I recently interviewed musician Matt Farley about how his catalog of over 18,000 songs generates revenue of two thousand dollars a month from sites like Spotify and Itunes.
Matt writes about a wide array of topics like office supplies, poop, pee, celebrities and pretty much everything else you can think of. He's incredibly prolific, sometimes cranking out as many as 100 songs a day. Instead of spending weeks and months recording his masterpiece that may or may not ever be heard by the public, Matt is going for volume, writing and recording an insane amount of music, hoping that each track will earn him a dollar or two. It's an interesting approach, that's yielding some interesting results. Check out my interview with Matt and let me know what you think of his approach to recording and marketing his music in the comments.
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“But starvation, unfortunately, didn’t improve art. It only hindered it. A man’s soul was rooted in his stomach. A man could write much better after eating a porterhouse steak and drinking a pint of whiskey than he could ever write after eating a nickel candy bar. The myth of the starving artist was a hoax.”
– Charles Bukowski, Factotum (1975) Have you ever heard of the idea of the “starving artist”? Of course you have. It’s a stereotype that has existed as long as I can remember. When I was growing up and started expressing an interest in music, a common response would be one of concern and fear. “You’re going to struggle”, people would almost invariably say. Shouldn’t you pursue something more “safe” and “secure”, they would implore, implying that I needed to get with the program and follow a more conventional path. Well, despite the good intentions of my family and friends, I chose music as my career path. After high school I headed to Berklee College of Music. After Berklee, I returned to my hometown of Chicago and started a band. Although I never starved, there were a few years where I did indeed struggle, early on. But for the most part, when I look back over my adult life so far, I’ve done pretty well for myself. There were a few lean years in the beginning, but for the last decade at least, I’ve made a salary well above the median income in the US. Now to be fair, all of my income doesn’t come directly from writing and performing music. I’m also a music educator. I give music lessons and I teach music business courses, in addition to writing, licensing and performing music. But everything I do to earn money is related to the music business in one way or another. When people ask what I do for a living, I respond without hesitation, that I’m a musician. I’m a musician, and I’ve figured out a way to earn a pretty respectable living. I might not be filthy rich, but I get to do, for the most part, things I enjoy doing and I earn a comfortable living in the process. I’ve been thinking a lot about the idea of the “starving artist” lately and decided to investigate the idea to see where it came from and most importantly, if it’s true. I don’t think it’s a really a healthy stereotype and I think in many ways it serves to discourage a lot of potential artists from following their true calling out of fear of failure and possibly living a life of disappointment and struggle. So, let’s dive into this topic… Let’s start by looking at the facts. According to Mybudget360.com, the median salary in the US is $26,695.00. According to Payscale.com, the average salary for musicians in the US is $37, 789.00 per year. Now I’ll be the first to admit, this isn’t a fabulous salary, but relative to the rest of the country, it’s also not bad. Of course, some musicians make less and some make a lot more, but on average, when compared to the rest of the population, musicians in the USA make more than the average person does. A recent study of approximately 13,000 graduates of performing and visual arts programs who received their degrees between 1990 and 2009, found that the overwhelming majority of them were employed, mainly in fields related to their degrees, and that most of them were satisfied with their lives and careers. The study was conducted by the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project, a joint program of Indiana and Vanderbilt universities, and was based on completed questionnaires by graduates of more than 150 arts programs at liberal arts colleges, state universities and independent art schools in the USA. I made a video not too long ago, where I outlined how to make $60,000.00 a year working 25 hours a week as a musician, through a combination of teaching, licensing, performing and doing session work. You have to hustle, but you can make a very good living as a musician if you’re motivated and resourceful. Sure, there are easier career paths to earn a living in, but in my experience, it’s really not that hard to make a good living in the music business if you truly apply yourself. Plus, you’ll have the added bonus of actually doing something you enjoy. So, if musicians are making more than the median salary on average and are generally content with their lives and careers, where did this idea come from? Rachel Arandilla from 1st web designer.com states: “The ‘Starving Artist’ evokes a romantic and mysterious feeling around it. The image evokes stories of the past; of artists, sculptors, musicians and actors who chose to live a life of poverty to pursue their dreams of success. It particularly evokes memories during the 18th Romanticism period. You can imagine young, enthusiastic men from the countryside dreaming to be artists who moved to the city and find themselves living the Bohemian lifestyle. Even our greatest artists in history did not escape the fate of the Starving Artist. The Bohemian lifestyle—or unconventional living in the company of people with similar interests for artistic pursuits—is a common lifestyle chosen by artists then and today. Most did not see fame and fortune during their lifetime, only to have their works become worth millions of dollars after they passed away. One example is the great Vincent Van Gogh. Now, he is considered to be a true genius in art. Van Gogh’s works are worth a fortune now but during his lifetime, Van Gogh only sold one single painting–to his own brother.” Author Corey Huff, writes this about the myth of the starving artist: “Many artists have bought into a romanticized notion that art is somehow more legitimate if it is created by poor people. This notion was popularized in the mid-19th century by the writer Henri Murger, who wrote Scènes de la vie de bohème a famous French novel about a group of poor artists living in the Bohemian quarter of Paris. The book was wildly popular and it became trendy to be a poor artist. Over the last 150 years, Murger’s ideas became entrenched in popular culture, and artists hold to the notion that art is a product of the financially unsound and morally superior.” The idea of the “Starving Artist” is an antiquated notion that leads artists to a mindset that isn’t helpful, to themselves, or their careers. There’s nothing romantic about the idea of struggling your way through life and there’s nothing about poverty that equates to better art. Although, being down and out can serve as motivation for picking yourself up by your boot straps and making things happen. I think it’s time we drop the idea of the “starving artist” and instead focus on the abundance of examples of artists that are carving out successful paths. Is the life of a musician harder than some career paths? Sure. But so is living a life doing things that don’t bring us any sense of joy or meaning. Maybe we can’t all be wildly successful and filthy rich as artists, or maybe we can. What I know for sure, is that with a little bit of resourcefulness and a lot of ambition, we can all create lives that are fulfilling, stable and creatively rewarding. I think the reason many of us have chosen the path of being a musician, is that we aspire to greatness. Think about it, we could have chosen many, more secure, less risky paths in life, but for some reason you and I, and most of the people reading this, have been drawn to music as a vocation, or the very least, a serious hobby. But why? I’m sure are motivations are all slightly different, but I suspect that at on some level, everyone reading this wants to be “great” at music. Why else would we pursue playing music as a profession? To be mediocre? If you’re anything like me, you feel like you have greatness inside you and you want to express that and get it out into the world. Music is a potentially a great vehicle for doing that.
But how do we define “greatness”? It’s a little tricky if you think about it. We could take the very easy to measure approach of using something like how much money you make from playing music as a barometer of your greatness. But how accurate is money in terms of measuring musical “greatness”? We all know brilliant musicians who struggle to get by, or at the best, live a life of modest means. Conversely, the world is full of examples of artists that aren’t exactly pushing musical boundaries who, for one reason or another, become filthy rich and famous and are considered by many to be great. So if it’s not just about money or the number of albums we sell, how do we measure greatness? Are we only “great” when others recognize us as being great? Are we only great when we make a certain amount of money? Are we by default great once a certain number of people appreciate what we do? Well, I think it’s clear that the answer is no, our greatness isn’t dependent on x number of people thinking we’re great or x number of people buying our albums. Greatness is more than just being commercially successful. There are different definitions and ideas of what “greatness” is. My definition of “greatness” is being the best and most actualized version of ourselves we’re capable of. When I think about being “great”, it’s not about making a specific amount of money or achieving a certain level of fame. It’s more about the feeling that comes with knowing we’re pushing ourselves to become the best version of ourselves we’re capable of being. Although it’s not about money or status, it’s also not about resting on our laurels and not moving forward just because we don’t care about “success”. This is as bad as those who pursue fame and fortune at all costs. Both ends of the spectrum are out of balance. Greatness is about being the best we’re capable of being, whatever that means to us. If our goal is performing, than it’s about being the best performer we can be. If it’s about songwriting, it’s about writing the best songs we’re capable of writing, and so on. Chances are that if we’re pushing ourselves to become the greatest version of ourselves, other people will start to take notice and we’ll get closer, by default, to whatever external goals we have. I think it’s ultimately up to us to define what greatness is for ourselves. I would love to make millions of dollars from my music, but I know this alone wouldn’t give me a sense or feeling that I’ve achieved “greatness”. For me, it’s more about how well I’m playing, how good I feel the songs I’m writing are and how much energy I’m applying to developing my craft. I know, intuitively, when I’m on the right track and I also know when I’m off track. For me, greatness, is about consistently following my muse and following that path as far as I can go. Sometimes, it’s simply about playing a really good show where I know “I’m on”. At other times it’s about getting a recording of a song just right and promoting it effectively. Greatness is about being the best version of myself, as consistently as possible. Greatness is an ongoing process, it’s not some sort of end point we arrive at. Throughout our lives, we have the opportunity to achieve greatness in different ways and in different times. It’s about pushing ourselves towards the best versions of ourselves wherever we are in our lives. It’s not about neurotically obsessing over specific goals. It’s about always looking for and creating opportunities, as opposed to delaying our sense of gratification until our biggest goals our realized. For example, I’m going to be playing a show in a few weeks in a new trio I’m performing in with a mandolin player and percussionist. We’re expecting about 100 people to be there. I could look at this as just another random bar gig and not take it that seriously. But instead, I’m promoting the shit out of it, I have plans to film the entire performance for my Youtube channel and I’m practicing daily in anticipation of the show. Greatness is about rising to the occasion for every opportunity that comes along, no matter how big or small. Greatness is about pushing ourselves to grow as people and musicians, as opposed to resting on our laurels and not moving forward. Greatness is about realizing we have just one life to live and every moment counts. Greatness is about being great, no matter how many people are watching. Greatness is about giving your all, whether you’re performing for ten people or ten thousand. There’s an enormous amount of luck required to “make it big” in the music business. It doesn’t take any luck at all to be great. Do you ever feel like just giving up music and throwing in the towel? Do you ever feel like it’s just too hard and wonder what the point is? If you’re at all like me, you’ve probably had thoughts like this go through your head from time to time. The music business is hard. Trying to navigate your way through the business can be daunting and frustrating. I’m sure most musicians have entertained the idea of just giving it up and moving onto something more “realistic” and easier.
Sometimes giving up might be the right thing to do. Music isn’t for everyone and obviously not everyone who entertains the idea of becoming a professional musician will become one. During this post I want to explore the idea of how to know whether or not going forward in the music industry, or with music in general, is the right thing to do. Sometimes quitting things and moving on to something else is a wise decision. Life is full of trying things out, gaining new experiences, and then making life decisions based on experience and maturity. There’s no sense in pursuing something that brings more frustration than joy and conversely, it’s not wise to quit something you love just because you experience the occasional setback or frustration. The challenge is really knowing the difference. Here’s an analogy: I have a girlfriend. I love her. Sometimes we have conflicts. Sometimes I get frustrated when things aren’t going smoothly. But the relationship brings me more joy than it does frustration. The majority of the time I’m very happy and have no desire to be with anyone else. I value our relationship and what we have, so I am more than willing to work to resolve any conflicts that come up My girlfriend feels the same way and so normally when we have issues, we resolve them fairly quickly and we get back to enjoying all the benefits the relationship brings us. I like to think of music in the same way. I have a relationship to music and the music I make. Sometimes it’s hard. Sometimes there are setbacks. Sometimes I don’t feel like going forward. But, at the end of the day, I love making music, and it brings me a lot more joy than it does pain. I believe in it and so I’m willing to put in the work to get better at it. It’s not a hard decision for me. I’m committed to making music. However, there are other things I’ve tried in the past that I haven’t felt that strongly about. I took art classes a couple years ago for example. I wasn’t that good at it and it didn’t bring me that much joy. I took classes for a couple months and then I quit. It wasn’t a hard decision. It simply wasn’t my thing. In my twenties, I entertained the idea of becoming a mortgage broker. I was intrigued by the idea of making good money at a young age and I could see the potential for doing well. However I hated the job. I hated the idea of working with numbers all day and cold calling home owners to see if they wanted to refinance their house. It simply wasn’t a good fit for me, so I walked away and never once second guessed my decision. I’ve also had relationships in the past that I walked away from without any regret. Sometimes people just aren’t compatible and there’s so much friction and tension in the relationship that walking away is the only sensible thing to do. I think career paths are similar. Sometimes we just simply aren’t a good fit for certain professions. We all have unique interests and personalities that lend themselves to different paths. Pursuing music is a very unique path. It’s not for everyone. It might not be for you. Only you can really decide. Only you know, deep down, if your passion for playing music is greater than your disdain of the setbacks you experience. Only you know whether or not playing music brings you more joy than pain. Just like all relationships have a certain amount of inevitable conflict, most fulfilling career paths have frustration and setback along the way. You could even say that’s part of what makes the journey enjoyable. There’s something very fulfilling about overcoming obstacles and harnessing the inner strength that you didn’t even know you had, to achieve your goals. Conflict shouldn’t be avoided, but instead embraced. The conflicts we resolve will make us stronger people. But you have to really love what you’re pursuing to find the strength to overcome the obstacles that come along. If you’re just sort of into something, it’s far too easy to just to take the path of least resistance and walk away. When you truly love something, you’ll fight for it. I’m 41 years old. My girlfriend is 19. We’ve been dating exclusively for nine months. When we first started dating, I was concerned about how well our social circle would accept us as a couple. To my surprise, the vast majority of our friends have embraced us and seem to have no problem with us dating. We get invited to parties and social functions together, we hang out with a wide range of friends and for the most part, people to seem to “get” us as a couple and can see that we’re happy together. If anyone has a problem with us dating, they don’t express it to me, that is, until last night. I was out with a couple friends last night. One of whom is a 62 year old women. Let’s call her Deborah. I haven’t seen Deborah in quite a while and she asked how things are going. Naturally the topic of who I’ve been dating came up. I described my girlfriend and all her wonderful traits. I talked about how happy we are together. I explained how she’s a singer, that she’s studying TV production and how well we get along and how compatible we are. Deborah listened intently. Then she asked me the question that I knew was coming. How old is she?, Deborah asked. I paused for a moment and then answered as confidently as I could, she’s 19 I said, with probably a hint of reservation in my voice.
