Music Biz Insights From The Trenches.

Question: My band has been together for over 5 years and still nothing…Is there light at the end of the tunnel?

Answer: 5 years…..That’s it? Your considering throwing the towel in that soon?

Well if you think you’ve been waiting long enough then maybe this industry isn’t for you. But if you start to think about it rationally and logically you might start to realize that...

Question: I’ll be perfectly honest, I’m not the greatest looking person on earth. I’m actaully extremely overweight and un attractive. Do you think there is hope for me given my looks?

Answer: Love your honesty and bluntness, so I’ll be just as blunt back….

100% there is, even for big fat ugly people!!!

You think Meat Loaf or Ric Ocasek from The Cars were sold on sex appeal?

Ok,...

Question: I’ve been searching out a heap of different blogs to find some creative ways my band can use YouTube to help grow our fan base. Any ideas?

Answer: I want to share with you a little-used technique that I learned from Bob Baker that has proven...

Question: I’ve been playing around with twitter for a while now and I’m finding it really hard to win over new fans. Can you please provide some solutions

Answer: In the online world, which is where my head has been buried for the past couple of years, there is a saying that we throw around –

“There is traffic, and then there is traffic!”

Meaning that there are ways and means...

Question – Should I do everything to differentiate My Music or should I Work on my Talent and Look?

The key to working in any environment is to be able to multi-task and work on multiple levels at the same time.

Obviously there needs to be sound rationale behind the logic of what you’re doing but provided that you’ve got a game plan and a strategy for moving forward, it seems like any band...

Question – I’ve never put on or played a gig before and I’m trying to figure out how to pack out a room?

Answer -Not a simple straightforward answer because there are so may publicity and marketing avenues to explore however lets assume we are dealing with a shoestring budget.

Question - “I am looking at possibly going to Full Sail for music business course and was just wondering if you think that would be a good way to get started. Also being someone that is in the business do you ever hear anything about how Full Sail is as a school/ preparing students for the music industry?”

Answer -

To be completely...

One thing I’ve always loved and found fascinating about the music industry and major record labels is the way in which artists have been sold and promoted.

It’s one thing to creatively conceive a song, craft it and turn it into a hit single but it’s also another thing to successfully sell and market it.

One thing major record companies are actually really good at doing other than suing college students for file sharing,...

The easiest way to decipher the answer to this question is to consider the following -

Where are you or your band at in your career? In other words – how far down the line have you gotten in relation to being able to build a “reputable” following?

If you are a young band starting out and the monetary value associated with your band is practically zero, then you have absolutely nothing to loose and you should play...

Something dawned on me yesterday as I was talking to a friend on how to help get his band more exposure online.

He was clearly smart enough to realize that no record company is going to sign him for a variety of reasons and that no booking agent is going to represent him anytime soon – until he can prove that he’s worth a good couple of thousand dollars a show.

He then looked at me and had a massive realization -

“The...