“Sampling transforms sources by placing them in the new environment of hip-hop lyrics and other samples. Rather than copying the original source, hip-hop producers critique and respond to the original through juxtaposition, parody, and direct commentary.”

Was Foucault a plagiarist? Hip-hop sampling and academic citation Mikey Hess (2006)

The above quote relates hip-hop sampling to academic citation and defines the practice perfectly through a unique view. However, not all saw it so simply, and some started to question whether the artist involved with the first release was then entitled to a cut of the profit made by the use of the sample. This is when sample copyright law came into effect and changed the way a lot of music is produced and perceived. One of the first major legal cases can be seen as far back as 1987 with British dance one hit wonders MARRS with their single ‘Pump Up The Volume’. As the record climbed into the top ten, producers Stock Aitken Waterman filed an injunction lawsuit as a result of the unauthorized use of their number one single ‘Roadblock’. In the end the dispute was settled out of court as the group agreed to remove the sample from the production of the record overseas.

Hip-hop was hit the hardest as a result of progressively more court rulings against sampling, as it is traditionally a sample based genre. Despite this, different hip-hop artists and producers found different ways around the law, altering and playing with the sample so it cannot be recognised which is ‘the skill of today’s hip-hop producer’ according to the Jazz Spastiks’ Michael Dean.

However, not all artists took such a discreet approach to sampling. A perfect illustration can be seen in the form of American producer and artist Dangermouse (Brian Burton) with his album entitled the ‘Grey Album’ released in 2004. The album uses a great number of samples from first of all, Jay Z’s ‘The Black Album’ and secondly the Beatles’ ‘The White Album’, hence the title.

“A lot of people just assume I took some Beatles and, you know, threw some Jay-Z on top of it or mixed it up or looped it around, but it’s really a deconstruction. It’s not an easy thing to do. It is an art form. It is music. You can do different things, it doesn’t have to be just what some people call stealing. It can be a lot more than that.”

Dangermouse (Brian Burton)

Predictably, the album gained Dangermouse a huge amount of notoriety as EMI attempted to halt the distribution of the album, despite both Jay Z and Sir Paul McCartney saying they had no problems with the use of the samples. Due to the overwhelming popularity of the work, this cease of distribution bid didn’t come to fruition. In fact, on February 24, 2004 there was a day of coordinated online protest against EMI’s decision to attempt to cease distribution of Dangermouse’s ‘Grey Album’, in particular, and also against the idea that sampling is an unfair method on the whole. Hundreds of websites took part in the protest with approximately 170 posting the album for download. The online objection was a resounding success with over 100,000 copies of the album downloaded on that day alone.

The risk taken in blatant sampling is there for all to see but, with the right amount of success and support, it can be a risk well worth taking.

Marc Vasmant writes articles about issues in the contemporary music industry.

Keith Olsen

Keith Olsen continues to work in the industry today and has seen the changes the recording industry has undergone over the ensuing decades.

When asked, “What’s the best advice you can offer about the music business?“, Olsen said:

It is dog eat dog business and remember that nothing is over-night and you have to be great at what you do. I gave a talk once in Amsterdam for musicians’ day Europe, and there were thousands of people in the audience and I asked them, “how many of you are professional musicians?” and they all raised their hands. And then I asked, “how many of you practice eight hours a day?” And it went to dead silence.

Then finally one guy in a corner raised his hand and replied, “I do”. And I pointed to him and looked at him and said, I’ll see you on the charts”. And that is what it takes, it takes dedication, it is not a part-time, software driven career. It is all about knowledge, art, and expertise. And being good just isn’t good enough. You have to be great.

While I don’t agree that all you need to succeed is practicing, this is a very powerful advice for sure. It is too often forgotten how important and how difficult it is getting “through the dip” (as Seth Godin calls it).

You can read the full interview at this location.

Do you have a difficult time deciding what guitar exercises to practice despite sifting through countless guitar practice materials daily? Are you feeling confused about which guitar learning method to turn to as you seem to be pulled onto many different paths with dozens of guitar books, websites and videos? Do you want to find out once and for all which guitar exercises to focus your practice time on in order to achieve your musical goals?

Image credit: allaboutyou16 on Flickr

From teaching hundreds of guitar players over the last 25 years, I have found that most musicians do not have a shortage of “things to practice” on guitar. The problem that I see many guitar players run into is not knowing how to organize all of their guitar exercises into an effective guitar practice schedule that moves them towards becoming better musicians. If this sounds like you, then I want to show you how to determine what you need to practice on guitar to improve your musical skills in the fastest way possible.

