Blog posts and interviews on the music industry
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Music Industry
Lori Lieberman is best known for “Killing Me Softly”, written during her Troubadour days in Los Angeles when she saw Don McLean in concert, Lori Lieberman has consistently recorded LP after CD, gleaning the respect of an industry and a devoted base of fans.
For nearly 30 years, Steve Jones has worked in the music industry in the US, Canada, and the Caribbean. He's had a front row seat to the rise (and sometimes fall) of some of rock & roll's biggest. Combining his two passions, music and business, Steve takes the lessons learned from the greatest acts in rock history and applies them directly to business.
"You are exactly where you are supposed to be...." This is what my friend Ryan Stanley told me once and it has given me a whole new perspective on life. I don't know about you but I have found myself blaming a situation, or even worse, other people, when things have not been as successful as I had hoped. You hear it all the time, "If I just had more money, or, if I just lost a little weight,... etc... things would be better."
Your Thoughts Create Your Futre crop
My dad always told me "the helping hand you are looking for is at the end of your own arm...", however sometimes it has seemed easier to reach for the arm of another. My whole life he's said, "Your thoughts create your future..."
Taking responsibility for your own actions, and accepting that the present is where you have lead yourself, is not always easy. At times it is even difficult to understand why those around you experience greater success when you have been given the same opportunities.
I have lived my life by the words of my father, that your thoughts create your future. However, when Ryan told me "you are exactly where you are supposed to be...," all of a sudden it became clear to what degree I am responsible for the present I am experiencing. I am supposed to be exactly where I am, and in the situation I am in, because of the decisions and choices I have made in the past. Consequently, I have the power to decide where I am supposed to be in my future.
Once I fully realized the power of the present, the fact that the present will be our past, and that at one point it was the future, I realized just how much control I have of my own life.
If you want to fulfill your dreams, stop dreaming! As long as you dream of them being in the future they will stay in the future. It's like the horse that has a carrot dangling in front of it, no matter how fast it gallops the carrot doesn't get any closer. The future is made up of present moments. If you spend your time daydreaming about what you are going to do, where you are going to be, what sort of lifestyle you plan to lead, etc... when you get to the future and it is not what you had imagined, it is because you never made "right now" count.
Whether you are fulfilling your dreams or not, "you are exactly where you are supposed to be!"
Thanks Ryan.
As part of my Above The Noise Music Industry Podcast series it wouldn't be complete if we didn't talk about music law. How many times have you wondered if somebody could "steal" your song, or what happens if you have the same name as another band, or what is copyright, or a trademark, etc... ? To answer all these questions and more I sat down with entertainment attorney from Austin Texas, Joseph Stallone.
Glen Kolotkin has recorded some of the world’s finest musicians, including Santana, Barbra Streisand, Pete Seeger and Jimi Hendrix. He has more than 20 gold and platinum albums to his credit. And he’s looking for new artists to work with. Talking with Glen was fascinating and I would have loved to have heard all his stories of some of my idols. He really has been part of this industry since the start!
This interview in particular is from a while back and was originally intended to be released as a written interview. However, after listening to it I realized that it should be available as a podcast. Chris is an engaging person to listen to and does a great job at conveying his answers. I really enjoyed interviewing Chris as he is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to the world of songplugging and how to work a catalog of songs. Many people wonder what it takes to get your song performed by a top selling, top charting artist. This interview discusses just how that is done!
I thought if we put this into context with the music industry, how many of us start out being told that we won't succeed? That you can't make a living in the business, that you need a real job? "It's just a hobby..."
Wouldn't that be like stacking a tower of paint containers, all the while hoping it doesn't fall? More importantly, if we take the approach of a two year old, and simply believe that we can do what we set our minds out to do, we can stack our tower as high as the sky, that we can create the career that we want?
The Guerilla Music Marketing Handbook has likely been read by most independent artists today. So when it comes to being heard "Above the Noise" talking to Bob Baker was a no brainer. His marketing savvy and music career insight show how to start making some "noise."
Q&A With Sarah Gavigan
Sarah Gavigan Music Supervisor
This is a Q&A with music supervisor Sarah Gavigan. It is the sequel to the previous podcast and there is a ton of great questions and fantastic answers! If you don't walk away from these podcasts with an understanding of how to license your music and how to improve your music's licensability you might want to listen again and take notes! Sarah also made available extra goodies, videos etc... for all of you here: http://bit.ly/GNxvxl
Prior to forming DigSin, Frank was the Senior Vice President of Music Strategy for CMT, an MTV Network. Under Frank’s leadership, music video ratings reached all-time highs thanks to an aggressive multi-platform promotional strategy. Frank was also Vice President of Music Programming and Label Relations for Yahoo! Music, responsible for all the company’s music programming. He was instrumental in the exponential growth of Yahoo’s audience bringing in approximately 25 million people a month. He was also senior music director at The Box Music Network, worked in marketing and A&R for Ignition Records, managed a live music venue, programmed broadcast radio stations and created two local music video shows.
