Category: Music business

One of the major challenges for many musicians is to balance time and money in music to maintain predictable income. I have often blogged about the hyped expectations created in music colleges and with online talent shows. Yes, these can inspire aspiring artists to follow a path in music, but often the expectations are at least ambitious and often totally delusional.

Of course professional musicians know this only too well and the need to maintain this tricky balance and its not an easy task. The same challenge exists for authors. Many expect to be the next JK Rowling, failing to realise that that’s pretty unlikely. I’m lucky to be able to fund all music projects from other unrelated work and this gives me total independence in what I do. My other work across USA, Asia and Europe has taken 12 years to develop and an enormous amount of focussed work and networking. I would hate the idea of having to shift X amount of products or merch in order to pay the monthly mortgage or buy food for the cats. This is exactly why many aspiring and professional musicians maintain different income streams to balance the books.

Predictable Income

I remember reading back in the 1970s that Tom Verlaine when releasing his classic Television Marquee Moon album, still worked part time in the local bookstore. Many working musicians also teach privately knowing the importance of diverse income streams in this uncertain economic times and god only knows what will happen in the UK post brexit. That said, there are still opportunities to generate income and smart thinking artists appreciate that monies are no longer going to come from physical products as in days gone by.

I was talking to Tim Booth, lead singer for the band James at one of our regular 1990s Leeds United football match meet ups, about how they made way more money from merch than from music. Twenty five years later we discussed the changing world of the music business. This gave me a whole new insight into “the music business” and why I would never want a record contract and/or to work for a record company. It all looks so glamorous from the outside, but those working as professionals know just how much work is required to earn even a reasonable living.

Self Funding?

I’m a big fan of self funding and literally putting my money where my mouth is. At times it reminds me of an old Blackadder joke –

“I feel like a penguin, everywhere I look there’s a bill in front of me!”

I’ve never used Kickstarter or similar fan funding platforms, and artists have had variable experiences. A local music college gives the following advice

Set an achievable goal, but factor in the additional costs of any rewards given (physical costs involved, shipping, transaction fees) – work out your net income and what this allows you to achieve.
Time and time again musicians forget to factor
this in and eventually lose money on any crowdfunding campaign.

1. Leverage your network – ask your friends and family before asking more widely, it’s easier to gain support from your fan base towards your final target total rather than at the very beginning. People want to help you get over the line, not to it.
2. Keep your campaign page updated regularly – fresh content keeps it interesting and demonstrates that you care about those who back you.
3. Offer rewards to both existing fans and potential new supporters – crowdfunding is the ideal opportunity to increase your fan base and help create a deeper relationship with existing ones.
4. Keep engaging with supporters after the project is funded – it’s a relationship, not a transaction. You’ll reap the benefits if you value your fans long term.

All common sense advice, BUT there are so many artists seeking funding in this way its like watching daytime TV where the audience is bombarded with adverts for charitable causes. The challenge is to balance maintaining your own creative voice and also be able to pay the bills. A lot of new musicians have great enthusiasm but lack essential business skills and imagine a manager or promoter is going to do all the work for them I talked to one manager who was closely aligned to a music label for many years as well as being an artist in his own right. He told me he’d been approached by a new female artist for management and pointed out that for his 10% to be viable, she’d need to generate many times that amount and that was (I’m being polite) somewhat unrealistic.

My own policy 2 Strikes, then move on…

I have a policy of carefully noting how people respond to any opportunities I offer. I’ll usually offer something a couple of times and if a person doesn’t respond then I’ll not offer a third time. Its nothing personal, but if they don’t see the value I don’t really want t invest in time convincing them.

Sometimes I am astonished at how people miss great chances presented to them n a plate. I’ve had artists fail spectacularly to deal with their own online presence and even fail to secure a domain name for their own artist name. They totally miss “the elusive obvious” and not amount of enthusiasm or aspiration makes up for good strategic thinking.

I am currently developing two big platforms for promoting music. To my amazement a few of the artists I have invited ave been incredibly slow in responding (its free publicity) or in one case rearranged meets 3 time! My biggest pet hate is doing a bucket of work and then asking for feedback or a date to meet to discuss and hearing NOTHING! I appreciate that many folks consider themselves “busy” but I suspect their idea of busy may well be different to mine, but then I did work in a marketing sector for 14 years where you lived or died by meeting strict deadlines and we often worked 7 – 6pm with virtually no breaks!

Ok, without sounding like some ranting old fella, these days its mostly a 2 strikes policy and then move on as I only have a certain amount of time available. If someone is busy and they send a note “Let me get back to you” that’s fine because at least we have some communication in play.