The first significant mistake that guitar players make with regards to guitar exercises is practicing “too many” of them. As a result, too much energy is spent trying to decide (at random) what exercise to play next, instead of concentrating on getting the most benefit out of each exercise being practiced. In reality, you can very often achieve a lot more by intelligently focusing on a smaller, targeted list of guitar practice materials than you can from a longer list of guitar exercises that are put together at random (more on this in a moment).

Another reason why guitar players struggle to make progress with all of their guitar practice materials is because they make the mistake of starting to look for “things to practice” before becoming clear on why they need to practice guitar exercises in the first place. Keep in mind that guitar practice materials can only make your guitar playing better when they are practiced with a specific objective in mind. Mindlessly playing through guitar finger exercises will not make your guitar playing any better until your mind is clear on several things:

1. The long term guitar playing goals you want to reach and how a given exercise fits into the big picture of developing your musical skills.
2. The exact guitar playing challenge(s) you want to overcome by using a particular guitar practice exercise.

Above all, you must remember that the only reason why guitar exercises are needed in the first place is to help you solve various guitar playing problems. As simple as this concept is, most guitar players do not practice with this understanding in mind. The more specifically you can define your guitar playing problems, the easier it will be to find the most effective exercises to overcome them. For instance, rather than saying: “I want to increase my speed with scale sequences“, you need to identify an exact problem such as: “I need to practice the picking hand motion that happens when my pick is caught inside the strings“.

In order to determine whether or not a specific guitar exercise should be included into your practice schedule, ask yourself this question: “what guitar playing challenge will I be able to overcome by working on this exercise and will this exercise move me closer to my guitar playing goals?” To help you with answering this question, here are several important points to follow that will make your guitar practicing a lot more productive:

1. Identify (in specific terms) your guitar playing goals.
2. Work backwards from your final goal to prepare a list of steps that you need to go through to reach the objectives from Step 1. Check out this free resource about improving your musical skills if you don’t know what steps go into the process of reaching your musical ambitions.
3. Put together a very targeted list of guitar practice exercises that is specific to developing the skills (and/or solving guitar playing problems) that you identified as important to your goals from Step 2.
4. Learn how to create the most effective guitar practice schedules. To do this, you must know how to efficiently divide your guitar practice time among the exercises that you have selected in Step 3. This will help you to avoid wasting valuable practice time and will enable you to make faster progress. If you don’t know how to do this, read this page about how to make your guitar practicing more effective.

Keep in mind that ultimately it is you who is responsible for the results you experience in your guitar playing. Even after you have correctly put together the list of effective guitar practice exercises, you must remind yourself to stay focused at all times on the specific problem you are trying to solve while practicing. Don’t allow your hands (or your mind) to go on autopilot. As you get better at doing this, you will likely realize that you don’t need to practice as many guitar exercises as you imagined before. In fact, many guitar exercises can often be used to develop multiple skills simultaneously (see an example of how to practice guitar in this way in this video about the best way to learn to play guitar).

If you take guitar lessons from a proven guitar teacher (who has helped many people to become great guitarists), he/she should be familiar with the concepts I explained above and should be structuring your guitar lessons with these ideas in mind. However, if you have had a hard time with making progress on guitar up to this point, implement the ideas from this article into your guitar practicing and you will see your musical skills start to improve at a much faster pace than ever before!

Tom Hess is a guitar teacher online, composer and a touring musician. He plays guitar in the epic metal band Rhapsody Of Fire. He teaches guitar players in his rock guitar lessons online. Go to tomhess.net to get more guitar playing resources, guitar playing eBooks, and to read more guitar playing articles.

Many labels and PR agencies have been switching over to HAULIX because it’s at the top of the class right now. I did a quick Q&A with HAULIX Founder/CEO Matt Brown, and with his creativity, experience, and marketing, read on to see why HAULIX is one of those unique companies that isn’t going away anytime soon.

Alex Gilbert (Dotted Music): How did the idea of Haulix come about, and what were your initial goals?

Matt Brown (HAULIX): I had been running the webzine MetalReview.com since 2001. After our popularity increased, our mailbox started to overflow with promotional discs; literally getting hundreds of packages per month. As a computer science graduate, we’re taught how to solve problems with technology – so my gears were always turning, trying to think of new ideas. After a couple years of experiencing the overflowing mailbox and learning the music promotion process as a whole, I knew there could be a better way of doing it. I think it was some time in 2007, I thought of building a digital promo service. Piracy was a big deal already and so I knew security would be an important component of the business, not to mention a huge selling point. I threw the idea around with a software developer buddy at the consulting firm I worked at and I purchased the domain name “LeakSecure.com.” As with countless other ventures that I started in the past, this one lost its steam and died after a week or so, and that was that.

