It’s that time of the year again. It’s the end of one year and almost the beginning of another. I’m not really into writing New Year’s resolutions per se. But I do find that this time of the year is a natural time to reflect on the year that’s gone by and plan for the next. I don’t really make goals or resolutions per se, more like a list of things I’m going to make happen. Goals strike me as something we're going to try and do, as opposed to something we're going to definitely do. It's a subtle, but important distinction.
So, in that spirit, I thought I’d share with you my plan for next year as it relates to my website, my podcast, my blog, my music and all the content I'll be creating for you. Here’s my plan for 2017… 2016 has been my best year ever, by a pretty wide margin, both in terms of my business and my music career. So in 2017, I’m doubling down on pretty much everything I’ve been doing in 2016. In 2017 look for a lot more content from me in the form of podcasts, Youtube videos, blog posts and of course, much more original music. As Bill Gates said back in 1996, “content is king” and in 2017 I’m going to be creating a lot of content. I’m going to essentially keep doing what I’ve been doing, but just a lot more of it and at a higher quality. I’ll also be releasing and distributing content on a regular set schedule, so you’ll know what content to expect and when. I realize some of you prefer certain types of content over others, so I’m going to be releasing podcasts, videos and blog posts, all on a regular basis. Music, Money And Life Podcast I’m going to be doing weekly episodes of my podcast in 2017. I’m adding a new segment where I’ll be featuring some of the many great artists that I work with and come in contact with. I’ll be continuing to interview some of the best minds in the world of sync licensing and music publishing in the form of writers, composers, publishers, supervisors and more. I’ll also be doing episodes where it’s just me, exploring and sharing my thoughts on the music business and what it’s like being an indie musician and entrepreneur. Look for new episodes each Monday starting in January. My podcast: http://musicmoneyandlife.podbean.com/ On Itunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/music-money-and-life/id637851748?mt=2 My Blog I’ll also be writing a weekly blog post on my website, Aaron Davison.net My blog has been steadily attracting more readers, getting more comments and feedback and my plan is to write a weekly blog post in 2017, exploring a variety of topics related to the music business and life as an indie musician. My blog has been a great outlet to express my thoughts and ideas about the music business and really, just life in general. It gives me a chance to open up a bit and express a more authentic side of myself than simply writing about the technical aspects of the music business. I tend to reflect on broader subjects like relationships, travel, psychology and more, but almost always relate it in one way or another to the music business and the life of an indie musician. So be sure to stay tuned to my blog if you’ve enjoyed my writing over the years! Look for new posts, like this one, each Thursday in 2017. Here’s a link to my blog: http://www.aarondavison.net/blog Youtube I’m also going to be releasing weekly videos on my music licensing Youtube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/user/urbrock One of the keys to growing a following on platforms like Youtube is releasing content on a regular basis, so I’ll be doing that on a weekly basis in 2017. My Music I have two releases at least planned for 2017. One is a guitar oriented production music CD that I’m doing in collaboration with my producer/partner, Gary Gray. The other is a new full length CD of original vocal music that Gary is also producing. I added eight new tv shows to my resume in 2016 and signed with six different publishers and sync agencies! So I’ll be continuing to make as much of my own music as my schedule allows. Check out the EP I just released, Shooting Stars, now available on Itunes, Spotify, Amazon and wherever music is downloaded, streamed and sold here: http://www.aarondavison.net/music.html If you want to keep up with what I’m doing music wise, licensing wise and so on, be sure to subscribe to my newsletter related to strictly my own music at: http://www.aarondavison.net/ New Course & Book: The Ultimate Music Licensing Guide I’ll be releasing a brand new, in depth five hour audio/video course and companion book on Amazon in late January or early February called “The Ultimate Music Licensing Guide”. This project is a culmination of the last eight years that I’ve spent building How To License Your Music dot com and working with so many great writers, publishers and supervisors over this time. I’ve spent the last several months creating this program and I’m more excited than I’ve ever been about a course that I’ve released. This course will be the most comprehensive and definitive course, that I’m aware of, on topic of music licensing. Period. The entire program is included at no charge to everyone who signs up for the upcoming “180 Day Music Licensing Challenge”, starting on January 2nd! There’s still time to register for The 180 Day Music Licensing Challenge here: http://www.180daymusiclicensingchallenge.com/ Thank You! To everyone who has been following me over the last few years, a sincere and heartfelt thank you. I have a small, but devoted following of around 10,000 subscribers that have allowed me to continue to pursue my passion of making music and producing educational and hopefully entertaining content and media related to the music business for over eight years now. My plan going forward is to turn this into a true empire. Really. My goal is to become a known brand (even better known) in this space, as both a musician, podcaster and educator, and continue to work with, promote and support the many talented independent artists around the world. Music and art cannot die and whatever I can do to help artists flourish and continue to follow their passions, as I follow mine, is what I will continue to do. To an amazing 2017 and beyond. It’s going to be a busy one, but I know it will be fruitful. Cheers & Happy New Year! Aaron Davison PS – What about you? How was your 2016? What are your plans for 2017? Let me know in the comments! And let me know what type of content you prefer most from me and what you’d like to see more, or less of, in 2017. Blogs? Videos? Podcasts? More music? Your feedback is greatly appreciated!
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I have to admit, sometimes I get a little bored with writing technical articles about the nuances of how to make money by writing songs for the medium of film and television. Talking about things like contracts, the ins and outs of music publishing, music marketing and so on, aren’t necessarily the most exciting topics to discuss. Don’t worry, I’m not going to stop doing that. My goal is to continue to help all of you figure out how to navigate your way through this crazy business of music, to the best of my ability. I’m more than happy to share things that I’ve learned on my journey with anyone who can benefit from what I’ve learned. In fact, I consider it almost a sort of moral obligation. I feel like it’s my civic responsibility, if you will, to give back. But… sometimes, I have to remind myself why I’m doing all of this in the first place. Sometimes it’s good to get back to what really motivates and drives us. For me, it’s really all about the music. It’s ultimately about my love for writing, performing and listening to music. That’s why I feel so compelled to help other musicians, because I know you have this same passion for music. We have the same sickness! Making money is an important part of life. Without sufficient resources, it’s hard to focus on what we truly love… music. With that said though, sometimes I get burned out on all this focusing on money and networking and marketing. The constant feeling of having to call this person or upload your song here or get back to this person here and so on. The constant pressure to earn more money and move forward in life. It can all get a little overwhelming sometimes. I know, I know. The work must be done! We must keep fighting the good fight. We only live once after all, and this is our chance to make a difference in the world. To leave our mark. A sort of metaphorical carving of the words “we were here” on the tree of life. We must continue on, marching forward towards the realization of our dreams. I truly believe it’s the only way to live life; inspired and purposeful. But, every once in a while, when I’m feeling tired and frankly, from time to time, a little weary, about all the work that must be done, I stop and I take a break. Sometimes for a few hours. Sometimes for a day or two. And I pick up my guitar and I just write music. I focus on why I’m doing all of this in the first place. I get back to my own personal center. And, when I do this, music comes out. I remember why I was so drawn to music from the time I was twelve years old. I remember why I get up every day and get back to work, even when a lot of times I don’t really feel like it and would rather just binge on Netflix or go for a walk. I remember the feeling that drew me to making music in the beginning, when I was just a young boy. I remember the sense of magic and wonder that I felt when I first heard a song that I loved. I remember the sense of awe of going to see my favorite bands perform live and the sense of energy and excitement that filled the air as the crowd roared in approval. I remember laying in my bed for hours when I was 13, on a Sunday afternoon, listening to the radio and discovering new songs for the first time. I recall the sense of elation the first time I learned a pentatonic scale on the guitar and could play something that sort of resembled a blues guitar solo. It’s times like this, when it all makes sense again. The whole struggle to succeed in the music business starts to seem like a sort of trivial game, when compared to the simple and pure love I have for music in the first place. In moments like these, when I’m really in touch with what motivates me, I feel like I write the best music. Music that’s from the heart. Music that’s not really trying to accomplish anything other than simply being the most simple, pure expression of myself that I’m capable of. Isn’t that what music is really all about? Here’s a new song that I wrote recently during one of these creative breaks called "Where We Were". This one features background vocals and harmonies from my good friend MJ, a life long friend since High School and as always, production was provided courtesy of Mr. Gary Gray. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed creating it and as always, I wish you continued success and happiness on your own musical journey, wherever it may take you.
John Lennon wisely observed that “life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans”. I’ve always loved this line and how astute this observation is. You can set all the goals you want for the future, but that won’t change the fact that your life has to be lived moment to moment and day to day. Having goals is great and can help give your life a sense of direction, but life unfolds in the here and now.
Many of us seem so overly focused on accomplishing certain goals that we completely neglect the process of becoming who or what it is we’re trying to become. We romanticize the idea we have of what it means to be successful in the music business to the point that the process and journey of becoming successful feels like a burden. In other words, we want success, we just don’t want to work for it. The great thing about goals Goals that have meaning to us, give our life a sense of purpose and direction. Setting goals can be a powerful motivator to start taking action and taking the steps we need to take to move forward. More than just a specific outcome, goals are a powerful vehicle through which we can grow and improve ourselves. For example, without my adolescent goal of becoming a rock star, I never would have learned to play the guitar, learned the craft of songwriting, learned the art of performing, learned how to market myself and book gigs and so on. I needed a goal in order to embark on a path of learning and growth. Without goals, it’s all too easy to just sort of wander through life aimlessly, never really moving forward. The Problem With Goals Even though having goals and a sense of purpose can be motivating and is certainly more healthy than destructive, sometimes having goals can backfire. If we’re not careful, the very goals we set for ourselves, can become expectations of a future not yet here that enslave us. I must be a successful musician, we think to ourselves, and I won’t rest or be satisfied until I am. I am going to “make it” come hell or high water, we think, as we fail to enjoy our day to day lives. We become so fixated on our goals and what we’re trying to accomplish that we neglect the process of becoming who it is we’re trying to become. We end up feeling miserable when we fail to achieve success quickly enough to satisfy our egos . In other words, we desire the end result of “making it” so badly that we look at the process of making it as a burden. We rush through the things we need to do to try to expedite our path to success. We look at practicing our instruments as a pain in the ass. We look at recording our music as work that we have to do. We look at marketing ourselves as a completely uncreative task that we shouldn’t have to waste our precious creative time with. We fail to see the art of business and as a result we fail at the business of art. It reminds me of single people who are so fixated on trying to find a partner that they end up coming across as needy and repel the very people they’re trying to attract. Like the old zen proverb says. “the hungry don’t get fed”. When you fail to embrace the journey towards whatever you’re trying to accomplish in life, you miss out on the true point of life. Love The Process The last couple years or so I’ve really adopted an attitude and philosophy of simply loving the process of whatever it is I’m trying to achieve. I’ve reached a point where, although I still have lots of goals, I don’t feel burdened or weighed down by them. My goals are simply an arrow pointing me in the direction of my desires. They give me a direction to walk in. I love the process because I know it’s the work I need to do to get there. I also realize the process and end result are intricately connected. I can’t reach my destination without walking the path. The path is a part of the goal! What Happens When You Achieve Success If you think about it, achieving any goal in the music business is simply going to require that you do more of what allowed you to achieve success in the first place. For example, if your goal is to license your music in a major tv show, if and when you reach this goal, you’re most likely going to keep going, which will require you keep doing the things that led to your success in the first place. Sure, certain things will become easier the more successful you become. But it’s not like you’re going to reach some sort of magical place where you have “arrived” and you can just kick back and do nothing. You’ll have to keep doing the work that brought you success to achieve more success. Again, using the analogy of single people looking for a relationship. When you enter into a relationship, if you want it to work, you have to keep working on yourself and the relationship. Most relationships don’t just run on auto pilot. You have to keep doing the things that attracted your partner to you in the first place and you have to work on growing together as a couple. In the same way, if you do achieve success in the music business, you’re going to have to keep doing the things that led to your success in order to maintain your success. Think of it this way, if you don’t love the process of being a musician then why are you trying to become a professional musician? If you don’t love the work, why are you pursuing it? If it’s money you’re after, there are certainly easier ways to make money. If it’s fame you’re after, there are probably more sensible ways of trying to become famous. The good news is, when you love what you do, it doesn’t feel like work. When you love the process and the day to day reality of what you do, reaching your goals becomes inevitable. Point yourself in the direction of your goals, walk in that direction and enjoy the journey! Speaking of enjoying the journey and having fun, I’ve been practicing improvising on the guitar a lot lately and working on my chops! Before I was a songwriter, I was simply a guitar player. Check out this clip I made recently for my Facebook page. Retreat - The noun retreat means a place you can go to be alone, to get away from it all. A spot under a shady tree might be your favorite retreat from the sun, or your bedroom in the basement may serve as a retreat from your siblings. From time to time I take trips, normally by myself, for two or three days, to focus on nothing but songwriting. I normally take three to four of these trips a year. Of course this isn’t the only time I’m writing songs. I’m constantly writing and working on new songs throughout the year. But I find monotony and routine to be the enemy of creativity. I find that by removing myself from my day to day environment and distractions and going somewhere new for a few days, that it pushes me out of my comfort zone and helps me reach a mental space more conducive to creativity and songwriting. Sometimes this is as simple as going to a small town away from the city and booking a cheap hotel room in a more inspiring environment. Other times, I go somewhere further and even more awe inspiring. I’ve taken songwriting trips to places as far away as the Bahamas, The Cayman Islands, Mexico and The Dominican Republic. Of course, budget is a consideration when planning these trips. But since I more than qualify as a professional musician in terms of what I earn as a musician, I can legitimately deduct the cost of these trips from my tax return, which makes them more affordable. I also tend to stay in very affordable places when I travel, like hostels, or by using sites like Airbnb or couchsurfing to find economical or even free places to stay. You'd be surprised just how affordable travel can be if you're resourceful and flexible. These trips have yielded positive, but mixed results. Some of the trips have been more creative and more fruitful than others, but all of them have led to new songs and new musical ideas that I doubt I would have arrived at had I stayed in my normal, familiar environment. It’s hard to force creativity and inspiration. In my experience you can’t will yourself to write a great song anymore than you can will yourself to feel hungry. Just getting on a plane or driving in your car and travelling to a different environment isn’t going to automatically produce amazing songs any more than sitting down and trying to force yourself to eat a meal when you've just eaten is going to make you hungry. However, putting yourself in a new environment, free from the distractions and routine of your normal, day to day life, allows you to look at the world a little differently, free from the rote nature of a life lived habitually. For me, this seems to be the time I feel the most alive and inspired and it tends to lead to periods of increased creativity. This isn’t to say you can’t replicate this feeling, or at least get close to it, when you’re at home, in a familiar environment. It’s just a little harder to do in my experience. Traveling to new places forces you out of your routine and alters your perspective on life, which lends itself to making new creative connections and insights. Extended Trips Several times I’ve even taken extended trips of a month or longer to places where I’ve lived and worked from while focusing on songwriting. These trips are of course a little harder to plan and it requires dealing with a lot more logistics, but these trips have been particularly inspiring and rewarding, in ways beyond just writing new songs. One of the challenges with taking two or three day songwriting retreats, is that there is a sense of pressure in trying to write something quickly, which sometimes backfires. Inspiration tends to happen on its own schedule and its own time. It can be encouraged and nurtured, but it can’t really be forced. When you have more time to devote to the process of songwriting, it's easier to allow inspiration to unfold on its own time frame, while you do everything you can to encourage it, including daily periods of songwriting and lyric writing. In 2014 I decided to experiment by taking an extended trip of several months to the Caribbean to write and play music in the tiny beach town of Cabarete, on the north coast of the Dominican Republic. Cabarete is small, with a population of roughly 37,000. Although not as known as Punta Cana, on the opposite side of the island, it has a steady stream of tourists and a thousand or so expats, primarily from the US and Canada, who call Cabarete home, year round.
