Producer and musician
George Howard founded his first independent label, Slow River Records, in 1993.
In 1995, Slow River entered into a co-venture with Rykodisc, one of the world's
largest independent labels. In 1999, he became president of Rykodisc. Today
George teaches in the College of Business at Loyola University, New
Orleans, and online for Berklee Media and blogs at 9GiantSteps.com.
This is a thought in progress,
but it’s coming together. At the very least, as with blogtailing , I think I’ve coined a
phrase. Here goes.
Marketing today is a straddle
between the online world and the offline world. Only those who do the straddle
right will survive. Err too far online, you fail. Too fair offline, you fail.
What I think justifies this post’s existence is that no one (that I’m aware of)
is really (yet) talking about the straddle.
Doesn’t mean people aren’t
doing it.
For instance, I’ve blogged frequently about how artists
like REM are leveraging the tech by using wonderfully articulated social
media marketing strategies to allow their constituents to engage in participatory
marketing. However, I didn’t emphasize enough in these posts that it was the
straddle that really allows REM to leverage the tech. That is, it’s their
interplay between their offline world (touring) and their online world that
allows them to be successful.
Similarly, another person
I’ve written about frequently who is doing the straddle well is Wine Library TV’s Gary Vaynerchuk.
Certainly his use of tech is about as good as it gets, but what makes it work
is his commitment to offline activities (wine tastings, appearances, etc.). It
is wine that he’s talking about, for goodness sakes; you sort of have to have an offline
presence.
Another example: I believe
that the reason Facebook is just crushing MySpace (random sample of the hundred
or so students I teach: Q. How many use Myspace? A: None; Q. How many use
Facebook? A: All) is because Facebook helps them do the straddle (sounds like a
dance); while MySpace is a closed online only experience.
Think about it: Facebook
works because it allows you to enhance and augment your offline experiences.
You post photos of things you do with your friends; you write on each others’
walls regarding offline experiences.
MySpace is more of (and I use
this word in the loosest possible manner) a portfolio (or, what I really
believe it’s become, for bands at least: a demo). MySpace has nothing to do
with your offline life; it’s only related to your online life, and, thus, falls
short.
Musicians and others too
often feel that the new tech allows them to forgo what is really important:
building real connections via playing live. I.e. they emphasize the online and
forget about the offline. It makes sense. These online tools are so easy, and
they give the illusion of progress and (sometimes) accomplishment. However,
this indeed is illusory. Without leveraging whatever you, perhaps, built online in
order to grow your offline presence (and vice
versa), you will fail.
This holds true across the
board. Businesses, authors…whomever…must
do the straddle. If you’re a real estate agent, why would you not be tweeting
up a storm, Facebook-ing up a storm, blogging up a storm, so that when you have
an open-house for one of your listings you can connect with your online
constituency in an offline manner. If you’re a restaurant who isn’t tweeting
out your specials (and I don’t know ONE
restaurant who is), and even perhaps creating events/menus for your online
peeps so that you can then have the offline experience with them, it seems to
me you’re missing something.
I want more than anything to
have some 9GS offline experiences with those who read the blog/follow my tweets . Sadly, so far the only
thing I can currently come up with is to tweet out to those who follow me to
come over to the house and shoot pool and drink tequila with me. This would, of
course, result in me being fired and divorced, so I will keep thinking.
The rest of you, I look
forward to your straddles.
Cameron is a freelance guitarist in
Brooklyn, NY. Along with performing and selling his own music, he performs as a
sideman for other artists and dabbles in production consultantation. He is also
a co-founder and author at MusicianWages.com.
Learn more at his website or check out his music
on iTunes.