Deborah’s reaction didn’t really surprise me. She proceeded to outline all the reasons why a relationship like this wouldn’t work. She brought up the typical, cynical objections to may-december romances that most people who oppose these types of relationships espouse. What could we possibly have in common? My girlfriend must be using me for money (despite the fact that I’m far from wealthy). It’s wrong to be with someone so much younger than me and that I must be exploiting her youth and naivete. Of course, all of these objections were coming from someone who has never actually met my girlfriend or spent time with us together. My friend’s reaction didn’t surprise me, but it did throw me off a little. Like I said, this is really the first time in nine months anyone has expressed their objections to me and I was a little taken aback and defensive. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but to judge someone or something you don’t really know about is unfair at best and completely off base at worst. But, our whole conversation really got me thinking about the topic of “haters”, where these sorts of criticisms come from and how we can deal with these sorts of critics in our lives. No matter how conventional and socially acceptable our lives are, all of us will confront people from time to time who don’t agree with the decisions we make. As the saying goes, you can please some of the people some of the time but you can’t please all of the people, all of the time. We all have different ideas of what’s right and wrong, smart and stupid, and so on. We’re all on our own unique paths, making different life choices that lead to different places. If living a conventional, “normal” life is met with inevitable criticism, then it goes without saying that a less conventional life will be met with even more critics and naysayers. Anytime someone veers off the conventional, socially accepted life path, they open themselves up to even more criticism. Criticism comes in all shapes and sizes. Some of it may be well intended advice based on wisdom and life experience, but in my experience, more often than not, it’s simply other people projecting their own insecurities and limited view of life and what’s possible onto others. Musician Haters Pursuing music as a profession is considered by many to be an unconventional way to earn a living. As musicians, we have to deal with haters and critics on many levels. Whether it’s people within the industry that reject what it is we do and tell us we’re not good enough, or friends and family who discourage us from following our hearts, critics and haters are all around us. I’ve dealt with my fair share of “haters” and critics related to playing music over the years. Whether it’s the implied but unspoken sense of disappointment from family members or the snide comments about what a hard life being a musician is from my more business minded friends and acquaintances, musicians are a fairly easy target for “haters”. What’s easier to make light of and put down than someone actually chasing their dreams? Musicians make an especially tempting target for those who are unfulfilled in their lives and afraid to pursue whatever their version of chasing their dreams is. I spent a week at home with my Mom and stepdad recently. During my time with my family, I played one of my newest songs for Mom and stepdad. My mom was positive and encouraging, but my stepdad, as he tends to be, was cynical and judgmental. He listened to the song, visibly uninterested and unmoved. At the end, he looked at me with a smirk and asked, “What did you write that for”? The question on the surface seemed innocent enough, but the implication was clear…. what’s the point? At least that’s how I took it, knowing my stepdad the way I do. Well, I said, I wrote it for myself and for anyone else who’s interested in listening. I write music I explained, first and foremost, because I’m simply inspired to write music. It feels good to me. Anything that happens after that is icing on the cake. My stepdad seemed unimpressed with my answer, and the conversation quickly shifted to something more mundane and not related to music. This is just one of countless examples of people trying to belittle my passion for playing music over the years. I’m pretty numb to it at this point, but it still never amazes me how quick some people are to discourage others from pursuing what brings them joy. F&%K The Haters It would be easy to just say, screw the haters and the critics, follow your heart and don’t let anyone stop you. In fact, that is what I essentially believe, but it’s easier said than done. Apparently, the tendency to hold onto negative criticism is natural for most people. According to Roy Baumeister and researchers at Florida State University, we remember negative emotions much more strongly and in more vivid detail. In a research paper titled, “Bad Is Stronger Than Good”, Baumeister summarizes academic studies that prove that we are more likely to remember negative criticism than praise. Baumeister found that even happy people tend to remember more negative events than positive ones. In fact, Baumeister and his team say that it when it comes to your brain, it takes about five positive events to make up for one negative event. The Biggest Hater Of All Ultimately though, the biggest hater of all, that most of us have to confront, is ourselves. We choose which ideas and beliefs that others present to us we believe and embrace. Other people are entitled to their opinions and beliefs about our lives, but we get to decide what’s best for us. We’re the captain of our own destinies, at least as far as our beliefs go. We only have one life to live and it’s up to us to develop the courage and conviction to create and lead lives that make us proud. I may not spend the rest of my life with my 19 year old girlfriend and I might not realize all my rock and roll dreams. I don’t know what my future will hold any more than anyone else does. But I know that when I get to the end of my life, I’m going to have few regrets about the choices I’ve made. I’m going to continue to live my life on my terms, un-deterred by the well-intended opinions of others. Ultimately, whatever choices you make in life, someone is going to criticize you either way. You mine as well create a life that you’re proud of and happy to live, after all, you’re the one who has to live it. I think Billy Joel summed it up best: “I don't care what you say anymore, this is my life Go ahead with your own life and leave me alone”
I often get asked to share more of my music with readers of my site and blog. Here's a new song from my latest recording project that I recorded in LA a few weeks ago, called "I'm Gone".
A huge thanks to my producer Gary Gray who mixed, mastered and orchestrated this one. Oh he also sang background vocals and played drums too! I'm singing lead vocals and playing all the guitars.... Let me know what you think in the comments. Happy New Year! In this blog, HowToLicenseYourMusic.com’s resident producer Gary Gray, based in Los Angeles, lists 3 excellent tools you can use immediately to get better sounding tracks and increase your chances for Music Licensing Success. Over to you Gary. . . Thanks Aaron! I know most people who spend time trying to improve their mixes for Music Licensing have limited time, so we’re going to get right into it: Here are three mixing tools that I have found invaluable in getting music licensing deals actually closed. ⦁ MAGIC AB Magic AB is a plug-in made by a company called Sample Magic that allows you to instantaneously compare your current mix or master to commercial recordings. You can load up to 9 commercial recordings into the plug-in. For details on how to use this plug-in (or any questions concerning this blog) feel free to email any of your questions to me at gary@learnaudioengineering.net). There are some incredible tips and tricks that I use while using the Magic AB Plug-In that I would more than happy to share. ⦁ Mid-Side Recording Techniques and Plug-Ins If you already fully understand what Mid-Side means and have successfully used this technique with two microphones during the recording process, and are familiar with mixing and/or mastering with Mid-Side plug-ins, congratulations! You can move on to #3. If you are not fully conversant with this technology, Mid-Side technology, techniques and plug-ins can open up a whole new world for you which can immediately make your tracks sound more like commercial tracks and increase your odds for licensing success. In fact, I devote two entire chapters of my 30 chapter book, “The Home Studio Bible” to just Mid-Side Technology, Techniques and Plug-Ins – Chapter 26 “Unraveling The Mystery and Unveiling The Secrets of Mid-Side Technology,” and Chapter 27 “A Summary of Mid-Side Technology and Techniques for the Home Studio Producer/Engineer.” Teaching the microphone technique itself would require much more than a single blog. But the good news is this, you don’t need to know a single thing about the recording techniques of Mid-Side technology in order to understand and immediately start using Mid-Side techniques for mixing. Using Mid-Side techniques, and even talking about Mid-Side technology is often shied away from for one simple reason. The name of this technology and technique is, in and of itself, extremely confusing and misleading! It’s unfortunate that this technology was not named correctly – describing what it actually is and what it actually does. Technically speaking, this technology and technique should be called: MIDDLE-SIDES or CENTER-SIDES. RATHER THAN MID-SIDE. Let me help you unravel this subject, as I do for all my interns and students, so that you don’t get caught in the confusing trap that many producers, engineers and musicians find themselves in regarding “Mid-Side” technology. First of all, as shown above – MID in this case does not refer to the same MID that we normally use in music production and audio engineering – namely Low, Mid, High: referring to EQ or frequencies, such as the mid frequencies. We are NOT talking about mid frequencies when we are using the term MID-SIDE. We are not talking about ANY frequencies when we talk about MID-SIDE. MID in the term MID-SIDE means THE MIDDLE, OR CENTER, OF THE SONIC PICTURE. It means precisely: The actual space between two speakers in a stereo set-up, and the mind’s perception of that center space. When you use the term SIDE in MID-SIDE Technology, you are actually referring to a plural – TWO SIDES, not one singular side. You can see in the illustration above what MID-SIDE really means visually. It means you can split the sonic picture of what you are mixing or mastering into two parts: A – The Middle or Center. The space between the two speakers in front of you. B – The Sides (PLURAL) – BOTH the Left AND Right SIDES of the stereo picture in front of you – literally the two spaces outside the speakers – both to your left and to your right. It’s important to understand that we are talking about something that you cannot divide or separate – the SIDES are not something you can “pan” to the left or to the right. The left and right SIDES in MID-SIDE are always equally strong, equally loud – BOTH the left and the right together – excluding the center or mid picture. If you sat in front of your speakers and pointed to each speaker, and then moved your arms outward to the left and the right, that would be the SIDES picture we are talking about. For instance, did you know that with MID-SIDE techniques, you can boost your Kick and Bass Low Frequencies in the MIDDLE – in the center space between the speakers, and cut the lows on the SIDES? This focuses the kick and bass, adding punch and clarity in your face, while taking the low frequencies out of the SIDES, taking away a muddy aspect of your mix, where you can focus nicely on things such as guitars, or synths or background vocals and get a really nice wide commercial sounding mix! AND – you can use MID-SIDE techniques on many things, such as reverbs, delays, parallel compression, side chaining – the list goes on and on. The more you experiment, the more you can discover techniques to use for your mixes. But it all comes down to understanding the exact meaning of the term MID-SIDE. Among other great plug-ins utilizing this technology is a plug-in many top pros use – Izotope Ozone. This can be used for mixing and/or mastering. If you’re on a tight budget, there are some really good free mid-side plug-ins available as well, such as the Voxengo MSED. ⦁ MUSIC THEORY AND THEORY WEBSITES
You might wonder why I’m listing Music Theory as a “tool” that you can use to improve your mixing and/or mastering. The more I produce and engineer, the more I mix and master, the more I teach and the more I learn – one thing becomes crystal clear. The more you understand about Music Theory, the better your mixing and mastering will be. In fact, that’s worth repeating: The more you understand Music Theory, the better your mixing and mastering will be. It is ALSO true that you don’t need to know everything about music theory to improve your mixing and mastering. So, don’t worry if you never went to school or if you don’t know a thing about music theory. You can STILL make a great living with music licensing if you don’t. What I’m pointing out here, is that you can do BETTER the more you know about music theory. I saw this happen in my own career, and I see it happen with every intern or student I’ve ever taught. If you want to be different and “break the Music Theory rules,” that’s totally ok. But you won’t even know when you’re breaking the rules if you don’t know what they are. Every student I teach learns more about music theory, no matter what else we work on. And when I listen to their mixes, it’s undeniable how much that knowledge helps. And this is true in every genre. And here’s some incredible news that can put some amazing tools right into your hands so that you can immediately increase your knowledge of music theory in such a way that your mixes and masters will improve starting right now. Here are some excellent websites you can use right now to immediately increase your knowledge and application of Music Theory: http://HookTheory.com http://mugglinworks.com/chordmaps/ http://www.berkleeshares.com/ Summary Knowledge and discipline will result in boosting your confidence in mixing and mastering – and it’s the confidence that will increase your odds for success. I’m all about increasing your confidence. That’s my passion and my labor of love in the music industry. Anything that cuts your confidence down, that lessens your drive and ambition, I am 100% against. If I see something that causes confusion, or someone spreading incorrect advice, I’m all over it. My personal mentors and teachers, such as Phil Collins, Ramnad Raghavan, Phil Ramone, Quincy Jones, and others have passed that passion and labor of love to me, and because of it – it’s only right that I pass it on to others. With just the three tools above, you can immediately improve your mixes (and/or masters) and increase your odds for music licensing success. Good Luck! And write to me and let me know if you have any questions and tell me about your successes. Gary Gray gary@LearnAudioEngineering.net Los Angeles, CA 13 December 2015 Three music production techniques you can use right now to increase your chances for success12/6/2015 This blog features the first in a series of free video tutorials by HowToLicenseYourMusic.com’s resident producer Gary Gray, based in Los Angeles. The series is called “7 Minutes To Better Sounding Tracks.” This premiere video features 3 excellent tips you can use immediately to get better sounding tracks and increase your chances for Music Licensing Success. You'll also get a sneak peek of one of my new songs Gary is currently mixing and mastering. Gary is giving away a free hour long Skype session and also mastering one track for free, to everyone who signs up for my upcoming 180 Day Music Licensing Challenge by December 14th. Learn more here. Over to you Gary. . . Thanks Aaron! I recently moved closer to Hollywood (I’m now an hour south) and so built a new studio. Three months after I moved, I had no other choice but to build another studio and hire two people to keep up with the work. One area that has really taken off in a big way is teaching producer/engineers world-wide how to properly mix and master for Music Licensing. In fact, I have a large case-study of music licensing successes being delivered to me in January from students who have signed up for HowToLicenseYourMusic.com and who have taken the music production courses we offer – laying out the number of licensing deals landed and money made. One of the reasons teaching has taken off so much, is that I’ve had the fortune this year to work directly with Music Publishers and Music Supervisors in the studio. This was the direct result of face-to-face networking (including some very effective networking with Aaron Davison in Los Angeles & Hollywood while he and Michael James were here to record Aaron’s upcoming EP at my studio). Aaron’s first single I produced was picked up for an exclusive licensing deal with a major publisher in L.A. – within 24 hours of release. Almost every person I speak to who submits music for licensing has a common frustration – not only do they rarely find out exactly why a track gets rejected when it does (so they can correct what they are doing and improve), but they sometimes don’t even know why their tracks get accepted! (So they can strengthen their successful actions!). Working with Music Publishers and Music Supervisors in the studio has now given me a constant “finger on the pulse” of why tracks get accepted, and why they get rejected – in the music licensing world. As a result, I’m able to give you an “insider’s look” at why tracks are accepted or rejected for licensing. With this new perspective in mind, I’m launching a new free blog/video series called “7 Minutes To Better Sounding Tracks.” This series concentrates on how to mix and master music in order to increase your chances for lucrative licensing deals. This blog can be read on its own, or better yet, acts as a guide to the video. You can watch the video below: Let’s get right to it: 1. Using The Tone Generator To Create Commercial Sounding Mixes Most recording programs (D.A.W.’s) come with a Tone Generator. For those that don’t, legitimate free plug-ins are available, such as those on the KVR Audio website. A Tone Generator is just that – it’s a plug-in that generates tones of specific frequencies and volumes, and sometimes this includes white noise and pink noise. A Tone Generator can be used musically. One way to use a Tone Generator musically is with lower frequencies -- to increase the quality of the low end of a recording. I watch students (and this happened to me as well) progress in their career and move up to higher levels as they pass certain milestones in their mixing and mastering careers. One important milestone is: Becoming proficient and confident in matching commercial recording quality standards - in the low end. It’s all about that bass. Beginning and intermediate mixers tend to conquer the mids and highs relatively quickly. It’s the low end that can be a real challenge. Adding a Tone Generator “Bass” track to your mix can be a big step towards conquering that challenge. 2. Carefully Adjusting The Volume & Energy Level of Each Bass Note The low end frequencies cause a speaker to move back and forth a lot more than higher frequencies. You’ve seen videos showing how bass speakers can move physical objects like sand and particles and create some amazing geometric patterns in doing so. Depending on the source of the sound, certain bass notes can “sound louder” and “feel more powerful” than other notes using the same synth patches or acoustic instrument sources. You can even “see” this phenomenon in those same videos. What you are seeing visually is the concept of “sound pressure” in action. It’s what causes you to literally feel bass notes on your body. The more distance the speaker moves back and forth, the more sound pressure. Even though designers and manufacturers of instruments, synths and speakers have done all they can to even out the volume, energy and sound pressure of all notes, one cannot assume while mixing, that this will be the case. This is because the way low frequencies react with ⦁ Other higher frequencies in a track, ⦁ Speakers, ⦁ The listening environment, and most importantly, ⦁ The mind. (Psychoacoustics) Certain phenomena occur in the physical universe and in the mind of the listener when it comes to low frequencies that can make your tracks sound inconsistent, and anything but competitive with commercial tracks – unless understood and controlled with precision by the person mixing. There is no “one size fits all” or “magic button” approach to mixing – especially with the low end. Basically, you want to be able to put a steering wheel on that “low rider.” Each song or instrumental piece you compose, arrange, record, edit, mix and master – is like a snowflake. No two are alike. Nor is any single recorded instrumental track or vocal track fully predictable in terms of how it will react with other tracks and/or other effects within this unique relationship. And so mixing requires experimentation, patience and some knowledge of what to listen for. The more knowledge, the less time it takes. But, again, there is no shortcut. The higher the rewards (pay) for the licensing deal, the more meticulous the mixing needs to be executed (with rare exceptions). Music for a reality television program requires less meticulous mixing than film score sound track music or music for a trailer. When it comes to your work ethic, part of that meticulous work should be done with your eyes closed, sitting or standing away from your computer and mouse. Hit play, and then step back or sit back and close your eyes and listen – and feel (literally) the low frequencies in your track. Then do the same with similar genre commercial tracks, and compare the two. One great tool you can use to do this instantaneously is the plug-in Magic A/B, where you can load up to nine commercial tracks with which to A/B. My mixing reached a much higher level of quality by using that one tool. Sometimes, I’ll A/B the low end with just my subwoofer turned on. (By the way, it’s best to have a subwoofer, or at least good studio monitors that can generate decent bass frequencies). It’s quite a challenge to conquer the low end with headphones, though it’s not impossible. Just ask Skrillex. (Hint: you’ll need to use really good headphones). It is pretty much impossible to conquer the low end through laptop speakers or smartphone. Those speakers just don’t move back and forth enough to allow you to hear all the lower frequencies. You should definitely check your mixes on ALL systems, but conquering the bass fully requires a system that efficiently demonstrates the sound pressure levels actually occurring in the lowest end of the sonic spectrum. (From 20 Hertz [cycles per second] and up) The point is, if you relax and take the time to listen (preferably with your eyes closed) over and over while A/B’ing, the quality of your mixing will increase greatly. Being impatient or overly anxious about finishing your mix (I know it’s sometimes hard not to move on to the next thing) can keep you from reaching your licensing goals. The good news is, the more you do it, the faster the process gets – but – remember there is no substitute for attention to detail. It’s amazing to think how simple it is -- that the one thing you need to do more of in order to reach the highest level standards of mixing in our industry requires no education, no training and no tutorials – yet most people don’t do enough of it: Listening. Only listening. Hands on nothing. Eyes on nothing. Just listening. And comparing. By Listening. In the video, you can watch as I use a tone generator in an actual mixing session to set up a sort of “shadow track” in the low end. The root tones of chord changes, and/or the exact notes played by the regular bass guitar or bass synth(s) can be automated in the tone generator by inputting the frequencies of the desired notes. You can search online for charts showing frequencies (in Hertz) and corresponding notes. Here is one such chart: What you want to do is to fill out the lowest frequencies in a pleasing and consistent way. You do this by first adding the frequencies with the Tone Generator, then meticulously adjusting the volume and energy of each note, (this could require automating more than just volume – things like EQ, Soft Clippers, Maximizers, etc) and finally carefully mixing in the other bass elements of your song or composition. When you do this correctly, the result is a great feeling of confidence that doesn’t go away, and hearing people say “wow, I wish I could get my low end to sound like that – it sounds like a commercial release!” 3. “Performing” The Mix With Meticulous Passion And Musicality I use the phrase “meticulous passion” – which may seem like a contradiction -- because every famous person I have ever observed, whether they were involved in sports, business, education, music, cooking, etc. – had these two things in common. They were meticulous. And they were passionate. At first I thought these two things were separate actions – first they planned and prepared meticulously. And then they executed passionately. But taking a closer look, I saw that they carried out these two traits simultaneously. Before digital recording, whenever a band recorded in a studio equipped with a mixing console that was not automated, the mixing process often required the entire band to “perform the mix.” It was “all hands on deck” literally. And if you were in the room watching the motions those band members went through while hitting mute buttons, sliding faders up and down, and calling out cues, you would swear you were at a concert! There was that much passion going on. And, yes, it was all done with major attention to detail (meticulous execution). I used to think my mixes were fully done before I learned about “performing the mix” – and then I realized there was a lot more I could get out of the entire mix – and not more “sonic perfection” -- No. We’re talking about emotional content, dynamics, soul, passion, heart, spirit, whatever you want to call it – it’s the raw stuff that artists are made of – the blood, sweat and tears of art itself. If you go back through your “finished” mix, and simply “perform” each instrumental track (at least the most important tracks in the mix) and the vocals, by automating aspects of each track such as volume, reverbs, delays, eq’s & other effects, the results can be night and day between the “before” mix and the “after” mix.
