You Are Viewing Advice for musicians

Andy Gesner and Rob Fitzgerald are the two principals in the music video promotion company Hip Video Promo.  Andy was a musician who had been in and out of rock bands, created the Artists Amplification community and after doing similar video promotion work with other companies founded Hip Video Promo in 2001.  Rob came on board in 2006.  Hip video promo gets music videos played on music television shows across the country.  Hip works both for major label artists and independents.

Musician Coaching:

So give me a basic overview of your company and what you guys do.

RF:

Well, I deal a lot with the clients themselves in terms of getting all the assets together that we need to get out the door, like the masters and making sure everything is closed captioned, and that we have the proper photographs and bio information, one sheets prepared etc.  That in and of itself can be a hassle to people not familiar with the video.

Musician Coaching:

Mass mailing in multiple video formats has to be a nightmare for someone that doesn’t know the difference.

RF:

Exactly. And, well, it’s also really that technology has really changed the game a lot too. One of the things we have to keep up with is technology, because now we’re working a lot more with digital assets; things aren’t just coming in on beta tapes. There’s a lot of back and forth about how are we going to get the master delivered, how are we going to do this, get it dubbed properly, etc., etc. On that end, that’s a lot of what I do. And then we have another girl whose job is to make sure that the programmers are telling us what they’re doing with our videos. As a client, you certainly want to make sure that we’re sending the video out, but we need to be able to tell the clients who’s playing it. And if they’re not playing it, we need to know either why not or when they’re playing it. The thing with radio is, you have that centralized, universal chart that everyone reports to, whether it be CMJ, etc. You don’t really have that with video anymore. So it’s really up to the promoters to keep up with the individual programmers.

Musician Coaching:

Doesn’t Neilsen or someone one track this anymore? You have to figure out how many spins there are via word of mouth?

RF:

No. There’s no tracking service. There used to be the CVC Report, which did that. But that went under probably four or five years ago. Since then it’s really been up to the individual promoter to keep in touch with the programmers. With that being said, a lot of programmers we work with are very good at sending out their weekly tracking or their monthly or bi-monthly tracking. But there is definitely a certain element of being the heavy hand had that says, “We’re not going to be spending our clients’ money to make these dubs and send them to you if you’re not telling us what you’re using. We need to, aside from supply content to them, give information back to our clients. If we can’t do that, we can’t send you the video.”  Another member of our team is in charge of all the programmer intake and keeping track of address changes, what shows come on the air, what shows go off the air and also getting all the tracking into reports. And then we have a few other people on staff who prepare reports and ascertain all the playlists and get everything ready to go back to the client.

Musician Coaching:

I noticed you mention you’re including a bio in the package. Is this similar to radio promotion in that all these programmers are remarkably overwhelmed, and you really need to have some kind of story that’s interesting, in other words the biographical information for your artists and the product itself are going to do a lot of the sales work for you?

RF:

I think with any kind of promotion, one of the first questions a promoter is going to ask is, “What’s the story? What’s going on with this band?” So, yes, that’s a big part of it. We want to give them every reason, aside from, “Here’s a great video,” “Here’s what else is going on with this band. They’re doing really well with radio, they’re getting great press, they’re touring with so and so.” We also want to get them all that information. As far as them being overwhelmed, for some of them it is. What it is a lot – we were talking about technology before – technology has made it a much more affordable venture to make a music video. With digital and everything, you don’t need a film camera and you don’t need all this stuff to make a video. You can really edit it and shoot it. It doesn’t mean it’s going to be any good necessarily, but technology has made many more people of the opinion that they are music video directors.

Musician Coaching:

I have seen some videos that cost next to nothing that were better than some million dollar videos…

RF:

The thing we love, and one of the things we tell a lot of clients is, you don’t have to spend a lot of money to make a music video, but you have to have a good idea. That’s what kind of separates the men from the boys in music video world. No, you don’t have to spend a lot of money; but a lot of people don’t spend a lot of money and they’re trying to make their video look like they spent a lot of money. A good idea, a good concept, a good execution will embrace the fact that there wasn’t a lot of money spent on it. They’re not trying to make it look like they spent a lot of money on it; they’re trying to make it look like they have a cool concept. So, absolutely, you don’t have to spend a lot of money, but because you don’t, a lot of people that don’t have a good vision or the talent to make a good-looking video are still making videos. With the rise of something like YouTube, video has become a much more important component, whereas maybe six or seven years ago, people were saying, “Oh, MTV’s not playing as many videos. The video format is a dying breed.” Then all of a sudden you get your whole viral element, and video shoots back to the top of being a big priority for bands.

Musician Coaching:

Before we jump into digital, I notice that you guys are sending out a lot of physical different formats, but you’re actually sending something you can hold – a DVD or the various formats – to programmers across the board for terrestrial video outlets. Let’s say and artist made a video and they are looking to use this piece of their marketing toolkit to get them somewhere. Are there a lot of options for people like that to get test spins on different regional or niche video outlets offline?

AG:

I’ll take this one. I would have to say that going back to your question about bios and about presentation, we go to great lengths to present each artist in a way that is unlike a lot of other promotions companies where they might just take the band’s bio and maybe rehash it a little. For us it’s almost as if we’re the band’s team of lawyers and we’re going into the courtroom of indie rock music video opinion. We really have to give these people an intriguing, compelling reason to give these artists – of which many are very independent – programming consideration. What we’ve come to find is that whether it’s a bad like Spoon or Moby or the Gaslight Anthem, that you know are going to grab people’s attention because they are already a known quantity, we have hundreds of success stories of bands that were just flying under the radar but because the video was so incredibly outstanding, it more or less became the anchor of their marketing campaign moving forward.

These are the kinds of success stories that lead to tons of repeat business for us, because radio has really locked the indies out. Press is so expensive that even if you plunk down $5,000 or $8,000, who’s to say that anyone is going to actually write about you and write favorably? A compelling video and a video that really has an impact on viewers is going to definitely help an artist, especially independently, to really get to that next level so when they go out for the next record or the third record, they’re going to be in a situation where they’re a known quantity. There are so many stories like that where people are coming back because they got so much great feedback on the video that they realized, “Hey, people want to see it, they want to hear it.” The attention span of the normal American these days has become so small that they really want a full story, whether it be visual or audio or print so that they can make an informed decision.

RF:

One thing I’d add is that a lot of the programmers we service, on the terrestrial level, or even really on any level, have that independent mentality where they’re going to get the name bands, and obviously those are going to get on there because they’re established and well known but a lot of these guys are just looking for something they like.

Musician Coaching:

I guess my question is are there are still traditional terrestrial video outlets where a independent artist can get spun?

RF:

Yeah. Absolutely.

Musician Coaching:

Again, most people say, “Well, I want this on MTV,” but they don’t know. Fuse you get a little bit of a better shot. If you’re a gay artist, there’s Logo. If you’re a hard rock artist, I’m sure there are outlets like that. There’s Manhattan Neighborhood Network if you want to go really, really small. It’s just good to know that those are out there. Here’s a good question. Where should every artist, whether they can afford your services or not, be online? Is it going to YouTube or TubeMogul to kick it out to the major players? What would you say to someone that has no budget or blew their entire budget on making the video and now wants to get that video exposed?

