I sent this e-mail to my musicians list:

Hey,

I was thinking the other day… “What does
it really take to be a successful musician or
songwriter, and why do people struggle all the time?”

Here in the UK, we’ve recently been having
some pretty awesome weather (I love the sun).
So cherishing the moment, I went for a
walk round my local park.

I sat on the bench, I got out my notebook, and
I began to doodle about what it really takes.
There were certain things that kept popping
up again and again, and you could divide them
up into… (1) creating a road map of the
things you need to do, and (2) characteristics
that you need to have. I’m going to write
some of them out here.

1) You’ve got to have GREAT song and music.
Without this, of course, you haven’t passed
the first hurdle. I’m including in this point
the recording, production and full preparation
of the music.

2) Then grow a following of people interested
in your music. Sign up with FanBridge or something
similar to get yourself a list. Probably the most
important point too, because it’s these people
that are going to put bread and wine on your table.

It’s these people that will socially share and ‘Like’
your work all over the web. And it’s these
people that will jump up and down (or whatever
they do) at your gigs.

3) Play gigs (for musicians). The more gigs you
play, the more you’re recognized. Sure, it can
be difficult to get paid all the time, but if you’re
starting out, settle for the opportunity alone.

Once you’ve got a paid gig in a location, try
to negotiate a recurring opportunity there…
once a month, once a fortnight, once a quarter.
Become a firm regular there. Learn the Zone
Booking strategy too (more below).

4) Get social, online. Have a site set up. Use
Hostbaby.com (wonderful, easy-to-follow
setup for muso sites). Get to Facebook and
set up your Music page. Sign up and Twitter.

5) Get your music videos online. They don’t have
to be professionally created videos. They just
need to show your music. Get a Flip camera
really cheap from Amazon, and get a friend
to record your practices, gigs, and performances.

Put these up on YouTube, give the videos
related tags and let them go viral. Share them
on your Facebook and Twitter. Email them to
your list. Videos are AWESOME at generating
interest and connection with the artist.

More than the action steps above (and there
are many more you could be doing)… I had
this MAIN point also written in my journal…

PERSEVERANCE.

How important is this?! Pretty much every
musician who has made it successful hasn’t had
it easy – whether they have gone it alone, or
they’ve had huge record deal backing. Sure, things
don’t always go right, but each time it goes
wrong is just a lesson in disguise.

I know musicians that are 57 years old still prodding
along, doing their best, taking their lessons,
making changes and creating results. These are
the same musicians that have “struggled” for the
last 40 years! I salute these people – because it’s
their constant and never-ending persistence
that gets them the result they want.

Successful musicians and songwriters are always
learning – from mentors, from fellow musicians,
managers, record labels, attending conferences
and further training. They’re always trying to
improve. They are doing the best they can at all times.

Another thing that’s really important is
MONEY MANAGEMENT. I used to be poor at
it, until I made a conscious effort to improve
how I treat, manage, save, spend and make
money. A lot of musicians don’t pay any importance
to this… We all hear the stories of those
multi-millionaire artists that go broke, only to
think, where could all that money possibly go!

I have more to say about all of this, but this message
is getting a bit long so I’ll leave it for another
time. I’m quite intrigued about what goes on in the
mind of successful musicians versus the mind
of those so-called “struggling” musicians.

Before I end, I want to let you know about
something very special coming up.

****************
FOUR FREE GIFTS – worth $388

I’m going to be giving away some of
my best training materials for free,
including these four elements:

TRAINING #1 (value: $147)
“How To Make Six Figures With Your Music Business” DVD

TRAINING #2 (value: $147)
“How To Get More Gigs” DVD

TRAINING #3 (value: $47)
“49 Music Promotion Tips” PDF Report

TRAINING #4 (value: $147)
“How To Launch Your Music Record Successfully” PDF Report

****************

I’ll tell you more in another e-mail on Monday 19th.

Keep your eyes open for it

All the best,
Kavit

Leave a comment below on what you think it takes to be a successful musician and songwriter.

Last time, I mentioned that the music industry might not actually exist as a separate industry, at least for the purposes of creating a business model that you can use to market your music.

Sometimes, however, it seems like there is a sort of music industry—one that has as its customer base all the musicians, songwriters, composers, and other creative people. Based on the pitches in my inbox, it is akin to the once growing vanity publishing business that made “pay to publish” a terrible phrase (although it came from a noble tradition). And we don’t even have to look as far as “pay to play” to see the demon rear its ugly head.

A quick history (optional)

Actually it has been around for a long time. It’s roots are found in ads in the back of magazines where you could find advertising for “song poems” that could be made into greatest hits, if only you were smart enough to hire this company to put your words to music and create a record that they would then “promote.” (If you aren’t familiar with printed magazines, don’t worry about it. Just bear with me.) Your professionally recorded song would be sent to all the radio stations (which is how it was done). Of course, your song would stand heads and shoulders above the others on the air, because the song would be crafted by a professional songwriter (obviously otherwise currently unemployed for unknown reasons) and professionally recorded.  Well, of course they were professionals—you paid them, which made them professional (i.e., earning money from music).