Two years later in February 2009, when the economy tanked, I lost my job as a software developer. Suddenly being dropped in the jungle of the unemployed was kind of scary and a little liberating at the same time. The digital promo service idea resurfaced and I figured there would be no better time than now to dive in head first. I ditched “Leak Secure,” took about thirty minutes of brainstorming and came up with “Haulix.” I put a Craigslist ad out for a software developer/business partner. Next day, I found out my ad was taken down due to some restriction. But in the previous day, one guy’s email made it through. We met up for happy hour, discussed my vision of how this digital promo service should run and we decided to partner up and run with it.

Our initial goal was to keep it simple and easy to use. We wanted it to do a few things really well, rather than a lot of things half-assed. Haulix was to become a tool used for managing media contacts, creating digital promos, security to deter leaking and reporting to track progress. Those core features are still at the center of what it performs today.

As a freelancer, I’ve seen many labels and PR agencies switch over to the Haulix platform, because it’s extremely user friendly, ALL of your promos are under one roof (instead of logging in and out from one ipool to another), and I also think the method of downloading both the music and hi res pics is better than anything else out there right now. You must be pretty proud of how far Haulix has gone so far?

Matt Brown

A lot of the web-startup experts preach that if you aren’t embarrassed by your first version of your software, then you waited too long to launch. I’m glad we took that advice and launched quickly. Our first version was absolutely horrible. But being a two-man team, we were lean and we could make changes really fast. One by one, we started to get new customers. They would use our system and give us feedback. We would then quickly add enhancements. Repeat, repeat and repeat. After a year or so, we had a fairly solid platform and a handful of happy customers.

In regards to the competition, we periodically glance over to see what they are up to, but we definitely don’t analyze what they do with a microscope. Doing so would corrupt our own vision of how things should work. With that said, having all promos magically show up in one spot was definitely a strategic move to relieve having to have ten different logins/passwords. While we concentrate on an easy toolset for our customers, the journalist’s experience is equally important to us.

Any new developments in the works for Haulix that you’d like to share?

In the next 6-8 months, we will be releasing new versions of our promo platform along with a fresh new public website. Even more exciting though, is a partnership with The Orchard. I just did a web-demo for their marketing team in New York last week. For those that don’t know, The Orchard is sort of a one-stop-shop for tools for music industry professionals. That includes marketing, distribution, promotion, etc. They are going to be opening an app marketplace and Haulix was invited to be one of the first 20 apps in that marketplace. The Orchard will be introducing us to their huge list of clients. We’re honored and flattered at the same time.

It seems like there are too many bands right now. A freelancer + his/her team can only cover so much, given there are only 24 hours in one day. A few years back it was much easier. It seems like there were way less bands, physical (promotional) product was still fairly standard, and while I know many journalists prefer physical copies, digital can still fly. I spend a good chunk of my day driving around, so at least being able to burn a CD to listen to in the car is the best way for me so soak in the music I need to review. The times surely change fast. What are your thoughts?

It’s very ironic, MetalReview.com is in its 10th year and I see firsthand a dramatic decrease in the number of packages that come in the mail. We used to have a locker for packages and now we get by with a little 12″ x 5″ mailbox. A few years back, journalists totally turned their back on digital promos and I could understand why – it was a change and they were used to getting physical “prizes” in the mail each week. Fast forward to now and digital is quickly becoming the standard and journalists are beginning to accept them. Like you mentioned, I think a new issue, is the sheer number of releases hitting the market each month. There’s no way for journalists to keep up and as a result, they cherry pick what they want to review. Regardless of how a journalist prefers to consume their music, I think it’s important for a writer to write consistently for a couple months and then take a week or so off. Otherwise, they are bound to get burnt out by music-overload. On the other side of the coin, if you are a band, fishing your new album out to websites and magazines, and you want to get noticed, don’t slop your album into a YouSendIt file and then send mass emails out to the press. All bias aside, there’s a huge difference between downloading a promo from a page with no advertisements, that’s branded to the album, versus hitting YouSendIt and enduring Viagra popup ads and a hidden download link.

Leading into my next quick question. You are also very tech saavy. Out of all Haulix users, do you think more people stream the music directly from Haulix or download from Haulix then do what they do (ex. burn cd, stream via Windows Media Player, itunes, etc.)? From an analytic standpoint, what do you think?

We keep detailed statistics on resource consumption. Most journalists download the entire album and then listen to it on their own terms. Many stream a few tracks (as they cherry pick), to see if they like it. If they like it, they download. And lastly, many stream the album as they download it.

