Free Music

One thing that always strikes me about unsigned artists and bands is how possessive they can be about their music. Now I know that creating music is a very personal experience, and can also be a lot of hard work not to mention the personal expense of getting your lovingly crafted songs onto some form of recorded media. But lets face facts if you are an unknown artist with a small or non existent fan base, what is the point in following the current fashion and selling your new E.P. or album on itunes? When was the last time that you went on itunes and paid to download an album from someone you had never heard of and had just stumbled upon?

As musicians we have never had it so good, it has never been easier or cheaper to record our music and distribute it to a potential worlwide audience but for some reason the majority of us have a paranoid fear of music ownership. We are all quite happy to put our tracks on our myspace page for the world to hear as long as they can only be streamed. Myspace has the capability to allow people to download music from artist’s pages but out of the millions of bands and artists that use the myspace service it is hard to find anyone who will allow you to download their tracks.

I believe the reason for this is a misunderstanding of the songs value.

Why as an unknown artist am I happy to let someone own one of my songs if they have paid 79 pence, even though I would only expect to sell a handful of downloads and not make any real amount of money. But I am not willing to let someone download it for free? Surely the song would provide more value to me as an artist if it was given away without restriction to be passed around and recommended amongst friends?

I realise that this approach would not suit everyone but for any artist or band looking to build a fan base and get noticed what better way can there be than letting people hear your music. By allowing listeners to download your tracks for free takes away an important barrier between you as an artist and any potential fan. More people will take a gamble on something unknown if the risk is removed, in this case the music is unknown and the risk is having to pay for it. I can only assume that bands and artists fear that somewhere down the line they are going to get ‘ripped off’. That somewhere in the world there is a possibility that their song is going to be used for some commercial purpose and they will not receive any money for it. These are probably the same people that are too scared to send demos out in the fear that a couple of years later a different artist will have a hit with one of their songs. Life is too short to be possessive over your music, its no good being the best songwriter in the world if no one will ever hear them. Somebody once sang ‘free your mind and the rest will follow’ so change the way the world thinks about music and let your work go free. Give your music away and let your songs have a life of their own, if you are good enough people will come back to you and maybe further down the line you will have a large number of people who will be willing to pay for your music.

How to achieve your goals

The title of this post may be a little bit misleading as I do not have a surefire magical method for success, but as we are at the beginning of the year I suspect that a lot of people like myself have spent a fair amount of time recently thinking about what they hope to achieve this year. Personally for the last few years I have had quite  few different projects all running at the same time with different ambitions for each of them and it can become quite hard to focus on particular goals. At the beginning of the year I always start out with good intentions but as the year goes on I find ideas get forgotton or all my time gets taken on one project.

So this year I have decided to put pen to paper and write a plan, all good businesses have a business plan and the world of music is no different, by writing my targets down they instantly become clearer and by just briefly reading over the plan every few days it keeps me focussed. 

Here is a few ideas of what to include -

write down your main goals for the year.

Set time frames in which you would like to achieve each goal, these don’t have to be set in stone but will help you to prioritise.

Under each goal write sub headings of what you will need to do to reach your target

eg.

Release E.P. on itunes                          November 2010

- finish recording

-Artwork

-promotion

This is just a basic example to get the idea, always keep your plan handy and refer to it every few days.

and finally good luck to everyone who hopes to achieve in 2010

Getting a music publishing deal

In the current musical climate maybe the sensible option for artists and musicians is to forget about chasing traditional recording contracts and focus their efforts into getting a publishing deal. Think about it, record companies are signing fewer new artists, established artists are making more money through touring and sponsership than through record sales, on top of this the new breed of record buying teenagers are more use to getting their music for free through file sharing.

The truth is that it has never been easier for a musician to record and release their music to a worldwide audience so the record company suddenly looks a bit redundant. On the other hand the benefits offered by the publishing companies still look very attractive, firstly they are more likely to take a chance on a promising artist who may still need some development and a good publishing company will help them with this. Secondly if we are to believe what we are told about the future of the industry then alterntive sources of income such as advertising and licensing for film, TV and video games are going to become more important for an artist or band.

In the past a lot of bands and performing songwriters have always chased the record deal first assuming that publishing companies are more geared towards helping non performing songwriters an composers. This is not the case and if a traditional record deal is the goal a publishing company will certainly be a strong partner to help you acheive this.