NOTE: This isn’t something that should be overdone, because small adjustments can make a huge difference! I don’t think this needs more explaining. I think you got this one clearly. Try it out and let me know what kind of results you get! Some of the greatest mixing engineers and producers in our industry have all shared the above “icing on the cake” procedural tip with me. In fact, when I spoke with Steve Lillywhite (Grammy Winning U2 Producer) in Hollywood two years ago, he told me that basically, this is pretty much ALL he does during a mixing session. He doesn’t dive deep into other aspects of the mix. He makes sure the recording is solid, and then he meticulously and passionately “performs” the mix. And know this: it’s not because musicians don’t perform passionately or that recordings aren’t done well. It’s because the media of speakers and electronic sound reproduction require attention to detail and intense dynamic human interaction to create an emotionally moving and satisfying experience for the listener, one equal to an actual live performance. This holds true in all genres. And that is your goal. It’s not how many notes you play or sing. It’s how much passion and heart you bring. Write to me if you have any questions and with any successes you achieve from applying the tips above! Gary Gray gary@LearnAudioEngineering.net Los Angeles, Ca 5 Dec 2015 Gary teaches a select group of students via Skype and Teamviewer (a free app for you) that allows him to securely control your computer remotely from Los Angeles while you “watch over his shoulder” as he demonstrates mixing and mastering techniques on your mixes – on your computer in your home studio, while communicating on Skype. He then has you demonstrate the techniques yourself right then and there, until he can see (and hear) that you fully understand what you are doing and can consistently mix and master with confidence. To get a free hour long Skype session with Gary, register for the upcoming 180 Day Music Licensing Challenge by December 14th. More Details. Adele’s latest album, 25, was released last Friday. In a decision similar to Taylor Swift’s decision last year to pull her album 1989 from Spotify, Adele and her label have chosen to not make her latest album available on popular streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music. I recently came across an article on the popular website Digital Music News called "Why I Will Not Buy Adele's new album 25", about why the author, Ari Herstand, feels like Adele is being greedy by removing her album from sites like Spotify and consequently Ari won't be buying it. You can read the entire article here if you’re interested. Essentially Ari's thesis is that streaming is here to stay, it’s what consumers want and that Adele is being greedy by trying to make extra money through CD and download sales instead of just giving the public what they want via sites like Spotify and Apple Play. WTF?!! I agree with Ari in that consumers seem to prefer streaming over buying cds and downloads. No surprise there. But why wouldn’t they? Are consumers always right? I don’t think so, especially when what they want doesn’t really work out to be a viable business model for the majority of artists involved. I’d prefer that my local grocery store just gave me my groceries or offered me a free meal a day, but they probably wouldn’t stay in business that long if they did that. It’s really no surprise at all to me that consumers are choosing to not pay for music (or paying very little) over paying for music, but this is in no way an indication that this is a healthy move for the music industry. Of course people would rather have something for nothing. Proponents of sites like Spotify point out that Spotify benefits artists more than it hurts them because it brings extra exposure and can increase ticket sales at concerts. I’m sure this is the case for some artists, but this still doesn’t mean it’s a good business model. I’m sure if pre-internet days, stores like Target and Best Buy just gave CDs away that artists would get a few more people to go to their shows. But they didn’t do that. Do you want to know why? Because that would have been stupid. So why is it a good idea now just because we have the technology to make giving art away easier? Now I realize with Spotify they’re not literally giving it away. They do collect some money and redistribute it to artists. But as we all know, for the vast majority of artists, it’s nowhere near the money earned from actually selling music via CDs and downloads. Over the last couple years I’ve gone back and forth on my feelings about sites like Spotify. Last year I made a video where I sort of defended Spotify and urged musicians to give them a chance to grow and collect revenue. I argued along the same lines as Ari and basically said that consumers have spoken and this is where we’re headed. So instead of fighting it, let’s embrace it and make the most of this new business paradigm. Something like that. But here’s the thing… none of this is set in stone. The music business is not set on some sort of pre-destined track from which there is no going back or changing direction. Just because we have technology that allows us to give our art away more easily than ever before doesn’t mean we have to. Just because consumers would prefer to get something for free or next to free doesn’t mean we have to give it to them. Just because the music business is in a hole doesn’t mean it has to stay there. We have to strike a healthy balance between promoting our art and selling it. Artists, as both Taylor Swift and Adele have demonstrated, don't have to stream their music. There's no one holding a gun to their heads. The music industry is comprised of essentially three groups of people; artists, middlemen (record labels, Spotify, etc) and consumers of music. Each group is helping to steer the direction of the music business. We all have a hand on the wheel. To argue that consumers have the most important role in determining the future of the music industry is silly. If anything, the artists themselves should play the biggest role in how things play out. After all, if artists don’t have a viable way to make a sustainable income from their art, there isn’t going to be a whole lot of art being made. I’m both surprised and delighted at how much good music is still being made given the current state of the music industry. It truly speaks to the passion that musicians have for making and sharing their art. Last year Taylor Swift decided to remove her album, 1989, from Spotify. It became the biggest selling album of the year, selling 3.66 million copies in just nine weeks. As of today, November 23, Adele’s latest album is projected to sell at least 2.5 million copies in its first week. That would be the biggest single week sales for any artist since at least 1991 when Soundscan started tracking sales. On Itunes alone, 25 sold 900,000 downloads the first day it was released, last Friday. Consumers have spoken and they’re still willing to pay for music they really, really like. Editors Note: Ari is doing good work over at Digital Music News and I suggest checking out his site as in general I appreciate the contribution Ari provides to our community, but on this issue I simply disagree. Today's post is about an idea that I keep coming back to over and over in my life. It's the idea that if you want to be successful in anything in life, whether it's music, relationships, business.... you name it... It's completely up to you to make it happen. Whatever you really want in life you can have, I truly believe that. Even success in the music business. Whatever experiences you want to have are out there waiting to be had. Whatever success you want to achieve is possible. Whatever you really want to do you can do. But... and this is a big but and I think what holds most people back, at the end of the day, it's completely up to you to make it happen.
I'm sure we've all heard before that nobody cares about our own success more than we do. It's completely true. It's not true because no one cares about you, it's not true because people are cold and mean, although a few are. It's true because it's just the way it is. Other people have their own dreams, their own desires and their own struggles. Other people are too busy with their own lives to care that much about yours. No one cares about your own success more than you. So how can you apply this to the music business and your dreams and goals? Do you have lofty aspirations and starry eyed dreams? Big deal. Most people have those from time to time. Dreams are a dime dozen. Do you think you're special because you have big dreams? You're not. We all have dreams and desires. Things we long for deep down. They're beautiful things don't get me wrong, but they're not inherently special and they don't make you inherently special. Do you think you’re special because you're talented? I think innate talent is a little more rare than just having dreams, but it's still not that big of a deal in and of itself. A lot of people have mad talent and don't do anything with it. What it really boils down to is what you do with your dreams and talent. It's all about the execution. It's up to you to make "it" happen. Whatever "it" is for you. No one is going to do it for you. I'll be the first to admit I've yet to achieve all my dreams and goals. So don't think that I'm up on my high horse being all preachy telling you what you need to do. I'm only sharing with you realizations I've come to after many ups in downs in both music and life. No one is responsible for my life but me. No one else is responsible for my happiness, my sense of self worth, my interactions with people and certainly not my success in music. And the same goes for you. If you want to succeed in music take responsibility and make it happen. Don't be a victim and bitch about all the things outside of your control like the economy, declining album sales, the public's bad taste in music and on and on. There might be truth in a lot of these things, but it makes no sense to focus on them. Focus on the one thing you can really control... yourself. If you want to make money from your music, make music that’s worth paying for. If you want people to spread the art that you’re creating, make art that’s remarkable that people will be inspired to share. If you think there are circumstances outside of you holding you back, think again. There is no one preventing you from creating and sharing your best work, but yourself. What are you going to do today to move your career forward? What can you do all by yourself right now to move yourself in the direction you want to go? Think about it. I guarantee no one else is going to care about the answers to these questions more than you are. I would tell you all about the new CD I'm working on and the awesome producer I have working on it and all the projects I have in the works right now. But would you really care? I doubt it and I have absolutely no problem with that. Let’s say that you really, really wanted to make it in the music business. Let’s say that this goal of yours was so important and that your desire to make it a reality was so strong that you simply couldn’t be stopped. Imagine that your will and determination were so powerful that you simply figured out a way to make it happen. Can you imagine that it would be possible? What if your goal of making your dreams come true were actually a matter of life and death? Do you think if your dreams were actually that important to you that you could figure out a way to make them come true? Do you think you would take your goals more seriously if they were actually urgent goals that you simply had to achieve?
