First of all, I don't know that every music business degree will run you $50,000, but I do know that many will run you more. As an example, a 4-year music business degree at Belmont University in Nashville is about $100,000 right now.
Yeah, you could be like this guy and go to a state school with a mediocre program to save a few bucks, but that will still run you $25,000 or so and you'll be left with the same problem when you get out.
What's the problem?
According to this
guy, nobody wants 2010 grads with any degree, because the changing workforce has no use for
them. In my opinion, that's especially true in the music business, where the established machine that we've had for 50+ years has been broken up into a million pieces.
So much for that dream of hanging out with rock stars in big recording studios, flying in private jets, and racing European sports cars on the weekend...
Now here's the good news...
The music business isn't dead, it's just changing. There are lots of jobs, but you'll likely have to create one for yourself.
And the $100,000 question (and I mean that literally) is... Do you need a degree to create your own job?
My company turned 15 years old this month. A few years ago, I posted a quick and dirty history, for those that are interested in the timeline of things.
According to a study by the U.S. Small Business Association, only 2/3 of all small business
startups survive the first two years and less than half make it to four
years. So what's the secret for making it beyond this time?
I started my company when I was in college at the University of Memphis, studying commercial music. The degree was a BM, because I was serious about playing guitar at the time. But it was commercial music, so there was a lot of business stuff in the curriculum as well as the standard music stuff.
Had a teacher tell me, "The way to make money in music is via publishing." So I started a publishing company almost immediately, since I was writing songs for my band and knew a bunch of other people writing songs as well.
The problem was the you only make money in publishing when something is happening with the songs that you publish... And nothing was happening to the songs I owned copyright on.
I had a background in direct marketing via mail, having gotten involved in that while still in high school. Started putting out compilation CDs of my stuff, in hope that something would take off, and sending them to radio, press, and other media. As a college student, I didn't have a ton of money to spend, so I sold the extra space to indie bands wanting the same for their music.
Long story short... I had some music business knowledge, but as some people would say, "just enough to mess things up." Had some direct mail knowledge, but certainly wasn't an expert. More or less, I was making everything up as I went along. If it worked, I did it again. If it didn't work, I analyzed it, tried to figure out why, and changed things up.
You rarely hear about how successful people screw up. I think this is because successful people, at least the ones whom I've met, don't view mistakes as a bad thing and certainly don't dwell on them.
Or maybe people make so many mistakes they can't count them all... I certainly have. One, as illustrated above, was making a tray card look like a phone sex ad. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but it pissed a lot of people off, too. And while you can't please everybody, and not everybody will react well to everything, there are some things you can do to better your odds of success and making a tray card look like a phone sex ad isn't one of them...unless you're in a sexually-charged genre of music, which this CD wasn't.
Almost all the artwork on the first group of CDs I released was stolen, by the way. That was another mistake. "Borrowing" things like images and code was pretty standard on the early Internet, so I carried that over to the offline world. Ironic for a publishing company trying to make money off of copyrights, I know...
I made a ton of mistakes. That didn't stop me from moving forward though. And knowing that I was making mistakes didn't stop me from making more mistakes. My first book got horrible reviews for sloppy editing, for example. Had I worried about that kind of thing though, I never would have released it in the first place.
If you do enough things, you're going to make mistakes.
If you're not making mistakes, you're not doing enough things.
As I said earlier, when something doesn't work, fix it and try again.
Book editing sucks? Call in an editor and re-release it. Not a big deal.
Printed a CD with a messed up track listing? That happened to me also. The solution? Get stickers with the correct listing, slap them on the CD case, and keep going...
More thoughts on the subject from Derek Sivers...
Bottom line, don't wait for anything to be perfect, but nothing is ever perfect!
Have a stories about moving beyond your mistakes? Post them below!
A couple of weeks ago, Imogen Heap came through Nashville. This was just after a huge flood hit the city, causing about $1.6 Billion in damages and displacing thousands of people.
The show was full of audience participation, but this took it to a new level. Instead of having somebody call out a request or doing a singalong, Imogen asked the crowd for a time signature, a tempo, and a key, then created a song with them.
Most shows are a "one-way" thing... The artist performs and people in the audience listen. This changed that, since the audience was actually part of the song being created.
This is something she does in every city, by the way. And it works on so many levels... For one, it's not just any charity; it's a charity that means something to the local audience. It's also a moment in time, much like a photo, that lets people take the experience of a live performance home with them. And beyond just that, it's an experience of something they were actually an active part of, beyond just sitting in a chair and watching it happen.
Lack of followup from the thousands of people touring acts play for each night is "money on the table" at its finest. For a show like this, people pay around $50-100/ticket. They're obviously fans and fans never stop at just one purchase...but they do have to know something is available for them to buy.
How do you do this? A mailing list.
But people don't just sign up for a mailing list, you have to offer them a benefit for doing so, or make it part of another transaction in which you get their mailing information. Selling somebody a recording like this is that transaction.
People also have to like you and trust you before they'll do any business with you...and doing something for a charity they can relate to is a good way to make that happen.