So if you haven’t considered it before and most of your efforts have been targeted at the record companies why not shift your focus and try a different route by approaching the music publishing companies.

The real guide to getting a record deal part 2

Welcome back for part 2, before we continue I would just like to point out that the tips in this guide are not just specific to dealing with record companies, a lot of the information could also be applied when approaching management or publishing companies.

Now last time we ended on the subject of demos, so once we have the completed demo ready to go we need to know where we are sendng it. This is the time to start researching record labels, the temptation maybe to knock out as many copies as you can afford and send them to every address you can find but I would much rather send 10 cd’s out to well researched contacts than 100 cd’s to any company that has ever put a record out. As well as wasting money you are showing yourself to be unprofessional and in this business first impressions count!

Find labels that release your style of music, check their website and see what the latest releases are, get as much information about the company as you can and compile a list. Once you have selected your companies check there submission guidelines, you may find this on the website or you may have to email or phone them. What we are trying to acheive is to look as professional and business like as we can after all this is a business.

Once we have our chosen companies we need a name to send the package to, unless specified on the submission guidlines never address the demo to ‘The A&R dept’ this will flag up your demo as unsolicited. Now it never ceases to amaze me how some musicians have no problem with standing in front of a couple of hundred people and singing but find it difficult to pick up a phone and talk to someone. If you struggle with this then get someone else to do it as this part can be crucial in getting your music heard.

The Dragon

I once read a business book that described how every business has a dragon, somone at the end of the phone whose job it is to get rid of the 90% of phone calls that come in during a day from timewasters and sales people. Record companies are no different imagine if everyone that phoned up EMI and demanded to speak to the head of A&R was put through to them. They would never release another record!

So it is you job to tackle the dragon, after a bit of experience you will find that some are worse than others but all will regard you as the bottom of the food chain.The other thing you will notice is that some of these people are very professional receptionists who have obviously done the job for years and that is their chosen profession, these are the worst and hardest to overcome. However there are some who are obviously using the job as a stepping stone to a career in the music business and are hoping that starting off on reception is better than nothing. These ones can be used to your advantage the trick is to recognise early in the converstion which type you have got. The minimum amount of information you need before putting the phone down is a name and email address of someone in the A&R dept but be ready to adapt to every situation and if you can get more information take it. Always be ready to take advantage of lucky breaks, once I was trying to get a contact for a very large music publishing company to send a friends demo too. I wasn’t having much luck and the best I could get was an email address for the personal assistant to the managing director. I fired an email off to see if I could get any further information and straight away an out of office reply came back asking for all enquiries to be emailed to another address. The only detail was a mans name, no department or job title was mentioned so I sent the email again and within 5 minutes I had a phone call from the guy who was intrigued as to how I had got his contact details. It turned out that this guy worked in the accounts department but had ambitions to work in the more glamorous parts of the music business and he was quite excited that someone had contacted him about a possible new artist. He assured me that he was friends with the head of A&R and if I sent the demo for his attention he would make sure it got heard. I sent the demo and true to his word I had got a reply back from the head of A&R within 3 or 4 days which is a still a record.

Once you have got the name and email address send an email just asking if it would be ok to send your demo to them, this just helps to put your name or the name of our band into their heads and when they get to your demo they may think they have heard of that name. Sometimes you will get  reply to these mails but don’t worry if you don’t still send the demo.

thats all for now until part 3

The real guide to getting a record Deal Part 1

This article is aimed at musicians, songwriters or anyone else who wants to know how to go about approaching a record company for the first time. At some point in time most bands or musicians will decide to try sending a demo to a record company in the hope of securing that all important recording contract, the problem is that sending an unsolicited demo is not the best way to get a deal and dealing with record companies can be daunting to the beginner.

However don’t give up just yet because you can significantly improve your chances by reading and following this Guide.

Please note though that this article  is not called how to get a record deal and become a multi-millionaire rock star as I would be unable to gurantee that, I can however say with confidence that if you follow the guidelines in this book you will get your music heard by the right people, the people that have the power to offer you a recording contract. After that it is up to your music to do the talking, and that I cannot help with. Regardless of the stories you hear these days about studio technology and how anyone can become a pop star unfortunately it isn’t true and at the end of the day no matter what tactics you use if the music isn’t up to scratch no record company will ever sign it.

