Hey guys. I know there are some professional artists around here, you know, people who actually make music as a career (main source of income). So, could anybody perhaps shed some light on the best way to get your music out there and make a decent living? Should I concentrate on selling my songs to publishing companies? Who do you contact to publish your music? Should I develop my own website and promote from it? Should I just do gigs endlessly?

In other words, how did you guys really get your foot in the door? I know this is so broad and vague, but I'm a songwriter who has finished three CD's worth of songs, and I don't really know where to go from here and am looking for any suggestions. Keep in mind that I know little about creating a website, and since I do all the music myself, it would be hard and time consuming to get my start in gigging... All I've done is made sure I've secured copyrights and I've ordered a book on marketing my music.

Thanks in advance.

Three things:

Time, Money, and Money.

invest the time in getting the word out - get press locally - shoot - why am I even going on about this. Go ask JDodson (flashpointe) - ANYONE that can get a letter from Bill Clinton knows what he's doing.
[This message was edited Tue Dec 30 15:48:22 PST 2003 by otan]

I'm sure some1 has some advice 4 u. I know quite abit about marketing as I've got a BA (Hons) degree in Business Management with Marketing!!!

Anyway, my best advice is 2 make sure u keep the rights 2 ur songs, do not sell them 2 the record companies. Cuz as we all know its the songwriters who make the most money from royalties etc.

Try & promote urself & ur music, do local radio interviews, newspaper interviews etc. and try 2 build a loyal fan base.

As 4 gettin' a record deal...send ur demo CD/tape 2 a smaller label rather than a huge record company as they recieve lots everyday and try & get a good manager/agent with alot of contacts who can get u on shows and open 4 other singers/groups.

Hope this helps u!

Thanks thetimefan. I appreciate your advice, I guess the hard thing is actually doing the research. Finding those contacts and labels and everything.

jtgillia said:

That's OK, jtgillia, glad 2 help

I was sent an orgnote about this site, which may b able 2 help u:

http://www.cops.co.uk/the..._page.html
[This message was edited Thu Jan 1 17:56:20 PST 2004 by thetimefan]

Hello and let me start off with saying good luck! hehe That's actually a pretty good factor of marketing. :+) Anyway, I worked for a couple of labels in a the past and let me say, unless you have a lawyer or manager that already has ties with labels, there is a 99.9% chance they won't even listen to your demo. For a short time, I actually was the person who sent back demos that we received. If we didn't know where they came from, we just sent them back with a generic letter. No matter how cool the demo looked or whatever, it didn't matter if it wasn't "solicited".
Now that I have that out of the way, promoting depends on whose $ you are going to use. hehe If it's your own, you honestly might have to take out some type of loan if you're serious but don't have serious cash. It also depends on what form(s) of promotion you will do, how nice you want your CD's to be done, what promotional items to make, press kits...etc I'm not trying to discourage anybody. I am doing this myself right now. I have spend too much $ on my MUSIC and I know it's never gonna end. I also understand that being a serious artist, I have to even if for right now it's coming out of my own pocket.
So I guess the first thing you have to ask yourself, what is your goal/purpose with this project and how much can you put into it with time and $ as Otan said. If you're like me, you want to have input on every aspect basically. I do everything from running the studio, writing, performing the vocals/instruments all the way to creating the designs for my logos, press kits, website...etc I'm just giving a basic overview of what goes into a standard promotion. If you have any specific questions, please let me know. I really like trying to help around here. :+) Take care everybody and the best to you all in the new year.

otan said:

Thanks, Beau! You are awesome as well, being that you are out there on the road actually doing gigs pretty often- that is the frontline! That I completely respect and admire!
You are right though, the reason I am able to promote (mainly by letter writing and internet promo (emails, etc) is because I am blessed by God to have a great laid back job that allows me to have just enough time to promote this NFO and my music Ministry, while also having a regular income coming in. I don't really have any technique, I just use charisma and personability to talk to others in a realistic and down home manner. The Bible says that "you have not because you ask not", so I am not hesitant to ask for something, because you never know what you could receive!


Seriously. It's about losing the fear of "what they might not do" and having the confidence to believe positively about what could be good about it. They could only say no. Don't let your pride bring you down. Lose the pride, and keep asking and knocking, and you will eventually get someone to answer you and you will get a positive answer and solution.


Peace,
JD

Just had to add... I always love that positive attitude you bring. hehe :+) Maybe I balance that out around here... KIDDING! :+P

Flashpointe said: