How to succeed in the music business today

Two posts from Bob Lefsetz.

The first is about lessons that we can all learn from Rebecca Black.

I know that it isn't really a success as so much of the attention on her record is negative, but am I in the minority when it comes to accepting why?

Yes, in many ways it's a god-awful song (the lyrics in the middle eight are beyond redemption), but doesn't it fit rule number one of a pop song? That chorus refrain is hooky as hell and you do not forget it once you've heard it.

I'm not defending it and not saying that she'll build a music career out of it - there's way too much hate for that. But, I do think that if people gave it their own honest judgement rather than the 'follow the herd' abuse, they might grudgingly admit that there's something about the hook that deserves at least a footnote in pop's songwriting annals.

Maybe I'm just wrong!

Either way, there is a LOT to learn from the success of her release and Bob Lefstez has set out a list:

1. Selling recorded music is not the only way to make money in music.  Ark Factory came up with a new way, ripping off the parents of little kids.  Let this be a lesson to you, rather than complain that the old model is dead, innovate.

8. YouTube hosts videos for free.  Too much emphasis is being put on how much Rebecca Black is getting paid.  More important is the mechanism that led to her fame.  Used to be you had to pay independent promoters to get your track on radio, hoping to have it heard and discovered.  Today airplay is free.

18. You do not need radio or record stores to make it.  There is no physical product, airplay didn’t break "Friday".  Anyone telling you you need a label is sorely mistaken.

I picked those three at random, but go and read the whole list here.  

And then he followed that post up with one entitled 'Credibility' in which he sets out another list which has great insight for every musician trying to build a long-term sustainable career in the modern music business.

He begins by decrying why a self-published author, Ammanda Hocking, would now sign to a traditional publisher, and concludes with a long list of reasons why you don't need to.

Brilliant stuff.

1. Focus on the product, the art.  Every career needs an engine.  Which fans can point to and believe in. And that’s not "Friday", which is why Rebecca Black got noticed but she’s got no real fans and no real traction, she’s still waiting for her first hit.  "Friday" is a train-wreck, not a hit.

2. Gain fans.  You do this by allowing them to partake of your art for free.  And giving them tools to spread the word.  Know where to charge in the food chain. At first you pay your fans, then they pay you, it’s not the other way around anymore.

3. Continue to reward the core with product and access.  If you aren’t reachable by your fans, you’re too big in the head.

4. Don’t try to blow it up too soon!  If you’re not willing to wait, you’re not willing to have a career.

Read that post here.

 

 

When should you quit your day job?

Pretty much every musician wants to jack in the drudgery of the day job and be the full-time rock star - or perhaps just the self funded artist!

We wrote about that dilemma in this piece on the main blog - You're not in a band until you're in the band!

And, we made the point that one thing people don't realise is that you need to be a working band for that to become a reality. Read the piece and it'll make more sense.

This post on Live Unsigned takes a far more sensible and long-term approach and points out the advantages of staying in work whilst you either get ready for the leap to full-time working musician, or use that job to bolster your long-term DIY approach.

A lot of us want to be full time musicians, doing what we love all the time. However keeping your day job is often vital as the money and other benefits are really useful for musicians. Here are a few reasons to keep your day job, at least for a while:

It's well worth a read.

Rules for music success

I asked Bob Lefsetz for permission to reproduce part of his recent post on Kanye West as it has this list of 8 things you should use as rules for your music success, and I wanted to be able to point you to them as a reference.

Thanks Bob - here's the original post on Kanye on his site at Lefsetz.com and at lefsetz.com/wordpress

He talks about the way that Kanye has been rehabilitated in the public eye after the VMA debacle by doing it his way.

But, the bit that I wanted to focus on is that he extrapolates these rules - they are BRILLIANT and cut to the core:

1. Be really damn good.  Great art makes up for a ton of ills.  One can argue strongly if Mel Gibson makes a movie on his own dime and it’s great, he can reemerge from the depths.  We’re a forgiving populace.

2. Don’t fall on your sword.  Your crime doesn’t mean as much to people as the mainstream press says it does.  Kevin Smith sat at home, depressed as the man labeled "too fat to fly", but eventually Tiger Woods crashed his car and Smith’s foibles on Southwest, which were inaccurately reported, faded away.  A career in the public eye is first and foremost about persistence, and perseverance.

