music BUSINESS Success Stories

Music Law • Free Music

Think about the tribe first! The label's tribe is the stockholders, not the music listeners. Do not associate your interests with theirs. If it doesn't bring people closer, if it doesn't satiate and inspire your fans, forget about it.

The best label ever was run by Mo Ostin. Warner Brothers. Mo specialized in finding true artists and letting them do their thing. This is positively scary to business people, but this is the key to long term success. Finding someone who can already play, who's performed gigs, who's got an audience. That's a better strategy than starting from scratch. Which is why the Warner catalog is so valuable today and Arista's is not. Clive made stars, through smoke and mirrors, via publicity and promotion, engaging the best songwriters to prop up the image. But mostly it was image. The tracks were successes, but the performers were empty vessels.

But the Dead and Prince and Neil Young... They're still working today. Their songs are being played on the radio. They had it to begin with. Might have taken them some time to find their way, but there was no development by the label, no coaching, no cowriting, they were on their own road of discovery. If you're getting no reaction, you're not doing it right. That's today's test. Not whether a middle man will sign you, but whether the audience believes in you, wants to hear more.

Leveraging the internet to fortify a creative career.
What are the best things artists can do online to sustain themselves financially and creatively? There's definitely an art to understanding how to reach your audience and what will keep them engaged.

Remember to read all these links just below also!!

It all comes down to the artist. The artist leads the way. We're in a great era for artistry. We'll calculate winners and losers further down the road. But right now, people are taking chances, they're following their muse, knowing it's possible to directly connect with their audience on the Internet. Executives might say the lunatics have taken over the asylum. I'd say the artist has rightfully reclaimed his place at the top of the pyramid. ~ Lefsetz

1. You must have constant contact with your fans. It must be a dialog. It's not that they forget you if you're absent, it's that they're overwhelmed with the detritus of life. We live in the opposite of the seventies rock star paradigm world. It's not about coming down from the mountaintop every two or three years with tablets, otherwise known as a ten to twelve track LP/CD/album. Now you're the village minstrel. You may not live in the center of town, but you've got to walk through every day. At least every other day. Sure, you can take a vacation, assuming you come back, assuming your audience knows you'll walk amongst them soon. The era of just putting up a Website and believing people will find you are done. If for no other reason that most artist Websites have been updated so sporadically that most people rarely go there anymore.

2. You must cross-post. This incredible performance is not available on YouTube, at least I couldn't easily find it. That's where people go for video clips. To only host your clips on your site is to try to make it by only exhibiting your videos on your home television set in the 80s. They needed to be on MTV! YouTube is the new MTV. And since everything is available, the key is to make your fans stick. You don't do that by infrequency of interaction.

3. It must be you. Do you have someone else type on your BlackBerry/iPhone? Do you print out your e-mails? Then why in hell can't you do your own Tweeting, your own posting.

Maybe we make music freely available, like FarmVille, and upsell thereafter. Maybe we need a music game that gets everybody to pay attention. That allows them to win free concert tickets and visits from band members. Only one site triumphs online. There's one Amazon, one iTunes, one Facebook and one Twitter. There will be one online music hub. Foster competition to create it. Once we get everybody playing in this sphere, we can then expose people to new acts. They'll already be there, they'll already be paying attention.

4. Monetization. Don't think about records and concerts, think about access, think about elation, think about rewards. Maybe you let everybody come to hear the album of the new act streamed at Staples Center for free, but they pay for pizza and beer. Think party. Sure, you might be able to hear the album right thereafter online, but you won't have the experience of hanging with your friends! And never diminish virtual goods. It's a gold mine waiting to be tapped. We didn't know we wanted Groupon. We don't know we want music served in a whole new way. But we do.

Scientists are Rock Stars Mindshare Labs turns into Syynlabs.com regularly showcases interactive artwork at events.