Back to current events

These folks, because they preyed on songwriters, were called song sharks, and although the magazine ads are mostly gone, and the disguises have changed, the fact that they prey on the desire of creative people to get their music heard hasn’t changed in the least. The internet not only makes it easier for music to get to people, it also makes it easier for the sharks to pitch their latest revolutionary way of getting your music heard.

Unfortunately, it is hard to separate the sharks (some of which seem to have morphed into vampires, in keeping with entertainment trends; so let’s use the term song vampire for them from now on) from legitimate toilers in the vineyards of music. Music is not a single product, nor simple. There are not any canned ways of doing things that produce more than canned results. So there is a great deal of room for hardworking agents, music pitching companies, music libraries, and so on. But there are few rules to help distinguish the revolutionary new idea (excuse me, we call them “platforms” now) from the same old con in new clothing.

It’s all very tiresome. And to add to the confusion, some things work for a while, then succumb to their own popularity.

Conventional wisbits

There are two competing bits of conventional wisdom out there. The first, the older, is that you shouldn’t pay for anything. That was the advice offered in the song shark era. If your music is any good, then people will pay you for it. If there is money to be made from your music, then plenty of talented people will be willing to work with you to get it in the right hands. This seems dated now, but there is a kernel of truth in it still. But it conflicts with conventional wisdom bit #2: If you won’t invest in your career, why should anyone else?

The problem I have with this wisbit (i.e., wisdom bit—it is the moral duty of journalists to corrupt the language with more meaningless jargon) is that first, it doesn’t provide any guide for where to invest. I have untold thousands of dollars invested in musical instruments, training, computers, software, microphones, sheet music, more instruments… I will stop here, having made that point. None of this is what the song vampires are talking about. What they mean is that my not giving them money is proof that I lack confidence in my own ability, music and career. To that I say (along with many things probably left unsaid): “Bullshit!” What I lack, often times, is confidence in their ability to help me in any way. The fact that they got some punk rock group into a club in Des Moines doesn’t mean a thing about what they can do in getting my music to recording artists, placed in films, or even get me more money when I play the local coffee shop (Yankee Creek, every other Sunday morning, 9:30-11:30—hope to see you there) or a regional festival. In fact, many of the “services” make my life harder because it seems to revolve around my running my life in a way they understand.

That isn’t how it works in the corporate world. In that universe (world is too small a word) the PR person goes to the client (hat in hand, dressed up real nice) and gets a spiel on “what we do and how we do it” and then goes back to the office to devise a program that does what the client wants.

But the point here is not to rant about the ineffectiveness of much music marketing; rather I simply want to point out that when it comes to song vampires, you not only don’t necessarily get what you want or need, but that it might soak up time better spent doing something frivolous, say making music.

Soft sell ending

So if you have some ideas of how to tell opportunities apart from the invitations of song vampires, share them. But bear in mind that everyone seeking money from you is not a vampire, unless they work for a government.

Because I have a passion for music, a lot of years dealing with it, and a background in economics, I recently spent time with people who wanted help in designing a new business model for the music industry. I felt I could use the exercise as well, for my own efforts. It is a subject that one of my cowriters and I discuss all the time. We didn’t come up with a good model (let’s get that out of the way right now) but we did come up with insights that I want to share.

Ayn Rand held that the biggest mistake philosophers (and economists) always made was in not checking their premises—the assumptions that you make when you start your thought processes. After rattling our  brains in an unproductive fashion for some time, I realized that we had never checked our premises. So the first question is, what were they? Were we even starting from the same ones?

When  business might not be business

A basic premise for me, in this case, was that we were going to produce a business model. That’s the words we used, at any rate. Immediately we saw difficulties. I understand a business model to be a set of strategies that can be used to produce a consistent profit. Old economics training dies hard, after all. I was looking for ways to, in the vernacular, monetize the music. The people I was talking with were asking the questions: “How can I make a mark on the music industry? How can I get a foot in the door.” And those are quite different. If profit making is not a critical factor, and sustainability of a business enterprise isn’t at stake, the horizons widen considerably. You have many, many more options. Including one I dislike, which is giving music away. (But I digress.)

The next premise was that it is possible to create a viable model for doing business (however you define that) that can accommodate all the facets of “getting music out there.” There are certainly some strategies, but the delivery systems, targets and attitudes of the people using music are in a lot of flux. People are trying all sorts of things to get music into the hands of folks who will listen to it and use it. Anticipating both technology and trends, when taken to extreme, becomes speculation, and can be a distraction from music.