3. Play the mainstream media game, die by the mainstream media game.  News outlets don’t care about you, they care about advertising, they care about ratings.  Don’t let the tail wag the dog.  Katy Perry is in the news every damn day, but she still can’t sell out an arena.  Get your perspective right.  Katy’s handlers have got it totally wrong.  What does showing off your tits have to do with music?  Kanye’s not the best-looking dude on the planet, but it doesn’t matter, because people believe he’s good.

4. If you’re not willing to give away something for free, you’re not willing to have a career.  If Kanye can give away free tracks, why can’t you?  It’s about your relationship with your fans.  The song doesn’t have to be on the album.  You’ve got to know where in the food chain to charge, and it’s not at every contact point.

5. Maintain contact.  You’re doing your own act.  Now, with the Internet, you don’t need permission to do it.  You can perform on YouTube, you can tweet, less is more is history.  Now you always give more, and the public decides how much it wants to graze in your neighborhood.  Fans come and go, but you can’t let it impact your art.  You’ve got to do what you want to do, not what you think the audience wants.

6. Have a personality.  If no one hates you, you’re not doing it right.

7. Don’t focus on the album release.  Your marketing’s got to go on for years.  The Doobie Brothers released a new album.  Straight to the dumper.  There was no Twitter presence, no fan engagement, just a record most fans don’t know exists and don’t want anyway.  And I only use the Doobies because they’re an ancient act, and all the ancient acts don’t know how to do it.  You don’t need a label and you don’t need an album.  You need fans, which you’ve got, and you need to know how to reach each and every one of them.  Pat Simmons should have played acoustic in someone’s house.  The band should have done live performances of classics on YouTube.  They should have gotten their fans involved.  If Paul McCartney wants to sell a new album, he’s gonna have to do it this way too.  Unless you want to be a recluse, if you want to survive in the new world, you’ve got to get yourself out there.  Don’t pooh-pooh it as marketing, it’s performing!  And isn’t that what you do!  And it can be as much about music as you want it to be.

8. In a chaotic era you’ve got to go your own way, you’ve got to forge your own path.  No one knows, certainly not the mainstream media guys or those at the label.  They know how it used to be done. It’s incumbent upon you to do it your own way, for yourself.  The Eagles can’t sell every ticket?  How come Don Henley’s not on Twitter, he’s got opinions.  Just putting tickets on sale is no longer enough.  Hell, how do people even find out about the gig?  Most people complain they didn’t know you were playing.  And if you’re a new act?  You’ve got to be good.  And if your goal is to connect with the mainstream and have it do your bidding, you’ve got it wrong. It’s about a career.  And you build it.  And it works because you’ve got fans.  Your label doesn’t own your fans, nor does the radio station, only you do.  Start there.

Why 'indie' never meant cool....but it does now

Image by IndiePics!

I think @BuzzSonic tweeted both of these stories.

What I like about them is that they discuss what it was to be an indie before the means of distribution became available to all. In fact, any artist who signerd to a label - as they had to in order to get to make a record and have it put on sale (with a few very notable exceptions) - wasn't really 'indie' at all.

Yet, it still mattered! The cool kids only wanted to back bands that were 'indie'...and, for many, that remains the case.

Well, what could be more truly 'indie' then being a diy musician??

I've often wondered why people prefer independent labels but have no concern over the nature of ownership of publishing companies or booking agencies. The idea of independence being about labels is a fascinating one because it reveals that the chief concerns are issues of autonomy, artistic control and rejection of the establishment. If an artist has signed a contract with a label of any sort, independent or major, they have given up control and it really is a matter of the specific practices of the label how much of a good or bad thing that turns out to be. Independents are viewed as having less marketing power and fewer financial resources, leading to the assumption that they give artists more control and greater ownership – but that isn't always the case.

Read the Guardian article on why 'indie doesn't mean independent record label anymore' here.

The digital revolution has caused the mostly Anglo-American music calling itself “indie” since the early 1980s to change at an accelerating pace over the past decade in several interrelated ways. Because it is easier than ever before to record and distribute music cheaply or for free, the sheer number of “indie” artists producing popular music has skyrocketed. On the listening side, the Internet has made almost any recording instantly accessible, along with huge quantities of information about artists, genres and labels. This implies profound shifts for a subculture founded upon record collectors’ encyclopedic knowledge of pop and rock history as well as up-to-the-minute connoisseurship.

And get the In These Times piece on the 'end of indie' here.