Music Marketing [dot] com

Goals are like driving cars.

To perform well in life, you must have very clear goals

The Bible says that a person who is not focused is like a ship without a rudder or a sail boat that drifts wherever the wind takes it.

Having clear goals is very essential when you plan to start your own business.

Setting goals is more than just wishful thinking. If you think you can succeed just by hoping or by doing ‘stuff’ until things turn out right, then you are dead wrong. A goal setter is different from a wishful thinker. You get places when you have a very clear intention on where you are heading.

When your goal is very clear, all your actions are aligned to it. You tend to understand better what ‘works’ towards your goal and what other tasks are merely distractions.

People with goals are like a person driving a car. They KNOW where they want to head and they will plot out the road on the map. They will pick the routes that will get them there the fastest.

A person without goals will be like a person driving without a destination in mind. When we compare a person without goals, it becomes very clear that it is quite idiotic to hop in the car and just ‘drive’. Unless your intention is clearly to go for a spin, you will just spin round and round resulting in wasted time, wasted resources (imagine wasting a gallon of gas going nowhere), and all that effort leads to delusion.

Now that we have established the mindset of a good goal setter, we need to equip ourselves with the right tools or the right vehicle to succeed.

Back to the car analogy, having a clear goal is merely the first step towards success. You are very clear where wanted to go, but if your road map is wrong, you will never get to your destination. You may be very motivated about your goal of ‘getting there’ but you just won’t get there. You can have a positive attitude about it, but you will still fail to reach your destination (however, your attitude may be so positive, you probably wouldn’t mind).

Lastly, we need to set a specific timeline for our goals.

If you set a goal to "go on tour" "someday," that day will never come. Your goals are not only unrealistic, but it is also unspecific. You don’t have a specific plan when to start your exercise. Procrastination sets in. You tend to put off your action plan because someday, you are going to lose weight. The whole plan is futile.

If you do not set a specific goal as in WHEN (such as doing 15 shows in 4 weeks) and HOW (calling up clubs, getting booked, and promoting the shows), you will most likely fail to accomplish your goals.

Bear in mind, that even if we fail to meet the deadline of accomplishing the goal, you do not fail. It is not the end. The goal and the direction are still there but you are merely adjusting the timeframe to accomplish your goals in the end.

Why Today's Record Labels are Failing

A problem is usually an opportunity in disguise.

Most people are negative. When they face a problem, they usually moan and sigh. They think that the sky is falling and they pray to every single God out there for deliverance.

A person with a positive thinking mindset doesn’t see problems as a problem. When you look at the word ‘problem’ immediately, it brings a negative connotation to mind. You feel negative as though it is a stumbling block or as though someone threw a spanner into your gears.

A true entrepreneur sees problems in a different light. They call them challenges. When you call your problems ‘challenges’, immediately the attitude towards the grievous task sounds a bit more ‘fun’, as though you are trying to overcome a challenging tasks for great rewards afterwards.

Imagine walking into a corporate boardroom. Everyone looks stressed and serious. You walk in and announce to the shareholders, the chairperson and the staff and say, “Guys, we have a problem. Market response has dropped terribly over the last few days” Imagine the reaction on everyone’s faces. Imagine carrying on the meeting with that ‘problem’ mindset in everyone’s head. It doesn’t take a genius to guess that the room will be full of hostility and negative energy. I think we get the idea.

Does this sound like the current record business?

Turn the scenario around. This time, you walk in to the room and say, “Guys, we have a challenge on our hands. Market response dropped over the last few days, but we have developed an exciting strategy that will turn this trend into an advantage…” Doesn’t it sound different from the start? Would the outcome be totally different? Would everyone approach the issues with a good mindset?

It is very important to remember to be positive under all circumstances. Often times, it is a test of our abilities. Handling problems is like muscle building. The more practice we have, the stronger we become. We develop the abilities to carry more weight. Just like our problems, our problem solving muscles develop and we are equipped to handle greater problems.

So it is a good thing to embrace problems with a positive mindset. We learn to solve problems and it develops character. It also requires hands on practice and faith when it comes to dealing with problems.

