{"id":425,"date":"2012-11-20T03:33:30","date_gmt":"2012-11-20T03:33:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vakseen.com\/site\/music-business-essentials\/"},"modified":"2012-11-20T03:33:30","modified_gmt":"2012-11-20T03:33:30","slug":"music-business-essentials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vakseen.com\/site\/music-business-essentials\/","title":{"rendered":"Music Business Essentials"},"content":{"rendered":"

Via Wendy Day<\/a><\/p>\n

I have been teaching artists and industry folks the business behind the music for twenty years now. As the industry has changed, so have I. I don\u2019t just teach, I do. And then I share the \u201chow to\u201d of my successes and failures, so others will learn too. I\u2019ve charged nothing for this knowledge. My attitude has always been, you can learn from me or not\u2013your choice. But why bang your head when someone else has done it for you?<\/p>\n

There are some life skills, people skills, and things that I can\u2019t teach, however. They are innate traits or common sense you must already possess to win in this business. If you don\u2019t possess these skills, you sure as hell better have SOMEONE on your team who does.<\/p>\n

1\u2026Motivation and Grind: Without the innate ability to get up and work, you will never succeed in this industry. Not only must you work hard to build your career, and then to keep it, but you must out work all of your competition. Today this is easier than it was a few years ago, because most artists are super lazy and have a false sense of entitlement (\u201cI will get a deal and be a star because I\u2019m better than everyone out here.\u201d). In this industry, you are only ever doing one of two things: working or sleeping. So if you are awake, you are promoting yourself and moving your career forward. Do it. If you aren\u2019t going to hand out your own flyers, postcards, and music, make sure someone is with you at all times who will (and if you don\u2019t like doing this yourself, the odds are already against your success. Who will EVER promote you better than you?)<\/p>\n

2\u2026Passion: You need to have an intense love for not only recording and performing, but for promoting yourself to fans. Just making great music isn\u2019t enough. It has to be commercially viable, embraced by some fans somewhere, and marketed and promoted to them in a way, time, and place that they will embrace it. Not so easy to do.<\/p>\n

3\u2026Thought Process: I can offer a plan, show you how to do it, explain what has worked for me and what hasn\u2019t, outline a blueprint to succeed, and refer other reading material\u2026but I can\u2019t do it for you. If you don\u2019t naturally have an inclination to sell yourself to others (why they should support you or buy your music), this industry will be challenging for you. You need to always be promoting yourself, no matter where you are. I don\u2019t mean this in an obnoxious \u2018used car salesman\u2019 way. When you meet someone new, it should be second nature to explain what you do, why you do it, and to hand them a card or some music, or at least a promotional flyer to take with them. As you gain fame, this same promotional material will be the stuff you autograph for them to take with them (never give an autograph unless asked, as it makes you seem conceited). Don\u2019t be one-sided, listen to them talk about themselves, too. Conversation is a back and forth movement.<\/p>\n

4\u2026Take Care of Your Team: If you are fortunate enough to surround yourself with great people (and that should be at the top of your list), take care of them. If you eat, they should be eating. If you have only a few dollars to your name and they need something more than you do, they should get your last dollars. See a pattern here? They go all out for you, so you go all out for them. Forget calling them \u201cfamily,\u201d treat them like it instead.<\/p>\n

5\u2026Intelligence: One of my favorite sayings is \u201cI can fix anything but stupidity. I can\u2019t fix stupid.\u201d Your team can over compensate for much of your errors and short comings, but they can\u2019t overcompensate for stupidity. Make good decisions and follow through.<\/p>\n

6\u2026Seize Opportunities: If you have an opportunity in front of you, seize it. Make the best of EVERY situation even if it isn\u2019t comfortable, you have personal problems, or you don\u2019t feel like it. Force yourself. Do not miss any opportunity. Bored at an event or party? Speak to every person in the room\u2013find out who they are and what they do, and tell them who you are and what you do. This is called networking. This is what separates successful artists from the idiots. This is a \u2018who you know\u2019 business. Get to know everyone!! Be outgoing, charming, and charismatic even if you don\u2019t feel like it. Do not miss an opportunity. Either build fans or interact with industry folks. You never know which avenues will lead to success. Test them all. Just don\u2019t be blindly stupid about it. Treat everyone you meet with respect. One of my secrets to success is that I treat stars like regular people and regular people like stars.<\/p>\n

7\u2026Be Charming: Even when you don\u2019t feel like it, be charming and outgoing. Your success depends on fame. Fame puts you in the public eye and makes you fair game. They don\u2019t care if you are tired, if you are busy, or if you are having a bad day. They expect stars to be awesome 24\/7. Come as close to that as you can manage. If you\u2019re not, that will spread faster than anything else you do, good or bad. Be approachable and happy, not sullen and miserable. If you suck at small talk, get better at it. That is one skill you will need everyday. Read a book and learn how to be better at small talk or have people around you that know how to engage you and bring that out in you. Easy topics: sports, weather, location (wherever you are, ask them how they like it). Try to always be positive and upbeat even with difficult or negative people or topics.<\/p>\n

Get your priorities straight and have great follow through and you can build a lasting career that will feed you, your team, and your family. Learn as much as you can, but even though not EVERYTHING can be learned\u2013some skills need to come from within, so surround yourself with a team that\u2019s strong where you are weakest. Be real with yourself. You have to really want this, and be willing to do what it takes to succeed. If you can\u2019t do that, don\u2019t waste everybody\u2019s time and energy. Your team depends on you!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Via Wendy Day I have been teaching artists and industry folks the business behind the music for twenty years now. As the industry has changed, so have I. I don\u2019t just teach, I do. And then I share the \u201chow to\u201d of my successes and failures, so others will learn too. I\u2019ve charged nothing for this knowledge. My attitude has always been, you can learn from me or not\u2013your choice. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":424,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[14,153],"class_list":["post-425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry-tips","tag-music-business","tag-tips","post_format-post-format-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vakseen.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vakseen.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vakseen.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vakseen.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vakseen.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vakseen.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vakseen.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vakseen.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vakseen.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vakseen.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}