes, I bought countless CDs because I got into one or two songs and wanted to check out the band.  Sometimes it was worth it and sometimes it wasn’t.  The thing is, I couldn’t afford to do this with every song that I liked and I had to pick and choose the albums that I bought.  Often, I tried to get recommendations from friends or I’d keep my ears open for other tracks from the album (it helped when record stores started adding open listening stations).  While I bought a fair amount of music, I couldn’t afford to buy it all – and since I go to live shows as often as I can, would it have benefitted some bands if I could have given them a chance in my record collection?

Many bands are experimenting with various models that include providing free downloads of their album.  Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails released his album, The Slip as a free download with a collectable version that was later sold.  The album made enough to cover costs and even turned a profit.  Radiohead also had some success releasing their album with a name your own price model with more standard releases afterward.  Again, they were able to cover costs and turn a profit.
So to sum it up, you shouldn’t let your son download music on peer-to-peer networks for the simple reason that he might get sued, he’s not really “stealing” from any artists, the music that gets downloaded usually doesn’t get bought and the industry will probably end up giving the music away in the long run.  I hope that clears up the situation as it currently stands.

… And may your son have widespread demand for his music be his largest problem.

Depending on what exactly you are searching for you should find an excellent music consultant. There are companies locally that are available to assist you in determining what music would best suit you, or how to best go about presenting your music you have either written or had written for you. Your performance is directly related to your ability and your presentation and if you have someone that is qualified in that aspect, it will help to move your career further ahead in the right direction that much faster.

The ins and outs of the music industry can be extremely overwhelming to the layman and offers no respite to singers and performers alike, regardless of your talent. You need a music industry consultant to help you understand everything you will be involved in and help you keep a fresh perspective on what will be involved in your journey to the top. With their help and assistance you will be able to better understand everything surrounding your endeavors. Although they can only show you the way to a certain limit, their input will be helpful toward setting your goals and accomplishing them.

Looking at things from the other end of the business spectrum, engaging the assistance of a music business consultant is another excellent way of getting a handle on the music industry from a business perspective to better fulfill any goals you are trying to achieve. There are various fronts to the business aspect of music, and knowing the right people can raise your chances of succeeding. The business end of show business can be confusing, but hiring the right consultant can put you in a better place to understand and use the benefits to move up and forward toward the career you desire.

Keep these in mind when you are beginning your music, singing, or acting career. There will be many ups and downs during your journey, why make them any more difficult than necessary?

About The Author

Ty Cohen
Platinum Millennium Publishing
PO Box 644
Garner, NC 27529

Ty@PlatinumMillennium.com
1-866-752-9968
Want Free Music Biz Advice?

Who else wants to receive free advice from “Mr X”, a man who has helped artist such as New Edition, Madonna, Quincy Jones, Puff Daddy, Prince and More, including up an comers just like you, to sell nearly 150 Gold & Platinum Albums Worldwide!

Now he wants to help you, by offering you private consulting as well as giving you a free copy of his audio CD “7 Golden Secrets to Succeeding in the Music Industry” Visit http://www.MusicBizCenter.com/freecd1 to get your free CD mailed out to you right now.

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If U2 makes this kind of deal, along with the Stones and Madonna, soon all bets will be off at the majors over long term or heritage artists. The Eagles are already on their own through Wal-Mart, Paul McCartney, James Taylor, Carly Simon and Joni Mitchell have jumped to Starbucks Hear Music, and Radiohead deserted EMI for their own company.

It’s a sign of the times, really. The economics of the business are changing and people are starting to realize it. You need to start handling your music career differently than you would have in the past. Why waste your time or energy trying to make things happen the old way when you could work smart the right way and take things into your own hands?

So, I found a link to a music promotion course that features a long bit of sales copy stating much of what I preach. Now, I’m not endorsing this course; mainly because I haven’t actually taken it, but I think the copy is worth a read.

