I just found out another one of my tracks was licensed for use in a video game!  My track “Where We Were” (produced by Gary Gray), from my CD "Shooting Stars", will be featured in the upcoming VR video game "Catch And Release" from developers Metricmind and publisher Advanced Interactive Gaming.  This track is one of 30 that will be featured in the game and will also be released on a corresponding soundtrack. 

Check out the song here:

​This latest license is, I believe, the 15th new license in the last three months or so.  I’ve built quite a momentum lately with licensing my own tracks, and as they say, when it rains it pours.  I also have around ten or so other tracks that have been shortlisted for various projects that I should know more about soon.  I don’t say any of this to boast, it’s simply the result of a lot of hard work over the last couple years.

In today’s post I thought I’d explore how to build and sustain momentum with your tracks and licensing.  It’s all too easy to get discouraged when pursuing something like licensing.  Results can be incredibly slow going in the beginning.  There are simply no guarantees in this business and all too often writers sign with a few libraries, sit back and wait and then….. crickets.  Nothing!  I’ve been there and I know the feeling.  It’s not a good feeling!

However, the flip side, is that once you start to see the results of your efforts pay off it’s an incredible feeling.  When you work towards something for a sustained period of time and you start to actually see the results you want, that’s a hard feeling to top!  It also gets easier over time.  Success begets success, and once you start licensing your tracks, it become easier to license more and more.  You still could have times where things slow down, like in all industries, but once you get how the business works and realize what works and what doesn’t, it becomes much easier to build momentum and move forward.

Here are a few things to keep in mind as you’re getting started and building your own momentum.

It Takes Time
Licensing takes time.  You have to understand that going into this industry.  This isn’t an instant gratification business.  Many of my recent licenses have been songs that I recorded several years ago or more that are just now getting picked up.

It takes time to build a catalog, build contacts in the industry and ultimately to get things licensed.  You have to remember this in the beginning when you are getting started.  A great analogy is to think of it like planting a garden.  You do the work now and things come to fruition in the future.  This can be frustrating if you’re trying to turn this into a full-time revenue stream, but it is what it is.  You have to think long term and focus on the things in front of you that you can actually control.  Things like building your catalog, writing and recording new music, making new contacts in the industry and so on should be your focus in the beginning.

Another good analogy is to think of it like dating.  When you’re single you never know when you’re going to meet the next person you click with.  You can’t really control it or predict it.  What you can control are things like taking care of yourself, focusing on your purpose and mission in life, where and when you socialize and so forth.  When you focus on the things you can control, things tend to fall in place. 

Licensing is a lot like that.  There are always things you can do to move forward and set the stage for things to go well in the future.  Too many musicians get discouraged when they don’t see instant results.  Don’t get discouraged.  Instead keep focusing on the thing you can do that will get you closer to realizing your goals.
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If you’re not getting the results you want, here are things you can focus and work on, RIGHT NOW:
 
Grow Your Catalog
The more songs you have, the better your chances are of licensing your tracks.  Of course the songs need to be good and the production needs to be good.  But, in general, the more tracks you have the better. The more tracks you have, the greater the chance that you’ll have something that meets the needs of different projects looking for music.  Of course, no single artist will be able to cover all the different, potential needs for licensing.  But the larger and more diverse your catalog is the better.
 
Keep Expanding Your Network
Another thing you should focus on, at all times, is the network of people you have pitching your music.  The more tracks you have the greater the chances of something landing, and the more people you have pitching your tracks, the greater the chances of someone landing you a placement.  If you have a great catalog, but it’s not earning you substantial money, focus on growing your contacts.  I have my music with quite a few libraries and publishers at this point, and usually when one quiets down another one will pick up.  Again, to use the dating analogy, think of it like meeting ten people and getting ten phone numbers.  They probably won’t all pan out, but if you meet and connect with enough people, eventually you’ll make a solid connection.  Dating is a numbers game.  So is licensing.
 
Stay Positive!
This part really applies to life in general.  But, while you’re doing all this, stay positive! It’s easy to get frustrated about the things you can’t control in life, but everything seems to flow better when you have a positive mindset.  By simply focusing on the things you can control you’ll get much better results and you’ll be a lot happier. 

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve definitely been through periods of extreme frustration when things weren’t going the way I wanted them to.  But, looking back, I wasted a lot of energy getting upset about things that I had little or no control over and ultimately, my frustration did zero good.  The only thing that’s really helped me move forward is just doing the work. 

​If you aren’t where you’d like to be, you have more work to do.  It’s that simple.  So, keep putting in the work and effort until you get there.  

Do you ever find yourself feeling discouraged because you haven’t gone as far in your music “career” as you’d like?  Do you sometimes find yourself obsessed with thoughts about when and where your “big break” is going to happen?  Do you wish you made more money from your music?  Do you wish you were more known and respected for the music you make? 

For some reason, a lot of musicians associate being successful in the music business with being “famous” in the music business.  I think a lot of musicians even start with this being their primary goal.  As if being a great musician and being a “famous” musician were somehow the same thing.  It’s sort of weird if you stop and think about it.  There are few other professions where the goal is to get famous for doing said profession, apart from the entertainment industry.  If you aspire to become a great doctor, you’re probably not also hoping to get famous in the process.  Unless you’re Dr. Oz or Dr. Phil perhaps, but do they even count?  If your goal is to open a restaurant, chances are you’re not looking to become famous for it. 

Ideally, fame, if it comes at all, should be a byproduct of being a great musician.  If you’re really, really good at something, and enough people find out and appreciate what you do, there’s a chance fame will come as a result.  But, to pursue fame as the ultimate goal, is a bit like putting the cart before the horse, in my mind.  I’m not really sure if I would even like being famous, it seems like a lot of pressure.  Especially if you’re super famous like Shakira or Justin Bieber.  Although, there are obvious perks, I can only imagine that fame would also come at an extraordinary price, in terms of having very little privacy, having increased demands on your time and the pressure to maintain the success you’ve achieved.

When I was younger I used to put a lot of pressure on myself to succeed and become famous as a musician.  To me, it seemed at the time, to be the ultimate goal.  I wanted to be famous like my idols that I looked up to.  When I didn’t have the success I aspired to have after several years of playing in bands and doing everything in my power to make it happen, I grew disillusioned.  I started to feel really negative about the music business and my role in it.  I can remember the awful feeling of playing gigs that weren’t well attended and feeling like a failure.  This isn’t how this is supposed to be going I thought.  Music, for awhile, stopped being fun and started to feel like a giant source of frustration and pain.  My goal of becoming a famous musician seemed to drift further and further away.

This feeling lasted a few years, until after about ten years of gigging, I took a break from playing live and playing in bands, in my early thirties.  For a couple years I sort of put music on the backburner, not really sure what to do with my passion or love for music.  I still wrote new songs during this period and continued to pursue things like licensing, but music started to seem like more of a glorified hobby than a career.  This feeling continued for the next few years until I noticed something sort of strange, which was that I reached a point where I wasn’t trying to “make it” in the music business anymore and didn’t really think about it anymore.  As a result, I no longer felt the frustration associated with trying to do something and falling short of my expectations, but, my love for music remained.  In fact, untethered from the need to “make it” in the music business, I realized I enjoyed writing and playing music more than ever.  It was as if I rediscovered what drew me to making music in the first place, which, at least in the very beginning, wasn’t to become famous.  I simply loved music!

I think for most musicians, there’s something that drew us to music, before the idea of “making it” in the music business entered our minds.  When I grew up listening to music, I wasn’t drawn to bands and artists because they were famous, I was drawn to different bands and artists because I enjoyed their music.  They became famous, because a lot of people enjoyed their music.  I was drawn to making music, because I simply loved music and wanted to follow in the footsteps of all the great musicians I grew up listening to.  It wasn’t until later, when I was in my early twenties,  that I started obsessing over and worrying about becoming famous.

Benefits Of Detaching From Your Success
I’m about to get all zen and philosophical on your ass.  That’s right, here it comes!  There’s this idea in eastern philosophy, and western philosophy for that matter, of detaching from the outcome of things.  The idea is that as you pursue your goals and desires, it’s best to do so from a place of non-attachment.  In other words, go for what you want, but relax about how things unfold.  This isn’t the same as not caring about the outcome at all, but it’s just that things aren’t always going to go exactly how you want them to go, so you’ll be a lot happier if you just lighten up and not worry too much about how or when things happen.  Do you really want to be successful, but worried and stressed out all the time?

One of my favorite quotes, is a zen proverb that sums up this idea: “the hungry don’t get fed”.  Think about this and how it rings true in your experience.  Think about people who want things so much that they come across needy and desperate, as opposed to ambitious and confident.  You obviously don’t want to simply throw your hands up in the air and become completely apathetic about your life and your goals.  That’s not what I’m suggesting.  But you also don’t want to be so fixated on your goals that the thought of not attaining them causes you to become crippled with fear.  I think there’s a middle ground where you can simply pursue the things you love and let things happen, however they’re going to happen.

Back To The Music
When you shift your focus away from being overly concerned with success and back to your love of making music, you take your power back.  You see, there are people in the music business, who in some ways can hold you back from success, although not as many as there used to be.  But, there are still gatekeepers that can reject your music.  Maybe it’s a music publisher who doesn’t think your music has what it takes, or maybe it’s a music supervisor who doesn’t think you have the right “sound”.   But, when you stop worrying so much about success and just focus on making great music, well, no one, and I mean no one can stop you.  Only you can decide whether or not you’re going to keep making music, keep writing better songs and keep improving your craft.

You are completely in control of how good you become as a musician.  Maybe you haven’t had the success you’ve desired so far, but it’s up to you whether or not you want to keep improving and growing as a musician.  This is what’s so exciting about letting go of the need to “make it”, it puts you back in the driver’s seat and puts the focus back on the only thing you ever really had control of in the first place, the music!

And of course, the better you get as a musician and the better your music becomes, the chances of attaining “commercial success”, or success in general, become greater.  It’s easy to be cynical about the music business and there are plenty of examples of uber successful musicians whose music you might not respect, and we probably all know musicians who are uber talented who, for whatever reason, haven’t found much success to speak of.  But, in my experience, when you work hard, and stay focused on growing as a musician and doing what you can to move your career forward, opportunities do come and doors do open, eventually.  It might not happen exactly when or how you think it should, but when you persist at something like music long enough, success, in varying degrees will eventually come.    And when that happens, you can take a deep breath, relax, and get back to making great music.

Today’s post isn’t directly related to music licensing or the music business, but yet I think it’s completely relevant to all of us as musicians.  The topic I want to discuss, is the importance of being positive in both your approach to making music, the music business and life in general.

A few days ago, I hosted the first in a series of live monthly webinars that I’m offering via my new website, How To License Your Music Premium.  This webinar featured TV composer Eddie Grey and music producer Gary Gray.  As Gary was introducing Eddie and I at the start of the webinar he highlighted how, in his estimation, Eddie and I are positive, optimistic people that others want to be around and how our optimism, in his opinion, is at least part of why we’ve been able to carve out successful niches for ourselves in the music industry.

Later in the webinar, during Eddie’s presentation, Eddie told the story about closing a recent, lucrative deal for one of his tracks, and suggested that one of the main reasons he was able to close this particular deal was that the person he signed the deal with simply likes working with him.  He said that obviously his music was good as well, but that in his opinion his attitude and positivity had as much to do with his success in this particular instance as the quality of the music he makes.

Later that day, I skyped with one of my publishers in LA for about an hour and our conversation drifted to the topic of my producer, Gary Gray, who we both know and work with.  We both talked about how positive and upbeat Gary is and how nice it is to work with people like this.  Then my publisher spent several minutes talking about how, in her own career and life, being a positive person has been a big part of her success and has served her well.