When is an industry not and industry?

The final premise was that it is possible to model the music industry. And why wouldn’t it be? Well, the answer here is when there is no industry to model.  I know, we talk about it all the time, but that doesn’t make it real. And here is why: Music is a piece of several related industries, not one of its own. Music is used in movies and television and in theater. And these are a part of the entertainment industry, which also encompasses a lot more. As such it is subject to the fortunes of those industries. Songwriters are in the recording industry, which sometimes produces product for film and television, and sometimes for the multimedia industry and sometimes for educational purposes. Music teachers are educators and their career fortunes are tied in more to that industry than anything musical.

It is a tangle of economic indicators, fortunes, and requirements.

In major industries, they separate consumer (retail) activities from business to business products. Sometimes the products are the same, and sometimes quite different. In the world of music (as opposed to industry) a master recording is a business to business product and a CD or download is a consumer product. They are marketed quite differently. The investment and rewards are quite different as well.  As you can see then, a musician/songwriter/composer/performer/teacher serves a lot of different (and diverse) client bases. Each has different needs, requirements, and even business cycles. As a session musician or songwriter, the amount of government spending on education probably won’t affect your business significantly; as a teacher, it might. And the opposite is true if there is turndown in consumer spending on entertainment.

Get a handle on the goal

So, the discussion we had should have started with questions that helped defined what we want to do. “Making music” is too vague to mean much to anyone. But defining specific roles within that universe would tell us who and what you want to be, which makes it possible to find a way to get there. And that is a better understanding of the idea of a business model than we used.

A vision of what you would be doing, a clear picture that shows you touring, or sitting home writing music, or doing studio work, is a place to start. Then trust your gut reaction to that picture. Is it cool, or stressful? That will tell you a lot about whether to even bother pursuing it. There is no point in figuring out a way to get more gigs if you hate playing them!

I would like to hear about your business plans and models. How do you segment this fragmented, bit of lots of other industries? How do you plan to make inroads in your specific segment? This is less about trying to be a star than a serious, and business like, approach to doing what you want to do and being successful at it (by your own standards).

It seems that nothing is more important in business these days than being able to adapt quickly to changes in tastes, technology and other influences, such as the economy. And the music business not only is no exception, it is practically the poster child for a business whipped by changing times. Musicians, composers, songwriters, are just cogs in the machinery of the culture, and more things are affecting us everyday.

The delivery is the thing

Soon Apple’s Tablet will probably force us all to rethink music marketing once again (except for those farsighted enough to have been thinking about it for some time now.). The specifics will come out in the wash, but we know now that every new way of providing content, as we are fond of saying in this age, produces new challenges and promises new profits. The challenges are guaranteed, but the profits can be elusive.

It is said in legal circles that a lawyer who defends himself in court has a fool for a lawyer; doctors tell you that it is difficult for the best diagnostician to take care of him or herself. There is truth in this, and it applies to all of us. The issue here is a lack of objectivity. It is easy (relatively) to be objective about someone else. That is why, often as not, someone else can write a better press release about your new CD than you can. By extension, marketing your music, taking a long hard look at it can require another pair of eyes, ears, and with luck, another brain to analyze it all.

What I am getting at is the need for musicians to work together or to work with other people in some fashion. Someone who is dtrong in a field where you are weak can be more important than a collaborator or agent. You trade off work and viewpoints. Sounds downright communal, doesn’t it? But perhaps the day of the rugged individualist going it alone in an era of corporate marketing might be all in the past tense. Certainly there is room for the rugged individualist in music, but only if that person doesn’t might being an outsider in the world of success. Only if being an individual is better than being better known for your music and wealthy (ier) than the other kids on the block.

Knowing the turf

I confess to a bit of confusion about the culture I live in at the moment—the United States. Why anyone would watch reality television is beyond me. (Why anyone would watch television is beyond me, but that is another story.) Why anyone would by a CD by someone who won a staged contest fails me. It is supposed to be about the music.

The important point here is that I don’t know the turf—the rules, the motives of customers for the product. And the fact that I don’t understand it doesn’t mean anything at all, except that it is more of a challenge for me to market into that world than it will be for someone who lives in it. Common wisdom tells you that if you want to sell music to movies, you should be watching lots of them to get to know the trends (and hear mistakes as well). But what if you don’t like movies?

Understanding marketing and understanding how to reach people who live in another universe are quite different things.

Using what you learn

I could whine about fate; say that good music should find a niche, but that is useless and pointless. In this case, the music serves a specific cultural need. And this is a critical bit of information for me. If I attach my concept of success to getting music into reality television that I refuse to watch, then I need to connect and work with someone who does understand the attraction of the medium. Otherwise I just play a huge guessing game. You see, adapting to the environment doesn’t mean finding out how to sell them what I do, so much as figuring out what they want and giving them that with my own spin on it.

