The 13 Most Insidious, Pervasive Lies of the Modern Music Industry

Lie #8: Kickstarter can and will build careers.

The Lie: Superfans will come out in droves to support their favorite artist projects, and power their awesome careers.

The Truth: So far, it’s happened for Amanda Palmer, Toad the Wet Sprocket, Murder by Death, and a few other artists. Which is great for those artists, but most irrelevant for the broader artist community.

Lie #9: Spotify is your friend.

The Lie: Streaming on Spotify will make artists money, if they just wait long enough.

The Truth: Spotify will make Spotify and Wall Street tons of money, if they’re really lucky. And they’ve already made tons of money for major labels, not artists.

And even superfans rarely stream enough to equal the nice, upfront, transparent royalty offered by an iTunes Store download.

Lie #10: Google and YouTube are your friends.

The Lie: Google and YouTube have anything but their own profit-maximization goals in mind.

The Truth: This is business, not altruism, not matter how it gets spun. And, the interests of Google and rights owners are diabolically opposed and will continue to be so. Which also means that anything that is DMCA-compliant is ultimately great for Google, and fantastically bad for content owners.

So if you want exposure, go to YouTube. If you want a paycheck, find it somewhere else.

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The 13 Most Insidious, Pervasive Lies of the Modern Music Industry

Lie #4: There will be a death of the major label.

The Lie: Major labels will die out completely, while unleashing a utopia of contract-free, liberated artists.

The Truth: Majors are weakened but far from dead. But more importantly, they are still controlling popular music and its consumption, and building and maintaining artist careers. It’s the reason why Jay-Z is still signed with a major, and why Macklemore did a deal with Warner Music Group.

It’s also the dirty little secret behind Amanda Palmer’s current name brand (you’re welcome, Roadrunner).

Lie #5: Digital formats will produce far greater revenues than physical.

The Lie: The absence of major manufacturing overhead, shipping, and brick-n-mortar retailers will drastically reduce costs and pave the way for greater revenues and income.

The Truth: Digital sales volumes are not only lower, but an era of singles eviscerated marked-up, album bundles. And the current era of ‘digital dimes’ means that per-track, per-stream, or per-whatever payouts are far lower.

These days, artists that can actually sell physical (like vinyl and CDs) make more money. The same is true for nations: Japan is now the largest recorded music market in the world, thanks largely to strong CD and physical sales (and even rentals).

Lie #6: “The real money’s in touring”

The Lie: If artists just give away their music for free, and let it be social and free-flowing, they’ll make it up on the road.

The Truth: Fabulously true for artists like Pretty Lights and plenty of EDM artists, but not most other artists. In fact, most artists are struggling to survive on the road, and even established names have been forced to can tours because the money just doesn’t make sense (see Imogen Heap).

Lie #7: There’s an emerging middle class artist.

The Lie: Internet-powered disintermediation will create a burgeoning ‘middle class’ of artists. Not the limousine, Bono-style outrageous superstars, but good musicians that can support families and pay their bills.

The Truth: There is no musician middle class. Instead, the music industry has devolved into a third world country, with a wide gulf between the rich and struggling/starving poor.

And, those ambitious middle-class artists that try to make ends meet by spending 350 days on the road are probably not raising very good families.

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The 13 Most Insidious, Pervasive Lies of the Modern Music Industry