This theme of being positive, kept coming up over the course of this day and it inspired me to reflect on my own life and how positivity, and the lack of it at times, has impacted my life. 

I consider myself a “glass half full” sort of person.  I think most people that know me would describe me as an upbeat and optimistic person.  I always look for the positive in situations and do my best to stay optimistic, regardless of what’s happening in my life at the moment.  I can’t say that I succeed at staying 100 percent positive, all the time, but I definitely lean in that direction.

Endeavors like running a business and working in the music industry, are both pursuits that can knock the strongest of us off our centers, if we’re not diligent about maintaining a positive perspective.  To be honest, this is something I have to work at on a daily basis, despite my own generally positive demeanor.  Sometimes, in life, things happen that challenge our disposition.  It happens to the best of us, which is why it’s so important that we actively work on developing and maintaining a positive outlook.

I think the more we’re striving for in life, the greater the chances of things happening that we perceive as negative and the greater potential for losing a positive perspective.  If you’re the kind of person who has no goals or ambition and are generally content just coasting through life, well, it’s pretty easy to stay upbeat if that’s your outlook on life.  If, however, you care about where you’re going, the progress you’re making and desire to advance in life, it can be easier to get thrown off course when we face the inevitable setbacks, rejection and so on that are part and parcel with a life well lived. 

If you’re aiming for success and growth, you’re going to face setbacks.  It’s unavoidable.  I don’t know anyone who hits 100 percent of the shots they take.  Do you?  I could mention several of the cliché quotes about success and failure that I’m sure you’ve all heard a thousand times.  You know, like, you miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take, and so on.  But, just hearing these sorts of ideas does little to comfort us when we’re in the thick of life, dealing with the ups and downs we all deal with. It’s easy to just tell people they should be positive, but what about when things aren’t going our way and we're feeling really discouraged? 

As I mentioned in a couple previous blog posts, I went through a break up recently.  And by the way, I don’t mention things like this to evoke sympathy, I ‘m just sharing the experiences of my own life, in the hopes that my own realizations and insights will be helpful to you.  I went from seeing and living with someone every day for two and a half years, to simply not having them be a part of my life.  It’s pretty intense, and as anyone who has gone through an experience like this can attest to, it’s something you have to really experience to understand. 

Platitudes like “it’s better to have loved and lost than never have loved at all”, are of little comfort when you’re dealing with the immediate aftermath of a break up. Advice like “don’t worry man, there’s plenty of fish in the sea”, do little to comfort a broken heart, at least initially.  Although with time, they start to make a whole lot more sense!

When we face challenges in our careers and personal lives, we’re presented with an opportunity for growth and an opportunity to truly flex our positivity muscle.  It’s how we deal with these inevitable challenges and setbacks that define who we are as people and inform and shape our character.  It’s easy to be positive when things are going well, but it’s when the proverbial “shit” hits the fan that we find out what we’re really made of. 

Here are a couple strategies I use on a regular basis to maintain a positive perspective.  Both of these philosophies have served me well and have helped me stay upbeat and optimistic in the face of challenges in business, music and in my personal life.

The Obstacle Is The Way
One of the ways I’ve trained myself to stay positive, in the face of challenges and adversity, is to adopt a sort of stoic philosophy to challenges in my life.  There’s an idea in stoic philosophy, that any challenge we face in life is an opportunity to advance to even greater heights and move closer to our goals.  As the great Stoic, Marcus Aurelius, wrote: "Our actions may be impeded, but there can be no impeding our intentions or dispositions. Because we can accommodate and adapt. The mind adapts and converts to its own purposes the obstacle to our acting. The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way."  In other words, like author Ryan Holiday declares, in his book about stoicism, “The Obstacle Is The Way”.

The idea, and it’s a beautiful idea really, is that any event we initially perceive as “negative” or “bad”, can be turned into a positive and actually help us get closer to our goals.  It’s a matter of perspective and how we choose to look at the situation. 

How can we apply this philosophy to our lives?  Let’s take something most of us our probably familiar with, breakups, to start with.  When my girlfriend and I broke up recently, I was pretty shaken.  I wasn’t really devastated, because to be honest I saw it coming months in advance and had contemplated how I would react if and when it happened.  I had even considered ending the relationship myself for a variety of reasons that ultimately contributed to the demise of the relationship.  It was more or less an amicable decision.  But, I was still pretty upset when it finally happened, as can be expected.

However, with time, I’ve come to see what happened as a positive event.  It’s been an opportunity to grow in many ways that I wouldn’t have, had the relationship continued.  It’s given me an opportunity to really reflect deeply on the kind of people I want to allow into my life on an intimate level.  It’s forced me to grow in ways that I don’t think I was really capable of within the context of the relationship.  It’s motivated to step up my “game” in different areas of my life.  I’ve embraced things like going to the gym, working harder on my business and socializing more.  Part of these changes are simply a result of the extra time I have by not being in committed relationship, but most of the changes have been positive and are leading me to an even better place in life.  The breakup has been a catalyst to move in the direction of my desires.

How can you apply this philosophy to something like music and the music business?  Pretty much the same way.  When you have setbacks as your pursuing a career in music, these setbacks will generally point you towards what you actually need to focus on to reach your goals.  Are you trying to license your tracks over and over, but they keep getting rejected for the same reasons?  Maybe you keep hearing that your tracks are strong but that the vocals are not on point.  Or maybe you keep getting feedback that your production is not up to speed.  Whatever the case may be, whatever setbacks you’re facing will most likely point to what it is you actually need to focus on in order to succeed.  In other words, the obstacle is the way!

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve trained myself to look at life this way and it’s helped me stay positive and upbeat, almost irrespective of whatever temporary setbacks I’m confronting.  I’ve faced a lot of challenges and continue to, but I no longer see setbacks as some sort of permanent state or a reflection of my worthiness as a person.  I see setbacks and challenges as feedback.  Our setbacks either point us in the direction of areas we need to focus on and improve, or they indicate we’re simply on the wrong path and need to try something different.  Either way, our challenges can be seen as guideposts, pointing us in the direction of our goals and dreams.

Gratitude
Another strategy I utilize in order to remain positive, is good old-fashioned gratitude.  So often in life, we’re so focused on things that don’t work out, or don’t go the way we’d like them to, that we lose sight of all the things that are going well.  It’s easy to get bogged down in a sea of negativity if all we’re focusing on are the things that aren’t working out the way we’d like.  But, I think if you’re honest with yourself, it’s pretty easy to find plenty of things to be grateful for.

Start with simple things.  Are you alive? Check.  Are you breathing? Check.  Do you have internet access?  Check.  Do you have goals and dreams?  Check.  Do you have at least one friend or someone you’re close to? Check ( I hope, if not go make some friends!). 

​It’s so easy to lose sight of things that we should be grateful for.  As I mentioned in a previous blog post I wrote about gratitude, half of the world’s population lives on less than $2.50 a day.  If you’re reading this, then most likely you’re in the other half of the population.  Be grateful for that.  Be grateful for the many things you most likely already have going for you in life and let that gratitude carry you forward to even greater heights.

I make a list of things, on a daily basis, that happen that I’m grateful for.  This could be a positive interaction with a friend, having a good day in terms of business, having a good date, maybe licensing one of my songs and so on.  I look for things to be grateful for and I take note of them throughout the day.  I find that by doing this, I’m training myself to look for the good in the world and in my life.  It becomes sort of addictive, the more you look for things to be grateful for, the more you’ll find.  The opposite is also true, it’s pretty easy to find things to bitch about.  But, why would you do that? 
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Focus on the things that motivate and inspire you.  You’ll find plenty if you look.

Check out highlights from our recent webinar on writing instrumental cues for Television, available exclusively for How To License Your Music Premium members.

I sent out a survey last week, asking for feedback about the types of issues musicians are struggling with in terms of getting their music licensed and moving forward with their careers.  To my surprise, the issue that musicians brought up, more than any other issue, that they said they needed help with, was help or advice on how to manage their time. 

With so many things to do as indie musicians, it can be overwhelming trying to juggle so many different tasks.  How do you know what areas you should be focusing on or prioritizing?  How do you find the time to do so many different things? How can you best manage your time on a daily basis, so you’re both moving forward, but also enjoying your life and avoiding burn out?

These are the issues I’m going to be addressing in today’s post. As someone who both runs a business and is simultaneously working as a professional musician, both gigging and recording/licensing music, I’ve learned a few things about how to manage my time effectively over the years.  I can’t say that I have all the answers, and every situation is different, but allow me to share some of my best practices for managing time, staying organized and moving ahead, without losing it in the process.

I believe in both the value and power of hard work.  There’s something about the feeling that I get at the end of day, where I know I gave it my all, that I find incredibly satisfying.  It’s one of the things that has allowed me forge ahead and not give up in both business and music, both things that require an incredible amount of dedication. With that said, I also enjoy “down time” and other aspects of life that don’t revolve around work.  Things like relationships, friends, family and just good old rest and relaxation, I find incredibly important and so I do my best to make time for these things as well. 

I’ve been really getting into going to the gym lately and I find the extra energy I get from working out, as well as the changes in my physique and health, well worth the effort I put in. However, as anyone who works out knows, or should know, there is a point of diminishing returns with exercise.  You can work out too much and actually get worse results than you would have had you allowed time for your body to rest.  Or, worst case scenario, you can actually cause damage and injury to your body if you overdo it too much.  Your body needs periods of rest to recuperate and repair itself from the stress and tension working out puts on your body.  Without these periods of rest, you won’t get optimal results from your workouts.

I like to think of work in a similar way.  You need to put in “the work” to get results in anything, whether it’s a business you’re starting, or a new CD you’re releasing.  Obviously, you have to put in effort to get results.  But I think any conversation about time management should take into consideration that you also need to factor in periods of rest and relaxation, in order to get the most out of your periods of hard work.  Like Jack Nicholson’s character famously said in the movie The Shining, “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”. 

So, with that said, let’s talk about ways to effectively manage your time so you can get the best results, achieve your goals and kick ass in 2018.

Define What Your Goals Actually Are
Before you can effectively organize and manage your time, you need to know what it is you’re actually trying to accomplish with your time.  The more clear you can get about what your goals are and what it is you’re trying to do, the more effectively you’ll be able to break down the steps you need to take to get there. 

I like to think both in terms of long term goals and short-term goals.  In other words, where I want to be, and the steps I need to take to get there.  I have a document that I’ve created, that I go over daily, where I break down my overall “life vision” and then break down things to do on a weekly basis in several different categories, including business, music, health, finances and so on.  I find that by breaking things down into different categories, I get a real clear picture of where I need to be focusing my time as it relates to my most important goals.

Here’s an example of what that looks like from the actual document I use.  I start with my “Life Vision” because I think it makes the most sense to start with an overall vision that I’m trying to realize and then break it down into smaller steps.

Life Vision
Thriving Member site that delivers tremendous value to musicians
thriving indie Music career with lots of placements,
play shows regularly (minimum weekly)
10 K monthly from music and business combined
Nice place that I love living in with a
Podcast / Recording Studio
Three rooms – studio/office, bedroom, guest room
Plenty of money in bank at all times – grow savings
In great shape
amazing primary relationship that I feel great about, trust, love, connection, support
great relationships/friends that I love
Live in area that I love
Travel and connect more
Life that flows with ease and love and peace
debt free
Ability to travel several months a year to cool places
 
As you can see, The Life Vision part of my goal setting is fairly broad and relates to several key categories of my life; business, music, relationships, health and money.  In other words, the areas of my life that have the biggest impact on my quality of life.