I think one of the main reasons most musicians don’t realize their dreams is because ultimately, in the grand scheme of things, realizing our dreams isn’t that urgent. For most of us, whether we make it or not in the music business isn’t really a life or death situation. If we don’t realize our goals as musicians, it’s all too easy to fall back on other things as a way to pay the bills and get by in life. We take jobs we don’t really love but pay the bills. We work odd jobs utilizing different skills we have to carve out a living. We start completely unrelated businesses and enterprises as a way to support ourselves and do music on the side. There’s nothing wrong with supporting ourselves doing something other than music and pursuing music on the side. But let’s imagine a scenario, just for fun, where you succeeding in the music business was literally a life or death situation. Imagine, again just for fun, that someone had a gun shoved to your head and you had to figure out a way to make your dream a reality or you would lose your life. Let’s say that you were given two years to make it a reality. If you failed your mission, you would die. If you succeeded, you’d get to live your dream life. Do you think you could come up with a plan that you could execute to make your dreams come true in this scenario? I’d imagine in this scenario you’d be able to look at your situation in a way that made you see things differently. I think it’s fair to say that most of us aren’t really pursuing our goals with this sort of intensity and urgency. I think most us, at the end of the day, aren’t really that worried about whether we make it big in the music business or not. Sure, we have goals and they’re important to us, but we know either way it will all work out. It’s unlikely that anyone reading this will end up on the streets if their dreams don’t come true. That’s good and bad. It’s comforting to know that no matter what happens in our lives, we probably won’t end up destitute and in despair. Most of my readers live in countries that are developed to the point of relative economic prosperity. Most of us don’t have a problem getting by and supporting ourselves. Most of us have food in the refrigerator and a roof over our heads. Sure, we all have our struggles and challenges, but for most us, our lives aren’t literally dependent on making our dreams come true. I’m sure most of you reading this would love to realize your dreams, but you know deep down, that if you don’t, you’ll probably be ok. But what if this weren’t the case? What if you actually HAD to come up with a plan to succeed, whatever that means to you, or you would literally die? I know if I were put under this pressure I could probably come up with some new and unique ways to both define what success is to me and figure out a map for getting there. If there really were that sort of pressure for becoming successful in the music business, I’m confident I could at least come up with a plan to become more successful than I am currently. Do you think if making it in the music business were actually something you HAD to do you could figure out a way to make it happen? I propose we do an exercise. Let’s pretend that making our dreams come true is actually a life or death situation. Let’s pretend, just as a sort of intellectual game, that we really have to figure out a way to realize our dreams or we actually lose our chance to keep living. Of course we’ll know that it’s not real, so that might allow us to cheat a little bit. But imagine a life where you were actually living your wildest dreams. What would that look like for you? Now imagine that you have a gun pointed to your head and you have two years to make this vision of your life a reality. Our imaginary gunmen is reasonable though, not only is he giving you two years to make your dreams come true, he’s also going to let you define what success means to you. Of course, I’ve already established that success, as most people define it, doesn’t make us happy (see my recent blog post). But imagine creating a life where you actually met your own expectations in terms of success, and got to live a life doing more or less what you wanted to do and made plenty of money as a result to meet all your basic needs and then some. I think there would be some very tangible benefits to living this sort of lifestyle. So, play along with me. Let’s pretend we have to figure out a way to make our version of success a reality. The stakes are high. It’s all or nothing. Defining Success If I had a gun pointed to my head and I had to figure out how to make my dreams come true, I imagine the first step would be to actually define what my dreams and goals are. What they really are. Not the childish version of my dreams where I simply had the vague goal of becoming a “rock star”. For this exercise, let’s dig deep and really examine what our goals are, why we have them and how to make them a reality. Of course, I can’t do this for you. You’ll have to figure this part out for yourself. But I’ll walk you through my thought process, so you can do the same. If I’m really honest with myself, I don’t really care If I become a rock star or not and truth be told, that’s probably why I’m not a rock star. It’s just not that important of a goal, if I’m really, really honest. That particular dream of mine was a sort of adolescent dream I had when I was much younger. If I’m honest with myself it was largely based on ego and not really having an understanding of what makes people happy and what true success is. I think it’s important to really develop goals based on who you are now and not who you used to be. We all age and evolve and it’s normal that our goals change as we get older and mature. I used to imagine that having tons of money, being a household name, having girls throw themselves at me and getting paid to travel the world would be pretty cool. Ok, I admit it, it still sounds pretty cool, but these days I’m much more concerned with leaving a legacy behind and getting my music and message out on a wider scale than becoming a household name ala “Bon Jovi” or “Justin Bieber”. This might sound like the same goal, and it probably does overlap a little with the idea of wanting to become famous. But it’s rooted in a much different place. When you’re simply chasing success and fame, you’re really coming from a place of ego and your need for validation. But when you’re really in it for the love of creating art and spreading joy in the world you’re coming from a much different place, that, at least in my opinion, is based on something more solid. It’s much easier to not get discouraged and stay positive and focused if you’re simply trying to share your love of music with the world. If you’re doing it for egotistical reasons it’s easy to get discouraged and take things personally if you don’t succeed at the rate you think you should be succeeding. So, in my case, knowing that I’m not really that worried about whether I become a bona fide rock star or not, but that I do really do want to get my music out on a wider scale and work on leaving more of a legacy behind, I need to plan accordingly. Although I often talk about how there isn’t really a clear formula for “making it” in the music business, the reality is there are things we can work on every day to move forward in the music business. It’s just a matter of getting really clear about what our goals really are and determining what steps we need to take. Sometimes it’s a matter of really doing some soul searching and being honest with ourselves about both what we want and what we truly believe we’re capable of. For me, ultimate success in the music business would mean making plenty of money to live on from my music and being able to wake up every day and create music that a large audience would listen to and appreciate. It wouldn’t necessarily involve touring the world and playing stadiums, but it would mean getting my music out on a much larger scale, to a much larger audience and gaining more respect for the music I make. Think being able to tour and play small theatres versus playing stadiums and having hordes of people waiting for you everywhere you go like U2, The Rolling Stones or Katy Perry. Think of having enough of a devoted following to support my independent album releases versus going platinum like Taylor Swift. So with those goals in mind, here are a few things I can think of right off the top of my head that I would need to do if I had that proverbial gun pointed to my head and had to figure out a way to be more successful:
The bottom line is that I think most of us could figure out ways to move our careers along faster if we really had to. If we really had a gun pointed to our head, I bet most of us could come up with some pretty creative ways to become more successful. Of course, the reality is that for most of us, making our dreams come true isn’t a life or death matter. But what if it were? What would you do differently if your life literally depended on you figuring out how to succeed in the music business? Share your thoughts below.
I’ve been meditating off and on for the last twenty years. When I was younger I sort of dabbled in meditation. I would get really into it for a few weeks or months and then I would invariably drift away from it due to life circumstances. When my schedule got busy and hectic it would become harder to find the time to do it and I would stop for a period of time. As my schedule quieted down, I would then resume my practice. I was off and on for many years. I could see the benefit of meditating, but found it hard to maintain a regular practice due to my busy schedule. The last couple years I’ve made a much more concerted effort to maintain a regular practice and have meditated this year more or less every day for at least 20 minutes a day. This year I’ve noticed some dramatic changes in my life that I attribute, at least in part, to my meditation practice. In this post I’m going to explore my experience with meditation, how it’s improved my life and how it can improve yours, if you’re open to trying it.
What is meditation? There are different forms of meditation and I’m not going to get into all the different meditation techniques or the “how to” of meditation in this post. There are tons of resources online if you’re interested in exploring meditation and finding a technique or techniques that work for you. I like to think of meditation as going “under the hood” of your conscious thoughts. We all have a constant stream of thoughts running through our head all day long. We have a story that we constantly our telling ourselves about our relationships, our careers, our self-identity and so on. This story we tell ourselves is a combination of beliefs and ideas we’ve developed from our family, friends, the media and basically everyone we’ve interacted with throughout our lives. Thinking happens more or less automatically. We don’t have to try to think. We just…. think…. all the time. Thinking is an amazing tool and we would be lost without our ability to think and make sense of the world. The problem though is that we do it so much, that it’s easy to sort of lose ourselves in our thinking mind and mistake who we really are for our thoughts. An expression that explains this well is that “it’s hard to see the spot you’re standing on”. In other words, most of us are so in our heads and thoughts, that it’s hard to be truly objective about our own lives and our place in the world. We tend to get lost in the story we’re telling ourselves. Meditation is a powerful tool to help you pull back from your “story” and see things more clearly and objectively. Let’s use music as an analogy. If our regular, day to day thoughts are happening at 220 bpm, when you meditate you can slow those thoughts down to around 40 bpm. I’m of course just picking arbitrary numbers to make an example. But through meditation, we can quiet our minds down to the point where we’re sort of detached and observing our thoughts, as opposed to our regular waking consciousness, that for most of us feels like we are our thoughts. Benefits Of Meditation According to researchers, meditation has a number of tangible benefits. Meditation reduces stress, lowers blood pressure, improves immune system functioning, improves cardiovascular health, it improves feelings of happiness and it slows down the aging process. Meditation is good for your health. However, the benefits of meditation go far beyond just improving your physical health. When you meditate and observe your thoughts in this way, a number of interesting things happen. For starters, you begin to see more clearly the nature of your own thinking, which is that it happens more or less automatically. It’s happening all the time, whether you want it to or not. You can’t really control your thoughts, although you can certainly influence the direction they go in and through meditation you can slow them down, which by itself, is very calming and relaxing. Perhaps most profoundly, meditation allows you to see that you are not your thoughts, but that your thoughts are happening through you. Another great benefit of meditation that I’ve experienced is getting insights either during meditation or shortly after I meditate. There’s something about quieting the mind that allows you to think more clearly and see situations in your life more objectively. You become the witness to your own story, as opposed to being the story. I believe, and I really have no way of proving this, but my experience has been that meditation can speed up insights and lessons that we need to get in order to progress in life. I believe meditation can provide the lens through which we can expedite our spiritual and personal growth. I’ll tell you a story that illustrates what I’m talking about… Earlier in the year I was dating my ex-girlfriend of several years. We had reached a point in our relationship where it had become clear that we had some major incompatibility issues and that it would be in my best interest, and hers, to end the relationship and move on. I had been struggling with this issue for many months. I was consciously aware of what I needed to do. But yet I couldn’t quite do it. I kept going around and around in my thinking and would rationalize why it wasn’t the right time or the right decision, despite my “knowing” that ending the relationship was what I needed to do. Of course breaking up, as they say, is hard to do, but in my situation it had become painfully clear this was the right choice. Yet I couldn’t completely pull the trigger. I kept going back and forth. I began meditating about my relationship and I began to see more clearly that the real reason I didn’t want to end the relationship was that I was afraid of being alone. On the surface I was telling myself I wasn’t sure if it was the right decision and that I didn’t want to hurt my girlfriend, which were both partially true. But the real obstacle, what was really holding me back, was my own uncertainty and fear about the future apart from my ex. To put it simply, I was afraid. Over the next few weeks I got more and more clear about this issue until during one of my meditation sessions I had the overwhelming certainty that I had to end the relationship and that everything would be ok. It was a sense of knowing that up until this point I had not experienced this vividly. I called my ex up that night and told her that we had to end things. Here’s where things get interesting. I realized my primary fear was that I didn’t really want to be alone, yet I came to peace with the idea to the best of my ability. I’ve been alone before and I’ve always met someone else I thought. I was ok before I met my ex and I was sure I would be ok after our relationship concluded. I realized, one way or the other, things would be ok and so I took the leap of faith and did what I needed to do. I felt relieved after making the decision, as if a weight that had been holding me down had been lifted. Two days after I ended things with my ex, I was out to dinner with a friend of mine and our female server was being very flirtatious with me. At first I thought she was just being friendly. A lot of servers have outgoing personalities and after all, it's their job to be nice, so I didn’t really think much of her behavior at first. But throughout our meal she became more and more flirtatious. When she brought the check at the end of our meal she asked me if I wanted anything else. “No”, I responded. “I’m good”. “Are you sure?”, she asked, just standing there. “Maybe my phone number?”, she asked. At this point I was reasonably confident she was being more than just friendly for the sake of getting a good tip. I’ll make a long story short. I got her number. I went out with her a week later and we’ve been dating exclusively for the last six months. Now what’s remarkable isn’t the fact that I have a girlfriend. What’s remarkable, to me, is how it happened and how quickly it happened after I made the hard decision to leave my ex. I literally met my new girlfriend two days after breaking up with my ex, and my new girlfriend basically fell into my lap, despite my fears of being alone and struggling with whether or not to leave my ex for months. I’ve had maybe two or three girls approach me this aggressively in my life and for me, meeting my new girlfriend was one of the most serendipitous things that has happened to me in a long time. I don’t know what the future holds for us, but we get along great and are much more compatible than my ex and I were in areas that are very important to me. This relationship feels right to me and I really don’t think it would have happened had I not gained the clarity and perspective that I did through meditation. Meditation and business Meditation has also helped me improve my business. In much the same way that we can get stuck in patterns of thinking about relationships, the same is true of things like business. I’ve had several key insights this year about how to expand my business that I believe were a result of meditating. Sometimes all it takes is a very small shift in your thinking to create very big changes. It’s easy to get in ruts with things like business and relationships where we simply keep doing what we’ve been doing. I will often get new ideas while I’m meditating about ways to improve my business. Several of these insights have made a very big difference in my business this year. Most of these insights have been fairly simple ideas that I’ve been able to implement easily, but they’ve made a big difference. I don’t always get these types of insights when I meditate, but they happen regularly enough that it’s clear to me that meditating is encouraging these insights to happen more frequently. Meditation and music To be honest, when writing this post, I saved the idea of how meditation has impacted the music I make and my music career for last, mainly because there's been less of a dramatic influence on this part of my life as a result of meditating. Perhaps it's because making it in the music business is a more complex process than getting a girlfriend or growing my business. It’s also harder to quantify things like the creative process and how something like meditation affects it. I'm not really sure to be honest, but I do have a handful of new ideas related to marketing music and the music business that are still percolating. So we'll see how that plays out. Some ideas take longer to develop and come to fruition than others. In Conclusion I believe that our quality of life, to a large extent, is related to the quality of our thinking. When we think clearly and calmly, we tend to generate better ideas that lead to better decisions and better outcomes. A lot of success in life is simply the result of coming up with the right idea at the right time. It’s a mystery that I don’t fully understand. It’s sort of like writing songs. Do you really understand where songs come from? I don’t! But I do understand the circumstances and environments that tend to lead to better songs. In the same way, I believe there is a way to cultivate more clear thinking. Meditation is a powerful way, but there are of course others that I didn’t touch on in this post. Things like nutrition, exercise, healthy relationships and reading can also make a big difference and are also topics I’m interested in. The body, mind and spirit are all connected and anything you do to improve one, will improve the others. Meditation is beneficial for all three. Here’s the bottom line on meditation. If you’re feeling stuck or anxious, or even if you just want to learn a new method for relaxing and improving your health, give meditation a try. It’s not a magic panacea that will fix all of your problems. But if your experiences are anything like mine, if you’re patient and you stick with it, you’ll discover some very interesting and undeniable benefits. Want to get more articles like this? Subscribe to my free newsletter and I'll notify you when I publish new articles, music and podcasts. My favorite thing about running my website and doing my podcast are all the great people I get to meet and network with working in the music business. I’ve often said that there isn’t really a one size fits all formula for success in the music business. If you want to become a doctor or lawyer, you go to school, study, take out loans and if all goes well, when you get your degree, you are a doctor or lawyer. The music business doesn’t really have the same, direct line to success. Sometimes it isn’t really clear how to move forward. It’s much easier to get somewhere if you have directions, or a map. If you want to drive from Chicago to Los Angeles, it’s pretty easy. You pull up the directions on Google or GPS, you get in the car and you go. If you’re following the speed limit and didn’t stop to sleep or eat, you’d make the drive in about 28 hours and 31 minutes. It’s a straightforward and predictable drive. Arriving at success in the music industry isn’t quite as straightforward or predictable. However, like Tony Robbins often says, “success leaves clues”. One of the best ways to understand how success happens in the music business is to look to others that are succeeding. Look to others that are experiencing the success you want to experience, and see how many of the steps they took to get there you can reverse engineer. Now of course, everyone’s path is different, and you’ll never be able to replicate someone else’s experience completely. Sometimes it’s a matter of meeting just the right person at just the right time. These sorts of serendipitous moments can’t really be duplicated. But what can be duplicated are the behaviors and actions that led to those moments. If there’s one common theme that runs through all of the success stories of people I’ve interviewed over the years it’s this: hard work and effort pay off. In the music business, hard work doesn’t always