Do as much as you can yourself

I'm hoping to interview Martin Atkins for the site later this week - computer meltdown allowing!

In preparation, I'm reading his latest book with the ever so eloquent title, 'Welcome to the Music Business - you're Fucked!'.

It's a good read and I'll be going over some of the points with Martin in the interview.

For now, I wanted to draw out one thing that he says, as I found it to be so true from my own experience.

'All anyone that is going to help you will do is use the building blocks that you have created yourself, and try to build something with them. If you don't have any building blocks, there is a limit to what anyone can do to help you.

Take that on board.

I have managed artists and songwriter/producers for years and the thing that is at the root of their success (or failure) every time is their work ethic. I can't make something happen if I have no songs to play people, records to promote and market, live shows to bring people to. I can drive a lot of it, but you, the talent, need to buckle and down and do some work.

And, these days, when you're unsigned, that includes all the DIY musician marketing, as well as the actual business of writing, recording and performing.

Don't wait for someone else (a manager or label or whatever) to come along and lift you to success - get as much done as you can yourself and these people will come looking for you.

Check out 'Welcome to the Music Business - you're Fucked!' here.

And Martin's previous book, 'Tour Smart and Break the Band', is an absolute essential for all musicians. Just see what the reviews on Amazon say!

5 ways to find more time to write songs

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If your material sucks, you haven't got a hope in hell.

We're very fond of telling you to improve your songwriting and performance so that your material doesn't suck, but that all takes time - and where are you going to get more of that?

Unless you’re an established working songwriter, chances are good that songwriting is something you do in your spare time. Whether you’re doing it for fun, to complete an album or EP project, or you hope to win a Grammy one day, it’s important to establish a regular writing routine. But how can you do it in the midst of a day job, band, family responsibilities and walking the dog? In this post I’ll give you five strategies to help you block out distractions so you can effectively focus on following your dream.

Get all 5 tips here.

The number one problem facing songwriters

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Great article on the renamed and relocated Ravenous Raven songwriters blog - now just SongwritingLab.

It's a site that you ought to be checking regularly for in-depth advice to help you become a better songwriter.

They polled their readers and discovered that the number one problem facing songwriters was....procrastination.

Simply knuckling down and geting something started (let alone finished) appears to be the issue.

So what is procrastination? Essentially it is the problem of always putting something off and not being able to get around to it. So it seems that the world is full of songwriters or potential songwriters who are just finding it really hard to sit down and write.

So what causes procrastination and specifically what causes it amongst songwriters and why is it so common? We suspect a few things are going on here:

The post then goes on to hand out some useful tips to help you find the time to make writing part of your day.

Read them here.

 

Artist management - for and against

I make my living as a manager. Mostly songwriters and producers these days, but I've managed artists too for a long time.

These two articles on Hypebot therefore really caught my eye.

This one - the case against artist managers.

And, this one - the case for artist managers.

There's a piece about how to approach a manager on the main site. Given the view in that piece and the fact that it is what we do, I think it's clear we feel that a good manager is essential to an artist's success.

I think what matters today is that bands learn how to get themselves started, build a decent fanbase and understand the shifting landscape of the business. Then, if they can find a manager who gets that latter point (and it's true that very many don't!), then that person will be worth their weight in gold.

Put simply, a band working hard to build a global audience will not have the time to do it all themselves - that's why the manager won't disappear.

How to learn about music promotion in your spare time

Music promotion is one of the pillars of your future success....but keeping up with this blog, loads of others and learning new online skills is eating up all your time that you should be spending writing, recording and rehearsing!

What can you do?

Some music industry gurus out there say that “musicians shouldn’t spend their time learning how to be marketing experts, instead they should be dedicating as much time as possible to writing music – the marketing should then be outsourced to someone who enjoys it”.

Go and read Marcus Taylor's post about how he fits it all in!