The Web is where you make fans, the gig is where you convert them, where you charge them. Permission marketing, the relationship with the fan, once you've got a fan, once they've found you, you've then got permission to contact them. Your tribe is people who would be DISAPPOINTED if they didn't hear from you! A relationship must be nurtured, and CONTINUED! Once you've got the relationship, you must KEEP IT UP! The old model was limited product pushed down people's throats. Today's model is endless product available to those who want it. How do you build that relationship? How do you get people interested? By doing something great. Seth unleashed his book, "Unleashing the Ideavirus", online, for free, a decade ago, and gained fans that way. He didn't compile an e-mail list and spam people, he focused on the work. And then using the distribution platform of the Web, he allowed people to pull it, for free!

I think that when there is someone who delivers something truly great people are more open to it than ever as long as you can find a way to get them to hear it.

EXAMPLE:

As my evidence I offer a young kid I recently started working with named Joe Pug. We self-released his debut EP in May, mainly just intending to shop it. In the six months since then, however .he has proceeded to sell out his first two headlining shows in Chicago, pick up a major booking agent (Monterey International), taped a set for NPR's Mountain Stage, picked up radio play on Morning Becomes Eclectic, XM, Sirus and NPR, sold over 2000 copies of the EP, toured with Susan Tedeschi, Rhett Miller, Joe Ely, Robert Randolph and featured in Paste with a slot on their CD sampler. (one of the rare unpaid slots, at that)
Obviously there is the standard issue PR push, but I think the real success we've had with Joe came from something completely unique that we did. I started with the knowledge (or, some might say, assumption) that with Joe's songs especially the "single" Hymn #101, if people heard it, they would love it. There are so few great songs being written that I knew people would connect immediately. So how to cut through the white noise? With no label, no PR firm, and no money to speak of?
We decided to put an offer up on Joe's website and myspace. We told any fan that if they knew anyone who might be interested in Joe's music that they could send us an email and we send them as many copies of a two-song sampler CD as they wanted. Free. We even cover the postage. To keep costs down, we invested in a cd publishing system that burns and prints them robotically. Each CD has two songs, contact info, myspace, and a reminder that the full cd was at iTunes. If someone lived near a place where a show was scheduled, we printed that show info on there as well. People requested as few as 2 and as many as 50. We sent all of them. Requests continued to pour in, and the more we sent out the faster the new requests came in. We're at the point now where we get about 15 a day. Joe writes a thank you in each and every one. And almost instantly, sales took off. Attendance jumped noticeably and myspace/website action began a steady upward arc. More importantly, we built an incredible database of his most hardcore fans. And after receiving a mailbox full of cd's for free, they are willing to do anything to help forward the cause.

"WORD OF MOUTH" "THOUGHT LEADERS"
HOW TO GET MY ATTENTION ~ KE

And it is the ultimate in target marketing......you have people who already like your music passing it on to their friends, whose tastes they presumably know.
To some degree this is contrary to most of my "music 2.0" instincts, but I believe in this case they physical connection is crucial. A package in the mail, with a handwritten letter from the artist creates a connection that a download never could. It's not the cheapest avenue on earth, but compared to what a mid-level PR firm charges it's a goddamn bargain.

In return we treat them like gold. Whenever there are extra guestlist spots in a city an email goes out to the people in that area who helped pass them out. We are planning a private house show for those in Chicago who have helped.

Of course, before I get lost in self-congratulation, I'll add that this particular formula only works if you truly have songs that connect with people. In all the marketing speak I think a whole lot of people lose sight of that. Anyway, thought that you might find this interesting. If you want to check out the actual offer it's on www.nationofheat.com and his myspace is www.myspace.com/thejoepug

Yrs. long windedly-

don

Who Is The Leader Of The Tribe?