pay off in predictable ways, but it almost always pays off one way or another. Whether it’s winning two Emmy awards as in the case of composer Lars Deutsch, or writing songs for Grammy award winning artists like songwriter Lorenzo Johnson has done, or playing festivals along-side artists like Bob Weir and Jakob Dylan like artist Mike Mizwinski has done, or touring with John Mayer and Ed Sheeran like artist SJ has done, or getting your music on 200 TV shows like Paul Glover has done. In every case the common denominator that led to success was simply working hard towards the goals each artist set for themselves. When you’re not sure what to do next, remember that the only way to succeed in this business is to be in it, fully engaged and taking action every day. I’ve yet to talk to someone or interview someone that had success just fall in their lap. The most successful artists I know have all made a very deliberate and conscious decision to pursue success in music. It’s not all going to be fun. Some of the work required to make it in the music business is sort of boring and tedious. Things like contacting music supervisors, promoting yourself on social media and so on aren’t exactly the most glamorous things to do. But if you’re pursuing music as a business it’s imperative that either you or someone working on your behalf does these things. One of the most important things you should be doing every day, apart from creating music, is networking with people in the industry. The music industry is comprised of a vast network of people working in different roles that make the whole business go round. I know so many extremely talented musicians that seem to stay in the same place year after year, simply because they're not connecting with the right people. They're not connecting with the people that could help them get to the next level and move forward. I recently interviewed Taylor Swift’s former manager about Taylor Swift's ascent to success in the music business. Swift worked hard for four years before most people had ever heard of her. She had a team of people she worked with that included managers, booking agents, publicists and so on, that helped her get to where she is today. Getting to this level of success in the music business CAN'T be done alone. There are too many roles that need to be fulfilled. If you do nothing else today, network with someone. Reach out and connect with a supervisor or publisher. Send your music to a booking agent or bar owner. Connect with other musicians. Success in the music business doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Make music. Connect. Rinse, wash, repeat. I’m assuming that if you’re reading this blog and you’ve been drawn to my work and teaching, that on some level, you’re interested in being more successful with your music. It’s a pretty normal drive. You’re inspired to make music and so you naturally look for ways to become more successful at getting your music into the world and ideally, make money from it. Most musicians I work with want to be more “successful”. I don’t know that many musicians that are actively trying to be less successful. We all want success. But why? What really motivates us to pursue success as musicians? Is it because we want to make money? Surely there are easier ways to make money. Is it because we feel like music is our calling and we imagine we’d be happier if we could support ourselves doing what we love? Is it because we desire the status and respect of our peers we imagine being a successful musician would bring? I think, if we’re honest with ourselves, most of us want to be more successful, because we think that on some level it will bring us more happiness. Success equals happiness, seems to be the equation that most of our culture buys into. You don’t have to look very hard to see that this is the premise most of our culture adheres to and operates from. So many of us, spend so much of our time, frantically trying to become more successful at our various pursuits. But why? Does being successful result in more happiness? What if you achieved the success you so desperately longed for but then realized you weren’t really any more or less happy than before? Are all “successful” people happy? Are all “unsuccessful” people unhappy? If becoming successful was a formula for happiness, why does there seem to be so many screwed up “successful” celebrities and musicians with chaotic personal lives? Think about a time when you worked really hard to get something you desired and you achieved your goal. How long did you feel happier as a result? If you’re like me, you probably experienced a short term spike in your happiness that fairly quickly subsided to your “normal” level of happiness. I remember the first time I heard my music on television. I was ecstatic, for about a day. The next day I was a little less ecstatic, the next day a little less and so on, until a couple weeks later it was almost as if the experience never even happened. Then each successive time I heard my music on television, I was a little less excited than the previous time. These days, if I catch one of my placements on TV, I perk up a little bit and then just get back to whatever business is at hand. Whatever happiness you get from achieving success is usually short lived. Maybe, as a culture, we’ve had it backwards all along. Growing research into this field suggests that becoming successful is more a byproduct of being happy, than the other way around. It’s a subtle but profound distinction. A review of 225 studies in the Psychological Bulletin found that happiness doesn’t necessarily follow success. In fact, it’s just the opposite. Happiness leads to success. Sonja Lyubomirsky, Ph.D., of the University of California, Riverside and her colleagues reviewed three different types of studies: those that compare different groups of people, those that follow individuals over long periods of time and those that examine outcomes in controlled settings. These studies examined questions such as “Are happy people more successful than unhappy people? Does happiness precede success? And does positive affect lead to success-oriented behaviors?” The results from all of the studies suggest that happiness leads to greater successes in life. Lyubomirsky suggests “this may be because happy people frequently experience positive moods and these positive moods prompt them to be more likely to work actively toward new goals and build new resources. When people feel happy, they tend to feel confident, optimistic, and energetic and others find them likable and sociable.” When we’re happy, we tend to be more motivated to pursue the things that bring us more happiness, and we increase our odds of becoming successful at doing those things. Think about it, when are you the most productive and effective? When you’re happy and in a good mood, or when you’re despondent and discourage about your place in life. For me it’s definitely the former. I tend to do everything better when I’m in a good mood. Sure, some discontentment can be motivating and lead to actions that bring more “success”. But pursuing success in this manner tends to create a cycle of dissatisfaction that never gets resolved. You’re constantly chasing something that you think will bring satisfaction that never quite does. Psychologists refer to this state as the “hedonistic treadmill”. We go around and around, never quite feeling satisfied. Yet, when you focus on being happy and pursuing things that you’re interested in from that place, you can simply enjoy the journey, wherever it takes you. It’s important as musicians that we closely examine what motivates us. Musicians, perhaps more than people in any other profession, tend to be pursuing a very elusive goal; the dream of “making it big”. This goal isn’t inherently good or bad. It all depends on what your motivation is. Are you trying to “make it big” because you imagine you’ll be incredibly happy when all your dreams come true? Or are you pursuing your goals because you’re so happy and passionate about music and your goals that you simply can’t help going after what you want and love? You have the rest of your life to chase success, but you can choose to be happy right now.
I recently spoke with Scott Kirby, the founder of Music Revolt.org, about some of the issues plaguing the music industry and ways we can improve things. We discuss the payola law, price fixing in the music industry, how the internet has changed the music industry, for better and worse, and more.
Listen to our conversation below:
I had the great pleasure of speaking with Taylor Swift's former manager, current advisor to Big Machine Records (Taylor Swift, Tim McGraw, Rascal Flatts) and the social media mentor for American Idol, Rick Barker, about what it was like helping launch one of the biggest music stars in the world and what it takes to make it in the music industry in 2015 and beyond.
Listen to our conversation here: Have you seen the Shia LaBeouf video where he comically and somewhat crazily declares the answer to making your dreams come true is to “just do it”? It’s a sort of comedic and manic spin off of the Nike Mantra from the 90s. If you haven’t seen it, it’s well worth spending the 1:05 of your time it will take you to watch the video. If nothing else, it will bring a smile to your face. Check it out here: Although it’s an obvious, over the top parody of self-help and motivational speakers, there’s a lot of wisdom in Shia’s simple declaration of “just do it”. Often times the answer to making your dreams come true is to “just do it”. I think most of the time, we have at least a vague sense of what we need to do to realize our goals and aspirations. Yet it’s so easy to make excuses and become complacent about taking the steps we need to take to move forward.
Last year was one of the best years I’ve had in many years, both professionally and personally. It was a record year for my business, I signed with a new publisher that has been licensing my music and I formed some great relationships and friendships that are continuing into this year. But, it’s been a long time coming. I’ve been working hard at my business and music for years. Everything I’ve achieved has come very gradually and as a result of countless hours of dedication and effort. Yet, when I reflect over the last seven or eight years, it’s very clear that I could have moved forward much faster if, as Shia says, I just did the things that I needed to do more often. I don’t want to get to deep into the psychology of why I, or other people, become complacent or reluctant to make positive changes. It’s all relative and beyond the scope of this post. It’s also really not necessary because, I think the answer to becoming more successful, in most cases, really does boil down to the simple idea of “just do it”. Just do the things you know you need to do. Do them every day. Do them religiously. Do them without worry or apprehension of how everything will play out. Just do it. Are you not moving forward as fast as you like? Figure out what you need to do speed up your progress and get busy doing those things. Speed Of Implementation Eben Pagan, a hugely successful internet marketer and business man, talks about how “speed of implementation” is the most important characteristic that successful entrepreneurs possess. When successful entrepreneurs learn about a new idea or a new technique that they know will help them grow their business, they implement it right away. They don’t sit around and think about it, or talk about it, they just do it. Successful people just do what they need to do. As Gary Vaynerchuck, the creator of Wine Library TV and successful author/entrepreneur says, “success loves speed”. In Shia’s motivational speech he says “Don’t let your dreams be dreams. Yesterday you said tomorrow. So just do it. Make your dreams come true.” Of course, delivered the way Shia does, it sounds like pretty funny and overly simplified advice. But is it? If you really want to move forward but you’re not, isn’t it usually because you’re just not taking enough action or you’re not taking the right action? Be honest with yourself. Sure, luck and timing play a role in all of our lives in terms of how successfully we ultimately become. But that’s not what I’m talking about. I think what holds a lot of us back is that we don’t know exactly what the return on our investment is if we pursue something, so we don’t do anything at all. Although there’s no way of knowing for certain how things are going to work out for any of us. What can be said with 100 percent certainty, is the more you work towards something and pursue it, the more successful you’ll most likely become. I was speaking with a client recently, who has had a lot of success licensing his music over the last couple years. He’s had dozens and dozens of placements in tv shows, films and so on. I’ll be bringing him on my podcast soon to talk about his experience and share his insights. When I asked him how he achieved so much success in a relatively short period of time, he told me that he’s been getting up every day at 5 am for the last couple years to work on music licensing, before he goes to his day job. He averages 3 to 4 hours a day just on the business side of getting his music licensed. He doesn’t enjoy this as much as writing and playing music, but he realized it needed to be done and so he “just did it” and continues to do it every day. There are usually some pretty clear steps you need to take to at least try and reach your goals. Are you taking them? Every day? Are you committed? Or, are you, like a lot of artists I know busy spinning your wheels, over analyzing things and making countless excuses as to why today isn’t the right day to start making your dreams come true. Like Shia says, “You should get to the point where anyone else would quit and you’re not going to stop there. NO. What are you waiting for?! DO IT!” Sounds kind of obvious, but yet there’s such profound wisdom in this advice. What are you waiting for? Have you reached your goals? Then why are you stopping? A lot of self-help advice seems cliché and overly simplistic. A lot of the advice is so trite that it seems obvious and somewhat comical. Self-help advice, by its nature has to be broad and general. No one has a specific formula that will work for everyone’s situation. We are all different and have our own unique set of challenges and difficulties to overcome. Our job is to figure out the work that needs to be done to realize our most authentic goals and then, “just do it”. Like Shia says in his speech, “If you’re tired of starting over. Stop quitting”. The music business as we knew it is dead. It’s over and it’s never coming back. And that is great news. As musicians we tend to focus on the death of the recording industry. We talk about how record sales have declined dramatically and how people are no longer buying music. I’m guilty of this myself. It’s hard to not focus on these statistics and changes when thinking about the music business. But I’m here to tell you a different side of this story. We are living in perhaps the most exciting time EVER for musicians, artists, comedians and so on. We are living in what author and speaker Dan Carlin has described as a “creativity revolution”. There is more art and music being made and distributed to more people than any other time in history. Just a few years ago, to get your music and art in front of a massive audience you had to work within a complex and hard to penetrate bureaucracy. Whether it was distributing your music via a record label, or getting your comedy on television, you were forced to compete within an extremely hard to penetrate system. These days, anyone can make music videos, comedy, films and at least potentially reach millions of people. You don’t have to ask anyone’s permission, you don’t have to convince a bunch of guys in suits with shitty taste in music, you don’t really even need that much money, you can just do it. You can do it from virtually anywhere. You could be some kid in Nebraska in your parents basement and potentially reach more people than a cable network. It’s possible and it’s being done by thousands of people on Youtube and other outlets online. Even though the internet is relatively new, we sort of take it for granted. It’s probably not that astonishing to think about some teenager uploading videos to youtube and getting millions of hits. For the first time in history, virtually ANYONE can make art and get it out to the world on a mass scale. Think about that. As recently as forty years ago, there were three television networks. Just three. Today there are hundreds of television networks, Youtube channels, blogs, magazines, twitter and on and on. There is a massive amount of media and art being created and distributed and almost anyone can get involved. In 1993, producer Steve Albini published an essay called “The Problem With Music” in which he outlined why he thought the business of recording and selling music was inefficient and broken. Just last year, over twenty years later, Albini gave the keynote address at Melbourne’s “Face The Music” conference in which he celebrated that the internet had dismantled the inequalities of the music business. Steve’s speech is perhaps the most concise and articulate breakdown of the ways in which the music business has changed in the last twenty years that I’ve ever seen. The following is an excerpt of Steve’s speech that summarizes his position: “Through the internet, which more than anything else creates access to things, limitless music eventually became available for free. The big record companies didn’t see how to make money from online distribution so they effectively ignored it, leaving it to the hackers and the audience to populate a new landscape of downloading. People who prefer the convenience of CDs over LPs naturally prefer downloaded music even more. You could download it or stream it or listen from YouTube or have your friends on message boards or acquaintances send you zip files. In the blink of an eye music went from being rare, expensive and only available through physical media in controlled outlets to being ubiquitous and free worldwide. What a fantastic development. There’s a lot of shade thrown by people in the music industry about how terrible the free sharing of music is, how it’s the equivalent of theft, etc. That’s all bullshit and we’ll deal with that in a minute. But for a minute I want you to look at the experience of music from a fan’s perspective, post-internet. Music that is hard to find was now easy to find. Music to suit my specific tastes, as fucked up as they might be, was now accessible by a few clicks or maybe posting a query on a message board. In response I had more access to music than I had ever imagined. Curated by other enthusiasts, keen to turn me on to the good stuff; people, like me, who want other people to hear the best music ever. This audience-driven music distribution has other benefits. Long-forgotten music has been given a second life. And bands whose music that was ahead of its time has been allowed to reach a niche audience that the old mass distribution failed to find for them, as one enthusiast turns on the next and this forgotten music finally gets it due. There’s a terrific documentary about one such case, the Detroit band Death whose sole album was released in a perfunctory edition in, I believe, 1975 and disappeared until a copy of it was digitised and made public on the internet. Gradually the band found an audience, their music got lovingly reissued, and the band has resurrected, complete with tours playing to packed houses. And the band are now being allowed the career that the old star system had denied them. There are hundreds of such stories and there are specialty labels that do nothing but reissue lost classics like that once they surface. Now look at the conditions from a band’s perspective, the conditions faced by a band. In contrast to back in the day, recording equipment and technology has simplified and become readily available. Computers now come pre-loaded with enough software to make a decent demo recording and guitar stores sell microphones and other equipment inexpensively that previously was only available at a premium from arcane specialty sources. Essentially every band now has the opportunity to make recordings. And they can do things with those recordings. They can post them online in any number of places: Bandcamp, YouTube, SoundCloud, their own websites. They can link to them on message boards, Reddit, Instagram, Twitter and even in the comment streams of other music. “LOL,” “this sucks,” “much better,” “death to false metal,” “LOL”. Instead of spending a fortune on international phone calls trying to find someone in each territory to listen to your music, every band on the planet now has free, instant access to the world at its fingertips. I cannot overstate how important a development that is. Previously, in the top-down paradigm allowed local industry to dictate what music was available in isolated or remote markets, markets isolated by location or language. It was inconceivable that a smaller or independent band could have market penetration into, say, Greece or Turkey, Japan or China, South America, Africa or the Balkans. Who would you ask to handle your music? How would you find him? And how would you justify the business and currency complications required to send four or five copies of a record there? Fans can find the music they like and develop direct relationships with the bands Now those places are as well-served as New York and London. Fans can find the music they like and develop direct relationships with the bands. It is absolutely possible – I’m sure it happens every day – that a kid in one of these far-flung places can find a new favorite band, send that band a message, and that singer of that band will read it and personally reply to it from his cell phone half a world away. How much better is that? I’ll tell you, it’s infinitely better than having a relationship to a band limited to reading it on the back of the record jacket. If such a thing were possible when I was a teenager I’m certain I would have become a right nuisance to the Ramones.” Now, of course, as great as all this sounds, the challenge is actually being heard amongst the barrage of art and media available. There’s a lot of content being created and it can be difficult to find an audience. I’ll be the first to admit that reaching a large audience on a platform like Youtube isn’t easy. Hard work is the one part of the equation that hasn’t changed. You still need to work hard to make it in the new music business paradigm. But what’s exciting, is that if you’re willing to work hard (and smart) you can find your audience. The difference though, is that before you had to work hard to convince other people to give you a