RF:

The same thing I would say to a band that wants to do anything and doesn’t have the budget – do as much as you possibly can yourself. I’m sure you see it with A&R and stuff. The bands that get the furthest and accomplish the most are the ones that will never let anyone work harder for them than they will.

Musician Coaching:

I guess I meant specifically. Are there outlets where everyone should be? Who are the usual suspects?

RF:

Stuff like YouTube and a lot of those sites where you can upload it yourself and get it on there, there are tones of sties of that nature, whether it be YouTube, Yahoo, AOL etc. On our end, we don’t dive head-first into all the digital realms because that gets into a whole new world with viral marketing teams, and a lot of times when we get into a project with teams, we kind of overlap. They have someone that is more specific to the blogs and everything. We do work with places like AOL, Yahoo.

Musician Coaching:

Those services do have a programming staff is my understanding.

RF:

Right. And we work with sites like that where we feel that we can get them the video, and then we can also do more above and beyond just getting it on their site.

Musician Coaching:

And that’s a good question. Obviously relationships are always necessary, but are relationships the difference between getting spins on serious sites like that vs. maybe getting tested once?

RF:

I think first and foremost your product is the biggest thing. That’s the difference, which we try to stress a lot to bands: “Make sure you have something that you’re totally confident in.”

Musician Coaching:

I didn’t mean to make that sound so black and white. I guess, putting aside talent, and somebody who wrote a single as obvious as say Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy,” are relationships essential for getting regular rotation for something on those outlets in most cases?

RF:

I think in a lot of situations, it’s a huge benefit, because the guy who is giving your video to them can pick up the phone and get that guy on the phone and have a conversation about that, then your video has just gone to the top of that pile. He now has your video specifically written down on his to-do list for the day instead of it just blindly coming in and sitting in a pile of the other 50-some videos they got in that week.

AG:

One of the toughest parts of my job is, over nine years we’ve had to tell many, many potential clients, “My staff and I have watched your video. The song is good, the video is good, but we don’t feel comfortable moving forward with you.” Basically, I’m trying to say in the best possible way that, “You know what potential client? Don’t lead off with this video.” A lot of times they will say, “So you don’t think the video is that good?” I never tell them that the video isn’t that good. I say, “Look, in this world, you never get a second chance to make a first impression. And this video might not be the first impression. You might want to go back to the drawing board.” And sure enough in numerous instances we’ve had bands come back nine months or 14 months later and are really appreciative of us and say, “You saved us from ourselves. You didn’t just take our money.” I don’t want to take bands’ money if we don’t feel confident that the video is going to get them the exposure or the attention they deserve. With that being said, we’re selective on the videos that we promote to our programmers, but the programmer is always the first to say, “We appreciate that you guys always send us the best of the best.”

Musician Coaching:

It was the same for people who would pitch A&R executives – your reputation was everything. When somebody became known as a peddler of shit in the A&R community they couldn’t get a meeting or anybody on the phone.

AG:

You use that expression I use all the time here in the office. Nine years into this, and I still haven’t become a shit merchant. And there are a ton of them out there. Each year I travel the country and visit my programmers and I take them out to their favorite restaurant or we go out to their favorite night club, and I’ve done this tour every year. A month from now I’m going to start my eighth tour of the country visiting my programmers, and yes – the programmers love to be shown love. They’re the first ones to tell me, “Andy, when that Hip video package comes to us it always goes to the top of the pile because we know we’re going to get a ‘Place to Bury Strangers,’ we know we’re going to get ‘Smile, Smile,’ or we know we’re going to get the new Spoon video from you. Don’t you guys have the new Frightened Rabbit Coming up? I can’t wait to get that!” Of course, for a lot of these bands like Frightened Rabbit, when we first promoted them two years ago, nobody knew who the hell they were. The same thing happened with Grizzly Bear. The first time out with Grizzly Bear, it was “Grizzly who?” But when you come back a second time around, boy does it make your job a lot easier.

Musician Coaching:

Good to know.

RF:

Video is kind of like the weird, mysterious cousin in the promotion family. People don’t know how you do video. We definitely know there’s an element of uncertainty terms of what a video consists of.

Musician Coaching:

There’s a lot of this I certainly didn’t know.

AG:

Briefly, I wanted to mention that, whether it’s Jerry at JBTV in Chicago or Shirley at NY Noise in Manhattan or John Faulkner at Notes from the Underground in L.A., or Alternative Currents in Omaha, or Music Mix USA in Florida, these video shows have been around a long time and they really do have a rabid, loyal viewership. TV is a time-tested medium. People still want to sit in front of their TV and be fed it. Not everybody wants to go to the computer and search for it. With that being said, for  anyone that feels that terrestrial TV is going by the wayside, I beg to differ.

Musician Coaching:

Let me ask you this – of all the videos you get, is there a common mistake, either technically or quality wise or anything that you would have people avoid? You just mentioned your screening process is a bit intense. What are some mistakes you see from independent bands making videos? What are some things people should avoid when making a video.

RF:

Well, say they were going to send it to the local, regional channel the thing that a lot of people do – you know when you watch a video and you have your band name, the song title, the director and the label on the bottom left-hand corner? That’s called a Kyron.   That’s something that the programmer puts on and the channel puts on and the show puts on because a lot of times they have a custom-made thing. What we see a lot now is that the director will put it on themselves. So we get a video, and we can’t send a video as far up as an MTV or as low down as a local, regional show, because they want to put their own graphic on there. So if you send it out with s self made kyron (*** Note -no clue how to spell this but I’m sticking with my first attempt***) on there, nobody’s going to be able to touch it. That’s kind of a common thing. With urban videos, it’s a little more black and white, because more of the current trend in the hip hop world is to have the big, splashy graphic on top that says the band name and the song title. That’s okay, because that’s more a part of the video. That’s something that’s part of the video itself. But the white block letters in the bottom left-hand corner.

Musician Coaching:

The floating text in the first few seconds, yes.

RF:

A lot of times the programmer will get a video and they’ll like it, and they’ll say, “That’s great, but you need to send it to me without the kyron.” One thing to keep in mind is that a lot of programmers, if they do a regular show – a show that airs a couple times a week, maybe it’s an hour long – they want to be able to program a bunch of videos. Not that we ever want to compromise anybody’s musical or artistic integrity, but the longer the video is, the less of a chance you’re going to have at getting it programmed. Because if you send a video for a song that’s five-and-a-half minutes long, you might have a programmer say,  “Hey, I could get two videos in this span of time instead of this one video eating up five-and-a-half minutes of the programming.” Personally speaking, it seems too bad to me that there’s the mentality that every song or every single needs to be three-and-a-half minutes long because some of my favorite songs are four-and-one-half-minutes or five-minutes long, but again, I’m not making up the rules, I’m just going with the reality of what people are looking for and what gives the best chance of air play. And lastly, I’d say if you’re looking for television broadcast type airplay, don’t push your luck with potentially offensive material.  Even though the Internet has kind of desensitized people to what is acceptable and what is offensive and what is not, censors think differently. People like to push the envelope, and if you’re going viral with it, that’s great; but if you’re going to have bare breasts or gratuitous butt shots, a lot of people are not going to play it for that reason. And it’s not like I’m telling people what to do with their videos, but that is the feedback that comes back from censors.

