Simple Things To Help Your Music Career

Sari Delmar wrote a great piece in Music Think Tank called "15 Quick and Simple Things You Can Do To Help Your Music Career." There are a lot of great ideas there, but here are the first 5.

#1 Remember Peoples’ Names 

Ya ya ya, you meet a lot of people… we get it. If you want people to remember your name, you better sure as hell try to remember theirs. Find a good system. Make notes. Facebook stalk. Do something.

#2 Send Thank You Notes 

A small and simple gesture that goes a long way to ensure you leave a great impression.

#3 Database Relentlessly

Keep organized and detailed databases of your mailing list, the local media, your supporters, promoters, and everything else. This will save you tons of time and help you manage relationships with ease. There’s a kazillion great databasing tools out there and a simple spreadsheet does the trick as well.

#4 Role Play

Now this is a fun one! As an indie band you often need to wear a number of different hats. One minute you are a publicist, the next you’re an agent, and the next moment you’re a merchandiser. It can happen so fast sometimes it’s easy to forget the intricacies that make each of these professionals so good at their jobs. Every time you write an email or make a call in one of these roles, approach it as if you are the best publicist, agent, or merchandiser in the world and think about what a professional in that field would do. Then do it. This will help people take you professionally.

#5 Read Up 

Being well read will do more for you then make you look cool while schmoozing industry types. Watching the industry, keeping tabs on changes, and more will allow you to make the best strategic decisions possible, and managing a band or being in one is all about strategic decisions, as I’m sure you know. Websites like Hypebot and Billboard Biz are good starting points.

The rest of the post is well worth checking out. You can see it here.

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Justin Bieber: A Career Cautionary Career Tale

By now most adults are sick of hearing about the shenanigans of teen star Justin Bieber, who’s managed to stay in the news lately for all the wrong reasons. From wild visits to strip clubs to recklessly driving his Ferrari to egging his neighbors house to police raids on his mansion, the Biebs has been front and center on the gossip pages of tabloids and blog sites everywhere.

While Bieber might consider his behavior as a simple ascension into manhood (most adult males have had their share of teenage “events” that they would rather forget), it seems that he’s failed to consider what it’s doing to his career along the way. Yes, he’s doing a great job of crushing it into tiny pieces, as the putrid box office take of around $6 million of his recent film Believe shows. Considering that his last film Never Say Never grossed about $73 million in the US alone just two years ago, and he’s released a series of recent songs that never even charted, it looks like his career has hit the skids seemingly overnight.

Maybe he thinks that morphing into a bad boy will keep his maturing audience interested. Maybe he’s rebelling against the wishes of his family and management (and what kid doesn’t rail against authority). Maybe he’s just totally unaware that his actions have consequences. None of that matters. What he’s managed to do is take an enormous following and make them indifferent at best and disgusted at worst. Before too long, he’ll be a has-been trying to make a buck playing the oldies club circuit.

And that’s the cautionary tale here. Fans are hard to come by. They, of course, have to love your music first and foremost, but they also have to identify with you in some way, which is one of the basic pillars of branding. You or your actions (or both) also have to be likeable, which few of his once legion of fans find these days. Once you’ve broken your brand, it’s a huge uphill battle to build it back up, as Bieber will soon find out. Read more on Forbes.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter and Facebook for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

Music Career In A Rut? This Can Help!

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If you're career is in a music rut and you're not doing the things in music that you think you should be, then my 6 Keys To Musical Prosperity teleseminar might be just the thing you need to kickstart your career.

I'm inviting you to a free 60+ minute telephone seminar that I'm offering next Tuesday, January 14th with a group of my music industry friends like maga-mixer Dave Pensado and LA session bassist Paul ILL, who currently work with hit artists that have recorded some of the classic songs that you hear on the radio every day.

If you're not making enough money or working with the best musicians and people in the industry, it's time to find out how to overcome the common hurdles that block musicians, engineers, and producers from doing the things they've always dreamed about.

Together we'll teach you things that 95% of all musicians don’t know.

To register for this call, which is free except for your normal long distance charges, go here now:

http://www.bobbyowsinski.com/6-keys-teleseminar.html

Once registered (remember, it’s free), you'll receive all the details to join the call via return email. I look forward to "seeing" you on the call next Tuesday!