Just as I wouldn’t pitch a 15 minute classical price for a film scene in a jazz club, I need to understand how I can apply my skills and talents to what is needed in the market.

Alternatively, I can write and produce whatever I want, and be content with the knowledge that some pieces might find a home eventually, but that my standard for success has to be in the quality of the music I create.

It doesn’t matter much if you are talking about performance or licensing master tracks—the issue is the same. If the music you play doesn’t get people into the club, you will stop getting into the clubs as well (or the clubs will go out of business, which can be even worse).

So, if you are having trouble marketing, check your ability to adapt, whether it is to the new content delivery systems, the trends, or something else. If you can’t fix it yourself, it isn’t the end of the world either. You just have to be flexible.

If you’ve found a better path, I’d love to hear about it.

In my last blog I suggested that this start of a new year is an excellent time for refocusing. You can stop, take a breath, get some perspective on what you are doing and where you are going, and decide where you need to put your best effort right now. To complement that idea I am going to suggest that you learn to narrow your focus. You need to pick one, manageable thing. Success in music is not a focus. Improving your skills at getting bookings, learning to play Thelonius Monk, or finding a way of marketing your songs, are all things that can be focused on. And yes, these can, and probably should be, broken down into even more manageable chunks.

The Multitasking Trap

The fastest path to frustration is to try doing everything at once. One of the shocking truths (for some) is that multitasking does not generally produce very good results. It might produce a lot of results, but little of it is worth much. There is no focus, little ability to follow through, and you come across as distracted—not a good image in business, playing on the bandstand, or listening to a loved one. Success and focus go together. The best negotiators are patient people; some of the best players know when to lay back.

Being focused isn’t easy in a world full of distractions, but I frequently see people fall by the wayside because they don’t understand the need. Here is a case in point. A talented singer I know moved to a town and starting putting a band together, jamming with everyone who would let her join in, and booking gigs, all at once. Because she had a compelling personality and a fine voice, she got several gigs. Unfortunately, her talents did not extend to band management and, as the gigs approached, she was unable to keep her band together. Although they rehearsed a fair amount, progress was slower than she wanted, and tempers flared. The band was fired or quit, depending on the person telling the story, and the gigs were ultimately either cancelled (bad for your reputation) or played with a pickup band, which couldn’t provide the showcase she really wanted. Her intentions were fine—she wanted to take the local musical scene by storm, but she didn’t determine what needed to be done, prioritize, and then focus. Impatience shot down an energized effort.

Although it can seem intolerable to put things we want on hold, it is only sensible to present new material or a performance when it is ready, and not a moment before. The big acts rehearse for a long time, and often use coaches to get the performance to the desired level. Even Michael Jackson worked with dance professionals to hone his skills, back at his peak.
If success is your goal, then hard work should be your mantra. And the focus should be on the thing that is most important to do next. It might be something to do with business, it might be art, it might be personal.

Know What Needs To Be Done

A very good course I took years ago suggested that we should all have a short “to do” list. This list should be of only the things that qualify for the heading “If this was the only thing I got done today, I would have accomplished something important.” You put the most important at the top and do it. You don’t think about #2 until #1 is done, or you find that for some external reason it can’t be done today.

That is one way to learn focus. It is how I got this blog done today, rather than at some future time. It is the way I will finally learn to play Thelonius Monk tunes (or anything else).

So you focus, narrowly, on something to be accomplished, then give it your best shot. Then you move on. You can’t make a mistake by focusing and giving it your best effort. It’s only when your thoughts on unfocused (as in multitasking) that you give less than your best.

Now it is time to find your focus, and go for it. It promise that it will make 2010 the best possible year it can be for you. And who deserves that success more?

Many people view the end of one year and the beginning of another as a time to reflect. As an advocate of the here and now, I suggest that a better idea is to take this opportunity to refocus—your attention, your effort and your intention. I’m not talking New Year’s resolutions or anything so trendy. No, it is time to drag out the thoughts you’ve had on your marketing plan and public relations plan, take a hard look at the current realities of the world of music, and get everything up to date.

Why now?

There is a sense of a fresh start that comes with a new year. That means you could have a little extra energy and enthusiasm to put into it. It also means it can be easier to let go of past mistakes and old habits. Habits might die hard, but it was reputedly Einstein who said: “Repeating an action and expecting a different result is one form of insanity.” If he didn’t say it, he should have. And there was never a better time to change your actions.

Remember that figuring out what doesn’t work is a sign of progress. That is the process of discovery that is essential to scientific discovery. You make some assumptions based on the best information available to you, and try something. If it doesn’t work, the appropriate questions are: “Is my vision inaccurate?” and “Do I understand why it didn’t work?” Looking for blame, or worrying about how that effort looks to other people is wasted effort, and adds stress to your life that is counterproductive (not all stress is bad, but self imposed stress that is strictly negative, is.)