Thanks for your time, and thanks so much for making a journalist’s job much easier. Cheers! Any last words for our readers over at Dotted Music?

I would like to just say, that we are all in this industry together. Artists and labels need journalists to write about their releases. Journalists need promos so that they have something to write about, which adds content to their websites or magazines. We depend on each other. Change can be hard to handle sometimes, but if we are open-minded and continue to do things for the good of the music, we can survive through these hard economic times and have a loud future.

Thanks for the interview and support!

“It’s easier than ever for artists to be successful”

Jim Mawdsley – Generator

With so much music out there now it can seem like it’s harder than ever to get heard, but in fact it couldn’t be easier. It used to be the case that you were either ‘signed’ or ‘unsigned.’ You ‘made it’ or you didn’t. And the people who decided if you made it or not were record labels and MTV. Now the field is wide open and there are more outlets available for success. If you can build a fan base and you can get your music to them, you can be successful. And you’ve probably realised by now, you can do this yourself – you don’t need a label. In fact, if you’re waiting around for a label to break you, you’re wasting your time.

The Great Escape Convention Logo

“Labels don’t develop artists anymore”

Labels used to take on bands at a very early stage, pour some money into them and bring in managers, lawyers, PR etc to help them. This is now happening less and less. Partly because labels can’t afford to (people are buying less music) and partly because the band can do so much themselves that it is more beneficial for a label to jump in once a band has already generated the buzz and a fan base.

“I’m looking for bands that have created a world around themselves”

Ollie Hodge – A&R manager, Columbia

Now, in order to get noticed by labels, you need to build the team yourself. You need to be releasing our own music, promoting yourself, booking tours and creating and maintaining a fan base. The more it looks like you don’t need a record label, the faster they’ll come running. It is a lot of work but if you break things down and keep a routine, you’ll see a strong growth.

“Do one small thing a week and one big thing a month”

Ian Rogers – Topspin

One way to start building a fan-base and creating this buzz around yourself is to keep frequent content coming to stimulate your existing fan base whilst also attracting new fans. Examples of small things: write a blog, put up new photos, record an acoustic cover and put it on YouTube. Examples of big things: Release a track, put on a big gig, send out a newsletter, announce a tour. But be creative, and keep it relevant to you. I would also add ‘interact daily’ to this schedule. Post something on Twitter or Facebook and check and reply to emails on a daily basis.

“Build awareness and connect with your fans before trying to make money”

Andrew Dubber – Bandcamp advisor

Probably the most important quote in music. If you try and make money from people before you have built a relationship with them you’ll fail. Straight away. Music is weird like that. People need to hear the music, grow to love it and make a connection with you before they will consider buying it. This is particularly true of new bands, if people can’t access your music as freely and cheaply as possible, they’ll move on. So don’t sell an MP3 for 99c, exchange it for an email address, ensnare them with cool content and engage them on social networks. Then you’ve got them hooked and when you release music or put on a gig they’re much more likely to part with their money.

"We Create Music" panel at 2011 ASCAP EXPO (l-r): ASCAP's Erik Philbrook, Claudia Brant, Mike Elizondo, Fergie, Trevor Rabin, Kevin Rudolf. Photo by PictureGroup.

Alex Gilbert: Etan, to a lot of people, ASCAP comes off as the corporate bad guy like a Wal-Mart or a Guitar Center would. People really forget if they want to get paid for their music when it’s played in public, they’ve got to go to a Performing Rights Organization (PRO) like ASCAP. Care to explain to these people why ASCAP is really the good guy here to help?

Etan Rosenbloom: Sure! ASCAP is a membership association of songwriters, composers and music publishers. Our core role is to license the public performance of our members’ musical works so that they can earn royalties when their songs are played on the radio, on TV, on the internet, etc. Here’s some general info about ASCAP.

ASCAP is most definitely not a “corporate bad guy” – in fact, we are a not-for-profit company! Every dollar that comes into ASCAP goes right back to our members, minus a percentage that we use for our operating cost (it’s among the lowest operating costs of any PRO in the world).

ASCAP’s Board of Directors is entirely composed of ASCAP members, all of which are elected by ASCAP members. So every decision we make is about getting fair compensation to the creators of the music that all of us benefit from on a daily basis. Our members rely on their ASCAP royalties as a valuable source of income. The many thousands of businesses that purchase ASCAP blanket licenses know that they’re doing the right thing, by paying for the music that helps their business. Here’s a list of our Board members.

I guess you could call us “the good guy,” but really we’re just looking out for the interests of songwriters.

When you drive a car, you need a drivers’ license. When you want to perform your music publicly, you need an ASCAP license. One in the same you could say. Legally, please describe the importance of this.

