TheCapitalClinic

You need youth, talent, timing, honesty, energy, confidence, consistency and damn good, solid, honest mangement and music producers. In this environment you can't stop for a minute. Use this technology to it's finest.

Even in the sixties, the Beatles were running circles around every one else. They worked their asses off! And Paul still does. GO to a concert to see Paul McCartney if you ever get a chance, you will see and hear the truth of my words. The Beatles had only 4 tracks to work with, that's all and a whole lot of imagination....use it!!! There's NO whining in music! Some of it is just plain DESTINY....AiN'T LiFe gReaT???

quote: T-CUB

You need youth, talent, timing, honesty, energy, confidence, consistency and damn good, solid, honest mangement and music producers. In this environment you can't stop for a minute. Use this technology to it's finest.

I agree with everything you are saying...except the youth part.

This Topic is what everyone is in the business is trying to figure out. If we're not moving units how are we going to make money. When all media can be consumed digitally, how do companies who once depended on physical distribution continue to make money? What about me as the artist who gets a portion of that money, what do I do?

Fortunately the answers are all around us in the Sports Industry, specifically Nascar.

Nascar is something you can watch for free on TV, or you can pay a little more and fill your entire weekend with Nascar via cable or satellite, you can pay even a little more than that and get Nascar Sports packages and watch all Nascar all the time. In addition Nascar is heavily sponsored and the drivers make a killing off of their endorsements. You can watch the race for free... but the "true fan" has to have the T-Shirts, the toy car, the bobble head action figure. They will make an event out of seeing the race live and in person and when they are at the race they will be thirsty and have to buy beer and food... which of course will be endorsed by their favorite driver. Their favorite drivers will also endorse their favorite soft drink, breakfast cereal, bag of chips, cellphone, supermarket and so on.

It's not be expected that every band is to hustle to be the next face of Pepsi but it's these types of interconnections and sponsorships that will fund your livelihood in the future. Anything that can be downloaded on it's own cannot be counted as your sole source of income. You MUST diversify and add as much "Value" to your "Brand" as possible in order to compete with everyone else out there. Your money is going to come from gigs and the non-downloadable merch Items such as T-shirts & Hats, etc., Sponsorships, Endorsements, Licensing for Film, TV, Video Games and Commercials, Publishing and Royalties from everytime your song is played publicly thanks to the help of many things I've mentioned above.

That's not to say you won't see some income from Downloads, CD's, DVD's or even USB keys full of your entire catalog or of a live show you played that day. These items still have value to collectors and will for quite some time. Especially if you give them something really cool to buy, like a CD/DVD combo that is packaged in a big 12" Vinyl Box Set styled case that includes a T-Shirt and a full color booklet with liner notes, pictures and lyrics that your fans could only get at your shows and is something a store would never carry. These types of products still have value, you just have go the extra mile to make it worth while.

Your Job as the Artist/Band is to write the best songs you possibly can, record them and hold on to the rights of them, distribute them freely to anyone willing to listen and build up your network of industry contacts, friends and fans and maintain it on a daily basis. You're to collaborate in as many creative ways possible to increase your network and increase your profile. You are to Blog, Podcast, make videos, build communities and make real connections. You and your band members are to maximize every opportunity, honestly, to bring about the most chances of success.

Using these tools correctly and consistently will lead you to the opportunities stated above and THEN you will be making a living in the music business.

You my friends, Are the drivers in the race anyone can watch for free, It's up to you to add more value to your brand and get them to open their wallets and support your team.

And for those of you who think what I'm talking about it "selling out", Don't worry, eventually there will be an anti digital backlash and communication overload where people will pride them selves on only buying music in physical form from the bands that refuse to do interviews and/or blog about their daily lives or anything of that nature... the thing is, how long can you hold out for that trend to come and eventually go?

Best of Luck Everybody!

Joe

Some related articles on this topic:

Prince power:At 49, the pop visionary is still rocking the music industry and finding new ways to outrage record labels

This is a great article that dives a littler deeper into Princes creative ways of marketing himself and getting his music heard that goes beyond The Mail on Sunday.

"On Aug. 1 he starts a string of no fewer than 21 sold-out arena concerts, 20,000 seats each, at the O2 (formerly the Millennium Dome) in London at the relatively low ticket price of ￡31.21, about US$64. The O2 ticket price also includes a copy of the album; Prince did the same thing with his tour for Musicology in 2004. Those Musicology albums were counted toward the pop charts, which then changed their rules; the Planet Earth albums will not be. But fans will have the record."