My marketing plan thought for the year

Here is a new thought for a new year. It is reasonable to have a marketing plan that involves not trying to market anything. If that sounds foolish, let me explain. Sometimes the reason marketing efforts don’t work is because the product isn’t ready to market. You might need a fallow period, a time when you develop new skills, learn something, gain some insight, or connect with people who complement your efforts. Any of these, or a combination, might be what it takes to create music that gets noticed.

And it might not just be a creative learning. You might, by biding your time and paying attention, find a new way to package your music or performance. In the heat of battle, when you are performing actively and busting your butt to get noticed, it can be hard to see what others are doing. Taking a breather can let you profit from their brilliance and their mistakes, equally. For instance, if you’ve done all the guerilla marketing stuff (which really is not new, or underground, it is just marketing that was repackaged for a wider audience), and things seem to have peaked, getting out and seeing how things work for other artists might open your eyes to new ideas, or you might figure out why things are going wrong.

Time out to learn

For example, I’ve read that you need to “ask for the sale” at gigs. Common wisdom in certain circles advocates having someone hawking your merchandise. Superficially it makes sense. But if I go to a gig and the emphasis is on the merchandise, if the music isn’t exceptional, I won’t hang around. High pressure sales make a free concert too damn expensive for my tastes. I like the CDs and so on to be available, and often buy one or more at a concert, but I don’t want to feel like I went to the mall (I don’t go to malls willingly). A low pressure approach suits me, and seems to suit the audiences I play for. But for a long time, I had the feeling I was doing something wrong, missing out on something. Taking a break from the hustle and gaining some objectivity, I think I was on the right path. Yes, a hustle might have sold a few more CDs, but simply selling a few more CDs was less important than building a loyal following.

As I took a break, I found many areas in my performance that could be significantly improved. All it took was a clear view of what I wanted to accomplish.

Marketing for the laid back musician

For me, marketing is an interesting and often difficult challenge. I am not a pushy person, in general. Aggressive, but I don’t like to go where I am not welcome. So much of my marketing is trying to find ways to be welcomed to new audiences. Getting gigs in bars and clubs requires a pushy person, which is why everyone wants a booking agent or manager—to do it for them.  In my case, I shifted my focus from bars to festivals for a time. I enjoyed playing blues and folk festivals. Good pay, people sell your CDs for you, you play one set, and the evening is free. Not a bad deal. But they are infrequent, making it hard to make a living that way. But it made me happier, and gave me time to create music for music libraries and improve my music skills and understanding, while still gigging.

I don’t want to suggest with this that all of you should take some time out. I just want you to keep it in mind as a possibility. If you can focus your marketing and pr plans toward a clear vision of a successful 2010, and do it with enthusiasm, then you are on a roll. Jumping off now makes no sense. No, this is the fallback plan for those who feel lost in the woods. And, if you need a break, it doesn’t have to be a long one. You just need the time to sort out your thoughts and vision.

Meantime, if you have some insights into things that the rest of us should be factoring into our marketing for the New Year, whether it is a way to deal with music for phone aps or getting tight fisted drunks to buy CDs or download cards, we’d love to hear it and discuss it.

You can read a lot about new business models that come from the use of the Internet. Many of the discussions reflect good ideas—thoughtful examinations of the implications of new ways of delivering products to consumers and ways of promoting music through the new media, such as ringtones. But some of it is, to be frank—crap!

One of the highly controversial ideas is that of giving your music away. The concept makes sense at a superficial level. By giving your music away, the consumer, the fan, decides they like what you do, and go to concerts, buy merchandise and otherwise (sometimes in vague ways that are left unclear in the hope that the future will provide new ones) support the musicians.

THE PROBLEM

So what is the problem?  Simply put—the market becomes flooded with music, and the music becomes devalued. If you have a touring band, the logic of the business model, at least, might hold, but it makes no sense at all for songwriters whose income is based on selling recordings, airplay and use in television and movies. And are you in music because of a love or music or simply as a business? Bands hungry for attention will allow their music to be used in movies and television for little or nothing, completely undermining the efforts of nonperforming musicians and composers to earn a living at their craft.

I’ve been told that this is simply a sign of the times—that nonperforming musicians and composers better get with it. That is nothing but foolishness. Times have changed for certain—music supervisors, who are rightfully as cost conscious as the next business person, are getting seduced into using clones of hits and mediocre music (due to its low prices) rather than opting to have truly original music of the highest quality. That might be fine for some productions, but this lowers the bar and reflects the economics of our culture rather than it richness and diversity. This does not bode well for musicians or film and television.

Jennifer Yeko runs True Talent Management in Beverly Hills, and does artist management, music licensing, and music publicity. In a recent email, she mentioned people offering their music for free, saying: “we just want to be able to brag to our friends that some big movie producer is using our songs in their movies/shows.” If you are a professional musician, that is the face of the future you are dealing with. With the exciting musical tools available, people who want to impress their friends are creating tracks that, in some cases, are “good enough.”