Musician Coaching:

Suggestions for what not to do when trying to get your video aired are completely within the realm of the question. Andy, did you have something to add earlier?

AG:

We service over a dozen retail pools, better described as content providers. Whether it’s Club Com who gets the videos into fitness centers and gyms so that when you’re working out you can watch the cool new Spoon video, or if it’s Promo Only in Florida who provides their video reels to night clubs, night life locations, cruise ships, bowling alleys, or it’s DMX in Seattle, who hits all the major retailers in the malls you go to, or In-Store Sports Network who provide video content for Foot Locker and Foot Action …  they have to be cognizant of content, because they don’t want complaints coming back from customers saying, “Hey, I was in with my eleven-year old daughter, and that video had some salacious content.” Aside from the national outlets that will flag a video due to content, you’re also hurting yourself out there in content provider land, because you see videos everywhere you go. I go to my local oil change place, and they have videos playing in there. It’s all very much something bands should consider. If you want to get cute, like Rob says, or they want to get salacious, you’re going to be hurting your chances for exposure.

Musician Coaching:

Just one last question. Are there any parting words of advice for artists out there and their videos?

RF:

You never get a second chance to make a first impression, so if you’re going to send your video, make sure it’s something you’ve taken the time to be really proud of. That’s really the gist of it. You can understand that promotion and your team and your contacts can only go so far if you don’t have a good product to work with. Take the time to make it right.

Check out http://hipvideopromo.com for more info

A mentor once told me that being an entrepreneur is about separating the wheat from the chaff.  This should come as no surprise to you as a musician.  If you are reading this the odds are that you are a musician or work with musicians / are related to one.  The point is- if you run in these circles you know how much BS there is out there.  In my experience with both musicians and executives – hollow promises and lack of follow through are too common.  How does one find the services and strategic partners that are going to do what they say they will?

In this day and age – musicians have to be entrepreneurs.  Most people have to take a stab at doing everything themselves.  They have to do everything from being their own label, manager, booking agent and their very own online marketing guru.  This work comes after all of the effort that goes into making great products and self- branding.  It is understandably too much for people.  This is why they turn to outside help – and help is available out there.  As of the typing of this article, Google has 129 million results for “How to make it in the music industry.”  The digital age has made the outsourcing of solutions to what were major obstacles to musicians in the past rather easy to overcome.  For a nominal fee you can get digital distribution.  You can take a stab at your own website for free on sites like Blogger, Tumblr and WordPress or even upgrade to your own URL without knowing how to program for less than $75 / year.  There are music business coaches, online marketing services, radio independents and various other kinds of helpful services out there waving around their contact information just waiting on your call.  Today, musicians have the power and the reach to hire contractors.

Back to the problem though – who’s real?

What is this provider promising?  Does it sound to good to be true?  If so – it probably is.  There are lots of people out there who promise the moon for a low fee or a signature on a contract and they are really just preying on people’s hopes and dreams.   Below are some tips that can help you sort through both potential investments in your career and potential strategic partners

1.  First hand testimony

The first and best choice when thinking about making a purchase of services (or even just the investment of time into a new technology or social network) is the testimony of someone you know and trust.  If it is a large investment or decision I would look around for multiple opinions if possible.

2. Internet searches

Look at this person online.  Try searching for their name in quotes and their company name or their company name and the word “reviews”.  If you are really suspicious try their name and the word “lawsuit” If they have online profiles on social networks like LinkedIn see if what they say is reflected on their resume there and who they are connected to.  This is entertainment – there should be some references even if they are ones generated by the person in question that at least tells you they are wiling to go on public record with what they have told you.

3. References

Still have questions?  Try asking the provider or partner for some references from their other clients.  People unwilling to provide references are suspect to me.  You can also take it upon yourself to cold email someone who has used the service and see if they get back to you with their experiences

4. Presentation

Particularly when you are dealing with services that live online you should see if this person or company has a decent website.  It need not be fancy, it doesn’t have to be terribly flashy but it should be a decent representation of what they do and who they are.  No matter what kind of service or partner you are thinking of working with you want to be aligned with a person or an organization that communicates well.  If someone is using MySpace as a corporate website – that feels a great deal more insubstantial to me.  I would want to be with a person or a company that has made a commitment to their own branding before allowing them to be a part of mine.

5. Metrics

This one is my favorite.  Are you informed when you are surfing the web?  Most people are not.  If you have not done so install the Google page rank tool bar and the alexa page rank tool bar into your browsers.  These are both tools that give you a very rough idea of how important a site is in terms of traffic and how well they have been prepared for search engine optimization.  Google works on a scale of 0-10 and Alexa from 1 to twenty something million.  Neither one is a perfect barometer for web traffic but if you are approaching a web marketing company and they tell you about how great they are at online marketing and both toolbars come back “n/a” or “0″…. Move on.  These numbers are also important when determining whether or not it is worthwhile to invest time writing content for a site, participating in a new social network etc.  Having numbers on your side will definitely help you feel how real someone is – at least in terms of what they know / how much time they have invested into online marketing for their own brand.

Be careful out there.  I don’t want to make anyone paranoid.  There are a number of great people and services in music but sadly there are a few bad apples that make it worth mentioning.

I have a bunch of exciting interviews lined up and several just waiting for approval – thanks as always for reading.

-R-

Recently I was approached by an artist through my website that wanted me to listen to his music.  His pitch was that he had thousands of fans but just needed help “getting to the next level” with his music.  I was kind of perplexed by email because quite frankly if someone has thousands of real fans – they don’t need a music business consultant and they won’t have any problems getting a qualified manager and agent on board if they want them.  I did what most people would do – I turned to the web for answers.

A search for his band name yielded only a MySpace page and one reference on a blog that spoke about a show they were on with a dozen other groups.  I did get back to this guy but then again I am in the business of selling a service to musicians – not in the business of finding artists to partner with (Like a manager, agent, publisher etc).   Had I been a manager I think the email would probably not have been returned.

His email reminded me of two things that are amazingly important for all artists to keep in mind these days about their image and their business.

1. Don’t Bullshit because in the digital age you are going to get caught.
2. What comes back on your brand from a Search Engine Results Page (SERP) is more and more important every day.

I don’t think I have to elaborate on thought number one – we allegedly all learn not to lie in Kindergarten in spite of forgetting it now and then.   The second thought though, your web presence, is something you absolutely have to make a concerted effort at building and maintaining.

I often interview my music industry contacts to get their opinion on getting ahead in the music business pertaining to their niche in the industry.  Invariably these people all say the same thing.  “What gets my attention is when an artist demonstrates to me that they have built a following.”  The first place people look for signs of life in an artist’s career is online.  How many MySpace friends or followers on Twitter does the artist have?  Do they blog or vlog and do people comment and interact with them on these pages?  Has anyone written anything about the group or posted photos or video of them performing live?  Does their website or profile pages have signs of life and provide concrete examples that this artist has a community that supports what they do?  That last point is key – pure volume of friends on the social networks can be manipulated.  Making sure your fans have a place to interact and behave like a supportive community on the other hand can make all the difference in presenting well online.

