Music Marketing [dot] com

Gambling Addiction (and the Music Business)

Tennessee started up a lotto last week. No longer do people here have to drive to Kentucky, Georgia, or Virginia to take a shot at becoming an instant millionaire. And by instant, I mean $50,000/year paid over 20 years.

Some people are into it. Others are outraged.

Regardless of what you think about the ethics of gambling, do some number crunching and you’ll see that 99.99% (or more) of the time, it’s a better investment to put your money into something like a 401k than hope that the lottery will pay off. It’s true that you can’t win if you don’t play, but know that when you do play, your odds of winning are only slightly better than if you didn’t play at all.

And if you don’t play at all, your odds are zero.

Now I want you to think about how you’re promoting your music business career? Are you doing the 401k, longterm method or are you taking the long shot and hoping for the big payoff?

Most bands are taking the long shot. They put together a ton of packages, get addresses from a database, and send out a ton of packages without being able to properly do anything with them…or even bothing to check if the people they’re sending to are interested in the first place.

That is stupid.

Nothing wrong with sending out packages. You have to send out packages if you want people to hear your music. But you’re also going to have to followup on them to really make them have any impact.

And you’re also going to have to have a solid foundation to get people to do anything with those packages when you followup.

What do I mean by solid foundation? I’m talking about fans who will buy your stuff, come to your shows, and help you to be a profitable business.

I know that the word “profit” and “sales” scares the crap out of a lot of bands, but this is the MUSIC BUSINESS. That means that people are concerned about making money. Somebody has to pay for the music and it shouldn’t be the labels or people who create it…it needs to be the people who consume it.

So, don’t be stupid. Stop the “spray and pray” promotions. Get a good foundation, make every contact count, and build on it.

When you do a promotion, you need to think QUALITY, not quantity. One good person that you can really connect with will do more for you than 10,000 unopened packages.

Two Words that All Musicians Should Know

Not a day goes by when I don’t get an email, phone call, or package from a band or musician who wants what they think will make them a successful career in music.

Booking
Management
Distribution
Radio Promotion
Press
Opening for an Established Artist

While all of this is great for the acts that are ready for it, most of the time, this stuff will make a band “mortgage heavy.” This simply means that the band looks great to outsiders, but is having to make stupid decisions to keep up with the payments for everything.

And if you think somebody else is going to pay for your dream, you’re wrong. Even if you get a label deal, that money for all the tour buses, roadies, posh hotels, and whatever other stuff you get is coming out of your pocket. Everybody on the team, even the label, works for you. And when you’re the owner of the company, you’re paying the bills.

So what should singers, musicians, and bands think about?

The END RESULT.

Hearing your song on the radio as you drive through a town you’ve never been in before is a great ego stoke, but is your ego that large that it’s able to pay the bills?

Seeing your self in a magazine? Another ego stoke.

And the manager you have when you have nothing to manage? Yep…ego stoke.

When you make a music business investment, and that means anything from a guitar, to a book on the music business, to a gig that you play, the end result should be your main concern. If something isn’t going to come of it, why bother? And I’m not talking about something that COULD come of it, I’m talking about something that WILL come of it.

And the investment you make? That’s not only the money you invest, but also the time you invest.

People say time is money. I’d argue that time is much more valuable. You can always get more money, but you’ll never get more time.

Something like radio promotion can cost thousands of dollars. A manager will cost even more. This means that you’re going to have to get a lot back to see a return on your money.

Let’s take radio promotion…

How many albums are you going to have to sell to make this investment worthwhile? If not albums, how many people will you have to sign up for your mailing list? How many people will you have to have come to your shows?

But something like a book on the music business…that costs a lot less. That means, to make your investment back, you’ll have to do a lot less. It should be easy for you to make your money back and then some, right?

And if you have an investment that pays off like that often, you’re now making a profit, right?

There are tons of low cost, high return investments you can make. Writing down your goals is a good one… Bob Baker has a book called Guerrilla Music Marketing that has dozens of low-cost (or free) ways to get publicity for your music and sell more records.

Sure…it takes a little bit more time, and it’s definitely not as glamorous, but being “mortgage heavy” isn’t very glamorous either.

Be smart and have a career. Some day, I’m going to put up a list of all the “famous” musicians who are now working day jobs. Have one guy here in Nashville that played in a band featuring one of the top guitar players of all time. If I said the name, you’d instantly think “legend.”

And what is he doing? Working at a pawn shop.

Be smart, guys.

To everybody who wants to do music for a living, but thinks they’ll wait to take the plunge…

Nadine Stair was asked on her 93rd birthday what she would do differently if she had to live her live over.

“If I had my life to live over, I would dare to make
more mistakes next time. I would relax. I would limber
up. I would be sillier than I’ve been this time. I would
take fewer things seriously, and I would take more
chances. I’d take more trips; I’d climb more mountains
and swim more rivers. I would eat more ice cream, and
fewer beans. I would perhaps have more actual
troubles, but I’d have fewer imaginary ones.

“You see, I am one of those people who lived sensibly
and sanely, hour after hour, day after day. Oh, I’ve
had my moments, but if I had it to do over again, I’d
have more of them. In fact, I’d try to have nothing
else -just moments - one after another instead of living
so many years ahead.

“I’ve been one of those persons who never goes
anywhere without a thermometer, a hot-water bottle, a
raincoat, and a parachute. If I had my life to live over,
I would start barefoot earlier in the spring, and I would
stay that way later in the fall. I would go to more
dances. I would ride more merry-go-rounds. I would
pick more daisies.”

OUCH!

I heard a story recently from a friend about an old dog lying on the front porch.

A neighbor approached the porch and could hear the dog softly moaning. He asked his friend why the dog was whimpering.

And the owner said, “He’s lying on a nail.”

Predictably the man said, “I guess it doesn’t hurt quite that much yet.”

If your life is like this, and there are music business of other goals you are not realizing because “it doesn’t hurt that much yet,” I hope this year will be the one where you get so pissed off you do something about your situation.