If there’s one thing I’ve noticed it is that people seem to like a second opinion. If this helps to sway you to the dark side then so much the better. The point here is that
you need to understand the paradigm shift that’s going on and get in the position to take advantage of it. While I’m not fan of sensational clams (yet another reason I’m not endorsing this program), there is still a message that you need to her. So check out the copy and think it over.

…and if you do buy this course and there’s something to it let me know and I’ll look into it.

Disclosure/Update

As you can see from the comments section, I did in fact receive access to this course and several other courses on Mark Joyner’s Simpleology site, which are still available to me to this day.  I have not received any further compensation beyond access to these courses from Mr. Joyner or his associated companies.  While I have reviewed the course personally, I have no intention of posting any further coverage of the course on this site.  Please note that I DID NOT receive access to these courses prior to writing the original post and the original post was merely a link to the product’s ad copy, which contains comments about the music industry and Independent music that I happen to agree with. The course, however is not endorsed by myself or RockStar Machine, LLC.

This is a great service because if you have a professional looking setup (ie. a website, a press kit, a record, etc.), you’ll be able to project your band as a serious act and maybe get some coverage in the music media.

The reason I stress being professional is that the people that receive these releases get several of them all the time. Services like this make it easy for anyone to send them anything that they want and the majority of what that they get is unprofessional crap.

You need to distinguish yourself and the best way to do this is to put your best face on when you make contact. You should only send out a press release if you have something news worthy to promote. If you’re touring, releasing a record or have something else to publicize you can and should issue a press release. You shouldn’t send one out if you just finished a demo or formed a new band – this is bush league and the people that are neck deep in the business don’t have the time.

In running a music related site I can tell you that there are people out there that don’t much care where they’re sending things, they just send them. If you’re reading this site, you probably know that it is a music promotion site, yet I get countless form e-mails from musicians that ask for reviews or stories about their new demo. Besides having these e-mails sent to me with less than a thought about who they were actually sending them to, they failed to send out anything worth writing about. No one who can do anything about a great undiscovered band has the time to seek out every undiscovered band to see if they’re great. You need to impress them or you’re wasting your time.

If you’re having trouble figuring out what to release, think about the bands that you see covered in the music press. Not the Amy Whinehouse-tabloid end, but the business side. They get coverage for all of the business end stuff.

As for writing the release, you can also have them write it for you if you’re not up to it. This is probably best if you aren’t much of a writer or if you don’t know anyone who can write. The press release is written much like a news story and can look amateurish if not done well. There are many books on the subject, but if you need to get your release done and out it’s worth checking out their writing service.

So if you have your act together, and you have something worthwhile to promote, check out Beat Wire.

1. Real music management agencies will never, ever ask you for money up front. Managers make commission on their clients’ earnings, and experienced managers understand that an unknown artist doesn’t have much money. By taking on “developmental clients,” music management agencies cultivate both business and goodwill that they hope will pay off when an artist enjoys a modest breakthrough. On the other hand, fly-by-night music management agencies run by rip-off artists know that there are plenty of talented people who are willing to believe that a fee of a few hundred dollars will get them attention from record labels and from radio stations. While it’s legitimate for a very small music management agency to ask for a small retainer to cover overhead expenses, this fee should be negotiated in advance and should be billed after the agency has done some work on a client’s behalf.

2. Real music management agencies can point you in the direction of successful clients, or can admit that they’re still so new that they haven’t had any breakout stars on their roster. Believe it or not, some of the most influential music managers of the last five decades had little or no experience in the music business. They just had the drive and the stamina to do great work for equally talented clients.

Meanwhile, you can tell most rip-off music management agencies by looking at their web sites or at their offices. If your potential managers seem to have collected hundreds of “grip and grin” photographs of themselves with some major stars, ask whether the manager did any actual work with that artist, or whether the just love to snap photos at industry “meet and greet” events. Many Nashville con artists stuff their offices full of artist photos to deliberately overwhelm the senses – and the judgment – of potential victims.