Yeko makes four significant points, which I will quote (with her kind permission):

Of these, I find point #2 the most significant. The reality is that we are not talking about exposure, but respect for the work and creative effort that good music takes. Giving away your tracks indicates that you don’t value your music. And what do you really want to be known for: Wild tee shirts and other merchandise, or great music?

Note that this doesn’t mean you should stick it to anyone wanting music. As Yeko advises: “Educate yourself.  Know when you’re being taken advantage of in terms of fees – and when you should be happy to get *any* money – i.e. a festival license for an indie film.”

Yes, it is okay to share in the risk of a project if you are reaping some benefit. I have done music for free for filmmakers under two circumstances:

1)   For a worthwhile charitable cause — I happily wrote and performed music for the video “A Will to Live, a Dream to Dive” produced by Ocean Opportunity which is a documentary of the amazing story of Mathew Johnston who became the world’s first ventilator dependent diver. As a a scuba diver and a fan of heroes, this was a no brainer for me. I wanted the word out and I wanted to be associated with this great project. (Later the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation agreed and provided funding for distribution—but otherwise the video was a labor of love).

2)      Working with someone you respect who is bootstrapping their production; working together, sharing the risk, might produce an interesting future. This one is not unlike cowriting with another unknown. It’s a gamble, but also a learning experience and you have the opportunity to get noticed.

But a funded, for profit operation shouldn’t be the beneficiary of your work without paying for it.

THE PRICE

So what should you charge? What does it mean to value your music fairly?  The fascinating thing about licensing is the lack of standards. Unlike union gigs, there aren’t pay scales. Even script writers have a standard fee schedule that sets a minimum.  Yenko suggests that is why you need professional help in negotiating these things. And that is true to a large extent. A professional has a better handle on what current budgets and going rates are. There are ways to find these things out of course, but how much effort you want to put into that depends a lot on how the rest of your career is structured. If you are a movie composer, or trying to be, some networking is in order. If you are interested in licensing music, but your focus is getting your band bigger and better gigs, then you are going to need help. The contacts and expertise can be of great value.

Once again, this brings you back to the position of that great jazz musician, Socrates, who said: “Know thyself.” (What is less known is that he also suggested playing the natural minor whenever possible, and always hitting the flat third on the off beat.)

Music licensing is challenging, complex, rewarding, and frustrating. If you have had some good or bad experience with it, or simply want to give your story about how you made millions giving music away, let me hear about it!

In part one we talked about your theme, then in part two investigated using it to write a press release, or several releases. Now we need to figure out what to do with all that work.

The PR job

Part of your job as the public relations person for your band or music is to find places that your message fits. Sure it is easy to see the big kids getting stories on themselves in the people pages, but until you are a name, that isn’t your goal. Your goal is to establish relationships with the media that cover what you do and, over time, give them a sense of your story. This is going to be a lot of work, but there aren’t many effective shortcuts.

In starting, you need to look at the media that cater to local and regional stories in your back yard. Because you are local, you have a leg up on other bands. That means you want your story to go to local radio stations, newspapers, regional magazines, and local television. One press release in that market might not make a splash. That’s okay. You don’t build an image overnight, just as you don’t make a career out of one CD (or shouldn’t want to).

When I was a magazine editor, often I would find press releases that I never used—even though they might be well written, they might not be appropriate. But the good ones (and the bad ones) make an impression, and when I was assigned a story on a topic I hadn’t covered before, those well written press releases could get me calling the folks who sent them to get ideas and information. Naturally, they got mentioned in the story. Similarly, your theme, expressed in a series of well written press releases, establishes you as an obvious subject for a certain kind of story.

If you have established a presence as a community focused band, and you send a press release out about a CD that is songs about the community, local television or radio might suddenly feel the urge to have you on the air. Local papers can disregard the press release in favor of a feature article. My letters and press releases on my music have gotten me coverage and an featured appearance on TV Ontario (my 15 minutes of fame), and features in regional publications. One multimedia magazine turned a CD press release into a telephone interview carried on the internet, and then used a song from the CD as background music for a slide show of photographs that were being featured.

Finding places to send your story

There are two great sources of information on publications—the internet and the publication itself. The masthead of most publications lists the editor names, often the areas they cover (such as CD reviews) and how to contact them. Sometimes features tell you exactly what information they want to consider you. And you should read the publications to learn what areas they cover and how they cover it (the angle). Make sure you fit. The internet can provide much of the same stuff.

For instance, if you think your story is perfect for the ROLLING STONE, under contact information, the site tells us:

That took about two seconds to find out.

