Where is Your Music Going?

I meet a lot of starving artists and aspiring musicians who seem to have a one track mind about the music business. Many people want to spend their time in the studio recording music so that they can perform to either release a cd or get found/signed by a major label. While this is a very realistic dream in today’s world of instant signees, this won’t make you much money, or even give you that much longevity. There are plenty of artists who get signed by record labels whose projects never see the light of day. The reality is getting a contract is not all that difficult now and days. What is hard is getting the label behind your project enough to promote and release it to the nation and the world.

Even if you do get released, what is your focus? An album on a major label? Placement on a Billboard chart? A Grammy nomination/award? A grand international artist? A lifetime achievement award in your genre? The question you really must ask yourself, is what makes you different or better the top artists in other genres as well as your own?

Is your music worthy to top the charts with Katy Perry, Beyonce, Lady Gaga, B.O.B., or even Jay-Z?

The focus of this post is not to criticize you or your music, but to strengthen your focus on your music and where it is going. It is good to have aspirations to sell out shows and perform worldwide. But how does your music do when you are not in the room?

One of the biggest apps in the Android and iPhone App Store is Shazam, which tells the user what song is playing when they can’t identify the song or artist. The key to this app and this situation is song placement. Your music should go further than just sitting on a cd or digital MP3. It should be broadcast all over.

Think about your favorite tv show. Who sings the song for the intro? Why isn’t your song on the intro of a show? When Remy Zero decided to record “Save Me”, did they know that CW show “Smallville” would allow it to be broadcast into viewers’ homes for over 9 years straight?

Speaking of hip hop artist B.O.B., he has had numerous Grammy nominations from his Atlantic Record debut “B.o.B Presents: the Adventures of Bobby Ray”, and has recently added a song placement credit to the new game "Crysis 2". He has had numerous placements in commercials and tv shows for his singles “Magic”, “Airplanes”, and “Nothing on You”.

When you think about where to go with your music, go beyond getting your music on radio. Your music should be in video games (think about the Madden franchise), tv shows, live shows (like the music pro wrestlers come out to), film, commercials, and other places. One of your singles can be the theme for a PPV, movie, tv show, product, or a big event. Who knows? It may be another avenue to you getting your contract and international exposure…only now you have leverage.

Stay Tuned.

Research Discernment

As technology evolves and expands so do the many ways we have to research and find information on the internet. There are so many resources for people to find information on anything they need, that there is almost no excuse to not to succeed if one really wanted to. With that said, we also need to have discernment over what is credible and what is valuable to us.

There are many people toting advice and giving expertise on how to make it in the music business. But who are they? What is their credibility? Who co-signs for them?

These are things to think about when looking for research. Two people that have been tearing up the internet with advice are Ty Cohen and David Hooper. This is no slight to either fellow or their prospective businesses, but more of a glance at how to find research discernment.

Ty Cohen and his Platinum Millennium Publishing provides various advice on how to start your own record label, using entertainment contracts, and other “courses” he is selling on “making it” in the music industry. I have personally been on the buying end of a few of his products, and in my own review, while relevant, most of the information offered is information you can get for free. When you search for “Ty Cohen” at a search engine, the first few pages of results are his own websites or sites he has input on. This can be a red flag in determining research validity. There are no valuable resources that vouch for him. When you search deeper you find reports and forums that elude to Cohen being a scam artist with his products. This is not exactly what you what in dealing with research.

There are tons of resources and pages of advice that don’t require a PayPal account. And while David Hooper does have products he is selling, if you follow his blog or his Twitter page, there is plenty of advice he is giving out for FREE. Hooper and his Kathode Ray Music is all about promoting your band/brand and advertising in the music business. In comparison to Cohen, Hooper has little to no scam reports. While free advice isn’t always the best advice, it is something to consider when looking for information on the internet.

You can check out Ty Cohen at http://www.tycohen.com/ or @MusicBizCenter; and David Hooper at http://www.musicmarketing.com/ or @davidhooper to make your own judgments. Be mindful of who you take advice from, and what you believe in research. Take everything you read with a grain of salt.

Until next time, Stay Tuned.