This is a real life guide to getting your music heard by the right people, the people who have the power to offer you a recording contract, not the record company receptionist who is given a pile of unsolicited demos to listen to each day.

This guide doesn’t beat around the bush, getting a record deal is not going to be easy there are many factors which must come together at the same time for you to even stand a chance of a deal and this is before your music has even been heard.

When that moment comes a whole new set of obstacles are then in place. Unfortunately getting a record deal is not like applying for a loan where all applications are put through the same computer system and a decision is based on a mathematical system. You are dealing with real people in a cut throat multi-billion pound business and that means you are dealing with greed, ego’s and all that is good and bad with human nature.

Welcome to the music Business………..

Before we start there are five important things that you need to be aware of regarding record companies, remember that it is the record company that you are ultimately trying to win over and it pays to learn all you can about your opponent.

Here are five things that you should always consider and are generic to all record companies.

5 Record company Guidelines

1. The music business is just that, a business. Record companies are companies.

They invest in a product which they then sell at a profit.

If a company thinks your music will make them money then they will sign it.

2. A & R scouts want your demo to be good, many A & R scouts are dreamers, many are failed musicians, many are both but they are all hoping that the next demo they pick up will be the one! The act that will get them that top head of A & R job and free drinks for life when they mention at the bar that they discovered (insert your name here).

3. Everyone who works at a record company from the secretary to the junior accounts clerk fancies themselves as a talent scout and sees their current job as a stepping stone to a more exciting career in A & R or artist management.

 

This can be used to your advantage.

4. Power corrupts – anybody who is in a position to make decisions about other peoples futures eventually starts to feel like some kind of god, this is of no advantage to you but you must be aware of what your dealing with.

5. Record companies are not at the forefront of new music, they are usually the last people to find out about the latest hot unsigned act and even then are usually slow to chase them up.

Next

The Demo

 

Those magic words the demo, everyone seems to have there own idea of what a demo should entail and what format it should take. Now there are two important points that we must clear up before we go any further,

It would be almost unheard of for an artist or band to be signed on a demo alone.

But saying that never underestimate how important your demo is, it is your calling card, it is the first impression that the record company will get of you so never settle for second best. Your demo must be produced to the best that your ability and budget will allow and if you have any doubts about you or a member of your bands ability to record and produce to a high standard then hire someone who can!

Now it is time for the 5 golden rules of The demo -

1. Three tracks is more than enough, if anybody wants to hear any more they can request more.

2. Put your best song first, this sounds obvious but you would be surprised how many artists struggle with this basic concept, don’t just take your opinion on your best track get as many opinions as you can from friends and myspace etc.

3. Unless stated otherwise send it on CD, don’t try and look professional and send it on DAT, it will not get listened to, don’t email MP3’s or links to an external website unless asked, A&R are busy people and if you make it difficult for them to listen to your demo it will simply just not get heard. Believe it or not I recently spoke to the head of one music publishing company who said they still receive demos on cassette!

4. Think about the possibility of remixing your tracks if you have long intros or the tracks exceed four minutes in total length.

5. Check every single CD that you send to make sure the it has burned correctly and there are no errors, no skips etc. if possible check it on a couple of different systems, don’t just check it on your computer, listen to it in the car or on your home stereo. I once spoke to a singer/songwriter who had sent out over fifty copies of his demo before he actually listened to one of the copies, when he put it onto his stereo all the tracks jumped and skipped he then had no idea if this was just a one off or a fault that had occurred on all his other copies. The only thing he was sure of was that he never got offered a deal!

 Coming soon – Part 2, what now?

 

Myspace tips

This is just a short post to run through a few essential things that any band or artist must be doing on myspace, as you will have probably noticed it is no use just building your page and sitting back waiting to be discovered. If you are lucky you may get 3 or 4 people a day finding you by accident.

The biggest mistake that most bands make is building a myspace page and making that their band website, myspace should only be part of your online presence to keep in touch with fans and post gig news etc. make sure you have an official band website and make sure that your myspace page links to it and vice versa. Do not just rely on myspace!

The next thing to do is get involved, there is no shortcut to getting lots of traffic visiting your page, start some myspace groups, post on the forums, leave comments on other bands pages that you like. I will warn you now that it is very time consuming. On my own myspace page at one point I was spending 3 or 4 hours a night on the forums and building contacts and I was getting maybe 200 to 300 hundred visits a day to my page, but if I took a couple of days off and was not active I saw this number drop off to about 20 to 30 visits a day!