After I’ve established my overall life vision and the kind of life I’m trying to create and bring to fruition, I then start to break down each area that I want to focus on, and figure out the things I need to focus on in each category.  Here’s the Music category as an example:

Music To Do This Week
- Finish NCIS Song And Record New Cue”
-One guitar jam recording or video weekly
-Upload music and artwork for new EP, Chill
-And new Vocal EP
-One Youtube video weekly  
-Post to reddit (Weekly)
-Facebook ad (weekly)
-Submit to five new places daily
-upload tracks to Ad Rev
-New Music Video  
-Send Beth Wernick Music
-Get tracks featured on Spotify
 -Launch boom goes the music, podcast and make playlists

Each week, I change the things I need to do and focus on for that week.  Right now, I’m recording an average of two new songs a week, for specific projects I’m working on. I’m also releasing a new EP, working on creating new content for my Youtube Channel and in the process of launching a new Podcast featuring other artists.  I’m also continuing to promote my music and reach out to new contacts as well.  There’s a lot to do, but by breaking down so clearly what I’m trying to accomplish, it makes it much easier to determine the steps I need to take.

After I’ve determined my overall life vision and the things I need to do on a weekly basis in each key area, I then I make a daily list of things to do each day.  I tend to do this each night for the following day.  As an example, here was the list I made for myself for yesterday:

Tuesday
8 am - Workout
get to office
Work on member site
Create new videos, content, add new leads, etc
Music Pitchers
Make 5 submissions
My Music
Submit to five places
Work on new music video
Send 90 day leads
Write new instrumental cue and make demo
Promotion:  Email colleges, universities, etc
6:30 Call with Senne for 90 day challenge
8:00 – Finish recording with Eusebio

I tend to start my day by working out, then head to the office and focus on business things during the day, and then at night I tend to focus on my music, writing, recording etc.  I continue this process more or less the same throughout the week.  I usually factor in at least one day a week, normally Sunday, where I don’t do any work and spend the day, normally relaxing with friends, going to the movies, going out to eat, etc.  I also typically have at least two or three nights a week where I go out somewhere, either on a date, hang out with friends and so on.
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Overall, I would say I’m a pretty busy person, but I feel like I lead a balanced life.  I’m busy, but I don’t feel overwhelmed or out of control. I know what I need to do and I focus on getting things done, but I also make sure to take time to “stop and smell the roses”.  I think when you give yourself regular periods of rest, at least one day a week, when you do return to work, you’ll find that you’re more focused and rejuvenated, and you’ll be able to get more done.

Have you ever seen the movie “Yes Man” with Jim Carrey?  In the film, Carrey’s character attends a self-help seminar where he learns about the idea of simply saying yes to every opportunity that comes along. By saying yes to every invitation and every opportunity to do something new, he transforms his life and lifts himself out of a deep rut he had been in.

In today’s post I’d like to explore how you can apply this same principle to your music and your music career, in order to lift yourself out of ruts, or simply move forward and push your career even further, if you’re already experiencing some success.   Regardless of where you’re at in your career, by saying yes to more opportunities and seizing more chances that come your way, you’ll experience more success, grow as a musician and move ahead more quickly.

For the last year or so, I’ve taken this approach to my career, without really thinking about it deliberately.  I didn’t sit down and say to myself that I’m going to start saying yes to everything, I’ve just found myself starting to embrace more and more opportunities and trying new things.  As a result, I’ve made new connections, expanded my catalog of music and have made more money.

I’ll give you a few examples of how this has played out in my life.  Think about how you can apply this approach to your own music career.  I think most of us have opportunities to move forward that we miss out on, because we’re so focused on what we think we should be doing, or what we would simply prefer to do.  There are lots of different ways to be successful with music, that are outside of the realm of the conventional ways we think of “making it’ in the music business.

For example, a few moths ago I started, for the first time in my career, writing instrumental compositions.  Of course, I’ve been very aware of instrumental music and its role within the context of sync licensing for years, but I never really considered writing this style of music?  Why?  Looking back I think I was simply too locked into a very narrow role I had defined for myself and my music, which was that of more a less, a singer/songwriter.  I’ve always loved this kind of music, and so I set out to create and focus solely on this genre.  For years I dedicated my time to writing songs with lyrics and vocals.  Of course, I don’t regret any of this and clearly this style of music is a valid and popular genre of music.  I’ll continue to write this kind of music forever, because I love it.

But, now that I’ve started to get into writing instrumental music, it’s opened up a whole new genre and style of music for me to work with and pursue.  I really enjoy writing instrumental tracks and I never would have known if I hadn’t said yes to a recent opportunity to create instrumental tracks for a TV show a friend of mine works on.  In the past, I probably would’ve said no, that’s not really what I do, or “I don’t know, let me think about that”.  I can think back to similar opportunities in the past that I turned down or didn’t pursue with much conviction, because it wasn’t exactly what I wanted to do.

I recently heard back about a batch of new instrumental tracks I’ve submitted and was told I would most likely get several new placements as a result of these tracks.  This particular show goes into production next month, so we’re still waiting for the exact dates/episodes. As a result of this project, I also now have basically a CD’s worth of instrumental music I can release on Spotify, Youtube, Itunes, etc.  All by just saying yes to an opportunity.

I’ve also had another opportunity to write music for the show NCIS, and I’m creating several new vocal tracks this week and next to submit to this particular connection.  The great thing about saying yes to these types of opportunities, is that regardless of how things pan out, whether your songs get used or not, you’ll grow as a musician and of course end up with new songs that you can market and sell to other places.

Another great thing about saying yes to more opportunities is that it creates momentum with your career and music.  When I have specific projects to write for and specific goals related to my music, it gives me something concrete and tangible to aim for.  I find this incredibly inspiring and motivating.  When I go through periods where I don’t have these types of goals related to my music, I of course still write and create music, but I have a tendency to get more complacent and lackadaisical with my approach to making music.  Sometimes having no restrictions or parameters on the music you make can be incredibly freeing, but it can also lead to a very aimless approach to your music that doesn’t really lead anywhere, if you’re not careful.

As musicians, we need to have goals to aim for, to both motivate us to grow, and on a practical level, just to have something to shoot for and focus our time.  I think I was resistant to approaching music this way in the past, because I didn’t want my music to simply become a product or commodity to be exploited in the market place.  So I clung to the idea that I have to write music that I’m passionate about and believe in, regardless of whether or not it fits into the box of what is “commercially viable”.  I felt like I had to write music that first and foremost, I love, and then try to figure out how to monetize it.

Now, I look at it this way: Of course, I want to write music that I’m passionate about.  After all, if I don’t love and enjoy what I’m doing, it sort of defeats the point of being a musician.  However, as a professional musician, I also have to write music there is a need and demand for.  So now, what I try to do is find the place where my passion intersects with an actual need.  For example, with the instrumental cues I’ve been creating, there is a specific format for these types of tracks that works best.  The music can’t be too busy or have too many notes, because it needs to support the dialog of the scenes.  So, I have to keep this in mind when I’m creating these tracks.  This minamalistic approach is different than what I would do normally, but I still love creating these tracks and find plenty of room to be creative and express myself artistically. 

By saying yes to more opportunities, I’ve been able to grow my catalog and discover a new side of my musical personality that I didn’t even know existed.  If you’re feeling stuck or not sure what direction to go in, seek out more connections and opportunities, then when opportunities present themselves, as they inevitably will, say yes!

Check out one of my newest instrumental tracks, Flying, here.  This one, as usual, was produced by Mr. Gary Gray.

Hey everyone!  Hope you all had a great Christmas Day (or whatever holiday you celebrate - Festivus anyone?) As 2017 winds down and we gear up for 2018, I just wanted to take a moment to thank all of you who have been reading my blogs, listening to my podcast and following me this past year. I truly hope my articles, podcasts and so forth serve as a powerful tool in your arsenal for navigating your way through the music business. 
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The last few years have been an interesting and challenging time in the music industry, in some ways things seem bleak. As someone who works on the front lines of industry, in contact with and interviewing some of the brightest minds in the industry, it can be discouraging to hear so many anecdotes of how the music industry has changed for the worse over the last few years. 

For reasons I'm sure you're all aware of, it's challenging being a professional musician in 2017/2018.  People don't really buy music anymore, it's hard to make money from streaming music, revenue for performing live has remained stagnant for most musicians for several decades, licensing is super competitive and unpredictable and so on.  I know, you know, we all know, it's not easy being a musician.

Yet, at the same time, the challenges in the music business present incredible opportunity and possibility for those with the right mindset and perspective. What are you taking about Aaron?  What kind of opportunities are you talking about?  

There's a great quote, that I remind myself of frequently, when times seem to get tough.  The quote is by Billionaire investor Warren Buffet and it goes like this:  "Be afraid when everyone is greedy, and be greedy when everyone is afraid".  What does it mean?  It means that when people are panicking and freaking out about how bad a situation seems, there are hidden opportunities for those with a good eye and the right perspective.

All businesses have cycles of up and down. It's really inherent in life itself if you think about it.  We all have good seasons and bad seasons in our lives.  We have times when things seem to sailing along very smoothly and then BAMM, something unexpected happens that throw us off center.  These difficult periods can be blessings in disguise, forcing us to dig deeper, to access parts of ourselves we didn't even know we had and to rise like the Phoenix from the ashes, soaring to greater heights.

My girlfriend of two and a half years broke up with me about two weeks ago.  I wasn't expecting it.  I can't say it came out of nowhere, but it definitely caught me by surprise.  The first few days I was in shock.  Then came the pain and grief.  It's only been two weeks, so I can't really say I'm over her, but already I can feel a strength emerging from within that I didn't even know I had. I feel, strangely, at peace about the situation. I didn't really want to lose my girlfriend, but in just two weeks I can see how this crisis is really a blessing in disguise, if I choose to look at it that way.  
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There are always positive things that come out of seemingly negative situations, if we're open to seeing them.  Now that I'm single again, I have more time for myself, more time to focus on my business, I can date other girls again, I can travel, I can spend more time on my music, I can workout more.  I can ultimately find someone I'm more aligned with who won't break up with me!

There are TONS of positives, even though I'm sad about losing someone who was very special in my life for a time, I can already see that this situation can be a positive, life transforming period, if I choose to look at it that way. If I remain open to the unexpected opportunities that arise.

I see what's happening in the music business in a similar perspective, although granted the scale and scope of the problems are larger.  The challenges we face as musicians in the music business are real, but they present the same opportunity for growth and transformation.  We could choose to throw in the towel and do something else, and that decision itself could be an avenue of growth, depending on the path you choose and your reasons for doing so.  Or, we can choose to learn from the challenges we face, adapt to the changing industry and ultimately overcome the obstacles we face.

Look, I don't have all the answers.  Obviously.  I'm just one guy with a passion and love for music, doing my best to figure out and adapt to the industry like everyone else. I do my best to find those who are figuring out how to make it work in the music business and share their stories with you.  From things like Youtube to streaming music on Spotify, to licensing music in tv and films, there are lots of potential revenue streams to tap into going into 2018 and I remain committed to sharing what I and others have learned about the new music business paradigm with you all.

But, I also know that it's not easy.  I've had my shares of ups and downs with my own music over the last 20 or so years working as a musician. I've had great years filled with growth and exciting achievements.  And I've also had years where I frankly just feel live giving up and doing something more conventional and "easy".

For better or worse.  I'm still here.  Still fighting the good fight.  Still writing my songs and hustling to be heard in a noisy, crowded and seemingly over saturated market.  Why am I still doing this?  Why don't I just give up and call it a day?  For the same reason that I'm not going to throw in the towel on intimate relationships.  Because, I believe in what I'm doing in the same way I still believe in love and human connection.  It's easy to get cynical when things don't work out in life.  It's easy when a relationship doesn't work out to simply conclude it's not worth the headaches and stress that it takes to maintain a relationship.