Everybody has $1, right? Everybody wants to help others, right? Combine the two in your music marketing and you'll not only build great rapport and goodwill with your fans, but you'll also build a huge mailing list that you can use to promote other things.
Other things about this show which built rapport and goodwill...
1. Brought in a local act to open as well as join her on stage during the main performance.
2. Before the show, had people go to her website and tell her which songs they wanted to hear.
Now it's your turn... How are you building goodwill and rapport with your audience? Post your comments below...
About 10 years ago, I got some comped tickets to see Poison, Cinderella, Ratt, and LA Guns. Knew all of them from the 1980s, when "arena rock" was huge and I was just getting into playing guitar, but was never a "fan" of any of them. Thought it would bring back some good memories of that time in my life though. Plus, it was free, so why not?
Got to the venue and was amazed to see over 10,000 fans, many decked out in "concert shirts" and similar attire. As the headliner was Poison, this meant a lot of spandex and neon green. It was like a time warp.
Again, we're talking at least ten years after any of the bands on the bill had peaked. None of them had a popular album out or had been on the radio for a while. Nobody in the audience seemed to know that though.
Weird. Did everybody there just come out of the woodwork? Had anybody told them things had moved on and that hair metal was dead?
When the show started, things got even more weird. Everybody (except me) knew the lyrics to every song that was played...and was singing along.
It was a great experience and everything a concert should be. Big stages, big lights, pyrotechnics, crowd interaction, and songs the everybody knew. In fact, it was so good that when I came home, I dug out a Poison record and put it on my stereo.
And it sucked.
No offense to Poison or anybody else involved with the band's career, but what made things work in the arena didn't translate to their recorded music.
And here's the big lesson... Recorded music and live performance and two different things.
Duh, right? But how music will sound live is something very few bands think about when writing and recording...
Yesterday, I talked about music business goals and how important it is for you "start with the end in mind" in order to make them happen. Nowhere is this more important than when you write songs.
Ask Bret Michaels, Paul Stanley, or anybody else that writes "arena anthems" and they'll tell you that when they write, they visualize how the song will come off when played in that type of venue. The big guitar riffs, the hook everybody can sing along to, and the words that reach out and grab the emotions of the audience.
Why? Because bands like Poison and Kiss want to play arenas.
Not in this genre? The same rules still apply, regardless of the type of venue you play. Songs like "I Love it Loud" by Kiss won't work everywhere... Your audience and the venues you play have an equivalent to that though.
So ask yourself, "What types of venues do I want to play?" Once you have that answer, look at the songs you're writing and see if they're a match.
Here's an interesting video of David Byrne talking about how context, such as venue, has pushed musical innovation. It has more great examples of good "song to venue" matches.
Working on a new book for musicians and asked people on my mailing list to email me with questions about how to make money in the music business, just to be sure that I don't miss anything. Got this...
"I really would love to learn how to sell music online and actually make money. How can I do this?"
This could mean a lot of things... Does he need to know how to get his music up on iTunes or is it deeper? So I responded, asking for more specifics on where he is right now and what he's trying to do. I asked for specific goals he has.
And he responded...
"Well to be honest, I don't have any goals right now. I have started to build a website and I have completed music. I just don't really know how to attack the market."
How to attack the market depends on the goals you have, so that's the first thing you need to do. Personally, I start with "lifestyle" goals and work backward from there.
Here are some questions to help you narrow down what you want...
What do I want my typical day to be like?
How much do I want to travel?
What type of home do I want to have?
Where do I want to live?
What type of relationships do I want to have?
Once you have this, you can ask more specific questions. For example, if you think New York is a great place to live, you could ask yourself specific questions about New York, such as...
How much does it cost to live in New York?
What type of housing is available in New York?
Is New York convenient to where I want to travel?
Does New York have the type of people I want to associate with?
Will living in New York allow me to live the lifestyle I want?
Then go deeper on each of those questions... If a house in New York will cost you $5000/month, what do you have to do in order to make that much money? Will those things work with your "typical day" goals? Keep going...
Sooner or later, you'll get to the goals that are very specific to your music.
Why all the work to come to this? Why not just say, "I want to make $1,000,000/year and have a Platinum Record on my wall?"
Because that doesn't work.
If you think the music business is hard, it may be because you're not clear enough on what you want from it. When you have your "story" together and know why you want what you say you want, things get a lot easier. You're more driven to make things happen, because you know the reason behind them, how those things will add to your life, etc.
Final thoughts...
Goals should be specific and measurable. Selling "ton of records" means different things to different people, but "selling 50,000 records" is what it is.
Don't just say you want "more fans" or "radio play." Get specific. How many fans do you want? How many radio stations should be playing your music? Measurement eliminates argument.
Also keep this in mind...
If it's going to happen for you, it has to be something you believe can happen. If you say, "I want to sell 2,000,000 records" or "play Saturday Night Live," but you don't have the foundation in place to make something on this level happen, it's just a fantasy. What you're looking to do when you set goals is put something down that stretches you, but isn't impossible.