Cabarete, Dominican Republic
Cabarete has what’s known as one of the top five beaches in the world for kite boarding. There’s a great beach to surf a few miles north. There’s one street, about a mile long that runs through the center of town, with the beach on one side and a few dozen restaurants, bars and pool halls that line the other. Other than hanging out at the beach, surfing, swimming and drinking mojitos, there’s not much to do in Cabarete, which is what made it the perfect place to spend several months playing and writing music. It’s hard to not be productive when there’s so few distractions.
I had taken a shorter trip to Cabarete the year before and met Brian, the owner of a bar and restaurant called "Lazy Dog" that hosts musicians six days a week. Upon my return to Cabarete, when Brian learned I would be staying for several months, he offered me a job playing music three days a week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I jumped at the offer. My main goal in spending time in Cabarete, was to focus on music and running my internet business from a more inspiring and picturesque environment. So the chance to gig three times a week, for cash money, playing both originals and covers was exactly what I was looking for. I wrote a lot of songs during my time in Cabarete. On one day off, I woke up, particularly inspired and wrote three songs in about two hours. The song below, Naked And Alone, was one of them. The story behind the song is that I had developed a bit of a crush on one of the servers that worked in one of the bars I performed at, who we’ll call Carolina, which is what I call her in the song but isn’t actually her real name. I ended up playing this song at almost every gig I played during my trip after I wrote it and it became a song that I would get frequent requests for. By the time I left Cabarete, people were singing along with this song when I played it at shows. For better or worse, nothing ever transpired between "Carolina" and I, but it doesn't matter because I have this song and will have it forever. The melancholic sense of longing that permeates this track might seem like a weird juxtaposition to the sun-drenched Caribbean beach town where I wrote it, but music is funny like that. It's not just our location that dictates the mood of songs we write. It's the music we listen to, the experiences we have and a host of other things that end up informing the music we write. I don’t try to write Latin or Caribbean influenced songs just because I happen to be in the Caribbean. My goal with travelling isn’t necessarily to be inspired by the local music, although I sometimes am. More often than not though, I simply find that when I’m feeling inspired and living life to the fullest, I’m more likely to be inspired to write music that I feel strongly connected to. For me, travel has been a great way to facilitate this sense of inspiration. Here it is, Naked And Alone, a song inspired by my time living on the beach in Cabarete and a Caribbean server named "Carolina" and our unrequited love. I recorded this song last year in LA at my producer Gary Gray's home studio. I sang the vocals and played all the guitars.
I often get asked for advice on how to select a music producer to work with when recording music with the goal of licensing it, and in general what to look for in a producer. Over the years I’ve worked with a half dozen or so different music producers and I’ve had varying degrees of success with each of them.
The first producer I worked with who produced tracks I ended up successfully licensing was in 2002, in Chicago. This particular producer, who was referred to me through a mutual friend, was really talented, but he was also bat shit crazy and very difficult to work with. He also ended up being fairly expensive. He charged 40 dollars an hour at the time out his home, which isn’t too bad in the grand scheme of things, but he spent a lot of time on each track I recorded and it ended up adding up very fast. When I told him about my licensing success for the songs he produced, he informed me he was doubling his hourly rate, if I chose to continue working with him. I politely declined. After that I found another producer through an ad I placed on Craigslist. This particular producer, Mike, had a home studio in his house where we worked on a number of tracks together. I explained my licensing success with Mike and told him the story about my previous producer and the falling out we had. Mike ended up graciously agreeing to produce my tracks for free in exchange for a percentage of any money I made. This arrangement worked great for a few years. Mike and I worked on a number of tracks together and accumulated several dozen placements over the next few years. Mike relocated from Chicago in 2007 and we gradually lost touch with each other. This was before tools like Facebook and Skype made it so easy to stay in touch. Over the next few years I produced music either on my own or in one of several home studios that I used at the time. Although I still signed and licensed a good amount of music over the next few years, my success ratio diminished significantly compared to the previous five years. I struggled to maintain the same quantity and quality of output that I had previously and I also became extremely busy with other things as I launched my website, How To License Your Music.com, and grew the website to something that could comfortably sustain me. This took several years of very concentrated effort to realize and as my focus shifted more and more to helping other artists launch their own licensing careers, my own music was put somewhat on the backburner for a few years. I don’t remember the exact year I connected with my current producer, Gary Gray. I believe it was in 2012. Gary initially took one of my courses and we hit it off in terms of our outlook about the business and our work ethic. We initially began collaborating by creating a course together about music production as it relates to music licensing. Then, motivated by the interest in our first course, we created another course about music mastering. A couple years ago I had Gary work on a few tracks I had already started but wasn't happy with, and over the last year or so Gary has become my full time producer. Gary already had an impressive list of credits in both the licensing industry and beyond when we connected. He’s worked with and is friends with some of the greats like Quincy Jones and Barry Gordy. He’s had music placed in a wide range of projects including feature films, television and commercials and he's done live sound for some of the biggest acts around. [See his credits here] Check out this recent video Gary made to learn more about what he’s been up to this year: Working with Gary was a no-brainer. I sensed a growing interest in the topic of music production when we came together and knew I needed to bring someone on my team whose knowledge of music production surpasses my own. We’ve collaborated a lot since then and have scored a numbers of deals together since, including having a track placed in movie theaters around the USA as a part of licensing deal with AMC Theaters, getting music picked up by an Emmy award winning show on A&E and signing music with a half dozen or so different libraries and publishers this year. I also recently signed with an amazing agency that focuses on ads and commercials, an area I’ve been focusing more on this year. I’m confident this deal wouldn’t have happened had it not been for Gary’s help and his amazing production skills. [Check out one of our latest tracks below] When it comes to selecting a producer, here’s what I look for: 1) Someone who has licensing credits – If you want to license your music, then pick a producer who has a proven track record of producing tracks that have been licensed. Makes sense right? Production is really important when it comes to licensing your tracks and if you’re working with an outside producer you want to make sure they have the chops to produce your music for tv and films. 2) Someone who actually produces, not just mixes and masters – Producing music in a way that will work for licensing entails much more than just mixing and mastering a song so it sounds “good”. A real producer will also help you craft your songs in a way that make your tracks sound “current” and “modern”. A good producer will help you bring your songs and arrangements to life, as opposed to just hitting record and then mixing and mastering your tracks. I’ve worked with both types of producers and believe me, there’s a huge difference. A producer actually produces as opposed to just engineering. I give Gary full artistic control of my tracks in terms of production and what he thinks works best. We sometimes have differences, and of course he’ll make changes if I insist and sometimes I do have him make changes. But for the most part, I trust his judgement and nine out of ten times the results are better when I let him take the production reins. 3) Someone who is easy to work with – Like I said at the beginning of this post, my first producer was amazing as a producer and had a great sensibility for what worked production wise. But he was so crazy and unpredictable as a person that it made working with him a pain in the ass. It wasn’t fun and in the end he turned out to be an even bigger asshole than I initially thought. You’ll most likely be spending a lot of time interacting with the producer you pick, so make sure that you pick someone you resonate with, personality wise. It will make a big difference when it comes to the final product. 4) Someone who is flexible – It’s also important to work with someone who is flexible. Gary has been super cool about compensating him for his work and he’s always been reasonable about money. I won’t go into the terms of our arrangement, since that’s between the two of us, but it’s more than fair and works for both of us. This is in stark contrast to my first producer who tried to double his rate when he learned of my initial success. I’m interested in developing long term relationships with people and I always look for people who are going to be easy to work with and fair. Gary and I are currently finishing a new, ten track CD of all new songs that I’ve written this year that Gary has arranged and produced. I’m ecstatic about how the new tracks are sounding and the feedback we’ve been getting is amazing. Here’s a new song we just finished a few days ago called “Shooting Stars”. Let Gary and I know what you think in the comments! For more information about Gary Gray and to get in touch, visit http://learnaudioengineering.net/ See all of our courses here: http://www.howtolicenseyourmusic.com/online-store.php Today, a fun topic….
