Mistake #10: Not having a compelling image that is congruent with your music

Most musicians (and bands) severely underestimate the importance of their image. Yes, music is about ‘music’, but music business success is about a total package that includes music, image and visual stage show among other things that need to be fully developed in a congruent way.

Photo credit: Ryan Russell

Mistake #9: Trying to ‘get your name out there’

Although this seems to be a main goal of most musicians and bands, it is the wrong approach to start with. Before trying to be seen and heard as much as possible, it is often more important to focus on ‘converting’ the people who hear and see you into becoming actual fans. This ‘conversion’ is the first key to your promotional success, NOT getting seen or heard as much as possible.

Mistake #8: Believing that social media websites are the keys to online music promotion for musicians and bands

Social media websites are a tool. They are ONE piece of the online music marketing puzzle. Music industry companies (record labels, artist managers, booking agents, etc.) are far more interested in the popularity of YOUR website, not how many friends you have at MySpace, YouTube, Facebook or any other website that you do not own and control. Want to impress the industry with your band’s promotion? Build your website traffic.

Mistake #7: Not investing enough time into building your music career

Most musicians spend most of their time on music, but put very little effort into the many other critical elements needed to make it in the music business. If you are already a talented musician, you should invest at least 50% of your time into starting or advancing your music career. If you are still developing your musical skills, you should still invest around 25% of your ‘music’ time into building a future music career.

Mistake #6: Surrounding yourself with people who are negative, lazy and lack ambition

If you are very serious about becoming a professional musician and building a great career in music, then you absolutely must surround yourself with like-minded musicians.

Mistake #5: Having merely mediocre live performing skills

Many musicians, who are not yet in a good band, put off developing their live performing and stage presence skills. This is a big reason why talented musicians don’t get into really good bands that they audition for. Your music may be good, but a live ‘show’ requires more than great music. If people only wanted to hear the music, they would listen to you at home. Both fans and record labels want (and expect) to see a REAL show. Neglecting this area results in talented musicians and bands becoming quickly forgotten.

Mistake #4: Focusing on increasing the ‘quantity’ of fans instead of the ‘intensity’ of your fans

The ‘number’ of fans you have should always be your secondary focus (not your primary one) if you want to become successful in the music industry. The fact is, it is not the number of ‘fans’ that matters most, it’s the number of FANATICS which will contribute more directly to your success (or lack of it). This is particularly true in the beginning of a band’s music career. Focus more effort on converting your existing fans into raving fanatics. Learn to do this and the number of your overall fans will increase through powerful word of mouth.

Photo credit: weheartit.com

Mistake #3: Not enough cash flow to support your music career

Like it or not, it takes money to build a music career. Even if other people/companies are paying for your record, tour support, merchandise, etc. you still need to have the freedom to pursue opportunities as they come. Sadly, many musicians miss opportunities because they can’t afford to take advantage of them.In addition to a decent income, you also need the flexibility of being able to take time away from that income source to go into the studio, go on tour, etc. That is why learning how to teach guitar is such a great way to achieve both if you learn how to become a highly successful guitar teacher.

Mistake #2: Not enough depth in your music relationships

There’s an old expression, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” In music this is often modified to, “It’s not who you know, it’s who knows you.” The truth is, it’s not about either. The most important aspect of connections within the music industry is how deep are the current relationships you have now and will develop in the future. You don’t want to simply know people or be known, you want people who know you to have a real deep connection with you so that you are always on the top of their mind when opportunities present themselves. Ask yourself, “What can I do right now to deepen my existing relationships further on an ongoing basis?”

Mistake #1: Having a fundamental misunderstanding about what record companies look for – and expect from new bands

This is a huge topic, but in a nutshell it’s very useful to think of record companies like a bank that lends money to people or small businesses. Record companies make most of their decisions about whom they will work with and what the terms will be in much the same way that a bank will determine who they will loan money to and what the terms of the loan will be. Both record companies and banks basically want to see 3 things:

1. How much value do you bring to the deal right now.
2. How much risk do you bring with you right now.
3. How much potential value and risk might you bring to them in the future after they invest in you.

If you want to buy a house, the bank wants to know a lot about the specific house you want to buy and EVEN MORE about YOU. Record companies are the exact same, they want to know about your music, your talent and your band, but they also care as much (or more) about YOU (and your band mates) as people. What about YOU makes a record deal a good or bad investment for them.

