If you are a beginner on the music business or an indie musician just getting started on the business of music; this post provides some insights on the reality of the business. Every indie musician has its dream of becoming big in the music business world. But first, make sure you understand the reality out there so that after years of quest for success it won’t end with a disappointment.
Myth 1: You need help from strong connections to get signed to a major label or get deals
Fact: If you are a newcomer, signing as an artist in the major label or getting lucrative deals is like playing a lottery. Even you have strong connections; this is not a guarantee that you can be sign to a label. Lots of services are promising indie musicians to get signed to a label or help them to get a deal. But in my experience, they are only squeezing money out of the indie artist. And VERY high percentage of the indie artist didn’t get their return.
This won’t stop you from pursuing a career in music business but currently with a lot of financial issues surrounding the music industry, this goal is becoming trickier and harder to achieve. It is not advisable to make this as your long term goal. What it seems to be possible is that anyone can buy or like your music with or without the help of the major label or help with connections that you need to pay for.
For example, make a goal first to have at least one fan buying or downloading your music (real money in exchange of your music); then start to do more work from there (more marketing, more songs, more fans, etc.). Just like any goal driven project, you need to make a single step forward each day in realizing this goal.
By the way, major labels only invest in proven talent that is already making a lot of money on their own. It is because signing this artist is a low risk investment compared to unknown/unproven artist. You can do this without establishing strong connections; your success can easily attract anyone in the field who is planning to join the bandwagon.
Myth 2: Indie artist can get airplay success in commercial FM stations with payola
Fact: Think of this the other way. If radio stations play list are dictated by payola, the bad music would be aired because they are paid. Thus the listeners would not be happy with this and the station rating would go down. It is why FM radio stations should be very careful with this and why payola is bad. They earn money from advertising. The quality of their playlist would drive more listeners which in turn would increase their advertising revenue.
If you pay them to play your music, you are bribing them. Supposing they accept the bribe, no matter how bad your music; it will be played. But it cannot catch that much public attention since its takes more than payola to make the song successful in airplay. It needs to be a hit song, a well-crafted and well-recorded music.
Radio station FM
Photo Credits: Tracy Grauman
The same thing with Internet radio Jango. Songwriters don’t receive royalties from this. Here is one of the email I received from Jared Hallock:
August 30, 2011 updates from Jared Hallock • University of Idaho:
“YOU DO NOT MAKE MONEY ON JANGO. See the following response from JANGO…
“Thank you for your inquiry about performance royalties payable to Jango Airplay artists. Just like MySpace, FaceBook & YouTube, Jango Airplay is a promotional platform for emerging artists so royalties for plays on Jango.com are waived.
We looked into this originally and discovered that difficulties such as data management problems, incredibly low royalty rates ($1 per 10,000 internet plays), and the small percentage of Airplay Artists that are actually registered meant that we could better serve our artists developing Jango Airplay to become the best online promotional tool available.
These sites mentioned as well as Pandora cannot provide you the service that you are actually paying for here at Jango Airplay. Here we are allowing you to pay for that direct promotion to the listener and utilize our promotional platform by giving you more than just a play. Specific play reports, real time listener feeds, fan communication, and complete control over your dashboard and promotional campaign are also included in your airplay package.
Presently we reward almost half of our artists each week with bonus play credits based on their Jango PopScore, we highlight the Top 10 each week in our listener newsletter that goes out to over 3 million subscribers and we have a ‘Top Emerging’ module on our listeners ‘User Home’ page. We are also always working on future initiatives to create more exposure for our artists on Jango.com and with our online partners.”
Myth3: You only need original and hit songs to succeed
Fact: It takes more than songs to succeed in music business. You also need to be a solid live performer, strong fan base, charisma. Even if you are a songwriter, you should have that “gut” factor to deliver your songs to the right people.
Myth4: You can make decent money by playing live venues only
Fact: No it is not. It is extremely difficult to rely on live concert and gig to make stable money in music business. It is because you will be competing with a lot of bands in the business which is far more experienced than you. Also bars and live venues won’t accept an artist without solid credentials, much more if you are asking money for your gig.
Consider yourself to be very lucky to have a solid gig every week of the month straight for 3 years in a single bar or venue.
Myth5: I need to spend more to earn more in music business
Fact: No. If you spend more to earn more, this is not a wise option because the fact is that music business takes more than money to get noticed. All you need is to be creative and create some extreme buzz. Unlike other businesses where you should need money to get started, music business is unique. As long as there are people following you, praising you for your talents or even buying your raw unpolished demo, you don’t need to spend a fortune or spend more to earn more. For example; a lot of artist gets discovered in Youtube where anyone can upload original videos for free. Or do read the biography of your favorite artist, and then you would realize that they are not spending a fortune just to be discovered.
Content last updated on October 8, 2012