Back to basics though, It all starts with what you tell the web to tell people about you.  Every artist should have his or her own website.  MySpace and Facebook are great tools but they are just tools.  Having your own website (and no – not a free one) has tons of advantages.

1. Your URL is one of the main things that determine how you rank for the words in your web address. i.e. – your band name.
2. With Google Analytics you can know for free how many people visit you – where they are coming from and what parts of your site they are most interested in.
3. You appear much more professional.  While not quantifiable appearances go a long way.

Your website is the place to host the official press shots, the official bio and the most current news about what is going on with your music.  Anyone who (hopefully) would write about you will be using your official page for reference materials so it is your job to provide them to people.  It is also your way of guiding people to visit you on the social networks and connecting with you there.  This won’t detract from your website but it will give people an excuse to have a connection with you in places that they are already frequenting.  Keep in mind that a website need not cost more than a few hundred dollars to do its job.  All it really needs to do is look professional and convey your information and store your media – that’s it.

Speaking of social networks…  Yes- they are a required evil.  That said – pick and choose your battles.  You do not have to be on every last one.  My personal favorites for music purposes are:

MySpace (because it is an industry standard and because it allows you to search users by what other artists they are fans of enabling you to effectively market to fans of similar music)

Facebook (because everyone I have met from the age of six on seems to be on there)

Twitter (because it is GREAT at driving traffic to things you want people to see)

LastFM (because it allows you to see what else people who visit your page were listening to)

You need not update these all the time – in fact you can have Facebook and Twitter connected as well as Myspace and Twitter connected.  You can also have every social network and your blog connected if you choose to do so through a free service like Ping.FM.

Having a website and a handful of social profiles is great but let’s also keep in mind that prospective partners want to see that there is a conversation taking place online – a dialogue between you and people who like your music.  The artists that seem to be the most versatile and the most enduring in the last few years are ones who have harnessed the power the web brings to make sure that there is two way communication.  Don’t get my wrong – start by just making sure you show up in search results!  That’s is absolutely essential and should be everyone’s step one but what will ultimately sell you to the music business is not that you have set up this virtual podium to address the world but what music business executives really want to see if a tangible demonstration that someone is listening.  If you are sending messages out into cyber space and you get 50-100 comments per post…  that’s a great performance indicator.  These are just examples – by all means be creative in how you interact.  I have seen everything from Twitter to Blogging, to podcasts to video notes from the tour bus really engage and build fanbases for artists.

I will be going back to interviews shortly.  Thanks for reading.

Rick

No interview today.  I apologize, I’m quite behind on interviews but I just wanted to write a bit about a disconnect I have been noticing with many of the musicians I know and have been working with in the last few months.  When you cold call someone who is the one of the gatekeepers to a musician’s success – what do you think their desk looks like?

What I’m about to say is pretty blunt and I apologize but let me spell is out for you- No one gives a damn about your band. I know, that’s awful and sure you can point to a bunch of fans but when it comes to people who are gatekeepers to success it is really one of the most true things I have ever typed.

Why is this? Well most gatekeepers (Club owners, booking agents, music managers, A&R executives, music supervisors etc) got into the business because they loved music. They came to be in whatever their position by being an assistant, some by starting some entrepreneurial venture and some by dumb luck.  Regardless of how they got there- as soon as they had spent several months or years in that position they began to listen to music in such large quantities that few of them are able to fully process and digest it.

People who filter large amounts of music are often overwhelmed with passionate people who can forget that said gatekeeper is running a business and has to make decisions based on the bottom line more than their love of music.  If the musicians they are talking to haven’t demonstrated that they can sell tickets or merchandise or albums – it is very rare that an executive will take a chance on an unknown commodity for love of the music alone.

Be aware of this when cold calling people – don’t take rejection personally. Dig through the people you know who have a relationship with the executive you are looking to contact and get referred. Make sure when you do this that the person referring you has a good relationship though otherwise you may be better off cold calling.  People respond to numbers.  You don’t want to call someone and try to convince them that your music sounds great – they’ve heard that far too often.  A much better tactic is to demonstrate that you have a viable product.  Something like – “We bring an average of x people to our shows” or “We sell x amount of tee shirts every night” or “We have gotten our music placed in these shows, films, commercials”.  With so much music out there it can really help to give people a tangible measure of your existing success to have them pause long enough to give your music a real in depth listen.

To this end your marketing materials are very important when reaching out to people who can help your career. They should be quick and to the point and highlight your achievements (no matter how humble) so they can get someone to pause long enough to live with your music.  I often find that artists tend to seek out lofty industry executives without having spent enough time trying to target and convert everyday people into fans.  It has been my experience that to get a gatekeeper to pay attention to a package that comes to them either unsolicited or from a chance meeting the best way is to provide them with proof (read: sales figures and statistics) that your music is viable to people who actually buy music, merch and tickets.

More soon,

Rick

Rachael Sage is a singer, songwriter and record label owner.  She has toured the U.S. and Europe and has been pursuing music professionally for more than a decade.

Music Consultant

Tell me how you got into the music business.

RS:

I’ve been doing music as long as I could walk. I had a piano in my house, and my parents, who were both tone deaf ironically, were wonderfully encouraging despite their lack of musical interest. It was there, and I made friends with it from the time I was about two. I just started sounding everything out that I could possibly get my ears on. I started writing songs when I was about four, just playing melodies, and then words came as soon as I figured out that songwriting was essentially understanding what other people are saying and doing – and that’s often of even greater interest than your own life. That’s how I’ve approached songwriting ever since. That’s kind of how fiction writers probably approach their craft as well. Everyone sort of assumes my songs are about myself because a lot of them are first person, but as a rule, I usually start from the perspective of other people around me; then I realize how similar we all are…

As far as the label, that is a much more recent evolution. I started when I was a couple years out of college, and I had absorbed a lot of the West Coast music scene. Prior to that, I’d just been your typical “triple threat” – dancer, singer, actress – growing up. I went on auditions, I did local theater, I was a ballerina. I loved to perform, and anytime anything was suggested to me as an opportunity performance wise, I just went after it; I had that drive. Business wise, I had an epiphany when I was out there at Stanford and realized the kind of music I found myself wanting to make in my 20’s was a heck of a lot different than what I was doing in my teens, when it seemed like the doors were going to fling open if I wrote that extremely commercial Top 40 hit for myself or someone else, in terms of publishing.

Music Consultant

You were skewing towards writing for commercial success initially?

RS:

In my teens, definitely. It was really natural to me. It wasn’t really a conscious choice. I just grew up listening to every format of radio and just being a typical kid in that sense of loving all types of music, listening to my parents’ music, listening to classical, listening to the radio; but at the end of the day, I was writing really hooky poppy tunes that put me in that world a little bit more in terms of my headspace. And then when I went to college – it’s sort of the cliché – but it was when I really figured out who I am and what my own leanings really were as far as what I wanted to say in my lyrics. I heard all kinds of great music on the West Coast like Ani DiFranco and a lot of local folk artists in the Bay Area, and it was just a revelation of what music could be for me. I guess in a nutshell I realized that it was going to be a lot more challenging to get that proverbial meeting with that big-shot manager or record label person or any of the number of people who were already in my Rolodex by the time I went off to college, being a New York ambitious singer/songwriter kid. None of that world really related anymore to what I was doing. I stated to wrack my brain on how I could get my music out there and what I could do to just create my own opportunities.

