Indie Update

There is nothing like doing a gig and getting paid for it.

There is nothing like doing a CD and getting paid for it.

Musicians these days must be well versed on the business side of the music industry.

The business side of the music is a very complex system but if you start off understanding the basis, at least you’ll be able to get paid and tell the promoter to

Pass the Bread.

That’s right. Your must is intellectual property and you don’t want chump change for those nights that you spend trying to come up with a bridge for a song that’s real good.

You want to have mechanisms in place to collect when it’s time to get paid.

Everyone say “pass the bread”.

You need to keep track of your funky dividends. If you are planning on running your own music business, then you need to join a business development association and take accounting and managerial classes. You can buy music contracts off of the internet and have an attorney assist you to draw up agreements that fit unique situations so you don’t get cheated.

As musicians, we all want to get paid for doing what we enjoy but we must have the right business and accounting systems so that we can get paid. You work hard in your music so you can eat, sleep and spend those hours in the mountains at some cabin writing your songs.

Make sure that whatever you do, understand the business side of things so that you can eat and have a career.

Pass The Bread.

There was a time when radio stations were community owned. Your local D.J. made the programming choices and most local bands got their foot in the door by getting A and B side rotation on the local radio station.

Those were the good old days. Today, in 2006, the ballgame is different.

Former President Clinton signed the Telecommunications Act of 1996 which was basically the death blow to community radio stations. Corporate moguls, Clear Channel, started buying up mom and pop stations, upgraded the equipment and then, started dictating the play lists and the artists to be played. This left the local artist out in the cold.

In the old days, the local D.J. was the program manager. For these big corporate conglomerates, your program manager may be 300 miles away in another town. These big wigs don’t know your community and the communities listening style.

Radio was created to serve the community at large. Corporations have made much mint off of stripping communities of its sound that defined them. Can you imagine if this would have happened to the local radio scenes in Detroit, Memphis and Trenton N.J in the 60’s?

As an indie artist, there is still a way to get to your audience. Many cities still have thriving community radio scenes that play great indie music. You can find these stations on the internet by Googling “Community Radio Stations”.

Even though the corporate big wigs think that they are getting over, the community radio scene is going to come back through the Internet and alternate routes to getting heard.

Yes Sir Boss! I was willing to do anything to get famous and get off this merry-go-round of being an unknown artist. I just signed my first record contract and we go into the studio with a by the numbers producer. I don’t even know his name!

Yeah partner! The record company said that they would take my masters and keep them for me! That is so sweet of them. They just know that we’re going to be the next hot band in America! They even advanced us 50,000 dollars to do the album, video, pay the producer and pay for a swanky spot in Beverly Hills while we record this!

Our agent is brilliant! He told the publishing company that we signed with that we don’t need a revision clause as far as publishing with them. It’s an 80-20 deal and that’s peanuts because we’re going to sell millions and millions of records! The record company is setting us up right now. We’ll be bigger than the other bands that came before us!

We owe them a CD every 8 months and if the previous one doesn’t sell, then they would take the profits from the second CD and put it towards the balance due for the first one not selling! Gee, this is great business practice.

I’ll let my manager and agent handle all the business stuff! I don’t have time for all of that. I’ve got songs to write and girls that will scream over me! Sometimes, I feel like I’m in jail, but at least the jail has a nice bed and is air conditioned.

As an indie artist, you need to master your career and be the master of your destiny.

As you are chasing your record deal, stop and think. Will you control the Master or will the Master control you?

When you’re down on cash and you want to eat out, you try to pick the restaurants where your friends work knowing that when you go to the cash register, there is a strong sense that things are going to be alright because your friend, is going to cut you a price break and see to it that you get a good meal for a discount.

This is known as the “homey hookup”.

There are a lot of local stores that have supported musicians that didn’t have the cash to buy instruments. They still have good lay a way programs, loan instruments, have good prices on P.A. systems and consult with you about the latest software that will assist you in production for free.  This is much better than any corporate store that you may be tempted to browse in.

When you get famous, don’t forget these people.

Many of these local stores are famous for giving musicians the “homey hookup” as far as pricing, advice and just being good people. In some local stores, it is known that when one is short on cash, they will get the “brother-in-law” deals. The loyalty to this local music store builds because of these types of deals for important gear.

The most honorable thing to do would be to keep working with them. I don’t care how big you get; always treat these guys like family. Some of these guys barely get pay to service you but they love helping local musicians. Give them props in your liner notes, web-sites or during interviews. Let the peeps know who is behind your sound.

Even if you crash and burn, your local music dealer is going to hang tough with you.

They support you, so in turn, support them.

You’ve finished your recording, packaged everything, made your distribution agreements and are ready to sell your album. You know it’s going to be the next great hit.

But sales are slow. You’re wondering if you’re doing the right thing, because you don’t see any progress at all. You’re thinking about giving up music all together and getting a real job.

The best advice for every Indie artist is don’t give up. If you wrote it then it was meant for someone to hear it. Everything in life is based on timing, even someone hearing your music. There are other things that you should be looking at, such as, perfecting your craft and solidifying your support base with people that believe in you.

If you take your mind off of things, then the music will speak for you. In essence, your music is a seed that blooms at the designated time for a group of people to hear it.

If you wrote it…it means someone out there is going to listen! It’s just that time and opportunity have not crossed paths yet and maybe there are some back office things you’ve got to learn before it goes full blast.

So don’t beat yourself up. You don’t know how it’s going to happen. Your responsibility as an artist is to finish the product and not worry about how it’s going to get heard. You may be in a coffee shop and a stranger could walk up to you and in disguise, he could be a finance person willing to finance your music. You just don’t know how success is going to come these days.

Remember, if you wrote it, someone’s gotta hear it!