What are the odds of succeeding WITH a record deal?

July 19, 2011

Robin Davey in The Road to Success, Understanding Record Labels, record deal, recording contract, success 

 

If your aim as an artist is to purely chase a record deal as a means to succeeding in this business, I will tell you right now that you are doomed for failure. You can throw all the trumped up statistics around that you want, but fundamentally your chances of actually landing a record deal are extremely slim. Furthermore, your chances of actually making money directly from that deal are pretty much zero.
In the good old days when the CD was king and big advances were de rigueur, the percentage of bands that succeeded in the system was around 5%. That was before the CD crashed. Now if you do not fit the predisposed top 40 vision of the major label machine, there is no space left for you. There may still be a few independent labels who still have a working business model to accomodate less mainstream acts, but they survive by cutting down their roster, and investing in those who have already amassed an ever growing following. Quite simply if you can’t already pull the people, you are not ready for a label.

THE BIRTH OF PAY-TO-PLAY

When a previously burgeoning scene dies, it either disappears, or it finds a way to get subsidized, not due to popularity, but due to status.  This is why the pay-to-play system swallows up the shell of a once happening music scene. LA is a prime example of this, with venues like The Whiskey using its once legendary name to con bands into paying up to $500 for the privilege of playing there.
These venues survive, not because they offer a legitimate service, but because there are enough bands that blindly believe they are the ones destined for success. As a result they will happily make the monetary sacrifices in order to be “discovered”.
The music industry has long since been an extension of this pay-to-play mentality. You think that once you get a record deal your talent shines through and all the magazines, radio stations and established bands looking for opening acts are itching to include you in their insular worlds? Get real. These opportunities are all paid for. It is just another pay-to-play milieu that a record deal gains you access to.

EVERYONE IS AT IT

Just look at Rolling Stone magazine these days. How many bad reviews do they write in an issue? You would think that journalists are chomping at the bit to express their distaste for the latest debacle by a pop princess, but no, all the reviews are glowing. Surely this means every bit of space is bought in one-way or another.
You want to be a part of that world? You go ahead, but don’t think you will actually have a musical personality left by the end of it. Certainly don’t believe that it will affect your bank balance positively.
The major record companies think they are still king, but they are the corporate equivalent of a band who think they have stature because they bought themselves a 8pm slot at the Whiskey. Once you play the Whiskey you realize why they have to charge bands to play there – because no one else shows up.
Similarly no one is buying Magazines any more, so what happens? I would say it is pretty fair to assume they instigate a pay-to-play policy. Just like Johnny No Name believes that to have an appearance at the Whiskey on their bio holds some weight, the majors seemingly believe that to have a review in Rolling Stone also still means something.  But if no one is reading the magazine, the truth is, it doesn’t mean shit.
This is the major labels conundrum, they are locked into an old system, putting up the front of a reigning potentate, but behind the scenes they are a crumbling monarchy quickly losing favor with their subjects, reflecting a distinct lack of understanding for what the people want.

IS IT WORTH THE COST

They pay for features, pay for songs, pay for radio, pay for style, pay for TV, they’ll probably even pay Bob Lefsetz for a mention if he’ll let them. But if no one is buying the products, how can they sustain this? And when everyone is jostling for the record company to use their money to bribe someone on their behalf, the reality is why should they use their ever-diminishing cash pile on you. Unless you are prepared to do whatever they want you to do in order to achieve their goals. But of course you will be signed because of your unrivaled talent. Right? Yeah right.
Maybe the future of the major labels will become a step-up from the Pay-to-Play model adopted by music clubs. Rich Mommy and Daddy putting up the cash to have the major label machine pimp their child’s product. This already happens with smaller labels that offer a kind of middleman role - if you have the cash  they provide everything from radio promotion to distribution. You are basically buying yourself a record deal.

THE FAME GAME

Those artists who have broken during these last dark few years, achieved their success because they did what it takes to succeed, and with the major labels that currently means metaphorically sucking dick whenever the situation deems it necessary.
It may be a route to fame, for a very select few, but is it really a route to musical satisfaction, for both the artists and the fans? And what is a business without satisfied clients and customers?
—
Robin Davey is a Musician, Film Director and Producer born in the UK and now residing in Los Angeles. He was inducted into the British Blues Hall Of Fame at the age of 23 with his band The Hoax. His band The Bastard Fairies achieved over 1 Million downloads when they were the first band to release an album for free via the internet in 2006. As a director he won the best Music Video award at the American Indian Motion Picture Awards. His feature documentary The Canary Effect - an exploration into the hidden Genocide of Native Americans, won The Stanley Kubrick Award For Bold and Innovative Film Making at Michael Moores Traverse city Film Festival in 2006. He is also head of Film and Music Development at GROWvision - A full service media, management and production company