It’s not quite accurate to say that you need an ASCAP license to perform your music – you certainly don’t have to pay ASCAP for the right to perform your own material! Legally, any entity that performs music in public – and that includes music venues, bars, radio stations, TV stations, satellite radio, internet sites with streaming music, theme parks, etc. – is obligated under copyright law to obtain permission from the writers and publishers of that music to use it publicly. The simplest way of doing that is through a PRO like ASCAP. We offer blanket licenses to music users, so that they don’t have to individually reach out to the writers/publishers of every single song they play. More on how we license.

Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora at the 2008 ASCAP "I Create Music" EXPO

There’s plenty of benefits becoming an ASCAP member. What are some common routes of musicians, and what are some unique ways some use to advance their career(s)?

Oh man, there are so many different ways that ASCAP members use their ASCAP membership!

Some members rely on their ASCAP checks for their livelihoods. If you write music but you’re not an artist, you don’t have any artist royalties coming in, so your performance royalties are ever more important.

Other members use ASCAP as a resource and source of advice. Every day I get members calling to ask about publishing deals, managers, how to reach out to music supervisors – everything. We’re really at the nexus of the industry, since we deal with so many different facets of the industry.

ASCAP has tons of different educational and career-development opportunities, ranging from our weekly office hours, to month-long songwriting workshops, to our ASCAP “I Create Music” EXPO, a massive three-day conference dedicated to the art and business of songwriting that occurs every April in Los Angeles. The positive feedback we get on the EXPO is pretty staggering. You can find out more here.

We also run showcases for ASCAP acts at major industry events throughout the country. We run stages at SXSW, CMJ and Sundance, and we sponsor and support plenty of others, from folk festivals to the Warped Tour.

I should add that we’ve got the American PRO world’s only comprehensive Member Benefits program. Our members can get discounts on web tools, software, travel, online education and even health insurance. More details here.

One unique program that ASCAP offers is the annual ASCAP Plus Awards. Any writer member that makes under $25,000 per year with us can apply and tell us about the activity they’ve had in areas outside our normal broadcast media surveys (e.g. live venues). An independent panel of distinguished music experts then evaluates all the applications, and awards applicants with a non-recoupable cash award. As in, ASCAP Plus Awards winners don’t have to pay the money back. The deadline is June 1st every year. More here.

Metallica at the 2004 ASCAP Pop Music Awards. They were honored with the inaugural Creative Voice Award. Photo courtesy of Wireimage.

What advice would you give some of the youngens out there looking to get into the world of copyrights, licenses, royalties, etc.?

It’s the wild, wild west out there in terms of how music is used and distributed. You don’t necessarily need a label or a publishing deal to be successful. But that’s all the more reason to educate yourself as much as possible! Stay abreast of all the changes afoot on the industry side; one good way is by subscribing to The Daily Brief, a daily digest of music industry news and commentary, curated by ASCAP Board member Dean Kay. Subscribe here.

You should be aware of all your rights as a music creator, and also understand all the different royalty streams available to you. Of course become an ASCAP member if you aren’t already, but also get to know what organizations like Harry Fox and SoundExchange can do for you.

Any ASCAP advancements you’d like to share with us that you’ve got in the pipeline?

We introduced Member Access in late ’09, which allows our members to see all their royalty statements, see their entire catalog, look at any cue sheets they have on file and make up-to-the-minute updates to their accounts. And as of last year, you can access all of the above via your iPhone by using our ASCAP Mobile app.

This is the first year that we’ve offered online video access to all the footage from this year’s EXPO – about 60 hours’ worth of content. More info here.

I can’t share all the other cool advancements we’ve got lined up, but I’ll put it this way: ASCAP’s continuing its mission to help its members and ensure that they’re compensated fairly. This happens on a variety of fronts, some technological, some legal, some legislative. We were the first PRO to issue an internet license, and we’re constantly licensing new internet sites that use music. All in the name of protecting the livelihoods of our members, no matter how the music industry landscape changes.

Managers And Agents

On the surface, a manager or an agent is a wonderful thing. They take over the booking of gigs, organise your hectic life schedules, plan tours and book travel, as well as numerous other small things that suggest that you’ve hit the big time. However, the same basic rule applies with a manager or agent that applies to your band mates: They are not your friend, they are your business associate.

A manager or agent is an employee of you that you hire to basically organise your musical life. For exchange of either a flat fee or a percentage of all profits from bookings (in which case, it’s in their best interests to make you as rich as possible) they free your mind up for just rehearsing, writing and playing.

First off, let’s look at the difference between the two:

A manager belongs to your band, while your band belongs to an agent.