But I know, that when I'm really connecting with another girl and in a loving relationship, it's worth the struggle.  It's worth all the pain and heartache and loss that it took to get there.  Even when it ends, it's worth it.  I would never take back the great moments I've had with an ex-girlfriend just because it ended, even if I could.  I'll never forget the moment my ex girlfriend, after a few cocktails, with tears welling in her eyes, told me I taught her how to love.  Whoa.  Deep.  Beautiful.  And worth the struggle and ultimately the relationship not working out. 

I feel the same way about music. I know in my heart that anything great is worth fighting for.  I know, it sounds cliche, but anything worth doing is most likely going to be difficult and challenging.  The challenges and obstacles are what force us to grow.  I know, without absolute certainty, that the difficulty of being a professional musician, has forced me to become a better musician.  In the same way, the pain and difficulty of intimate relationships has molded me into a more well, rounded compassionate person.

I might never be a famous musician, and I might never find the great love of my life that lasts until death do us part, but I know that no matter what happens, I'll keep trying.  

Happy New Year!
Aaron Davison

​PS - I just finished a new song called "Down".  This one is about how we have to be strong in the face of adversity and trials we face in life. (I wrote and recorded this about a week before my ex and I split, but it seems even more poignant now)

Four years ago, I started my podcast, Music, Money And Life as a means to promote my website, products and services.  Since then, my podcast has grown into one of the more popular music business podcasts out there and it’s become the thing I enjoy the most about running my business and find the most rewarding.

Although I started my podcast with the idea of promoting my brand, products and services, I’ve discovered a lot of other unexpected positive side effects of hosting my own podcast.  It’s been such a positive experience that I highly recommend other musicians look into starting their own podcasts as a way to spread the word about their music, services, and connect with other people in the business.

In this post, I’m going to break down why podcasting is such an amazing platform for moving forward in the music business.  I’ve discovered essentially five main benefits of podcasting, that all musicians could benefit from.

They are....

Connecting With Other Industry Influencers – This is probably the single biggest upside of hosting your own music business or music industry related podcast. When you create a platform for others to promote themselves and get the word out about what they’re up to, they are much more likely to talk to you and connect with you than if you simply contact them, randomly, out of the blue, trying to get them to help you with your career.

Most people love to talk about themselves. I don’t say this in a cynical or jaded way, it’s just human nature. People want to express themselves and be heard, and podcasts are a great way to connect with a lot of people at one time.  I’m amazed at some of the people I’ve been able to interview and connect with on my podcast, Music, Money And Life, and it’s getting easier and easier to attract high profile guests. 

Next week, for example, I’m interviewing the drummer Kenny Aronoff, cited as one of the top 100 drummers of all time by Rolling Stone.  Kenny has played with a who’s who list of musicians, including artists like John Cougar Mellencamp, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, The Rolling Stones, Lady Ga Ga, Bruno Mars, Sting, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Seger, Dave Grohl, Elton John, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Jon Bon Jovi, Steven Tyler, The Smashing Pumpkins, Meatloaf, B.B. King, Rod Stewart and John Fogerty, to name a few.  I can’t wait to pick Kenny’s brain about the music business next week, I can imagine he has a little bit of knowledge to share!

I don’t have any particular agenda in connecting with the musicians and people I bring on my podcast.  Some of my guests I’ve forged ongoing relationships with and some I may never talk to again.  But either way, I’m getting access to people and knowledge I probably wouldn’t have otherwise.

Social Proof / Credibility – Another benefit to podcasting is that by interviewing and connecting with other people in the industry you’ll boost your own perceived credibility in the industry.  When you connect with other people that are higher up the ladder than you are in the industry, people will take you more seriously as a result.   

When deciding whether or not to work with you, or do business with you, people decide in part on social cues to determine whether or not they want to move forward.  When people see you associating and collaborating with known names in the industry, it boosts your own credibility by default. 

​Again, I’m not really trying to do this with my podcast, it wasn’t something that I set out to do when I launched my podcast.  This is a natural byproduct of connecting with and working with other industry insiders.  People, in general, will start to take you more seriously when they see that other established people in the industry take you seriously.

Self Education – Another great, great benefit of hosting your own podcast is that you’ll learn so much more about the business, so much more quickly than you would if you weren’t connecting with and speaking with industry insiders on a regular basis.  Now that I’ve done almost 100 episodes of my podcast, I often joke that I feel like I’ve received a master’s degree in the music business. 

The music business is a people business, but it’s also an information business. Knowledge is power, and when you’re able to connect with and speak with people more established than you are, you’ll learn a wealth of information in the process.  I’ve had tons of insights and aha moments as a result of connecting with people on my podcasts.  I’m educating my audience, but I’m also educating myself at the same time. 

Self Promotion – This was really the reason and main motivation for starting my podcast; the ability to promote myself.  Podcasts are a great way to get the word out about your products and services.  Like with all self promotion, you need to be careful in how you do this.  If you make it too much about you and your products, music, etc, you run the risk of turning people off.  But if you don’t overdo it, podcasts are a great tool for self promotion.

The theme of my podcast is directly tied to what I do both as a musician, and as a business, so it’s not really a stretch to occasionally mention a new product or program, or to play some of my own music.  All things I do from time to time.  But I try not to overdo promoting myself and keep the focus on educating and entertaining my audience to the best of my ability.

Self Improvement – And finally, the last benefit that I’ve discovered from hosting my podcast is self improvement.  What do I mean?  How does hosting a podcast improve yourself?  Well, as we all know, the music business is a people business.  Your ability to connect with other people in the business, will at least in part determine your success.  That’s not to say you can’t be a little eccentric and still succeed in music, we all know that’s not the case.  But, you need to connect with people in an authentic way.

There’s an art to having a good conversation. I’m not claiming to be an expert at this, but like with anything, the more you do something, the better you’ll get.  I feel like I’ve gotten a lot better at steering a conversation and conducting interviews as a result of hosting my podcast.  That sort of self improvement and self development is extremely rewarding.  The fact that I can connect with so many people I respect and admire in the business is pretty frigging cool.  Will these connections somehow boost my own status in the music business?  Maybe, it could.  But honestly, the process itself is the reward.

“No man is an island”, as the expression coined by Poet John Dunne goes.  This expression resonates with me more and more, the longer I live and the older I get. 

When I first decided to go the route of working for myself, I fantasized about being able to work alone, free from the distractions and annoyances of other people.  I imagined my days would be filled in peace, working when and how I chose, on projects that I chose, that inspired me.

In the beginning of my self-employment days, I did in fact spend a lot of time working this way.  At first, it was incredibly refreshing and liberating.  I could simply focus on the work I needed to accomplish, in peace, without a boss, or irritating co-workers to distract me.  The first couple years that I worked for myself, I spent most of my time working this way.

Over time though, I started to miss the interaction and camaraderie I had with my coworkers previously, before I became self-employed.  I decided to actively start building a team of people to work with, a tribe if you will.

It wasn’t just that I missed the social interaction, it was that I realized I was missing a critical component of life that would allow me to grow my business and move forward:  synergy.

The term synergy comes from the Attic Greek word συνεργία synergia from synergos, συνεργός, meaning "working together". Synergy is the creation of a whole that is greater than the simple sum of its parts. 

Any great business, relationship or band has elements of synergy at play. Apple wasn’t just Steve Jobs, Apple was and is a team of thousands of people working together, sharing ideas and collaborating.  It’s the Synergy of all the people that work together that has truly made Apple a success.  Jobs was a great spokesperson and he certainly played a critical role in Apple’s success, but Apple is much more than just the vision of Jobs. 

The Beatles wasn’t just Paul or John, it was John, Paul, George and Ringo, writing and playing music together and creating something that together, they weren’t able to create on their own.

Guns N Roses isn’t just Axl Rose.  Even though Axl never quit performing the music of GNR with a variety of different musicians, it wasn’t until most of the original members reunited recently that they became hugely successful again.  It’s the synergy of the members involved that makes their music so special to so many.

Reciprocity
Synergy works on different levels and is effective for several different reasons.  The first one is very practical.  Humans by nature, have a desire to reciprocate when someone does something to help them.  I know, us humans have a lot of nasty and undesirable traits, but deep down most of us want to help those who help us.  It’s in our nature, in the same way that many of us want vengeance when we are “wronged”.  Reciprocity is like the flip side of vengeance.  It’s the yin to vengeance’s yang. Think of reciprocity as positive payback.

From Wikipedia….
In social psychology, reciprocity is a social norm of responding to a positive action with another positive action, rewarding kind actions. As a social construct, reciprocity means that in response to friendly actions, people are frequently much nicer and much more cooperative than predicted by the self-interest model; conversely, in response to hostile actions they are frequently much more nasty and even brutal. [1]

Reciprocity makes it possible to build continuing relationships and exchanges. Fukiyama [2] states that “If the institutions of democracy and capitalism are to work properly, they must coexist within certain premodern cultural habits that ensure their proper functioning” (p.11). He goes on to say “Law, contract, and economic rationality and prosperity…. must as well be leavened with reciprocity, moral obligation, duty toward community, and trust…. 

When you’re working with others, it sets up a natural cycle of reciprocity.  I have several key people on my team at this point, and we all more or less help each other on a regular basis.  Imagine a ball of giving being passed back and forth.  I do something for someone on my team, and they feel inclined to do something for me, then I feel more inclined to do something for them and on and on.

This back and forth reciprocity plays out in different ways.  Sometimes it’s as straightforward as I hire someone to work for me, they do a good job and I reciprocate by paying them.  This might not seem like a great example, but it is actually.  Money is simply a unit of value, and it’s a clear cut and straightforward way of reciprocating for someone’s time and effort.

Other times it plays out in more subtle ways.  For example, I have a new intern for How To License Your Music.com.  It’s technically an unpaid internship, but my intern is doing such a great job at the moment that I feel inclined to compensate him for his efforts in a variety of ways.  I end up paying my intern back for his efforts by taking him out for lunch every day, giving him tons of advice and knowledge about ways he can promote his own music, teaching him everything I know about the music business, offering to connect him with different people and so on.  The better I express my gratitude and appreciation for his efforts, the more inclined my intern is to keep working with me and I’ll most likely be bringing him on in a more formal, paid position in the near future.

With other people in my tribe, this sense of reciprocity plays out in different ways. I’ll give you another example.  A couple months ago I was in LA co-hosting a retreat about music licensing.  One of the guest speakers at the retreat was one of my former clients, Eddie Grey, who has gone on to become a very successful TV composer.  I was so impressed by Eddie’s presentation at the retreat and by his willingness to share what he’s learned, that before I left LA, I suggested the idea of creating a course together for my website about composing music for television. I figured I could help Eddie get the word about what he’s doing to more people and help him make extra money at the same time.  Eddie agreed, and we released our first course together recently called “How To Be A Full Time TV Composer”.

The course that I created with Eddie has been a huge success. We’ve sold a lot of courses and have received really great feedback from the people who have purchased it so far.  Eddie was so pleased and excited by our initial results that he sent me this really kind email:

“Thank you again, I am really grateful. Yet again, you have contributed greatly to me.
 
This will all come back to you my friend....tenfold.
 
I hope you see this as a success in a long line of successful deals we will engage in.
I will continue to produce at a high level to ensure customer satisfaction and retention.”

This was such a nice email to receive, because now I feel even more inclined to continue working with Eddie and trying to figure out ways to help him with his endeavors. Reciprocity in action.