A new study by the University of Westminster that included a survey of more than 2,200 musicians concluded that musicians are three times more likely than the general population to experience depression and severe anxiety. 71% of respondents indicated they had experienced panic attacks or severe anxiety and 65% indicated they had experienced episodes of depression. This study really hit home with me and in today’s post I’m going to explore why there’s such a strong correlation between being a musician and suffering from depression and anxiety. “There are days, hours, weeks, aye, and months, in which everything looks black, when I am tormented by the thought that I am forsaken, that no one cares for me. …I assert that life is beautiful in spite of everything!” - Tchaikovsky Throughout time, countless musicians and artists have suffered from depression and mental illness. Artists and writers as diverse as Van Gogh, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Charles Dickens, Tennessee Williams, Leo Tolstoy, Virginia Woolf, Janis Joplin, Woody Allen, William Blake, Leonard Cohen, Nick Drake, Kurt Cobain, Elliot Smith, Daniel Johnston, Gustav Mahler, Beyonce, Robin Williams, David Foster Wallace, TS Elliot, William Faulkner, Henry James, John Keats, Georgia O Keefe, Sylvia Plath, Michelangelo, Edgar Allen Poe, Jackson Pollack, Kurt Vonnegut and Ernest Hemingway, to name just a few, have all suffered from forms of depression and mental illness. I’m sure there are many more I’m leaving out. But as you can see, it’s a long list. My Own Experience I’ve never talked about this publicly and I rarely even talk about this issue with family or friends, but I’ve experienced two different episodes in my life where I’ve experienced severe anxiety for prolonged periods of times. One of these episodes happened right after I went to college when I was 19 and I experienced a similar, although much shorter lived period about three years ago. I’ve had a few full blown panic attacks at times, and other times have experienced anxiety severe enough to momentarily disrupt my life and set me back a bit. Apart from these isolated experiences, I would consider myself a more or less normal person, who has led a full and active life. I’ve never taken medication for my anxiety and apart from a handful of therapy sessions when I was in college, I’ve dealt with this issue more or less on my own. Practices like meditation, exercise and even songwriting, have helped me get through these darkest periods of my life and I feel like ultimately I’ve bounced back stronger every time. By dealing with these episodes and coming out the other side, I feel like I’ve become a stronger, more resilient person. In a strange way, I would say I’m even grateful for these challenges, although I would never wish severe anxiety on anyone. The Correlation Between The Arts And Depression/Anxiety Nancy Andreasen, the author of “The Creative Brain” argues that artists tend to have an openness to new experiences, a greater tolerance for ambiguity, and an approach to life that enables us to perceive things in a fresh and novel way. Less creative people tend to “quickly respond to situations based on what they have been told by people in positions of authority”, while artists live in a more fluid and nebulous world. In other words, we live in a more stressful world. “Such traits can lead to feelings of depression or social alienation,” writes Andreasen. Although according to Andreasan artists experience higher rates of mood disorders than the general population, the extremes of highs and lows tend to be brief, balanced by long periods of normal affect, or euthymia. During these periods of normalcy, artists frequently reflect upon and draw from memories and experiences of their darker times to create their best art. This rings true in my experience. Like I said, I’ve experienced just two periods of what I could consider severe anxiety, followed by years of normal, functional life. In other words, most of the time I’m pretty normal. Really, I am. Another study that I found suggests that artists are more likely to suffer from depression because they simply think more than other people and are more prone to periods of rumination. Self-reflection and rumination can lead to creative insights and increased creativity, but it’s also correlated with an increased risk for depression. Perhaps this is why the goal of meditation, something I have found to be very beneficial, is to detach from thinking momentarily. It’s harder to become depressed by our thoughts if we’re not actively engaging with them. My Theory Here’s my own, completely subjective and unscientific take on why there is such a strong correlation between working in the arts and suffering from things like depression and anxiety. It’s hard to say whether or not if I chose a different life path I wouldn’t have experienced the episodes of anxiety that I had. Do I experience anxiety because I’m a musician? Or am I a musician because I have a sensitive temperament that lends itself to working in a creative field like music? It’s difficult to objectively analyze myself. All I have is my own experience to go by. After all, I’ve never been anyone else. But there are clearly things about being a musician that make life more challenging and difficult than a more conventional life path. I think artists and musicians are more vulnerable to depression and anxiety due to both their innate personalities and psychological makeup, as well as the inherent difficulty of making a career in the arts. It’s a perfect double whammy for depression and anxiety if you think about it. Take an extra sensitive person and then throw them into an ultra-competitive field that is inevitably filled with periods of rejection, setbacks and disappointment. It’s a perfect storm for depression and anxiety. Trying to make a living as a musician is fucking hard. It’s really hard. It’s hard on so many levels and in so many ways, that I think you probably have to actually be a musician to really get it. If you’ve followed my work at all over the years, then you know that I like to focus on the positive. I’m a “glass half full” kind of guy. At least I like to think I am. But guess what. I’m also human and when I struggle I feel pain and discontentment like anyone else. Being a musician can be so discouraging at times that in my experience, it can be a real challenge to maintain a healthy perspective and outlook. If you’re not careful, it’s easy to spiral down into a path of negativity. [Check out the recent video I made where I talk about my own struggle to stay positive as a musician] However, I think the feelings of depression and anxiety musicians feel is more than just the result of struggling in a difficult, competitive industry. After all, even highly “successful” musicians and artists seem to be more prone to struggling with mental health and substance abuse issues than the rest of us. Being a musician often feels like a sort of double edged sword, you get to experience periods of sheer bliss and inspiration and then you get knocked backed down to earth again as you try to navigate your way through the maze of madness that is the modern day music business. For me, it sometimes feels like a sense of existential angst of being able to taste and touch divinity for brief moments and then being forced to deal with greedy music executives, rejection, a failing music industry and so on. As I reach for the stars, I often get knocked back down to earth where I’m forced to deal with the slow, monotonous grind of being an indie musician. I like to think of music as the place where my divinity and humanity meet. That might sound like hyperbole, but it’s really how I experience it. When I’m writing a new song or listening to great music, it’s like being given a glimpse of god, or something greater than myself. If you’re a musician, you know exactly what I’m talking about. But to try and make a career out of music, is a bit like confronting the devil. Dealing with rejection, greed, the public’s watered down taste in music, corruption in the music industry and everything that goes along with being a professional musician, can be soul crushing. It’s the yin and the yang of being a musician. You get to taste divinity, but you have to go through hell to try and integrate the passion you have for music into your life in a practical and sustainable way. Now an outsider might just look at the plight of musicians and think, why don’t we just get a “real job”? If being a musician is so hard and we’re struggling so much, why not just admit defeat and do something else? It’s a reasonable question. But if you’re truly compelled to make music the way that I and many others are, you know it’s not that simple. Being a musician is a calling. It’s like being called to be a minister or a nun. For many musicians there is a sense that this is something we were destined to do, which makes it extremely hard to just walk away from. What To Do? How I Deal With The Dichotomy Through meditation and contemplation, I’ve been able to reach a healthy perspective about my life and music. Making great music and achieving success are important to me, but I don’t hinge my happiness or sense of well-being on them. In a strange way, I don’t really care if I “make it” any more. After all, there’s no guarantee that if I did, quote un-quote make it, I would be any happier than I am right now. All we really have is this moment. I focus on being happy day by day, instead of worrying about what may or may not happen in the future. This sense of detachment gives me relief. But don’t get me wrong, I haven’t given up. I’m still trying as hard as ever and I’ve made more progress this year than I have in many years and yes, that feels good. But I’m not too worried about what happens, ultimately, one way or the other. It seems like a contradiction, but it’s not. By not making the outcome so extremely important and heavy, I’m free to pursue music in a way that is still enjoyable and uplifting. I want to be successful, but I’m not going to pursue success at the expense of my own well-being and happiness. Half Glass Full Optimism Much of how we view ourselves and our respective situations is simply a choice. One of the reasons I’ve adopted a glass half full outlook over the years is that it simply serves me better. There are clearly things that are fu:&ed up about the music industry that we can’t change. But there is also a lot to be optimistic about. It’s never been easier to record, promote and distribute music in history. Although there are clearly challenges in the new music business paradigm, there is also much to be optimistic about and we get to choose which things we focus on. I want to make great music and it would be cool if I was acknowledged for it on a wider scale, but if that doesn’t happen, I’m still going to enjoy the hell out of my life and make the most out of every day I have. That’s a choice I’ve made and it’s a choice we are all free to make. After all, this moment, right now, is all we really have. Don’t let your future success or lack of it determine how you feel today. Please share your own experiences and thoughts on this topic below. I’ve been running my own business since 2007. I decided to start working for myself because I was tired of working for other people. It was really that simple. I didn’t want to have a set schedule and a boss, so I figured out a way to work on my own terms. It wasn’t easy. I had a lot of ups and downs in the beginning, but I did it and now, eight years later, I have both a thriving business and a satisfying music career that together provide a very comfortable lifestyle. In many ways, being a musician and being an entrepreneur are very similar endeavors. Being a musician, essentially, is a form of entrepreneurship. If you’re doing things like making music and selling it yourself, booking your own shows, managing your own youtube channel, running your own website and so on, you are an entrepreneur. Even something like giving music lessons as an independent contractor, is a form of entrepreneurship. This is what I did, for seven years, prior to launching my own internet business in 2007. I think my teaching experience is one of the reasons my transition to working completely for myself was fairly smooth. I already had the mindset of being my own boss and creating my own schedule. I just decided to take it a step further and cut out the middleman, like music store owners, store managers and so on. Now don’t get me wrong. I don’t have anything against working for someone else. There is a time and place for most of us where this is absolutely necessary. You learn valuable business and social skills by working as a part of an organization. If anything, my experience working for myself has given me more respect for different bosses and people I’ve had to answer to over the years. Running a business and dealing with employees is stressful. It’s hard to understand the type of pressure business owners feel until you do it yourself. I’ll never forget one interaction I had with the owner of one of the music schools I used to work at as the executive director. I felt like my boss was unfairly hard on myself and the other teachers that worked there. One day, my boss, Frank, was really pissed at one of the teachers that he caught watching youtube videos in between lessons. The thing is, we were all on a salary, as opposed to being paid only for lessons we gave. So we were technically employees, accountable to Frank, and had other duties beyond just giving music lessons. When Frank got angry and yelled at Spike, the teacher he caught “slacking off”, I told Frank to “relax and that he needed to chill out”. “Then you pay him goddammit”, Frank sternly replied. I’ve often thought about this interaction over the years when dealing with the stress of dealing with my own employees and people that I’ve worked with. Managing people that you are paying to work for you is stressful. Being the person ultimately responsible for generating the money that you are providing to people to live their lives is stressful. It’s hard to comprehend just how stressful it is until you are the person in this position. But despite all the stress of entrepreneurship and being self employed, I wouldn’t have it any other way. There’s stress and hard work regardless of what path you take in life. When you’re self employed, there’s still stress and challenges, but you can work when and where you choose, and on projects you choose. Any downside is more than offset by the degree of flexibility it provides in terms of how you live your life. At least that’s my take on it. Why I think more musicians should consider going down this route Here’s the thing. The music industry in 2016 is like the wild, wild west. No one quite has it all figured out and there really isn’t any formula or path that you can go down that will guarantee success with your music. You need to be extremely creative, passionate, flexible and hard working to succeed in the music business. You need to try different things, fail, try again and keep going until you figure out what works. In other words, you need to be an entrepreneur. Valuable Skills Although everything I’ve done over the last eight years to make money is in some way related to the music business, not everything I do is directly related to my own music. This used to bother me. I’m a musician I would say proudly when people asked me “what I do”. I still answer this way when I get asked this question. But the dichotomy of running a business and being a musician no longer feels incongruent to me. Everything I do business wise helps everything I do music wise and vice versa. If I create a new course and interview a music industry expert like a supervisor or professional songwriter, that gives me valuable knowledge that I can take and directly apply to my own music career. Conversely, if I land a new licensing placement or publishing deal, that gives me more experience and credibility that I can bring back to the business side of things. It’s all connected and all related. The music-business connection is sort of like the mind-body connection. The mind follows the body and the body follows the mind. The same is true in music and business. Growth in either area positively affects the other. For example, I have learned invaluable marketing and communication skills from running my business that I apply to marketing my own music and dealing with people on the business side of things. I'll be using a lot of the same principles that I use to market my products and courses when I release the digital version of my latest CD, Shooting Stars, coming out later this year. Although the creative act of writing a song is very different from the business skills needed to successfully negotiate something like a licensing deal, you really need to know how to do both in order to succeed. Making music and writing music is really just one part of launching a music career. It’s an extremely important part, no doubt. But in 2016 it pays to understand the business part of the music business, since the days of labels developing artists from the ground up don’t really exist anymore. The Freedom Of Entrepreneurship In many ways, I was drawn to music for the same reason that I was drawn to entrepreneurship and the idea of being my own boss. I wanted to live a life of purpose, creativity and freedom. I wanted to be able to both express myself and live my life on my terms. Being a musician/entrepreneur has allowed me to do both. Although there are difficult challenges when it comes to running your own business and I’ve had some struggles along the way, for the most part, I truly enjoy everything I do. I love writing blog posts, doing podcasts, creating courses, doing webinars and working with other musicians. I enjoy these things almost as much as I do writing music. What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Stronger Learning new skills also forces you to grow. If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the last eight years, it’s that I can figure things out. I have an enormous amount of confidence in my own inner resourcefulness and stick-to-it-iveness that I simply didn’t have before I became a full blown entrepreneur. This sense of confidence has come as a direct result of learning to deal with the challenges of running my business. This inner sense of knowing I will figure things out, gives me a great degree of calm. It’s taken me a long time to get here, but it’s one of the very tangible rewards of entrepreneurship. I know that I’m not directly dependent on other people to provide for myself. Of course, I still interact with and work with a large group of people, but I don’t have to directly answer to or report to anyone like I did as an employee. Do You Have What It Takes? Becoming an entrepreneur isn’t for everyone. I realize that some people either don’t have the right temperament, or simply don’t have the desire to do their own thing. But if you’re a musician and you’re taking the DIY approach to your music career, you already are an entrepreneur, whether you intend to be or not. As Derek Sivers, the founder of CD Baby says, “The skills needed to make a living as a musician are the exact same skills required to be a successful entrepreneur. Musicians don’t realize that they are already entrepreneurs!” In the next couple weeks, I’m going to be giving out a series of free lessons, including more in depth blogs, video and audio lessons and more, all related to what I’ve learned over the last eight years of running my own successful internet business. Although not specifically related to making money with your music, all of the information can be applied to anything you choose to sell online, including music. If this topic is interesting to you and you want to learn more about internet marketing and internet business, sign up for my free training below. I will only send this to people who join this email list, since I realize this isn’t a topic all my readers will be interested in. Sign up to learn more about internet marketing and business here. The music industry is broken. There’s really no other way to put it. By most measurable accounts, the music industry is much worse off than it was just a decade ago. CD sales are down 84% from where they were ten years ago and although streaming numbers are up, digital sales are also down, and streaming revenue doesn’t seem to be substantial enough yet to support most artists. Of course, the music industry might be a lot smaller than it was in the recent past, but it’s still a huge industry with a lot of money being generated. In fact, music sales in the US alone, when streaming is taken into account, is still over 7 billion dollars a year. Globally, the music business is a 25 billion dollar a year business. Although revenue from CD sales is down dramatically, there is still an enormous amount of music being consumed through new distribution channels. But no matter how you look at the numbers, it’s hard to deny that it’s much more difficult than it was in the not too distant past for most musicians. Payments and revenue for artists are down, pretty much across the board. Record sales are down and are just a fraction of what they used to be. Licensing sync fees and performance royalties are also down in most cases. We all know how hard it is to generate substantial revenue from streaming services. Most of the time, in order for musicians to even have a shot at getting their music heard, they have to make deals with a series of intermediaries, such as record labels, publishers, music libraries and music distributors. These deals are often complex, multifaceted, involving multiple parties, in deals that tend to be inefficient and painfully slow. It often takes months or years to get fully paid for transactions, if they happen at all. Take licensing for example, if I license my music in TV today, I won’t receive performance royalties from anywhere between six and nine months from today, assuming all the paperwork is properly filed. Of course between now and then, I’ll still have bills to pay and expenses that I must meet. Collecting money owed from mechanical royalties and music that is aired on the radio is an equally slow and inefficient process. This system of getting our music heard and distributed is and “old school” system that’s more than 100 years old. It’s been around since the rise of radio broadcasting in the 1920s. It’s an archaic and increasingly obsolete system that was created long before the advent of the internet which has completely transformed the music industry and how consumers find and consume music. Listeners Have Never Made It Better – It’s A Utopia For Music Fans! Ironically, while it’s probably never been a worse time for music creators, I think it’s fair to say, that it’s never been a better time for music lovers and people who listen to music. While the music creators themselves are struggling more than ever, at the same time, there’s easier access to a wider supply of music than there ever has been for music fans. For the most part, finding most music is a simple mouse click away. There are a myriad of free or low cost options for consuming music. From Youtube to Vevo, Spotify Or Tidal, Pandora and so on, there’s no shortage of ways to listen to and discover new music. It’s a utopia for music lovers. The problem is, that while the music industry has been changing and evolving, the money being generated by the new forms of media that distribute music, isn’t substantial enough to make music a viable career path for most artists. The money that is being generated is also painfully slow to reach the actual music creators. This makes it even harder for musicians who are trying to create sustainable careers in the music business, which is challenging enough even without these obstacles. How To Make It Better For Music Creators – Enter The Blockchain This is where the blockhain comes in… I first heard about blockchain technology in a conversation I had with Scott Kirby from Music Revolt.org last year on my podcast. During the podcast, Scott and I talked about some of the many problems and challenges facing the music industry currently and different ideas we had about how the industry could improve. One of the possibilities Scott brought up in our conversation was blockchain technology. To be honest, when Scott told me about the Blockchain originally, I was a bit perplexed. I sort of got the concept. I was vaguely familiar with bitcoin, the cryptocurrency that utilizes blockchain technology to create a digital currency that can be used to buy and sell things online. But even though the idea intrigued me, I didn’t fully grasp the idea and how it could be applied to the music industry. As I kept hearing more and more about the concept of blockchain technology and its potential application in the music industry, I decided to dive in deep to the subject and really try and wrap my head around it. I started watching youtube videos about it, I started reading industry articles about the technology and I started talking to people who are working in the business that are proponents of the technology. One of the things that really excites me about the music industry right now is the fact that it’s so broken. That might sound like a strange thing to say, but think about it, the music industry is in such a state of profound disrepair that the only direction we can really go is up. All industries evolve and change, and my intuition and sense is that the music industry is ripe for a revolution of sorts. The technology exists right now to solve many of the issues that are plaguing the music industry. Before I try and explain how blockchain technology works, let’s look at some of the areas proponents of the technology say it has the ability to address. According To Industry Experts, Blockchain technology has the capability to:
Vinay Gupta, release coordinator and general strategist for Ethereum, a leader in blockchain technology, had this to say about the blockchain….. “the blockchain is inevitable.. it isn’t a simple convenience, it’s necessary to create a level playing field to ensure the system is fair to everybody, wherever they are in the world… the block is here to stay, I think.” What is the blockchain? Ok, so what exactly is the “blockchain”? I’m fairly computer and tech savvy, but I have to admit that explaining what the blockchain is and how it works is a little complex. Bas Grasmeyer, from Hypebot, explains it better than I could… ‘The blockchain is the distributed database model underlying cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. It takes peer-to-peer technology to data records. Instead of having all data on one computer, it lives on the computers of everyone who participates in the database. You can only write to it: this means that if you want to change data into the database, you declare what the new info is, but the old version remains in the system, so that the change is transparent. A bit like with ledgers.” Huh? It’s a little confusing and technical. Here’s a visual that makes it a little easier to understand: I admit, fully understanding the technology is a little difficult. But don’t worry too much about how it works. Just understand that the technology exists right now and it can potentially do two main things for the industry. It’s sort of like understanding how the internet works. Do you really understand the internet and the computer coding behind it? Me neither, but I know I enjoy using it.