If local tv is your goal, a quick search on, say “Television stations Nebraska” produces a complete list at states guides/nebraska. There, it tells you that the local affiliate for ABC in Lincoln is KLKN-TV . If you have a gig booked there, you can get the event announced on the community calendar by sending your press release to: Channel 8 KLKN-TV Community Calendar, 3240 South Tenth Street, Lincoln, NE, 68502, or fax it to 402-436-2236.

The challenge is to build up a core database that consists of the various media that get the message to your fans. You want the editor names, contact information and the kinds of stories they handle. All are not the same. Then you cultivate these people. When they run a press release, even just a tiny blurb, a thank you email is in order. EVEN IF THEY GET THE INFORMATION WRONG! This is networking at its most important. Editors get promoted or move to other publications and jobs, so treat them all right, and with respect. Your news is not the most important thing in their world, so don’t soak up a lot of their time. The easier you make their job (such as with a well written release with all the pertinent facts) the more likely they are to use it. Your job is to get better at that as time goes on. Editors, like everyone else, prefer to work with the willing.

Media depend on information—they are not hostile to your efforts. That is why they publish contact information. Collect it, use it, learn from it, and build relationships that will bring you visibility in a time when the information noise level is reaching absurd heights. After all, if you don’t make people aware of your music, they can’t know how good it is.

Soft sell ending

These three parts of the PR story are not all inclusive. They are highlights of my own experience on both sides of the PR world. PR will not make you a success, but if you are successful, it can let the world know about it, and that will grow your success—take it to a higher level.

So think about your PR effort. What can you do to make your music, your band stand out in the way you want to be known? (If you think any PR is good, check out Tiger Woods current problems.)

Also, I am very close to this subject. If you have more questions on DIY PR, let me have them. If I can provide a quick answer, I will. If it deserves another blog entry, then I will do that.  And, importantly, try to have fun with this. After all, it’s only life, and you won’t get out of it alive.

In part one we looked at developing a theme for your public relations campaign. Now lets look at how you put it into play. One of the most basic tools of PR is the press release. You don’t just write one, but a stream of them. Because this is true, your press releases should:

1. Be focused.
2. Promote the theme
3. Provide clear and consistent contact information.
4. Always have a newsworthy angle.

Making the campaign effective

Suppose for a moment that the theme you’ve hit on is that your band gives back to the community—is, in fact a vital member of the community (not just the music community). Now that does mean you have to say this in the same words in every press release, but when it is not part of the main message, it should underlie that. It is your angle or spin.

So you do a CD and decide that you will donate the money from downloads to say a cancer fund. First you need to do two things—contact the people you will be donating to and see if they will give you permission to use their logo. They might want to hear the CD before they approve you using their image to promote your own.

So if all is well, you want to write a press release that focuses on this specific project and its benefits. Don’t tag the donation part at the bottom of a press release about your CD release. The news here is that you are releasing your new zydeco punk CD to benefit left handed animals, or whatever.

Some organizations even have press people to help you promote the announcement, and might even promote what you are doing.

The point here is that you need news and not: “Yet another CD release party.” Even if you aren’t doing it to promote charitable causes, there is always some kind of hook you can hang your news story on. It can be that the music is seasonal, the lyrics reflect current events, the person who wrote the song or sings it has some human interest angle, any number of things. My advice is to look at news stories about bands in the magazines you read and see what the hook is. Most stories only look at one. In a recent story in ROLLING STONE, for instance, an interview explores Rod Stewart’s “return to his R&B roots.” There is other stuff in it, but we don’t care.

The hook will be important in two places in the press release: the headline and the first paragraph. Both should be right to the point. This is not the place to explain or give background. Suppose you have a band call ARS GRAVITAS (please don’t), and you are providing music for a locally produced video. Then your headline could be

ARS GRAVITAS DOES MUSIC FOR VIDEO

If you live in the mythical town of Littlebit, Missouri, and the video is about that place, then make it

ARS GRAVITAS DOES MUSIC FOR LITTLEBIT VIDEO

For the local and regional papers and magazines, you would then have a lead graph (first paragraph) that goes something like:

Which raises the point that you might want several versions of your release targeted at the various publications. Through the wonder of word processing that is simple, and well worth the effort.

Keep in mind that the press release is about the news item. This is not the place to mention that you grew up writing parodies of Lawrence Welk songs. That goes in your band sheet. Keep the press release short—one page is optimum. If there isn’t room for the whole story, that is okay. This is really a teaser. A reporter who wants to do more than a blurb (which is your first paragraph) will contact you.

Which brings me to the most important thing you must do. Put your name and contact information at the top of the release. And then, the last sentence (a separate paragraph) should read: “For more information on ARS GRAVITAS and the whole zydeco punk movement sweeping American (and parts of Eastern Peru), contact Billy Joe Whatshappening at…..”