Expanding Pool Of Resources
Another great benefit to building a team and working with other people, is the benefit of having access to other people with other areas of expertise than your own.  This is beneficial in a variety of ways.  For one, if you have access to people with other skill sets than your own, you can accomplish a lot more than if you were trying to do everything yourself. 

For example, I’m not a great producer.  It’s not really one of my skillsets.  So I tend to outsource production work to my producer, Gary Gray, which allows me to spend more time writing and marketing my songs.  There are only so many hours in a day after all, and I don’t really have the time or desire to try to do everything myself.

When you bring other people, with unique skillsets, into your tribe, you are literally expanding your resources.  None of us can do it all, and let’s face it, when it comes to something like the music business, there’s a lot to do.  You need to be able to wear a lot of different hats if you’re going to do everything alone. You need to make music, produce it, market it and so on. It’s hard to do this in isolation.  When you have a tribe, you’ll be able to share the workload with others and reduce your own stress.

Insights And Aha Moments
Another great benefit to working with others and building a tribe, is that you’ll increase the likelihood of having insights and “aha” moments during conversations you have with others.  There’s something powerful about working and interacting with others who have different, unique perspectives, based on their unique backgrounds. I often get ideas and insights from others that I wouldn’t have arrived at on my own.

Just this morning in fact, I had a conversation with another co-worker who works at the same co-working space as I do that generated an idea for a way I could easily make 10 to 20k more per year, with minimal effort. These sorts of insights happen frequently when working with others, but I rarely seem to have them when working alone. Sure, I may occasionally get a great idea from a Youtube video or a blog post, but there’s something about real time, in person interactions that lead to these sorts of insights much more frequently. 

Camraderie
And finally, when you’re part of a team or a tribe, you’ll have others to help boost your spirits when you’re down.  This is really the essence I think, of the expression “no man is an island”.  We need each other to function optimally.  Sure, some people are more introverted than others and don’t need or desire as much social interaction, but we’re all essentially dependent on each other to function in modern society. 

I consider myself a fairly introverted person.  I love interacting with others, but I also enjoy spending time alone and doing things like writing songs, reading and so on.  But, if I spend too much time alone I start to crave connection and interaction with others.  There’s a reason prisons use solitary confinement as the most extreme form of punishment.  It’s not a state most of us prefer to be in long term.

Embrace the role we play in each other’s lives.  Whatever you’re doing in life and wherever you’re going, realize that building a team or tribe of people to work with and interact with, will most likely help you reach your goals more quickly.  You’ll also be able to help others reach their goals.  Successful human interaction is truly a win-win.

With the work of creating and releasing my latest course, How To Be A Full Time TV Composer, behind me, I thought I’d get back to exploring some topics that are a little broader and applicable to all of us, regardless of what kind of music we make or what are specific niche is.

According to the self-help guru and motivational rock star, Tony Robbins, two of the most fundamental needs we have as humans, is the need for both certainty and variety.  We long for things like comfort, security and stability.  But when things get too predictable, we tend to get bored and crave variety and excitement. 

I can relate to these two, seemingly, contradictory needs a lot.  I’ve felt this dynamic at work in all aspects of my life; relationships, work, music, business and more.  At times, it seems like life is a tug of war between these two opposing ends of the need spectrum.  We need and long for stability, but we also need and desire a certain amount of variety and newness to keep things interesting and fresh.

When my income from licensing my music and making money online combined was enough that I was able to quit my job as a guitar teacher, one of the first things I did with my new-found freedom was to start travelling abroad.  Travelling helped me scratch the itch I felt for variety and excitement, at a time when my life was starting to feel very monotonous and uninspired.

My first extended trip was to Costa Rica.  Then to Nicaragua.  Then to Panama and Colombia.  Then to Guatemala. Then to Mexico and Peru.  Then to the Dominican Republic.

I became sort of addicted to the feeling of freedom and adventure that travelling gave me.  There’s something about going to a new culture that you’ve never been to before, where you don’t really know anyone, that is extremely invigorating.  There’s a heightened sense of self that comes to the surface when you put yourself in a new, unfamiliar environment.  You’re forced to pay more attention to your surroundings and you feel more alive. Travelling to me is a bit like a drug, which is why so many people are drawn to it.  It’s intoxicating.

“Do what you love and the money will follow”.  That’s a mantra I heard over and over growing up.  The idea being that if you just, in the words of Joseph Campbell, “follow your bliss”, that will somehow magically lead to a life that unfolds magically and will result in a blissful life filled with money, accolades and everything your heart desires. 

It’s a great idea. But, at least in my experience, it’s simply not true.  I know tons of people “doing what they love” who are broke and one or two pay checks away from being on the street.  In my own experience, I’ve followed this idea to a large extent, and although at this stage in my life I’m fairly comfortable, it took me a long time to get here and my success hasn’t been nearly as simple as just “doing what I love” and waiting for money to pour into my account. Don’t get me wrong, I love my life, but it’s not all easy.  I’ve worked really hard to get where I am now, and I still have a long way to go.

Now, don’t get me wrong, life isn’t about just money.  I’m sure as musicians we can all agree on that.  But, money is important, and if you’ve ever been in a position where you start to run out of it, you realize quickly just how big of a role, for better or worse, money play in all our lives.

In my experience, learning how to make money, in both the music business and business in general, has required actually doing a lot of things I don’t love at all and learning how to have a good attitude about doing them anyway.  Everything I do for money these days has started with some sort of initial passion, but in the end, every single road I’ve walked down that has actually worked, has involved a fair amount of doing things I really don’t feel like doing or particularly enjoy.  It hasn’t been all bliss.

I’ll give you a few examples

Music Licensing – My desire to license music and make money started with a  passion for writing songs. I still maintain my passion for making music and I love it as much as ever.  However, the reality of making money licensing music involves a lot of things that aren’t necessarily fun or particularly enjoyable.  Things like doing metadata, uploading music, aggressively emailing and calling people, networking and so on, aren’t really my idea of a great time.  But, they have to be done in order to achieve my desired result of successfully licensing my music.

Running my website – The idea to create an internet business around my passion for music and music licensing was born out of a desire to work for myself, and focus on a subject that I love, writing songs and licensing music.  I get a lot of satisfaction out of my work and it’s definitely a better way to make money than any of my previous “day jobs” I’ve held.  But, again, running my business requires doing a ton of things that aren’t particularly fun.  Things like editing podcasts, writing ad copy, doing accounting and so on, aren’t my favorite things to do, but they’re part of running my business and it’s work that has to be done.

Hosting Retreats – This has been a new venture for me, and with only two under my belt this year, I don’t have a ton of experience.  But, again, although the overall process of hosting a live event was extremely rewarding, there was a ton of preparation leading up to the event that was fairly stressful and not really fun, per se. Things like creating websites, running marketing campaigns and so on were all a lot of work and not that exciting.  Even the event itself was somewhat stressful and a lot of hard work.  In the end, it was very rewarding, but it wasn’t all fun.

I could go on and on with examples like this, but I’m sure you get the point.  I don’t think there’s a profession in existence that is all fun, all the time.  Most successful people have to endure a certain amount of stress and pushing through resistance in terms of doing things they don’t feel like doing to achieve their goals.

So, where does this idea of “do what you love and the money will follow” come from?  Well, it’s a nice idea and like many clichés, there is an element of truth to it.  I think it’s an idea that can actually push you in the right direction, it’s just that it’s overly simplistic.

Let’s face it, most people probably aren’t cut out to work themselves, which is why most people don’t work for themselves. Only about 6% of the population is self-employed. The majority of people don’t have the “kahunas” to really follow their passion and make their dreams a reality.  

The majority of people work for someone else and I don’t think this number is a coincidence.  Working for yourself, in any capacity, is hard. Creating a career as an independent musician is hard. Starting a business that becomes a viable, profitable business is hard.  There’s a reason most people choose to just get a job working for someone else.  It’s a lot easier and in many ways, less stressful. It’s probably not as rewarding, for most people, but it’s definitely easier and less stressful, which is why the majority of people go this route.

But, since it is so hard for most people to get a business or project off the ground, it can be a huge advantage if you actually enjoy and believe in what you’re trying to do.  If your passion is great enough, it can help you find the strength to keep going in the beginning, when times are tough and you feel like giving up.  Doing what you love and are passionate about can be a huge advantage in terms of making money, if, and this is a huge if, there’s actually demand for what you’re selling or trying to do.

If there’s zero interest or demand in your music, widget, service, or whatever it is you’re trying to sell, no amount of passion is going to allow you to become successful. If, however, there’s some interest and you have a massive amount of passion, that could lead to making something that otherwise would have failed, or been mildly successful at best, becoming massively successful.  Passion and love for what you’re doing, could be the tipping point that pushes you towards success, but there has to be interest in what you’re doing to begin with.

If you have no passion or interest in whatever it is you’re trying to do to make money, chances are you’ll probably just throw in the towel when the going gets tough.  But if you really believe in what you’re doing, you’ll be much more motivated to stick with it and overcome the challenges that inevitably arise.
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Do what you love and the money will follow? Yes, if what you love overlaps with something there is an actual demand for and you work really, really hard, overcoming the barrage of obstacles and setbacks that are sure to come your way.
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So, go ahead, follow your bliss, just don’t expect life to always be blissful.

I’ve been posting a lot of content lately strictly related to licensing, so I thought I’d take a moment to write a blog post about a slightly broader topic that’s been on my mind lately.  It’s not directly related to music licensing or the music business, per se, but it’s a mindset that’s applicable to anything you do in life, including, of course, making music and pursuing a career in music, if that’s your thing.

This is a concept that author and entrepreneur Seth Godin introduced me to, and it’s the idea that in business, and life in general, we have a tendency to take things personally when things don’t go our way. If our music or business venture fails, we feel like it’s somehow a reflection of our value.  If the market rejects our ideas or music, we feel like they’re rejecting us, as people.  We have a tendency to take our success or failure very personally.

Godin likens the process of starting a business or launching a new venture as being a bit like playing Monopoly.  Only, instead of just playing with several people, it’s a game that we’re playing with several billion people.  Every move anyone makes affects everyone else’s position on the board.  But, like in the game of Monopoly, if you don’t land on Park Place, or you’re not the first one to buy up all the utilities, you shouldn’t really take it personally. After all, it’s just a game.

Of course, it’s easy to look at life and business this way when you’re sitting comfortably atop your multi-million dollar empire, as someone like Godin is.  But, what about when you’re starting out, or when you’re still struggling to “make it” in your chosen profession?

Like the game of Monopoly, the game of life is a game you get to keep playing.  If you lose at Monopoly today, you probably aren’t going to take it personally, throw the game away and refuse to every play again.  Unless you’re like 4 years old.  Maybe you got a few bad rolls of the dice and perhaps you made a few strategical errors.  But, you still can play the game again tomorrow and you could still win again tomorrow.

The game of life is a lot like Monopoly.  Just because you didn’t make the moves you wanted to make and haven’t arrived where you hoped you’d arrive, doesn’t mean the game is over.  You get to play again, every single day you’re alive.  Your past doesn’t define you and you can always make different moves today.

It’s not a perfect metaphor.  After all, this is real life and our success or failure has real, tangible consequences.  But, in a way, it’s a pretty accurate way of looking at the situation.  Just look at the winners and losers in the music industry.  It’s pretty clear that those who have “made it” commercially are not somehow inherently better people than those who haven’t.  They might be better players, but even that isn’t necessarily true.

I think we can all agree that the Justin Biebers and Katy Perry’s of the world are just people who happen to have the right combination of looks, talent, hard work and timing.  It’s a game and they got a lucky roll of the dice. That’s it.  It doesn’t mean they’re better than you, or more talented than you, or even smarter than you.  They just rolled the dice and landed on Park Place before you did. 