The next tip is something I have mentioned in another post, give your music away! let people download your songs off myspace and if fans want to use your music on their profile let them. The more people spreading the word the better.

Band merchandise

I recently attended a small gig at a bar by a fairly new band on arrival I noticed a table set up at the side of the stage on which the band were selling every possible item you could think of with the band logo on. You name it and it was there, lighters, badges, stickers, mugs, t-shirts, cd’s, etc.

So this made me think, what is an appropriate amount of merchandise for a unsigned band to sell at a gig? personally I think it was a bit over the top to have such an array of items on display especially considering they had a fanbase of about 5 people, mostly friends!

I would be interested in hearing anybody elses views but I think when playing venues where people are probably seeing you for the first time a cd is all you should try and sell, maybe as you build a fanbase and start to see familiar faces following your gigs it is worth introducing one or two designs of t-shirt.

The only other thing I would consider in the early stages is badges but not to sell, they are far better given away for promotion.

illegal downloading

With the current witch hunt that seems to be going on by the industry against individuals and websites involved in illegal downloading of music it got me thinking of the old 80′s message that home taping was killing music! This slogan was designed to prick the conscience of the average law abiding music fan that would copy an album off a friend or record a track off the radio and make them think that because of their actions the whole industry was going to collapse.

So the question that I was thinking about was this, are their really any more people downloading music for free now than were illegally copying abums or taping off the radio back in the day?

I don’t think so, I am sure that almost everyone of a particular age at some point in their life taped a song off the radio or copied an album they didn’t buy and suprise suprise the industry survived. Now I am in no way supporting or condoning ripping off music for free I am just tired of hearing the same old scaremongering from the industry and it seems to me the only difference is that it is easier to track the culprits down these days.

The X Factor ruins christmas!

Is it just me or has the x factor ruined the christmas number one? I dont know if it is the same in the rest of the world but here in the UK the race for the christmas number one was always a big deal. Sure, sometimes the christmas number one would be a novelty record or something by cliff richard but it was always fun and if you cant have a terrible song at number one for christmas then when can you!
Part of the fun was that you knew that grandparents that hadn’t bought a chart single for years were going into record stores trying to buy a cd for their grandchildren and probably getting it horribly wrong!

But for the last three or four years the christmas number one has been a forgone conclusion, the x factor starts in autum and has a 12 week ad campaign then releases the winners single the week before christmas and what a suprise all the brainwashed go out and buy it!

This has now taken all the fun and magic out of the christmas number one, I have even noticed for the last couple of years other labels are not releasing as much during that week as if they know there is no point.

So come everyone lets not be brainwashed, lets put the fun back into the christmas charts and boycott the x factor single when it comes out, tell your grandparents now that you do not want to find that cd in your christmas stocking!

best books on the music business

Here is a list of some of the best books to read on the music business, all are available from amazon.

music management bible
The Music Management Bible

start an independent record label
Start an Independent Record Label (Music Business Made Simple)

the business of music
This Business of Music Marketing & Promotion (This Business of Music: Marketing & Promotion) (This Business of Music: Marketing & Promotion)

the future of music
The Future of Music: Manifesto for the Digital Music Revolution

all you need to know
All You Need to Know About the Music Business

music publishing
Plain and Simple Guide to Music Publishing

myspace
MySpace Music Profit Monster: Easy Online Strategies for Getting More Fans Fast

music techology
Music Technology Workbook: Key concepts and practical projects: Key Concepts and Practical Projects

home recording
Guerilla Home Recording: How to Get Great Sound from Any Audio – (No Matter How Weird or Cheap Your Gear Is)

music production

The Art of Music Production

music business
The Guerilla Guide to the Music Business

future of music business
Future of the Music Business: How to Succeed with the New Digital Technologies (Future of the Music Business: How to Succeed with the New Digital)

myspace marketing
Myspace Music Marketing: How to Promote & Sell Your Music on the World’s Biggest Networking Web Site

guerilla

Guerrilla Music Marketing Handbook: 201 Self-Promotion Ideas for Songwriters, Musicians and Bands on a Budget

dirty little secrets
Dirty Little Secrets of the Record Business: Why So Much Music You HEAR Sucks

music distribution
Music Distribution and the Internet: A Legal Guide for the Music Business