For the last few years, I've noticed a lot of people getting into the "music for children" market. A new generation of music fans are now parents, so "Wee Sing" just isn't cutting it anymore...
This is a big market with a lot of money to spend. They're also less likely to acquire music via illegal means, such as downloading, since they have more money than time. If you're not taking advantage of this, you're leaving money on the table.
This isn't just for acts like Raffi or The Wiggles, which do nothing but music for kids. Pop artists like Lisa Loeb and Will.I.Am are getting in on the trend as well...
Not comfortable with putting your name on an album for kids? It's certainly not for everybody...
Black Sabbath, for example, is doubtful to be entering this market any time soon. However, a company called "Rockabye Baby!" has taken Black Sabbath staples such as Paranoid, Iron Man, and War Pigs, and given them a makeover, with "lullaby sounds" instead of guitar, bass, and drums.
If you're looking for a new income stream for your music business, think about it.
So many great things about this video... One is how open people were to bringing different types of music together. Chic, Blondie, and The Clash on the same bill? You'd never see that today.
You'll hear on it iPods though... As we're no longer tied town to entire albums or very segmented radio formats, people are being exposed to more types of music than ever before. That will be good not only for our culture, but also musicians who make different types of music.
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.
One of the common things that comes up during episodes of Music Business Radio is something I call "life of a song." This can mean a number of things, but usually refers to:
Recordings that are so popular they receive airplay years after their initial release dates
Recordings on a "classic" albums that continue to sell consistently, years after being released
Songs that are covered again and again - sometimes in the same genre, sometime not
Recordings that are licensed years later to movies, television, and/or commercials
The stories that come up are as unique as the songs (and songwriters) affected. Sometimes the result of something like this is big paycheck for the songwriter and publisher, but sometimes things goes way beyond that and can totally rejuvenate careers of the original artists, allowing them to tour more successfully and record/release new material.
But it goes way beyond that... In fact, I believe that "life of a song" is actually what's going to keep the music business going.
Music is one of those things where, when you hear a song that you like, you want to hear songs that are similar. It's very similar to surfing Amazon.com, finding something you need, seeing the "People Who Purchased This Product Also Purchased These Products," and finding more things that you suddenly can't live without. You didn't realize you "needed" them because you didn't know they existed.
As we get deeper and deeper into music technology, and it becomes easier and easier to record and distribute music, there will be more and more noise to cut through. But it's also easier and easier to find out about new artists (and old artists), if you know what you're looking for...
And that is why "life of a song" is important...it lets you know what you're looking for, even if you didn't know you were looking for it.
So when a dance music fan hears this in a club...
He can now ask the question, "I wonder what that sample was?" And find this...
Now, the guy is "into" R&B music. When when he looks deeper into Gwen McRae, he's going to find she covers Bobby Bland...and that leads him to look into blues. And where did blues music come from? It goes on and on...
Obviously, not everybody into house music is going to go this deep, but some will. And when things work like this, it leads to more money for publishers, labels, artists, songwriters, and everybody in the music business. It also exposes new writers and artists to styles of music that will affect what they're creating. Then the cycle starts over again...
I get emails and calls from musicians that don't like to sample and don't like to cover songs. When I ask them what they sound like, they can't name a similar act because they "don't sound like anybody else." This is hilarious to me.
Think you don't sound like anybody else? Think again... If you're playing a 4/4 time signature and playing a major scale or open chords on a guitar tuned EADGBE, you sound like somebody else. Don't fight it! And since you sound like somebody else, why not go a little deeper?
If you like Beatles, don't be afraid to copy them. If you like Rage Against the Machine, don't act like you're the only musician doing socio-political rock music. Instead, embrace the fact that everything we do as musicians is influenced (in a big way) from somebody that came before us and go with it.
Your biggest enemy is that your songs will never get heard. Never. Being open to copying and being bold in acknowledging influences not only helps the music business, it's also good for your fans, since it gives them something to grasp onto that cuts through all the noise they have to deal with.
So do your fans (and the music business) a favor by copying something right now.
For the last several days, I've been helping neighbors affected by the Nashville Flood. If you've watched the news on television, read a newspaper, or browsed any of the major social media sites, you've likely seen the destruction. And if not...
What you may not be aware of is how this city has come together in a big way. Tens of thousands of people helping those in need...
For example, I was hauling flood-damaged goods to the street for a neighbor and had a guy passing by in his car stop and ask if I needed help. Had a friend who lost her home and everything in it that was discussing the incident with somebody have a stranger that overheard the conversation come up to her and offer to pay for whatever she needed to get back on her feet...and then did it.
Something like a flood is great for group consciousness, but it's not necessary to make it happen. Anybody, regardless of location, can create and experience the exact same thing. And you don't have to be Frank Sinatra, Marty Robbins, Tony Bennett, Carl Perkins, Chuck Berry, or anybody close to that level of success or notoriety to make it happen. It not about you, it's about the people listening, so why not be the one to make it happen for them?
Is where you live too small? It didn't stop these guys from finding something unique about their city and making a song and video about it...
Something like this isn't going to go national or get major airplay for obvious reasons, but the local people that like it will really like it. And since you're in the area already...
I don't want to be one to rain on a parade, even if the parade is a fantasy one, but it amazes me how many musicians and songwriters I meet who aren't actually doing anything related to music. I'm not going to sit here and judge what music business "success" is, because that is relative, but I will make this judgment when it comes to the music itself...
If you're going to identify as a songwriter, doesn't it make sense that you actually write some songs?
If you're identifying as a musician, shouldn't you be out playing gigs...or at least recording some stuff? Or maybe just practicing once in a while?
I bring this up because I've been meeting an increasing number of people lately whom identify themselves as songwriters, but haven't written anything in years. And I'm not talking hits, I mean they literally haven't picked up a pen and pad and written anything in a very long time.
And I've been meeting "musicians" lately that don't practice, record, perform, or do anything related to music...except talk about how they're "musicians."
Look, I know life gets in the way, but if you are who you say you are, shouldn't you make a bit of time for music?
Discuss below... And when you're done, go write a song or something! :)
Ever read Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare? No matter, because I'm going to sum up this very important point in just a single sentence...
"People like to be called by name."
And it never gets old...
That's why, when you go see Iron Maiden at Long Beach Arena, Bruce Dickinson yells, "SCREAM FOR ME, LONG BEACH!!!!" after every single song.
We're not just nameless, faceless blobs, right? Personalize what you're doing and you'll get better results.
Want to push things to the next level? That's what this duo did with their song, "Canadian, Please."
Will it appeal to everybody? No. But look at the comments on YouTube and you'll see that the people who like it really like it...and I'd rather have a few people that really like what I'm doing than 10x as many that vote right down the middle.
Something to think about the next time you're writing...
Eric Hutchinson is giving his fans a holiday treat by writing four
songs based on emails they send in about their lives.
The first song
he wrote and posted was based on a story from a fan named Kristina who
thought her biology teacher was a little weird. Hutchinson titled it,
"My Bio Teacher is a Druggie." The next fan-inspired song will be
posted Monday on EricHutchinson.com.
Eric is a cool guy. I did an interview with him earlier this year about how he got a record deal, lost it, and got another record deal...with the same label!
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