Nearly every musician I know is a creatively diverse individual, yet many of them are singularly focused.If they have a goal for their career as a musician, it's often accompanied by tunnel vision.They
place all their dreams of making it as a musician in one band or one
project, and in the meantime exert a lot of energy waiting tables at
the local Scrapplebee's.Perhaps worse, I've seen friends
that were very talented and promising musicians get caught up in a
corporate career and settle for the occasional weekend cover band gig.The
latter usually step away from the cliff, scared to leap because they
find their current situation secure and comfortable, later to lament
their decision.
However, there is another way to make your creative and musical knowledge work for you.Chances
are you have a variety of skills that you take for granted, or at least
have come up with enough excuses as to why you can't use them.I've
heard all the excuses, used many of them, but finally took off my
blinders and realized there are many ways I can create revenue streams
as a musician.
Here are a few ideas to get you thinking.The
beauty of all is that they can be done simultaneously, involve music,
and if you have a slow month with one revenue stream, another could
likely pick up the slack.That is, after all, the whole reason to have multiple streams of income.
Performance Oriented Skills
The first place to start is evaluating your abilities as a player or singer.Sure, your priority is to get your band's act together.But
in the downtime, consider playing solo gigs and investigate
opportunities to work as a sideman or studio musician in your area.The better you are as a musician, the more opportunities you will find.This
might mean brushing up on your sight reading or dusting off the jazz
chops, but these kinds of opportunities will strengthen you as a
musician when your band needs it most.
Another option I rarely see bands choose is to create an alias to perform more cover songs.Choose
a second name for your band, add another singer if necessary (one lead
singer per gender seems to do well), record a few cover songs and start
pitching yourself to local bars.Have fun with it, and make some extra cash.
One thing I learned working at a bar in a college town was that cover bands can do very, very well.At
the time, I had tunnel vision and thought it was beneath me, as an
artist, to play in a cover band for a bunch of drunken frat boys.In
retrospect, I probably would have been better off on stage than doing
something like working as a bouncer at a bar full of drunken frat boys.
Selling Music
Hopefully, your first thought here is, "Duh."
If
you don't yet have some music available to sell yet, make this a
priority. There are two keys to making this an actual revenue stream:
1) make sure the music is really good, and 2) keep your overhead low.
Set a realistic budget, get your music together, and explore some
options for recording.
Home
recording vs. studio recording is an entirely different topic (as is
the discussion on selling music independently), but for the sake of
this article, here's my belief in a nutshell:Use your budgetary restrictions as a creative guide.For example, I have a small home recording rig that I've used for 4 albums and counting.One of the things I can't do is record drums.So instead of throw my hands in the air and do nothing, I choose creative means of recording music within my restrictions.
Once you have an album (or even a few tracks) that you're happy with, release them digitally.Budget some time each week to market yourself and your music.Keep your overhead low by using every free online resource available to spread the word about your band and the music.If the music is good, it will sell.
One last thing to mention here: Record and release cover songs and niche oriented albums.While it may not be your chosen path to be recording cover songs, my experience has been that they sell very well.Sales from cover songs help fund larger projects with my original music.For
example, iTunes sales of an album of 8 cover songs, involving no more
than an acoustic guitar and my friend singing, and recorded in my
parents basement nearly 10 years ago, provided me with enough funds to
take my jazz trio into a studio and make a proper recording.
Here are some other articles I've written to further discuss what I do to help sell my music:
If
you have a home recording set up that you've used for your own
recordings, why not let other musicians hire you and your gear?If you have ProTools chops to burn, people will need you.There's
a steep learning curve on this software, and many musicians would
rather hire somebody to record them before taking the time and energy
to learn these recording techniques for themselves.
Composition & Arranging
Writing and arranging music is perhaps one of the more profitable ways to use your skills as a musician.Music enhances life.That's
why we have it in movies, commercials, parades, elevators, dentists'
offices... well, perhaps 'enhance' is the wrong word.My point is, it's everywhere.And
in some cases, companies may want custom music for their website, or they'd like to
commission a piece of music for a special occasion.