About the author: Tom Hess is a highly successful guitar teacher, professional touring guitarist and recording artist. He mentors musicians online to develop their own professional music careers and provides free music career resources.

The game, based on the Katrina & The Waves‘ hit “Walking On Sunshine,” has been developed by Primary Wave Music publishing company and features the premier of a newly recorded version of “Walking On Sunshine” by the South African Soweto Gospel Choir. It is available for purchase on the iPhone for 99 cents and a free demo flashed-based version is available on the Primary Wave Games website.

Walking On Sunshine

The app’s concept isn’t too deep, but not that simple either – having an environmental (!) angle. Gray clouds have covered the sky and prevented the sunlight from breaking through. Slowly, all the beauty and life is fading from The Earth. In order to complete each level, players must swipe away clouds to reveal the sun behind. By collecting sunlight (kilowatts) players help replenish and re-grow the beauty and vitality of four distinct climates of Earth.

California artist Nathan J. Crow designed the game graphics. The game includes Facebook connectivity allowing players to share scores with friends, and the levels feature unlockable content which reveal exclusive album covers, photos and sketches from Katrina and The Waves.

This thing kept me interested for a while, but checking out the demo might be enough for you. If you are a fan – then buy the app without further thinking.

What I loved in this news (besides the tender emotion after playing the game) is that more and more music companies invest in their own divisions responsible for creating games and apps, instead of outsourcing such development tasks. “Walking on Sunshine,” for example, is a creation of Primary Wave Games, a division under Primary Wave Music.

And after all, having a LoFi branded mobile app is ten times better than having no app at all.

For part one of the series, go here.

Band 1

Image credit: Nirazilla on Flickr

The first band put together their own show and instead of teaming up with another band, they hired a small group of (very attractive) women dancers to perform on the stage as the opening act. It was announced (before and during) the show that these women and the band would be hanging out with the audience ‘after’ the show at a nearby hotel lobby. People enjoyed the show and the activities that followed later. The key piece of success for the band was that they heavily promoted the event as ‘special’ and promoted the dancers (including embedded dancer videos on the band’s and club’s website) in as many places as possible. They worked very hard to promote the uniqueness of this show and told people very clearly how ‘this show’ was better and more special than previous shows. It didn’t take long for the promotion to go viral in the area. The final result: The club was packed!

During the opening song and the band’s final song the dancers came out and danced on stage, then moved into the crowd for a while and danced there too. The dancers were smart when they had the idea to integrate their act with the bands act on and off stage. They made real connections with the crowd as they mingled with them at the show and also afterwards. Both the band and the dancers did something really good for themselves. Instead of just putting on a good show and making the audience have a good time, they put a strong desire in the minds of many people there to come see them again and again.

This band did similar shows with these (and other) dancers as well as comedians and other acts (both musical and non musical) to keep their shows different from each other so that people would not only get off their butts to come to see the band for the first time, but also for a second, third, fourth, fifth and more times.

Band 2

I recently saw a second band play in Chicago. Their show also had other ‘acts’ that were not bands, including a pair of very attractive fire eating women who the crowd went absolutely crazy for. The only problem was there were only about 100 people in the venue to see the show (the club can hold up to 1,300 people).

The band knew the audience would love the show, but they failed to promote it well and differently than how they promoted their past shows. So at the end of the night they had 100 people who might come back to see them again. Had they promoted the event as the first band did, they would have had several hundred people coming back to see them again.

Had the show been promoted and organized more similarly to the way the first band had done, they would have several hundred people coming back to see them again at their next shows which would then almost be a guaranteed success (at least on the local level)…

It’s very important that your shows are unique from each other and not necessarily unique from what other bands do. In addition, the most crucial lesson to be learned is all of your ‘promotion’ needs to highlight each of your shows as unique, different and special events. It’s not enough for your shows to actually be unique, you need to always communicate that uniqueness in all of your heavy promotion.

What about your band? Well, I’m not suggesting to simply copy what the other bands did above. I’m suggesting for you to think a lot about what your band can do to make your gigs more unique and special for your fans. So talk with your band mates and brainstorm new ideas that may work for you. To learn more ideas, you can download this free eBook about getting more people to come to your band’s future gigs.