Lie #1: Great music will naturally find its audience. The Lie: The greatest music and artists will eventually connect with their audiences, naturally, thanks to a perfectly-lubricated, social, and borderless internet. “Our kids are going to watch exactly what they want to watch, not necessarily what’s marketed to them,” then Topspin CEO Ian Rogers said as recently as 2010, while constantly underscoring that “quality is hyperefficient.” The Truth: Just like the analog old days, most great music gets left behind and wallows in obscurity if not substantially backed or otherwise supported financially. In fact, the biggest songs on the planet are often those blasted the loudest on the biggest platforms – and oftentimes, granted the most money from major labels (ie, Katy Perry, Pitbull, Flo Rida, etc.) Lie #2: Artists will thrive off of ‘Long Tail,’ niche content. The Lie: The musical landscape will increasingly be dominated by smaller and smaller artists, with smaller (but stronger) audiences. And, they will all make more money through direct fan relationships. “Forget squeezing millions from a few megahits at the top of the charts,” Chris Anderson famously wrote in his ‘groundbreaking’ Wired article that started a misguided revolution. “The future of entertainment is in the millions of niche markets at the shallow end of the bitstream.” The Truth: Instead of unleashing a torrent of successful niches, the internet has actually made blockbusters bigger than before. All while artists starve down the tail. “So, while the tail is very interesting, the vast majority of revenue remains in the head,” Google CEO Eric Schmidt brutally revised just a few years later. “And this is a lesson that businesses have to learn. While you can have a Long Tail strategy, you better have a head, because that’s where all the revenue is.” Lie #3: The death of the major label will make it easier for artists to succeed. The Lie: No more major labels to choke the supply! No one to hold the artist back! The Truth: Sadly, the avalanche of unfettered, unwashed content was never quite filtered by the music fan. Instead, it was all mostly tuned out, except by a small number of trusted curators. Which means, most artists are deluged in all that stuff, and have a hard time gaining traction. “We’ve had 10-11 years of American Idol, so you’ve had 100 or 110 top ten people, and you can count on your hand the number of careers that have sustained off of that,” Irving Azoff said late last year. “So that just tells you that even with the massive exposure of network TV, how hard it is to make it in the music business.”

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10 Things You Should Never Say On Stage CONTINUED

6. This Song Is About My Grandma Who Died Of Cancer. Love You Nana.

Don’t depress your audience. You can play a song about your dead grandma, but you don’t need to tell the audience that’s what it’s about.

People don’t pay money to come to shows to be sad. They come to be happy. To have fun. To be enlightened. To be inspired.

If you can’t communicate the power of your song by just playing it, then maybe the song isn’t really that good.

7. I’m Broke

Don’t make your audience feel bad for you. It removes the mystique and coolness factor. You can say “help us get to the next city and pick up a T-shirt.” That offers an emotional appeal in a positive light.

But saying “we’re broke, so buy a t-shirt,” just turns your audience off.

Guilting your fans into buying your merch never works.

8. You Guys Suck

Even if 95 out of the 100 people are screaming above your acoustic set while smashing glasses and vomiting in the corner, 5 people are engulfed in your set. Never insult your audience. They always have one ear to you – even if you are just background music.

You may think no one is listening, but you’ll be surprised at how many compliments you get and how much merch you sell once you hop off stage.

9. Any Requests

You’re never going to get the songs that you actually have prepared and there will always be that one asshole who yells “Free Bird” as if he just came up with the joke.

Play your set as is. If someone drove 300 miles to hear one song, she’ll yell it out whether you ask for it or not.

10. How Does It Sound

This is a slap in the face to the sound guy. Never ask the crowd that. It should sound amazing. If it doesn’t, then it’s either your fault or the sound guy’s fault. Either way, you just pissed off the one person not in your band who can actually make you sound WORSE.

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10 Things You Should Never Say On Stage

1. We’re Having Technical Difficulties Even if your guitar just caught fire. Well actually, that would be hilarious if you said it then. But when bands sheepishly admit it into the mic, it’s uncomfortable and kills the vibe. Technical difficulties are your fault. Even when they’re not. It’s your stage. It’s your show. You should know your gear inside and out. If something is cutting out or screeching or feeding back, you should either know immediately what it is and be able to remedy it in 13 seconds or know how to quickly figure out what it is. It’s your job, as the performer, to command the attention of everyone in the room from start to finish. 2. I Forgot The Lyrics The worst is when singer/songwriters sing a line like “I forgot this next line la la la.” That is so annoying. Not funny. If you can’t memorize your lyrics then bring a lyrics sheet on stage as reference. Or make shit up on the spot. The only thing worse than shitty lyrics is forgotten lyrics. 3. I Want To Thank My Girlfriend It’s like having a one on one conversation with someone in the audience off the mic. Uncomfortable for everyone else in the house. Leave her out of it. It makes you look whipped. If she did something truly awesome, then you can say something like “we’d like to thank our friend Sarah for getting this song into the hands of the music supervisor at Parenthood.” If your girlfriend needs to be publicly thanked for her support then you have bigger issues you have to work out. 4. I’m Sorry Don’t ever apologize on stage. It makes you look weak. I don’t care if you just dropped a baby. Don’t apologize. Making excuses for your shittyness makes everyone in the house uncomfortable and feel bad for you. I hear it all the time: “I forgot the rest of the song. Sorry.” “I’m sorry if this song sucks, we just wrote it.” “I’m sorry there aren’t more people here.” “We haven’t rehearsed this much, it might suck.” Own the stage. Own the room. Own your set. Or don’t show up. 5. Your City Sucks Should be a no brainer, but I can’t tell you how many touring bands I’ve seen make fun of the city they are in – ON STAGE. It may be fun to joke about in the van, but your audience takes pride in their city. No matter if you think their city is cool or not. Never say anything negative about the town you are in while on stage unless you want a beer bottle thrown at you.