As you know these interviews are about being heard above the noise. Who better to interview than a publicist for just that reason! Kevin Fetterplace is a publicist whose job it is to get his clients heard above the noise. With grammy award winning clients he is a go to guy for PR in the music industry.
I have recently started teaching a music business course I have developed called "Above The Noise." The idea is to determine what it takes to be heard above the noise! There are a lot of people out there doing the same things you are and ultimately the hardest part is being heard above everyone else. I have established what I am calling the 5 pillars to being "heard above the noise."
This is the first podcast in my series "Above The Noise." The purpose of these podcasts is to find out what it takes to permeate to the top. With the physical ability to listen to only 5% (and that's if we spend 24-7 without breaks) of new music released every week (thanks to Jay Frank for this stat) it is clear that the true task is to be "Heard Above The Noise." The interviews will be with the people behind the music and the people behind the business of this industry. We will be sharing conversations with musicians, composers, marketing and branding gurus, social media experts, industry leaders, thought provokers and music futurists!
Tom Lubin has engineered in some of the worlds greatest studios, taught sound, edited a magazine, had a rock and roll hotel, toured the US for Fostex, made instructional videos on recording that are required viewing at many universities... all the while still making records! In '87 he moved to Oz, and was increasingly involved in film, TV, games, and digital media.
Sarah Gavigan has placed literally thousands of indie and unsigned artists to TV ads. She has been in the commercial production industry since 1995. In 2000, Gavigan created Ten Music, the first company to represent independent record labels and artists to advertisers for music licensing. Recently, she built HANK (hankmusic.tv), the first online music supervisor. Gavigan has licensed music to well over 1000 commercials for such companies as Adidas, Nike, Nissan, Hummer, Target, Microsoft, Old Navy, and Payless Shoes.
Tommy Marolda is a respected songwriter, musician, record producer, engineer and music publisher who has appeared on more than 50 albums either as an artist, producer or composer. He has been nominated for a Gammy Award and has worked on gold and platimun albums with artists such as Cher, Bee Gees, The Killers, Rod Stewart, Kurupt, DR. Dre and Richie Sambora from Bon Jovi. Working in the music business for more than 30 years, Tommy and his two bands, THE TOMS and HORIZONTAL LADIES CLUB, continue to record and release alternative and independent music.
When it comes to success it seems that successful people know what they want and don't give up until they reach their goals. Even the interviews I post here have that in common: every one made a conscientious decision to make their career in the music industry and none of them have ever given up.
If you commit yourself wholeheartedly and believe that what you are doing is the right thing, chances are it is! If you know what you want, you have a goal and are committed to obtaining it then sooner or later it happens!
Along with being a Music Supervisor, Kyle Merkley also coordinates everyone’s needs including music submissions, licensing administration, and all the other fun stuff that comes with music supervision. As an avid musician and the top-ranked graduate of his year in the Music Business Management Program at Durham College, Kyle possesses a firm grasp of music licensing from both sides of the fence.
Mark Hornsby is an acclaimed music producer, audio engineer, musician, writer and marketing consultant – widely considered to be one of the most diverse figures in today’s music business.
Mark is the former co-owner of one of Florida’s largest recording and rehearsal studios – Ridenour Studios – whose clients included New Found Glory, Foreigner, Ricky Martin, Joey Kramer, Steve Winwood and Johnny Depp.
I recently spoke with Jack Conte of Pomplamoose about the couple's incredible success and how YouTube has helped generate a full-time income from music sales. Although the band has recently completed a mini tour of the US's east coast, up until this point the band's success was mostly online. The band created some well edited videos of popular covers and made YouTube's "suggestions" function work for them. They created artistic videos showing the duo recording covers and uploaded them to YouTube. YouTube's "suggestions" function helped draw fans of the original artist to Pomplamoose's versions. Soon enough the videos were getting massive views and the band was adding their original music to the channel too. The point of true success came when they were able to convert their online followers to paying fans. This happened when they released their album "Tribute to Famous People" on iTunes and had 30,000 downloads. Since then the band's success has only grown and now when the phone rings it's Toyota and Hyundai asking to synch their music in commercials. We all know how lucrative that can be...