Of course, like in all games, some people are more driven to win than others.  Some players practice more and study the game better than others. Some players spend more time playing and get better than their opponents. Some players come to the realization that the game isn’t even worth playing and find a new game to play.

But the most important realization, regardless of whether you win or lose, continue to play or quit playing, is that, in the end, it’s just a game.

I just finished spending two weeks in the LA area for the licensing/production retreats I co-hosted with my producer, Gary Gray.  It was an amazing two weeks.  It was so great to meet so many people that I’ve worked with online and on Skype, in person. 

In addition to meeting all the musicians who attended the retreats, I finally got to meet one of my “star students”, Eddie Grey.  Eddie has taken several of my courses and has gone on to parlay the information I teach, as well as what Gary Gray teaches about music production, into a thriving career as a TV composer.  I had a chance to go to Eddie’s home studio in Sherman Oaks and see what he does in action.  It was really cool to see him working behind the scenes.  He’s a super hard working guy who is crushing it right now with licensing and syncs.  I’ll be bringing him back on my podcast soon to share what he’s up to.

In addition to the retreats I hosted, I also managed to record three new tracks with Gary, meet up with five different people in the industry who I previously connected with via my podcast and had a chance to meet several new music supervisors and publishers. It was a jam-packed two weeks of working, recording and networking. 

I left LA with a renewed sense of focus both about the business aspects of what I do related to running my website, as well as a new sense of purpose and direction related to the music I make and license.  I probably learned more about the music licensing business and music business in the last two weeks than I have in the previous two years.  It was really that great of a trip.

As excited as I am about my trip and as excited as I am about the future, there were some slightly discouraging conclusions I came to about the music business as well during this trip.  Some of these conclusions aren’t necessarily new, but were simply reaffirmed based on different things I was told and heard during my recent trip.

One of the great things about connecting with people in person is they tend to open up and give you a more unfiltered take on things.  Although I was super inspired from most of the people I met and connected with, there were some people I met in the industry that were more than happy to share some of the darker sides of the music business with myself and Gary. 

Most industries have a dark side and a certain element of corruption and politics if you dig deep enough, but the music industry, due I suppose to the nature and economics of the industry, has a particularly high degree of corruption, shady people and pitfalls to watch out for.

I won’t name names, but I spoke with a well connected and respected publisher who told Gary and I numerous horror stories about behind the scenes deals between supervisors, elements of payola in the licensing industry, stories of artists buying spotify streams and youtube views to artificially boost their popularity and on and on.

Of course, none of this is really that surprising to me, but it can be a bit depressing to hear about if it catches you off guard.  Here we are, in this already incredibly difficult and competitive industry and then come to find out, it’s not even a fair or level playing field.  WTF?!  We pour our hearts, emotions and money into our music and yet there are people out there willing to take advantage of us if we’re not careful.  Life can be so cruel.

But, then again, is it really surprising? I wasn’t born yesterday.  I’ve been around the block a few times.  I get that life isn’t always fair and that not everyone has our best interests in mind.  This isn’t really news to me and I doubt it’s news to you either.

So, what do we do about it?

Well, here I go about to get all philosophical again….

There is a yin and yang to life.  There is a bright side and a dark side.  But, we get to choose where we shine our light and what we focus on.  We get to choose where we direct our energy.  We get to choose what direction we go in.  We get to choose which doors we open and which doors we close.  Don’t like what’s behind door #1?  Turn around, close it and open another door.

It’s incredibly easy to be cynical about the music business right now.  There are plenty of things to get down about.  It’s incredibly competitive, it’s not fair, there are shady people, there are elements of corruption and on and on and on.  If this is all you focused on, it would be very easy to quit making music out of frustration.

Sometimes I ask myself, why I am even working in the music business.  That, by the way, is a really good question to ask yourself.  When I see so many obstacles in front of me, I sometimes have to step back and remind myself why I’m doing this in the first place. 

For me, the reason I make music is really, really simple.  I. Love. Music.   That’s it.  That’s why I do this.  I love it and I prefer to do things I love, as opposed to things I don’t love.  It’s a simple life philosophy that makes decision making extraordinarily simple. 
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Of course, I don’t love everything about the music business and there are plenty of things about the music business not to love.  But, back to the yin and yang idea, there are plenty of things I do love about the business.  That’s where I choose to focus.

There were some depressing behind the scenes stories about the music business I heard over the past couple weeks.  But there were even more inspiring and encouraging things I heard and experienced.  I met and connected with so many writers, publishers and producers all excited about the industry.  I connected with people more than willing and eager to share what they know and who wanted to help in any way they could. 

For example, I emailed six recent guests on my podcast based in LA, before I came out, asking if we could meet up.  Five of the six said yes.  There was a schedule conflict with the other person.

I met great, talented people working in the industry willing to share their contacts and expertise and help in anyway they could. For example, I spent almost two hours with songwriter Jimmy Dunne (Whitney Houston, Kenny Rogers, Take 6) at his beach club cabana in Pacific Palasiedes.  Throughout the conversation I could feel Jimmy trying to find ways he could help me.  It was as if he was searching for information he could impart that would help me. I walked away with several great ideas based on the conversation we had and what he shared.

I stayed for free for two weeks at my producer Gary’s house. Gary drove me around LA from meeting to meeting and place to place.  He never even asked for gas money!

I made friendships and connections I hope will last for years to come.  I met an amazing singer and vocalist named Elza who gave me one of the best vocal lessons I’ve ever had, for free!

I could go on and on with stories like this.
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The conclusion I came to and the point I’m trying to make is this:  There are plenty of things about the music business to get down about if you want, but there are an equal amount (if not more) of great things about the music business and the people working in the music business to get excited and inspired about.  Both are true, the good and bad things, but you get to decide which you focus on and where you shine your light.
 
I’m not sure about you, but I choose to shine my light on the bright side.
 

This past weekend my producer Gary and I finished the first of two weekend long retreats we’re hosting here in Tustin, CA.  It was a long, but extremely rewarding weekend.  We had a small group of just six people for this first one, but the small size of the group allowed us to spend a lot of one on one time with all of the participants and really dig in deep with everyone who attended the retreat. 

During part of the retreat, the participants who attended collaborated on an original track they wrote on the spot and we ended up recording the song at the end of the first day of the retreat in Master Recording Studios, a multi-million dollar recording studio here in Tustin.  We’re actually going to be shopping the track to a few different supervisors in the coming weeks and if we end up licensing it, everyone will get a cut!

My favorite part of the retreat though, was listening to music supervisor and current creative director for Songtrdr, Erin Dillion, do a real time music screening session, during which she screened three tracks from each of the participants.  Erin informed us that for her job at Songtrdr she listens to, on average, 2,000 tracks a day! We were all a bit shocked by this number.  I have heard of supervisors being sent up to 1,000 submissions a day, but wow, 2,000 tracks is intense! 

Of course, Erin said, she doesn’t have to actually listen to all 2,000 tracks in their entirety, so she has become super efficient in determining very quickly whether or not she wants to keep listening to a track.  She said the song has to grab her within the first 5 or 10 seconds, or she’s on to the next one.  I know that might seem harsh, but that’s the reality of the industry.  There’s a ton of music out there, it’s not all ready to be licensed, and so supervisors and executives like Erin have to cut to the chase very quickly simply due to time constraints.

During the listening sessions, it was great to see Erin’s reaction to everyone’s music.  She really loved a few of the tracks, a few she was pretty neutral about, and a few others she was more critical of.  One of the points she stressed is that she doesn’t really even know production lingo or how to articulate when things are off, production wise. She’s not a producer and if even if she was she wouldn’t have time to articulate to everyone why she doesn’t like their tracks or why she thinks they’re not right for licensing. 

Erin’s job is more intuitive.  She has a sort of sixth sense about music and what songs will work right for different projects.  Her job is to find great music for the projects she’s working on, not to instruct people about how to write and record those songs.  Not that she didn’t have great tips for everyone about what works and what doesn’t, but she made it clear that on a day to day basis she simply doesn’t have the time to get into why songs don’t’ work.
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Here's an example of a song that Erin heard during the retreated and loved immediately and thought would work great for licensing.   This one is called “Who Can Mend A Broken Heart” by Travis Nilan.

​Here’s another one that visibly moved Erin, that she also loved and thought would work in the context of licensing.  This one is an instrumental guitar track from Paul Armendariz called “Sparkle Hour”.  Erin had an immediate, positive reaction to this one!

​One of my biggest takeaways from the weekend is that in order to succeed in licensing you need to do your own research.  You need to attend industry events, meet people, study the market and of course write great songs.  When you’re on the outside looking in, it can be frustrating if you’re not getting the success you’re seeking.  But when you learn how the business works, by listening to and meeting the people working within the music business, it all starts to make sense.  When you realize the sheer amount of music industry insiders are listening to and screening on a daily basis, all the rejection and frustration musicians go through is seen in the proper context.  A healthy dose of perspective goes a long way.

During the retreat, Erin shared with us a great tip about how to break through the noise and reach people like her in the business.  This particular tidbit of information was a huge aha moment for me. What is it?  Well, I can’t tell you…. exactly.  That wouldn’t really be fair to the people who paid good money to come to our retreat and took the time and effort to be there.  But what I can tell you, and this is really the gist of her message, is that you need to think outside the box.  The majority of writers trying to break into the business are all doing more or less the same thing; sending more or less the same un-inspired emails, writing the same homogenized songs and trying to market them more or less the same way.

Erin said at the end of the retreat that now that we know her and have made a personal connection with her that now we can email her directly and she’ll check out our music.  The more face to face networking you do, the more you’ll develop connections with peole that will be open and willing to listen to music you send them.  More importantly, they’ll also tend to be willing to give you valuable feedback, that you most likely wouldn’t get if there wasn’t a personal connection. 

My trips to LA and experience hosting this retreat this past weekend have reaffirmed what I’ve known all along, which is that networking and making personal connections is vital in this industry.  There are a ton of musicians vying for a finite amount of licensing opportunities.  But, there is a much smaller pool of musicians who are going above and beyond and putting in the real work, in terms of networking, cultivating relationships and so forth.
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There are two ways to approach this business:  you can be half in, or all in.  Which approach best describes you?

The last few days have been a blur of answering emails, screening and pitching music to various projects, editing podcasts, making youtube videos and getting ready for the two upcoming retreats I’m co-hosting next month in California.  This morning I was starting to feel a little burned out from all the work I’m doing so I decided to take a break and have a little impromptu songwriting session. 

I write music on a regular basis, but from time to time I just stop whatever I’m doing and have a mid-morning or mid-day songwriting session.  I have the luxury of doing that since I work for myself and without fail it leaves me feeling rejuvenated and recharged, ready to face the rest of the day with more clarity and purpose. 

I like to think of songwriting as going to a place, that I can go to almost anytime I want, that’s removed from the world of capitalism, paying bills, work and all the stress that goes along with day to day life in 2017.  For me, it feels a bit like accessing a meditative space where, when things are going well, I get totally absorbed in what I’m doing to the point that I completely forget about any “problems” or issues I’m dealing with, for a while at least.  Sometimes it only lasts a few minutes.  Other times it lasts a few hours.  But the deeper I go, the better songs I’m able to extract, harness and channel.

One of the more refreshing take-aways I’ve gotten this year from hosting my podcast is the idea that at a certain point, you need to forget about all the rules and ideas you have for what you think makes a marketable song, and just write music from the heart.  This has been the consensus of the vast majority of songwriters, publishers and supervisors I’ve interviewed.  This isn’t to say that you can’t try to write something you think might be more marketable and have some success with it.  If you throw enough crap against the wall, I’m sure a certain percentage of it will stick. 