chance, or give you a break. Now, you just have to work hard at creating great art and getting consumers to like it. The power truly is in your hands in a way that it never has been before. The only one’s permission you have to get to be successful these days are consumers. Although becoming a viral internet sensation isn’t the easiest thing in the world, the good news is, you don’t need to go viral to make it in new media. You just a need a big enough audience in whatever niche you’re in to sustain you. That’s it. It would be great if we all became internet stars, but it’s not necessary to support yourself. I’m the perfect example of that. I make a living through a combination of making and performing music, blogging, licensing music, selling music courses, consulting and so on. Virtually everything I do can be done online, from anywhere, with the exception of my live performances. If someone stumbled upon my websites they would probably have no idea that I make a good full time living doing this. But, I’ve been supporting myself this way for seven years. I still pinch myself that I don’t have to answer to a boss or a corporation. I just wake up every day and do what I do. I don’t have to ask anyone’s permission. I just do it. Around 40% of the world population has an internet connection today. In 1995, it was less than 1%.The number of internet users has increased tenfold from 1999 to 2013.The first billion was reached in 2005. The second billion in 2010. The third billion in 2014. I would argue that the internet is a more historically significant invention than either the printing press or television. Think about it, almost half of the entire world is connected to the same media outlet... and we can create and distribute the content, for free, with the click of a mouse. For female artists from Lana Del Rey and Katy Perry, to pop stars like Justin Bieber, YouTube has been a great avenue for new artists to self-promote their music. Artists like Gotye, Bon Iver and Karmin, generated so many views on the video sharing site that they were signed to record deals as a result, made songs for movies, and in the case of Bon Iver and Gotye even won Grammy awards. What About Money? You can make money directly on sites like Youtube, but it takes a LOT of views to add up to substantial money. According to my research, a video that generates a millions views will generate between 800 and eight thousand dollars, depending on the ads shown on the videos. Youtube shares over half their ad revenue with content creators. It takes a lot of views to make substantial money on youtube. The more exciting potential for me is using sites like Youtube, Twitter and Facebook as a way to drive traffic to other sites that can be monetized in a variety of ways. For example, I have a Youtube channel for How To License Your Music.com that drives traffic to my site every day. I don’t make much money at all directly from my Youtube Channel, but I’m able to generate new subscribers and leads for my website every day from videos that I’ve already created. I’m doing the same thing in terms of promoting my music, by driving traffic directly to my website where I promote my shows, videos, blog and of course, my music. Although I've had a Youtube channel for several years, I'm really just beginning to scratch the surface of what’s possible when it comes to promoting my own music online. Although it’s a slow process, I’m starting to see consistent growth in my numbers. Promoting your music online takes work and effort, just like it does offline. The big difference though is that when you promote yourself offline, for a show for example, in most cases you’re lucky if you get an extra twenty or thirty people. My youtube channel got over 2,000 views last month, which is nothing compared to many other musicians and Youtubers online. But think about it, my videos are sitting online and getting over 2,000 eyes and ears a month while I’m working on other projects, playing shows, getting coffee and so on. Compare that to running around town hanging up flyers in the hopes of getting an extra 20 people to come to your live show. The potential online is exponentially greater than offline. Of course, you can’t replicate the experience of a live performance online, but in terms of the potential to promote your music, shows and overall brand, there’s nothing better than the internet. I’m currently focusing on how to crack the code with Youtube and reach a much wider audience. I’m just getting started and have a long way to go, but I will figure it out and when I do I’ll come back here and show you how I did it. In the meantime, feel free to subscribe to my channel and check out some of my music. I have some really innovative things planned for the next few months designed to get more views and grow my channel and look forward on expanding the content I offer related to this subject. If you’re interested in following my promotional strategy, subscribe to my channel here: https://www.youtube.com/user/artistxmusic Let’s face the music (pun intended), the music business has permanently changed. It’s never going to be like it was before. This is simultaneously exciting and scary. It’s both a challenge and an incredible opportunity. We have the ability to both make and distribute music in a cost effective way that we couldn’t have dreamed of doing twenty years ago. The barrier to entry for starting a band and making albums has never been lower. The challenge, of course, is creating a financially sustainable system that will allow bands to thrive and flourish in the new paradigm we find ourselves in. I don’t have all the answers, but I’m optimistic that a path will emerge that is mutually beneficial to artists and audiences alike. I’ll leave you with Steve Albini’s thoughts, which pretty much mirror my beliefs: “The music industry has shrunk. In shrinking it has rung out the middle, leaving the bands and the audiences to work out their relationship from the ends. I see this as both healthy and exciting. If we’ve learned anything over the past 30 years it’s that left to its own devices bands and their audiences can get along fine: the bands can figure out how to get their music out in front of an audience and the audience will figure out how to reward them.” You can read Albini’s entire keynote address about the state of the music business here: http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/nov/17/steve-albinis-keynote-address-at-face-the-music-in-full Also, be sure to check out these videos for more great inspiration on how to make it in the digital age: The New Media's Coming Of Age - Dan Carlin Amanda Palmer - The Art Of Asking For as long as music has been a part of my life, I’ve been passionate about music. I love writing and playing music more than probably any other thing that I’ve pursued. I felt drawn to making music at a young age. I got my first guitar when I was twelve and even before that I took piano and saxophone lessons. I started taking guitar lessons when I was twelve and have studied and practiced guitar more or less ever since. There have been periods where I’ve practiced and played music more than others, but I have never really quit for any extended period of time. The longest I can remember going without playing the guitar was a period of about two weeks a few years ago. Music has been a very consistent part of my life. As much as I love music, there have been periods where the sense of passion and enthusiasm I have for music has waxed and waned. Although I’ve never quit, if I’m honest, there have been periods where my heart was not fully in it. Currently I’m experiencing a sort of resurgence of my love for playing guitar, writing music, performing and practicing. I’ve been writing and practicing more than I have in a long time, perhaps more than I have in over a decade. I feel a sense of rejuvenation for music that I can’t totally explain. I just love it again. Not that I ever stopped loving it, but I like, really love it again. During this article I’m going to explore why passion is such an important ingredient for the life of a musician, and for people in general, why passion comes and goes, and how we can maintain our passion for things like music. Having a sense of passion for your occupation is an important ingredient for having a happy and successful life. Most of us spend a very large chunk of our lives working. It makes sense then, that if you’re engaged in something you’re passionate about and excited about, you'll be a happier and more enthusiastic person. In the past, I spent years working in jobs that I wasn’t excited about it, and although it was bearable, it definitely affected my overall sense of well-being. It’s hard to stay super happy and excited if you’re spending eight hours or more a day doing something you don’t enjoy, or even worse, despise. Every element of our lives is connected to every element of our lives. If you’re not happy all day at work, then it’s likely this dissatisfaction is going to spill over into other aspects of your life, like relationships with friends, family, significant others and so on. Here’s what Wikipedia has to say about passion as it relates to your occupation: “When an individual is passionate about their occupation they tend to be less obsessive about their behavior while on their job, resulting in more work being done and more work satisfaction. These same individuals have higher levels of psychological well-being.[15] When people genuinely enjoy their profession and are motivated by their passion, they tend to be more satisfied with their work and more psychologically healthy. When an individual is unsatisfied with their profession they are also dissatisfied with their family relationships and experience psychological distress.[16]” If you’re lucky enough to do something you’re passionate about for a living, it makes sense that this would be beneficial to all areas of your life. If you’re pursuing something like music as a career, it’s most likely because you’re passionate about music. But why does passion seem to come and go? Is there anything we can do to nurture our passion and develop our interest even further? Is passion something we can even control, or does it just rise and fall of its own accord, independent from our will? Here are a few conclusions I’ve reached about why my own passion for music has fluctuated over the years: Music As A Career When I was first discovering music and guitar at the age of 12, there was no pressure to try and make money from music or make myself known. I was simply enjoying the process of learning an instrument and discovering what I was capable of as a guitar player and eventually, songwriter. Everything was new back then and it was exciting. I would spend hours a day sometimes during high school practicing scales, improvising and learning new songs. In some ways, this is the purest way to approach making music, simply doing it for the love of it. When I was just getting started, because there was no pressure or stress about how to “make it” in the music business, I just enjoyed music for the sake of music. The simple act of practicing, learning and progressing as a musician was enough to keep me motivated and passionate about music. When I went to College to study music, the passion continued. Because even though I knew I would eventually have to figure out how to earn a living as a musician, I didn’t yet have that pressure and my passion for music flourished even more. It wasn’t really until several years after I finished college and had played in a couple bands that I really started to experience a dip in my passion for music. One of the challenges of mastering something, is that you typically have to invest so many hours into mastering something like a musical instrument, that burnout becomes a very real threat. I don’t care how much you love something, if you do it for hours and hours, day after day for years, you’re going to get tired of it sometimes. It’s sort of like a great relationship, even in the best of relationships, it’s normal and healthy, to want to have some time apart. After all, absence makes the heart grow fonder and spending too much time with one person or doing one thing, poses the very real threat of making you grow tired of the very thing that you were once so passionate about. Yet, it’s not enough to just back off and not do the thing you love as much, because in most cases, to truly excel you have to push past that initial resistance and keep going. To a large extent, I think this is what separates true masters from those who just approach something like music as a hobby. Here’s a great video clip of the author of “Mastery”, Robert Greene, discussing how to avoid burnout on the path to mastery: One of the ideas that Greene talks about, is that to truly excel and become a master at something you have to have a high enough level of commitment to overcome the periods of boredom and frustration you’ll inevitably experience. Michael Jordan surely experienced days where he didn’t feel like going to the gym and practicing, but his desire and commitment to be a great basketball player was greater than the frustration he experienced. He pushed through, and became one of the greatest basketball players of all time. This may all sound rather obvious, but think about it, what is your goal and level of commitment to that goal? Do you just quit and put music on the side when you’re frustrated and bored? Or do you keep going, despite the setbacks you experience? One of the reasons I’m so excited about music again is that I’m much more focused on things I can control, like just being the best guitarist and songwriter I can be. I do my best to be as great as I can be and after that it’s out of my hands. Detach From The Outcome One of the things that probably has contributed the most to the periods where my passion and excitement for music has faded, is my frustration with the business side of music. Once you start pursuing music as a career, there is a whole new set of stressors and challenges that can make it hard to maintain the same level of passion you had when music was just a hobby. Pursuing music as a career is stressful. The music business is a highly volatile and uncertain business, and if you’re trying to make a full time living from music, it can definitely affect the passion and excitement you feel for music. So, what to do? Well, the answer is very simple and you’ve probably heard the concept many times before from a variety of self-help books and speakers, but it’s taken me a lifetime to start to fully embrace and live. What’s helped me tremendously on my journey is simply letting go of my attachment to how everything plays out. In other words, I no longer lose sleep about how I think I should be more successful or that the music business is too hard or anything like that. Now don’t misunderstand me, by detaching from the outcome I’m not suggesting that you don’t pursue success or try to move your career forward, of course you should keep doing those things. But if you can pursue success in a more lighthearted, less serious way, you’ll probably be a lot happier as a result. Do everything you can to progress and move your career forward, but after you do that, relax about the outcome and let go. This sort of approach to life is helpful in all areas. I recently started a new relationship with a beautiful young singer I met recently. It’s the first time in a long time that I’ve felt “that feeling”. You know, the one where every minute of the day you can’t stop thinking about them and you look forward to every interaction and every moment spent with great excitement. It’s an exciting and beautiful experience that I cherish every moment of. Yet, despite the excitement, when I’m honest about my emotions, there’s an element of apprehension mixed in with all the “good feelings”. I start to have thoughts of, “what if this doesn’t work out”, “what if this doesn’t last”, “where is this heading”, and so on. When I catch myself thinking this way, I remind myself to snap out of it and just enjoy the experience for what it is, and not worry about the future. When I’m able to just relax and enjoy each moment, everything flows so much smoother and my girlfriend seems more excited to spend time with me. In the same way, when you’re constantly worried about where your music career is headed, it can disrupt your ability to just enjoy the process you’re engaged in and can actually deter your progress. Getting good at playing and creating music, is extremely exciting in and of itself. Lately, I’ve been so focused on the music I’m making and the progress I’m making, that I’m not overly worried about where I’m headed. I’m of course promoting myself every day, playing shows, making new videos and so on, but I just simply feel more relaxed about how things are unfolding. All we can do as musicians, is do the best we can. It may sound trite or obvious, but think about it, why stress about things you can’t change? Do your best to write great music, learn about things like marketing and licensing and get up every day determined and willing to move forward. Then, let the chips fall where they may. When I attended Berklee College of Music in the 90’s, I attended as a songwriting major. Guitar was my principal instrument and I focused primarily on learning how to write pop songs and improving my guitar playing. I was mainly interested in rock and pop, but because Berklee is so Jazz oriented, I couldn’t avoid being exposed to lots of Jazz when I was there. I never developed a real passion for jazz music, but my playing improved by learning many of the concepts jazz guitarists utilize. By learning more colorful voicings for chords for example, I broadened my music palate, which helps when I write songs, improvise, etc. After Berklee I focused on performing original rock music. I didn’t have a lot of experience performing live at that point and I used to get really nervous before shows. I can remember one of my first performances with the band I formed after I left Berklee. I was so nervous the night before our first show that I couldn’t sleep. I was excited to finally be playing music in front of crowds, but I didn’t have a lot of experience performing. It took me a couple years to get real comfortable playing music in front of people, but eventually I got used to it. Now when I perform I rarely feel nervous at all. Maybe a slight twinge of nerves here and there, but I can’t imagine losing sleep over a performance these days. By stepping outside of my initial comfort zone I forced myself to grow. When the band I formed after I left Berklee broke up in 2002, I decided to take a break from playing in bands for a while and pursue licensing my music. Once again, I was in uncharted territory. I didn’t really understand the business and didn’t have a lot of experience calling music executives, trying to get my foot in the door. But gradually, I started learning how the business works and within about six months, landed my first licensing deal. By pushing myself outside of my comfort zone I was able to move forward within the music licensing industry and over the years have landed many placements for myself and for my clients. In 2007, after several years as working as a guitar instructor, I decided it was time to start a business online and take back control of my schedule and freedom. Again, I would have to step outside of my comfort zone since I didn’t really have that much experience making money online. I immersed myself in everything I could get my hands on about making money on the internet. I read books, I took courses, I read blogs and websites. I did whatever I could to figure out how to get my business off the ground. Once again there was a learning curve, but through determination and dedication I was able to quit my job and become fully self-employed in less than a year. Had I not stepped outside of my comfort zone I’d probably still be giving guitar lessons and bitching about how I wasn’t happy doing it any longer. A few years ago, a friend of mine invited me to spend a few months in the Caribbean, to play music at a restaurant he owned. The idea of spending a few months on a Caribbean beach playing music sounded enticing, except this would be a solo gig, where it was just me and a guitar, singing and playing. I’ve sung off and on over the years, but had never really considered myself a great vocalist and preferred the role of playing guitar and having someone else handle the lead vocal duties. But, I decided this once again would be a great way to expand my skill set and step outside of my comfort zone. I accepted the gig and spend the next three months, playing three solo shows a week, just me, my guitar and a microphone. At first, it was nerve wracking. Playing in a band with three other people is one thing, but to be on stage, alone, with all eyes solely on you, is a whole different challenge. But, I persisted and over the next few months became more and more comfortable in this role. These days I’m playing in a group with two other people and handle about 30 percent of the lead vocal duties, but I’m so grateful for the months I spent honing my skills playing solo. It helped me grow tremendously as a musician and person. I think one of the worst tendencies people have in life is to get stuck in routines doing the same thing, day after day. In my experience, not only is this detrimental to growth, it also seems to be a recipe for unhappiness. I am without a doubt, the happiest when I’m growing and moving forward. Whether it’s in relationships, business or music, stagnation is a recipe for failure. Recently I got invited to join a local bluegrass trio, playing acoustic bluegrass tunes by artists like Bill Monroe, Del McCoury, Old And In The Way and more. I’ve listened to a little bluegrass over the years, but have played very little bluegrass music. But, I thought about it and decided this would be one more opportunity to stretch myself and grow. To my great delight and surprise, I’m starting to love playing bluegrass. It’s so much fun! So, I’ve spent the last month honing my bluegrass chops. Check out this little bluegrass improv I recorded a few days ago! I used to think the goal was to get really, really good at one thing and become successful at that. That seems to work for some artists. But over the years, what I’ve found has worked for me, is developing multiple skills, in different areas and creating a revenue stream based on combining those skills The more skills you develop, the more you have to offer. The more you have to offer, the more potential ways to make money and provide for yourself. Who knows, maybe one day I’ll be known for one specific thing, be it songwriting or guitar playing. But in the meantime, I’m pretty happy to be able to make a living doing things I love. What about you? What do you find works for you?
