Music Marketing [dot] com

Something Scary

It's Halloween!!

And with Halloween comes a good opportunity for you to look at what scares you.  Probably not the kids (and adults) running around in costumes.

There is a lot of "scary" stuff in the music business.  One of those is actually having your music heard.  Not as easy as you'd think...especially when it's being heard by the president of a record label of another music business executive.  And especially when those people give comments on the music and tens of thousands of people from around the world here those comments.

That's exactly what happens every week on Music Business Radio.  The biggest of the big check out music from our listeners and let the world know what they think about it.  Sometimes it's brutal.  Other times, they like it so much that they'll take that music home with them.

In the last month, here is who reviewed demos with us:

Rusty Harmon - Rusty was manager of Hootie and the Blowfish for 12 years, during which time they sold over 25,000,000 records.  He's been president the the Atlantic imprint, Breaking Records and currently runs a music management, marketing, and sponsorship company, MTM Management.

Allen Butler - Allen was president of Sony Records for 10 years and was one of the two men who started Arista Nashville.  His is currently CEO of Montage Music Group, a multi-genre record label, artist management company, and music publisher.

Allen signed the Dixie Chicks to Sony and has helped develop the careers of Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Alabama, and the Judds.  He has been instrumental in jumpstarting the careers of superstars such as Alan Jackson, Brooks & Dunn, Pam Tillis, and Diamond Rio, all of whom were unknown before signing with him at Arista.

Beau Hill - Producer for Ratt, Winger, Chaka Kahn, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Kix, Warrant, and more, with over 50,000,000 units sold

Norm Winer - Program Director for WXRT and VP of Rock Programming for CBS Radio Networks

Lisa Hickey - Event Producer for Austin City Limits Festival, Lollapalooza, and Big State Music Festival

So if you want to do something really scary and get some good feedback, and maybe a chance at getting the attention of somebody who can do a lot for you, send a CD and press kit to:

Tuned In Broadcasting
ATTN: MBR Demo Derby
1310 Clinton St. Suite 200
Nashville, TN 37203

Rodell Records

I don't know when they started, but around the mid to late 90s, Rodell Records was in every magazine with an ad for a "Nationwide Talent Search."

A search for them doesn't reveal much, but as you'll see from this page, there was a time when they were everywhere and people were talking about them all over the place.  It's my opinion that this activity ultimately led to their demise. At least I think it did...  Is this company still around?  New name, maybe?

During this time, everybody you'd run into had a story about this company.  It was a very similar situation to what you hear now about the "music publishing" companies that send letters to everybody who sends their songs for copyright registration.  So I thought I'd put something up as a place for people to tell their stories about this company.

Here's mine...

I'd heard the stories and was curious about the company.  Was there anything they'd turn down?  In 1996, I sent them a copy of the very worst demo I'd ever received.  Off key, poor musicianship, no songwriting skills, the works...

Two weeks later I had a letter from Rodell saying they had received my demo, but were taking 3-4 weeks to review things, due to the "high volume" or material they were receiving.

And about three weeks after that, I got another letter saying that my song had been reviewed and based on a "point system" of originality, content, technical ability, and overall presentation, they felt that the song I had sent in had "commercial potential."

This was from something on a cheap cassette tape, a hand-written bio, and the worst package I could possibly put together...

The letter went on to say they were working on a major project and how the project's success was contingent on the "personalities" involved having a good working relationship.  It talked about how this opportunity could move my career forward and how I needed to telephone them to complete a "confidential personality profile" to make sure we could get along. 

Sound familiar?  If you ever dealt with this company. post your stories below...

Robots and MySpace

Have seen a lot of talk lately about musicians using automation to add friends to their MySpace pages.  As somebody who works with sites like MySpace all the time, let me assure you that this isn't a good idea.

MySpace is sharp.  And they don't care for robots and other automated ways of adding friends, messaging people, etc.  You may get away with it for awhile, but you'll likely find your account deleted if you keep it up.

A better option, if you don't want to do it yourself, is to contact a service like Your Outsourcing Solution.  They'll get you hooked up with somebody overseas who can do everything manually, for under $5/hour.  This team can also get you very specific people, such as only those in your area, or people who like the style of music that you're playing.

Definitely check it out.  Your time is worth more than the money it will cost you to hire somebody else.

I Met Alan Parsons

Met Alan Parsons yesterday.  He was in town to do a guest session at the School of Audio Engineering.  My friend Alan Shacklock got me and the other guys from Music Business Radio hooked up.

Alan (Parsons) a great talk on recording the Beatles, Pink Floyd, and others.  Obviously, recording technology has some a long way, and I know that as well as anybody, but it was still amazing to learn first hand how albums like Dark Side of the Moon were recorded.

Will have some clips for you guys soon.  And when he's back in town, we're going to get him in for a full show.

For those who don't know about Alan, check out his Wikipedia entry.

New Domain - MusicMarketing.com

I've switched the site over to MusicMarketing.com.  The old domain, IndieMusician.com, still works (for now), but please bookmark the new one to make sure you don't miss anything...

Why the new name?  I felt it was a better name for what this blog is about.

Since 1995, I've worked with bands and musicians of all sizes to help them sell more music, get more people to their shows, and make more money in the music business.  However, for the last couple of years, I've scaled back a bit to work on other projects, including my syndicated radio show, Music Business Radio.

But now it's time to step things up again, so I thought it was a good time to change over to the new name. I've got several new projects on deck for 2008, many of them designed for the independent bands and musicians that I started my career with.  Books, seminars, videos, reports, blog posts, and other resources to help you sell more music, get more people to your shows, and make more money in the music business.

So bookmark the new domain and stay tuned!

Pardon the Dust...

Changing a few things around over the next day or two, so there may be a few aspects of the site which don't work as well as they should.

I'm adding categories to help you guys keep track of all the information here, have a new template to organize things into a better layout, and will be announcing a new domain name (as soon as it's working). 

And this is just the beginning.  Lots of really cool stuff coming, which will help you sell more music, get more people to your shows, and make more money.  I've also got some great opportunities for you to personally work with me and a team of major label producers.

So pardon the dust.  It should start to clear up by the weekend.  Until it does, check out my radio show, Music Business Radio.

TeachMusicOnline.com is Here! -- $1,000,000/year Teaching Music Online

My friend Jermaine has just unveiled his system which will show you, step-by-step, how he's built an online piano teaching business which earns him over $1,000,000/year...and how you can do the exact same thing.

TeachMusicOnline.com is the site.

Even if you've never considered teaching music before, I feel you'll want to, once you see how easy it is.  Check out TeachMusicOnline.com for more info.

Tomorrow is the Day -- $1,000,000/year Teaching Music Online

My friend Jermaine will be unveiling his system which will show you, step-by-step, how he's built an online piano teaching business which earns him over $1,000,000/year...and how you can do the exact same thing.

TeachMusicOnline.com is the site.  Doors open at 12pm Eastern.

Indie Jazz DVD Brings in $34,000 in Single Day

More from my friend Jermaine... If you want to learn how to do this yourself, check back here on Tuesday.

EDIT: Video removed. See www.teachmusiconline.com for more info on this program.

Over $1,000,000/year from Teaching Piano

Mentioned Jermaine Griggs a couple of days ago.  Here is more info on the site he is launching on Tuesday...

Jermaine just launched a Jazz DVD and made $34,000 in a single day. More on that tomorrow! :)

EDIT: Video removed. See www.teachmusiconline.com for more info on this program.