Tag Results: Music Industry
I recently received this painting featuring one of my favorite Stephen R. Covey quotes as a gift [thanks Chels!]. It’s now hanging in my bedroom as a life catalyst that I wake to every morning, and it reminded me this week how difficult it can be to maintain focus and balance in your life.
How many choices, obstacles, emails, phone calls, in-laws, clients, agents, or band members do you face every day that have the potential to derail your direction?
Some of you might know me from my music and some of you from my posts about getting out of your own way, but even with all the systems and analyzing I put my life actions through, I find myself needing to remember this quote and refocus every few months. I find this to be true especially among creative personalities, which tend to thrive on the fuel of sleep deprivation, coffee, and directional ambiguity.
Trust me. I’m right there with you.
I’ve mentioned the 5 steps I take to realign before. Previously mentioned Stephen R. Covey has his own famous 7 Step system for maintaining stability as well. But the common thread I find in almost every method or system to refocus is one similarity: break it down to build it up.
It would seem we’re all doing Too Much.
Eight years ago, I left college with a Bachelor’s Degree in Music. Untested and honestly, quite naive, I spent the next three years using money from designing websites freelance to ineffectively tour as an artist around the country, gigging myself into over $6k of high interest credit card debt. Embarrassed and defeated, I stopped writing, I stopped playing music outside of my home, and my answer to “what do you do?” begrudgingly changed from music to websites.
Fast forward to today and I’ve been debt free for over 2 years. Within that time, I self-funded my own full-length record from cash and recently started a music marketing company to promote independent artists. I took 2 months, wrote/recorded and shot a video for one song a week about anything my blog readers submitted and released them all for FREE, and I’m currently in the process of booking the most extensive tour I’ve ever played.
How did I do it? I want to show you and show that you can too with 5 simple rules.
“Orville Wright did not have a pilot’s license.”
Gordon MacKenzie, Orbiting the Giant Hairball
(Photo by allthatimprobableblue
A question was brought to my attention after a chat with a friend, and I’m not sure I have an answer… So of course, I’ll turn to you. It went something like this:
Friend: Spotify and Rdio both seem to either limit your amount of free music or play ads. I guess I’ll have to switch back and forth between them.
Me: Or you could just pay for one?
Friend: We pay after we know it’s good. We listen for free. Isn’t that the new standard?
(Photo: Ferrari + caballos + fuerza )
everyartistwasfirstanamateur asked you: Do you have any advice for me on how to get signed?
———————————————————————————————————-
Honestly? My advice would be don’t.
My question for you is, what does it mean to you to get “signed”? And what are you expecting out of it? I can tell you from working at a label and with labels before, it’s probably not gonna be what you were expecting…
I am in search of a driven, organized, and energetic assistant to help with upcoming music work! Please be local to Nashville, and email assist4ms@gmail.com for more information.
i've read articles online about the main problem with the internet being the vast amounts of people on it doing the same thing you're doing, so basically what you're saying you have a method, or you are a theorist on the methods on getting past this "white noise" on the internet? and you seriously hire people from the phillipines to market you online? whoa lol a little elaboration please, this sounds interesting... if you don't mind that is
I don’t mind at all. Let me see if I can help elaborate.
[for reference, this is a follow up post in response to my answer of being an “Entropic Strategist” here]
Entropic Strategies for Music Marketing : navigating the noise
en·tro·py :A measure of the disorder or randomness in a closed system.
stra·te·gist : One who is skilled in planning actions or policies designed to achieve a major goal or overall aim.
While Entropic Strategist may merely be my own word to describe the style of scatter-storm marketing I use for myself and other artists, it’s a style that was proven in the business and startup world many times over long before the Wild West of the Music Industry we have today.
I stumbled upon this post shorty after doing an interview last night about this exact idea: how people can find and connect with an audience. Kyle here is referring more generally about social communities, but I think the rules apply perfectly to any artist’s niche.
It starts at being authentic. Being You. And then embracing those that reach out to you, unfalteringly.
Thanks for always making this blog so fun to write, friends!
I’m working on a full-length essay about building communities online and everything I’ve learned so far making Forrst, but here’s an outline to give a sense of what I’m thinking about.
- Don’t try to build a community
- Your first 50 to 100 users are the most important users you’ll ever have
- Be human
- Have a focus
- Always listen to users, but only sometimes
- Users need to feel ownership
I’m happy to announce that I’ll be doing a Blog Talk Radio interview this evening at 10PM EST for “Outing The Music Industry”, a blog radio show that talks about the Ins and Outs of the Music Industry and focuses on a GLBT audience. It’s run by DJ SirRah, a fellow Tumblr! [yes, you should follow him]
And before my “Ask” form blows up, though I am a straight male, I am a proud supporter of the GLBT community and specifically, authenticity in the Music Industry. I’ve seen an unfortunate trend in Nashville in the past 10 years of people having to hide their personal lives out of fear of professional scrutiny, and I think it’s great that organizations like “Nashville In Harmony” and this radio show are around to prove otherwise and help USE music to create social change.
If you’ve got questions, tonight’s a good night to ask them directly. You can call in and talk to either Steve or myself at 347-989-1080, and you’ll be able to listen using the widget I’m posting below. So bring ‘em. Wondering how you can get a start with your own music? Want to know what got me started? Come join our conversation.
Hope to hear some of you tonight!
Listen to internet radio with SirRahPro Presents on Blog Talk Radio
Something that most of us in Nashville have known for a while.
Glad to see the rest of the country catching up.
Source: http://tinyurl.com/48qzsnp
so, if you don't mind me asking... how did you get started with music? I'm trying to get my foot in the door in the christian music world but i'm not sure how to begin. i've written some songs and i play guitar, mostly acoustic. any suggestions?
I don’t mind you asking at all :) 
I actually started in Christian Music myself, playing back in Dayton, Ohio with a band. I moved here to Nashville a bit and things changed, and my writing changed a bit too, but it’s always been rooted there.
To be honest, right now is one of the best times ever to try and just DIY. If you write songs, play guitar, sing, or dance with dolphins, you can find yourself an audience. Make videos of you doing your thing, post them on Youtube, and start finding your niche or people that respond to what you’re putting out there. There are enough people in the world, so if what you’re making is quality, it’s just about getting it to the right ears.
I’ve got some posts coming up soon with some tips / tricks / etc. that I’ve used lately that might be of interest, but if you have any specific questions, feel free to email me. michael (at) this website dot com.
Best of luck!
XL Recordings, the record label that's tearing up the rule book | Music | The Guardian
I’m consistently proud of media outlets that report on stuff like this.
No matter what you hear, Music is alive and well, and the creators aren’t going anywhere. The Business will catch up sooner or later.
“To be truly artistic, it’s really an obliteration of the rules and the norms. You’ve got to not be interested in a job. That kind of person is fascinating to me.”
