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.

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.

This post is inspired by a recent post at the CNET blog in which they debate between Myspace and Facebook – the two social networking giants – and which will outperform the other in 2010.

Here are a few of my thoughts:

• I believe Facebook will still be ahead of Myspace in 2010, just as it was this year. Facebook is aesthetically much better, and its clean interface allows users to navigate the website much better. Myspace, on the other hand, needs to clean up and look a bit better.

• Facebook is a community. Myspace still hasn’t thought of itself as a real community; it’s not as easy to discuss, contact your members and communicate with friends as it is on Facebook.

• Facebook opened up its API for developers to create applications. Myspace hasn’t yet, as far as I’m aware. I do believe, however, that Myspace will open up completely in 2010, allowing people to create applications that engage with the website and allow people more chance for interactivity.

Here are some questions to get you thinking:

1. Which do you use more – Myspace or Facebook – and why?
2. What do you think will happen to these two social giants in 2010?

Feel free to share your thoughts with me in the comments below…

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.

Much of the material I read in books and online about public relations and music does a bad job of separating the elements of pr from marketing. They are different specialties although they can often overlap in terms of their short term goals. You need both.

The Big Difference

Marketing is the art of promoting something, such as an event—a release or a major gig (such as opening for a big name band). Marketing professionals work with advertising agencies to create compelling copy and graphics. Marketers ensure that street teams get posters up in prominent places before the gig, try to get you a guest shot on local radio or television before the gig, and make sure the event is listed in every event calendar on the planet. That’s a lot of work.

Public relations is, as the name implies, controlling your relationship with the public. It does this through getting articles about the band into magazines and newspapers, newsworthy events listed, and ensuring that whenever an editor writes about the “top ten all female swing bands from Duluth” or “up and coming metal bands that use accordion” then, if your band fits, your PR person’s job is to ensure that you are  prominently mentioned. PR is less event driven and more about building your presence in the cultural consciousness. Sometimes this is called branding, but I object to that term strenuously in the music world. Musicians are dynamic; brands tend to be static. Coca Cola doesn’t change, because when they tried it didn’t work. Bands change as the members learn and grow, and respond to challenges from their fans.

So really there are two things going on here. They require different skills, no matter what the glib come on tells you. Successful companies in other markets, like technology, specialize in marketing or PR, or at least have different people with different skills doing the two jobs.

I want to focus on PR.

Successful PR

The things you need for successful PR are: (1) a good press release; (2) a consistent hook (at any point in time—remember this is a dynamic so it will change over time); and (3) a lot of time.

There are places that have good material for putting together a press kit. Last time I mentioned electronic press kits. You can also go to Electronic Press Kits Online to put together a power press kit, for example.

But you should read How to Write a Press Release to get a handle on some basics. You can also get help finding places to submit it there.

The harsh reality is that, if you want effective PR you need to either hire someone who works in music pr or have someone within your group take on the massive learning and workload. Sending out press releases will do some good only if they are sent to the right people. How do you find those people? Research. Google can come to your rescue, but it won’t do the work. Here are the basic steps to establishing your editorial contacts:

1.       Identify the key publications, both print and online, in your genre.

2.      Identify the names and contact information of the editors who do (or assign) CD reviews, stories on upcoming music and so on.

3.      Contact those editors. Ask them what they look for.  Is originality enough, or do they only cover bands who can fill clubs. As a former magazine editor and editor-in-chief, I am going to give you a tip critical to your success.

Do not send them anything that is not in line with the kind of thing they use.

Violating this rule not only wastes their time, but marks you as an amateur. Your future submissions will get looked at last, if at all.

4.       Follow up. Ask if what you sent was appropriate. It isn’t possible for editors to always tell you for certain if something will be used, but they CAN certainly say whether it was on target.

5.      Repeat as necessary.

Now you don’t do all this just to send out a press release that says you had a great time playing the club last night. You need more meat. Read the published stories and then do one that is more interesting (to your fans, not the band).

While doing all this, collect anything that gets published about the band, its music, its kind of music, and clubs that feature that kind of music. Read it all, looking for what the editors thought was newsworthy. Look at the image that the bands featured have. Is yours different? There might be a story in that. The atypical metal band that wears suits might be interesting.

This is the beginning of your pr effort. I’ll summarize the rest of the steps into: “Learn as you go, and keep the effort constant.” To create an impression in the minds of the readers, you first have to create an impression in the minds of editors and writers that you are newsworthy and easy to work with.

If this is all too much to contemplate, consider working with a professional agency. You can find a number that claim to work in the music industry at Record Label Resource . If you can’t afford to work with one of them, consider finding a college student majoring in PR who wants to get into the music business. (Contact any college that has a public relations school and talk to the department head.) They will learn as they go, and you will profit from their efforts. You might even get a new fan.

If you have had any experience with public relations, please share it with us. If  you have any questions about pr, I will do my best to answer them. And, in the next blog, I will look at a press release designed specifically for musicians–what should be in it and how to focus it to get maximum attention.