That’s the basis there. When you have an agent, a lot of other bands are likely to have that agent, meaning that bookings are often made en masse and then you are told about them. A manager is much more interactive. You can instruct there where to book you gigs, what money to settle for and how to promote you best. That said, managers often look for more money out of you, since they will always have more time to devote solely to your band.

The pit fall with a manager or an agent is a really simple one. Workrate. Do you work to their workrate, or do they work to yours?

Image credit: atomicShed on Flickr

A good manager or agent can literally fill your schedule with gigs. This sounds good, giving you the chance to travel around performing to new crowds and making plenty of cash for it, but it destroys your personal life if you’re never home, always working and, after a while, it seriously dents your desire to live the rock ‘n’ roll dream. People get tired, and people often have day jobs to work around or Universities to attend. It’s not all parties and hot teenage girls, you know.

The flip side of that coin is easy to work out. A manager who commands a high fee, yet books only a gig or two a month is entirely worthless.

So here are the basic tips:

• Ensure that your manager or agent signs a contract to work with you detailing what you expect from them and what they expect from you. Sit your band down before you consider hiring somebody, or just after the offer comes in, and plan out how many shows you want to do, how much you’re willing to pay and what additional benefits can be offered by either side in place of royalties.
• Read the contract. I mentioned this in a previous piece and I’m mentioning it again. Never sign something that you don’t understand, and never sign something you’re pressured towards. If a manager presents you with a contract and says ‘sign this’ then tell them no and read it.
• Do your research. What is this person’s experience? Have they managed any bands before, and is it somebody you’ve heard of? Who else is on the books for this agent and what venues are they most recognised at. Always check if somebody is beefing up their CV, especially when it’s possible that they might be trying to work for you.
• Check the books. When it comes to money specifically, always review the numbers as and when they come in. Confirm payments given with venues, confirm money taken by the manager and confirm the records that a manager or an agent has to keep in order to be legally licensed in their field.

• And the most important tip of all: Have terms of dismissal written into the contract. Yeah, didn’t think of that, did you? There is nothing more dangerous than a contract without an end date for employment, an easy-out clause or terms of dismissal. If you find out that your manager has been stealing money from you, and you have no terms of dismissal, you have no defence against it at all. You are completely in their hands.

With a little care, any bad situation can be turned into a hugely profitable one for everybody involved.

Tom Colohue is a writer from Blackpool, England. Though he specialises in Fiction, he also writes music theory articles, and new media articles based primarily on the internet. On occasion, these also intermingle. He is well recognised by numerous critics and analysts for his integrative descriptive work and his cynical textual mannerisms. For more information, Tom Colohue keeps a Facebook Fan Page, which contains updates from new articles and his personal blog, Mental Streaming. This page can be found via this link.

Details Of Interviews

Here we have a difficult area to navigate.

A lot of people point out that all publicity is good publicity, but that depends entirely on the media/journalist you’re connecting with. An interview has their own story that they want to get out of you, and you have to be aware that the questions they ask you will invariably lead you in whatever direction they want you to go. Even if you’ve specifically been told that you’re going to be interviewed about your new EP for a local and familiar piece of press, don’t believe it.

Preparation is key here. For each interview you need to go in knowing what you plan to publicise and what is an off limit question. If you’d like to talk about the layering of guitars, you can find a way to slip it in regardless of the questions asked, unless the interviewer seems to be asking you if you’ve ever had sex on a plane. That would just be an utterly stupid question, but I’ve had it, so it happens.

Some interviewers will have a set list of questions that they have to ask you, regardless of the answers that you give. Some allow for a more roaming and free flowing tempo – giving you room to speak from the heart, talk about the things that matter to you and also to avoid looking like a complete idiot.

Image credit: stayaliveforever

Context goes a long way. If it’s a video interview, you’ll have the chance to show your facial expressions and body language, which will help give tone to your words. In a written interview, things aren’t that easy. Looking stupid becomes much easier because people will apply their own tone to your words while they read it, so your choice of words become paramount. The most obvious and clearly helpful piece of advice is to keep it simple. Words that people don’t understand are considered patronising, just as speaking of interval harmonies will alienate the fans who don’t know music theory and have no interest in learning it.

Cover many topics. Everybody reads an interview looking for different things. Some want to see a more personal side of the performer that they’ve seen, while others just want to know what your favourite track on the EP is. Ultimately, a good interviewer will allow the personal, he technical and the creative to all wander forwards, but some are rather set in their ways. Even if the interviewer is asking questions that barely even relate to the music, and could be asked of anybody from politician to race car driver, it’s your responsibility to take up those questions and make the best of them.

