Do Songwriters Really Need to Know the Music Business?
Do Songwriters Really Need to Know the Music Business?
In the old days, a songwriter would network and perform everywhere he or she could to try to get discovered. The goal was usually securing a publishing deal, or if also a performer, to get a record deal as well. Once discovered, music industry executives would handle the rest: management, expense planning, recordings, radio promotion, distribution, marketing, publicity, booking shows, entertainment lawyers, and quite a few other business tasks that most creative people tend to be clueless about, not to mention completely uninterested in.
But the problem back then was…
you were either discovered, or you were NOT. You either made it, or you DIDN’T. And there was very little you could do about it except perform more, send out more demos, and hope that your music would fall upon compassionate executive ears who would do all that boring and tedious stuff for you.
Additionally, there was no way back then for the little guy to tackle the monolithic tasks that only the music industry corporations could handle. Furthermore, recording a demo of your songs that sounded even remotely close to radio quality was priced over the moon; it was not even an option.
But all of a sudden, new technology emerged. Home-recording studios became capable of competing with the big guys at an affordable price. And as the Internet emerged, an aspiring songwriter could make his or her music available worldwide with just a little bit of computer literacy and hard work. And now, only very recently, it has finally become possible to do virtually all of the tasks that music corporations did for superstars, from your own home!
However, in addition to the obvious hard work involved, there is one BIG step required for you to take advantage of the giant shift that has taken place for independent musicians over the last twenty years: EDUCATION.
An ambitious songwriter needs to have PRACTICAL knowledge about managing, recordings, budgets, radio promotion, distribution, marketing, publicity, booking shows, entertainment legalities, and a few other big business topics. A passionate songwriter also needs to be willing to do all the WORK involved until profits are large enough to allow for hiring and assembling a team. And then, a visionary songwriter, perhaps like yourself, needs to have the best GUIDANCE of how to put that team together that could take your music to the top!
But thinking like a businessperson, and performing music business tasks, is on the far side of Saturn for most of us creative and inspired songwriters. Even managing a team to do it all for us is a skill we need to learn. And if we don’t, this window of opportunity, a short time in history right now when songwriters can take their fates into their own hands and move mountains with their passion, could sadly crumble to into silent hills of dirt.
We’ve glanced under the greasy hood of our times and seen the potential. So where do we now begin to make that bright shinny new engine of music possibilities run at SUPER HIGH SPEED for us, and take our songwriting careers into our own hands?
Dave Kusak, the founder of Berklee Online and the New Artist Model, has created a a video series for us at Songwriting Planet that explains EXACTLY how to do it! Right Now can truly be the most magical time in history for you as an independent songwriter! Click to learn Dave’s Secret Blueprint
Click HERE Now and Discover How
Have You Struggled to Wrap Your Head Around the Music Business?
Please Leave a Comment
There are Possibilities that Might Surprise You!
Kevin
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I feel like I have a unique challenge. I am a non-performing songwriter and I have my songs produced as work-for-hire using pretty much the same studio band. I own 100% of my songs and recordings. I have 6 or 7 songs published by various publishers, but I’d like to cut an album and put it out there. Is this something that is realistic and feasible ?
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Music is changing and so we need to move with the change.
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There can be surprising answers to almost every music business question!
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If there’s someething I haven’t searched I’d sure like to know about it.