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17 Ways to Kill a Music Career CONTINUED

(10) Not being completely available. A good manager will feed you opportunities, online and off, because that’s what you paid him to do. You need to show up to them, and feed the momentum. The era of the distanced, untouchable rock star has ended. (11) Being in it for the money. You’re delusional and will probably make more money working at McDonald’s. The reality of this business is that an extremely large percentage of artists are poor, and most of the successful ones were poor at one time. Which means if you’re not motivated by the the music, the passion to create and play, and the cameraderie of it all, you should honestly be doing something else. (12) Paying to inflate Twitter followers, Facebook likes, DatPiff downloads, and YouTube views. Labels, venues, and potential managers are all-too-familiar with these scams. But more importantly, paying for fake followers distracts precious resources away from developing organic fans, the lifeblood of any successful artist. Without real fans, you don’t have a real band, period. (13) Insisting on recording drunk or seriously high. It takes twice as long and twice as much to record that way, and the results are half as good. Remember: a recording (whether a single, EP, album, or video) is a permanent record of your artistic accomplishment that can convert millions of fans for decades to come. A crappy recording rarely has the same power. (14) Giving away way too much free music. This is an error that rappers frequently make, especially when it comes to mixtapes. Because not all of your music has to be free, at least the part that you control. Ultimately, rappers that fail the strategically use mixtapes to promote paid, more structured releases fail to (a) generate any meaningful income from their recordings; (b) encourage their fan bases to pay (or at least give them the opportunity to pay); and (c) create any meaningful sales record for prospective investors (like labels). (15) Delivering crappy presskits. Venues and festivals typically have tens of thousands of applicants to sift through, and just a few slots to award. A powerful, well-crafted press kit dramatically increases the chances of getting the gig and catapulting a career; a mediocre kit almost guarantees a quick delete. (16) Paying to play shows. This seems to be mostly happening in hip-hop, where shady promoters actually charge a rapper to open for a larger act or participate in a showcase. But this is absolutely the wrong direction to go, especially since it sacrifices real revenue for ‘exposure’ that they typically can’t afford, while the promoter reaps all the upside. Avoid these deals at all cost, whatever that cost may be. hand Should You Pay To Play? Here Are The Worst-to-Best Club Deals In The World… (16a) Paying to be mentioned on a show flyer. Stop the madness. Right now. (17) Having a violent audience. It’s hard enough to attract dedicated fans; it’s almost impossible to choose the fans you have. But fans that routinely start fights, incite violence, or bring weapons to shows can seriously threaten the survival of an artist, simply because venue owners and promoters will avoid this artist at all costs. Which means, effectively, you can’t show up for work. You must develop a strategy to deal with this problem, or risk choking off a critical revenue source.

