5 Lessons for Improving Your Music Career By George Howard
Spring has sprung , and with it comes thoughts of renewal . It ’ s hard to move forward , however , when you ’ re either still connected to the past , or unsure of the road ahead ( or both ). This , for many in the music industry , is precisely where they find themselves : clinging to outmoded habits , not because they work ( they don ’ t ), but because they ’ re unclear on how to move forward . Here are a handful of thoughts not necessarily meant to be taken as doctrine , but more to give you some inspiration with respect to how you might change some habits . 1 . Apply the Lean Startup Method Applying Lean Startup thinking to the music business is more crucial than ever . I wrote an article on this , but to summarize : I don ’ t know what music will succeed , you don ’ t either , nor do any of the so-called A & R legends ( the Ehrteguns , Blackwells , Davises , or anyone else ). The only one who knows what the market wants is the market . Therefore , get something out there , measure it , refine , repeat . The music business lends itself to a Minimum Viable Product better than any business I can think of . 2 . The Best Middleman Is No Middleman In all businesses there must be a willing buyer and a willing seller . The sellers tend to derive their materials from some third party ( be that the person who delivers the beans to a restaurant , the guy who sells the builder her wood , Intel who sells computers chips , etc .). The music business doesn ’ t quite work this way . The “ suppliers ” in the music business are the artists . These artists have their own desires that go far beyond what price they can get from some label . This is why the artist / label relationship is almost always adverse . Artists can ’ t “ just ” be the supplier of goods to some re-seller ( labels ). It doesn ’ t work . Nor does it work if artists are just suppliers of goods to any other type of reseller ; Spotify , et al ., use artists ’ songs to get customers to use their services . The only buyers of their goods that artists should concern themselves with are their fans . Work on pleasing them . 3 . Stop Worrying … … about how much ( or little ) you ’ re getting paid by the streaming services . While you must understand how copyright works , and why and what you should be getting paid when your songs are used , being overly concerned with whether or not you ’ re getting $. 003 per song or $. 0003 per song is not a good use of your time . Neither amount will ever add up to anything material for the vast majority of artists . Instead , use these services for all their worth , if in fact you deem them actually effective in providing a promotional lift , but don ’ t count on them for revenue . Determine other strategies for that . 4 . Shift the Burden of Promotion The goal of all of your marketing efforts is to shift the burden of promotion from you ( the band or record company ) to your fans . Until you do this you will never achieve any real success . There ’ s a finite number of people you can reach by exclaiming at the top of your lungs that your music is great . There ’ s an infinite number of people who can be converted to your music by their friends telling them it ’ s great . Focus on creating architectures of participation , where you ’ re encouraging and enabling your fans to tell their friends about your music . 5 . Think About What ’ s Holding You Back Understand that if your music is not succeeding at a pace you think it should , it means one of two things : a . Your music isn ’ t remarkable , or b . You ’ re not getting it in front of people who are pre-disposed to like it . At the core of the word “ remarkable ” is another word : “ remark .” Your music must make people remark on it ; they must talk about it – this will spread the word ( see # 4 above ). However , even if it is remarkable , if you put it in front of people who aren ’ t predisposed to like it , it won ’ t spread . You must , therefore , make sure your music is great ( if it ’ s not , keep working at it ), and make sure you ’ re putting it in front of the right people . When you do both , the world opens up . If you do only one of the two , nothing will happen . There are no exceptions to this rule .
4 Independent Artist Magazine www . indieartmag . com