When you learn to ride a bike, do you learn how to ride by memorizing an instruction manual? Of course it is not that easy. You learn to ride a bike by getting your hands dirty. You ride and fall and ride again until it becomes second nature. Of course, it might take longer for slow learners. So you must have faith and believe that even though our lives are plagued with problems, something good will happen in the end when we go on and keep out heads up high, believing in the good that the future holds.

A Custom Radio Station Experience

Ok, I'm a little behind the times on this, but I finally got around to checking out Pandora, a free service which streams a music channel based on a quick survey of music you like.  Music Match has a service which did this a few years ago, but it was clunky and Mac support was even worse.

This is worth a look, not only to hear great music, but to get you thinking about how radio programmers and fans are labeling your music.

On a related note, Stumble Upon is a similar service for web sites.  If you like a site, it will find you similar sites.  It's a very good way to discover stuff you wouldn't normally think to search for...or Google ignores.

To check it out, hit the "Stumble It!" link below.

Are You Investing in Yourself?

Had an interview with a guy on Music Business Radio a couple of days ago...  He's a songwriter and was talking about how important it is to protect copyright, since it's his "family farm" that he wants to leave to his family when he dies.

Good point.

In the "normal" world, when a lot of people talk about "investing," they mean the stock market, a retirement plan, a savings account, or something similar.  And while that may work ok for most, I feel that, as entrepreneurs, it's much more effective to invest in ourselves.

Most people refuse to invest in anything good for themselves other than food (Americans tend to consume pizzas by the truckload and that is investing in ourselves the wrong way). What we need to do is to really invest in ourselves such as educating ourselves and growing in wisdom. Your education doesn’t stop when you leave college.

One thing that schools and colleges don’t teach you is SUCCESS 101. It is something the academic schools won’t teach you, rather it is developed internally. Developing the fundamental attitudes and desires to succeed takes character, not a spur of the moment decision or because it sounds like a good idea.

The moment someone stops learning, they stop growing. There is no such thing as staying where you are. Because the world is constantly advancing forward, anything that doesn’t follow their direction will be left behind. Unfortunately this is what happens to people who leave college or university. They stop growing, therefore, they start degrading. Their minds atrophied and they lose the desire to learn.

Investing in ourselves also means that we learn new ways to acquire wealth. As your wealth grows, you will have more options to grow. Learning to develop your wealth requires a certain attitude that most people have when they were young but lose their dream when people tell them to stop. They settle for mediocre lives and abandon the pursuit for success the moment they stop investing them themselves.

How does one develop the proper mindset and attitude? Does it require a lot of changes?

Yes and no. Change is required, but not impossible

The first thing you need to do is to be open to new teachings. It is just like a tea cup. When a cup is full of water, you can’t pour in anything. It won’t go in and it will overflow. So what do we do if we need to get new water? First, simply empty the cup by pouring the muddy water out of it, only then you will have the capacity to learn new things.

The next thing you need to do is to learn from a mentor or from a successful person. We need a guide and a direction. Someone we can look up to and follow. Don’t learn from negative people. Your beer buddies may be your life long friends, but they won’t take you places. Taking advice from them is suicidal. If you fall sick, you would rather see a doctor and not a car mechanic. In fact, you would want to see the best doctor there is! Not some crack doctor without any credibility.

The last attitude you must develop is to develop an action habit. You can learn from all the gurus, read all the books and attend all the seminars, but if you do not take action, massive action, you will be even worse off when you just started – full of motivation, but no direction (leading to lots of frustration). Although that is the hardest part, it actually gets easier when you actually get started.

Don’t think twice, invest in yourself today!

My New Project... Music Business Video

Music Business Radio has been on the air for almost one year and in pre-production for about two years.  During that time, we'd had the opportunity to interview some amazing people in the music business, including songwriters, producers, booking agents, journalists, attorneys, and more.

Now it's time to take things to a new level with Music Business Video. Over the next few weeks, you'll going to see a lot of content from us.  For the most part, it will be short, to-the-point videos with advice for upcoming musicians, songwriters, and other music business professionals. 

It's the same kind of content you get from Music Business Radio, but you'll get to see it rather than just listen.