The blockchain technology will do two main things: The first is that it will record a permanent record of who did what on each song,” sort of like what IMDB does for films, but using blockchain technology. This will allow every contributor to a track, co-writers, producers, vocalists and so on to get credited for their part and get paid instantly for agreed upon percentages based on contribution. This will happen via what our known as “smart contracts”. Which will be the blockchain’s second main contribution to the music industry. Gupta explains that a smart contract is “basically a tiny little program that has fixed instructions about how to move money… you store it permanently on a blockchain, and when payments come in, it says ‘we’ve received some money, this much goes to the taxman, this much goes to the contributor, this much goes to our studio…” Imagine licensing one of your songs and everyone involved with the song’s creation and publishing getting paid for the sync fee instantly. This is what smart contracts will be able to do. Money moves instantly in the digital age, so why shouldn’t it work this way in the music industry? Why do things have to move through such slow and inefficient channels? They really don’t have to and the blockchain could potentially resolve this issue. There is a lot left to work out about when and how the blockchain technology will be implemented in the music industry. There are industry standards to sort out and be agreed upon. I’m sure there will be complex industry negotiations and meetings with the major players in the industry that are interested in retaining control of as many of their assets as possible. I’m sure many will resist the technology, while at the same time, others will embrace it and celebrate it. Like all great revolutions, there will be people resisting change. But like Victor Hugo, the French philosopher said, “there is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come”. I believe this idea and technology will simply be too powerful to stop. There are several new companies emerging as we speak that are attempting to address the problems the music industry is facing and pave a new way forward utilizing blockchain technology. Here are a few companies to keep your eyes on that will be utilizing blockchain technology: Ujo Music - http://ujomusic.com/ Peer Tracks - http://peertracks.com/ Bittunes - http://www.bittunes.org/ I will be keeping my eye on this issue as much as possible and will be bringing guests in this space on my podcast in the near future to dissect this technology and its implications for the music industry even more. I think it’s important as musicians and artists be acutely aware of where the industry is headed. Our careers and livelihood depend on it. For now, know this. Change is coming. A couple weeks ago I wrote a blog post about my recent experience of shopping one of my new songs around, “I Will Fly”. In case you missed that post, I talked about how the original version was accepted by about half of the places I sent it to and rejected by the other half due to vocal and production issues. Read the full post here. So, even though my producer, Gary, and I were pretty pleased with our 50% success rate, we decided to do a second version of the track using a different vocalist (I sang on the original version) and make some changes to the production to make the track sound a little more current and fun. The very first song I licensed back in 2002 I performed the vocals on. But over the years, about 75% of the tracks I’ve licensed have featured different vocalists. My vocal range is fairly limited, and I can usually tell right away whether or not my vocals will work for a song. When in doubt, I bring on someone else who can handle the vocal duties better than I can. This has almost always proved to be a good idea, and I’ve gotten a lot more placements than I would have otherwise. By using different vocalists, as opposed to trying to sing everything myself, I’ve expanded my catalog of songs that are licensing appropriate greatly. As an artist, I aim to write songs that are a reflection of who I am as a person and songwriter. But as a professional songwriter licensing my music, my sole aim is to write and produce music with the best chance of getting licensed. Of course I try to write songs I genuinely like and feel good about. But ultimately, I want to write and produce songs that work. I’m not trying to change the world, at least in the context of songs I write for licensing. What I am trying to do, is write really good songs and deliver really solid performances, so that they’ll stand the best chance of being used in tv shows, films, ads and so on. Some of the songs I write, I know right away won’t work for licensing. If I write a song that I fall in love with, but I know it won’t work for licensing, I still finish it. Some of these songs end up being released on my CDs and digital releases, and other times, nothing comes of them at all. They just get stored on my hard drive in my digital vault of music that may or may not ever see the light of day. The point is, I’m not only writing songs for licensing, I’m simply trying to write the best songs I can, and then figure out how to best monetize them and best put them to use. But I recognize the difference in terms of what songs have the best chance licensing wise, and which ones are better to use for other projects, and I pitch them (or not) accordingly. I recently interviewed the CEO of Crucial Music, Tanvi Patel, for my podcast. During our interview, I asked Tanvi what types of songs work best for licensing. Her response was that, “a great song is a great song, whether it’s used in licensing or on the radio”. The one caveat she mentioned is that songs used in the context of licensing, need to work “within the scope of licensing”. By this she meant that lyrically and stylistically they need to be aligned with what works for licensing. In other words, a great song is a great song, but there are a few considerations when it comes to what works best for licensing. See my free course on “How To Write Songs For Licensing”, for more on this topic. So, back to my latest song and using a different vocalist. The bottom line, is that if I’m writing a song with the goal of licensing it, I want to cover all my bases, licensing wise, and make sure it has the strongest chance of being licensed based on what I’ve seen work, over and over, with other songs that have been licensed. I want to make sure the following things are in order:
For my latest track, “I Will Fly”, based on the initial feedback we received, we felt it would be safest to have two different versions, for anyone who didn’t take to my admittedly quirky voice. Some people love my voice, and others don’t appreciate it as much. I’m not attached one way or the other. I just want to do what’s best for the song and what will generate the most deals and ultimately the most placements. Since we changed the production, we’ve added two more deals, for a total of six now in just two weeks. Gary (my producer) and I agreed to give the vocalist a percentage of any back end money we made in exchange for our vocalist singing on the track. The vocalist was happy to do this, to build his resume, get additional exposure and to, most likely, make money on the back end. So, without further ado, here are the before and after versions of my latest track, featuring myself singing on the former and vocalist Travis Nilan, singing on the latter.
"I Will Fly" Original Version [Before]
"I Will Fly" Featuring Travis Nilan [After] What do you think of the track? What do you think of the vocals and production? Let us know in the comments! Today I want to address a topic that is a little more esoteric than the technical aspects of the music business that I often discuss, but nonetheless is just as important. The topic is how to cultivate the right mindset and attitude for achieving success in the music industry.