3. Real music management agencies handle business at the office, not at the gig. Professional music managers understand that live shows are the best possible marketing opportunities for bands to grow their audience and sell their merchandise. After all, the more money a band makes, the more money a music manager makes. Professional managers will, most often, grab some contact information from a band member or from the merchandise table, so they can make contact during business hours.

Unfortunately, many bands get taken in by the rip-off music manager that trades on the adrenaline rush after a live set. These scam artists often slide up to the stage right after a set, buying drinks (or even supplying drugs) to their targets. They play off the notion that many musicians love to party, and that signing with their (bogus) music management agency can lead to plenty more party nights. Before long, the so-called manager has snagged a hefty retainer, which they usually use to fund parties with their new marks.

Remember, professional music management agencies recruit new clients based on measurable results, not just based on a band’s performance at one club night or at one music conference. Just as sporting talent scouts keep an eye on potential pro athletes throughout their high school and college careers, real music management agencies may be watching your band grow from a distance. In the meantime, rely on your friends, your family, and your street team to provide the foundation you need to attract the right professional manager for your career.

About The Author

Joe Taylor Jr. has written four books about the music business for aspiring musicians, including Music Management for the Rest of Us. You can learn more about finding professional music management agencies at: http://www.musicmanagementfortherestofus.com/agencies/

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In contributing money, the fan buys a stake in the album; in other words, they buy a chance to invest in the album, and share in the profits from its sale. This would typically be a small-scale investment, and not enough to get rich off of, but fans of a band can contribute with minimal loss to that band if they believe it will help them progress.

There are a lot of stories out there of bands funding recordings and tours in this matter, typically in the punk scene, but it seems that this newer, more formalized version is starting to make some waves.

Earlier this year, BusinessWeek did an article on this new phenomenon, that’s largely been taking place on the internet. This article mentions several crowdsourcing projects that have popped up, however the projects they featured were not musical in nature. About a week ago they published a new article on crowdsourcing, which focused on SellABand.com.

The SellABand.com concept works like this – a band signs up on the site, fans pay in $10 increments to buy piece in the band. The money raised is held in escrow until the amount of $50,000 is raised, at which time SellABand.com will help the band find a producer and fund their recording. After the songs are recorded SellABand.com posts the songs online charging $.50 each, and splits the proceeds between the band, the fans that invested and the site (and even 1/3 each).

The investment aspect, wherein people are paid a portion of the proceeds for their initial funding of the project, is basically what goes on in the music business. Major labels take a large piece of a record in exchange for funding its recording, producing the record and distributing it.

SellABand.com does offer to sell CDs, however, if you want copies for yourself or to sell it shows, you have to buy them at full price from SellABand. You do get a royalty for every CD sold (as do the fans that sponsored the recording), and if you plan to resell the CDs at your shows, you can recoup your loss.

While you are giving a portion of your royalties away, you are getting a high-quality professionally produced recording of your music. You have to weigh the pros and cons with a service like this. Giving away part of your royalties and CD sale profits might sound unappealing to some, but it’s better than giving away a piece of your profit to a record company that will also take recoupable losses out of your end, and erode your piece of the action to nothing.

For all intents and purposes, you could set up this type of arrangement by yourself and offer a piece of the profit directly to the fans. While you would have more control over the record and its handling, you’d also have to be able to organize the handling of the royalties that are issued to your fans. If you stayed with $50,000 in $10 increments that would mean issuing 5000 checks every time a royalty was due. On top of that you would still have to handle the recording and production of your album, as well as its sales and marketing. That can be a lot of work.

Like with every music service, you need to do your due diligence before signing up. If the model seems right to you, you find the terms acceptable, you’ve read the fine print, and you understand the arrangement thoroughly, you should still proceed with caution.

Registration at music forum communities is generally free, however, the more prominent and private communities charge nominal fees for memberships. To find the right forum community for you, we suggest you go to a popular search engine like Google (www.google.com) or Yahoo (www.yahoo.com) and perform a search on “music forums”. Browse the search engine results one by one, and keep in mind that each forum community has its own mission, theme, guidelines, and attitude. After visiting a few music forum communities, you will quickly learn that not all music forums are the same. Taking your time in finding the right community is key because you will want time spent to be an investment and not a waste. To help you find the right music forums for your needs, Artistopia offers the below suggestions. Note that at the end of each suggestion below, an explanation is provided on how it applies to the development and maturing process of an artist in the music industry.