As an example, if an interviewer looks down at their notepad and asks you: “Who would you say is the main influence for your work?”

That’s a very simple and forward question, despite being very open ended. Even an astronaut could give a good answer for that question. Nevertheless, it can be easily used to say more than just ‘Ritchie Blackmore’. In the same way that teachers took you from using simple answers to using complete sentences in school, you can take one step farther in the interview adventure. Give several influences. Give some for your music and some for the music of your band. Say why. Say your favourite works by them. Say something that they did that you’ll always remember.

Admittedly, going too far can be as bad as saying too little, but the balance there comes with experience.

For a band, as a group, the most important thing is that you’re all singing from the same sheet. If one member is more talkative, let them talk, but don’t do so at your own expense. Let it be clear that each different member has their own opinion to express rather than having somebody quoting the facts. Be even, accomodating and friendly.

Also, don’t push the interviewer. Seriously, patience is a virtue, and it takes forever to transcribe and make the right contacts quickly, then wait for the slot to open up. They’re doing you a favour, so think of your reputation. Treat every interviewer like they’re a hot girl who you are yet to penetrate and you’ll be fine.

Tom Colohue is a writer from Blackpool, England. Though he specialises in Fiction, he also writes music theory articles, and new media articles based primarily on the internet. On occasion, these also intermingle. He is well recognised by numerous critics and analysts for his integrative descriptive work and his cynical textual mannerisms. For more information, Tom Colohue keeps a Facebook Fan Page, which contains updates from new articles and his personal blog, Mental Streaming. This page can be found via this link.

There are countless ways to meet the people you need. However, there are three rules that can help you be most effective in this arena:

• Meeting someone in person trumps all other connections. Nothing compares to being able to look someone in the eye when you’re talking to them. You can learn a lot from a firm handshake, a person’s attire, his or her professionalism, his or her mannerisms and experiencing a personal chemistry.
• The next best thing to meeting someone in person is being introduced to /and recommended by a mutual friend or business associate.
• Meeting someone without following up is no better than not meeting them at all!

Where do you meet people? Everywhere! Here are some quick guidelines for effective networking, compiled by Indie Connect Magazine:

1. Always be in networking mode. Be prepared to meet people who might be able to help you everywhere you go. You never know who you are going to meet or who they might know. Also, be aware that many times influential people won’t reveal who they really are until after they have gotten to know you. I know one person who got major label cuts because they sat next to the grandmother of someone in the band in a diner!