Somebody has to write this stuff.Do you have the skills to pull it off?There are countless opportunities out there if you look, but the best way to find this work is through effective networking.Make
sure everybody knows you can write music and that you'll write for hire
(many people wrongly assume that an artist would never write
commissions).Build a portfolio of examples, perhaps by
doing a few projects for little or no money, and work will start to
find it's way to you.
Music Directing or Conducting Skills
Wherever there's a group of contracted musicians, there's a need for a director or conductor.My
counterpart over at MusicianWages.com, pianist Dave Hahn, has written
about the job of a Music Director in the theater .That is just one place Music Directors (or MD's as they're called in the biz) are found.Artists with large backing ensembles also need MD's.
It
can take some time to get into this kind of position, but if you are a
good musician that also has strong management skills, these can turn
out to be ideal gigs (musicians with management skills are sometimes
hard to find).The only downside is that this is a gig
that is probably going to take place a night, and can cause a conflict
with your band's schedule.
Teaching
For many musicians, teaching private lessons is a great way to generate some steady income.There are several ways to find students.If
you're willing to put in the effort, placing ads on Craigslist or
putting flyers in your local grocery store might help you find students
directly, and you can charge whatever they'll pay.If hustling for students isn't your thing, many stores that sell instruments also offer lessons.There are also programs that offer music lessons at regular schools.Because
there's a middle man for the latter two options, you'll probably make
less money per student, but could also have more students placed in
your studio.
Transcribing or Copyist Work
If
you have done a lot of work in Finale, Sibelius, or another notation
program, then you could be a valuable asset to other musicians that
need to get their music on paper.
Working
as a copyist generally only involves getting previously notated music
into clean, organized parts for each person in an ensemble.Composers
will write out an orchestration in one large score, but often hire a
copyist to do the grunt work of extracting each instrument into
separate parts.
Transcribing involves writing down note for note what is happening on a recording.Not only does it help to have notation skills, but a trained ear as well.There
are software programs that can now slow music down without affecting
pitch, which makes things easier, but it's still a valuable skill that
can pay.
---
It's important to remember that none of these gigs constitute giving up on your career as a musician.In most cases, it will strengthen skills that can only help other areas of your career.Best of all, it can put money in your pocket and make it a little easier to quit that day job.Good luck!
Jason Isbell
and The 400 Unit's eponymous album will be released on February 17, 2009 on Lightning Rod Records . Jason Isbell and
The 400 Unit is Isbell's second solo release and his first release
with his band The 400 Unit. Prior to his solo career Jason was a member of
Drive-By Truckers from 2001 to 2007.
When
giving anyone advice about the music business, or anything in general,
I find it necessary to have a sense of what the person or group of
people is trying to achieve.The trick to manipulating
the entertainment industry is knowing your specific goals and being
willing to work very hard, cut dead weight, and take some chances in
order to get there.
For most musicians, at least most that I know, expectations change as time goes on.When I was thirteen, for example, I spent a great deal of my time daydreaming about fame and wealth.In
my mind, I had already chosen jobs for all my friends, though there
weren't that many, and I had planned out every initial conversation
with all my heroes.While these dreams haven't left me altogether, my priorities now line up far more evenly with my reality.Today, my wildest dreams of rock stardom can be boiled down to this:I really don't want to get a regular fucking job.I think that's an achievable goal that, in the long run, can make me very happy, indeed.
It's clear that this isn't enough for everyone.If you want to be a star, which I don't advise, you should probably stay with a more traditional method of using the business.Audition
for anything that comes your way, network until your iPhone is full of
numbers and your soul is locked away in your inner monologue (the soul
just gets in the way of celebrity), and listen with feverish intensity
to that wisest of fanny-packed and man-sandled sage, the A&R person.Allow
that person's creative input to guide your creative output, and he or
she will be your guide to credibility and artistic worth, at least in
the eyes of the average.If you write songs, don't scare anybody.Keep it short and don't try to impress.Dress accordingly.Find a manager that demands at least twenty percent.Anything less, and you'll find yourself up saddle creek without a paddle.You'll probably want to devote every realized thought and every waking hour to understanding and pronouncing the word 'yes'.Make it your mantra.You'll get time for yourself later, when you're loaded and can afford to hide.