Music Consultant

When the Digital Age dawned, you were already sort of doing the DIY thing.

RS:

My first big, bold move personally was I put together a record, but I wasn’t necessarily thinking about it that way yet. It was my first “no apologies” demo. I’d been working on that for years. I’d made demos since I was twelve, but this was one where I thought, “Okay, I’ve got ten or eleven songs here that not only am I excited to drop off at the Bitter End to get my first gig there, but I also would send this to my own idols. This is something that is me and is reflective of me.” That took several years, but I’d say that was probably 1996, and that eventually became my first record, Morbid Romantic. My acting training came in handy immediately as soon as I started re-approaching how to market myself in a way that didn’t necessarily fall in line with any of my previous industry sensibility. I started realizing that no one knew I didn’t have two interns and a manager and a lawyer; I could just present myself to the wider world as though all of that were in place and I had representation of some kind. I’d long known that was the key to getting anyone on the other side of the fence to give you any kind of advice. People have always been reluctant to talk to the artist. It’s different now, but back then that was very much the case.

Music Consultant

The industry side of things has been considerably humbled, and rightfully so. You were a New Yorker, you went out to the Bay Area, you moved back to New York after college. Tell me about the process of saying, “I’m going to do this full time.” How did you go about the process of making music your living?

RS:

I think as with almost anything in life it was a good deal about doing everything I possibly could to put myself out there to the point of obsession on a daily basis, ritualistically, and then also when certain doors opened and there was a bit of luck involved, I just made sure I was ready. A good example of that was I had already been living in New York a couple years and putting myself out there. I studied theater at the Public Theater and then randomly one of my packages that I sent out to one of my favorite artists Ani DiFranco elicited a very positive response. By that point I’d already played a bunch of gigs in New York, but I hadn’t really toured. I’d played a bunch of universities, but I didn’t really know what touring was all about. But I had already been making my living professionally as a musician of sorts. I was writing jingles and doing jingle singing and voiceover work for a number of different music houses all over the city.

Music Consultant

How did you network your way into jingles?

RS:

I think today it would be a lot harder, though it’s not impossible.

Music Consultant

It wasn’t cool in the 90’s to do jingles. You got snarky comments back then if you were doing Coke commercials.

RS:

It ties into the idea of putting yourself out there and not being precious about it. The fact that twice a month I was playing shows at the Bitter End and twice a month I was at the Sidewalk Café doing open mics and sending out packages as though they were written by my manager/agent, virtually every day of the week made that possible.

Music Consultant

What was your manager’s name?

RS:

My (fake) “manager”’s name was Jen Cohen, and she was a friend of mine that I met through a charity that I was involved with called the Kristin Ann Carr Fund…basically I got permission from a good friend to stick her name all over my stuff to pretend to represent myself. Eventually she actually decided to go into music.

Music Consultant

My fictional manager was Jerry. He was on my answering machine.

RS:

You know all about that then. You just adjust your voice slightly, put on glasses when you bring your own CD’s to consignment down at Tower Records. I think the first opportunity I got doing jingles, I was already kind of out and about on the singer/songwriter scene and I got a phone call from a producer to whom I’d given my tape hoping and praying he’d want to work with me in an artistic way as a singer/songwriter. Because everyone is paying their rent somehow in New York City, I was completely naïve to the fact that this very well known, platinum level producer did jingles to supplement his own living. That was my first opening – this fellow Frank Aversa who produced the Spin Doctors and a number of other bands. He called me up and said, “Hey, this is Frank Aversa, and I’m wondering if you’re available to come in tomorrow to sing on a jingle and maybe even write one because I’m busy and I like your melodies. Give me a call. Thanks.” And I said, “What is that?” I had no idea what he meant or what that would entail, and it was a trip.

I guess I’d set the stage years prior in my teens, because I’d met the son of a very successful jingle writer in a taxi cab coming back from ballet. This young kid invited me over to dinner, just a totally innocent thing. We hit it off in a taxi, and he invited me over to write a jingle. So when I was sixteen I had written a jingle for Michelob with this kid who lived near me. I made friends with this guy and we sort of practiced and would compare and program drum machines, and he had a home studio…but I’d long forgotten about that.

Things can come full circle when you least expect it. I think one thing that worked in my favor is that I tried to not have a lot of rules about how I wanted my career in music to unfold, but I always kept my eye on my ultimate goal, which was to support myself doing music – and eventually that shifted into wanting to be a full-time touring artist; but I didn’t even really know that until I went out on the road with Ani DiFranco.

Music Consultant

I’m guessing Ani was a big inspiration for you picking up the DIY thing, as she’s one of the pioneers of the whole “I don’t need a label” thing. But catch me up to date. What do you make your living doing? Are you building new markets, releasing new albums, sync licenses, jingles? How to you stay afloat? 

RS:

All of the above. I’ve run a record label for over ten years – MPress Records. It’s evolved slowly from sort of a Wizard of Oz behind the curtain kind of representation for my own work to a fully-functioning, small staff, in an office in New York and we also have other artists and put out compilations. At this point we have a 15-album catalogue, and it’s licensed in the U.S. and all over the world – in the UK and Europe, and we’re working out new locations as well. There are the traditional record sales, which have greatly shifted towards digital, but the majority of our sales still are physical actually. That’s changing incredibly rapidly as everybody knows.

Personally, as an artist I’m basically doing what I’d be doing anyway if I hadn’t ever incorporated or started a label, or decided to go that route business wise – my own ‘dance card’ is always very full. For at least six or seven years, I’ve played as many as 200 shows per year consistently, whether or not I had a new album out in a given year. That model really directly takes inspiration from Ani DiFranco.

Music Consultant How did you get people to take you seriously?

RS:

I can tell you exactly how I started doing that. I opened for Ani DiFranco in 1998, it was a huge opportunity to reach out to media in a way that would’ve perhaps taken me another year or two or three. It was really a wonderful gift, and I just really ‘worked it’. I reached out to every possible regional press outlet, every gig I did with her. And then when I played for her fans I made sure I was ready with my mailing list and wrote follow ups to every single person I met on that tour. Shortly thereafter I auditioned for Lilith Fair, and I won that contest and ended up opening for the last year of Lilith Fair in 1999 at the PNC Bank Arts Center. Those were lucky things, that later prompted me to ask, “Why wouldn’t college radio want to play me just because I’m not on a major label?” or “Why wouldn’t I be able to start booking college gigs for a reasonable amount of money even though I don’t have a manager?” And I took those ideas and put them on paper and went to Tower Records and just presented myself in this way – the local gal that has done these particular things – and just started to slowly build my resume. In 1998 I had a similar thing happen. Someone called me out of the blue from an independent distribution company and asked if I’d like to be on their roster. He told me all I needed to do was get a Fax machine, learn how to fill out a one-sheet for retail, and try to play in- stores along my tours – all this stuff that I then immersed myself in and starting learning right away. Am I answering the question?

