How to make money in the music industry is a lot easier than you think, however, people often complicate it till this very day. Too many people make the common mistake of beginning and never finishing in any venture that they try. I feel that when it comes to music, this mistake is too common. I'm going to briefly help you lessen your mistakes and make the most out of your music venture.
Sign Up for as Many Social Networking Sites as You Can
This is a very important step that many people fail to take because they feel as if they only need one website to market their self. You need to have as many social networking pages as possible because this creates maximum exposure. If I were to sell 10 CDs a day in front of my house, I would possibly make decent money. If I were to get 10 people selling 10 CDs a day in front of their house also, I will more than likely be more successful in the music industry. The same thing applies to social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, and more. For one, it's less work that you have to do in the long run and two, more pages equals more people, meaning more money in your pocket. Another trick you can do is sign up for Myxer.com and Soundstation.com. You can use Soundstation to sell your albums directly to your fans and use Myxer to sell ring tones right on any of your social networking sites by embedding the code's onto your pages. So many people struggle trying to figure out how to make money in the music industry and one of the answers is as simple as the above.
An Extra Street Marketing Tip
As I said before, the more people you have to sell for you, the less work you have to do. Too often I run into people who have fans that are so into them, they feel it not robbery to enthusiastically tell the artist as if they were in love with the musician and the response the artists will give the fan is "thank you very much." This is the worst response you can give someone with that much enthusiasm from listening to your music. If you offer to pay them a percentage of sales for the number of records they promote and sell for you, they will more than likely take it because they love you that much. This is a trick that many musicians don't follow, therefore, now that you know about it, you have an edge on them.
Unbeknownst to the vast majority of music fans of the independent musician, climbing the ladder to 'success' in the music industry is a lot of work. It takes years of building networks, cultivating fans, practice, backbreaking work, and getting used to the word no. In the past, bands were just out of luck in getting their album distributed unless they could get signed via band managers to a record label. Playing clubs and promoting your band can get you a lot of attention, but you can't expect to make a lot of money without selling your music. Your fans want to be able to listen to you any time, and booking shows every weekend is almost a full time job.
Luckily times have changed drastically. In recent years due to the popularity of the internet. It is now easier than ever for an independent band to get their music distributed to their fans. I haven't performed a live gig in several years but am quite confortable selling my music over the internet as an independent musician. No band managers, no band politics, no egos. There is, however, quite a lot of work involved when distributing ones music exclusively on the internet as mp3 downloads. Having said this, I am slowly but surely turning my marketing and promotional activities into a well-oiled machine.
In the music industry, the musician is the only one that is going to have a sense of urgency in making your product available to the masses. A&R Coordinators get hundreds of demo cds a week, and may not even listen to their music if they they don't have a band manager to hound them. Even if they do get signed with a record label, they are dealing with hundreds or even thousands of other bands and musicians, so they aren't going to be their first priority. Making money in the music industry is not about live performances in the beginning. Independent musicians may make a little money from the club circuit, but chances are most of that will go to overhead costs like equipment, transportation, and practice space.
Selling their music is the best way to get money from their hard work right away. Getting distribution was hard for a long time, until the internet came along. The internet is receiving a lot of criticism from the music industry because of illegal downloads, but the popularity of internet shopping could work in favor of the internet musician. As previously mentioned, they don't have to be signed with a record label to record their music. It's not cheap, but they can purchase time in a recording studio to record quality, professional sounding albums. There is also new software that allows them to indulge in recording at home. This is a fraction of the cost of a professional studio but with the right audio recording software combined with the right 'ears,' (ideally a sound engineer), home recording is the way to go and I am already hearing vast differences in the quality of home recording efforts by independent musicians....and let's face it, audio recording software is only going to get better.
Once an independent artist has recorded an album to the standard that the desire, they can offer them for sale from their website, Amazon and so forth. I have began distributing via Bandcamp. The player to your left allows you to listen to the entire "Mean Business" album as often as you wish. Should you want to buy it, enter the codeword thistle and receive a 50% discount....thus making the album only 5.00 AUD.