I love writing blog posts. I love to write blog posts almost as much as I like to write songs. They’re both creative outlets that I really enjoy. They’re obviously very different forms of expression, but they both fulfill an important need of mine, which is to express myself and connect with others. Despite the obvious differences between the two, they share a lot of similarities. Both forms of expression require consistent effort to get good at, and both require a certain amount of inspiration to do well.
It’s hard for to write a song if I’m not feeling inspired and it’s hard for me to write a blog post if I’m not inspired by a subject or theme that I want to write about. The last couple weeks I’ve lacked inspiration for writing a blog post. It’s not that I didn’t want to or didn’t feel like it. I just didn’t have any new ideas that I wanted to write about. It started to worry me a little. Normally ideas flow to me on a regular basis. Sure, I might go a few days without coming up with a new topic. But sooner or later, I always get inspired to write about something. But the last couple weeks, whenever I would sit down to write something, nothing came. Part of this is probably due to the fact that I’ve simply been very busy lately. It’s hard to come up with new, creative ideas when you’re constantly thinking about the next thing you have to do. For me, I tend to be at my most inspired when I’m fairly relaxed with minimal distractions. Relaxation seems to breed creativity. So over the weekend, when I finally found a couple hours to sit down and unwind, after a jam packed week of work, playing music and socializing, the idea finally came to me. As I sat staring at my blank computer screen, not sure what to write about or where to begin, the idea popped into my head… I should do a post about writer’s block I thought. I’ve been struggling with it lately, and I’m sure it’s something we all can relate to. As much as we would like to keep our creative channels open, sometimes, despite our best intentions, we get stuck, unsure what move to make or where to turn to get back to the well spring of creativity. Sometimes, to no fault of our own, we’re just not feeling it. In today’s post I’m going to address writer’s block, why it happens, and most importantly, how to get out of creative slumps and move forward. What Causes Writers Block? For me, I tend to experience the most writer’s block when I’m stressed and busy. This state of mind seems to be counter-productive to creativity. When I think about the best songs I’ve written, I’m almost always in a relaxed frame of mind when inspiration strikes. By relaxed, I don’t mean that I’m in a meditative state or getting a massage or something, but just that I’m fairly relaxed without a lot of distractions or things on my mind. It’s hard for me to focus and allow ideas to come to me if I’m busy, stressed or worried. Wikipedia has this to say about the role of stress as it relates to writer’s block: “It has been suggested that writer's block is more than just a mentality. Under stress, a human brain will "shift control from the cerebral cortex to the limbic system".[9] The limbic system is associated with the instinctual processes, such as "fight or flight" response; and behavior that is based on "deeply engrained training". The limited input from the cerebral cortex hinders a person's creative processes, which are replaced by the behaviors associated with the limbic system. The person is often unaware of the change, which may lead them to believe they are creatively "blocked". Solutions To Writer’s Block Relax Since according to both my research and experience, stress seems to be one of the biggest causes of writer’s block, one of the first things I do to get out of writing slumps, whether it’s writing music or blogs, is to simply take a few steps back, relax and see what I come up with. If I’m writing music, I like to carve out a decent chunk of time, preferably a couple hours or more, to sit down and really allow myself the time to develop ideas I come up with. I will often do quick spurts of 15 or 20 minutes of playing and writing throughout the day. But to really let an idea develop and go where it wants to go, I need enough time for that to happen. Sometimes ideas come quickly, but usually it takes a little while to get relaxed enough that ideas start to flow. If you’ve ever meditated you can probably relate to sitting down and having a million thoughts bouncing around, outside of your control. It can take several minutes to slow the mind down enough to allow space for creativity to flourish. Write Even When You Don’t Feel Like Writing Sometimes we can convince ourselves we have writers block when we really don’t. We tell ourselves we’re not “feeling it” and that we’ll wait until we’re feeling more inspired. So we wait a day or two, we’re still not “feeling it” and so we decide to keep waiting. This sort of complacency can easily create a vicious cycle of feeling less and less inspired, simply because you fall out of the habit of writing. I find that writing music is sort of like priming a pump. The more we’re flexing our creative muscles, the more ideas tend to flow more and more effortlessly. I’ve written before about how when I’m in a really intense period of writing music I’ll often dream songs. It seems like the more I “prime the pump” of my creativity, the more and more it flows. But conversely, when I stop writing music, whether it’s due to my schedule or just laziness, the ideas stop coming as readily. Listen To Inspiring Music One of the things that inspires me the most, is simply listening to great music that I find inspiring. First and foremost, I’m a music fan and music lover. I started writing and performing music because I love music. I enjoy a diverse range of music. Everything from heavy metal to jambands to singer/songwriters to classical music and everything in between. If I’m lacking inspiration, often times just listening to an artist I like will be the catalyst for coming up with new ideas. This exercise works especially well in the context of licensing, because supervisors tend to look for songs that sound like someone else. Listening to other popular music can inspire you to write your own original songs that are in the style of music that is contemporary. Read If you’re a regular reader of my blog you probably know that I read a lot of books. I find that reading books and blogs that I’m interested in, often lead to insights that make their way into both my music and blogs that I write. The ideas I get from books and articles I read often inspire me to write about my own take on existing ideas, or lead to insights that generate entirely new topics. None of us exist in a vacuum and connecting with others through their writing and music is one of the best ways to get inspiration for your own creations. “Once in awhile you get shown the light, in the strangest of places if you look at it right”. -Robert Hunter Find The Beauty In The Mundane I think one of the most common reasons for writers block is simply failing to find inspiration in your circumstances and surrounding. It’s easy to become jaded and cynical as you move through life and fall into a routine where you’re failing to see all the potential sources of inspiration all around you. I recently heard an interview with Jerry Seinfeld where he talked about coming up with the idea for his hit sitcom, Seinfeld. Jerry said when he was initially called into his meeting with NBC about possibly doing a sitcom he was asked if he had any potential ideas. He replied he didn’t have any ideas at all but simply had always wanted to have a meeting with high powered executives. A few weeks later he was in a deli with his friend and writer Larry David and they were making comedic observations about simple, mundane day to day things. It was this moment, Jerry recalled, that the idea for Seinfeld was born… a show about nothing. But of course it was about much more than nothing, it was about looking at the simple day to day things we all experience in a fresh and humorous way. Seinfeld’s genius, in my opinion, is his ability to find and articulate humorous observations about things in life we can all relate to. Everything is potential fodder for creative ideas. Everything. Even writer’s block itself can be a source of inspiration, as this post is evidence of. Most of us have similar experiences in life. We all long for the same basic things and we have more in common than we have differences. Great art articulates and expresses these commonalities in unique and creative ways. Often times we experience writer’s block because we’re simply failing to see all the potential sources of inspiration all around us. Take a deep breath, relax and look closely at this amazing world you’re a part of. Then, start writing. I’m not really a fan of UFC fighting. To be honest, I’m not really a sports fan at all. I’m one of the few guys I know, that truth be told, could care less about sports. When I was fourteen years old, most of my friends were joining my high-school football, baseball or basketball teams. I decided to take guitar lessons in lieu of playing sports and my fate was sealed. I didn’t really think I had time to study, devote myself to an instrument AND play sports. So I chose music instead. However, from time to time, because so many of my friends like sports, I get talked into going to various sporting events. To be honest, I almost always enjoy myself. Whether it’s going to a baseball game, a football game or just getting together with a few friends to watch something like a UFC fight on TV, like I did last weekend, I always end up having a good time. Which makes me think, maybe I do sort of like sports. I just don’t like them enough to read about or follow on a regular basis. But what I do like is the group dynamic of getting involved in watching two teams or two opponents compete for victory. I like picking a side and getting involved in the emotions of either watching a team or opponent win or lose. Ok, I admit it, it’s pretty cool actually. It’s sort of a ritualistic experience that is in many ways a metaphor for life. The struggle, the highs and lows, the ups and downs, a clear victor and a clear loser… all played out in a matter of a couple hours, or in the case of fighting, a few minutes. Just writing and thinking about sports this way makes me sort of “get it”. So the other night I got invited to watch the UFC fight between Irishman Conor McGregor and American Chad Mendes at a nearby tavern in my neighborhood. For those of you who don’t follow the UFC, Mendes and McGregor were fighting for the interim featherweight title in the main event of the night. I was watching the fight with a fairly diverse group of friends, many of whom are natives of other countries, including one friend from Ireland. The crowd was pretty split in who they supported. Since I didn’t really know anything about either fighter, I chose by default to root for the American, Mendes. I’m not really a huge patriot, but let’s face it, Americans are awesome at lots of things and well, I’m American, so it’s fun to root for my “team”. During the first round, it appeared, by all counts, that Mendes was clearly winning the fight. Mendes opened a huge cut outside McGregor’s right eye and spent most of the round on top of McGregor, firing elbows to his face. Like I said, I don’t really follow the UFC, or know that much about fighting per se, but it looked to me like McGregor was, in technical terms, getting his ass kicked. Although I didn’t really care who won, I have to admit that after a few beers it sure felt like I cared. I was cheering as loudly as anyone else in my group for Mendes and I got swept up in the joy of watching “my guy” obliterate his opponent. At the conclusion of the first round, I think I even high fived a few people who were also supporting Mendes. It was a good moment to be an American I thought. Here was one more thing we clearly dominated at. My head was held high, but little did I know that I’d be swallowing my pride just a few minutes later. At the beginning of the second round, the same pattern that was established in the first round continued. Mendes took McGregor to the ground and continued to elbow McGregor repeatedly in the face. I have to confess that my sensitivity kicked in a little in the second round. As much fun as it is to see two grown men beat each other to a pulp for my entertainment value, these are actually real people and it was hard not to feel a little sympathetic for McGregor, who at this point had blood streaming down his face. As much as I wanted Mendes to be the victor, this just seemed a little too brutal. I cringed a few times at some of the blows Mendes made. But then, towards the end of the second round, things changed very quickly. McGregor somehow made his way out of the position that Mendes had him in for most of two rounds and managed to stand up. When both fighters were on their feet, McGregor quickly landed a hard right and then followed it with a blistering left hook that dropped Mendes to his feet. When Mendes dropped, McGregor followed him to the ground and landed several more hard shots before the referee stopped the fight at 4:57 of the second round. In a matter of seconds the excitement I was feeling for Mendes and what I thought would be his imminent victory was over. McGregor won the title. As I sat there, feeling a little defeated, my Irish friend came over and defiantly yelled at the group I was sitting with. “McGregor had just been biding his time all along” my friend declared. “He was just waiting for the right moment to strike”, he added. Whether or not this is true, I don’t know. It looked to me like McGregor was getting dominated, and then in an instant it all changed. While I listened to my friend continue his proud, alcohol fueled rant about how much of a superior fighter McGregor is and why he was the clear victor all along, it occurred to me what a great metaphor for life what I had just witnessed is. Have you ever known someone who seemed to be down and out for years, headed down the wrong path, and then they make a few smart choices and everything changes for the better? Or maybe you’ve experienced shifts like this in your own life, where things are headed one direction and you try and try to change and nothing happens until you get the right insight or revelation and then things seem to shift in magical ways. Sometimes all it takes is a few small changes to make big differences in our lives and careers. The difference between you not making it in the music business or making it, could be just one phone call or email away. It might feel like you’re being pinned to the mat, taking blows to the face, but you can still get up and find your “right hook” that will change it all. At the end of the night, as I sat contemplating the fight that I just saw, I realized, I still could give a shit about the UFC or sports in general. I didn’t really care who won or lost the fight in the same way that I don’t really care if the Cubs or the Bears win games they play. It doesn't really affect me. But what I do care about is what sports represent, which to me is the idea that if you train hard and prepare yourself, you can get knocked down, to the point where your loss seems inevitable, and then get back up and land a hard right hook at just the right time and win it all, in an instant. There’s a line from my favorite movie of all time, The Shawshank Redemption, that serves as a mantra for my entire life. It’s the line spoken by Tim Robbin’s character, Andy Dufresne, when he says in life, you either “get busy living or get busy dying”. The context of the line is that Andy is speaking about his desire to get out of prison and escape to Mexico to live a new life. Morgan Freeman’s character, who is also in prison with Andy, questions whether or not it’s healthy for Andy to keep dreaming about getting out of prison and creating a new life when that doesn’t seem to be a possible reality for Andy. Andy (Tim Robbins) sums up his position, “I guess it comes down to a simple choice really”, Andy says, “get busy living, or get busy dying”. I love The Shawshank Redemption for many reasons. First and foremost, it’s simply an amazing movie about the timeless themes of redemption, hope and the triumph of the human spirit. Secondly, it’s a movie that works on many levels, that is relevant to all of our lives. On the surface, the movie is about a man sentenced to a life in prison, for a crime he didn’t commit, who longs to be free again. But of course, it’s about much more than that, and ultimately it’s a story about the human struggle to overcome adversity, move beyond whatever limitations we face and realize our dreams and aspirations. In other words, it’s the perfect movie for a musician. In the beginning of the movie The Shawshank Redemption, Tim Robbin’s character Andy Dufresne, is committed to life in prison for killing his wife and her lover, a crime he didn’t commit. The movie centers around Tim Robbin’s character and the friendship he develops with Red, played by Morgan Freeman. In prison, the two form a friendship and inspired and motivated by Tim Robbin’s character Andy, together dream about one day being free again. I won’t give away the ending, just in case for some reason you haven’t seen this classic film, but suffice it to say, it’s an inspiring movie that is about as good as movies get. The line “get busy living or get busy dying” is such a simple, powerful idea. I love the line as a musician, because it really speaks to the simplicity of making life choices. Get busy living or get busy dying. In other words, we’re either moving forward or were not. As musicians, we have a simple choice to make every day, either get busy moving forward or get busy stagnating. It really is that simple, even though we have a tendency to complicate and over think things. Ultimately though, we wake up every day and get to choose whether we get busy pursuing our goals and making things happen, or we can get busy finding reasons not to move forward and not to make things happen. It sometimes seems more complicated than this, but ultimately it really is that simple. On a day to day basis, we’re either choosing to move forward, or we’re not. In other words, we can choose whether or not to stay stuck in our metaphorical prisons, or we can choose to start plotting our escape to Mexico, or wherever it is we’d like to escape to. We can choose to stay musicians who play music as a hobby, or we can choose to make a career out of it. We can choose to stay in the soul crushing day job we hate, or we can choose to carve a different path. We can choose to stay in our unhappy relationships or we can leave and find new ones. We can choose to stay fat and out of shape, or we can choose to put on our gym shoes, shorts and start running. We can choose to stay victims of whatever is imprisoning us, or