Bob Lefsetz

What got fuxxed up in the nineties was that the label became the tribe leader, the label made the decisions. The leader of the tribe is the act. Everything flows from the act. As Jim Guerinot told me, it's the act's name on the marquee. If an act has a feeling in its gut, that feeling has to be obeyed. Jim can always get a new client, whereas a misstep by a musician usually ends his career.
The label doesn't need your record to make it. It just needs a record to make it. The label head's priorities may be completely different from the act's. The label executive may be coming up on a contract renewal. He may be angling for a bonus. What's expedient for the label may be positively awful for the act. If your deal doesn't give you a modicum of control, you're at the mercy of the label's whims. Sure, you could go on strike, but now you can't even work on the road, the label gets a piece of that too via the 360 deal.
Furthermore, a label doesn't know how to work the road, never mind merch. A label specializes in selling music. In an era where more people steal it than pay for it, where it's almost impossible to get exposed and there's a thin line between getting the word out and overexposure, which negatively impacts your longevity. So, sign with a label at your peril. Or insist on a lot of control.
In any event, although the act is the true leader, the Mafia Don, the manager is the consigliere. You must be able to trust your manager. You must be able to get his attention. You must share mutual interests. But the act must have the last word.

2. The Key

It's the music, stupid. Radio stations don't buy music. Fans do. Don't worry about appealing to gatekeepers, worry about appealing to fans.
I once heard a Widespread Panic song on Sirius, but generally speaking the band's music is never played on the radio. It tends to be long, it stretches out, the vocals are not Top Forty friendly. But the audience loves it. A core audience that keeps the band working year after year, long after Top Forty wonders are through scrounging around for TV guest appearances and are contemplating entering the family business. Hell, the audience treasures live Widespread Panic music more than the recorded stuff!
In other words, forget about the rules. Just focus on how you can turn someone not on the payroll, not related to you, on to your music. Because if they're turned on, they'll tell people. If nobody wants to tell anybody about your music, give up or change it or be resigned to a marginal "career". Doesn't matter if you like it, doesn't matter if the label likes it, doesn't matter if MTV likes it, it only matters if independent sources like it. A turntable hit generates no career. Your mother can't buy enough albums to keep you in business. Sure, catchy infects people, but to truly get people talking, spreading the word, you must sound unique, unlike anybody else. People want music to call their own. If you provide this, they'll tell everybody about it, you'll have a career.

3. The Format

Deliver what the fan wants. Which is always more music. An album may be good, but not if there's only one every four years. Let people record you live, sell live files. You're giving people the tools to build your career. Don't limit them, enable them!
Fans will support you. Buy CDs even though they've already stolen the files.
If you get really big, you can sell CDs with books, special packages, but that's way down the road. First, just make tunes that people want to hear. A good number of them. Don't worry about defects, your imperfections make you lovable. Pro Tools and Auto-Tune have removed the soul from music. Stop trying for perfection, no one can relate to that. No one's that good-looking, no one hits every note perfectly. One false note may be enough to endear you to fans.

4. Tools For Spreading The Word - You don't solicit, you make tools available. You deliver widgets, you utilize Eventful.

If you're beating your fans over the head to spread the word you're doing it wrong. Sure, it's okay to manage your fans' efforts, in the beginning anyway. Even better is when a fan takes up the reins himself. This fan will listen to you, won't cross you, he wants access. But by coming up with his own ideas, he gains credibility. You can't control everybody. Give up on that. Inspire people. With your music. With your accessibility. Let them take you to places unknown. You're nothing without them. You don't have to accede to their every wish. Give up some control. You've got none in today's online world anyway.

5. Establish Community

You've got to have a forum online. And a place for fans to meet live. Maybe a sign where all your diehard fans can meet before the show. You want that party in the parking lot, but in the Internet era, you can own it, utilize it to your own advantage. Maybe inspire people to bring instruments and cover your songs, play their own in the parking lot. You've got to make people feel like they belong. We all want to belong, it's human nature. We can't connect to the overhyped priorities, but we can relate to what's just starting out, that we own.

6. Play Live

Anywhere and everywhere at first.

Do not play with anybody else unless you share an audience.