I really think to be successful in the music industry you need to have both talent and very thick skin, and the latter is probably the most important. You need to be extremely determined, ambitious and motivated. I know I'm not telling you something you don't already know, but let's think about what this really means and how it relates to you. Let's break it down, step by step. The music industry is an industry a lot of people are drawn to because, let's face it, writing and playing music is an incredible amount of fun! There’s a reason a lot of teenagers grow up wanting to become rock stars. For a lot of people, playing music is their ultimate dream job. The idea of travelling the world, doing something you love, being adored by the public and getting paid handsomely, is the ultimate fantasy. Who wouldn’t want that life? Because of how appealing the idea of being a successful musician is, a lot of people pursue music, both as a hobby and as a profession. This creates a lot of competition, on all levels. Everything from getting a good slot at a nightclub, or getting your song onto a TV show or Film, or landing a record deal, involve in one way or another, you competing with somebody else. Now I don't think competition in its modern day form is insidious or bad. For the most part, here in the western world, we are not beating each other with clubs to get what we want. Competition has a tendency to make us work harder, and if embraced in a healthy way can make us better musicians and better people. When we know something isn't easy we tend to work harder for it and are forced to expand and grow and we also appreciate our success that much more if and when it happens. It's when the inevitable rejections and setbacks we face get the best of us that the competitive nature of the music industry turns into an ugly and insidious thing. But if we cultivate the right mindset we can take these events in stride and move forward un-phased. How?? A few years ago I ended what was nearly a six year relationship with my girlfriend at the time. After about six months or so of being single and not dating very much at all I asked a girl out who was drop dead gorgeous and to my surprise she said yes. We went out and I was a complete nervous wreck. I placed so much pressure on myself and on her to make this night a success that I came across as stilted and weird and I never heard from her again. I was disappointed the next few days but I immediately realized what had happened. I then decided to cast a much wider net, so to speak. I started meeting girls online, in clubs, on the street, in trains. When I really opened my eyes I realized there were opportunities to meet girls literally everywhere. Over the next few months I started actively dating many different women and what happened was really amazing and eye opening. I was meeting so many different women that I stopped looking at each date and interaction as such a big deal. This allowed me to be myself and just meet women being very present and in the moment. As a result my interactions were much more successful and enjoyable and I eventually met another girl who I ended up dating for several years. Why am I telling you this story? Why I am sharing such a personal detail about my private life? Well, I realized a valuable lesson from this period of my life that has served me in all aspects of life. I think this same sort of strategy and mindset can be applied to anything and works particularly well when applied to your music career. When you're pursuing one or two opportunities it's easy to get discouraged when they don't work out. But if you're pursuing many different opportunities, not only are you exponentially increasing your odds that one of them will come through for you, but you will relax when you realize that in reality there are many different ways to achieve success with your music. If you don't get your music on one show, pursue another. If you don't get booked into club x, pursue club z. This is the mindset you need. Don’t get hung up any single opportunity. Instead pursue so many opportunities that some of them inevitably come through. Now, of course, you still need to listen to the feedback that you get. Not everyone will like everything you do. But if you get consistent feedback that something about your tracks are not working, use that information and make changes if you need to. If you’re single and going on dates, not everyone you meet is going to fall in love with you. But if you go out with a hundred people, and they all say you have a body odor problem, you should probably address that. In the same way, if you send your tracks to a hundred people and they all say you have a production issue or a performance issue, then you should take their feedback seriously. Your job is to separate the people that are rejecting your music for reasons that you can’t change, from the people who are passing on your music for reasons that you can. I can’t make every girl I go out with like me, but by doing things like going to the gym, dressing well, not being a drug addict, having a stable job and so on, I can greatly increasing my odds of connecting with someone. In the same way, by doing things like producing your tracks really well, writing great songs that work for tv and film, performing your songs really well and so on, you will greatly increase your odds of finding licensing success. The reality is that not everyone is going to like everything you do. But if you’re writing great songs and you’re taking massive action, you will find people who appreciate and support your work. Don't worry about any one particular goal, pursue them all with equal fervor and enthusiasm and success will become a matter of when and not if. I recently signed a new song of mine called “I Will Fly” to several different libraries and publishers. In the process of shopping the track around I got a wide range of responses, some of them positive and some of them negative. One of the great things about running my website and working with so many different people in the music business, is that I have a network of people I can turn to who will, at the very least, listen to my music and give me their honest, uncensored feedback. This is extremely valuable, because often times when people pass on your music you don’t even know why. Is it the song? The production? The vocals? If there’s no feedback, it’s hard to know for sure. When you don’t get feedback when someone passes on your music, all you can do is speculate as to why they passed. When you get honest feedback, you can use that to improve your music going forward. It’s important to point out that not everyone hears music the same way. You can submit the same song to ten different places and get ten different responses. However, if you make enough submissions, and gather enough feedback, you start to get a pretty clear idea of how your music stacks up against the competition and how people in the industry perceive what it is you do. Not everyone is going to like everything you do. However, if you’re trying to license your music, your job as a songwriter is to write music that will move and inspire the people you pitch it to. Your job, in a sense, is to know the industry well enough to know the kinds of songs that will interest those that you’re pitching to and then write those. To put it another way, if the majority of people you pitch your music to are passing on your material, you’re off track. At least with regards to your goal of getting your music licensed. Maybe you’ve written a great song but it just doesn’t work for licensing. Great, you have a great song you can do something else with. But if you’re trying to license your material, you need to figure out why certain songs work and why others don’t. This is your job. It’s not the job of other people in the industry to teach you. For better or worse, this is up to you to figure out. One of the hardest things to do as songwriters and musicians is to be truly objective about our own material. When you write and record a song, there’s a certain sense of excitement about the process that can cloud your judgement. It’s exciting to see your songs come to life. So exciting in fact, that it’s all too easy to rush to judgement prematurely about how great or on target your material truly is. It’s a good idea to wait a few days after you finish a song and go back to it with fresh ears. Listen to it again and compare it to a few other tracks that have done well, licensing wise, in a similar genre. Does it truly stand up? Does your track have the same punch, clarity, catchiness and so on? These are all important questions to ask when you’re writing and producing material. Don’t get lost in the excitement of the creative process so much that you lose sight of whether or not what you’re creating is ultimately commercially viable. There’s a subjective quality to music that is unavoidable. Some people like songs that others don’t. But when it comes to licensing, there are a lot of elements that aren’t subjective at all. They’re actually quite easy to quantify and evaluate. Things like production quality, vocal performance, lyrics and so on, are all very easy to measure and gather a consensus on. If you compare a really well produced song to a not so well produced song, it’s very easy to hear. The same can be said for a great vocal performance vs a subpar vocal performance. There’s nothing subjective about these things at all. If you submit the same song to enough places, there usually will be a consensus among the people you’re pitching to that you are either on track, or off. Here are some of the responses I got about one of my newest tracks, “I Will Fly” that my prodicer and I have been shopping around. The interesting thing about this track is that I decided to take a crack at singing the lead vocals on this one. I’ve licensed some of my music that I sing lead on, but most of the tracks I’ve licensed over the years I’ve used other vocalists on or has been instrumental music. Although I was reluctant to sing lead on this track because I felt the melody was out of my range, after some prodding by my producer and friends I decided to sing lead and pitch the track with my vocals. Notice how some of the responses seem to contradict each other, but in the end about half of the responses point to the fact that the song needs some changes. Here was the first response from a publisher I pitched to, who has a long track record of placing music in tv and films: “Intro is ok, but from the start of the 1st verse, I’m having trouble digesting the vocals. The doubled up vocal production needs work. The doubling up is not a good sound. It’s not harmonized well. It sounds harsh, electronic and not pleasing like a real harmony would be and it’s overused. I think you should ease so the vocals don’t have that continuous doubled up effect. That’s just my initial feeling.” Ouch. Ok, I can take constructive criticism… Here’s the second response we got from another publisher: "I don’t think it sounds like something I can hear in a film or tv show… I don’t find the singer’s voice pleasant the song isn’t bad but … the instrumentation sounds / feels a bit dated - 90’s ish… … just my opinion. I’m not always right." Damn! At this point, I’m feeling a bit defeated to be honest. Then, this was the third response I got from the next person I sent the track to who does a lot of ad work. I sent several unsigned tracks that I sing on to this particular contact, including my newest track, I Will Fly: Aaron I really like your music . I Will Fly is very licensable for advertising . The others as well perhaps more for film and TV . You have an indie sound with a interesting vocal presentation that works well and is consistent with the arrangements and instrumentation . I would be happy to try to help get these licensed . M Ok, cool! I’m starting to feel a little better. I have an “interesting” vocal sound and the song is “very licensable for advertising. Nice! I actually wrote this track with advertising in mind, so this response was encouraging and more in line with what I expected to hear. Here’s the fourth response we got: Sorry, I don’t think I can use this guys. It sounds a little dated to me. Ok, again with the “dated” comment. Duly noted. Here's another positive response we got from a different publisher in LA that I sent "I Will Fly" and a few other tracks that I sing on: First, thanks for sending your tracks. I listened to them today and loved what I heard. You capture a very authentic feel in your music. Great stuff! Tell me more about what your currently doing with your music. Are you working with any libraries for higher exposure / placements or just managing your music on your own? Here’s the final response I got of the six initial places we sent the song to: Great stuff man!! Sure we can get it up and feature it! This one was positive, but didn’t really have a lot specific to say. But still another positive response from a major library that wants to feature my music, so in the end I'm feeling pretty positive, but still concerned about some of the critiques we received. Of the six places we sent the song to, three declined for very specific reasons. Of the three places that accepted the track, only one indicated specifically why they liked the track and what they thought it would be good for. In the end, Gary (my producer) and I decided to re-work the track using a different vocalist and trying a different approach to the production and instrumentation. Although getting accepted into three out of six places isn’t bad at all, we still decided to make some changes to the track based on the feedback we received, before we pitch the track any further. The final result is a more modern sounding track with a more solid vocal performance that I anticipate will generate even more interest. I don’t expect everyone to love everything I do, but if the majority of people I send my tracks to, or even half, feel like something is off or needs changed, I take their advice seriously. Although everyone hears music differently and there is a subjective quality to music, I also believe there is a sort of collective wisdom that people in the industry with a lot of experience have. I want my music to impress more people than not. At this point, I don’t take rejection personally. Sure, I want people to like my tracks, but I’m always open to criticism and ways of improving the work that I do. Rejection is simply feedback. [Note: I plan to do a follow up post in the next couple weeks and share both versions of the track, the one with my vocals and our original production, and then the one with a different vocalist we selected and a different production strategy. We’re still putting the finishing touches on the final version] How do you deal with rejection? Do you just keep going and move on? Do you take it with a grain of salt or do you try to adapt to the feedback you receive? Let me know in the comments below. Over the last few years, I’ve worked with hundreds of musicians. I’ve interviewed successful musicians and publishers throughout the US, Canada and Europe. I’ve consulted even more musicians via my training programs. I’ve seen what works, I’ve seen what sort of works and I’ve seen what doesn’t work at all.
When you speak with enough musicians that are reaching their goals and finding success, you start to see a pattern. A common denominator emerges that ties all of their stories together. Although everyone has a different path and no two paths in the music business are identical, there are places where almost all success stories overlap. In this post, I’m going to explore these overlapping places. If you’re aren’t as successful as you’d like to be in your music career, or really any business endeavor, there are really only two reasons why. Your lack of success, 99% of the time, is probably related to either one or both of these reasons:
Now let me be clear, when I talk about success in the music business, I’m not necessarily talking about Justin Bieber or Rihanna level success. I think there is an element of luck involved in those who become extraordinarily successful in the music business. Either luck in terms of innate talent or looks (which unfortunately is a factor in mainstream success). Or they are lucky in terms of being discovered by the right person at the right time. I’m not interested in luck. I can’t teach luck and luck can’t really be learned. So when I talk about success in the music business, I’m talking about musicians who have deliberately set out to create a viable career in the music business. I’m talking about musicians who wake up every day and make a full time income from their music that they live comfortably from. I’m talking about musicians who are supporting themselves through licensing, through composing jobs, as performers and so on. I’m talking about a level of success within all our reach, if we work hard enough. I’m talking about a level of success that’s attainable to anyone with the right work ethic and the right skills, both of which can be developed, irrespective of how lucky or unlucky you are. So think about it. Success in the music business can obviously be attained. If someone else has done it, you can do it too. I’ve eliminated the wild card factor of extreme luck. Although to be fair, I do subscribe to the adage “the harder I work, the luckier I become”. Either way, we’ve removed extreme luck from the equation and we’ve arrived at a definition of success in the music business that all musicians can achieve through hard work and determination. Hopefully you’re with me so far. Are you? Great. So, here comes the inevitable question… Why aren’t you as successful as you’d like to be? If you are, great, keep doing what you've been doing. But assuming you'd like to be more successful, what can you do to change that? Well, back to my original premise, you probably either haven’t been pursuing this long enough, or you simply haven’t worked hard enough. It’s most likely one of, or both of these reasons. Let’s break it down. Let’s say you write a batch of songs and you start shopping them around trying to land a licensing deal. You send your songs to 200 publishers. You get rejected by all of them. Why? Well your songs probably simply aren’t what the market wants or needs. Or, your production isn't good enough. Either way, you probably haven’t been at this long enough, or you haven’t been working hard enough to get your music where it needs to be. Or, alternatively, maybe you’ve just finished an amazing CD that has a ton of licensing potential. You’ve just spent all your money and effort getting it recorded. So you take a month or two off to relax. Then you decide to send it to a few of your contacts. You wait a couple months. Nothing happens. So you decided to send it to a few more places. A couple people are interested, but months later nothing has happened and you feel no further down the road than when you first finished your CD. In this case, you have the material, but you just aren’t putting in the effort needed to get it off the ground. I know, I know. It’s a lot of work. It’s exhausting just thinking about how much works is involved. You probably feel like just hanging out with your friends or having a drink after a long day at work. Achieving success is hard. It takes a lot of sacrifice and it takes looking at how you spend your time, differently than perhaps most other people. It takes a sort of dogged determination that most musicians lack. Hence the reasons why most musicians aren’t that successful. A couple weeks ago I interviewed one of my former clients, Eddie Grey, about his massive success in the music licensing world. Since starting to work with me and my producer, Gary Gray, he’s gone on to license over 500 of his tracks in film and tv and he’s currently a full time composer for A & E. He’s doing very well. In our interview, Eddie said, sometimes you have to “get a little crazy’ when pursuing your goals. He was alluding to the fact that you have to get really intense with what it is you’re pursuing. Eddie would frequently contact as many as 200 potential clients a day while he was getting started. In two and a half short years he’s accumulated hundreds of placements and has been hired as a staff composer for A & E. It seems like his work is paying off. I could tell you at least a dozen other very similar stories, of people I've worked with or know who are doing equally as well. Although their paths and stories are different, they're all the same in that the common denominator they share that led them to success was that they put in both a considerable amount of time and effort. Time + hard work = success. I think a lot of people say they want this or that, but at the end of the day they’d rather spend time checking Facebook or hanging out with the same group of friends talking about the same insignificant topics, instead of making their dreams a reality. If you really want this, shut down facebook, turn off your cell phone, quit chasing pokemon and go for it. Really go for it. Every day. I often get asked about my time at Berklee College Of Music and whether or not I think going to Berklee is a good idea for aspiring musicians. In today's post, I answer that question.