Link: http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2007/07/23/2003370986/print

Bob Lefsetz-Making it

Bob can be quit the prick at times but he really hits the nail right on the head more often than not. Check out his Op-Ed on "Making it".

"Success at this point is making a living making music and being able to continue to make said living. The major label hypes make a living for a year or two, but thereafter most go broke/mean nothing. Take that option if you want instant cash and want to use the fame to branch out into other areas, whether it be movies/TV or clothing or… But, if that game doesn’t fit you, because you and your music don’t fit, you’re on your own."

Link: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/2007/07/11/making-it/

The plunge of the Major Music Labels

This Article is a few months old now, but it's a good read.

"It's not the COPY - it's the ACCESS. It's not Prevention - it's Participation."

Link: http://www.futureofmusicbook.com/2007/05/the_plunge_of_t.html

Joe, I think many folks in the industry will appreciate all the points you raise in helpful and specific detail. I can't find a single thing in your commentary that I would disagree with.

- NASCAR [these guys are some of the smartest managers of a brand on the planet - too bad it's a private company];

- Prince [his is one smart musician who is already well-positioned with a global brand - see my comment about him at Darrell Deese's blog];

- Lefsetz [I read him everyday, he tells it like it is, gets the value of the long term build-up of brands and, importantly for me, teaches me how to use four-letter words without offending too much];

- Major Music Labels [well, you know what's going on there with problems of "Titanic" proportions - hope they make the trip safely home - talk about destroying brand values, hope the boards of directors are paying attention].

If I may put some gloss on your commentary to add-value beyond the points that speak for themselves, I'd like to talk a bit about two things, (1) sweat equity and (2) brand equity and how they relate to each other.

I have often said in my blogs [and you said it in spades here], even with the "free lunch" of a digital platform the "heavy lifting" still has to be done by the artists themselves. That was the problem of the old model fostered by the labels that gave promising artists the "candy" of large advances up front and then advised them: follow our directions and we will dress you up, write your songs, promote your stuff on radio, create your sexy videos, arrange your tours and "make you a star". A few of the smart ones survived all this, but most just ate the candy and asked for "more please". Good luck.

Artists have to create their own values step-by-step through their own "sweat equity". Nobody can do this for you, but those willing to do the work to build up their personal "brand equity" brick by brick [writing songs, gigging, absorbing, networking, doing whatever it takes and whatever works for you] can eventually build a structure that gives them the "food, shelter, and clothing" that everyone needs to survive.

To elevate this point beyond homily to provide more practical guidance, I would like to suggest that as artists are expending their "sweat equity" to carve out their place in the playing field of creativity [you can't be a NASCAR winner without working your way up the ladder] you should think of everything that you do as building up your special "brand" as a musician.

In business, there is a reason why one is allowed to book the "good will" of a brand as a balance sheet asset, but then at the same time you are required for good reason to amortize it on the income/expense statement and write it off over a defined period. The good will of a brand is an asset but it is a wasting asset and it must be replenished everyday just to stay where you are and you have to do even more to build up a brand as an asset. Developing, maintaining, and buidling up a brand [which is the artist's only stock in trade] is like paddling a canoe upstream. If you don't want to do it, just stop paddling and float downstream enjoying your candy until it all runs out and your stock in trade as a musician, or your brand equity, is written off the books of your life as a professional. Hey, many great musicians just enjoy playing and don't need or wish to make a living at it as a dedicated, full-time pro.

Thinking in terms of personal "brand-building" is far from "selling out". Even activist/poets, ala Dylan in the sixties and The Nightwatchman today, have to connect with their audience, otherwise you might as well just sing to yourself in the shower where everything always sounds good. Building a brand is establishing a poetic sensibility and persona so others can react to your stuff and you can grow with the feedback.

As I look at this site and see the musicians here struggling to get people to pay attention, I see that it is difficult and some upload some stuff and get no reaction and stop doing any "heavy lifting" to build up their "brand equity".

What is more encouraging, however, is to see that many others continue to work the site, keep adding to their profile, pull others to their page, because they "get it". They are expending the sweat equity to build up their brand step by step and don't worry about being seen as "selling out". These artists are the professionals that will make it to the winners' circle.

I fully appreciate that, notwithstanding the foregoing about building up one's "brand equity" step by step, it's still a struggle for artists just to make a living. Here is where I will raise a more controversial point that will, hopefully, rise above the level of homily, to help the cause.