You may open for a superstar, but no one's going to care about you, you're wasting your time, your agent just doesn't know what else to do, your label is forcing you. Better off to drive around in a van and play clubs. If you're good, people will talk about you and your career will grow. If your career isn't growing, and you're working 24/7, face it, people don't want you.

It's best to open for no one. To own the show yourself, if possible.

Better to create your own gig than open for someone with incompatible music.

You're just going to piss off your fans if they want to see you and not the headliner. As for the reverse... You'll be lucky if people even show up to hear you, and many will probably talk while you're playing or boo.

7. Make It Affordable

Value. Not only is it the mantra of 2008/9, it's the key to all success.

Toyota knows value. As does Lexus. You want people to believe they got a bargain, more than they paid for. If you're going after every last dollar, you aren't going to have a career when the radio hits dry up. Look at the Dave Matthews Band. Phenomenal road business, tickets closer to fifty dollars than a hundred. You can take a friend, expose someone to your favorite act's music.

A gig should not be a show, it should be an experience, a celebration of your music. If people don't feel involved, you fuxxed up.

Unless your gig is about production, don't focus on it. No one ever said I liked the concert because the production was great, even though the music sucked. But I've heard the reverse zillions of times. We are not in the TV business. Our product enters the ears. Focus on what is heard. Have a great sound system. Practice really hard. Have great tunes. You don't need a backdrop, you don't need a light show, all of that is superfluous.

Online Event Registration Tools
Eventbrite - http://www.eventbrite.com
Ticket Leap - http://www.ticketleap.com/
Anyvite - http://anyvite.com/home

8. Tie-ins/Sponsors

I'm categorically against them. But if you must do them, make sure it's clear that your fans own you, not the corporation/sponsor. You can't do anything your fan wouldn't. You can never kiss butt. You can say sponsorship kept tickets cheap. But not if you're hawking the product from the stage, not if you've got banners on stage. Not if you're flying around in a private jet.

Corporations don't give a xxxx about you. They only care about your audience. They want to reach your audience. They're going to use you, emphasis on "use", to extract attention and money from your fans. How do you feel about being used as a customer? How do you feel about being manipulated? Keep this in mind when you tie in with any third party entity.

9. Innovation

The cherry on top.

Examples are the Phish festivals. 100,000 people show up even though most of the country has no idea who you are. Special events are rewards for your fans. They work best when you're on the way up, when rich fat cats can't game the system.

Lollapalooza was a great idea, the original Perry Farrell traveling one. Killed by having Metallica headline. You've got to stay true to your roots. If you don't have an appropriate headliner this year, don't do the festival!

Anything you can dream up that rewards the fans is worth investigating. Don't worry about monetization. It's okay to charge, but know that you're investing in your future.

Conclusion

The above was inspired by Seth Godin's "Tribes". Read it for inspiration. The key is to do it differently, and lead. Railing against P2P, complaining that your music is being stolen, putting FBI stickers on your CDs, none of this enhances your bond with your fans, none of it adds members to your tribe. Think about the tribe first! The label's tribe is the stockholders, not the music listeners. Do not associate your interests with theirs. If it doesn't bring people closer, if it doesn't satiate and inspire your fans, forget about it.

Example. Playing the "American Music Awards". You think you're reaching a whole new audience. But maybe your fans think you're selling out. Don't worry about the untold masses. If they're interested in you, it will only be briefly. If you're good, your fans will spread the word and convert those who might watch the AMAs who are interested.
Just because there's a paycheck involved, that doesn't excuse you. You must think how your fans will react. You must lead the fans. You do this by constantly creating great music, and playing it live. These are the core precepts. Everything else is gravy. If people can't get it by hearing your music, via a recording or live, then you've got to go back into development. Start with a little. Blow on the flame to ignite the kindling. Then put progressively bigger logs on the fire. Once you've got a bonfire going, it won't go out overnight.
This is not how it's been done in the last twenty years. It's been about getting a ton of logs, throwing gasoline on them and then lighting a match. But fire builders will tell you that oftentimes, this strategy doesn't work. It's much harder to get a log to burn than a twig. If a fire starts weak, it can be blown out. It costs a lot to construct a pile of giant logs, just to drag them into place. You're locked into this plan, you usually only have one chance. Whereas if you start off small, you can see what develops and go where your audience leads you.