Music Consultant

It all answers the question, and frankly there is no one right way to answer any of these questions…

RS:

Basically, at the exact time that that happened, I’d also sent my album to 200 college radio stations. It charted really well, but I didn’t have a radio promoter – I was doing the ‘pretending to be someone else’ thing. I made sure that I only targeted stations that were also playing kindred artists like Jewel and Ani and Sheryl Crow. Having that feedback and being able say I was being played with these artists didn’t pay my rent at that point, but it allowed me to start getting my discs into retailers and keep getting bigger and better gigs and then get a college agent. It was kind of a natural progression that way.

Music Consultant

Tell me on a very specific level, you were starting out and going into a new market you’d never been into and cold called a promoter. What did you say that convinced them to give you a gig and how did you get anyone to show up?

RS:

I didn’t cold call promoters almost ever until many years later. I really was stuck in the New York scene, in the showcase bubble of paying to play, because you’re paying your local musicians to show up and back you up and you’re hoping that lawyer or that label will show up. I did that for a long time and I spun my wheels, and it was really depressing for me. I almost hit a wall with it where even after a year I thought, “Maybe I’ll just do acting even more and do this every once in a while, because it’s not a living, and I don’t know when my break is going to come.” That was exactly the point I was at when the album I’d finished that I mentioned started to bear fruit. One of those was Ani, one of them later on was Lilith Fair. Those two particular things that I was able to get early on were my calling card.

Music Consultant

So that was what you put into the pitch, “Hi, I’m Rachael Sage, I recently opened up for Ani DiFranco and was on the Lilith Fair stage.”

RS:

It was never first person, but yeah. It was always someone else representing me, amusingly. I think it could’ve been first person, but I was too insecure about what the reaction might be, because I also came from the world of acting, where if you don’t have an agent calling to represent you, there’s no way someone’s going to take your call. If it was in writing or even on the phone sometimes, I was often someone else, and then when I showed up I made sure I was as conscientious as I possibly could be. I’d say 90% of the time within the first couple years I started doing those concentric circles people talk about – of touring outside your home base – I was opening for someone else. That was really strategic, because I didn’t want the pressure of totally letting down a promoter or a venue because I only had five people there.

Music Consultant

Those opening slots were …

RS: Much smaller than Ani. I did that and said, “Okay, that was an incredible growing experience for me as an artist and it blew my mind, and I played for huge audiences.” But then I came back, and no one cared.

Music Consultant

But getting those openers was a networking thing?

RS: No, not at all. It was purely going out on a limb and pitching, and keeping track of who was playing where, sending out a steady stream of pitches and always trying to think of it from the other person’s perspective, which is something that a decade later is what caught my eye with the artist that we recently signed to MPress – Seth Glier – who approached us about a year ago in a similar fashion. He’s fantastic, and he pitched to open for me at a venue in New Hampshire. His pitch was so specific and honest about exactly how many people he could draw, why he’d make a good opener in that setting, what about his music really fit with mine, what some of his recent accolades had been. It was presented so professionally – he was 19 at the time – and it definitely reminded me of where my head was at when I was his age and putting myself out there. A lot of that probably just comes from growing up in the performing arts and having a drive to do it so badly that you’re unable to see the likelihood that someone will throw your package in the garbage or delete your e-mail. It’s kind of a singular vision. I’ve tried to always have that every step of the way. After I opened for very big people I was often then playing regionally in teeny, tiny little coffee houses and occasionally I still am. It’s something you have to get used to very early on. You’re never going to necessarily be doing all one kind of thing. I ended up touring a couple years after that opening for Eric Burdon and the Animals for two summers, and they were amazing shows, promoted on our behalf without us barely even doing anything. And because I was an opener, and I was playing these towns all over Germany and Austria where I’d never been and didn’t have a following, it was just an incredible opportunity to try to learn, to get a million cards, to figure out how to get back there if I didn’t have this gig next time, to figure out what the small coffee house was in every town I played, or the big festival…knowing full well the next time I played if I wasn’t with Eric, that would be the only way I could perform. That’s how I’ve tried to approach it all along. It’s about looking at every single gig as an opportunity to get people on the mailing list, connect with an audience and figure out what I can do that will help me stand out as a performer.

Music Consultant

Let’s go quickly through online tools. Which do you use, which have you found helpful and why?

RS:

In the past year or two Facebook has become an amazing tool for us. I was initially dubious about it and had been a MySpace girl for years, and had worked diligently until the wee hours or when I had ten or 15 minutes between doing other things, trying to ‘friend’ as many people as possible so when I would issue a press release or an invite it went as widely as it could. Someone who actually worked with me in my office was pressing me to have a more proactive presence on Facebook, and she saw way ahead of me. Her name is Jill Sharpe and she’s our New Media person at MPress. She saw exactly where it was going and how it could be a great tool. I think what’s so much better about it at this point is that it does allow you to connect with fans in such a personal way. It’s the complete opposite of any scenario where you have to present yourself in some uber-pro way. People want to know about every little thing you’re doing in a way that’s bringing them closer to you. Twitter is also a huge tool for us. It’s just so immediate. You don’t have to over-think it, and it’s a natural extension of what you are doing and who you are as an artist. It doesn’t really require the same kind of reflection as a lot of the other media that we still rely on – traditional press, radio, retail. For instance, yesterday I was in the studio, and I wanted some feedback on something and just Facebooked it and tweeted it and instantly had dozens of people giving me their take on it. You don’t even have to pick up the phone anymore. It’s pretty amazing. Of course we use it to spread the word about all my shows – even those that are scheduled at the very last minute. That’s not a liability anymore. Now it’s a great thing – sort of like a secret last-minute show.

Music Consultant

And I assume because you’re good with people you don’t use it exclusively for self promotion.

RS:

No. We did a bunch of outreach in terms of local press for a show I had a couple weeks ago at Joe’s Pub. It’s always a bit of a crap shoot, but you try to cover your bases. We reached out to all the regular outlets, from Time Out to the Daily News and New York Press. I think the two worlds now have collided to the point where writers who are do coverage for those outlets may be reading up about you on Twitter and Facebook. They might be checking out if you’re in touch or out of touch, how many friends do you have, but moreover are you effectively keeping in touch with your own community? I think those are things that make traditional press want to embrace an artist more because they add to your overall profile as an artist and your accessibility.

I think writers now don’t approach artists that much differently from fans. They still want to get to know you in that personal way without that much of an effort. We had a really great experience after this last show I did where we were active on the social networks promoting a gig in New York, and it sold out. We were sort of left afterwards saying, “Wow. All that work paid off, of not only doing one thing, but being proactive online and issuing press releases to blogs and online websites and listings and traditional press and also Facebook, MySpace, Twitter.” It’s all become very important now. If I could just do one thing, I could find more time to work on my music. But I definitely haven’t found that one thing yet!