One of the things that concerns me about the current state of the music business, is that since it’s become harder to monetize music, musicians more than ever, seemed to be more concerned with figuring out how to make money from their music.  I get it.  We all have bills to pay and need to figure out how to get compensated for the work we do.  My goal with my website, podcast and so on, is to help you figure out how to do that. 

But…  I think it’s important that, as artists, we strive to keep focused on the deeper reason we make art and music in the first place.  There are easier ways to survive than making music.  If the only way we can make money from music is to reduce it to a sort of commodity and product that we have to force into a narrowly defined, pre-conceived set of parameters that’s been defined by some executive at a corporation or a “suit” at a TV network, I fail to see how that’s much different than any other job in “corporate” America. 

However, I don’t think it has to be this way.  The light at the end of the tunnel, is that I think great songs still have a place and there’s a still a demand for inspiring and moving music.  Even if it’s in the context of an ad campaign or a corporate backed TV show.  I truly believe there’s a point where great music and corporate interests intersect.  Your job as a songwriter and composer, is to write great music that you actually believe in, and then look for places where your music is needed.

If you reverse this, and simply try to write music you think will make money, then I fail to see how this is different than any other “job”.  In fact, I think in many ways it’s actually worse, in the sense that you’re taking something that you’re presumably passionate about and forcing it into something you think the market will have a demand for, a much more difficult task than simply getting a "day job".

Something I heard the other day, and I’m drawing a blank on where I heard it, is that great art doesn’t follow culture, great art creates culture. Do you think Dylan or The Beatles would have worried about whether their songs worked in the context of a car commercial or a soap commercial?  Do you think Hendrix gave a shit about whether his guitar solos were “in fashion”?  Well, I can’t speak for these artists, but I’m pretty confident that in all cases there was something more “pure” happening than simply trying to make a few bucks from their little “ditties”.

Now, I get it.  We live in different times.  For better and worse.  The music business has changed dramatically since the days of The Beatles, Hendrix, etc. Despite the tone of this article, I’m actually quite optimistic about the future of the music business.  I think things are getting better and I think they will continue to improve.  However, in the meantime, the challenge we face as artists is to stay true to our muse and not lose sight of what making music is really all about.  Which, in my opinion, is about a lot more than simply trying to help advertisers sell cars or help tv shows sell advertising space. 

When I’m deep in one of my songwriting sessions, the last thing I’m thinking about is trying to make money or figure out what tv show my music might fit into.  I’m just writing music that I feel inspired to write and I’m writing about things I’m inspired to write about.  Then, after I’ve written a song, then and only then, do I worry or think about where to try and sell it or license it. 
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To be honest, I’ve licensed music of mine that I think sucks and I’ve licensed music that I love and I’m super passionate about.  I’m a lot more proud of the latter.

Originally I had planned on calling this blog post, "reconciling the conflict of art and commerce".  But the more I dug into the topic and really thought about balancing these two, seemingly contradictory ends of the spectrum (art - commerce) of being a professional musician, the more I realized there was something more profound and meaningful, albeit slightly more subtle, to discuss.

I realized, upon closer investigation, that these two different aspects of being a musician aren't so much diametrically opposed as they are intricately connected. They're connected in the same way that night is connected to day, good to evil, up to down and so on.  I like to think of art and commerce as being the yin and yang of the music business.  For better or worse, they depend on each other. Without an audience, music doesn't have nearly as much impact and without getting paid, musicians have a hard time eating.  Hence, the existence of the music business.

In The Beginning...

Let's start with what I'm assuming is the primary reason the vast majority of us were drawn to being a musician in the first place: making music.  Whether your passion is performing live or sitting in your bedroom and getting into that blissed out zone where great songs emanate from, I think it's safe to say that the vast majority of professional musicians are drawn to the music business out of a deep love and passion for making music. Makes sense right? If you love doing something, a logical extension of that is to try and make a life out of it.  It's not necessarily the easiest life plan to execute, but it's a hell of a lot more inspiring and motivating than trying to make a life out of something you have no interest in doing.

Most musicians probably start with pretty pure intentions and a sincere desire to create something unique and beautiful to contribute to the world.  Sure, there's most likely a healthy dose of some level of desiring to acquire fame and fortune in the mix for a lot of musicians. But the vast majority of musicians I meet and interact with seem to have a true passion and love for making music.  I think we all desire success on a certain level, but most musicians don't stay in the game very long if they don't truly love music and making music first and foremost.

However, as anyone who has been a musician for more than a minute can attest to, the music business, isn't always a bed of roses.  Making a business out of music is a much, much different experience than just playing music for fun in your spare time.  Turning your love of making music into a viable career path is a journey that can be so challenging and so treacherous that it can potentially undermine and destroy your love and passion for making music.  I've seen musicians go from having an absolute, unabashed love and joy for making music to simply not wanting anything to do with it, in the span of just a few short years, as a result of the music industry's cutthroat and heartless nature.

And even if you are one of the few who do succeed at "making it" in the music business, well that's no guarantee that your life is going to be a happy, care free and joyous life anyway.  One needs to look no further than the recent suicides of Chester Bennington and Chris Cornell, or the long line of musicians throughout history who have died tragically young due to substance abuse and mental health issues (Amy Winehouse, Janis Joplin, Elvis, Prince, Michael Jackson, Hendrix, etc) to see that it's pretty clear that "making it" in the music business doesn't automatically equate to a happy or "successful" life. Obviously correlation is not causation, and there are, I'm sure, many happy and well adjusted musicians, successful and otherwise.  But from the outside looking in, it doesn't really seem like success in the music business, in and of itself, is a very dependable way to attain happiness. 

The more I think about and break down the distinction between the art and commerce aspects of the music business, the more I realize that the music business is simply a microcosm of life. At the risk of getting a little too philosophical, life is both tragic and beautiful, simple and profound, sad and happy, up and down and [insert your own cliche pair of opposites here], regardless of what profession you choose.  No life path is a guarantee for happiness.  I've met absolutely miserable people who are obnoxiously wealthy and ultra successful by societal standards, and I've met entirely happy and content people living in third world countries who make less than ten dollars a day, and vice versa.

The music business just seems to magnify aspects of humanity that are prevalent in all our lives.  At its worst, the music business is comprised of greedy, egotistical, maniacal and power hungry executives (and in some cases musicians) who will stop at nothing to increase their bottom line and further their power and dominance without regard to things like artistic merit, integrity and talent.

Conversely, there are tons of musicians out there who want nothing more than to simply make beautiful music, share it with the world, and hopefully earn enough to lead a comfortable, sustainable life at the same time. The music business isn't one or the other, it's both.  Just like life, it's not really possible to reduce it to some sort of easily quantifiable box or category or thing.  

Achieving Balance - The Zen Of Being A Musician

On an individual level, as musicians, the "zen" part of being a musician is about maintaining balance and having a healthy perspective. You need to have thick skin to deal with the inevitable ups and downs that come with the path of being a musician.  The music business is hard for a variety of reasons, many of which I've addressed on this blog and in my newsletter ad nauseam over the years.  Without going into the obvious reasons why the music business is so challenging, let's just say it isn't for the faint of heart.

What's allowed me to forge ahead after all these years and still deeply enjoy music and to a certain extent, the music business, is the realization that "making it", at least as traditionally defined, isn't really the goal to begin with.  What you talking about Aaron?!  You're sounding crazy! How could that not be "the" goal??

Think about it, it's pretty clear that making it in the music business doesn't automatically lead to a happier and more fulfilling life (see above).  I mean, I'm sure there are plenty of examples where it has, but there are clearly an abundance of examples where it hasn't.  So, I'm not overly concerned with stressing myself out about reaching some sort of arbitrary goal of "making it" in the music business that would seem to, at best, give me about a 50/50 chance of happiness and fulfillment, and could actually reduce my life expectancy by as much as 25 years.

But, then again, sitting around and wasting your days away doing nothing or doing things you don't care about isn't exactly a great recipe for a fulfilling life either.  At least not for me.  For me, the sweet spot is in the middle, where you're actively engaged in life and pursuing things that are important and meaningful to you (like music), but you're not so attached to the outcome that you hinge your happiness on achieving or not achieving certain goals.  Even goals related to your music career.  

It's sort of like when you want to be with someone, romantically, so much that you scare them away.  If you cling to hard, you risk squeezing the life, and fun, out of the relationship.  It's the same with music. If you take it too seriously, it's all too easy to turn your music career into something that's just another, run of the mill, stress provoking attempt to make money.

I think Gandhi summed up this idea well, when he said “Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.” When I think about this quote as it relates to being a musician, it really helps put things in perspective.  It means, to me at least, that in the grand scheme of things it probably doesn't matter whether you or I or anyone else make it in the music business, but it's important that we try.  It's important that we're engaged with and enjoying our lives and contributing to humanity to the best of our ability. But don't take any particular goal or endeavor so seriously that you squeeze the life and joy out of it.  
I know, I know, it's a bit of a paradox.  "You should pursue your goals but not care if you achieve them?  Is that what you're telling me Aaron?"  Well, not exactly. A better way of saying it is you should pursue your goals as passionately and joyfully as possible but don't let your emotional well being depend on any particular outcome.  I know, it's deep, but I didn't call this post "Zen And The Art Of Being A Musician" for nothing!

Think of it this way...

True freedom is pursuing and doing that which we love, but being comfortable enough to let the chips fall where they may, because ultimately they're going to anyway, whether you like it or not.

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I’ve been getting a lot of questions about my plans for my first ever digital music compilation that I’ll be releasing this fall.  Since most of the questions have been more or less the same, I thought the easiest thing to do would be to address them all in a blog post.

Here goes…

Why are you doing this compilation?  What’s the point?  
Well, the simplest answer is that I want to help promote some of the amazing music that is out there that isn’t being heard.  As a part of my “job”, I have the great fortune of listening to a lot of indie music, and there is an enormous amount of really great music out there that isn’t really being heard.  I want to do my part to help promote some of the great artists out there that deserve recognition but aren’t really getting it.

What styles of music are you looking for?
I envision this first release as being fairly eclectic, with a wide range of styles.  I’m really open to anything as long as it’s great and well done.  With that said, I’m leaning towards songs with a modern and fresh sound with vocals.  However, if the right instrumental track or track comes my way, I’m open to including that as well.  The main thing I’m looking for is great music, regardless of the genre.

Is there a deadline for submitting?
There’s not a specific deadline per se.  I’m going to keep accepting submissions until I find a collection of tracks that I feel strongly about.  With that said, my plan is to release the compilation in the Fall, so I’m hoping to wrap things up in a month or so.

Are you doing this to make money?
I hope this project makes money, but I’m not doing it primarily with that motivation.  I’m well aware of the challenges of monetizing recorded music, so I’m going into this with eyes wide open.  With that said, I want to be as transparent as possible at the outset of this project and let everyone know that any money that is potentially made will be split equally with everyone who contributes to the project.  If there ends up being ten people involved (including me), the money will be split ten ways.  It’s as simple as that.  

I have some really unique ideas in terms of how to promote the project that I’ll be sharing with everyone a little further down the road.  For now, just realize, this project is free to participate in and everyone involved will get an equal share of any money made.

Will I keep the rights to my music? 
Yes, 100 percent.  By participating in this release you won’t be giving up any of your rights to your music.  You’ll still own your tracks and can continue to license them, sell them and give them away elsewhere as you see fit.  This won’t be like a traditional record deal/record label where you give up the master/publishing to your music.  Our deal will be completely non-exclusive and you can work with other people and companies concurrently if you choose to do so.

Where will the release be distributed? 
Spotify, Itunes, Amazon, Youtube, etc.  Wherever digital music is bought and sold.

