I was reading a Bob Lefsetz post about a letter written to him from famed producer Bob Ezrin (Alice Cooper, Kiss, Peter Gabriel, Pink Floyd). READ THIS LETTER right now, it’s quick. In this letter Bob was nostalgic of the old music business and basically excoriating most of the new artists. While I can completely […]
Good Songs are not enough. I received a tremendous response to my last article entitled “Your Biggest Mistake Ever†(thank you). It seems everyone is starting to catch on to the importance of marketing. Songwriters (hopefully) have great songs but struggle with getting attention and getting them monetized and I want to thank those of […]
Your biggest mistake ever, ready? Y’all are making it. Constantly. It’s marketing. You’re either not even thinking of marketing your music (so there is no budget), you’re convinced marketing is too expensive (categorically UNTRUE), you’re waiting till your project is finished to market it (huh?), or you’re completely unaware of any effective […]
I was watching the “I Heart Radio Awards” while grilling out back with my girlfriend, Cari, when I caught Justin Timberlake’s acceptance speech for this year’s Innovator Award. The always humble JT ended with two amazing quotes. The first was a Steve Jobs quote from a Stanford commencement speech that said “Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish.†[…]
Consumers really want to buy music. I keep hearing everyone complain from the bottom and from the top that record sales are down; consumers aren’t buying. This is true. Why? Why aren’t people buying music like they used to if they really want to buy music? Music is such an important part of so […]
Faith. How’s your faith these days? Do you believe in your music even in the absence of proof of success? Faith comes in all different shapes and sizes. In your God. In your significant other. That your car is going to make it Faith in your bandmates In your cowriters. In […]
As an artist I spent COUNTLESS hours practicing my guitar. Practicing my vocals, writing, and practicing with my band. When we were making a living at making music there wasn’t a week that went by where we weren’t playing 4-6 hours a day as a band. It came from our regular practice schedule and then […]
Good business. We all aspire to do good business. We all dream of exactly how we are going to treat our employees, business relationships, and charities once we’re on top and the cash starts rolling in. The trick is getting the cash to start rolling in. Getting the cash flow requires business savvy. […]
I have found that one of the key skill sets to success is learning how to separate the emotion from the event in certain business and life scenarios. I refined this concept while occupying a National Sales Director position for nationwide short sale corporation. Stay with me on this, ok? After the 2008 mortgage meltdown […]
I attended a killer YouTube tutorial put on by their upper brass and some of their biggest stars here in Nashville recently. I learned the 10 fundamentals for creating a viral YouTube series. Why YouTube? Look, YouTube is the new MTV only without the guaranteed audience. But the REACH is there and it’s bigger than […]