It is my view that things can be done collectively, that is, more powerfully in the aggregate than at the individual level and the energy and power of the network as a whole, based on the dynamic interactivity of the individual nodes, follows a power law that is, for now, not predictable but will lead to explosive growth [for those who are interested, in complexity theory this is something that is sometimes described as a "self-emergent" phenomenon].

Bringing this back to its relevance to the hard life of the individual musician, who is always on the cusp of making a living with one's music but not quite getting there, I think the collective energy of all of you working together will create the buzz needed for the entire music ecosystem to "self-emerge" with a new dynamic that will permit those who can't quite make it to ride a powerful new wave with new economics operating "in the aggregate" to give them the financial return commensurate with the "sweat equity" [that uncool phrase again] that they expend.

When this collective dynamic takes hold, and it will on this platform, those who have had the enery and smarts, rather than assuming the artists' false disdain, to focus on building up their brand persona will be the ones most able to capture the pole postion in the [NASCAR] race that, to be honest, we all want to join and win according to our own fashion.

More feedback please. TCC

Wow, the intra-site link that Joe Shockley created on his blog page is fantastic! I wish I know how to just link back here to JS's specific blog on the point, so interested readers of either or both blogs could just toogle back and forth, read, and jump in wherever with whatever.

quote: TheCapitalClinic

quote: T-CUB

You need youth, talent, timing, honesty, energy, confidence, consistency and damn good, solid, honest mangement and music producers. In this environment you can't stop for a minute. Use this technology to it's finest.

I agree with everything you are saying...except the youth part.

My use of the word youth means that there certainly is more upside to a young performer. I have come to that realization and I'm better off for it. I'm not saying an older artist can't make it, but it's much more appealing to a youthful audience when the artist is of youth. Let's face it, I don't know of many new old dudes and gals that are willing to travel all over Hell to try and attract who??? No youths are going to be interested. To them it's like going to see their parents! Unless you're an older artist now, but already established at a younger age, ala: Prince, The Who, Paul McCartney, etc., it's a tough nut to crack!

I agree with Joe on his many points. It's an entire branding process of everything connected and having to do with the music and the artist. That takes a lot of energy.

I'm glad my women's designer perfume line launch is coming along extremely well. It will allow me to persue my music unfettered and unworried about it's commercial success. For that I am blessed as an entrepreneur. I been on my own at business for many years.

T-Cub, I agree with what you are saying about younguns attracting younguns. That's life.

Actually, I was just trying to add a little fun to spice up a serious subject by taking exception to the "youth" part of your statement of needing youth, etc. because I am probably one of the few people here that is old enough to have to have a "second chance" to create a revolution. Yours truly, "the old guy" :=)

This is a trial to link my blogs http://www.fuzz.com/fan/TheCapitalClinic/blog/This-is-a-trial-Just-a-technical-Poke

quote: TheCapitalClinic

This is a trial to link my blogs http://www.fuzz.com/fan/TheCapitalClinic/blog/This-is-a-trial-Just-a-technical-Poke

It worked! For other computer illiterates like me: It's just a simple copy and paste job of any URL you want to link to into the comment box and the system does the rest.

This is an elegant way to tie diverse content in your Fuzz universe intra-murally or externally with the non-Fuzz world [if such as thing exists after you get hooked here.] Fuzz rocks!

Great points here, especially about bands/artists that try for a moment and then give up if the payday doesn't come right away. This "payday" doesn't necessarily mean a million dollar signing bonus, a smaller deal with an indie or even fans puchasing a few songs. Every band has different milestones. Some bands just want to play at the venue they saw shows at when they were younger and a lot of times that goal is still out of reach.

Building up the sweat and brand equity is of paramount importance. There is no time to revel in your latest triumph because the next day your balance sheet depreciates and you need to add new equity in the form of self provided assets (ie: press) or new investors (ie: fans, label etc.). Unfortunately, a lot of artists will soak up the fact that they just got to open up for their friends band at the cool venue and lose their momentum.

Add to that theory the number of"haters" you will acquire along the way and the only logical conclusion is: if you want it, you have to invest the time and effort to achieve it. If your band doesn't take up a significant part of your life and time, you are not working hard enough to make yourself known and thus "branding" your "business". No A&R dude is waiting outside your rehearsal space in your Mom's basement to sign you. Sorry.

Just my thoughts...

-J