Tom Hess is a professional musician, recording artist and mentors other musicians from around the world to expand or start a music career.

If your band plays 25 gigs this year, how many of your friends/fans will come to see more than 4 of these? A very small percentage. Why?

It’s (probably) not you, it’s them. Let’s find out why and what you can do about it.

When you ask your friends/fans to come to your next live show and see you play, what are you really asking them to do? Are you asking them to watch and listen to you perform your cool songs? No.

In reality, you are really asking people to travel all the way to some dirty club where they need to pay to get in the door. Then they will find themselves surrounded by intoxicated people who scream in one’s ears because the music is too loud to talk, pay for overpriced drinks (and bad food), stand (or sit if they can find a chair) through an opening band they likely have little or no interest in, then wait again an additional 15 minutes as the stage changes from one band to the next, then finally they get to stand through 90 minutes of your band’s cool songs in a room that is booming with muddy bass frequencies because the sound man does not know how to properly mix bands in a room that was never acoustically designed to have loud music played in. After the show is over they leave the club and drive home with their ears ringing and a headache.

So if that’s what you ask them to do the first time, they come out to see you play… What are you asking them to do the second time? … And the third time? The same thing of course.

Photo credit: zestrokes.tumblr.com

Compare that with going to see a movie. You go to the nearest theater, you buy a ticket, you ‘sit’ through 5 minutes of previews, then you watch the movie. Afterwards you are home in maybe 15 minutes.

Or compare going to see your band’s live show with staying at home and watching TV, listening to music, surfing the internet, or a long list of other pleasurable, easy and convenient things people can do.

The point is this: people have easier, and more convenient alternatives to have fun next weekend besides coming to see you (or any other band) play live.

As you can see, musicians fight an uphill battle to fill the venues we are performing at. We have a lot of work to do in order to get people off their butts to see your band’s next live show.

Your friends and fans really need to know if it’s going to be worth all the hassle described above before coming out again to see basically the same show a second, or third, or fourth time.

You first need to create a better and more unique experience for your fans from one show to the next. Some bands change the songs they play from show to show. Changing the set list does help a little bit, but you need to do more than that to really change what your fans will expect to experience.

Some bands try to be uniquely different from other bands. You don’t need to be different from other bands, you need to be a good band that puts on gigs which are often unique from each other! People need new reasons to come back to see you again and again. Download this free eBook about getting more people to come to your band’s future gigs.

Think about what your band can do to make your shows unique from each other. Then, once you have ideas in place that will make your next show more special for your audience, you need to clearly and strongly communicate this to people.

Read part two of “How To Get More People To Come To Your Live Shows” here tomorrow.

Tom Hess is a professional musician, recording artist and mentors other musicians from around the world to expand or start a music career.

Josh's mega, mega justification

Ohhhhhh Boy! I can’t wait for it to arrive! It matches my yellow and black Nike’s (courtesy of my mama)

“Doc, is it bad that I bought a guitar to match my shoes?”
“No, son, it’s called having an image.”

I can no longer justify guitars as tax breaks, even though they are. I am writing this one off in my mind as a necessary expense of visibility, which is what I’d like to discuss today.

I learned a lesson the easy way last year when I was playing my first stadium gig. OK, I was one of many local musicians playing at a sub-minor league stadium for a charity event, and only a smattering of people noticed me, but – there were close to three thousand people there, and I did get to say “What’s up, Waldorf? Are you ready to ro000ccck?”

One of my buddies said he showed up, and saw my rig set up from across the stadium. He wasn’t sure it was mine, but then saw the Plutonium orange Ibanez RG and said “oh yeah, that’s Josh’s setup.”

Visibility, be it literally, such as highway safety colored guitars, or from a multitude of positive interactions with people, is something worth boosting. Get out there and shake hands (and don’t give ‘em the dead fish grip), look people in the eye, and say “Hi, I’m here to rock your face off. Hope you enjoy!”

What can you start doing right now to boost your image in the industry and the scene?

Here’s what I’m doing – maybe you’ll get some ideas (remember, I have an over-the-top persona, blending close to a musical comedian). I know they’re specific, and may only work for me. Take it with a grain of NaCl2 (salt).