Most of my articles have addressed songwriting from the business to business perspective—you are creating songs or instrumentals that you want to place in film or television, or get some artist with a track record to release. For those of you who also make CDs, or at least recordings, there is also the issue of promoting your music, and yourself as an artist.

Music marketing is big time, especially online marketing, and it’s almost easier to talk about what you can’t do (for the moment) than what you can.  But we will give it a shot.

Social networking is a big step forward, as is selling (or giving away) downloads, and putting together electronic press kits to help the world know about your music. There are even online public relations services to get the word out.

If you are looking for airplay for your music, sites like www.AirPlayDirect.com are there to provide that connection.

Sometimes it is all far too much.

So let us divide these up a bit and see if any hold promise. In this article, I want to look at social networking and electronic press kits. Next time we will focus on online PR (how it works and how to use it).

SOCIAL NETWORKING

As Kavit point out in a recent article, there are some good strategies for using the various social networks to get attention. Better yet, many of them are interconnected. I put songs up on reverbnation. Whenever I post a new one, there is an announcement on my status update on twitter, myspace, facebook and, of course, reverbnation. In fact, any status update I make at revernation goes to all those places. This probably produces a certain amount of yawn inducing overlap, but it is efficient. A variation is that myspace and twitter are also now linked. All of this incestuous sounding linking is free, and fairly easy and quick to do on days when the wind is from the West and the Powers That Be are smiling. As a result, this falls into the “why not?” category of promotional activity.

Similarly, Fanbridge helps you collects fans from several social sites and provides a way to send out blanket emails to them, announcing gigs, your upcoming CD, or news from the band. (Does anyone e-mail anymore?) If your fans read emails, this is another brainless way to stay in touch. Actually the content should NOT be brainless–just the distribution method. Send out things the fans will find interesting or save the electrons. We don’t need more garbage out there. Your fans (and I) will appreciate you all the more. But inside information, or thought provoking ideas could score some points.

I should point out that Reverbnation also provides widgets you can use to collect fans, and others to  put your songs on Facebook and so on. It’s all very powerful in terms of efficient promotion.

ELECTRONIC PRESS KITS (EPK)

These started with a bang. Who could resist sending stuff out electronically? Everything you needed to know about a band, including songs and videos. But SPAM filters and the vast amount of stuff cluttering in boxes put paid to the idea.  It is just as effective to send links to songs on broadjam.com or Reverbnation. They let you send links to specific songs you have posted. It is a bit classier than sending an mp3 and doesn’t foul up the inbox.

But an EPK is an online presence, and lets you provide an information rich link in your signature line. And so, such an account, say with www.sonicbids.com or Airplay Direct, can do you some good.

All of these are useful, but not enough in and of themselves. Also, there are about a bazillion of these now; and don’t take my naming these as a recommendation as to what will work for you.

Ultimately If you want to be noticed, your music heard, you will need the market muscle of public relations. Public relations can be proactive, where these sites are reactive, and it can be targeted to a niche, genre, or just a good story.

One of the difficulties of working in any artistic discipline is finding a balance between the art and business portions of your efforts. It isn’t so much the right brain versus left brain problem that we read so much about—both art and business efforts should combine both of these. After all, you want logic in your art and some creativity in your business to get the most out of ALL of your talents.

Typically, when making art, you want your creative side to have uncensored rein over your efforts and then be able to apply some intelligent editing and formatting to give it polish and coherency. In business, although it can be a step by step process, you want to be able to unleash your considerable creative talents to finding new approaches to business problems or obstacles. That is where your strength lies. You should be using all your resources for any problem you encounter in life.

The Balancing Act

The balancing act I am referring now to is much more basic. Simply put: both art and music require a great deal of energy and time. The balance is how and where you spend it.

Consider the simple idea of dealing with your marketing plan. We’ve done a couple of blogs to get you started with that effort. I suggested marketing strategies for songwriters and Kavit wrote an excellent piece on business plans .
Done correctly, these don’t take an enormous amount of time. But they do take some thoughtful effort and should be reviewed regularly (daily review of your goals helps you stay on track), and don’t replace your record keeping and bookkeeping. These aren’t the same, by the way. Record keeping involves maintaining a current list of your songs, contracts with music libraries and publishers, submissions wherever, registrations with your PRO, following up on cue sheet submissions, and anything else relevant. Bookkeeping is the accounting—where your money goes and comes from. Without maintaining your accounts you will dislike tax time even more than if you keep them.

On the other side, if you aren’t spending an enormous amount of time working on new music, studying your craft, and trying new things, how can you hope to do anything worth marketing?

Divide and Conquer?

One approach I’ve heard from successful folks is that they divide their time (however much it is) into studio (aka art) time and office time. They never mix the two. They mentally put on a suit and go to the office, and shut off the phone and all outside communication when they go in the studio.

That doesn’t work for me. I find myself working on a tune, and an opportunity pops up and I stop what I’m doing to evaluate it. My natural way of working is to be what computer folks call, interrupt driven. To that end, I have a music computer and music computer in the same workspace—both on. I often listen to tracks I am working on while doing the record keeping, or work on the bridge for a tune while waiting for a response to come back from an email to a music super or library.