1. Carefully select a forum community you can settle into for the long haul. Take your time researching them by reading existing posts, and making sure conversations, and music styles, meet your learning goals and objectives before making your selection. Relation to professional development: Finding the right music company or business that will develop you thoroughly is key to helping you mature in the business properly. Always know that haste makes waste.

2. Focus on building a well-respected reputation within the forum community. A reputation in any forum community is earned by a member’s cumulative interactions and contributions over time, and not within a few posts. Keep your reputation untarnished because repairing any damage done to it is always twice as hard as building it in the first place. Relation to professional development: Your reputation as an artist in the music industry is your integrity, and tarnishing it could lead to alienation and possible ousting. Wounded lions drag the rest of the pride down.

3. Keep your posts clean, respectful, and productive no matter what direction the conversation or message thread takes. It will be tough to contain yourself at times, but learn to exercise patience and calculated response tactics. Misunderstandings often happen in forums, and when they do, you will need to know when to respond and when not to. Relation to professional development: Being an artist in a multi-billion dollar music industry is a job and not a party. Learn to be professional at all times and costs.

4. Be careful not to offend senior members and administrators. Forums tend to foster loyalty amongst the members, so measure each word in your posts and focus on being productive, not destructive. Egos and arrogance need not apply because no one knows it all. Smooth over the senior members with wit and intelligence, and you will receive a warm welcome. Relation to professional development: Simple, offend the wrong music professional and it could mean your career. Be open to constructive criticism and always yearn to learn from all those around you.

5. Use the forums to “subtly” promote your personal website or Artistopia profile, which will give you more exposure (brand name building) and help drive your overall numbers (song downloads, profile views, etc.). Most forum administrators frown upon direct promotions and blatant advertising, but they will allow you to represent the website you are from. Always consider yourself a visitor and respect the guidelines set forth because administrators will ban without hesitation. Relation to professional development: Identify and exercise all marketing opportunities that will promote your artistic talent without igniting a turf war. Know your boundaries and how far you can push it by thinking with your head, and not with your heart.

6. Make full use of the signature functionality in forum communities to brand yourself, especially by putting a slogan, a quote, a banner, or a link that points to your Artistopia profile or personal website. This is permissible at most music forum communities, and is helpful for others in learning more about you when reading your posts. Relation to professional development: Every professional artist is known for a signature of some sort, even if it’s lyrics, beats, looks, or wardrobe amongst many other aspects of branding. Start thinking of yourself as a brand that sells and start establishing your market or niche. Become known for something distinct and keep building on it.

7. Engage the readers by articulating your ideas intelligently, making sure your posts are flawless of grammar and spelling mistakes, leaving out slang terms and not using excessive caps, and ensuring your writing flows smoothly. Readers are quick to place judgments based on your ability to write and communicate your thoughts effectively. Relation to professional development: The music industry is about building your fan base and keeping them. Gain their confidence by displaying the ability to walk the walk and talk the talk, professionally and effectively. Let them know through actions that your position in the industry was earned and not handed to you overnight.

8. Frequent the forums and post messages on regular basis. Appearing often will demonstrate your loyalty to the community, and your resolve to building your name and reputation. More importantly, you will be consistently marketing yourself time and time again. Members that disappear for long periods of time are perceived for not being focused or serious about their agenda in the community. Relation to professional development: Half of the battle to making it in the music industry is keeping your brand afloat and marketable. Being a star is the farthest thing from a walk in the park or a picnic. Stars have to do many performances, appearances, interviews, and anything else that will put them in front of a camera to keeping their brand alive. Absence will deplete your popularity.

