Do you want a successful, stable and rewarding music career?
Would you like to know exactly what record companies, producers,
and management companies are looking for when seeking out new artists?
There are many great musicians who are not able to build a
successful music career because they do not know what it is these
companies want from them.
You probably already know that record labels, producers, entertainment
lawyers, and managers seek artists who have a lot more to offer than
talent alone. What they want from you is a “total package” which
includes many things, but the two main factors are: adding more value (in
terms of money and/or opportunity), and reducing potential downside risks
to the music company. I am going to tell you more about these two
elements of value and risk in this article.
Record labels, managers, and successful bands, are looking for artists
who think in terms of mutual benefit. You must think in this
way before any company in the music business will want to work with you
and invest their money and resources into your career. Imagine you
are in a band, trying to get a record contract. Obviously you know
what YOU want from this deal (access to the record company’s resources
that will be used to propel your career forward, attract new fans, sell
more records, make more money, go on tours, etc.) But have you thought
about what THE COMPANY wants (besides the obvious)?
Imagine for a moment that you are the president of a record label. Would
you take $250,000 of your money and invest it into a band that is good
and has marketable songs??? I don’t know about you, but I certainly
wouldn’t do this, UNTIL AND UNLESS it was clear to me that my investment
into the band will not be a waste of money, and will bring back substantial
returns. It’s highly unlikely that a $250,000 record company
budget will be enough to take a band anywhere significant if that band is
‘only’ a good band with marketable songs. It’s going to take a lot more
than good talent and good marketable songs to get the type of serious
commitment and investment from a label which is needed to advance your
band’s future over the long term. It takes a partnership (not merely a
contract and a budget) to make this happen.
Here are a few things you need to think about when approaching any company
in the music business:
Key mindsets you need to acquire:
Don’t seek to be merely an
“employee” of a company, instead, think in terms of a win/win
partnership.
Do not feel like you are
entitled to receive money or opportunities simply because you are
talented. It is not the company’s job to reward you for your
music. It’s their job to reward you for the value you bring to them
(beyond the music).
You must become a partner in
what they want to achieve. And you want them to be a partner in what
you want to achieve. Note that I am not talking about “selling
out”. Selling out would involve giving up your musical
integrity for money (or other benefits). What I am describing is
simply one of the most basic and universal practices of business.
You must give the other side what they want in order to receive what you
want from them. If you follow this principle, success in
business (and life) becomes so much easier! Too often artists
and companies are at odds with each other because each is out to
reach its own objectives even if those objectives are in direct
conflict with the other side’s goals. When either side feels
“entitled” to something without a win-win strategy, everything
breaks down between them. And sooner or later both sides lose (and
so do the fans!).
Until you begin to think
and work with the win-win partnership concept, the people and
companies with the greatest power to help you will typically not be
interested in you…. And the bad people (“sharks”) in the industry
might seek to take advantage of you, if you are talented but
ignorant to how the music business world works.
Here Is How These Mindsets
Help You:
The good music business people expect you to know how the music industry
functions BEFORE they begin to work with you. They get tired
of answering basic questions about how things work. While the companies
could teach you these fundamentals, they would prefer for you to learn
them yourself. The reason they want this is because it saves THEM
time (and resources).
These music companies prefer not to waste their time teaching you about
the music industry, general business, mental attitudes, image, stage
presence, logistics, etc. At first glance, this may seem like
an inconvenience for you, but it isn’t. It is in YOUR interest to
see these resources spent on promoting your career, helping you sell
records, tour the world, attract more fans, make more money etc. If
instead, a big chunk of money and time was spent on teaching you what you
should already know, who do you think loses the most? YOU do!
This is because the company’s resources SHOULD be spent on helping
you achieve what you could not do on your own (and learning the
fundamentals of the business is not one of them).
Let’s say that your band was put on tour by a record company, but the
management believes that your band does not know how to conduct
yourselves on and off stage. They will require you to be coached in these
areas (and believe me, they WILL). If rehearsals take an additional
week (at the rate of thousands of dollars per day), then money will be
spent on this new expense instead of being invested into other aspects of
your tour, record and career. Remember, this extra money will
need to be paid back to the company FIRST before your band sees any profits
from the tour OR your record (yes your label will require to be recouped
for all expenses).
Many new bands feel a sense of ‘entitlement’ and think it is the tour
manager’s job to coach the band how to conduct themselves on and off
stage. This, as already discussed, costs the band and the label a lot of
money. However, when you see yourself in a win-win partnership with the
label, then you know that it is in everyone’s best interest to take the
initiative to prepare yourself in all possible ways before money is
spent. If you are not prepared beforehand, you are creating a higher
investment risk for the company you work with!
Here are the most important things to remember from this
article:
Find out as much as you can
about the companies you want to work with before approaching them.
This will help you in many ways. First, you will familiarize
yourself with their goals, business desires and challenges.
This will help you to anticipate and come up with win/win
solutions to business negotiations. Also, the people in these
organizations will be impressed that you took the time to learn
about their needs before approaching them. They will
remember you.
Always try to see all business
situations and proposals from the point of view of the other side.
Think in terms of win/win
partnerships. If you develop a reputation for coming up with
business ideas that meet your needs as well as the needs of the
other side, you will find many more attractive opportunities coming your
way.
Seek ways you can add value
while reducing risk. In all of business, (music industry
or otherwise), your success will be greatly affected by your ability
to deliver high value with low risk. Before approaching any company
with a business proposal, consider all of the ways you are planning
to add value to the project. Do
the same analysis of all of the potential risks of a particular
business partnership (whether it comes from you or other people in
the project). If you do this, you will definitely have a
great advantage over most musicians who are more concerned about how
much their paycheck is going to be, rather than trying to enhance
the value for all parties involved.
After you have done all that
you can to add value and reduce risk, you again need to demonstrate
this in both words and actions. Think of how most bands
try to get signed, they play local shows, try to increase their
following, send their promo kits to labels, management, entertainment
lawyers, etc. In this way, you compete with all the other unknown
bands. Here is a huge tip, why not focus directly on showing
and proving to these companies/people how your value is higher and
your risk is lower than the thousands of other bands who are sending
their press kits every year. Although there is much more to the
story, this is the basis for how I landed my own first record deal J. This
approach helped to further separate myself from literally thousands
of other excellent guitar players who pursued the same opportunities
I received.
Lose the feeling of
entitlement. As I alluded to in the article, no music company
in the world will want you, unless you have something to offer them
which they find valuable. Nobody is “entitled” to a record
deal or more money simply because they may be a great musician.
Feeling this way is a mistake that a lot of musicians make and one
that I hope you will avoid, now that you are aware of it after reading
this article. What you need to do instead is prove to the
other party how they would be passing up a great opportunity if they
didn’t work with you. When you can do this, you will find that
the other things will fall into place much easier.