A few months ago I made a video called “What It’s Like Going To Berklee College of Music”. In that video I talked about what my experience of attending Berklee was like. In today’s post I’m going to explore whether or not going to a school like Berklee is a good idea, financially. I share my perspective, having attended Berklee as a songwriting major. [Also check out my recent podcast with Berklee’s former VP, Dave Kusek, here] I attended Berklee College of Music as a songwriting major from 1993 – 1995. I took a year off in 96 and then headed to Eastern Illinois University to complete a degree in liberal arts with an emphasis in music. I financed my education with some help from my parents and a considerable amount of student loans that I took out myself. In this post I’m going to address whether or not, in my opinion, it’s necessary to attend a music school, like Berklee, to pursue a career in music, and the pros and cons of going to Berklee specifically. Benefits Let’s start with the upside of attending a university like Berklee College Of Music. I progressed immensely during my time at Berklee. For the two years that I was there, I lived and breathed music. It’s impossible to not get better when you immerse yourself in that sort of environment. A typical day would involve attending classes during the day, practicing for a couple hours throughout the day and at night there would usually be some sort of jam session in my dorm room, or in someone else’s room on my floor. I clearly remember getting much, much better at guitar, very quickly. All of my friends and family made the same observation. I got a LOT better as a direct result of attending Berklee. The results were tangible. Of course, you don’t need to attend a university to get these type of results. You could, at least hypothetically, find a group of like-minded people, and practice with them several hours a day, take private lessons with multiple instructors every day, and practice alone each day on your instrument. It’s of course possible, but it’s much harder to do without the sort of structured environment that a school like Berklee provides. There’s a sort of enthusiasm that’s contagious when you get that many like-minded, motivated musicians together in the same environment. One of the great benefits of being at Berklee is simply being surrounded by so many like-minded musicians. Networking Berklee creates the perfect environment for networking with professional musicians, IF you’re willing to take advantage of it. Despite being very young and not the most socially savvy person at the time, I still managed to make several really good connections at Berklee that benefit me to this day. But if there’s one thing I wish I could have done differently during my time at Berklee, it’s taking more advantage of the wealth of networking potential that Berklee provides. The cool thing about Berklee is that the entire staff consists of professional, working musicians. Almost everyone is connected to the business in different ways. For example, when I was there one of my songwriting teachers ran a successful publishing company. My lyric writing teacher, Pat Pattison, who is still there, is a very connected and influential teacher and author. My guitar teacher, Jon Finn, was an amazing, working guitarist and good friends with guitarist Steve Morse. Every teacher I interacted with, was working in the music business. Missed Opportunities I can remember one year Pat Pattison took the songwriting department on a trip to Nashville for spring break where we attended seminars and conferences throughout the week with songwriters and publishers in Nashville. I had to stay in Nashville an extra day to fly from there to see my parents in Florida. Pat offered to put me up with the legendary Gillian Welch for the night. I declined out of what at the time I thought was politeness, “I don’t want to trouble her”, I told Pat. In hindsight I was probably just too shy and afraid. I simply wasn’t ready to seize all of the incredible opportunities being presented to me. Downside Berklee was an expensive school when I attended, and it's an even more expensive school now. The cost of tuition when I was there was about 30k a year. It's currently over 50k a year. If you were to attend now, and get a four year degree, without any scholarships, it would cost you about $217,00.00. That's an enormous amount of money to invest in a field with less than certain job prospects. It's one thing to take on a large amount of debt to study something like medicine where there is a more predictable outcome in terms of job prospects and salary. If you take on $200,000 in debt but are fairly certain you'll be making six figures upon graduation and will be able to repay your loan in a timely manner, then it's a logical and rational thing to do. But, if you're taking on this much debt to study something that you may or may not be able to earn a good living from upon graduation, it's a much more risky proposition, financially. Student loan debt can never be discharged. Like taxes, it’s a form of debt that you can’t get rid of. Not even bankruptcy will allow you to discharge your student loan debt. Even tax debts can be settled for less than the original amount, under certain circumstances. This isn’t the case with student loans. One way or another, it has to be repaid, unless you are willing to face unrepairable damage to your credit and possibly face legal actions. If I Could Do It Over If there's one thing I would differently if I could go back and re-do my time at Berklee, it's that I would have been much more pro-active in terms of networking with the staff and my peers. I wasn't 100 percent sure of what I wanted to do, career wise, when I was at Berklee and this held me back in terms of making connections that could have furthered my career. I wasn’t quite sure what direction to go in and so I wasn't quite sure what connections to make. Had I waited a few years to go to Berklee I probably would have been more clear about the direction I wanted to go in and what my career options really were. Of course, I can't go back, and hindsight is always 20/20, but I caution musicians who attend Berklee, or other contemporary music schools, to not take for granted the unique environment that music schools create for networking and relationship building. Have a good idea of what it is you want to get out of Berklee before you go there and meet the people who can help you reach those goals. Don't spend close to 60k a year to try and figure out what you want to do when you graduate. In Conclusion Taking on debt to study something like music is a business decision and shouldn’t be taken lightly. When you're young, it's easy to just sort of assume that everything will magically work out. In my own case, things have worked out, more or less, in the sense that I'm making enough money from my chosen profession to live comfortably and pay off my loans. But it's taken me a long time to get here and I've had to be tremendously creative and work extremely hard over the years to get to this point. Studying music or getting a degree in music isn't a pre-requisite for working in the music business. No one has ever asked to see my degree at any point in the last twenty years that I've worked in the business as a guitarist, songwriter, teacher, etc. If the fact that I attended Berklee comes up, it normally gets a positive reaction, but it's certainly not a requirement for working in the industry. The most successful musician that I know personally, who has been on Letterman, played arenas and so on, is a high school drop out. Going to Berklee will certainly help you get your chops up, no doubt about it, but it's not a pre-requisite for success in the music business. I'm glad I went to Berklee and it's benefited me in a variety of ways in my career over the years. It's opened some doors for sure. But if I could go back in time I would have done things differently and would have been more pro-active in coming up with a solid career plan the minute I stepped foot on Berklee's campus. Or perhaps I would have attended a less expensive school and with the money I saved bought things like gear and recording equipment. Either way, I would make sure I had more of a solid plan for what I wanted to get out of my music education. Of course, I can't go back, but I can share what I've learned with others who are thinking about taking a similar path. The bottom line If you’re drawn to going to a school like Berklee, and you have a game plan for paying off your loans when you get out, it might just be the perfect decision for you. I would never discourage someone from following their dreams. There’s no doubt you will grow immensely as a musician if you go there. But don’t take the decision lightly, because if you’re borrowing a considerable amount of money to go, as most are, it’s a decision that will no doubt affect the rest of your life. When I was 15 my goal was to become a rock star. Having that goal motivated me to learn guitar, learn to write songs, attend Berklee College of Music, form a band, and ultimately start licensing my own music and create my own internet business focused on music licensing. As an indirect result of setting and pursuing this one, admittedly lofty goal, I made many new friends, met my first serious girlfriend, moved to Boston, then back to Chicago, wrote dozens of songs and eventually started my own business. I could probably write several pages of things I accomplished that are directly or indirectly related to setting that one goal. One goal. Dozens of rewards and benefits.
The interesting thing is, I didn’t actually become a rock star. At least not in most people’s minds. But in a way it doesn’t matter, because just the act of setting and pursuing that singular goal, created dozens of positive ripple effects that spread into my future and are still spreading out into my future to this day. Had I not set that particular goal, I probably wouldn’t have attended music school, I wouldn’t have formed my first band, I wouldn’t have made the friends I made, I wouldn’t have met my ex-girlfriend of five years at one of my band’s shows, I wouldn’t have gotten into licensing my music, and I probably wouldn’t have formed my online business that allows me to continue my passion of writing and licensing music. When you set big goals, the point isn’t to simply set a goal and achieve it. Some of the goals we set for ourselves we’ll achieve and some we won’t, but if we set goals that are big enough and that we’re aligned with, our lives will be better off because of all of them. If a goal is big enough, it will force you to expand as a person and take actions that will benefit your life in a myriad of ways. When I set goals today, I don’t just think about the end result of the goal it is that I want to achieve, I think about the entire process and how I’ll grow as a person as a result of pursuing my goal. One of my newest goals is to become more successful on Youtube. It’s a fairly recent goal, and I have a long ways to go. But already, in the last few months. as a result of setting and pursuing this goal, I’ve recorded new music to use in my videos, I’ve created several new videos, I’ve added hundreds of subscribers to my Youtube channel and generated thousands of new views. I’ve also met new people that I’m collaborating with to make my videos, I’ve created a course with composer Dhruva Aliman who has generated over 300 million views on Youtube and more! Just one goal that has led to numerous benefits. Setting goals also gives us a sense of purpose, which is critical to feeling fulfilled and happy. When I have goals and things to channel my energy into, I feel motivated and invigorated. Especially If I’m really excited about the goal. Whenever I find myself feeling down, it’s almost always related to a feeling of lacking direction or purpose. Life is a puzzle and one of the most satisfying aspects of life, to me, is trying to figure out how to best put together the pieces of my life. It’s a never ending process, but it prevents my life from ever getting close to boring. If your goal is just to make money and pay your bills, that’s not necessarily a bad goal, but think beyond just survival. What are the things you’re really passionate about? If you had all the money you needed and knew you didn’t ever have to worry about money, how would you spend your time? The more you can blend your passions with your pursuit of money and survival, the happier you’ll be in my experience. I have the great fortune of being able to spend most of my time doing things I’m passionate about and make enough money to survive comfortably. I may not have reached my original goal of becoming a bona fide rock star, but that single, original goal led me to learn so many new things, that led to so many new, related goals, that I now live a life better than I could have imagined, albeit different than I expected. Set big goals and then watch the magic that unfolds. Reach for the moon, even if you miss you’ll land among the stars.
In my latest podcast, I catch up with my producer, LA based Gary Gray, to discuss the latest trends in the world of music licensing. Gary and I talk about what supervisors are looking for, how to network directly with supervisors in LA, which type of artists supervisors gravitate towards and more.
Check it out! More information on The 90 Day Music Licensing Challenge. For more information on Gary Gray, visit http://LearnAudioEngineering.net When I contemplate topics that would make good blog posts, I look for topics that first and foremost inspire me. It’s hard for me to take the time to write a well written, thoughtful and concise piece, if the subject matter isn’t something I’m interested in. It’s similar to writing a song. I ultimately want other people to like and appreciate the music I write, but it’s hard for me to even finish a song if it doesn’t first move me. I do my best to create work that I’m inspired by and ultimately I hope others feel the same.
When I started investigating and exploring the idea of why music exists at all, I got really excited. You see, long before musicians were trying to sell their music to TV shows or aiming to get record deals that would advance their careers, long before there even was a “music industry”, people were making and listening to music. In 800 BC the first recovered piece of recorded music was found. It was written in cuneiform and was a religious hymn. Music has been with us as humans a long, long time. I’m excited about this topic because it’s so easy to get caught up in the whole business of making and selling music that it’s easy to forget about why music even exists in the first place. Surprisingly, for as long as music has been around, there doesn’t seem to be much of a consensus on why music actually exists in the first place. Music has been with us as long as we can collectively remember. Musical instruments have been found dating back tens of thousands of years. Yet, no one really understands why we love music in the first place, or what practical function, if any, it serves. Researchers have yet to find a "music center" in the brain. Like many other higher-order processes, the mental tasks involved in listening to and enjoying music are distributed across several brain areas. Sociologists have suggested and put forth different ideas, about why music exists. Here’s a quote from BBC.com about a 2001 study done by McGill College that focused on our emotional responses to music: “We like music because it makes us feel good. Why does it make us feel good? In 2001, neuroscientists Anne Blood and Robert Zatorre at McGill University in Montreal provided an answer. Using magnetic resonance imaging they showed that people listening to pleasurable music had activated brain regions called the limbic and paralimbic areas, which are connected to euphoric reward responses, like those we experience from sex, good food and addictive drugs. Those rewards come from a gush of a neurotransmitter called dopamine. As DJ Lee Haslam told us, music is the drug.” For me, I don’t need a study to explain why I enjoy music so much. I enjoy listening to and performing music because it makes me feel good and it seems to make other people feel good. That’s enough for me. However, it's fascinating to contemplate and think about what the point of music actually is in the first place. Perhaps better understanding the role music plays in our lives, will allow us to become more effective and more successful musicians. So, for the sake of this article, let's agree that the point of music, fundamentally, is that it makes people feel good. Or perhaps, more accurately, it makes people feel strong emotions. Some pieces of music may evoke more of a sense of melancholy, whereas other pieces of music may evoke more of a sense of joy and happiness, depending on the key and the subject matter. But either way, music elicits an emotional response in the listener, which makes the listener, ultimately, feel more alive. One of the traps we fall into, as both musicians, and in general, is focusing more on the pursuit of money and success, than on the point of why we're doing something in the first place. Are we making music in order to create people to feel something, first and foremost? Or are we making music in order to "make money"? Think about it. It's a subtle, but profound difference. We live in a society that makes it incredibly hard to not be motivated by money. It’s required for our very survival. For many of us, it also ties into our sense of self worth and our perceived status within the social hierarchy we exist. It’s pretty hard to take money out of the equation when it comes to our art because, for better or worse, it plays such a big role in our lives. However, the problem with being motivated primarily by money, is that ironically, it's not really a very powerful motivator. Once we have enough of it to survive, we tend to stop working as hard. Numerous studies have pointed to the fact