Conclusion

There’s no magic wand to balance time and money investments in music. I’m regularly evaluating “risk v reward” in terms of my own projects. Sometimes as my old mentor would say “That dog ain’t never gonna hunt” about a particular project. What I have learned to date is to gather together the best creative team and work with like minds. The same goes for working with musicians. Finding talented and reliable people is often tough and its useful to cut loose anyone who is not a good fit either musically or business wise.

Managing time is essential and this means working long hours, but also working smart and not spending time on activities that don’t return a creative or financial return. Its not just about money, but any artist that takes their eye of the ball financially is at some point going to have a major problem. The smartest individuals have diverse income streams and are constantly reviewing how they best spend their time. Its easy to be extremely busy, but unproductive. I love writing and recording music and do it mostly for the love of the experience. Its been a fascinating journey to date and has allowed me to meet many amazing people from all over the globe.

I was in discussions with a music professional recently about up and coming artists and building a body of musical work. He remarked that sometimes aspiring artists produce a very small amount of material and even though they may love the end results, they fail to appreciate that music companies seek out a body of work. “A body of work” means more than an EP of tracks of course!

He quoted a very well known indie band from 1990s and the fact that they only started to get notice after three albums. Similarly I have followed artists who also only began to become recognised after writing and recording a significant number of songs. In an era where there are individual songs as opposed to albums, often building a body of musical work gets ignored.

The Use of Social Media & Internet

Whether we like it or not, social media is here to stay and any serious artist needs to pay attention to having a presence online. Its no good having an ignored FB page and not bothering with a website. If you want to reach a wider audience, the minimum you need is a functioning website, a Twitter account, a FB page, a YouTube channel and an Instagram account. This is the minimum in ensuring that your body of musical work is available to a wider audience. Its also a good idea to blog so people get a sense of who you are. This means some time commitment and those who say “I don’t have time for all that” are respectfully missing the point.

Favourite Artists that have inspired me

Many of my favorite artists have had a work ethics that has driven them to create a hugely diverse body of music work that both inspires and frustrates. Such artists include Tom Waits, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and Nick Cave. All these artists have at times delighted, and mystified me, but also make me groan at what I am listening to. I’ve never really embraced Tom Waits “Black Rider” or Neil Young’s “Trans Am” but I can forgive them after regularly listening to “Small Change” and “On the Beech”

Building a musical body of work means taking a risk and having a strong work ethic. Knocking out a few tracks is not just going to cut it. I don’t by any means consider myself as a music professional, but I am pleased to have written and recorded 40 original songs to date across 2 bands and have at least another half dozen songs ready to record in the near future. Its a fascinating process and a massive education, at times hugely inspiring and sometimes massively frustrating. I wouldn’t have it any other way!

“When you’re writing, you’re conjuring. It’s a ritual, and you need to be brave and respectful and sometimes get out of the way of whatever it is that you’re inviting into the room”. Tom Waits

I was talking to a producer recently who was lamenting about how music students were taught at music college. His main complaint was that students were given an unrealistic set of expectations when they left studies and were in “the real world” This was around what they were talk technically in terms of recording as well as giving students unrealistic expectations of a career in music!

My own experiences on talking to a wide range of artists about the music business is that many aspiring musicians dream of getting managed, signed to launch a career, nit really appreciating that its not as simple as that. Often record company executives want to package artists to ensure they get a return on their investment. As I have often said “the music business” is like any other business and there are no short cuts to making a reasonable living.

I know one major international artist whose band signed to Sire because they had some of his favorite artists on their roster. Later he realised that the record executives tended to “collect bands” and his band found themselves stuck in a contract where they had very little creative freedom. When the contract expired, the band self financed a live album and this allowed them to explore new options. They are now doing superbly well, but its taken decades to get to this point. Many artists that get “signed” end up with massive debts as well as a serious reality check when trying to earn a living exclusively from music. Personally I can’t imagine anything worse than working for a record company, but that’s just a personal view.

Platforms like Drooble are full of naive aspiring musicians all believing they are “gonna make it” without realizing that in the real world, there’s a need for a great deal of work and knowing “the right people”

Time to plan and Strategize?

My own experience if music promotions is that to generate interest you need to invest a substantial amount of time to make this happen. That said, allocating time alone is not enough, you need a smart plan. This means seeking out good information and talking to other musicians who have invaluable experience in this aspect. Many people imagine that enthusiasm alone is enough, but like any promotion you need investment of time and money as well as a smart creative team.

In this internet era there are all manner of crazy online promises made to aspiring artists and most are quite frankly a total scam. Fortunately there are also some good resources like 60 second marketing which give simple clear advice.

