I’m visualizing myself right here, right now:
7 Ways Most Musicians Screw Up Big Time (and How to Fix Them)
I’m not a TV person, so I’m a bit behind on this, but a friend of mine just turned me onto a show called “Shark Tank” (watch on Hulu) and I think it’s worth a mention here.
The show is based on a BBC/CBC series called “Dragon’s Den” and features entrepreneurs with big ideas, but not enough money to make them happen. Each episode, a group of self-made millionaires from all corners of the business world take their own money and offer some to these entrepreneurs for a piece of their businesses…assuming the idea is any good and everything is in order.
As I was watching, I noticed some similarities between the entrepreneurs on the show and upcoming musicians.
Here are some “big ideas” that you may find helpful in your music business pursuit, since overlooking these will likely kill your music career before it gets off the ground:
1. Attachment is Deadly
This is important!! It happens in business, relationships, and all aspects of life and rarely does it end up well.
The best example of this is the “Monkey Trap” used in Africa. Like the aspects of life “attachment” affects, there are several versions of this trap.
How it works…
The trap consists of a container with a hole cut into it just wide enough for a monkey to stick its empty hand into. The container is baited with something attractive to the monkey, such as a nut.
The monkey reaches for bait. The monkey can’t take its hand out of the trap as long it’s holding the nut.
The monkey could leave at any time simply by opening its hand, but it wants the bait so badly, it will literally stay at the trap and be captured (or clubbed over the head) rather than let go.
It’s easy to think, “What a stupid monkey,” but we humans do similar things all the time and “Shark Tank” is a great example of this…over and over again.
The best “music business” example I can think of is being attached to songs. They’re like babies and we don’t want to change them of give them to somebody else, even though that might mean a better life.
I know a guy who had a great song that caught the attention of an upcoming artist. He had the option of getting it cut and released or holding on it and working it as an artist himself.
He chose that latter…which turned out to be a big mistake, since the “upcoming artist” was Garth Brooks.
In all fairness, nobody knew Garth would be as big as he is, but even an “upcoming artist” cutting and releasing his song was a sure thing; his record deal was not.
Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose… Still holding onto an idea (or anything) too tightly will kill it. 100% of zero is zero.
2. Know Your Numbers
What would the Super Bowl be like if nobody was keeping score?
What would gambling be like if no money was involved?
Keep score! If you don’t know how much your albums, live shows, and other expenses are costing your, or how much they’re making you, you’re shooting yourself in the foot. Without metrics, you could be losing a fortune and not even know it…or making a fortune and not know you need to do more of that to make even more money.
This works on many different levels… A club owner isn’t going to book you without knowing how many people you’re going to bring. A bank isn’t going to loan you money with your publishing catalog as collateral without knowing its value.
Keep track of your numbers. Know where you’re making money and where you’re losing it. Do more of what makes you money and less (or none) of what doesn’t.
3. Prove the Concept
Think you’ve got a great album? Think your band has what it takes to go national?
Numbers (see above) don’t lie and “measurement eliminates argument.” Prove your stuff is good by showing it on a small scale.
Why small?
For the sake of argument, let’s say you only have $1000 to spend. It’s much more effective for you to spend it all in once place, hitting the same people again and again, than spread it out over several places.
Think of it in terms of “flyers.” If you’ve only got 1000 flyers to hand out, you’ll make a much bigger impact on the guy who sees 10 of them than the guy who only sees one. One flyer, unfortunately for you, isn’t enough to do anything. Put some muscle behind it by focusing your marketing efforts on one area and hitting it hard.
Keep this in mind… If you can do it in one place, you can do it several places.
Humans like to think that we’re all different, but the reality is that we’ve got a lot more in common than not. If 1000 people make a certain decision, such as buying your music, it’s likely that 5000 people will make that same decision, if you do the same thing 5x bigger. Because of this, it’s easy to get a feel for how your music, your marketing, or anything else will do on a massive scale by testing it on a smaller one.
So go “small” to prove what you’ve got works. The people you’re wanting to get the attention of will get this since nobody in business is going to spend a ton of cash “testing” something on a national audience. They know a better option is to have less risk by working with a smaller audience, so they’ll understand.
4. Having Options Means More Money
In business, having more demand than supply is synonymous with getting the most money for what you’ve got. When there is only once product (you) and more than one person interested in buying it, the price always goes up.
Do what you can to get more than one person/company interested in what you’re doing and you’ll get a better deal. In the music business, this is knowing as a “bidding war.”
How do you make a bidding war happen? Prove the concept and know your numbers.
5. Play Big
The difference between the average musician and the ones who make a ton of cash is how they play the game. Successful musicians go balls out and take chances. They don’t wait to be discovered, they make discovery happen.
If you watch one of these shows, you’ll also see the investment made is based on the person behind the idea, not the idea itself. The difference between a “good idea” and a successful business is the person (or people) behind it.
Most musicians are like hitch hikers. They go to the highway with some idea of where they should be going, but not really, they just know where they are right now isn’t working for them. So they wait around for somebody and do things according on somebody else’s schedule and plan.
Successful musicians take risks and control their own situations. They’re the ones driving the car. It it crashes, they take responsibility, but the car goes exactly where they want, not just in the general direction. And like driving a car, they’re constantly evaluating where they are and recalibrating, based on where they want to go.
Ask yourself this question:
Are you just trying to get a little father away from where you are now or are you going somewhere specific?
6. Bet Everything
You don’t get big results by having a “Plan B.” Having something to fall back on gives you an excuse not to work as hard.
If you’re really certain of your music business success, why have a backup plan?
Uncertainty is what causes failure. Is this you? If so, all is not lost… The solution is to work so that you make your success inevitable.
What are the things you have to have in place to make your music business goals happen?
7. Get Realistic
If you’re not honest with yourself and able to get a realistic opinion of where you are now, you’ll never be able to improve.
As I mentioned earlier, “Measurement eliminates argument.”
Where do you start? If I were talking about weight loss, it would be for you to get on a scale.
What is the “scale” for the music business? Number of gigs you’re playing? Amount of people on your mailing list? Number of albums sold? Probably all of the above…and then some.
If you really want to do this, you need to know this information and work to improve it.
The harsh reality…
If you don’t have numbers, aren’t really committed to this, or have no idea if your “big idea” works, give up the thought of ever really doing this on a big level. There are too many people who have these things in order and that is who investors, labels, publishing companies, and fans always go with.
Why settle for anything less? It’s doubtful you do coming at it as a music fan.
Regardless of the economy, the state of the record business, or anything else, there is ALWAYS room for great artists and people will ALWAYS pay for it.
People want art. More importantly, they want a break from their day-to-day lives and they’re looking for somebody to provide it. This can be you, but you’ve got to do the work to make it happen.
Thank you for this wisdom. I was guilty of some of this, but not anymore. One love.
It’s the music business, not the music music.
Creating a better tomorrow, starting right now.
Mindbender
It’s about going from
to
I’m on my way now. Let’s do it.