• Zany colored guitars. I’ve got the M-16 (photos coming soon; friend me on Facebook in the meantime to see it there), and the Tiger is on the way. I plan on spray painting a strat, and that’ll be my AK-47. Add that orange Ibanez, and I’m literally visible from space, bro!
• Shoes. Talk about a great conversation starter, and something for people to remember you by. My current favorites are a pair of Nike’s that match the Tiger guitar (yellow, with a black swoosh). I’ve gotten money playing street music because people liked my lime green wrestling shoes. Ironically, they walked away when I started playing, which was discouraging, but hey, I got the buck!
• Positive, professional interactions. Be polite, be on time, smell nice, thank people after the gig, and be that consummate pro that you’re striving to be.
• Talking to the crowd. It’s just fun! People seem to like it, too. Hey, it makes me feel like a million bucks. For all my cynical comments, I genuinely like people, and connecting with them from the stage, including them in the music, lifts the whole room to a better place. Are you ready to ROCK?!
• Stupid props. I’ve got a cordless drill a la Paul Gilbert (check it out on YouTube) that alternate picks really fast, and makes a cool sound with the pickups! Now that’s 9.6 volts of pure memories.
• Of course, playing good! I’m working so hard on writing, playing, and putting on the best show that I can. For me, time onstage has helped me a lot. Practice does indeed make perfect, or at least a good rock show. Well, I’m gettin’ there. I’ve come far enough to see how far I’d like to go!
• Free stuff. I’m working on my marketing strategy right now… OK, just pondering it. But it seems that an investment into free stuff like stickers, CDs, etc, is probably the best advertising budget. I’m not sure yet, and I’ll report back to you when I figure it out.

Hopefully these actions gave you a few ideas of your own. The point is – take action! All the World’s a stage… Own it!

Hey, maybe visibility can be my mega, mega justification of my new guitar on the way. Can you see me now? World, are you ready to ROCK?!

This is a guest blog post by Josh Urban. Josh is a musician with a unique perspective on music. Always a thinker, he gains insight wherever he can find it, be it in the clubs as a working musician, busking on the city streets, or teaching in the classroom. A naturally enthusiastic fellow, he is always fired up about bringing the lessons he’s learned to his readers. Maintaining a website, a blog, and a monthly newsletter, he aims to make musicians stop, think, and play with a little more intensity, integrity, and inspiration. You never know who’s listening.

Remember when you’re talking with music execs that your band is like a company. You have to convince them that you are worth investing in, and you do that by talking in business terms. Any executive is going to be impressed by someone who knows what the record label is looking for and possesses it in abundance.

1. Your music doesn’t mesh with this record company

Photo credit: tumblr.com/tumblelog/teemafia

The structure of a record company is actually a funny thing; even though we think of record labels as being huge, monolithic structures, they aren’t quite that. When people talk of getting signed to a major label record deal, they usually aren’t specifically referring to one of these labels (EMI, Sony, Warner, Universal). What they are usually referring to is a contract with one of the sub-labels that the major owns.

Major labels operate in such a way that that the chief label is usually more of a holding group than anything else. They have various kinds of labels underneath them, to specialize in certain types of music. Most major labels have smaller labels that specialize in rap, R&B, country, and rock. Your job is to find a label that focuses on your own musical direction. Do a little research. If you’re a death metal act, send your demo in to a label that specializes in metal. Match your strengths with theirs, and you become more attractive to the company. There’s also the added advantage of fewer levels of bureaucracy to wade through at a smaller label.

2. You don’t have a distinct identity

Photo credit: Emerson Merrick on Flickr

Who are you exactly? What do you play? What kind of people do you appeal to? These are the types of questions that you have to answer to appeal to record labels. If you’re torn between metal and acoustic folk music, you’re obviously going to alienate fans who would be drawn in by one or the other, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be this obvious. If you switch the type of music you play from one night to the next, you run the risk of driving away fans, even if it’s something as simple as focusing on crazy instrumental solos one night and focusing on simple, understated lyrics the next.

This isn’t to say that you can’t be an artist and combine your influences: going back to the example of folk and death metal, you can combine the two to form a cohesive whole, and attract fans to the music that that produces. You have to have your priorities straight: are you a pop band that has solos, or are you an instrumental improvisational band that has some pop melodies? Without a distinct identity you can’t sell yourself to your fans or the music company.