THE MAGIC Bullet

The music business is about relationships. And now it’s the artist’s turn to have one. Success in the music business once hinged on only a handful of relationships: a publicist and a magazine, a salesman and a bookstore, a radio promoter and a radio station, a booking guy and a promoter, an artist and a manager, a writer and a publisher. If all these relationships were working, if all parties’ interests were respected and pursued, if no personalities collided to the point of impeding progress, then the project or artist they were tied to would succeed (from a business standpoint.) Relationship is still king. Starting a blog, hopping on Twitter, launching a Facebook fan page - these are not cure-alls because they aren’t a relationship. These technologies can foster relationships. But not without a lot of personal investment and intentionality from an artist. This is a big shift in thinking for artists, especially at the top levels of this industry. Artists aren’t accustomed to being so accessible, accountable and out of control. Artists are accustomed to being in front of audiences that care about what they do, audiences they know are fans and they keep in the seats for a couple hours by charging a ticket price. But on-line, where spending time with an artist is free, anybody can wander into the crowd, boo, change the subject, or walk out. And they will. Also, artists are used to hiring people to handle their relationships for them. That’s at least 90% of what a manager does. Labels congratulate and critique through a manager, for instance, who adds his own diplomatic spin to every word so the artist’s feelings aren’t hurt and the relationship is preserved. Not so on-line. Someone can be hired to hit the “publish” button on a blog post that gets e-mailed over, invite people to a Facebook event and even write to people for an artist and signed their name (it happens), but no one can convincingly be the artist every day in post after post or interact with commenters regularly. Artists can’t hire anyone to be them 24/7 and the internet demands those kind of hours. Lastly, labels are used to creating and maintaining the image of an artist: focusing and filtering, controlling who can and can’t have access, and how much, when and where. There’s one official bio and one fact sheet carefully crafted in a record company office and then parroted by every media outlet. That’s not possible on-line. And that’s distressing, fatal even, if an artist has nothing to say or, worse, has lots to say about things that don’t matter to anyone but them. Hair products, high priced jeans and guitar pedals aren’t all that interesting to folks with real jobs. The public is now discovering through an artist’s blog what publicists have known for quite some time and expertly covered up: This guy’s just a singer. And that’s no basis for a relationship. If the music industry dies it won’t be because everything changed. It will be because artists didn’t. Artists today have to - no, we get to - do what the rest of the industry and human race has been doing for eons: We get to be real human beings spending time with other real human beings. There’s no shortcut for that. Labels was afraid to tell us artists this before: It was never about our music. And it’s not about new technology now. It’s always been about people/true blue fans.

FUTURE OF MUSIC (Part 1)

RANDOM THOUGHTS ON:

* Illegal Downloading
* Illegal File Sharing
* Music World 1.0 (MW1)
* Music World 2.0 (MW2)
* Fans
* Marketing
* Recommendations


From artist, every where, we hear: People are stealing my music; people are sharing my music, they are not paying me for it. This is one of the few things I agree with, because it is totally true.

Yes, most artist have worked hard, investing a lot of time, their money, in recording and delivering their music to the market place. My question: Did you not know about illegal downloading & illegal file sharing, before you invested a lot of time and money in your music project? Why do some artist believe their music will be treated differently from all the other artist? And WHY on this earth, would any artist believe their music will not be downloaded & share, illegal?

Dr. Wayne Dyer, In his latest book, Excuses Begone challenges us to turn all negatives in our lives into positives with positive affirmations. Quoting from his book:

1. Never underestimate your power to change yourself; never overestimate your power to change others.

2. When you correct your mind, everything else falls into place.

3. We do not attract into our lives that which we want; we attract into our lives what we are.

Music World 1.0 continues to believe authoritarian ways will stop the majority population from illegal downloading and file sharing. Nothing is farther from the truth, because consumers know the RIAA could never sue the masses that do this. Many artist, lawyers, record labels, etc, have not fully recognized Music World 1.0 is dying or has died. It's gone/going to that music hall-of-fame, which is where it should be & should have been years ago. As the renowned Gerd Leonhard states and I summarize: Music World 2.0 is arriving/has arrived in many corners of the world. As sun rises each day, so is Music World 2.0 arriving, globally. Today is just the tipping of this new MW2 iceberg.