When is the release date? 
I don’t have an exact date. It depends on how long the process of screening, selecting and compiling music takes.  I plan to release it, tentatively, sometime in early Fall 2017.

When will you notify the artists you’re interested in working with?
I’m going to start contacting artists that I’m interested in later this week.  My plan is to Skype with everyone I'm interested in initially to go over details of the project and to make sure we're on the same page about my vision for the release. If we are, then I’ll send a short contract that outlines the details of our arrangement (see above).

What about your licensing courses?  Will you still offer those?
I’ve been running How To License Your Music.com for nine years now and have put together an extensive collection of courses and products related to the music licensing niche.  I’ll be continuing to offer my courses on my website and will continue to offer training programs with coaching, like the 90 and 180 Day Music Licensing Challenge, as my schedule permits.

If you’d like to submit your music for consideration, you can do that here.

Let me know if you have any more questions or comments, in the comments!

This summer I’m going to be launching a brand new project, unlike anything I've ever done before.

I’m looking for great songs that I’m going to release as a part of a compilation that will be distributed far and wide on platforms like Itunes, Spotify, Youtube, My podcast and much, much more.

If your music is selected, being included on this release will cost you nothing.
​
In fact, there’s a really good chance that this release will make money.  That’s the goal.  If that happens, and I'm confident it will, I’ll share it with everyone who’s involved equally.

I can’t share the exact details of the release yet, but if your music is accepted as a part of the release, I’ll give you all the details as well as a short and sweet, 100% non -exclusive contract.

What I can say, is that this is going to be a very innovative release and a unique project unlike anything you’ve ever heard of.  If all goes as planned, we’ll all be getting major press and attention for this project.  Seriously.

Sound interesting?

Apply below and if I think you’re a good fit, I’ll give you all the details. Please fill out as many of the fields below as possible, as they will all factor into your being accepted or not.

It’s good to have goals.  As musicians, having goals gives us something to aim for in our lives and careers.  The right goal can motivate us to grow and push us towards new heights as musicians that we would most likely fail to reach if we had no goals at all.  Having goals give us a direction to orient ourselves towards.  It gives us something to do and strive for every day when we get up.

Without goals, it’s all too easy to wander aimlessly, with no real direction or purpose at all as it relates to our music and life in general.  One day maybe we dabble in jazz, the next day we try to write a fugue, the next day we go to the beach because we’re not feeling it and so on.  Of course, having a freedom and playfulness to our lives can be liberating at times, but without any goals at all, we zig and zag a lot, often times not really getting anywhere.

The problem with goals though, is when we’re so attached to a specific outcome, that we neglect the process and journey of getting there.  Or, we get discouraged when we don’t hit the milestones we set for ourselves and stop trying or even give up.  This could because we’re not setting the right goals, or we’re simply not motivated enough to do what it takes to make our goals a reality.

Having really big goals gives us something to dream about and work towards.  I think they’re mainly positive.  Goals become a negative when we set such big goals for ourselves that we become discouraged and depressed if we don’t reach them.  Or even worse, maybe we do reach them, but they fail to satisfy us the way we imagined they would.   Or we find we’re not quite ready psychologically to deal with the sort of attention and pressure that success brings.  (I’ve known people personally who have experienced both of these scenarios).

I made a video recently where I talk about setting goals as musicians, and how to set goals that serve to motivate and inspire us, and how to avoid setting goals that cause us to end up feeling more discouraged and disillusioned than we did before our goals.
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Check it out here: 

In my latest podcast, I speak with filmmaker and musician, Chip Miller.  Miller has produced 195 MTV/VH-1/BET & CMT music videos, national commercials, award-winning documentaries, a Disney TV weekly kids series, PBS TV Pledge Specials, an HBO concert, and several indie feature films. Previous to DCAM/Winmill, Miller was an Art Director, a film Producer, Editor, Music Supervisor, Screenwriter, and Director, on dozens of movies, many television programs and made for tv movies.

In this podcast, Chip and I discuss:
-Chip's latest recording project, Old Sand Mill, featuring Brian Wilson, Paul Simon, The Punch Bros and more.
-How The Music Business Has Changed Over The Last Several Decades
-Chip's career making music videos for artists like The Cars, The Rolling Stones, Linkin Park and more.
​-Balancing art and commerce as a modern day musician.
-How to get your music in films and what supervisors look for.
​-And much more

Check out the podcast below:

Subscribe To Music, Money And Life On Itunes

I’ve been hosting my podcast, Music, Money And Life for over three years now.  My podcast started as an irregular way of connecting with people in the music business and sharing what I learn with my readers, in an effort to expand the content I create.  The first couple years of doing my podcast I had no regular schedule.  I would sometimes do a couple podcasts a month.  Sometimes I would get busy and skip a month or two.  To be honest, it wasn’t something I took very seriously in the beginning.  I looked at it as a fun way to promote my business and connect with people in the industry at the same time, but my approach to doing it was inconsistent.

Last year I had the realization that I should put more work into my podcast and step things up.  The main reason I came to this conclusion is that I really enjoy doing it.  It’s a lot of fun.  It’s sort of like having my own little radio show.  I’ve always wanted to have my own radio show.  Actually, truth be told, I’ve never wanted to have my own radio show, but it’s pretty cool when I think about it! The fact that we live in a time where we all have the ability to connect with other people and share that information around the world for free is truly incredible.

In addition to simply enjoying my podcast, it’s an amazing and pretty painless way of connecting with people in the music industry.  I get to connect and have an in depth conversation with at least one person working in the music business every week! How cool is that?  Before my podcast I could barely get people in the music business on the phone, now I get to talk to them for up to an hour and pick their brains, asking them whatever questions I want.

The other day I talked to film maker and musician Chip Miller, who has toured and worked with Paul Simon, Brian Wilson and many more, in addition to having made over 190 music videos for bands like The Cars, Linkin Park and many more. Last week I interviewed one of the top music supervisors in Canada that syncs music to many of the most high profile ad campaigns in Canada.  Yesterday I interviewed Portia Sabin, the owner of the label Kill Rock Stars (The Decemberists, Deerhoof, Elliot Smith).  I’m getting a world class education in the music industry and I don’t even have to pay for it.  All I do is ask people, politely, to come on my podcast, and a large percentage of the time they say yes.

Just Ask
Doing my podcast has been a real lesson in the importance of simply taking action and making things happen.  In my experience, there are tons of people in the music business more than willing to contribute and help out by way of giving advice, answering questions and so on, if you simply take the initiative and ask them.
​
I came across a video recently of Steve Jobs where he discussed how one of the common traits that separates those who do, from those who just dream about doing, is simply taking action.  He tells a great story about how when he was 12 he called up Bill Hewlett (Hewlett-Packard) and was offered a job simply for having the courage to just call him up and making the effort to get his help.

Watch the video:   

The Power Of Reciprocity
Another takeaway from podcasting has been that more often than not people are willing to help you if you ask them and IF, and this is a big if, you have something to bring to the table.  I think the main reason so many people are willing to come on my podcast and share their expertise is that they also get something in return; more exposure for their brands, a platform to share their knowledge and look smart, and so on.  It’s really just human nature.  People feel obliged to reciprocate those that help them. 

In Robert Cialdini’s classic book, Influence: They Psychology Of Persuasion, Cialdini lists reciprocity as the first rule of persuasion.  The idea of reciprocity says that people by nature feel obliged to provide either help or concessions to others if they’ve received favors from those others. 

Think about how this applies to something like the music business or trying to get your music licensed.  Most supervisors, publishers and so on are inundated with emails and phone calls from musicians that want something from them.  Whether it’s a musician looking to land the next big placement, get a record deal, or somehow move his career forward, most musicians are looking to get something out of the people they’re contacting and reaching out to. 

Think about this, and be really honest with yourself, when you reach out to people with your music, are you really concerned about them and their needs?  Or do you just want someone, anyone, to help you make money with your music?  Do you put the needs of those you’re contacting first?  Or do you really just want someone to give you a break and help you out already?

You might be thinking, yeah, but I’m offering my music to people I’m contacting, so isn’t that an equal exchange?  Well, it could be, but it really depends on your music and how you approach people in the business.  Have you done the research to know whether or not the person you’re contacting needs the kind of music you make? Are you sure what you’re bringing to the table has real value? Are you sure the music you’re submitting is the kind of music the person you’re sending your music to wants or needs?  Are you really trying to make a genuine connection that is mutually beneficial? Or are you just blindly throwing your music out there to see what will stick? 

Try to make a real connection to those you’re trying to connect with. The thing that I love the most about doing my podcast is I’m able to make a genuine connection with my guests that go beyond just exchanging a few anonymous emails.  I don’t keep in touch with everyone that I’ve had on my podcast, but I do with many and I’ve forged several meaningful and lasting connections as a direct result of getting to know them on my podcast first.

Doing a podcast isn’t for everybody and I don’t expect you to all go and start your own podcasts, websites and blogs, although you could if you feel drawn to doing that.  But regardless of how you go about it, try to make real connections with people that are beyond just business and wanting to get something from someone.  Try to get to know the person behind the job description that you’re reaching out to.

Portia Sabin, the owner of the record label Kill Rock Stars, was a recent guest on my podcast and one of the things she stressed is that she needs to feel a connection to the artists she works with, in addition to loving their music.  She said that signing artists is based on a combination of loving and believing in their music and resonating with artists as people.  It’s not a surprise, but she wants to work with people she connects with.

As we all know, the music business is all about connections.  But it’s not just about who you know and who knows you. It’s about who you resonate with and who resonates with you.  It’s about people.  

​In my latest podcast, I speak with the Toronto based music supervisor, David Hayman.  

David is the founder of a music supervision agency called Supergroup.

David and Supergroup have placed music with the following brands/projects:

-Coors
-Logitech
-Duracell
-Virgn
-VW
-Vice
-Mazda
-Netflix
-Amazon
-Jack Daniel's
-ICF Film's
-Vice Land
-Kraft
-Heinz
-Vice Land
-And many more...

In our podcast, David and I discuss:

-How supervisors like David find music
-The types of artists and bands that supervisors prefer to work with
-How much you get paid for a variety of projects
-Why indie artists get more supervisor love than "big" artists
-How to get your music to supervisors like David
-and more...

Check out this week's podcast with David here:

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Learn more about David Hayman And Supergroup

In my latest podcast, I speak with Mexico City based composer Milo Coello about his career writing music for tv and films.  Milo is a Berklee graduate who spent several years in LA making connections in the industry, before eventually returning to his home city of Mexico City where he currently resides and writes music for tv and films full time.

Milo's music has been heard on NBC, Discovery,  Food Channel, Discovery, Bravo, National Geographic, CBS, ABC, Fox, VH1, Lifetime, A&E, BBC, TBS, UFC, Universal and much more.

In this podcast, Milo and I discuss:
-How to break into the world of writing songs for tv/films
-The Pros and cons of being based in LA as a musician
-How to thrive in less competitive markets
​-Playing Live VS working as a composer
-How competition can inspire us to work harder and achieve our goals
-and much more.

Listen to the podcast here:

Learn more about Milo here: ​http://www.milocoello.com/

Subscribe to Music, Money And Life On Itunes.

In episode #65 of Music, Money & Life, I speak with London based composer, Claire Batchelor, about her career as a composer in the UK.  Claire writes custom music for film and television and has been sustaining herself as a full time musician since 2009.

In my podcast with Claire, we discuss

• The licensing industry in the UK and how it compares to the US
• The channels Claire licenses her music through
• Networking strategies for songwriters and composers
• Transitioning from a hobbyist or part time composer into making a full time income
• How adversity can be a blessing in disguise
• And more!
  
  
  

Listen to our podcast below:

​Subscribe to Music, Money And Life On Itunes