3. You don’t have a vision

Photo credit: weheartit.com

This is strongly linked with the last point. Where do you want to see yourself in four years? Give yourself an achievable goal, high, but within the realm of possibility. Do you want to hear yourself on the radio, or do you want to tour non-stop? Your vision of the band is going to decide what it grows into and where it grows to. If your focus is on touring, you need to focus your energy in that arena and partner with a record label whose emphasis is on high-touring groups and whose strengths match your desires. If, on the other hand, your desire is to chart on the Billboard Hot 100, you want to push your music and energy towards that goal. Think about what you want to do when you’re creating your music and looking for a label-your music should match where you want to go.

4. You don’t have any contacts with the music business

Photo credit: paperdolls.tumblr.com

This is a relatively easy thing to accomplish, compared to all the soul-searching that the previous points would take. When you know of the sublabel that you want to recruit, find out who the people are. Look them up on Facebook, LinkedIn, or any networking site. If you’re friends-of-a-friend, you’re in luck. Make friends with promoters in your area. Talk with the people who run the concert venues; they can connect you with touring bands, their managers, and perhaps even minor label workers. Make 50 e-mail addresses and write 50 different sets of e-mails to employees of the sublabel. Be creative. Woo your contacts.

5. Your stage show sucks

Photo credit: fuckyeahindieboys.tumblr.com

This point seems rather obvious, but some musicians simply don’t realize what their stage show fails to produce. Pantera labeled for years and were dismissed as crap because of faults in their live show. After they got together with Phil Anselmo they cleaned up their live show and signed to a major label, with tremendous success. Live shows are often the first point of direct contact for a major label interested in a band. Make your shows interesting: liven things up. There are already myriads of articles on this topic; there are so many things you can do to improve your performance from crowd interaction and style of playing to lights and special effects.

6. Your demos are crap

Photo credit: owlbookdreams on Flickr

Besides stage shows, this is the other point of first contact with labels. Sometimes bands will actually cut a few songs and send them in without objectively looking at the results (something that hurt Lynyrd Skynyrd in their career). A crappy demo tape will sink any chances you’ll have with a label. In the same vein, a demo can also lose a lot of what it is that makes your band unique. Whenever you’re cutting a demo, be sure that it captures your identity and vision from points 2 and 3. Even if your live show and your songs themselves capture you as a band, your demo may need some tweaking to show that to the label workers. It may even be something as simple as tweaking the levels—double-checking your work is worth your while.

7. You aren’t popular enough — you don’t have enough fans

Photo credit: no3rdw on Flickr

This may seem like a “duh” idea to most people, but it’s not quite as cut and dried as it may seem. Panic! at the Disco was able to sign with a label before they ever played a live show. You may also be in a town where there aren’t as many people as a city, so you can’t acquire the volume of fans that other bands can. In this case you have to show the label that you have the ability to draw in a high percentage of the people around you. A band from nowhere with 500 fans is more attractive to a label than a big city band with the same amount.

Make your case with the label executives: tell them about your drawing power. It’s a principle to start small before you expand on a much larger scale, and if you can make the case that you succeeded on at your own small local level, it can be very persuasive to the executives. But this doesn’t mean that you should content yourselves with the fans you already have. As a musician you should constantly be trying to reach out to fans in any way you can, through myspace, by posting videos on youtube, giving free concerts, playing at fans’ birthdays, writing thank you songs, etc. Again, there’s a wealth of material written on how to connect with fans.

8. Your music’s good, but I fell asleep when I was talking to you

Photo credit: Laurence 2 on Flickr

Somewhat linked to stage presence, this deals with the fact that some people can play guitar like gods but are incredibly boring to talk to. They lack any charm or charisma when they’re involved in a one-on-one conversation, and this is a kiss of death for any major aspirations for success. If you lack this skill, that puts a cap on the top end of your success, which decreases your value in the eyes of the music industry. Improve your personal skills. Act confidently. Reading up on how to handle interviews will help you out in this area.

9. It’s the Recession, sorry

Photo credit: andrewinpompey on Flickr

This is the dumbest excuse on the list. This is simply an excuse for something else. If you are attractive to a company, they will sign you. This just means that you’ve got to work more on the other items of this list than you would otherwise. Sell yourself to the company, use items 1-8 to prove to them that you’re well worth the investment. You’ve just got to be more persistent and make them see the incredible opportunity they have to invest in you as an artist.

