Posts Tagged ‘sell your music’

Is Making Music For Yourself An Effective Business Strategy?

Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010

by Shaun Letang

rockin' guitar player

If you’ve been in the music game for any length of time, you may have realised one thing: Having talent doesn’t guarantee a successful music career. Talent is a necessary factor in become successful, yet two people with identical talent can end up in very different places, one playing bedroom sets, the other playing sell out tours.

There are many different reasons why this could happen, not all of which we’ll look at here. But one thing we will look at it this, whether you should be making music for your own personal enjoyment, or if you should be making it for others enjoyment. The way you approach this question will determine the path you take during your music career, so it’s important to choose wisely.

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A person who makes music for them self doesn’t listen to feedback, but instead sticks to what they prefer. A person making music for others however, listens to feedback and adapts their style accordingly. They do this without straying too far from a style they are comfortable making, so are benefiting both the listener and the maker. Which do you think sounds like the better option?

bee playing flute

DJs are a good example of this. It’s a DJ’s job to play to the audience rather then playing to their own personal taste. They don’t turn up to jobs playing what they want, they play what their audience want to hear. If they’re playing a certain type of music and they see the crowd aren’t appreciating it and look bored, they’ll play a different type until the crowd are enjoying themselves. Doing anything less will mean they don’t go down very well.

While this is less obvious in other areas of the music industry, the same thing pretty much goes on. If you don’t make music people want to hear, you won’t go very far. You can enjoy the music you make all you want, but if no one else does, you won’t make any sales.

the band

Fans are the people that will make or break your career, so you need to appeal to them first and foremost.

Now I’m not saying you should ‘sell out’ or make music you don’t like, but within the type of music you enjoy making, you need to appeal to as many people as possible. Doing any less will most certainly hinder how far you take your music, so remember to get regular feedback from the people that pay your wages: The audience!

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About the Author:

Shaun Letang is the founder of the Independent Music Advice website, a website giving music advice to anyone wanting to learn the business side of things. One of our latest topics looks at how independent an independent musician should be.

Article Courtesy of: Go Articles

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Marketing Your Songs

Saturday, April 17th, 2010

By Dennis R. Sinnott

guitar player

Many years ago, as a young man in his early twenties, while still learning my trade – I worked in the copyright department of a large music publishing monopoly – probably the largest in the world. Part of my job was to process all the newly arrived signed publishing contracts. Each week, hundreds of these documents arrived from all over the world, not least exclusive signings, specific assignments, publishing administration, collection deals, sub publishing and so on.

In processing the contracts I soon became curious as to those song writers who seemed to consistently make “pots of money” from those who made modest amounts, to those who made little to nothing. At twenty years old – I was knowledgeable about copyright, and very naïve about marketing.

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I was intrigued by how these super creators of music and lyrics seemed to attract huge royalty streams like endless rivers of money. Nor was my fascination diminished by how some of the most successful of them appeared to be the quietest and unassuming of individuals whenever I met them. In my twenty year old mind I wondered what was their secret? All they had to do – I reasoned, was to keep cranking out songs – and like the touch of Midas, all their songs generated money like gold!

cellist

A few years later, I began to consider that 85% of the success in launching any song was down to the promotional and marketing muscle of the combined a&r and marketing departments of the music publishing and record labels promoting the product. There is truth in this – but I also realized something else: A lot of these “quiet unassuming” song writers were not so quiet and unassuming when it came to promoting their own songs. Many of the top earners simply sidestepped the process of having their new songs evaluated by a&r departments – at least in the early stages, until they had taken care of a few things first. They reasoned, the music publisher, faced with having to provide all the work in giving the song life such as securing a cover, or getting it released, would offer extremely tough terms, (not without some justification if you’re a music publisher). And so, instead of taking “cold songs” to music publishers, these somewhat inventive individuals would first create “a platform” to give the song life, however modestly, by getting a local band to cover it, or perform on radio – sometimes television, or by securing some other form of commercial exploitation, before approaching a music publisher. Many became so good at launching their own songs – when they finally negotiated a deal with a music publisher – it was done on extremely favourable terms.

In my experience, the most successful songwriters, are those who have become masters in marketing their own product.


Open mic; all day, all night.

Dennis R. Sinnott is a music consultant and author with 39 years experience in the entertainment industry. Formerly Head Of Copyright at EMI Music Group in London, and managing director of Christel Music Ltd, he is now a full time consultant offering help and advice to Songwriters, Recording Artists and Professional Organizations in the Music Industry. You can visit his site, at: http://www.christelmusic.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dennis_R._Sinnott
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