Music Consultant

I think it’s more of a global problem in this economy. Where we had one job, we now have fifteen. The music business has just been underwater longer than the rest of the world. If I could just ask you one thing that you wished you knew starting out that you’ve come to learn, what would that be?

RS:

I can’t really say I didn’t know how much dedication it would require, how hard you have to work and how much you have to believe in yourself. Those were all things I thankfully knew. They weren’t a shock. One thing I don’t think I realized was how important it is to play a lot when you’re first starting. I had the grand illusion like many people do when they first start that something bad will happen if you overexpose yourself or play more than one or two gigs a month in your hometown. That’s going to come back to haunt you, or that somehow the approach should be more rarified. If I could do it again, I’d probably get a regular weekly gig immediately, at some hole-in-the-wall dive where I could just play, and play, and play. The bottom line is, until you work out all those kinks in what you do and learn to connect with an audience in a really meaningful way consistently, it doesn’t matter what else you’re doing. You’re getting good practice marketing yourself, but you’re not going to make that connection. I wouldn’t say I spent many years figuring that out, but I think a lot of young people today are being instilled with that value very early on, and I think it’s awesome. I think people aren’t as precious about it. But there’s a certain humility you have when you realize how many people make music, how many people are damn good at it, and what it comes down to is the work. I don’t think that’s something I really realized in the beginning.

www.rachaelsage.com • www.facebook.com/rachaelsage • www.mpressrecords.com

Jared Lee Gosselin is a producer and writer who has worked with several successful artists including Macy Gray, India.Arie, Keyshia Cole Floetry, Young Jeezy, Jordin Sparks, Brooke Hogan and D12.  He is also a member of a trio called Almost September with MC Lyte.  Their self titled E.P.  is scheduled released through Sony in the not too distant future.

Musician Coaching:

Tell me about how you got into the business and became a producer?

JLG:

When I started I was working for Barrett Strong and Robert Bateman, the old Motown guys in Detroit. Strong wrote “I Heard it Through the Grapevine” and was involved in all the old Marvin Gaye hits. When I was working with them I ended up working with this guy who was a drug dealer. He was part of Y.B.I. in Detroit. And he was bringing in a lot of artists like Juvenile and Young Buck during 1999-2000 before any of that stuff was popular. Juvenile had a group called UTP.  I was recording them around that time.

Musician Coaching:

So, you started as an assistant engineer for these guys at Motown?

JLG:

Yes. I started out as an engineer.

Musician Coaching:

How’d you get that gig?

JLG:

I went through the Recording Institute of Detroit, and the guy that I was learning underneath as a teacher set it up for me.

Musician Coaching:

That’s great, and it sounds like you made the most of it while you were there.

JLG:

Yes. So, while I was there  I was also working with this dude, and he was bringing in all these acts, and I was running the studio and working with all these big rap artists. I ended up linking up with Proof and Obie Trice and all the guys from D12 and Slum Village and MC Greed. Basically I started out and was engineering and mixing everything. Being around all these different producers, it fell to me to fix their productions. I’d get tracks from other producers and would always have to go and change the drums, replay samples if there were samples in it – stuff like that. That’s how I got into production, because I thought, “I am already doing engineering – I might as well take it to the next level.”

Musician Coaching:

You’ve done a ton of work with Macy Gray.  Was she the first artist you worked with when you struck out on your own?

JLG:

Actually I was working with this girl Dina Ray. She sung on a lot of Eminem’s stuff and sung on Eminem’s record and she got a deal through Universal. When she got a deal through Universal, she brought me out to L.A. This was probably eight years ago. We were working on her album, and when I was out here I ended up hooking up with another writer named Philip White, and him and I started working together, and basically started getting R&B cuts. We did some stuff with Jo-Jo and India Arie. That’s when I did the Floetry stuff. When I produced the Floetry stuff I was signed to Troy Carter, who had a management group when Sanctuary and Matthew Knowles brought all those managers into Sanctuary. So I was underneath that umbrella for a while. He got us on a bunch of records. He got us on Floetry, he got us with Brooke Hogan.

Musician Coaching:

It sounds like you can work with a lot of different successful artists. How would an aspiring artist get your attention?  What do you look for?

JLG:

For me, it’s the drive of the artist, and the chemistry you have with them in the studio. If it’s a new artist, and the energy is crazy, they have a lot of creativity and it’s an easy thing – you go in there and work and it happens.

Musician Coaching:

What makes you go ahead and listen if someone hands you a demo in a club?

JLG:

To be honest, sometimes I don’t listen and sometimes I do. It really just depends on who gave it to me. In L.A., there are people walking the streets handing out CD’s. It gets to a point where they don’t even know if I’m a producer or anything. They’re outside stores handing out CD’s, trying to get their name out here on the streets. A lot of times I don’t pay attention to that. I’d pay a lot more attention if it were from a colleague or somebody that I know that says, “Hey, I have this artist that has a lot of potential, but they just need some good songs,” or “They have a great voice and just need to develop a little more.” Mostly the people that I know bring things to the table. I look also, but there’s so much stuff out there to weed through, it’s kind of crazy.

I am open to listening to stuff.  Some people they try to shove it down your throat, and you just want to say, “Calm down.” Everyone wants to get on, and you have to have that hunger, but sometimes it’s a little overwhelming and you say, “That’s enough. Calm down.” The music should speak for itself.

Musician Coaching:

You do the artist thing yourself.  Tell me about that project…

JLG:

Actually, I have a project over in Europe that is me and MC Lyte and my partner Whitey. I’m rapping and doing the production and DJ’ing. It’s only in Germany and in Switzerland. You can download it on iTunes. I’ve done some tours and stuff over there. It’s cool, but it’s not really what I’m trying to do. I’m really more interested in the production aspect and running a label and having my own roster of artists and putting out projects and artists.

Musician Coaching:

What kind of advice would you give someone if they were looking for a producer? I’m guessing you have the latitude right now to pick and choose what you want to work on at this stage. What advice would you give someone looking to work with people of quality?

JLG:

I think a story is important for an artist.  I’m always open to working with new artists, but I think it’s about getting to know people. Music is an intimate thing when you work with somebody. Most of the people I work with I’ve been friends with for a long time. Even with new artists, before I work with them I have to get to know them and hang out with them a little bit and really see their vibe and how they are and what their style is and how they portray themselves. That’s how you’re going to create the best type of music for them – by knowing them – not just giving them a song and saying, “Okay, this is the song you’re going to sing.” Sometimes it’s not that person.

Musician Coaching:

What are you seeing these days that’s getting deals in Hip Hop? How does one go about getting a deal in that genre these days?

JLG:

I’ve actually not been doing as much Hip Hop lately. I’ve been doing more R&B and pop music. I think as far as for a rapper it’s really important to go out there and do your mix tapes and get your name out there on the streets, meet with the DJ’s at the clubs and get them to play your records, build a following, do a viral thing. Go online and build a presence. The whole thing is building a presence and a brand. If you have a presence and a brand, you have something that’s tangible out there on the streets and people know you and respect you, people will probably come to you. A lot of people say, “I’ve got these songs, and I’m going to go get a record deal.” It’s not going to happen. The labels now want something that is arty and out and doing something, selling some units. They want someone to have a couple songs out there and for DJ’s to be behind them. Doing all that legwork for an urban or rap act is important.