Image credit: @Jason_Mayes

2. Show Up. Put yourself in a position where you are always meeting people who might be influential in your career. Go to music industry networking events, join industry organizations, eat at the restaurants they eat at. Go to jam sessions, showcases and songwriter nights. Put yourself in the way of opportunity! You never know when you will have the chance to meet and/or help someone who can also help you, either now or down the road.
3. No Gherming: Gherming is the Nashville term for seeing someone influential and throwing your CD or song demo in their face. There is a time and a place when politely asking if someone would be willing to listen to your music is appropriate. In an office, at a convention or at an industry networking event are examples of places that are appropriate. Interrupting someone while they are in a social setting such as a restaurant is usually not. Respect people’s privacy.
4. Niche market your networking. Whenever possible, go to where the people you want to meet congregate. For example, you can meet people from all aspects of the music industry at Indie Connect meetings. You can meet potential co-writers and publishers at NSAI or other songwriter group meetings. You can meet college buyers at a NACA convention, and fair directors at one of the many fair conventions around the country.
5. Give before you receive. Also ask how you can help the other person before asking for anything for yourself. Have a ‘servant’s heart.’ It immediately erases any thoughts that you care only about yourself.
6. Tell your prospect exactly how you can help them. If you know that you can help someone, let him or her know. Make that all-important connection for them (if appropriate and if you are comfortable with it), give them accurate advice, tell them about helpful books or online resources etc. If you can help them in the future, offer that as well. You will get a reputation as a giver.
7. Professionally ask for what you really need. If you have offered to help the other person first, chances are they will want to help you. Be honest, realistic and specific. ‘I just need a big break’ is not specific. “I am good at writing melodies, but I need to meet a strong lyricist to co-write with’ is much more specific and realistic. You can still be professional and not come across as greedy. Everyone loves to help. Give them the chance to feel good by helping you.
8. Follow-up. Whenever you meet someone new, it is always good to follow up with at least an ‘It was nice to meet you’ email. Also, when someone refers you to someone else, be sure to follow up on that lead within 72 hours. It makes you look more professional, and you’ll be fresh on the mind of the person who made the introduction.
9. Follow up with recognition for introductions. If someone refers you to someone else, be sure to thank them, thank them again in an email or with a personal thank-you note.
10. Always carry business cards. Always! Did I mention ALWAYS? Not having business cards (professional looking ones) screams ‘I am an amateur’.
11. Ask for referrals. Don’t be afraid to ask for specific referrals. If you know names, and you believe that the person who you just met might be able to connect you with them, go ahead and ask. However, here are the keys. 1) Don’t be pushy. 2) Don’t put the person who you are talking to in an awkward position. Tell them that you know that they rightfully guard their relationships and the privacy of their contacts, and you would never want to do anything to compromise them. Then ask them what they would need from you before they would make such a key referral.
12. Save business cards and contact information. Be sure to keep all of your contacts organized. You never know when you’ll either need someone’s help that you met years ago, or finally have a good contact for that person years after you met. It’s also good to have this information when someone asks you for a referral and you know exactly who to send them to. 
13. Keep your promises! If you say you are going to call someone, do it. If you say you will make an introduction for them, do it. If you say you’ll meet someone at a specific time, be there. Do everything in a timely manner. Get the reputation as a man (or woman) of your word. People will be much more inclined to help you if they know you are professional and can be trusted.
14. Be generous with your leads. Whenever possible, be open with your referrals. Of course, you should only do this when you feel 100% confident that you will not be wasting your connection’s time or jeopardizing your relationship with them. In other words, you probably shouldn’t introduce a mediocre songwriter to a top publisher. The more you help others, the more people will rally around you when you need help.
15. Make personal introductions. If you have a connection for someone, take the time to make a personal introduction either by phone or email. The reason is that you are telling both parties that you ‘sanctioned’ the introduction. Nowadays many people lie and say ‘____ told me to call’ just to get past the gatekeepers, even though that referral was never really made.
16. Reward good introductions. If someone introduces you to a contact that turns out to be a profitable or beneficial connection for you, reward him. This reward might be as small as a thank-you note, a gift basket, a gift certificate to a nice restaurant, or as large as a percentage of the income that resulted from the lead. Be fair. Once again, people will do everything they can to help you if they know that you are grateful.
17. Find the centers of influence. Influential people often get that way because they are masters at networking. At any networking event or party they will be the one with the most people around them. Get to know them. They can lead you to a lot of other people who might be important to your career.
18. Reinforce your brand. Whether you are attending a formal business networking events, a conference or just going to meet someone for coffee, present your brand as much as possible. Maybe you have a polo shirt with your band logo on it that looks appropriate. Maybe you are carrying a computer case with your logo on it. Make your logo your screensaver as well. Of course, I am not saying that you should walk around in a stage costume. You just simply want to put your brand in front of as many people as possible. It will also spark some people to talk to you because they know your brand, even if they have never met you personally.
19. Initiate conversation. Get comfortable enough with talking to people that you can always take the initiative to begin the conversation. This serves 3 key purposes. 1) You can put the other person at ease right away with a warm greeting; 2) You get the reputation as a man or woman of action, and, 3) You meet more people! Complimenting someone on something they are wearing is a great way to get the conversation started. You may have a particular comment that you use as an icebreaker. I love to walk up to people and say ‘You look like someone important that I should know!” They can’t help but chuckle and introduce themselves! Approach people who are shy or are standing alone. If you are at a formal conference or networking event, don’t ignore the people who are sitting, eating or standing alone. They might be shy but can still be extremely important to your career. Not everyone with influence is comfortable at these events. If you make them comfortable, they will open up and help you in every way that they can.
20. Never eat alone! When you are at a networking event, never eat by yourself. This defeats the purpose of being there in the first place! Sit next to someone or with people you don’t know and introduce yourself. You never know where it will lead.

Read more great tips on networking in the original Vinny Ribas‘ article at this location!

Dieselboy discussed the latest happenings in HUMAN and just launched at the time subHUMAN (dubstep focused) labels. Damian, who gained a worldwide recognition partly due to his famous mix CDs, also talked on how irrelevant traditional mix releases become, being replaced by online material. His new mix, Unleashed! (yet to be recorded at the time of the interview) is now available for free download at the Dieselboy Soundcloud page.

My main interest was, of course, his online and marketing activities. Damian sincerely shared the difficulties connected with maintaining numerous web profiles and websites, many of which have been registered under the Dieselboy name, instead of Human or personal “Damian Higgins.”

Other covered topics were Dieselboy’s promotional tools of choice, advantages of creating artist-centric mobile applications, and much more. Watch it below (or in a separate page, with annotations)!

The video was recorded at ‘Amber Beach’ open air, Kaliningrad region, Russia. Filmed and edited by Kathrine Apanova. Interview by Andrew Apanov.