The Envelope Please

What goes in the envelope with the press release? Most often, nothing at all. If it is a news event, such as talking about the fact that your band played at the opening of the local KFC, send a photo. Don’t send a CD (you can provide links to music samples with the contact info).

I also want to note that CD Baby, always a friend of the indie musician, recently posted their own summary of PR and marketing at http://diymusician.cdbaby.com/2009/11/music-publicity-101/

It’s fun to see the different approaches people take.

Now this is how we start. There are many permutations and options, and space precludes getting into them all, but I’d love to hear how you promote your theme, challenges you face in getting your story out, or PR successes that you’d like to share. Next time we will talk about sending materials out—what, where, and how. In the meantime, get creative and get writing.

I started to write a blog on how to write a press release, and realized that to fit everything in, I needed to break this into three parts. This one will cover what many of you might not realize is an important first step—establishing your PR message. (The next parts will talk about how to prepare the message and get it out there effectively.) While marketing messages can be about your latest CD or big gig, public relations is more theme based. This lets you ensure that you communicate a single idea that underlies everything you say about your music or band. And developing a good theme that will carry you over time requires thought and research. If you do it right, the marketing messages are going to provide a constant reinforcement of the overall PR theme.

Research? Sure. Do you really know why your fans like what you do? Can you state it in a single sentence without being silly and saying “cause we are good”? If not, you haven’t got your theme.

What is a theme? The theme is basically the story of your band. It sets out the thing, one thing, that makes your band different. Not unique (bad word anyway), just different. If another band playing similar music is in town, why should people spend their hard earned money on your gig? And right here comes the first difficulty.

Become an outsider

I am going to assume you don’t have the financial backing to hire an outside PR person. If you do, that can be a big help, but since you don’t, here is how to put on that person’s hat and become a PR person looking at your band from the outside. You must find important things that are of interest to your audience, not your mother or the rest of the band.

It is very important that one person be the PR person for the band, because this only works if there is a single, consistent story.  You can all discuss the idea and contribute to it, but one person should have the responsibility for maintaining its presence and consistency in all that you do.

The PR person has the rough task of finding an objective story. And it might not be the obvious one, or rather, the obvious story might not be the best for you.

Mastering two audiences

What makes PR tricky is that there are two audiences and they are layered. If you don’t get through the first layer, the second layer will never hear of you. The first audience layer is that of editors and music reporters. You need to develop a message that will make them feel that your band, your music is newsworthy. If possible you want an angle that will let the writer present you as a discovery.  Remember, the writer has an audience too, and they want interesting information on breaking trends and ideas.

So what does an editor want? He or she wants to know why you or your music, preferably both, are different from the other bands flooding the mailbox with PR and CDs. To this end, do yourself a very big favor and banish words like “best,” “hottest” and “new” from your vocabulary. These are superlatives that other people should use, not you. Editors are even more tired of them than everyone else. And by the way, even if you have the only punk band ever to use harpsichord and zither, you are NOT a unique punk band. Breaking the mold is great, and a good story hook, but “unique” and “punk” or any other genre, are incompatible terms. If it is unique, it isn’t punk, and so on. Pick your poison.

You probably want to go with a genre, and not make up your own. Typically, a punk bank using odd instruments is of greater interest than a Zydeco/Punk band. Not always, but an odd category is, in general, a harder sell. For one thing, many publications specialize in certain genres and you don’t want to give them an excuse not to run a story on you.

Keep it human

To reach the second layer audience, the readers of the story, you need to make sure your story has human interest. Even if you are doing modal jazz, readers are going to relate more to your human struggles than technical musical information. The fact that you play everything in Lydian scales is less interesting than the fact that you make your living running a dairy farm and got hooked on jazz when you learned that the Windows audio logo is in E flat.

But the question that must be answered is: “why do you do what you do?” So you do all the lead breaks on kettle drum and didgeridoo, so what? The thing that might be interesting is why you do that.

You will need to find a sounding board, because quite honestly, we all bullshit ourselves real well. Maybe you want to go where Miles Davis feared to tread, but are you truly doing that now, or just working toward it. Editors and writers of any experience survive by having well developed bullshit detectors. To get passed them, you need an honest story. It doesn’t need to be a madcap tale. It can be that you formed your band to pay the rent when your parents lost their jobs and you found a home in the blues. It can be simply that you make music cause you love it, or don’t know how not to. That is the underlying story. Then, the story behind the latest CD or gig becomes an episode in that bigger saga. The human interest builds over time, and the audience impatiently waits to hear what will happen next. In the best sense, it becomes a living drama.

And drama hooks audiences, both at the screening level and the readers.

But do remember that this story is one that, if it works, will cling to you, follow you everywhere, so it better be one that is true and that you want in the minds of fans and everyone else.

What stories have you created before, and what has worked well for you? Or perhaps, what challenges have you faced with your public relations campaign?