There’s a really good friend of mine, a DJ who worked at Jive for 15 years. This dude takes these rappers, takes them to all the hoods in L.A. – he does west coast radio promotion – introduces them to people, they hand out their CD’s and hang out with people, go to the barber shops and clothing stores and make those relationships. They are out there creating a presence so people out there in the streets know about them. If you’re doing a rap project and people in the streets don’t know about you, they’re going to say, “Well, who is this dude?” They’re not even going to really accept it.

Musician Coaching:

How much of it has to do with the company you keep – the other artists who can show up on your record, etc.?

JLG:

I think that has something to do with it. It always helps because you can tap into another artist’s fan base and you can cross promote it.  I think that is always a good thing.

Musician Coaching:

Do you have any other general advice for others – stuff that has or hasn’t worked for you or other artists – that you might want to impart?

JLG:

I think it is writing great songs and great material. I did a Latin album last year, and the kid had been writing songs for years. I literally went through about 200 songs until we picked the songs that we were actually going to produce. When you have a creative person or you are a creative person and you are just writing and writing – even if it’s just a rough or a reference, you playing guitar and singing recorded with Garage Band. Build up a catalogue of songs so when you get with a producer you can say, “These are the great songs we need to produce,” or “This is a song we need to do.” I think it’s really just about having great material and having great songs.

Musician Coaching:

You think people should definitely work on having a catalogue before even approaching a producer?

JLG:

Yeah. I think so. I think it’s important to have material written and have stuff ready to go so you can go in there and build the music around the songs that they have written or just produce the music on the songs. It makes it much easier. A real artist is constantly writing and creating songs. Recording is just taking what someone has done and making it the best it can possibly be.

Musician Coaching:

How should somebody identify a producer to work with?

JLG:

It depends on the sound they want. If they want a grimy sound or an R&B sound or a rock sound, whatever. I think it’s finding somebody that has that craft mastered.

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Check out What Jared is up to, what tracks he has available.  Those interested in working with Jared can contact his manager Dan Colucci at luccientertainment@comcast.net

I got an email from my friend Cameron Mizell who runs the site MusicianWages.com recently.  He told me Musician Wages was going to be doing a blogging blitz where lots of folks who blog about the music business would write about the topic “If you could go back to 1999 and give yourself one piece of advice, what would it be?”

That skinny kid framed by Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun and Jason Flom, then the President of Lava / Atlantic was me in 1999.  I was an A&R representative at Lava at the time.  Although it wasn’t really that long ago it was quite along time ago in terms of what has changed in music and business.

If I recall correctly:

• The Matrix came out that year.
• The swing music revival was just about at its peak.
• Something called Napster showed up.
• Cher’s “Believe” introduced most people to auto-tune
• No Itunes – no Ipod.

It was slightly later – in early 2000 when the Camp Chaos video went viral – at least in the circles I traveled in at the time.  I never thought that piracy and file sharing would have been so rampant.  I remember thinking this video was funny…I guess it still is in a much darker way.  I can’t say exactly why but it reminds me of that time period a great deal.

That’s more than enough of a stroll down memory lane though.  The question at hand?  What one piece of advice would I give myself?  Other than the suggestion to my mid twenties self that spending a majority of my disposable income in bars was probably not an advisable plan for the future I suppose I would really want to convey to myself the importance of being patient, persistent and consistent.

By nature I’m a pretty black and white thinker.  I have a very addictive personality and patience has never been one of my strengths.  This combination of traits have made for more challenges than I could possibly describe in a blog post.  Thankfully, I have started to find ways around this and forced myself to find some semblance of a normal pace with my work and my life.  It has taken ten years of looking at my life and the lives and careers of my friends and peers to realize that those who never strayed from their goals and found ways of working towards them slow and steady seemed to be the people who have made the most impact.

Patience, Persistence & Consistency.  I have no significant regrets in my life.  In truth I find myself more regretful about the things I didn’t do than the things I did.  I believe that trying my hand at many different jobs and careers was a requirement to help me figure out what I did and didn’t want to do but if only I could hop in to a Delorean and pay my 1999 self a visit I would just try and explain that what I have seen and experienced in the last ten years leads me to believe that there aren’t any shortcuts (at least not ones that tend to last) and that people who become great at whatever they do tend not to chase their goals at an unmanageable pace.  People who become great never seem to take their eyes off of their goals and make small strides as often as they can.  If I could speak to the guy I was in 1999 I would try to explain that just because something I tried to master didn’t happen for me quickly did not mean that it was not worth pursuing… It just meant it was going to take a while longer than I wanted it to.

I don’t really feel the need to translate that into what that means for a musician or a music executive except to say “stick with it” whatever “it” is.  I have been asked  few times throughout my life what I would pay to live the life I wanted to live and my response has never wavered – “any amount of money”.

Happy New Year all…

-Rick-

I get roughly 4-5 show invites per day.  Come see my band play, come see me spin- stick around for our friend’s band.  It’s funny too because realistically I don’t actively socialize with a large group of people, nor do I go out as regularly as I did as a younger man so if I’m getting 4-5 invites per day I can only imagine what it is like for people who are a much better target as a potential audience member.

I must admit I delete a fair amount of FaceBook event invites and E-vites and emails after only skimming them.  It is very rare that I get an email that stands out- I’m over-saturated as I’m sure most people are in this day and age.

I recently got an email that was forwarded to me by a friend of mine and had I not had any plans to be elsewhere that evening I would have showed up and that is very rare for me especially when the event is featuring an artist or DJ I am not familiar with…

He wrote:

Friends etc.,

An untimely grease fire at the workplace has left me temporarily unemployed. You can imagine all the snivelling phone calls I’ve been making to everyone I know who might have the power to get me any kind of paying Disc Jockey gig. One such call has resulted in my return, tomorrow (Friday) evening, to the venue where the string of disappointments that is my New York City DJ “career” was launched, way back in the roaring nineties.

Come by after work, if any of you still have a job. I will be there playing rock & roll records, if I can figure out how to undo whatever the DJ from the night before did to all the plugs in order to hook up his or her computer software. Alcoholic beverages will be served, gently separating you from your money. As a bonus, the anthropologically inclined among you will get a rare opportunity to make field observations of our modern craven capitalist society at its absolute worst: Ludlow Street on a Friday night, 2009.

Come support me as I make every effort to befuddle the kids who will be running the world when we are old and helpless!

Motor City Bar, 127 Ludlow Street on the Lower East Side, Friday December 4th from 7 to 11 PM…

The gravy on top of the sundae: When I am done, Messrs Larry and Suke of Born Loose/Candysnatchers take over on the turntables. It could end up being the most Three Stooges-esque DJ changeover in history.

Thank You,

Matt

Call me crazy – I figured that the event would be a good time because I got the sense that the author who I have never met (save to ask his permission to re-post his invite) would be having a good time. I am not suggesting anyone copy the style of this letter but rather be made aware that personality can still get through to people even in an email. I was also inspired by the fact that sometimes reality is the best pitch there is…
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More soon,

R