10. You’re from the middle of nowhere

Photo credit: Simon Pais-Thomas on Flickr

This is a point that’s been made easier to overcome through the digital revolution, but is still one that can handicap your desirability to record companies. The obvious answers to this are to move somewhere else and to tour frequently in larger cities to put yourself in front of a large group of fans and record executives. You can also help to overcome the obscurity of your origins by pushing a lot of your music on the internet and promoting things that way, but this alone probably won’t cut it.

If you want to strike it big, you’re going to have to have a decent-sized fanbase in a city to prove yourself to a major label, but you can also go through the stepping stone model by signing to an indie, using that label to help you out touring and recording, and then once you’ve established a large enough base, signing with a major label.

Conclusion

These are ten of the most important reasons that record labels will reject you. If you can successfully work each of these factors to improve your position, you can make yourself very attractive to a record label. Good luck – remember to use knowledge about the labels to your own advantage.

Ben Histand is a fourth-year Business student with an interest in finding out how pop culture works, and has spent entirely too much time finding out how Marvin Gaye is the same as Led Zeppelin, and why Led Zeppelin sold a whole lot more albums.

Have you ever tried to offer a hamburger to a Vegan?

It didn’t go over very well did it? In fact, they were probably very offended. So why do so many bands constantly do this to their audience? Are you offering your fans something they don’t really want? Are you sure?

If you want to develop a bond with your newfound Vegan friend, you probably want to find out a lot more about them first. Then the embarrassing and sometimes bridge-burning moment of offering them a hamburger could be avoided. More so, in all likelihood you would be offering them something they really want instead, and putting a big smile on their face.

If you want to develop a bond with your newfound fans, you probably want to find out a lot more about them first. Then you can avoid the embarrassing and sometimes bridge-burning moment of offering them pink kitten buttons and give them the black, logo-driven t-shirt they really want, making them want to buy more from you.

Photo credit: derxdennis on Flickr

What is an “ideal fan”?

Let’s take a moment to examine your ideal fan, that person (however real or make-believe) that you wish all your fans were like. Top marketing experts agree that to focus your efforts towards this sort of “super fan,” you will immediately attract the attention of every person that fits 70% of the ideal fan’s description. Can you imagine how many fans you will have when you easily begin attracting everyone that fits 70% of your ideal fan’s description? That’s a LOT of people! Maybe you can’t imagine that yet. And that’s because you have yet to describe your ideal fan.

Often, our ideal fan is an extension of ourselves. Think about it… you are your #1 fan. Anyone else can claim to be your #1 fan, but when it comes down to it, no one is a fan of your band more than you are. So take a deep look at each of you in the band, and ask yourself what it would be like if you could combine all your likes, dislikes, interests, hobbies, and habits into one single, super human.

Describe your audience

Take a few minutes to describe your ideal fan in writing. Don’t fret; it can take some time to get used to examining your fans in this way. Think about who you want to surround yourself with. What are the types of people that you love to have backstage hanging out with you? Get specific. Get very specific. The more detailed you can describe your ideal fan, the easier it will be to find them and turn them from fans into fanatics.

What does a day in the life of your ideal fan look like? What’s his or her name? How old is he? Does she go to school? High school, college, something else? What does he do during the day, from waking up to going to bed? Is she religious? An Atheist? What hobbies does he have? What about movies she likes? Books? TV shows? Video games? What type of work does he do? What other types of music does she listen to? What about specific bands? What are his friends like? Where does she like to hang out? What websites does he go to the most?

This person is your band’s life-blood. They are the person that will buy every piece of merchandise you put out, listen to all your music, tell everyone they can about you, and ultimately put food on your table and give you a long-lasting career in music. Know them.

Why it’s important

If you want to sell a hamburger to a Vegan, you better make sure that it’s a Vegetarian burger. If your fans are mostly high-school age, would you be getting college sponsorships for your shows? Why not make a good friend of a high-schooler, who will build your street team in the right place? Or how about a house party? What if ideal fans are college-age church-goers? And what avenues do you have for reaching them if they’re middle-aged businessmen?

What about the coffee shop they like to hang out at? Or was it tea? Would that be a good place to promote your shows, or possibly sell your CD? How about the place most of them buy their clothes?

Shows, promotions, sales, image, sound, performance, you name it; Your marketing and direction will become very clear once you know who exactly it is that you’re catering to, where to find them, and what they would like from you.