An example of what you'll get is below.  This one is from Country Music Hall of Fame member Charlie Louvin...

If you like this content, we hope you'll tell your friends.  Also, feel free to post it to your blog or website.

We'll have an opportunity to get you on Music Business Video very soon.  For details, keep an eye on our site, mbvideo.tv.

Pirates are Future Customers

I interview a ton of songwriters and music publishers on Music Business Radio and the topic of file sharing often comes up.  And more of these folks are really pissed about it...

I can understand, and relate, but when it comes down to it, there are a lot of positive things about somebody "stealing" your music.

The fact that somebody is actually going to "steal" what you've done is actually a great piece of information for you.  Because if nobody is going to take what you've got for free, they're surely not going to pay for it.

Got this from an article called Pirates are Future Customers.  It was written about computer software, but it applies to music.

1. Word-of-mouth marketing. A pirate who is enough of a fan might even sell enough copies of your product to in some sense make up for the theft.


2. Peer-provided support. A pirate who is expert in your product may serve as a valuable second-tier support mechanism, answering questions about your product in forums or chat.


3. Market saturation. The pirate who chooses your product and shuns your competitor’s is contributing to your dominance of the market.

So what do you think?  Post comments below...

Burnlounge 2.0

Burnlounge has a new system online.  It's supposed to be an improvement over the original system, let you sell mp3 files that will work on an iPod, which were not available on the first version, and eventually have other products for sale, such as movies. 

But is it that great?  Here is one person's experience with it, which I think is worth reading.

Being in the music industry, I've had people contact me about Burnlounge almost weekly for the last 18 months.  And before that, I was being contacted about Janglefish, the same company before they changed the name to Burnlounge.

Had anybody who is not a Burnlounge retailer actually purchased something from this company?

Indie Bands 2.0

The New York Times just published an interesting article about the lives of successful indie bands in 2007.

The article mentions things like MySpace, which are great tools, but don't be fooled to think that this is all you need to be successful in the music business.  The foundation that has worked for musicians since the beginning of the industry is as important now as it was then.

For more thoughts on this, check out the upcoming episode of Music Business Radio.

Atlantis Music Conference

A few years ago, when dot com companies were sponsoring anything having to do with music, there were dozens of music business related conferences.  For a few years, I was on the road speaking at one every month.

So take my advice, because I've been to a ton of these...  Atlantis is a good conference run by dedicated people.  If you're based in the Southeastern US or you work in the urban music genre, Atlantis will be especially worth you time.

More info...

Common Questions about my Music Business Books

I get a lot of email regarding my books on the music business, so I'm going to answer a few of the most common questions today.

Where can I get a copy of the "$100,000/year in the Music Business" book?

This book is no longer being printed, but you can usually find a used copy on Amazon.

Why was the "$100,000/year in the Music Business" book taken off the market?

This book was originally released in 2002.  It contains information that is still relevant today, but a lot of what I talked about when it comes to online promotion doesn't apply like it did.  The basic concepts apply, but I designed this book to give you an exact, step-by-step process that you could use to make $100,000/year.

Here's the good news...

What should I do now?

I've got an audio book called "14 Qualities of Successful Musicians" that is, hands down, the best book I've ever done as far as getting into your head and showing you exactly what the 1000s of successful musicians (and music business professionals) I've worked with over the years are doing right.

This book is on Amazon for $39.95, but you can download it for only $3.  If you're unsure about putting down $3, check out the reviews on Amazon to help you decide.

When is your next book coming out?

I've got a new book that should be out by July, which will go deeper into the mindset I talk about in the "14 Qualities of Successful Musicians" audio book.  Without this mindset, none of what I talk about when it comes to marketing and promotion matters.  It's that important.

As far as marketing and promotion books, I've got a project I'm currently finishing up on which will include audio, step-by-step guides, video, printed manuals, and more. It's going to be big and it's going to cover everything you need to know about making a living in the music business.

And if that wasn't enough, I'm also going to throw in an element when you'll be able to work with me personally.  I've been busy for the last couple of years on projects like Music Business Radio, so I've cut way back on the number of people I've been working with.  This will be my return to this kind of promotion help.

More coming...  Until then, download my audio book for only $3.