we can choose to escape, or at the very least start plotting our escapes. Whatever is holding you back in life, or whatever you think is holding you back in life, you can choose to fight to overcome, or not. It really is up to you. We all have moments in our lives where we feel imprisoned to varying degrees. Whether it’s a job we feel we’re stuck in, or a relationship that’s holding us back, or the color of the skin we were born with, we all struggle with the quest to overcome obstacles and move forward. It really boils down to how you look at these limitations. Do you view your obstacles as life sentences that can’t be overcome, or do you choose to look for a way to overcome your obstacles? In the movie, The Shawshank Redemption, Tim Robbin’s character Andy serves 20 years in prison before finally breaking free. (Oops, I guess I gave away part of the ending) During the 20 years he served, he never gave up hope of one day reclaiming his freedom, despite suffering years of imprisonment and multiple setbacks. The idea of “getting busy living” for Andy wasn’t some sort of “get rich quick scheme”. Instead, it involved methodically and patiently plotting his escape over many years, never giving up hope. The Shawshank Redemption is not a story about instant gratification and overnight success. Instead, it’s a story about persevering against all odds, never giving up and going the distance. What about you? Are you the kind of person who gives up when the going gets tough? Do you accept whatever imprisons you and holds you back? Or do you instead keep fighting the good fight, whatever that means to you. We all have a very short time on this planet to reach our metaphorical Mexico and break the chains that bind us. In the end, I guess it comes down to a simple choice really, get busy living, or get busy dying. Today's post is a guest post from my producer, Gary Gray. Take it away Gary... I’ve been extremely busy over the last three months and finally had a chance to come up for air and take a deep breath. As you may know, my partner Aaron Davison, and his colleague Michael James traveled here to Los Angeles in April. We had a very productive week, stuffing about 30 days of production and fun into 7. While here, we gave a Master Class on Music Licensing and Music Production at Glass Hat Studios, met with a major LA Publisher, shot 7 videos for an upcoming course entitled “Music Production Fundamentals for Licensing,” recorded all the basic tracks for Aaron’s upcoming EP, and somewhere in there we even had time to Celebrate both Michael’s and Aaron’s Birthdays, visit Laguna Beach, cruise Hollywood, Hold a successful HowToLicenseYourMusic.com Meet-Up on the Sunset Strip, rehearse at the secretive Lake Hollywood, under the famous Hollywood Sign, and plan out some very exciting future plans. A few weeks after Aaron and Michael left, I completed the arrangement, played bass, drums, keys, orchestration, edited, mixed and mastered Aaron’s first single, “Falling Down (You Went Away). “ Within 24 hours of release, Aaron was offered an exclusive Publishing deal for “Falling Down” with the same top LA Publisher we met with during his visit. Critique from the Publisher: "Very well produced and I love the strings, percussive elements and relaxed quality." Aaron signed the deal. One cool thing about this particular track is that I recorded most of the music and mixed and mastered the entire project in my home studio. For those of you who haven’t heard his song, featuring Aaron on all guitars and Michael James on Vocals, you can listen to it here. As I mentioned at the beginning of this blog, I’ve been extremely busy. Teaching many students, and producing/engineering for several clients. I’ve also been co-writing, co-producing, and mixing and mastering for Music Supervisor Jody A. Friedman, working on a film project (learning more and more about the Film Industry these days), and upgrading my own education and studio on a consistent basis. When I started writing this blog, it reminded me of something I heard last year. Someone was describing how laziness can be a major career killer, especially with music, because music as an art form, requires very focused dedication and consistent attention to detail. I’ve witnessed some extremely talented musicians and songwriter/producer/engineers fail - simply because they didn’t take the next step forward. They seemed to be on the right path, doing the right things. They were certainly working very hard, but for whatever reason, they felt they were not achieving what they wanted right now, so they gave up. A closer look at some of these people revealed a form of laziness that is “invisible.” It’s a form of laziness that is extremely busy. But how can lazy be busy? Aren’t those opposite concepts? Busy doesn’t always mean productive or effective activity. It can sometimes be just a bunch of activity with no result, or worse yet, with the result of a worsening situation, more confusion and more frustration. It’s a deceiving sort of laziness that very energetic people can get trapped in. The solution? 1. Stepping back from what you are doing and assessing how you are going about it. Giving yourself an honest accounting of what you are doing exactly and what results, or lack of results, your actions are creating. 2. Organizing your life so that your actions are not “lazy busy” actions. This is quite a statement to make and requires, in itself extreme discipline and consistent work. However, since I’ve been there, done that on this one, I can attest that trying to bite off more than you can chew all at once is just another “lazy busy” strategy guaranteed to take you down some more. Truly “turning your ship around” requires small steps at first, before one can start running. If you try to run in a room full of a confused mess, you’re probably going to fall down. Start by choosing one area of your life and organizing it, little by little, before tackling another. 3. Surround yourself with people who are positive, organized and who care. Keeping people with a “whatever” attitude within your inner circle is asking for trouble. And if you find yourself with a “whatever” attitude, it’s even more important who you surround yourself with. Life is a group activity, and your group will help define you and you will help define your group. 4. Aaron Davison is an incredible inspiration for a lot of independent musicians the world over. Aaron makes statements and teaches lessons that, if followed, will result in success. One such statement is “do something effective for your career every day.” Even something small, but make it a daily routine and you will build up a momentum that cannot be stopped. 5. Organize your career. There are many ways to do this. Regarding music production, the first lesson in the course “How To Produce Music That Will Get Licensed And Make You Money,” is ORGANIZATION as it relates to producing and engineering in the studio. It’s that important. To help you organize your music production career right now, I’m going to share with you some really cool tools I discovered (you’ll find these on the upcoming course, but I didn’t want to wait to share these particular tools with you) that will help you organize your workflow, increase your knowledge and most importantly, improve your confidence in your ability to consistently mix and master like the pros. MAGIC A/B AND ORGANIZING YOUR QUALITY CONTROL There is a Plug-In called Magic A/B. For those of you who have studied with me and/or who have taken the online courses that Aaron and I offer on HowToLicenseYourMusic.com, you’ll know how important A/B’ing is in achieving competitive standards that will land you licensing deals. Someone came up with this incredible plug-in (I used it on “Falling Down”). It’s inexpensive and it works like a charm. You can find out more about it here. AUDIO ENGIN-EAR TRAINING AND ORGANIZING YOUR MIND Ear Training is a way to organize your mind into being able to quickly identify and differentiate frequencies, timbres, pitches, pitch intervals, rhythms, dynamics, phasing, comb filtering and equalization. One of the most important abilities to develop is how to hear specific frequencies. In the mixing and mastering world, this is deals with equalization. Ear Training for Engineers has now not only been codified, but a computer program has been created that greatly accelerates the rate of learning and experience for any producer/engineer – no matter how new or how pro you are. What Are You Listening For When You Mix and Master? There are several answers to that question, but one vital thing to listen for is Equalization of each track and Equalization of the entire mix (EQ). Some people seem to be better at it than others. But the truth is, everyone can be great at it – it comes down to experience and training. A computer program called Train Your Ears EQ Edition has been developed which can literally give a person a year’s worth of experience in a couple months – with dedicated practice. You can find out more about it here. I hope that you feel inspired and better equipped to kick some butt and move closer towards your dreams – which are totally attainable. I am extremely happy I somehow discovered Aaron Davison and HowToLicenseYourMusic.com about 4 years ago when I was nowhere near as successful as I am now. It was those three, trite words, but presented in a fresh, realistic way by Aaron that gave me the push over the top: “Don’t Give Up.” Gary Gray Los Angeles, CA July 13, 2015 To sign up for my newsletter visit http://www.learnaudioengineering.net When I was in LA a few weeks ago with my producer, Gary Gray, Gary asked me a hypothetical question. If you had a billion dollars, Gary asked, what would you do to fix the recording industry? I thought about it for a few seconds, and unable to come up with a satisfactory answer, I joked that if I had a billion dollars I would spend enough money on promotion and recording to make myself famous and then keep the rest. Screw the recording industry I joked! After all, if I had a billion dollars that would surely be enough to put myself on the map, one way or another. With that kind of money I would just function as my own record label and pay for all the promotion needed to make myself famous. With a billion dollars that would be easy. But fixing the recording industry, that’s a little more challenging and requires a lot more thought. Well, I’ve thought about this question a lot since then. It’s a fun intellectual exercise to spend time thinking about issues that are this big. After all, the recording industry is in dire need of fixing, I think we can all agree on that. The sale of recorded music has declined dramatically over the last two decades. Digital downloads were expected by many analysts to make up for the decline in CD sales, but that simply hasn’t happened as more and more consumers are shifting to streaming music. Streaming music is up, but that really isn’t great news for most musicians since streaming music doesn’t really equate to substantial revenue for the vast majority of musicians. The Internet Killed The Recording Industry Let’s face it, the internet is an amazing invention and I couldn’t imagine my life without it these days, but it’s destroyed the recording industry. It’s simply way too easy to find your favorite song and stream it, or listen to it on youtube, or download a pirated copy of it. In other words, it’s way too easy for consumers to listen to music they like without really paying for it. It’s simply supply and demand economics. There’s an enormous supply of music, and most of it can be listened to for free. In the old days, if you heard a song you really liked on the radio, you either had to wait until your favorite radio station played it again, or you had to go to your local record store and buy the album, tape, eight track, CD, etc. There weren’t many other options. Sure, you could have your friend make you a bootleg copy, but it wasn’t nearly as easy to listen to music you liked on demand without someone actually paying for it. It was either you or your friend, but someone was buying the record. These days a kid in Iowa can download a CD to his hard drive and upload it to the internet in a few seconds, where millions of people around the world can listen to it for free. Or, if they’re real music fanatics they can do what my friend Greg, who considers himself a die-hard music fan just did, and buy a membership to Spotify. For 99 cents for the first three months and $9.99 thereafter Greg now has access to millions of songs. For less than the price of what it used to cost to buy a single CD, my friend can now access Spotify’s entire library of like a gazillion songs. Let that sink in. Here's a graph showing the decline in CD sales over the last twenty years and how it correlates to the advent of the internet and internet related technologies. It's important to point out that the sale of digital music is also declining. It's easy to make the argument that CDs have simply become obsolete and that CD sales are being replaced by digital downloads, but that's unfortunately not the case. Here's a chart I found on The Atlantic.com showing the decline in both CD and digital music sales for 2013 - 2014, along with the rise in streaming music. Here's a quote from the same article I found the above graph in, "The Death Of Music Sales" about last year's music industry sales overall, "Nearly every number in Nielsen's 2014 annual review of the music industry is preceded by a negative sign, including chain store sales (-20%), total new album sales (-14%), and sales of new songs online (-10.3%). Two things are up: streaming music and vinyl album sales." Is it really any surprise that less people are buying music these days? Of course, pinpointing the problem is a lot easier than finding the solution. It’s not that hard to figure out why the recording industry is struggling so much. But the solution? That’s a little harder to come by. After all, the internet isn’t going away anytime soon and you can’t force consumers to buy something they don’t want or need. Humans are pretty easy to figure out when it comes to what motivates them to buy something. Most people simply want the best product, for the best price. Sure, there are a small percentage of thoughtful, conscientious consumers who think through their purchases and how their buying decision affects the big picture. But I think it’s fair to say that most consumers just want to buy what they want, when they want it, at the best price. Wal-Mart has been successful for the simple fact that they’ve been able to provide things that people want at a very competitive price. Most people aren’t thinking about how buying something from a store like Walmart is affecting small business owners in the same way that most people that are listening to music for free or close to free aren’t thinking about how it’s affecting the livelihood of musicians they love. In both cases, they’re just opting for the best price. So, what’s the answer? How do we fix the recording industry? Well, if I knew the answer to that question I definitely wouldn’t put it out on some silly blog. After all, there’s a lot of money at stake. The recording industry is less than half of what it was twenty years ago. Anyone with the know how to fix what’s broken in the recording industry stands to make a gigantic fortune. If I knew the answer, I certainly wouldn’t spell it out here. I’m not saying that I do have the answer, but I think I can at least point you in the right direction. Creating Demand In order to fix the recording industry, we have to return to a time when there was an incentive to buy music. I can remember being a kid and listening to Casey Kasem’s top 40 and hearing songs that I liked and then rushing to the record store the next day to buy the 45 or the whole album. It was such a simple sales process. Play song on radio – listener likes song – listener buys album. It worked. Sure, there were problems and there were some unscrupulous record label executives that took advantage of artists. But it was a real industry that flourished for many years. There were huge advances given to unknown artists, there was money spent on development deals and when artists were successful, a lot of money was made by both the label and the artist. It was always a business for dreamers, but you could sense that if you were determined enough and hustled enough, anything was possible. All you had to do was look at the hundreds of bands that seemed to make it big every year. These days, the recording industry is a fraction of what it once was. Record sales are less than half of what they used to be. Big advances to most artists are a thing of the past. The whole industry seems confused about what direction to go in and the last few years have given new meaning to the term “struggling artist”. Musicians and artists have no problem struggling and working as hard as imaginable to realize our dreams, but we need to know that there’s an industry there to support us once we’ve paid our dues. By industry I don’t necessarily mean major record labels, but simply that the business of recording and selling music is vibrant and healthy enough to sustain the musicians that are a part of it. I’ve given this a lot of thought and I won’t spell out my exact ideas here. Who knows, maybe one day I’ll get around to fixing the recording industry, once I’m done solving the world hunger and world poverty issues. But think about this: what if there was a way to create a real demand for people to buy music again? What if when someone heard a song they liked, they had to actually buy the song or the album it was on in order to listen to it on demand, like in the old days, but using current technology. In other words, what if there was a way to create a demand for purchasing music again? What if there was no other choice? Do you think then people would start buying music again? As I see it, the majority of the problems facing the recording industry boil down to this simple issue of supply and demand. People aren’t buying music right now for the simple reason that they don’t have to. Whoever can fix this fundamental problem, and by no means is it any easy problem to fix, will go a long way towards fixing the current state of the recording industry. We have to incentive paying for music again. We have to create an environment where it’s easier to pay for music than it is to listen to it for free. If we can do this, I’m convinced people will return to buying music, as the demand for music has never gone away. Consumers simply have way too great a supply of free music. People are never going to stop loving music and listening to music, and musicians are never going to stop being inspired to create music. But the music industry needs to find a way to get people to buy music again. We can’t keep giving it away. |
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