So now you have a bunch of Vegan high-schoolers having house parties that the police have to shut down because there are way too many people and way too much noise. Isn’t it great?!

If you know your fans well, you will be offering them things they want to buy from you. You will be giving them exactly the music and story they want and expect to hear from you. You will be making friends, and gaining a following, instead of the left-overs from the band that played before you. People will fall in love with you. You will be experiencing what many bands never get to experience… a clear, well-informed knowing of who your audience is and what you have to offer them. Most of all, you will have a whole lot of friends, who all want to reciprocate what you’ve done for them. That beats just having nameless fans, any day.

What can you do to reach your fans, now that you know who and where they are, and what they’re looking for?

On the tough and often dangerous path to “making it” in the music industry, Draven Grey has been described as a friend, guide, and schoolmaster. Draven is a professional musician, producer, and artist development specialist for Rockstar Mindset. To find out more, visit Rockstar Mindset, or sign up for our FREE 12-day mini-course on how to turn your rock band into a success.

Do The Editors ever try to try the self-promotion route or do you leave it up to the record label/publicists?

And Chris‘ answer was utterly logical and predictable:

“We can’t really leave it up to the record company to do anything interesting!”

Indeed, who can? The labels’ reputation in general is so stained, the digital revolution has brought us so many tools for “DIY” approach, the music scenes are overloaded, and seems no one cares about you. You have to do it yourself, you have to be an entrepreneur and not only a musician in order to survive and make a living from your music, etc. While all that is mostly true, and was especially true few years ago, we have to remember that things are changing very fast these days.

Image credit: blam2002 on Flickr

I always say that living a stereotyped “rock n’ roll” and especially ignorant life is not affordable now as it used to be sometime in the past. Yes, you have to treat your band as a business and put a corresponding effort into it, and be creative not only with your music. But is it all really about doing it on your own? Fortunately, a skeptical reconsideration of DIY is becoming a usual discussion topic. Musicians need friends, on the one hand, and labels are mutating to provide their bands with more than just a “record deal.”

Publicity companies should be mentioned as well. The publicities I work with, especially the relatively smallest ones, bring something innovative and interesting to the table every day, trying to think outside the box. And this is really great, for everyone (bands, music companies, media outlets, and fans, of course).

Something exciting happens when creative, smart people from related parts of the same industries unite, instead of quarreling with each other.

Do you believe in labels and publicists as the creative force behind musicians’ promotional campaigns, or think that the most unique things can be created solely by the artists themselves?

Top Acts of the Decade (# of shows/millions of dollars grossed — taken from Billboard’s website):

60s

• THE ROLLING STONES: 264/$869
• NEIL DIAMOND: 288/$264
• CHER: 383/$257
• PAUL MCCARTNEY: 106/$238
• ROD STEWART: 281/$233
• TINA TURNER: 168/$212

70s

• ELTON JOHN: 541/$603
• BILLY JOEL: 241/$418
• BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: 403/$688
• THE EAGLES: 240/$347
• AEROSMITH: 320/$292
• JIMMY BUFFETT: 196/$215

80s

• U2: 288/$844
• MADONNA: 248/$801
• BON JOVI: 249/$419
• THE POLICE: 144/$361
• METALLICA: 187/$227

90s

• CELINE DION: 597/$536
• DAVE MATTHEWS BAND: 547/$505
• TIM MCGRAW: 388/$303
• KENNY CHESNEY: 622/$477
• TOBY KEITH: 542/$271
• TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA: 728/$203

2000s

• BRITNEY SPEARS: 255/$216
• RASCAL FLATTS: 401/$222

Image credit: kellysweetrewards on Flickr

Now, music videos came into their own in the early 80s with the advent of MTV. Prior to MTV music videos existed as an art form largely bereft of any large commercial impact, but MTV brought the medium to a large audience. Any band that broke through after the launch of MTV owed part of their success to the commercial opportunities that the new medium brought. So taking another look at that list, we can see that there were six acts from the 60s, 70s and 90s, five from the 80s, and two from the 2000s. So the 90s have the same representation on the list as the 60s and 70s, and the 80s are almost identical; music videos must not have a detrimental effect on the fan base.