Promoting an album is easier than ever too. Not only can albums be offered for sale at shows, but independent artists can spread your website there as well. Loyal fans will spread the word of the music, and direct sales to the band webssite. Social networking sites are good for attracting new fans too. A link on a social networking site to the bands sales page will let new fans hear what the band is all about.
The independent musician chose to make music their career. Many musicians don't make a lot of money, but it doesn't have to be that way. Distributing ones own music is easy, and it promotes an independent band more effectively than what could possibly be done through word of mouth.
Independent musicians work hard. Don't let the speed of the internet fool you into thinking otherwise.
The Internet has made it easy for musicians to make money if they can hustle in the real world. With the right tools (plus a little talent), you can literally write a song in the morning, record it in the afternoon, and be making money off it that night as you sleep. The best part is that you don't even have to be a big star to do this. You just have to get out there and hustle.
At this point, you may be asking:
If it's so easy, why isn't everyone making a living by selling downloads on the Internet?
Steady on. I never said it was easy. There are a lot of pieces that need to fall into place, chief among them, talent. Only a tiny minority has the talent to write and perform songs that move people, and most of them lack the business sense to make money. If you have talent or have a friend or client with talent, read on, because I'm going to give you the step-by-step. You don't need a lot of business sense, just determination. This is a simple formula. It has worked on a limited (limited by my lack of time for performing) basis for me personally, and it has worked very well for others who have more time to devote to their passion.
For the sake of simplicity, let's say you have a catalog of songs to work with, all recorded and produced, dressed up and ready for the ball. If you don't have such a catalog, you need to start building it. After you have at least nine well produced songs, come back and read the rest of this article. Otherwise, you're just wasting your time.
The first thing you need to do is stop spending so much time on MySpace. It's an echo chamber in there, and even if you have a lot of friends, most people aren't going to buy anything. Even if they do buy it, your cut is minimal. Forget MySpace. Forget A&R. Forget record companies and iTunes. In this day and age, all you need is a guitar and a computer... and talent (did I mention that?). You can certainly use MySpace, but only on a very limited basis and only as a promotional tool to drive people where you really want them: to a site where they can exchange their money for your stuff, a site that is all yours and that doesn't involve any middlemen.
You've probably guessed that the next step is to build your store. Doing it right requires investing a little money - probably around $500-$1,000. You'll get it back in the first month, maybe even in the first day of going "live" if you already have a following. What you're building is more than a store, though. It's kind of like MySpace without the crappy-looking templates, middlemen, and sleazy underbelly (unless a sleazy underbelly is part of your brand, in which case you can do it much better in your own space than on MySpace). Here you will have a blog, photo galleries, videos, a forum, a gig calendar, an audio feed to broadcast stuff for free (people love free, and music is its own best advertisement).
The whole point of the thing is the store, though, really... and the gig calendar since that will make it easy for your fans to find you performing in the real world. In the store, you will sell downloads. You can sell CD's if you want, but I find them to be more trouble than they're worth. They cost a lot to get pressed and it's a hassle to ship them. If you have merchandise, you can sell it in your store, but be careful not to bite off more than you can chew; you will actually have to fill the orders.
Speaking of which: Set yourself up as a business. Register a business. Set up a business bank account. Talk to your lawyer about what kind of legal structure is best for your needs. If you don't have a lawyer or are just getting started, a sole proprietorship should do for a while. Eventually, you'll want to incorporate, though.
After your music is recorded, and your site is set up and working well, you are about 25 percent of the way there. The next step is the toughest and most critical: promotion. As mentioned, use any existing web presence to drive traffic to your new site, but I can pretty much guarantee that this will not be enough. Get out and perform at every opportunity. Make some stickers with your stage name and website address. Hand out free stickers at your gigs. Stick the stickers everywhere... without resorting to vandalism. Give them to your friends and have them stick them everywhere. But the most important thing is to perform.