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17 Ways to Kill a Music Career

If you’re doing any of these things, stop it right now. (1) Having a shitty, entitled attitude. If you’re showing up late for gigs, not rehearsing, not supporting your scene, being a dick to your bandmates, and not working slavishly to cultivate your audience online and off, you’re doing a great job of killing your potential career. Now more than ever, the future doesn’t belong to bands that have crappy work ethics. (2) Being addicted to any substance. Everyone makes their own choices about drugs, including alcohol. But when those choices downwardly spiral into full-blown addiction, it can quickly threaten the survival of a band. Irritability, missed appointments, detachment, and unexplained absences are the better outcomes; problems with the law, missed shows, stealing from bandmates, violence and death are where things inevitably end if left unchecked. (3) Relying on a label, manager or anyone besides yourself to build your career. Even with a label deal, bands can find themselves de-prioritized, or flat-out ignored. But these days labels rarely sign bands that aren’t successfully working and developing their audiences to begin with. Which means that DIY isn’t some alternative approach, it’s essential for the survival, breakthrough, and growth of any artist. (4) Choosing a name that another band is using. The costs of picking a name that is already being used include fan confusion, extreme difficulty growing your brand, and lawsuits. So before you pick a name, Google it, check ReverbNation, even check on MySpace. After that, do a trademark search. hand When Two Bands Have the Same Name: A Legal Guide… (5) Not having a serious web presence. It’s impossible to be everywhere, but you need to try. That not only means hitting all the usual (and massive) suspects like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, but infiltrating sites that attract your target demographic. It also means interacting with the non-stop flow of fans, as much as you possibly can. Because if you’re not there, eventually they won’t be, either. (6) Not selling merchandise. If you’re not setting up a stand at all shows possible with a full range of merchandise, you’re missing out on income that could fill your gas tank and pay for meals (i.e., stuff you need to survive). And if you’re not working the crowd (on-stage and off) and putting the stand in a prominent, well-lit place with credit card processing capabilities, you’re missing out on even more money. (7) Not touring. Some artists, like Zoe Keating, make a bulk of their earnings from recordings. But that is getting harder and harder to do, especially as the recording continues to devaluate. Which means if you can’t tour, you’re probably cutting off a huge revenue source. (8) Making music that sucks. Forget about sucking: if your music isn’t outrageously great in the eyes of a significant fan base, major changes need to be made. That includes scrapping the band and starting another one. (9) Choosing bandmates that don’t share your work ethic, goals, or long-term vision. A band is like a family, except that you can choose the members. If your bandmates aren’t working as hard as you are, aren’t as dedicated or simply aren’t team players, they will distract and drag down your chances of success in an extremely demanding and competitive environment.

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THIS IS WHAT "HIP HOP" IS!

"Hiphop (Hip´Hop) is a term that describes our independent collective consciousness. Ever growing, it is commonly expressed through such elements as Dance, Emceein, Graffiti Art, Deejayin, Beatboxin, Street Fashion, Street Language, Street Knowledge and Street Entrepreneurialism."

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12 Things You Should Never Say To A Musician

1. So Are You Trying To Be A Musician

I am a musician. Not trying. Trying to be a musician is watching the first YouTube video on how to hold a guitar. Not what I have done for the past 15 years. That is BEING a musician.

2. You Sound Like…

I know you’re trying to be nice by putting me in good company, but musicians want to feel original. We don’t want to hear we sound like everyone else. That we’re unoriginal. It’s fine for you to sell your friends on listening to someone new by comparing them to well known artists, but when talking to a musician, the best compliment is “you sound like YOU and it’s awesome.” Unless you’re talking to a pop producer, then yeah, “it sounds like Katy Perry” is probably the best compliment you could give.

3. You Should Try Out For American Idol

I will slap you.

4. When Am I Going To Hear You On The Radio?

When your radio plays better shit.

5. You Should Be On The Voice

Because that’s a career builder. Right Jermaine?

6. You Must Love Karaoke

No, actually, I hate karaoke because I have to listen to you sing.

7. Can I Get On The List? Plus 1?

You don’t have $10 to support my music, but you have $50 for the round of shots you just bought everyone?

8. What’s Your Real Job?

It’s this little field called music. It’s way more real than those TPS reports you put together for the Bobs.

9. What’s Your Backup Plan

What’s yours?

10. It Will Be Great Exposure

Meaning, it doesn’t pay. No thanks.

11. I Have A Great Idea For A Song

And I have a great idea on how you can fix my faucet better. But let’s keep these things to ourselves.

12. Free Bird

That stopped being funny in ’97.

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QUOTE ME....ON THIS

A painter paints pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence

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