The next thing to look at is price per show. Every single one of the acts from the 90s and 2000s pulled in an average of less than one million per show, while three of the five acts from the 80s averaged over two million a show and the rest topped a million. Then something interesting happens when we get to the data from the 60s and 70s. In the 70s one of the acts averaged less than a million per show, while in the 60s a grand total of three acts averaged less than a million per show.

Allow me to translate all of this for you: you’re not going to make very much money in touring. Not when you’re first starting out. The peak money in touring is normally found about 20 years after breakout success, regardless of the era. It’s entirely possible to fill seats like Led Zeppelin and the legends of old. The music industry is one big pyramid scheme that screws over those at the bottom, where success is reserved for those that survive. So don’t get discouraged if you don’t find success right away, or even after a year or two of touring. It took bands like the Police four years to even put out a record. Survive, and the peanuts you’re living on turn into more kingly fare, but it’s up to you and your own personal quest to figure out how.

Ben Histand is a fourth-year Business student with an interest in finding out how pop culture works, and has spent entirely too much time finding out how Marvin Gaye is the same as Led Zeppelin, and why Led Zeppelin sold a whole lot more albums.

Record sales are the least of your concerns. This may be the category that everyone pays attention to, the one that gets you press and lands you magazine covers, but as a musician you aren’t going to receive much in the way of profits on record sales. If you can land with a major album, you’ll keep about 7% of the total sales of your album, which usually translates to about a dollar an album for unproven bands. Indies tend to be a little more generous, letting you keep anywhere from 15-40%, but their limited promotional reach usually translates into significantly lower album sales. So even if you manage to sell a million albums through a major label (that’s quite a feat!) then you’re making less than a million dollars, because any promotion the record company does for you and any advance is going to come straight from your cut of the sales. That’s simply the way the music industry is set up; record companies take big risks in signing artists and take a huge cut of any successes that they have. They do the dirty work to get your album to radio stations and run ad campaigns, which set you up nicely for the real moneymakers.

Image credit: AMagill on Flickr

Touring and live shows are going to be your bread and butter as an artist. Emerging artists tend to make around 10% of the gate charges. This number can balloon to 60% for legendary acts like the Rolling Stones — on their last tour they generated $437 million in ticket sales, of which around $262 million went to the band. This doesn’t even include band and tour merchandise available, a number that averages 10% of the gross ticket sales.

The other big ticket item as an artist comes from royalties and licensing. Every time a radio station or bar plays your song, you’ve got a three-cent royalty. Put your song on rhapsody or other streaming sites and you’ll grab a one-cent royalty per song. Sell your song on iTunes and you’ll earn ten to twenty cents (more if you aren’t selling through a label). If a movie or television show uses any of your songs, you earn a negotiable licensing fee. Michael Jackson would charge $500,000 for the use of any Beatles song in a movie. Let an outside company put your name and/or image on their product and take a cut of sales. KISS is the industry standard with its $1 billion/year licensing business.

That’s a lot of numbers. How does this pertain to survival in the business of music? Simply, this means that your album sales are far from the most important thing. Album sales generally receive the greatest amount of publicity, but generate the smallest percentage of cash flow for the artist. Album and single sales have their greatest effect as a means of promotion, not as a means of revenue.

You’re primarily an artist so I doubt that that conclusion reverberated within your mind. Let’s break it down like so: albums and singles are simply promotional tools. Don’t be bound by traditional thoughts about albums. It may be well worth it as a band to give away albums or release a single that has nothing to do with any album that you’ve got in the works. In today’s music industry, the album is no longer the focus. The focus needs to be on you, what you offer to the consumer as a band.

To the consumer your band isn’t an album. To the consumer your band is an emotion. The consumer buys your album because they feel love, because they feel aggression, sadness, or like some badass roaring through the desert in a convertible packing a 9mm and aviators. Your job is to deliver that promise, and an album is only a part of the picture. Your job is to let them feel that emotion whenever they wear a t-shirt with your band on it, or whenever they see your picture. This is something you can do by making sure that everything non-recorded fits together. Deliver the emotion you promised on an album in a live performance, show that emotion in your merchandise. Your album is like a one-night stand in Vegas, but the other aspects are what form a lasting relationship between you and your fans when you’ve got to live with each other, warts and all. Don’t let a rigid focus on albums hold you back from a career as a musician. Don’t try to sell albums; try to sell your band.