Secrets Of The Music Industry

A Diverse Roster

When building a management roster it is natural for the manager to pick up bands with the same genre. The reasons for this are simple; the bands are often from the same scene, it enables the bands to play together and leverage opportunities off each other as well as matching the managers music taste. These positives are always considered but the negatives are overlooked. What happens when music tastes evolve? Are the bands competing for success within the same audience? Is the manager building knowledge and experience that only applies to a certain scene?

Diversity should be seriously considered. When you manage an act, essentially your responsibilities are the same across all music genres, so why work in only one area?

Partnerships and Missions

Every band should sit down and write two separate documents. It does not matter whether you are playing in your grandmas garage or a stadium, these two documents can form the backbone of a band’s working relationship.

The first document is a partnership agreement.

A partnership agreement should contain the following things;

1. The names of the people in the band

2. The creative splits between the band members ie 25% each in a four piece

3. The financial arrangement - ie each member puts in equal amounts

4. What happens when a member leaves the band - do they retain rights, own the name etc.

5. What happens with any money that is earned through the band.

The Second document should be a mission statement.

A Mission statement should be the reasons why you are all playing in a band, and what you are trying to achieve. An example could be, ‘Our Mission statement is to write and play music we enjoy and entertain people through live performance across Australia’. Simple is fine, and you should revisit it every twelve months, but its a very useful tool for those times when people start questioning why they are playing in a band - which is a near certainty.

Press Shots

Press shots are one of the first and most important tools a band has at its disposal. But there are some important things to know before you get your mate to photograph you in front of a wall of graffiti.

Here are a list of things to think about when it comes to press shots;

-Quality is key, make sure the shots are with a professional camera and you have high resolution versions for print.

-Shoot both portrait and landscape shots, as journo’s like to shape the page and will enjoy the options.

-Let the shot be natural, it will look lame if its forced.

-Don’t stand in front of graf if you ever want to be taken seriously

-The colour palette of the press shot will influence the rest of your website etc. So keep in mind what you are shooting in front of, and what you are wearing.

-Funny press shots always look rubbish.

A lot of the time the photographers at gigs will jump at the opportunity to do a press shot, don’t be scared to ask them.

The Triple J Hottest 100

Triple J in Australia is seen by many bands as the holy grail of radio play. It has a huge national coverage, is a solid promoter of local and international acts, and sits well within the 18-30 year old market of current music consumers. In short, for Australian bands, Triple J offers a chance at unrivaled exposure. This often leads to many bands misunderstanding the journey that it takes to make the playlist on this radio station, which I covered in an earlier article. The Triple J Hottest 100 is the largest music poll in the world, capturing over 1.2 Million votes each year. Not only is it seen to be a huge recognition for any artist that appears in the rankings, it is also one of the best market analysis tools the music industry has at it’s fingertips. Each and every band on that list has had a particular journey over the last twelve months, which has meant they have captured enough public appreciation to land them within the top 100. So if you are a manager or in a band, and you aspire to making the list, have a good look into what the 1.2 million people have voted for. Check out the artists that may be in the same vein as yourself, and look at their back-story. How did they manage to attract enough active fans over the last 12 months, and then engage them to vote? So rather than saying “that band is s#%t, how did they make it?”, ask yourself, “That band made the hottest 100, what did they do to get there?”

Shopping for a Producer

You have written all your tracks, demo’ed them, re-written and re-demo’ed and now you are ready to record. It’s time to look around for a producer. Big name producers are expensive and don’t necessarily deliver results with new bands, whereas just using an engineer who is looking to stretch his legs often results in just a recording of what you perform without much else brought to the table. So how do you decide?

Budget is the first consideration. After you record, you will want to promote, press, create a film clip etc and all of this costs cash, so spending all you can on the recording process will mean you are left short later in the cycle. So allocate your budget according to the whole cycle.

Secondly, write a list of bands in your city, state or country that you rate highly and find out who produced their record, it’s a great place to start.

And finally, you want to work with someone who is excited to work with you. The producer should go on the journey with you, discussing the demos you have made and what improvements can be made even before you head into the studio. They ideally see your live set and share your creative vision.

Regardless of results, if you follow these rules, then the process is going to be enjoyable and incredibly invaluable to your development as a recording artist.