Even if you have to play little coffee shops, open mics, or subway stations. Kick it live. Rock it as hard as you can. If you're any good, you'll see the traffic to your site grow. I guarantee it. As I mentioned before, I don't intend to perform my own music in the foreseeable future, but one occasion someone recognised me at the largest market in the state and asked for an autograph. I obliged. This happened only about 20 times that day. Each person got my autograph....on the back of my business card. 20 fans turned into 500 visitors within 24 hours, I don't know, but that's how it works. Hustle, hustle, hustle. When you're ready to collapse, hustle some more. You will reap rewards.
Get your 50% discount for "Mean Business" by entering the codeword: thistle
If you're familiar with the Bob Dylan song "Positively 4th Street" then you have a fair idea of where this entry is headed. If you haven't heard the song, may I suggest brandy....and plenty of it....before reading further.
If you've read anything at all about me then you'll be aware of my 23 year long battle with alcohol abuse, namely vodka. It has cost me almost everything and has caused untold distress to those close to me, an avenue that I don't discuss.
Having pushed things as far as I could without actually dying by drinking two bottles of vodka daily for the majority of last five years as an 'active' alcoholic I have learned more than a thing or two. I never have and never will profess to being 100% sober. Putting a mountain like that in front of oneself is tempting fate.
One of the major things that I have learned over the last two or so years is that people rarely give genuine responses. It is almost impossible to gauge this on the internet, but not quite. I'll get to that shortly.
Returning to the title of this entry I temporarily re-discovered so many people who seemed to have vanished during my darkest times. In no way am I blaming them for this. Who would want to see a shuffling, bloated zombie who used to be the life of the party, whether it was a party or not? So far gone was I that I didn't notice. I rarely left the house and my phone was constantly off the hook. I was quite content (so I thought) listening to Warren Zevon, Dylan, The Stones an so forth at full blast with a cup of vodka in one hand, cigarette in the other gazing at the rather scenic view from my window.
On more than one occasion I 'woke up' to find myself in hospital, wondering why I had a beard and tubes hanging out of me. These occurrences became life-threateningly closer together.
It wasn't until a few months after I had moved back to my parents house in Stanley on Tasmanias' far North-West coast in April 2007 and was 'stable' enough to do something musical again that I began recording. Very soon after this I was doing rather well on the internet and was actually selling some physical CDs too.
Then came the 'friends' who had vanished all full of praise, pats on the back and so forth. I've never been one to manage compliments well; I get embarrassed. What else can one say to a compliment except "Thank you?"
Having played in bands since the age of 16 I've become almost immune to compliments and insults alike....almost. These long-lost friends really got up my nose. It takes a lot to irritate me to the point of responding but I have. Firstly I don't reply to them at all online. I also don't take their calls. Most commonly I respond in more than a few of my songs. It's usually a single line or word that only they will know about. This is generally followed by loud bleating almost to the point of hilarity. The wiser ones say and do nothing. I like that.
I was particularly annoyed when asked to attend a barbeque or some such gathering and "...play a few songs..." or "....can I have a copy of your new CD?" Is it just me or was I quite within my rights to remind them that I hadn't seen them for several years and that I wasn't a f***in' puppet?
As far as the internet goes, it's too easy to click a button to 'like' something or type a few words to that effect. Equally, it is just as easy to badmouth an individual without their knowledge.....for a while. Eventually, search-engines and 'Google alerts' trip people up without them even knowing. Anything written on the net can pop up at the most unexpected times.
Even something someone might say can trip them up internet-wise. Case in point: Just last week I was in the supermarket. A young girl who knows my parents but not me literally corners me and says (loudly), "I love your new album, Bob!" I could only assume that she was referring to "Catharsis." As a joke I asked her how much she paid for it (there is only one price). The dumbfounded look on her face and the deafening silence saw me shuffle off smirking in search of eggs.
It's all very well to congratulate someone but I guess my horrific experience with alcohol abuse has made me somewhat cynical and reluctant with regard to the actual sincerity of compliments. They're a terribly difficult thing to quantify. Those who know me know full-well that what may sound a rather negative blog entry is far from it. It's intent is to let people know that I still treat compliments with suspicion and at best, even at 42 years of age, I still do get embarrassed by them. Luckily not too many folks get to see me blush these days.
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