Part of this approach has been a reaction to the way my life has developed. But I am used to it. My way might drive you nuts. The point is finding a strategy that works for you.

Einstein said that one definition of insanity was repeating your actions and expecting a different outcome. In short, the sane thing is to try different approaches and see what works. If something doesn’t work the first time, evaluate what you did to see if you gave it a fair shake. Remember that some parts of this songwriting business are not fun, but need doing.

Like writing music, experimentation should be the heart of your approach to this crazy career. Be flexible.

Prioritize Your Efforts

One technique that is taught in many business courses on efficient time management says that you should:

1. Make a list of all the things that need doing (not what you want to do, although some of the things better be things you want to do, or you are in the wrong business). These should be tasks, not goals—things that you need to do in the short term.
2. Prioritize your list. Not all of it, but go through it and pick the three most important.
3. Do the first one. The idea is that because the top job is the most important one, if you spend all day on it, that’s okay, because it is important. If you do nothing else, you have still done the most important thing (to you).
4. Do the next one.

Based on the results of your daily effort, you should make a new list every day. Ideally, do it at the end of your day so that the list waits for you the next morning.

I’ve used this approach and have been amazed at how much I can get done, and how it minimizes the time I waste. Let me know how you handle your balancing act.

Ever find yourself working on a new song but feeling like it was too much like one you did recently? It happens all the time. And, in fact, it might not be at all similar, but the writing process, or the vibe is getting into a rut.

Well ruts aren’t all bad. They show you’ve been working. But you do need ways to get out of them. Now there are hundreds, if not more, techniques for getting fresh ideas and we will explore some of them another time. But at a point like this, one thing to consider is getting a completely new perspective. Not a fresh idea, but a fresh way of looking at everything that goes into your songwriting.

ADDING BODIES

One solution is to deal another player into the game. Yes, a collaborator. A collaboration can help get your head turned around, and who knows what can happen then?

Having a collaborator forces a number of changes in the way you do things. Just having to consider the ideas someone else has about your song is one factor. The way they work is another. Are you used to sitting down and strumming a few chords on a guitar and developing them into a song? Working with someone who starts with melodies or rhythms might help you get new life into your music. Or perhaps your new colleague likes to develop a riff first. If nothing else happens, you’ve just experience another great starting point for songs that you haven’t been using.

Another body in the equation also can mean a shift in your role. What if you wrote just the music or just the lyrics? Certainly that would produce a different song than if you did the whole thing. The results might be better or worse, but remember that songwriting is a learning process. And another songwriter, even one not as experienced as you, can teach you things. New eyes equal new images; new ears means new sounds. All grist for the mill.

CHANGING ROLES

This aspect was brought home to me recently when a composer asked me to create lyrics and vocals to two tracks he had already finished. One was a fairly standard song format and the other was intended as a replacement tune for a 60s hit. Now I have worked as a lyricist before, but I’ve always written lyrics and handed them to the composer. And I had never written lyrics before where I was trying hard to capture the essence of someone else’s song. In this case, I watch the original group on youtube about 15 times and tried to get the phrasing, tone of the lyric, and emphasis into my head. I printed out the lyrics and analyzed the words. Are they long words? Short words? Slang? Is there a story being told? An emotion being vented?

This was a great deal of fun. Subsequently, I was reading Robin Frederick’s great new book, Shortcuts to Hit Songwriting (from Taxi Music Books) and saw that one of the techniques she proposes for learning to write hits is to take this approach to existing songs. She calls the target song a ghost song.

At any rate, the experience of becoming strictly a lyricist for an existing composition was helpful; the exercise of developing lyrics to existing structures was a bit like writing a sonnet (I used to write a lot of poetry so that part was familiar ground).

THE BUSINESS ANGLE

Although I’m not going to go deeply into all the various ways you can organize the business of songwriting with a collaborator, I want to mention two points: First, in most cases, agree to a 50/50 split before you start. Don’t worry about who did the most writing work or whether it is harder to be the composer or lyricist. Having been on both sides of the fence, my own thought is that are equally hard to do well. But whatever you decide, agree up front and put squabbles behind you.

Second, determine the publishing. Will one or the other have it, or a third party, or will it be divided. Again it doesn’t really much matter. But anyone who is getting a share of the publishing must be someone who is going to actively promote the song. Publishing is not a place to put someone along for the ride. If you are an aggressive publisher and your partner just wants to write, then you need to handle the publishing.

Finally, I think there is only one significant rule in songwriting, and it applies to collaborations as much as any other aspect of the art and craft–if it isn’t fun, don’t do it. Collaborating is probably not for everyone. Neither is writing the book for a musical, or writing ballads or heavy metal, for that matter. But collaborating is probably worth a try if the right partner comes along (work with the willing!). It won’t change your life, probably, but it well could change your songwriting for the better, making the process (and maybe even the songs) richer and more robust. Besides, there is the secret benefit–your collaborator is required by law to laugh at the stupid jokes you come up with at 3am.