Conclusion

As they say in show business, “It takes ten years to become an overnight success. The reality is that each person’s idea of success will vary massively. Personally my own interest is in building a catalog of great songs and working with like minds. Bands come and go, and as my producer often says “Its all about the songs” There’s no shortcut despite all the copy online about pluggers and publicists. That said, I love music and value every moment I am involved in writing, recording and playing live.

Part one of this article looked at what I would call basic commonsense business aspects of running any kind of musical project. That said, as an old boss of mine used to say “Commonsense ain’t so common”

Ultimately whether you are an artist, platform host or running a record business, unless you can fund the time involved, all the enthusiasm in the world is never going to ensure long term viability. Musicians and artists are well known for often (not always) having a pretty naive view of “the music business” which follows the rules of any other business. This is also true for signing to a record label. The record label will invest in the artist, but like any investor, understandably wants a return on their investment.

One of the smartest minds I have come across talking about such matters is Robert Fripp, who I have been following for 47 years. He talks about the reality of being a professional musician as opposed to a hobbyist, where music is not your primary source of income –

“I recommend my students not to be professional unless they really have to be. I tell them, ‘If you love music, sell Hoovers or be a plumber. Do something useful with your life.’ Robert Fripp

My own discussions with professional musicians (most of who are never on social media as they are working to maintain a living) reveal that earning a living from music is a huge amount of work and few people achieve the heights they aspire to. Personally I fund all such musical activities from other work so I am not beholding to anyone. I pay all band members for rehearsal and gig time from my own pocket and out of respect for them as performers.

Social media presents a very distorted picture of what its like to earn a living from musical activities. Many music based platforms are trying to sell all manner of services and in many (not all instances) these are not affordable to many musicians who have to think very carefully about how they spend money. Ad copy like “expand your career” always amuses me as in most (not all) cases the advertiser is trying to present a magic solution which is unlikely to translate into real life opportunities.

I’m working on building a music platform at present to be revealed later this year and its been fascinating. In looking at existing platforms there are some good ideas, but also some delusional thinking where people imagine have not thought through what they are aiming for and have now really tested the audience demographic to see what is achievable in the real world outside the mutual appreciation on social media.

There has never been a better time to reach a wider audience for musicians, but this requires constant reflection and refinement and not believing everything you read or hear! Ultimately I wish every artist well and am mindful of an old Eastern saying –

“Trust in Allah, but tie up your camel”

I was recently involved in a discussion about whether social media platforms should be advert free. The owners decided on a policy that they would only have their own banner ads and none from third parties. Don’t get me wrong I LOVE the sentiment, but there is good reason why business concerns seek predictable income from third party concerns to maintain financial viability…

Every business owner has the absolute to run their business as they see fit, but sometimes in a world where everything is describe.d as “awesome” there can be some optimistic thinking that doesn’t translate into good business practice. I worked in sales, recruitment and marketing for 15 years and in that time set up and ran two multi million pound concerns. In my early days as a manager I was shocked to receive my first spread sheet detailing profit and loss. I had no idea how much predictable income was needed just to keep a business viable. Often artists fail to see “the elusive obvious” when making business decisions and this can create all manner of unexpected problems.

These days in my other non music life I teach communication and business strategy internationally across Asia, USA and Europe.I don’t claim to have all the answers, but there are key pieces of advice I give any business owner.

Here are a few considerations

Listen to your customers, even when they challenge your personal vision of how the business should unfold

Don’t grow too fast, hyperactive expansion is the death of many concerns

Make sure the fundamentals of the business are stable and working – there’s nothing worse that offering services that are not reliable

Don’t insult your customers – pretty obvious but one music distribution service was terrible for this, so I moved 100% to CD Baby who have been great

There’s an old Japanese proverb “No one of us is smarter than ALL of us” This means paying attention to the detail of any business and looking at why established and successful models work so well. Its easy to insult concerns like YouTube and FB and yes they have their issues BUT they have a growing global customer base and continue to balance idealism and commercial reality. Smart business owners look at what works in the wider world and pay attention to detail in their own concerns while surrounding themselves with smart brains

There really is nowhere quite like New York when it comes to music except perhaps Nashville and Austin. NYC for me wins by a nose as it has the superb Vanguard and in the last 7 days I have already seen Fred Hersh and Bill Frissell and will be back for a second Frissell show this weekend. It is literally like having an artist play in your front room if you get there early and sit in the first two rows. The above clip is not from the Vanguard, but the track was the finale of last night’s set.

I also got to see the terrific Ronnie Earl at BB Kings and as usual on his 65th birthday, he was extraordinary. There is IMO no better blues player alive today.