Don't worry if your goal will seem small compared to those of other people. Forget the people that tell you to "think big." You should think big, yes, and "2000 records sold" isn't as sexy as "sell out five nights at the Superdome," but 99% of the people that talk about things like this have no plan in place and are just dreamers. You, on the other hand, want to make dreams come true and that happens by making several sets of organized goals come true, each time going for bigger goals that stretch you just a little more than the previous ones.
What are you specific goals, that stretch you a little, but are attainable with a bit of work? Post them below...
"Terrible advice. I've tried it. You want to tell my 2
daughter who's hungry that dad decided to pursue his dream and now is
scraping to buy yogurt and pay the mortgage?.
Or I should just go out and get a job. Wait, ummm, no. The recession
has left NO JOBS. So now I can't get hired, broke, and no better in
making a career at music.
Further more go ahead an quit your job if you are planning on making
crap music that copies top 40 songs. 'Cause that's how you make it. If
you actually make real music you get ignored by everyone. But you'll
have plenty of time to think about that when you realize there are no
jobs out there for left for you."
Obviously, any decision we make gets us either closer or further from what we want in life. Is the decision to have kids something that will take you so far away from your goal of doing music fulltime that you'll never be able to break away from a dayjob?
And if you do take a chance and leave, is that the end? Are there no jobs left?
Is "real music" ignored by everyone?
Is "Top 40" the only way to make a living as a musician?
Please post comments (and suggestions for Bubbles) below...
NOTE: Below is an article written by Naomi Dunford of IttyBiz. It wasn't written specifically for the music business, but as many musicians are working jobs outside of music, I feel it's something that belongs here.
Once upon a time, I wrote a post about the monetary benefits of
having a financial
cushion. And I agree with myself. From a purely money standpoint,
you’re an idiot if you don’t have at least something tucked
away for when all your clients die of smallpox.
But that’s the money part of it. What about business wise? As in,
business growth-wise? From that angle, I don’t know if it’s the best
idea. Here’s why.
1. Not having a cushion lights a fire under your ass.
From E-myth to StomperNet and everyone in between advises against
analysis paralysis — what’s the absolute BEST typeface to use on the
logo? Should we go with blue or green? Does this job contribute to my
future business goals?
When you have no cushion, there’s no time for that shit. That
freelance gig you’re dilly-dallying about bidding on? That’s tomorrow
night’s dinner.
2. You’re forced to get creative.
If you want to
market yourself — and since you don’t have a cushion, marketing yourself
would be a very good idea indeed — you have to actually think. Any
idiot can buy a bunch of ads to get people to buy their service or check
out their blog or order their book. But that’s not where the good stuff
comes from.
When you have no money, you have to hustle. Your sole source of
advertising might be the shirts you just had printed for fifty bucks.
You might have to wear your cousin’s bunny suit and stand outside the
radio station holding a sign that pleads “Ask me what I do!” Hell, you
might even have to get off your ass and talk to some real, live people
and ask them for business.
3. You’re going to learn to focus.
When you have a
cushy start-up loan or a quadzillion months of savings in the bank, it’s
awful easy to get distracted. I mean, look at all there is to do out
there! Flickr alone could kill a week.
But when you need work or exposure or sales, you focus like a laser.
(Yes, Mom. A laser. In air quotes. From Austin Powers.)
When you need a check in the mail sooner rather than later, checking a
blog to see if anybody responded to your witty and insightful comment
doesn’t exactly seem like the most efficient use of your time.
4. You don’t lose the fire. When you’re first
starting out, you’re burning to succeed. All you want is to get your
hands in there and do it. You want to print those goddamn t-shirts by
hand if you have to. Hanging around in your cubicle for 19 months until
you feel you have enough start-up capital is soul-sucking. Your fire
goes.
If your fire goes, soon enough those hand printed t-shirts don’t seem
like such a good idea anymore and you’re signing the line for your
fifth one percent cost-of-living raise in a row.
5. The sooner you start, the sooner you’ll succeed.
There’s
a great saying I love:
“The best time to plant a tree was forty years ago. The second best
time is today.”
These are comforting words today because you don’t have a tree. Don’t
cry over lost tree planting opportunities, I always say. (OK, no, I
don’t.) But do you think it would have been good advice forty years ago?
Would you have said, “Well, maybe now’s not the perfect time. I’ll do
it when I retire”? Not if you wanted the tree, you wouldn’t have.
I have no doubt there are countless thriving businesses run by
entrepreneurs who waited till the time is right, and I applaud them. I
don’t know much about them, though. I don’t know much about them because
they’re not making the front page of Fast Company. They don’t tend to
launch on Tech Crunch.
The ones I know about, the ones with buzz and energy and excitement
and soul, they’re the ones who took the plunge and sold their stereo to
pay for a bunny suit.
The only thing this drummer is missing is big hair...
What are the lessons here?
Not everybody is a match for every band.
Not every gig is a match for every band.
If something (or somebody) isn't a match, it's better to say "no" than force something.
It's a good idea to review videos of yourself to see how you look to others.
The guy is obviously a talented drummer and the stage presence would be impressive in some situations, but this isn't the place for it. Way too aggressive and heavy for the song being played...
This video is wrong on so many levels...
Please answer the following questions:
- Do you think these guys know what was happening behind them? If so, what were they thinking?