The Little Black Book

All people that work in the music industry rely on contacts that they have developed over many years. There is the common misconception that this list of contacts can instantly make bands successful, via a network of mutual back-scratching. However the main function that the list of contacts serves is established communication, allowing them to find out about tour supports first, ask advice regarding releases and share recommendations on who to use for outside services.

Take a step back. You are a new band or manager (0-3 years old) and are about to release some music. You so far have struggled to build contacts throughout the industry outside of your local scene. However, you are in a great position to build that little black book of contacts (now an Excel spreadsheet) and here is how you do it.

1. Make a list of all the managers, music journos, booking agents and label reps that you can find on websites, band contact pages and facebook pages (its amazing what you can find when you start digging). Nobody is too senior or too junior to write down.

2. Upload your music to soundcloud, bandcamp or any other streaming service that has a private share ability.

3. Keep it unreleased.

4. Share the private link to all the contacts you have noted down, under the premise that it is unreleased and that you are seeking their opinion on the production and marketability of the tracks.

5. Follow them up with one phone call/email a week later if you get no response and make sure you leave a message.

You will be amazed at how many people get back to you, as everyone in the industry has an opinion and likes to offer it when asked. However, the key to this exercise is not to get the feedback from the industry professional, but to open the communication channel with them. It’s likely they will come back with some sort of constructive feedback, which is great for future recordings. Here is the last and most important step;

6. Thank them politely regardless of their feedback, and let them know how much you appreciate it. Then close the email by letting them know that you will keep them in the loop on further developments. You have left the conversation open, allowing further dialogue about future successes from either person.

Keep track of where the dialogue got to in your excel spreadsheet. You now have made the very first step in building what could be the most important tool in your belt as a band or manager.

Setting Milestones

Many bands and managers see paths to success being based upon incremental milestones that need to be achieved. This is in no way a bad thing and is often the basis of any well planned strategy. However what the act identifies those milestones as is often their downfall, creating a journey of ultimate dissatisfaction that usually ends up in fractured relationships within the band.

Things that should never be milestone;

• A record/booking/management deal
• A festival or support slot
• A sync deal for an advert or television
• Radio play on a particular station
• Video play on a film-clip show.

The reason why these should never be milestones is that their achievement is completely out of your control. The more effort you put into achieving them, the less likely it will happen as your are detracting from the things that are in your control. 

For any act the most important tool they have for success is their creativity. In a commercial sense, if your product is no good, it does not matter how hard you sell it, it will not move off the shelf. Therefore focus your milestones on the things that are in your control. Here are a couple of examples;

• A planned getaway writing session
• The demoing of 5 tracks
• The recording of an EP
• Booking, promoting and selling out your own headline show
• A film clip
• A new pedal/amp/guitar/keyboard
• New Artwork, press shots, or logo

Set your milestones along the lines of these and you will always feel a sense of achievement. Who knows, the things that are out of your control might then come knocking on your door…

Taking It Personally

One of the biggest advantages yet biggest flaws in the music industry is the value of personal branding. Acts often sign to a label because of a particular A&R manager they like, band managers name their companies after their own name-sake and booking agents move from booking agency to booking agency yet pull their own brand across with them.

Yet with such value in personal branding many people in the industry lose sight of the dangers in taking the whole thing too personal. It’s key to remember that whenever you are working in the industry, regardless of whether it’s a company of 1 or 1000, you are representing a company not an individual. The way that you build relationships, talk over the phone or behave in person is indicative of a larger branding exercise associated with the business you work for. Now, more than ever, organizations in the music industry are attempting to create more intuitive, compassionate, intelligent, engaging and professional businesses.  Are your actions aligned to your organization’s expectations?

Take-Aways:

-Establish your organizations professional expectations
-Both positive and negative feedback is essential in growth, learn how to give it and take it in a non-personal way.  Keep the focus on the business.
-Phone manner is critical, even if you feel you have a strong relationship with someone, don’t cross the line and swear, talk about personal problems etc.
-Never compromise your company’s reputation over preservation of your own.
-Mission statements are the benchmark of any achievement, be proud of yours and share it with people within the industry.  Does your company have a mission statement?