Why did the Music Industry become the bad guy ?

I've just returned from MIDEM, Cannes (the annual Music Industry convention). As usual there were various debates going on around the future of music. Many people feel that it is inevitable that recorded music will become "free" to the consumer, with musicians and copyright owners being paid in other ways (such as sponsorship, touring, etc.)

So, at what point did everyone decide that it was perfectly OK to steal music ?

Seemingly intelligent people seem to be spending an awful lot of time trying to make sure that music becomes free. If they think that certain things should be free, don't you think they'd have more important things to campaign for, such as maybe free food or clothing for everyone in the world !??! As important as music is to a lot of people, not having it is not going to kill you.

Have you looked at the price of album-length CD's these days ? They virtually are free. For very little, you can own, for life, something that cost several hundred thousand dollars to create, and which will almost certainly have been a labour of love for those involved. Alternatively, for those same few bucks you could buy a couple of beers or go and see a film once, by yourself, at your local theatre.

So, at what point did everyone decide that it was perfectly OK to steal music ? I don't get it.

Protecting Your Work

I regularly get emails from people who ask me how to copyright their work. Many budding artists & writers seem to think that a copyright shark lurks on every corner. Whilst there are undoubtedly people out there who will try to steal your copyright, it is far, far less common than you think. Indeed it has never happened to me, or even been attempted, and almost without exception the few cases I have heard of invariably involve people who ... how can I put this ? ..... aren't hugely credible and have an overactive imagination.

If you're worried about losing your work though, don't just stop at protecting your copyright.

This week I've had one computer nightmare after another and it made me realise you can never be too cautious when it comes to protecting your computer data, and as most people use computers to write music, this includes you. Losing a song because of computer malfunction is far more likely than copyright theft and if you can't recreate what you did, it will be irrelevant whether you copyrighted it or not.

You should always take a backup of your music files (sequencer, samples, lyrics, etc.) and keep them either on another hard drive or on a CD / DVD.
Also, try to export them into generic formats in case you stop using the sequencer/sampler you're using now, at some time in the future
Always regularly check your computer for viruses.

To compromise - or not to compromise ?

There was an interesting article in Billboard this week about the rise - and apparent fall - of the Dixie Chicks. Since their comments in 2003 about the US administration and its decision to go to war, the band have found it very difficult to find support in the Country radio market that brought them fame and fortune. But it seems that for at least one of the "chicks", Country was never a happy home. Lead singer Natalie Maines was recently reported as saying "For me to be in country music to begin with was not who I was ... I would be cheating myself... So I'm pretty much done ... I couldn't want to be farther away from that".

If the Dixie Chicks are trying to move in a different musical direction, then I wish them well. They'll certainly need it as popular music history is littered with artists who thought they could change direction on a whim. But it all raises an interesting point: just how far should you compromise in order to be successful ??

What is more important to you: to be successful or to create the kind of music you want ??

I can speak with some experience on this. Now, at the grand ole age of 34, I can trace the first fifteen years of my career like this: late teens into early 20's I wrote whatever I wanted with no regard for what the industry wanted or how I was ever going to earn a living (including one year when I wrote nothing but classical music !!). By around 23, I started to realise that one day I would need to earn a living from music, so began to conciously change what I was writing. Sure enough some success followed. By around 26-27, I was deliberately making music that sounded commercial with dance influences (something that I had continually been told I should be doing), which led to my late 20's and the formulaic, factory-like creation of songs that would be perfect for Britney, Mariah, etc.

The end result of all this is that I took the next 3-4 years of writing music because I had completely lost interest in writing. Thankfully that has returned now, but only because I've gone back to square one and am writing exactly what I want to write. You'll hear it some day.

So, you decide. Which is more important to you: to be successful or to create the kind of music you want ?? There is no right or wrong answer, only what will make you happy.

Is it just me or is the worst over ?

I tend to be a glass-is-half-empty person - anyone whose had their song critiqued by me will know that already :) It's rare that I look optimistically at something, but it seems to me that the Music Industry is showing signs of recovery and starting to bloom again (much like the plants in my garden).

Both Universal & EMI have announced increased profits. Of course, I should point out that firing staff and dropping large parts of your artist roster is bound to reduce costs and therefore increase profits, but it is certainly true that legal music downloads are increasing rapidly. For example, 5% of EMI's revenue by year-end is expected to come from downloading - a vast improvement in a short time. So what does this mean for the unsigned musician and small independent label ?

To a degree, the playing field has been levelled. Previously you had to get your vinyl or CD's into the stores of every city otherwise you would never sell them. Now, all you have to do is get on iTunes, Napster, etc., perhaps with some guerilla marketing through myspace or whatever other flavour of the month there may be. You'd still be missing out on the 95% of potential sales (to use EMI as an example) that physical sales represent. So there's a long way to go yet.