From: HOLLERADO.COM

We are a DIY band through and through. I would love for you to get to know our band a little more.

We come from a small town in Ontario called Manotick
We have been touring relentlessly for 4 years

For our first american tour, no-one wanted to book us. So, instead of booking shows, we drove as far way from our homes in canada as we could get. We would then show up at venues where a show was going on and tell them we were 2000 miles away from home, had a gig booked down the street but it somehow feel through. "Would you guys mind if we played a short set here tonight?" IT WORKED! We played countless shows this way.
Since we rarely got paid more than a few drinks and sometimes pizza, we needed to make gas money.
We had a laptop with the the tracks to our demo CD. We would go to best buy, get a CD burner and a couple spindles of blank cds. We would burn a hundred demos in the parking lot and then return the CD burner to Best Buy. we would then put the demos in ziplock bags. (hence the name of our first record....record in a bag)
Once we had a stash of demos we would drive to the nearest mall and set up shop in front of Hot Topic (probly the most shameless thing we have done for our band). We would stand there for hours, with discmen and demos asking anyone who would stop to take a listen if they wanted to buy a demo in a bag. We could sell the discs for 5 bucks and still make $4.50 to put towards gas.
We did this for 2 years. Anything to avoid having a real job, right?
In febuary 2009, we released our first full length album for FREE online.
That same month we invented the RESIDENCY TOUR. We took the old concept of playing a residency one day a week at the same bar and made it psyco. We booked 7 residencies for the month, one for each night of the week. Every Sunday of that cold February we played in at the same club in Boston, every monday at Piano's in NYC, Tuesday was Lacolle Quebec, Wednesdays- Hamilton ontario, Thursdays - Toronto, Friday - Ottawa, Saturday - Montreal. Repeat 4 times. 28 shows in a row. over 12,000 miles of crap canadian winter driving in 28 days.
In febuary 2010, we started our own record label to release "record in a bag" in stores in Canada. Although every distributor we talked to said it was impossible, we were finally able to convince one (Arts and Crafts) that we could literally package "record in a bag" in a ziplock bag filled with goodies. So far we have sold over 10,000 copies of it in Canada. With no label support, our first single "Juliette" went top 5 in mainstream Canadian alternative radio.
Things began to take hold in Canada and we soon became privy to the Canadian grant system for touring acts. Still, when they gave us a budget to play a showcase in China, we took the budget and stretched it for all it was worth. We turned it into a 3 week tour deep into china. We recorded a song in mandarin chinese and released it on the internet in China. We were able to return for another tour 6 months later.
We can play our instuments. We play live and we play live alot, hundreds of shows a year, we sweat. We take requests. We play covers we don't know. We play for the audience, as much as eachother, because without them we would still be in back Manotick, working jobs we hated. We play anywhere anytime. It is what we love more than anything.
We listen to good bands (Petty, Roy Orbison, The Clash, Booker T, Paul Butterfield, John Prine). We have a strong conviction that pop music does not have to suck.
We are 4 best friends (2 of the guys are brothers). We intend to do this for a long time. We want to have careers and catalogues that we can be proud of. Personally, i think, our song for the video you talked about is not nearly our stongest. Since then we have written a whole bunch more, and like anything else, they are getting better with practice.
I truly believe we have a few songs on our album that really have heart and are really about things. i'd love for you to listen to our record, because although we are happy with what the video has accomplished creatively and exposure-wise, we are a rock band and the bottom line is that we make songs.

sincerely

-Menno Versteeg

From: Amanda Palmer
Subject: re-Please Drop Me

My label-dropping game has become very fun. please pray for me.

it's a lesson in how the future of music is working - fans are literally (and i mean that....literally) lining up at the signing table after shows and HANDING me cash, saying "thank you".