This is clearly not the path for folks like us.I
write songs to teach myself how to feel about something, and when I see
a crowd of people in front of me, singing along to those songs, I can't
help but think I'm not alone in this world.This interaction is a plant that must be grown and cultivated.Find people you trust to water it when you're away.At this point in my career, the best tip I can give anyone is this: Work with your friends. Oh, and don't have stupid, greedy, negligent friends.Seems easy enough, I guess.
Internet, internet, internet.Any
discussion of the music business would not be complete without the
inclusion the of the mighty mighty media, the new Goliath killer that
allows all of us shoe-gazing Davids access to the most powerful
slingshot in history.With a click or two, we can propel
our music to all corners of the world, or receive music form the least
popular new band in Belgium.Become familiar with it.Unknown bands now have the ability to spend their spare time spreading the word without anyone else's help or authorization.I could sit in front of my computer and connect with hundreds or thousands of people in a day's time.If only a small percentage of these folks ever become fans of my band, that is a big step in the right direction.MySpace,
Facebook, iTunes, YouTube... It's as if these sites have been custom
built for emerging bands and artists, and they're easy to use.Don't complain about their power, and don't underestimate it.
Tour, tour, tour.My final piece of advice for those interested in making a living in music is to get your ass on the road.You don't have to wait on labels or radio or anything else.The Ford Econoline van is the greatest automobile ever made.Get one, load it up, and call in every favor you can.Trust friends to tell you where to play and put in a good word with the booker.If you're any good and you work hard, you should be able to find someone to take over your booking.Once you get an agent, you can usually find a manager.Once you have an agent and a manager, you can usually find a label.Don't be afraid to fire any of these people at any time, and remember that they work for you, not the other way around.In many cases, you could do their job, but they can't do yours.
If you work very hard and still have no success, there's a chance that you might be making bad music.If that's the case, I can't help you.However,
if you put all of your energy into achieving well-thought-out goals,
like that of not having to work a regular job and making the best music
you can make, something might accidentally catch fire and you might
find yourself with a hit.Stranger things have happened.More than likely, though, you'll build a relatively small but loyal group of fans that will follow you to your grave.That can enable you to make music for a living for the rest of your life, and that's way better than being famous.I hope.
John Doe is the founder of the seminal Los Angeles punk group X, a solo artist and actor. John answers questions from our community members in the WWJDD? blog. Photo by Autumn de Wilde.
A Question from BB in Winston Salem
Hi John,
I'm
in a band as the lead singer and principle song writer. I've been told
and I do agree that I write really good, catchy songs. I do love being
part of a band but I've often thought of possibly writing songs for
other people to record so at least I could make some money doing one of
the things I love. What would be the best way to go about getting demos
out to the right people so they would listen and possibly like and
record these songs? I write a lot of Americana songs and straight up
rock and roll tunes also. I know that one of the deals would be making
sure I get what I deserve for the songs as far as money and retaining
the rights to the songs for future use. Is there any advice you could
give me pertaining to becoming a professional song writer?
It's my opinion that if you write great songs, truly great songs, you
will be recognized. Yes there are overlooked greats who surface
post-mortem but not so much anymore. The reason that most Americana,
rock et al outfits write their own material is because it's not that difficult. If
you distinguish yourself by writing & recording truly great,
original songs (this is the really tricky part. . . the writing) people
will want to cover them, you'll be rich & famous & can tell all
yr friends what genius you are. end of story.
hope this helps & thanks for writing.
Jd
If you have questions for John Doe about music, the music business or life feel free to email them to wwjdd@knowthemusicbiz.com.