Still, the unsigned musician or indie label doesn't have anything like the expenses of a major music company so it is perfectly possibly to earn a reasonable income without the help of a major music company. And that is something that hasn't been possible for a long time.

Broadening your musical horizons

One of the worst things a musician or songwriter can do, is close their minds to new things. It's very easy to just listen to the same artists or albums again and again - soon, you will start to sound too much like the artists you love. This is commercial suicide if you're trying to get some kind of deal - why should a company spend a lot of money on an unknown artist who sounds exactly like somebody else ?? It is true that the music industry is quite conservative and like to "pigeonhole" people but don't think that means they want carbon-copy clones of existing artists. They want a unique spin on tried-and-tested styles.

So, the best way to avoid this is to make sure you listen to lots of different genres of music and different artists.

If you let it, the Internet can completely revolutionise your listening habits. To find new artists that you may like, make use of Amazon's "Customers who bought this item also bought ..." feature. One of my favourite artists is Nerina Pallot. I bought her new album on Amazon UK and at the same time it suggested "Falling Water" by Swedish artist Lisa Miskovsky which I also bought. Although she is a major label, Swedish Grammy winner, I'd never heard of her, but her album is an enjoyable mix of country & Pop/Rock with a handful of standout songs.

Another Internet site I've been making use of is http://www.pandora.com. This is an incredible "personal radio station" where you tell it an artist or song that you like and it then plays similar material. It has thousands upon thousands of CD's on its servers (including unsigned artists) so is a great way for new artists to be discovered AND for us to hear fresh, exciting music.

Finally, don't forget about those CD's you bought years ago and got out of the habit of listening to. I have about 400 CD's ... small by many people's standards but certainly big enough for some CD's to not get listened to in a long time. So what I've done is convert them all to MP3 and then play the entire collection on shuffle (ie random). Of course there are a few CD's where I scratch my head and wonder why I bought them but it's a great way of going back in time to when you thought it would be a great idea to write your own music :)

You HAVE to make time for your Music

Those of you who know me or have read my personal blog (link above) will know that, aside from being the founder of The Music Broker Network and an author on the music business, I'm primarily a professional musician/songwriter. Or at least I try to be.

It's incredible how time goes so quickly. How do we make time to create music ?? Unlike many of you reading this, I don't have to work specific hours in a specific location (ie "office hours" in an office). My day is my own. You'd think this would make it easier for me to set aside time to write music every day. You'd be wrong !! How much time do you spend doing things which are not a good use of your time ? Of course, most of us don't lead lives of luxury: we have to do mundane things like shopping, commuting, etc. But if you looked back over the past week/month or even the past 24 hours I'm sure - like me - you'd easily be able to spot time that you could have used more effectively. Such as working on your music. I've been trying to finish the arrangement & mix of a track I started 3 months ago and something always gets in the way. I haven't even touched it for the whole of this week.

In my opinion, creativity tends to slow down as you get older. I'm not saying youth is best, but for whatever reason even many of the great musical geniuses of our time have got not-so-great as they've got older. So, never, ever miss a chance to work on your music. If it's a choice between going out socialising with your friends again or staying in and working on a track you owe it to yourself to do the latter. It is highly unlikely that in 30 years time you'll wish you'd spent more time socialising with your friends.

DIY'ers guide to doing it right

One of the reasons I founded The Music Broker Network is because that, as a musician myself, I knew that a lot of musicians didn't like getting involved in the business & marketing side of the music industry. Now, I do firmly believe that to be successful in this industry you need to have a good grasp of business, but what with juggling your career, family, etc., it's probably a good idea to let someone else do things for you such as finding Opportunities for your music and mailing out CD's.

However there will always be those musicians who want to do everything themselves and in my position I come across a lot of them. So, for those people who have no intention of ever joining The Music Broker Network I've put together a list of DO's and DON'T's:

1) DON'T MASS-MAIL. Pretty much everyday I receive an email from someone, where I can see that they've CC'd it to virtually everybody on the planet !
2) DON'T ADD PEOPLE TO MAILING LISTS, UNLESS THEY'VE ASKED YOU TO. Am I interested in a gig that is 6000 miles away, featuring a band I know nothing about ? Of course not. Many times I've been added to bands mailing lists - and half the time, they either give you no way to opt-out or their opt-out doesn't even work.
3) DON'T SEND UNSOLICITED SUBMISSIONS. When I get a package from someone, I open it up. If I don't know them, it goes in the trash straight away. Why ? Because I simply don't have the time to listen to something unless the person has introduced themselves to me first and asked if I'm interested in receiving it. People in the Music Industry don't spend all morning waiting for the post to arrive so that they have some music to listen to, you know ...
4) MAKE YOUR PACKAGE LOOK PROFESSIONAL. Don't handwrite your audio CD or even worse stick address labels on it - the latter can actually make your disc unplayable. Don't handwrite your letter either unless you have superb handwriting. Don't re-use envelopes by scratching out old stamps/addresses and then putting a new one on top.

