Networking and collaboration

Great post by @musiccoaching that talks about the need for all artists to be involved in networking with industry executives and collaborating with other artists, writers and producers - all covered in an interview with a major label A&R exec.

It stands to reason that the more you do these things, the more chances you'll get.

I wrote the other day about a friend who is a manager in the UK who has a very hot act that everyone wants to sign - they have played a handful of gigs and have released nothing....so haven't followed our DIY plan at all!

BUT, they hang out in all the right bars, venues, record stores, music shops etc in all the right parts of town and over the last year or so the frontman (who is charismatic) has managed to get to know huge numbers of record company staff, publishers, journalists, PR people etc. He created a buzz for his band before they did anything!

As for collaborating, I'll write on the main site about some ways to find people to write and record with, but there are online resources such as Indaba, and just searching for things like 'songwriting workshop' will lead you to opportunities.

The entire business is about relationships. So, co-write, meet people who work with other people. I think collaborating is great, because then you have two teams of people who work with you. Even if you were both unsigned and doing your own thing – so, if you have Writer A doing one thing and Writer B doing his/her own thing and both networking – you never know when something is going to hit or get to the next level. It’s not necessarily all about collaborating. It’s about networking: getting out there; meeting other people; getting your music heard. The more people that hear about you, the better. And I think that comes from networking and collaborating with others.

Read the piece here, and see how important making these connections can be to your success.

True music success takes time and effort - just like anything worthwhile!

Image by Incase.

Bob Lefsetz must have had a week or two off, since he's come back with two great posts on a similar theme - how it takes time and effort to become good enough to be successful in music (or in anything if truth be told). We peddle this line on the main blog - read the basics in our free musican eBook.

I'd urge you to read both of Bob's posts.

Doesn’t this sound like the music business?  A plethora of unskilled kids telling us they’re great, that they deserve success?

Could it be the music business is faltering because the music just isn’t good enough?

Now let me be clear, you’ve got to be great.  The Palm Pre is pretty good.  But not as good as an iPhone or an Android.  And before you start quibbling, one of the things that made the iPhone such a phenomenon was the ecosystem, the App Store, and the synching software.  Sure, the Pre would hold your music, but how in the hell were you going to get it on there, it was tedious!

So if you’ve got one hit, almost no one wants to see you live.

Justin Bieber?  That’s MySpace.  Big story for a year or two, even the mainstream press buys it, and then instant devastation.

Where are the acts that blow us away?

Certainly not the Black Eyed Peas.  That’s entertainment.  Still, will.i.am just can’t get rich enough.  Now he’s gone and made a deal with Intel.

Hell, Steve Jobs was blown out of Apple, his own company.  The iPod didn’t even come out until twenty five years after the initial Apple computers.  Where are the acts that are growing and developing into greatness?  Are we really waiting for Ke$ha to deliver her "Sgt. Pepper"?

So let’s stop the debate about piracy.  Let’s focus on the music.  And agree that whatever money comes raining down, it’s just not gonna be in the league of Lloyd Blankfein’s compensation.  That music isn’t about getting rich, but making a statement.  Doing it your way.  Having an influence.

But in order to have said influence, you’ve got to gain adherents.  Which takes a long time, see Mr. Jobs above.  And Jobs purveyed incredible products before the iPod, just like the initial albums of classic artists were oftentimes ignored.  But you don’t cry, but soldier on.

That's from this post - The Tiger Mother Craze

And then there's this, where he talks about the practice required to become great.

In the old days, before the Internet could make everyone famous overnight, our successful artists had a backstory.  They’d played with this person and that, some who’d also gone on to become famous, many who’d gone straight after tiring of the grind or finding themselves just not good enough.  Pete Best was not the best, he got ousted from the Beatles just before they broke.  But Tom Petty reunited with his old buddies in Mudcrutch decades later.  Who did Willow Smith come up with?  You see we’ve got the fame part down, but there’s no substitute for growing up, getting knocked around, learning the ropes.

And what was Harry Houdini doing?  Learning how to perform.

The greats were not only musicians, but incredible showmen.  Have you seen David Bowie?  Bob Ezrin made incredible records with Alice Cooper, but when you went to see him there was a show so out there, so creative that you had to tell everyone you knew about it, and drag them the next time Alice came to town.

And how about Hendrix?  He sure could play.  But that didn’t prevent him from employing his teeth, lighting his guitar on fire.  And it’s not simply coming up with these stunts, it’s about practicing them over years.  Speak with a comedian.  He always bombs early in his career.  He has to learn how to feed off of the audience.  Not only what lines work, but when to shut up, when to wrinkle his eyebrows.  This is very hard to do when your show is on hard drive.  A great show is an interaction between performer and audience.  Movies are two-dimensional, live theatre and music positively breathe!

That's from his Houdini post.

Songwriting Tips from Wendy & Lisa and ASCAP - series to follow

ASCAP's 'We Create Music' advice blog is starting a series of lessons on songwriting and the first is from legends Wendy & Lisa.

It's good but it's worth bookmarking the site or their YouTube channel and coming back in the future and see what else they put out.

I beleive that you can't get too many songwriting tips and the more you can learn about the craft the better.

Watch it on the ASCAP blog here.

That link is being very schlonky right now, so here's the video from YouTube.

Music collaboration online - available to all

Hypebot piece on the intriguing Indaba platform that also looks at how the democratisation of the means of production and distribution has given everyone with talent a shot. The gatekeepers are still there but you can go around them, so it's down to you.

Indaba is a very exciting prospect that allows all musicians at any level of skill to collaborate on music or seek out people to help them and vice versa.

It's a great musicians resource that you should check out.

Central to the founding ideology of Indaba Music is the notion of collaboration; they strive to empower musicians with the means to network and make music together. Since 2007 the website has grown to harbor over 500,000 musicians—from amateurs, who make music for the love of the craft, to Grammy Award winners, who've created music on the professional level.

Prior to the emergence of the social web, the tyranny of geography inhibited musicians from collaborating on a large scale and class distinctions were far more predominate than they are today. This prevented amateurs from gaining access to commercial works and professionals from seeing the value that they can create. In the music industry, we've reached the point where more music is being made and consumed than at any other point in history and Indaba has positioned itself to harness the sheer abundance of cultural creators behind it.

Read the piece at Hypebot and visit Indaba.