Artist have choices to make about how they are going to handle these kind of illegalities, in MW2. Sure, you can be mad, upset, etc., OR , you can choose to accept MW2, be positive, and embrace it. Instead of trusting MW1, how about, doing some MW2 like the following:

1. Write blogs, thanking everyone for stealing your music! After all you are getting free distribution and you are getting noticed.
2. Send tweets thanking them
3. Write everyone on you mailing list thanking them
4. Or, how about printing tees WITH THIS MESSAGE ON THEM; ALL MY FANS STEAL MY MUSIC....WON'T YOU BE MY FAN???? SHARE IT WITH EVERYONE. If you want a tee, like the one I am wearing, you can buy it for half price at: WWW OR IF YOU COME TO MY GIGS, EVERY TEE YOU PURCHASE, NOT ONLY DO YOU GET ONE FREE, BUT, YOU GET A FREE AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF MY CD.
5. Or, make up boxes with your CD in them and drop them off at stores and radio stations to give away for free.
6. Hold a contest in each city/town you want to tour. See how many people will download your music and how many people they can recruit to download your music as well as come to your shows.
7. Give a great prize to the winners that recruit the most fans.
8. Then ask each winner if they would like to become your street team leader/organizer in each city. If they, accept, give them a pass allowing them to come to any of your concerts
9. Allow them to hang with you and your band in the so called green room.
10. Or ask them if they would take pics or run your merchandise table. Note artist/bands: In case you don't know it, fans love to hang out with you....it makes them feel very special. And during your shows, never fail to recognize these folks for all they do to help you out.
11. Sat up an area on your website, where you post their pics and names. Rank them in order of most fans recruited, monthly. Give monthly prize(s) to the TOP 3.

These are but 11 suggestions on how to continually build your fan base and following, but, enough, that will hopefully help all artist to have a better understanding how positive illegally downloading your music can be to your career. If you need help with this, hire someone that knows what to do, when to do it, and how to build your fan base and increase your following.

What is most important, especially for Independent Artist in MW2? Fans, fans, fans and building a loyal following.
All artist need to accept the music world for what it is or get out of the business. Work with people that understand MW2. People that come up with creative ways to grow your fan base, and build a loyal following.

Turn these thief's into fans (which is what I would do), because their thievery will be recouped many times over in the coming years. Resist or fight them and the news about how you, the artist, treat potential customers/fans/users will circle the globe in a few nano seconds. How can this happen? Through technology and social media. Loose your fans; loose your career.

Successfully turning illegal users into fans, or as we like to say: True Blue Fan, will be the best ROI ever made. Why? Each TBF will turn your petty loss into a minimum gain of $100 annually per fan. Laugh, but, just 5K TBF means 500K/yr. in gross sales. Can any independent artist afford to loose 500K/yr. in gross sales? A large percentage of independent artist would love to have this amount of annual sales any year. So, how about, today, getting started.

Successful music careers are about being different, because, being different gets you noticed. When you are noticed your Brand grows as does your fan base as well as your following.

NOTE TO ARTISTS: You must do these sort of things each and every waking moment of every day.

GOALS:

Goal number 1: steadily grow your fan base

Goal number 2: gig, gig, gig, tour, tour, tour.

Goal number 3: Practice, Practice, Practice. And I don't mean just learning all the songs and making them tight with your band. Yes that is very important, but, it is not nearly as important as learning the art of breaking down each song and creating memorable moments, that connect with fans. Regardless of how great you sing, if you don't learn how to connect through creating memorable moments, your stage road will never arrive and please believe: All Roads Do Lead To The Stage!!

Goal number 4: Try to purchase a $225 HD cameras at WalMart. Video your most high energy song and one of your best ballads. Video the crowd; your recruiters. Why, because when folks are on any camera, especially a video camera, they will tell everyone they know, which, equals more fans and more brand building. And be sure to post your vids on YouTube and all your social media sites. Posting different vids on different sites will drive more traffic to those sites.

Goal Number 5: Make each gig an event; an experience. Do this with your show, your music andyour FANS. And, don't forget, people love FREE.

These are but a few ways to build your brand; increase you fan base; increase your following; which will build your core music business. Core is crucial to success, financial freedom in your happiness in music. Become an accomplished fun fill artist that illuminates warmth onto all eyes.

And, NO I AM NOT DONE WITH THIS POST...READ ON.

I would encourage all artist to rid their minds of that "poor me" attitude. It's of no use to you or your career. Quit your whining; instead seek positive solutions.

Illegal Whatevers...Start today to change your way of thinking about this. Do it now; Do it later; or find another career.