Why can't A&R use their imagination ??!

I'd like to talk about something which often comes up with new members of The Music Broker Network - particularly songwriters who want to pitch their songs to other artists. Brian H. summed it up with this comment on a previous blog of mine:

"I do not understand why so much importance is put on production when it comes to a song demo. I've heard demos by the Beatles for songs that became typical Beatles' hits and they were offkey, very basic musically, not even final lyrics. But the point is: the SONG was clearly there and the Beatles or anyone could have worked on their own cover of the song AS WRITTEN. Why does a songwriter have to practically create a master quality demo, won't any artists covering it do their own arrangement etc? If the demo clearly gives the melody and lyrics what more is necessary to count is as a 'good new song' if it is that exactly? Form vs content is my question. I hear so many demo songs of great production but you can't even remember the song, let alone have it stick in your mind, like a good song is supposed to do."

Thanks Brian. Yours is a common question ... here is the answer.

The Music Industry of the 1960's is vastly, vastly different to what it is now or has been for the past 25 years. For a start, until recently, if you wanted to record a song you would have to go to a studio, hire at least 3 musicians plus at least one singer, etc, etc. It was an expensive thing to do. That's what business people call the "barrier to entry" and it's something that has completely evaporated over the past 25 years as music technology has got better and cheaper. Now anybody - literally, anybody - can produce a broadcast-quality track using a computer, a few softsynths and a microphone.

The result of this technology boom is that there are MILLIONS of people who think they can write songs, and a lot of those songs are finding their way to A&R people. So, with such intense competition (and dare I add, dwindling music sales too) why should an A&R person listen beyond a less than perfect demo when it is so (relatively) easy to create a perfect demo ?

If you were a bank manager and a customer came into your branch asking for a business loan but didn't have even the most basic grasp of business, would you lend them money ??

I think Brian is also making the point that a lot of songs lack substance - that is a personal view point and is a matter of taste. But the overriding fact is that there is simply no excuse for inferior production values.

Why the Record Industry wants "more of the same"

I was recently contacted by a lady who was considering joining The Music Broker Network. She asked me whether our music industry contacts were simply looking for "more of the same" - in other words, more Britney, more U2, etc., and more acts under 30-yrs old, rather than looking for new styles and genres.

As a songwriter of 12 years now, I can fully identify with those feelings. Nobody sets out to write music that sounds just like everyone else - we all want to create something different - but the inescapable fact is that this is a business. If you want to earn money from your music, then you cannot afford to ignore what the marketplace wants.

For example, if you were designing a new car would you choose to have round wheels or square wheels ?? You may have a great new design and be convinced that square wheels will prove to be popular with the public, but in reality it would be much easier for a car with round wheels to sell. Likewise, if you worked at a record company and came across two new Pop acts: one, a 40yr-old great singer with great songs and the other a 20yr-old great singer with great songs, which would you choose ? I can, of course, see both sides of the argument - I'm sure that a 40yr-old can relate to another 40yr-old much better than a 20yr-old can; but until the demographics of music buyers shifts more than it has done already, record company signings will continue to be youth-oriented.

However, it's not all doom and gloom.

Film & TV companies looking for music, don't care how old you are or what you look like. Indeed, if you are producing something a bit different from the mainstream that it actually a bonus in this market. Films & TV shows have a voracious appetite for all kinds of music, and the more unusual the music the more difficult it is for them to find - and the more they'll love you when they find you. Don't forget my bestselling book on this subject.

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

I've just been watching the documentary film about Wilco, called "I Am Trying To Break Your Heart".

Even if, like me, you're not a fan of Wilco, you really should see this 90 minute look into the life of a band as they record an album. When it was delivered to their record label (Sire Records) the label insisted on certain changes, which the band refused. The label informed them that, if they weren't prepared to make the changes, "maybe they should be on a different label". Now, many people would have probably freaked out at this point and compromised their vision for the album in order to get it released by their label. But Wilco didn't.

One of the strongest points that we can all take from the film, is that you should always do what you believe to be right. Wilco were ultimately dropped by their label but were allowed to take their unreleased record with them rather than let it sit on Sire Records shelf (as so often happens). Consequently, they were signed by another label who let Wilco release the record they wanted and paid them three times as much as it had cost to record the album in the first place .... costs that Sire had already paid !!