that once we’re earning around $75,000 per year, making more money does little to increase our happiness. However, when we're fueled by passion and a deep sense of meaning, we're more likely to keep going, beyond the point of earning just enough to survive. This is especially important when it comes to something like music, which is arguably one of the hardest professions to succeed in. If you're only focused on how much money you're earning from music, it's easy to get discouraged and just give up, or to experience a little bit of success and then start slacking off. Perhaps instead, focus on how people are responding to your music. Are you evoking a strong emotional response in people? Are listeners resonating with your music? Is your music creating the response you desire in people that listen to it? Does the music you make light you up? Or are you just trying to figure out a way to make an extra buck? It's much easier to figure out ways to monetize the music you make if you know there's a demand for it. People want to feel good. Is your music helping them achieve that? Is your music creating powerful emotions in listeners that inspire them to move beyond the mundane monotony of their day to day lives? The ability to move others with your music is the point of music. How much money you're earning from your music is one barometer to gauge how well you’re doing your job. But if it's the only barometer you're focusing on, it's a bit like putting the cart before the horse. It would be like building a car and focusing on how fast it goes, before you build the engine. I look at my job, in terms of my website and blog, as showing people how to make money with their music, because I realize how incredibly important that is for most artists. I also believe that there are many silver linings in the music business right now. THERE ARE ways to make money with your music, and my courses and website exist to show you how. But don’t lose sight of what motivated you to make music in the first place. It probably wasn’t just to make a lot of money. Focus on your art, first and foremost. Write songs that people truly connect with. The one thing I know for sure, is that if you can find an audience, you can figure out a way to monetize your music. Whether it’s through licensing, or monetizing your tracks on Youtube, performing live, or perhaps a combination of these things. But don’t focus so much on trying to make money that you lose you sight of what drew you to making music in the first place. Inspired by the recent course I created on how to make a full time income on Youtube and my desire to create uplifting and motivational content, I've decided to create a new series of videos containing positive messages combined with my own music and stunning visual footage. My first video is called "All Lives Matter". It's short and sweet. Just 3 minutes. Check it out and let me know what you think. Have you ever had the experience of writing what you’re sure is an amazing, masterpiece of a song, only to find out once you release it no else seems to agree? Have you ever poured your heart and soul into a song or an album, that you’re convinced is an earth shattering, ground breaking piece of art that is sure to move people all around the world, only to find out that no one really seems to care? If your career has been anything like mine, you’ve probably had a few of these moments along your journey. It’s a humbling experience to pour so much of yourself into your work and realize that it’s maybe not as great as you thought it was. Of course, maybe what you’re doing is actually great, but you just haven’t figured out a way to market yourself successfully. Either way, when you give something your all and it falls short of your expectations, it can be a little discouraging, to say the least. In today’s post I’m going to explore why so much music that is being made fails to gain any sort of traction. Is it all bad? Does the public have shitty taste in music? Are musicians just bad at marketing themselves? Is there just too much music out there? These are the questions I’m going to explore in today’s post. Let’s get started…. Is Your Music Any Good? Let’s start with an obvious question, which is, how good is your music? Often times musicians get so caught up in the experience and emotion of making art, that they convince themselves they’re creating something that is far better than it really is. Making music is fun and incredibly inspiring. I’m sure we’ve all had moments where we’re so immersed in working on our music that we fail to retain any sort of objectivity about what we’re creating at all. It’s hard to be objective about art as it’s a pretty subjective experience in the first place. But we have to have some way of gauging whether or not we’re doing has value to anyone other than ourselves. When you’re working on something like starting an internet business or building a company or trying to get a job, it’s much easier to be less emotional when things don’t work out. When I release a product for example on my website that doesn’t sell well, it doesn’t really hurt my feelings. I just take it as a sign that perhaps I misread the market and use that feedback to create something more aligned with what people actually want. I may experience frustration when things don’t go as planned, but I don’t take it personally. However if someone criticizes one of my songs, it hurts on a different level. I tend to take it more personally. Almost as if they’re criticizing me. Of course, if you think about it, this isn’t really a rational response. Either people like your music or they don’t. It’s cool to pretend like were just making music for ourselves and that we don’t really care one way or the other. But if you’re trying to make music as a way to make money and support yourself, then you have to care what people think. Your success depends on it! There is an enormous amount of music out there. More than there ever has been. There is more music out there than the public has time to listen to and much of it, isn’t really that good. It’s not surprising then, that if you release a song that is in reality, pretty mediocre or average, that it doesn’t set the world on fire. Your music needs to be amazing to rise above the barrage of mediocrity that’s out there. As hard as it to be objective about your own art, ask yourself if what you’re doing is really special. Does it really compete with the best of the best in today’s market? Does your music get lots of positive feedback on social media from people that aren’t your friends? I think most of us know, deep down, when we’re on target and when we’re not. If your music isn’t ready, that’s fine, it just means you need to keep working on your craft. But don’t fool yourself into thinking your music is better than it really is. Does The Public Have Bad Taste In Music? I think Jon Mayer summed it up best when said, “The public is never wrong. In fact they’re right 100 percent of the time.” What he meant was, the public always simply gravitates to what they like, for whatever reason. There’s no point in endlessly debating whether or not the public has “good” taste in music. They just like what they like. Are you trying to be popular and sell a lot of albums? If you are, you need to figure out how to appeal to the publics’ sensibility. If you don’t care about being popular and just want to attract a small, devoted following, that’s cool too. But don’t be disingenuous about your goals. If you want to be the next Beyonce or Jon Mayer, own that and go for it. Don’t blame your lack of success on the public’s poor taste in art and then pretend that you just want to be an obscure indie artist, when you’d really rather be selling out stadiums. Are Musicians Bad At Marketing? As someone who listens to a lot of music as a part of my job description, I can tell you that, fortunately, there is a lot of really great music out there. Unfortunately it’s not all being heard. Although it’s true that there is a lot of really mediocre, average music being made, there is also some incredible unknown music out there. Not all great music gets discovered. Some musicians are great at writing music, but not so great at marketing and business. Some musicians give up way to soon. Some musicians simply haven’t had their break yet and need to keep going in order to reach greater levels of success and exposure. One of the keys to making it in the music business is building a team of people that all play critical roles in helping you move forward. Managers, publicists, publishers, producers and so on, all play a key role in the careers of musicians. It’s very hard to do it all on your own. In fact, it’s close to impossible. There are only so many hats you can wear and there are only so many hours in a day. The musicians that I know that are the most successful, all have a network of people they work with who have helped them build their careers. No man is an island in the music industry. Is There “Too Much” Music? Sometimes it seems like there’s just too much music out there and that the public simply doesn’t have time to digest it all. There’s probably some truth to this idea. There is an enormous amount of music in the world and we each only have 24 hours in a day. Determining exactly how many songs exist is difficult as it doesn’t seem like there’s a consensus on how many songs are out there. According to my research there are anywhere between 97 million and one billion songs in existence, with new songs being created every day. There are over 4 million songs on Spotify alone that have never been played. But I don’t think there will ever be too much great art. Some things are just timeless and will never get old. Take movies for example, there is also an enormous amount of films that exist, but the movie business is thriving. A lot of films are simply rehashed storylines told in slightly different ways, with different actors. Yet, they still find an audience. Good stories will never fall out of fashion. In the same way, great songs will never stop moving people. New generations will always need new artists and new songs. Music will never get old or fall out fashion. Of course, with so much music out there, artists need to find ways to keep things fresh and interesting, to get the attention and leverage they need to attract listeners. But it’s preposterous to think that there could ever be “too much” music. Too much bad music perhaps, but not too much music. The Bottom Line The bottom line is that with so much music out there, and so many musicians making music that isn’t really that great or original, you need to do something really good and/or interesting to stand out. You need to somehow rise above the barrage of mediocre music and lackluster marketing that’s out there. There’s still a huge audience of people that are waiting for the next great artist and the next hit song and someone is going to step up to fill that role. The question is, will it be you, or someone else? Speaking of songs, here's a new one of mine called "Sweet Little Thing". Is it any good? Fingers crossed.
I had the great pleasure of speaking with my Alma mater's (Berklee College Of Music) former Vice President, and founder of The New Artist Model, Dave Kusek. Dave and I talked about his time as a professor and VP of Berklee, current trends in the music industry and what led him to create his new online teaching platform, The New Artist Model.
For more information on Dave's The New Artist Model, click here.
The late comedian Bill Hicks had a great bit about how all marketers are evil scumbags that deserve to die. He suggested that anyone in advertising and marketing are satan’s spawn that should kill themselves and rid the planet of their evil ways. In case you haven’t seen it, you can check it out below: It’s a really funny bit that made me laugh. I can relate with Hicks’ disdain for marketing and advertising. The constant bombardment of advertising and marketing in our society can be overwhelming. It seems that everywhere we turn we’re being marketed to and people are trying to sell us something everywhere we go. Whether it’s on TV, or the internet, or even the billboards we see driving down the street, we’re surrounded by advertisements. This is why the bit worked so well. It’s funny because there's an element of truth to it and we can all relate to it.
However, as I started contemplating the prevalence of marketing in our society and how so many people seem to have such a strong disdain for it, I couldn’t help but to think about the hypocrisy of it all. So many people feel so strongly about the evils of marketing, yet either work directly for corporations that engage in marketing, or market their products and services themselves. It’s a bit like people who are horrified by people who hunt animals to eat, but go to the supermarket every week to on stock up on beef and poultry that other people have killed. As if somehow if you aren’t actually present when the animal is killed you’re completely innocent. Take Bill Hicks for example. I’m a big fan of Hicks work and admire his views on society and the evils of capitalism. Yet, I’m pretty sure Hicks marketed his own concerts and I’m sure he had a publicist that helped him promote his shows, get booked on TV shows, schedule interviews and so on. It reminds me of people who preach the evils of the internet and social media, on social media. It’s the pot calling the kettle black. I can’t think of many jobs that don’t involve some form of marketing. Even non profit organizations market themselves to get the word out. Hospitals market themselves, churches market themselves, musicians certainly have to market themselves and on and on. Most of us engage in some form of marketing or work for companies and people that do. Very few products and services market themselves. Is marketing evil? Marketing by itself is just a tool. Like any tool it can be used for good or bad. Marketing used to increase visibility and recognition of products and services that actually help and benefit society is good. If you created something of value, wouldn’t you want people to know about it? If you created a beautiful song that moved people who listened to it, wouldn’t you want to find a way to share it with as many people as possible? Marketing isn’t inherently good or evil, any more than the internet or the printing press is inherently good or evil. Marketing is just a way to persuade and inform people, nothing less, nothing more. What is evil, are marketers that persuade people to knowingly buy products that are bad for them. Or marketers that focus solely on the almighty dollar at the expense of what’s good for society and humanity. What’s evil are corporations that care more about money than the safety and well-being of their employees. What’s evil are corporations that care more about the bottom line than the health of the planet and the people that live on it. Marketing isn’t evil. People are. Musicians, being the sensitive and idealistic people we often are, tend to be even more susceptible to the line of thinking that “all marketers are evil”. Take what I do with regard to my website. I create courses and compile information that a lot of musicians find very valuable. I spend a lot of time running my website, writing blog posts, making youtube videos, recording and editing podcasts, creating courses and so on. Naturally, because it takes me so much time, I need to be compensated financially in order to sustain the whole endeavor and grow my business. So I charge what I think are very fair prices for my courses and services. I live in a society that requires money to survive in, so this strikes me as a very rational and reasonable thing to do. Yet, still there’s a percentage of people who seem to have a problem with it. For example, I recently created a course on How To License Songs in commercials. I created the course with singer/songwriter Cathy Heller, who has had a lot of success licensing her songs in ads and commercials. I’m really proud of the course, so I of course marketed the course to my subscribers and on my social media. Cathy and I spent a lot of time creating the course together and so of course we wanted to see a return on our investment of time. I think most people get this, but I still got a message from one musician who was outraged that we would actually charge money for our course. “Why is someone making a six figure income from licensing selling a course for $37.00?” they implored. Umm, I don’t know, maybe because they like teaching and sharing information and want to make money so that they can pay for things like rent, food, etc. I think as a society we need to get past this black and white thinking about money that so many of us seem to have. Making money isn’t evil. Marketing isn’t evil. It’s what we do with money and what we’re willing to do with marketing that determines whether or not are actions are “evil” or “good”. Money is just a tool and a way to exchange value. That’s it. I create music and courses that teach other musicians how to make money from their music. I’m passionate about what I do and I charge money for what I do. I sleep very well at night.
I recently interviewed musician Dhruva Aliman about how he earns a full time living from the ad revenue he generates on his videos, which have been viewed over 300 million times.
Check out our podcast below. For even more in depth information about how to earn money with your music on Youtube, check out the course Dhruva and I recently created,Advanced Youtube Marketing For Musicians. I recently produced a course with LA based singer/songwriter Cathy Heller, about how to makes six figures a year licensing music in ads. I’ll be announcing details about that soon. But in the meantime I want to share some insights I got while making the course. It’s fascinating to talk with someone who makes six figures a year licensing music and picking their brain to really understand the mindset they have that allows them to excel in their craft.