9. Network, collaborate, and create as many contacts as possible. Do not be afraid to step out of the forum community box and work in-person on projects with fellow artists, musicians, and songwriters you meet in these forums. More importantly, always fish out and befriend members that you feel will further your agenda. Do not hesitate to share your ideas with other members, because if you don’t you will be isolating yourself. Relation to professional development: The music business is about who you know and being at the right place at the right time. To increase your chances of unearthing opportunities, collaborate with as many peers and professionals as you can. You never know who will open the door for you.

10. Do not spread yourself too thin by participating in more than 2 forum communities. Stay focused on establishing your presence and building a reputation in a few places only. Diligent research up-front will lead to wise decisions on the forums you elect to settle in with. Relation to professional development: Productivity is key, especially when you aren’t getting paid. Start small and build your way up. Every single decision you make, no matter how small, will impact your overall progress. Learn the politics of the music business and use them to perfection.

Building a presence in any forum community can challenge the most open-minded socialite mankind can offer. However, by exercising the above suggestions, you can be sure you are not marching in blindly. Exercise each of these suggestions in moderation, be patient as it will take time to build up your reputation, and always act professional so others can respect you. Forums will ultimately teach you people skills and politics.

Once you perfect the above forum tactics, then it is time to move on and fish out real life music circles by attending networking happy hours, conventions and conferences, and any other gatherings that congregate music artists and professionals in one place. Most important is for you to keep in mind that being a music artist in this business is a job and not a party. Good luck and tread safe!

About The Author

Artistopia – The Ultimate Artist Development Resource http://www.artistopia.com is an artist development and community on the web providing music artists, songwriters and bands all the tools needed for displaying their talent, music business collaboration, marketing and networking. Online since 2003, Artistopia develops advanced technology solutions that leverage the Internet to both the music artist and music companies respective advantage.

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For your music career, if done right, it could reap significant rewards.

So what is networking? It’s really just making connections and reinforcing them. You meet people all the time and when you have something in common, you develop a relationship. It is through these relationships that people help each other out and turn each other on to things that might be useful.

For instance; say you play a show and meet another band on the bill. You hit it off and spend the rest of the night hanging out with them at the bar. It seems like these guys are cool, so you decide to keep in touch and you get their contact info and give them yours.

Weeks later, you get a call from that other band and they tell you that they’ve been included on a compilation that a local music publication is putting together and they’re looking for one more local band to finish the comp. You call the publication, get on the compilation, become wildly popular and are asked to play the local stadium.

OK, maybe the stadium bit went a little far, but that’s what a typical networking scenario is like. It’s people helping people. If you needed help, you could always open up your phonebook and make a call. If people can help and they consider you a friend, they will help you. Often the person giving help is in a position to do so with little effort. In the example above, the other band had already been included in the compilation and they learned that there was another open spot. It didn’t take more than a phone call with some info to help your band get involved; just a little effort on their part makes a huge difference to your band.

Keep in mind that this isn’t one sided; you need to help people too, and it should come from a genuine place. Not to sound all Oprah here, but I really find that you get what you put out. If you keep in touch with those you meet and you will find times when you can help them and they will do the same.

So what types of scenarios can networking help you with?

Getting gigs, meeting industry contacts, getting included on compilations, getting press, putting together DIY shows, getting turned on to new resources – the list goes on and on. Can you build websites? A band you meet might need one, and if you can build a site quickly it’d be far easier for you to help them then for them to do it themselves. The opposite is also true; you can ask someone who builds sites to help you out if you don’t know how to. These are some of the things that come up, if you can help you should, if you need help you should ask.

As you progress, you’ll discover things that will help other musicians and be able to make those connections that help build music communities. Even the occasional helpful hint sent in an e-mail could make a difference to someone. SELF PROMOTION ALERT – if you find a post on this site helpful, you can always send a link to a friend in another band (if you were a nice person that wanted to help me out for all the educational posts that I write).

In short, you should work on building and strengthening your network. Keep in regular contact and try to send out a little help when you can. If they ask for a favor and you can help do it; when you need help, you only need ask. Don’t be surprised if help starts flowing in without asking – friends are like that.