Forget lawsuits because an amusing part is, winners will never collect money; your lawyers will....so, where does that leave you? Gerd Leonhard has it right. Everyone needs to get a grasp on reality. Become informed about what is coming in MW2. Listen to those outside the mainstream, i.e, Trent Reznor of NIN.

I am not advocating folks not get paid for "WHATEVER" they do, produce, or create. I am advocating replacement of our MW1 for MW2. Actually it has or is being replaced; most do know it or they don't want to accept it. Just a few short years ago, artist were complaining about how small their piece of the label/publishing pie was and how labels were screwing them out of their hard earned money??? Dixie Chick??? As well as several others.

I have discovered hundreds of indie artist that I enjoy more than main stream label artist. There are so many great global artist. Most of these artist will send me/you their MP3 for free. Furthermore, they encourage me to give away as many copies as I can for free. I continually look for those unknowns in the far corners of the world. Some have done a lot; most have done little because they are not committed or they don't have the funds to.

There are many things that need addressing in music. My Top 8 are:

1. Monetizing Music to fairly compensate everyone.

2. Establishing Trust with fans/users/consumers (The days of the "Good Ole Boys" are dead and gone). Hey, good name for a new song. The PLUG needs to be pulled on MW1, soon, with a transition plan into MW2 for the good of everyone involved in music.

3. Finding out what fans/users needs/wants are.

4. Allow everyone to download all the music they want.

5. Set up filters so everyone can customize their music their way.

6. Everyone drop their suing BS. It won't work because 80-90% of the connected global population is, today, illegally downloading; sharing illegally. (This applies to global populations with internet access).

7. Have a reasonable and fair system that for 3 years allows everyone to pay a reasonable annual license fee to have unlimited access to all the music they want to download and share. After 3 years if this system is not working, then implement a mandatory collection system requiring everyone to pay an annual license fee on their income tax or through a honest government or commercial agency . These collections would be distributed by someone like the HFA or a department within governments around the world. If we can collect taxes, I see no reason why we cannot collect license fees.

8. Form an oversight board that meets regularly to address problems, flaws, etc. The board would be 100% transparent to everyone.

First system will be totally voluntary lasting for 3 years allows everyone to pay a reasonable annual license fee to have unlimited access to all the
music they want. Payments would be sent to an oversight committee for recording and distribution.

After 3 years if this system is not working, then, implement a mandatory collection system requiring everyone to pay an annual license fee when filing their income tax or through each country's tax collecting system. These collections would be distributed oversight agency.

USA population is currently 306,000,000, which is about 3% of the global population which is 6,700,000,000.

2008 global music sales were just over 18 billion dollars

If each person in the USA has a license, those licenses sales would amount to around 16 trillion dollars in annually. A reasonable fee of $1 per week (recommended by Gerd Lehonhard) would generate gross sales, just in the USA, many times greater than what is now being collected globally. I don't really see that many folks opposing or protesting a $52 / year annual license fee per person. The family dollar amount would be $52 x the number of dependents in each household. 4 dependents equals $2o8 for a household of 4. Can anyone not handle this? Each license would have an identifier number that would follow each person for a lifetime. There were be an automated systems of checks and balances to prevent counterfeiting.

AM I MISSING SOMETHING HERE? Let me know if I am. This system would eliminate so much of the non productive BS and most importantly get everyone paid, more money for their creativity and their music.

Commercial business would pay $1,000 / year for their license which would cover all genres of music. They now pay licenses fees, in USA, based on annual sales.

Now we have annual license fee amounting to trillions to distribute amongst everyone involved based on their percentage of the USA or Global Market, which can be determined by the number of downloads of each song for all artist. Properly implemented this system would be a Win Win for all.

If an independent artist sells 5oK of CD's, at shows, they keep all that money or they divide it according to any legal contract.

I would recommend copyrights stay with the original writers/publishers, but, in terms of monetary value, they have none in MW2. So, does it really make sense to have copyrights?

All songs would have a unique identifier that would show if it is an original or a cover. Any time a song is downloaded the identifier would be pick up and reported to the oversight agency. A running total of every identifier would be maintained, so each party could be sent reimbursement checks monthly or quarterly.

Yes, this system would take a lot of planning as well as test runs to work out any bugs. I know we currently have both software & hardware, in systems, doing much more complicated tracking and data generation than MW2 would require.



GLOBAL POPULARTION

306,000,000 USA

6,700,000,000 World

MUSIC SALES GLOBALLY

$18.42 Billion

Tags: arts, branding, concert, file sharing, gerd leonhard, illegal downloads, music, music industry, wayne dyer