[If you haven't already, be sure to check out my recent podcast with Cathy Heller here.] Cathy has incredible insight into what it takes to succeed in the licensing business at a very high level. During the course, we of course get into specifics about the world of advertising and how to “break in” to the business and how to write songs specifically for ads. But Cathy also spent quite a bit of time discussing the mindset required to succeed in the music licensing business. And to be clear, by succeeding, I don’t mean just getting your music licensed here and there. Cathy very specifically states setting a goal of making between 200 and 400 thousand dollars a year from licensing. You read that right, between $200,000.00 and $400,000.00 a year. She not only states those figures as being the goal, but she states that making this much money from licensing in advertising is both “reasonable” and “not that difficult”. Pretty exciting stuff! A Mindset Of Certainty So, let’s get into some of the mindset insights I got from creating the course with Cathy. One of the mindsets that Cathy says you need to succeed, is a mindset of certainty as opposed to a mindset of hope. I love this idea. There’s a big difference between being hopeful about something and being certain about something. When you’re hopeful, you have a feeling that things might work out. When you’re certain, you have a sense that they definitely will happen. Think about it. It’s a big difference and I think it really is one of the things that separates those that are super successful from those that experience just a little success or no success or no success at all. Don’t hope you’re going to do something. Do it. It’s cliché I know, but it really is true in my experience. You have to develop this attitude to push through the resistance and obstacles you inevitably are going to face. Be Part Of The 1% Another concept that Cathy discusses in our upcoming course is the idea of being part of the1% of writers who take this really seriously. We often think of the music business as being this ultra-competitive industry where there are millions of other musicians vying for the same opportunities. Although it’s true, there are lots of “musicians” out there pursuing careers in music, to varying degrees. How many of them do you think are really serious about it? How many of them are determined to make it happen at all costs? How many of them are resourceful enough and have the confidence and energy needed to succeed? It’s a small percentage. If you become part of the 1 or 2 percent that are actually determined and willing to make this happen, you’re not really competing with millions of musicians, but instead you’re competing with a small group of artists that actually have what it takes. When you approach your career this way, it becomes much less daunting. Be part of the top one percent! Take Massive Action This is a concept of I’ve written a lot about over the last few years and Cathy echoes my thoughts on this almost verbatim. What holds a lot of artists back is simply not taking enough action. This is a business, and like any business, to truly excel, you need to be up at dawn working at this every day. When Cathy says that succeeding in licensing at a high level is not difficult, she doesn’t mean that it’s easy or doesn’t require massive effort. What she means is that if you do the work required, it’s totally attainable. It’s not an unrealistic, “pie in the sky” goal. I think one of reasons artists don’t take massive action is they’re not quite sure what do or how to go about building a viable career. They don’t have a map and so they sort of just spin their wheels and wander somewhat aimlessly towards undefined, ambiguous goals. Maybe they record an ep and send it to a few people, but they don’t really build the momentum necessary to get it off the ground. You need to have a map and you need to have a plan. Knowing how to get where you want to go, and seeing that there indeed is a path, will give you the confidence to start taking action. If you take enough action, you will progress. Like Cathy says, “this is not rocket science”, it’s actually a really simple concept. The more action you take, the more success you’ll experience. The problem is that a lot of musicians simply either don’t take enough of the right actions, or they just give up way to soon. You Start In The Hole Almost all businesses start off in debt. This is just the reality of starting and doing business. It usually takes a few years to get going in any business. There are costs associated with starting almost any business that require you taking on debt. The music business is no different. You have to accept this reality in the beginning and figure out a way to provide for yourself in the meantime. This is the reality that anyone who goes into business for themselves face. The music licensing business is no different. You have to figure out how to record and produce your music for example. But don’t use lack of financial resources as an excuse. Figure out how to make it happen. Save up for recording costs or be resourceful and work out creative ways to finance your production. Whatever is holding you back, figure out a way to overcome it. You are the greatest resource you have when it comes to building your licensing and music career. The Bottom Line The bottom line is that if you really want success in the licensing business, you can attain it. I truly believe that with every ounce of my being. You of course have to be talented and cultivate your talent. But being driven is a more important component. The musicians that succeed are not necessarily the most talented, as we’re all aware, but they’re usually the ones that are simply the most driven. Just because you haven’t achieved the success you’ve wanted, doesn’t mean you’re not capable of it. Maybe you just haven’t taken the right steps. Maybe you’ve tried a lot of different things and have been sort of shooting in the dark. The thing that I love the most about running my website is connecting with people who have actually figured out how to make music a career. There is a path and if you observe enough successful people in this business, you’ll start to connect the dots. There are plenty of musicians out there succeeding in the music business, start connecting with them and figure out how they did it. As Tony Robbins says, “success leaves clues”. The Most Valuable Resource You are the most valuable resource you have in succeeding. Only you get to decide if you keep going for it or not. Other people can reject you or tell you that you’re not “good enough”, but only you get to decide whether to quit or keep moving ahead. We get to live this life just one time, why not really go for it? When I was 34 years old I read the book, “The Four Hour Workweek”. In case you haven’t heard of it or aren’t familiar with it, I’ll summarize what the book is about. Essentially, it’s about ways to automate more of your life, maximize more of your time and create a more flexible, mobile and ultimately, more fulfilling lifestyle. It’s a great book and it inspired me to move my life in a completely different direction. I ended up creating a website and started generating about 3K a month online, about six months after starting my site. I ended up heading to Costa Rica in 2008, for what would be my first in a series of extended travels throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. My internet income, combined with my licensing income, provided plenty of money to travel and even live abroad for extended periods of my time.
I can remember an experience I had the first time I took one of my extended trips that I’ll never forget. I was in Nicaragua, where I went after a few weeks of travel through Costa Rica. I had met a group of travelers in Costa Rica that I ended up travelling to Nicaragua with. During this time, I would usually work at least a few hours in my hostel each day, and then head out to explore whatever area I was visiting during the day. On this particular day I had gone to a beach near the coastal town of San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua. I spent a couple hours surfing and then decided to venture off on my own to walk a stretch of isolated beach near where we were surfing. As I walked that stretch of beach, a feeling of complete bliss swept over me. I was walking alone, in the middle of nowhere, in a foreign country in the middle of Central America, on a Tuesday afternoon in January. For some reason, when this reality hit me, I felt an enormous feeling of warmth and gratitude. A year earlier, I would have been stuck at a job that I despised, in the cold winter of Chicago, struggling to pay rent in my tiny studio apartment. I had managed to come a long way in a short time, and I felt ecstatic about my new life and my new adventures. That feeling didn’t last however. Although those initial few months were exciting and life changing, slowly reality set in. Although I had managed to create a flexible, revenue stream online and was able to work from new and foreign environments, it quickly became clear that I was going to have to work much more than four hours a week to create and sustain the life I really wanted. In fact, what I soon realized, was that I was actually going to have to work harder than ever in order to succeed on my own. The four hour workweek is a great, catchy title. It also sounds like an envious lifestyle. Who wouldn’t want to work four hours a week and kick back on a beach the rest of the time? But the truth is, after having spent eight years working for myself online, it’s just, simply put, not at all realistic and probably wouldn’t really be that fulfilling even if it was. In any industry, things are constantly changing, competition is changing, technology is changing, information is changing and so on. If you’re running a business, and want to stay in business, you have to keep up with and adapt to these changes. Working online is no exception to this. Even though I was able to generate money in a more flexible way than I had before, it quickly became clear that if I wanted to grow, or even just sustain my income, I couldn’t slack off for long. So, after a few months of traveling around, and dwindling funds, I headed back to the States to regroup. When I got back home I spent a lot of time thinking about what I really wanted to do and what direction I really wanted to go in. One of the frustrations that I experienced that inspired me to travel and make such a drastic change in my life, in addition to my job situation, was my growing frustration with playing in bands and pursuing music. At this point I had spent about a decade, playing in different bands and trying to get a band off the ground. I was burnt out on trying to make this happen. The last gig I played In Chicago during this time period, I ended up losing money on. I’ll never forget the sense of disappointment I felt when I realized I owed more money for the sound guy at the end of the night than the band I was performing with took in at the door. I needed a break. Developing the ability to make money online changed my life pretty dramatically. In addition to allowing me to leave my “day job” and travel, it also allowed me to take a step back and reflect a bit. I had spent most of my adult life up to this point chasing my dream of playing and performing music. I had experienced some high highs and some pretty low lows during this time. In the end though, I started to feel pretty cynical about the music business. I knew success was possible and I still believed in the power of music, but it seemed so hard to get off the ground that I felt like there had to be a better path for me. I was willing to fight and work hard for success, but I started to not really enjoy myself, which seemed to defeat the whole purpose of wanting to play music and spread positivity through music in the first place. I started to get bitter, which wasn’t something I could stand to feel to feel about music. So, after a few months off, and having carved out a new and emerging path for myself, I decided to devote myself more to licensing my own music and teaching other musicians about licensing. Many of the most influential people I've had in my life have been teachers. Something I read during this period, and I don’t remember where I read it, was that if you can provide value for others, you’ll never go hungry. In other words, if you can make yourself valuable and provide a service or product others value, you’ll always be able to provide for yourself. I decided that I didn’t want to leave the music business and I still wanted music to be a big part of my life, I just wanted to find new ways to provide value and new avenues to pursue. As I started to focus more on my website and licensing and less on performing and touring, I started to see growth pretty quickly. I managed to discover a niche in the music business, that, at least at that time, not that many people were really addressing. My website, to the best of my knowledge, was the first website of its kind devoted to teaching musicians about music licensing. Now of course, there are quite a few competitors, but back in 2008 when I started, I wasn’t aware of anyone else offering the sort of services and products that I provide. So, what’s the lie I told myself about success? Well, when I decided to go out on my own and work for myself, I was disillusioned with both the corporate world and the music business. I wanted to find a way to provide for myself but also keep my sanity and pursue things I loved. I wanted to find an easier way. If feeling burnt out and frustrated with the way things were going felt so horrible, I felt like success must be the ability to somehow hack the system and circumnavigate all the hard work and monotony of day to day life. This turned out to not be the case at all. Success has to be earned. I was attracted to the four hour workweek because it seemed to offer a formula for making money that would give me much more free time and flexibility to explore other things I was passionate about. This was true to a certain extent. By following the principles and ideas outlined in the book I was able to travel and do things that before I didn’t have the schedule to pursue. But, and this is a big but, I still had to work really hard to make it happen and have to keep working hard to maintain my business. There is no literal four hour workweek, at least not one that I’ve found that works for me. That probably doesn’t come as a surprise to most of you reading this. Success, in any field, requires hard work and persistence. There is no easy way out. As much as I was burnt out on trying to make it work in corporate America and the music business and wanted to find a way out, in the end I had just found a more flexible way to work hard. I could work more on my own terms and from my desired location, but I still had to put in the hard work to grow and sustain my business. It reminds me of a joke I heard about being an entrepreneur; the great thing about working for yourself is that you get to choose the 16 hours a day you work. There really is no shortcut to success. Whatever you decide to do, if you want to be successful at it, you’re going to have to work hard. These days I’ve been averaging about 10 hours a day on my various endeavors. I have a very exciting update regarding How To License Your Music.com that I’ll be announcing soon, several new courses in production, a new music pitching service and a new batch of my own songs in the works. Although I’m probably working harder than I ever have, I’m probably also the happiest I’ve been in years. When you’re on a path that you’re excited about and proud of, it doesn’t really seem like hard work. Perhaps that's been the biggest lesson. Success isn't about kicking back on a beach, lounging in hammock, drinking pina coladas. Success is about finding things you're passionate about, setting goals related to those things, and working your ass off to make them happen. It reminds me of an interview I did with the musician Chuck Hughes for my podcast. Chuck has managed to create a full time income from licensing and performing and he summed it up great, “you’re going to have to work hard whether you work for someone else or you work for yourself. You mine as well work hard for yourself doing something you love.” That sounds about right to me.
Yesterday I interviewed LA based singer/songwriter Cathy Heller. Cathy has had incredible success licensing her music in television and commercials. She’s a true DIY, Indie artist whose music has been heard on One Tree Hill, Pretty Little Liars, Switched At Birth and many more. She's had her music placed in commercials for Wal Mart, McDonalds, Special K and Hasboro, just to name a few.
She makes a full time living from licensing and has been featured in Variety, Billboard, LA Times, USA Today and more. Cathy shares some amazing insights about how to license more of your tracks, in particular as it relates to the world of advertising and commercials. Check out my interview with Cathy here: For the last eight years I’ve made a living as a musician/entrepreneur. I’ve had some ups and downs over this time, especially in the beginning, but over the years I’ve learned how to make my lifestyle work. Over the last few years I’ve seen consistent growth each year, both in my online businesses and my music career. I’ve been making more money and playing more shows for more money than ever before.
I’ve been thinking about what I’ve learned over the last few years and I’ve concluded that there’s really just one key principle that ties all the success I’ve experienced together. There’s one guiding principle that I always come back to and that always leads me back to success. Whenever I lose my way, I focus on one thing and one thing only. What is it? Giving Value. When I first started my business, I focused on making money. It makes sense. The reason most of us work jobs is to make money. We all have to figure out a way to get by and we either have to work for somebody else or we have to work for ourselves. Either way the goal is the same, to make money to pay our bills and buy the things we want and need. The problem is that if we only focus on earning more money, it’s easy to lose our way. It works to a point, but there’s a wall that we’ll hit pretty quickly. It’s easy to forget that money is simply a means of exchanging value. Getting money is a part of transaction that also involves giving value. Money is simply the means of exchange. Without the value part of the equation, there won’t be much money. You might be able to fool people for a little while, but it won’t work for long. Whenever I feel like I’m losing my way I focus on giving value. Whenever I notice sales are down, I focus on giving value. Whenever I notice I’m not playing as many gigs as I’d like to, I focus on giving value. Without fail, when I shift my focus from what’s lacking to how I can simply give value, things turn around. Always. It sometimes takes awhile, but it always works. To be honest, before I started writing this article, I was thinking about how I can make more money from my website. I was thinking about different promotions I could offer to bring in extra revenue. But it didn’t feel right so I decided to write this free article instead. There’s a rhythm to giving value and making money that can be discerned. If you’re only focusing on getting and taking, it will start to feel “off”. It also won’t work. In business, you can pretty easily quantify how well you’re doing at giving value. When I focus too much on the money side of the equation, I almost always end up seeing a decline in sales. It seems counter intuitive, but it’s not if you think about it. Part of human nature and psychology is the urge to reciprocate. In Robert Cialdani’s “Influence: The Psychology Of Persuasion”, Cialdini states that reciprocity is one of the seven key triggers of persuasion. When someone does something nice for you, you’re more likely to want to do something nice in return. People want to reciprocate. Think of relationships. If you’re in a relationship with someone who is always taking but never giving, it probably won’t be a very satisfying relationship for long. On the other hand, if you're partner is loving and giving, you're more inclined to want to return the favor. There has to be both give and take for it to work. The relationships we have with our clients and fans work the same way. If we provide value for people, they’ll want to reciprocate. But if you’re like a needy, clingy boyfriend or girlfriend that takes and takes but never gives, it won’t be long before your ass gets dumped. |
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