i had to EXPLAIN to the so-called "head of digital media" of roadrunner australia WHAT TWITTER WAS. and his brush-off that "it hasn't caught on here yet" was ABSURD because the next day i twittered that i was doing an impromptu gathering in a public park and 12 hours later, 150 underage fans - who couldn't attend the show - showed up to get their records signed.

no manager knew! i didn't even warn or tell her! no agents! no security! no venue! we were in a fucking public park!
life is becoming awesome.

also interesting: i brought a troupe of back-up actors/dancers on the tour (we were only playing 300-1000 seaters) and had no money to pay them, so we passed the hat into the crowd every night. each performer walked from each show with about $200 in cash. the fans TOOK CARE OF THEM. they brought us dinner every night, gave us places to sleep. (i couldn't afford to put up that many people in hotels). all sans label, all using email and twitter. the fans followed the adventure. they LOVED HELPING.

so?
the times they are a-changing f~~king dramatically, when pong-twittering with trent reznor means way more to your fan-base/business than whether or not the record is in f~~king stores (and in my case, it ain't in f~~king stores).

twitter is EVERYTHING: it is a MAINLINE insta-connection with the fans. there is ZERO middleman.
my fans hung out with me all day on twitter today while i unpacked weird tour shit, fan art, gifts and paraphernalia that usually just ends up in my closet or in the trash and took pictures of it for them.

The 10 Most Successful Crowd-Funded Projects From Kickstarter

Kickstarter's First Million-Dollar Project
Not about Musis but the idea of getting others to invest is real.
December 18th, 2010
Okay, it's actually $941,718 — but still, it was raised inside a month and it's now officially Kickstarter's most successful project. Chicago entrepreneur Scott Wilson captured the Kickstarter community with his super-cool, high-end, wearable and durable watch casing for the iPod Nano. The result: an almost-cool mil raised for the TikTok+LunaTik Multi-Touch watch kits, with over 13 thousand backers and a pretty damn impressive crowdfunding success story.

George Harrison

Secrets of Success: radiolab.org/

George Harrison grew up in a house without electricity. But it was worse. Heat was one stove, fired by coal, could that have contributed to his cancer?
Talk about your 10,000 hours. There were no hard drives back then. You played live. And if you weren't at least moderately good, you couldn't get the gig. Over time you learn not only how to play, but perform, and they're not the same. I've never seen anybody work the crowd like Paul McCartney. I'd say it's in his DNA, but the point is it's not. He learned it. Through experience. In Hamburg.
And Gladwell's talking about the 10,000 hours it takes to become world class at any cognitive skill. But then he goes further. He talks about love. That genius is love, not ability. Do you love what you do so much that you can't stop talking about it, can't stop practicing, can't stop innovating?
Gladwell uses the example of Wayne Gretzky. Who cried when hockey games ended on TV when he was only two. Who invented shots no one had even contemplated. But I was thinking of Elton John. Elton loves music. I'll never forget reading that they used to open up Tower Records just for him, he'd buy a hundred albums. Elton's still singling out new talent. He trumpeted Ryan Adams...
And then there's Steve Jobs. He loved computers, he loved technology. He may have been unjustly fired from Apple, but he didn't take his money and go home, he began again, with NeXT. Funny how today's culture is different. I'm gonna create an app or a Website, sell it and retire! The geniuses never retire, their insides won't let them.
And when you see a genius at work, you feel something. Those Apple keynotes, you could see that Jobs himself was thrilled, the excitement was contagious.
And I'm sure you've been at a show where the performer was so into it you'll never forget it. When they weren't playing for you so much as themselves, enraptured by the music.
You know the cliche, "Do what you love and the money will follow." That's hogwash. Making money is its own skill. You can love what you're doing and be broke. But you won't be unhappy.
Loving what you do is not enough to succeed. It's just a beginning, it's an ongoing force. It keeps you going when the spotlight's gone, when everybody else tells you to give up.