Sorry, I don’t have any magical formula or inside contacts to launch your sister and fiance to stardom. What I can tell you is what’s worked for several friends of mine who are now making their living writing, playing and recording music.

And that’s to play out. They’re never going to make a living as a performer unless they perform. So if they’re talented and interested in a music career, they need to get out and start booking gigs. Maybe they’ll have to start playing for tips at the local coffeeshop, or playing for a share of the door at a local club. But if they stick with it, learn about about marketing themselves, and develop performing chops, they can eventually move up to better-paying gigs.

Is it hard work? Yep. Does it take time? Usually. Is it the only way to become a successful musician? No, of course not. But it’s the best way to go in my opinion. There are loads of incredibly talented people out there, but the ones who make it are the ones who get out and hustle.

If you want to stay independent (which is probably the most lucrative and satisfying alternative these days), you need to build a fan base. And there’s no better way to do that than to get out there and start playing in front of some of those potential fans. If, on the other hand, you aspire to the “traditional” path of getting “discovered” by an A&R person from a big label, the best way to attract the attention of a label (and get them interested in the potential profit they could make by signing you) is by consistently generating buzz and selling out shows where ever you play. Honestly, I don’t know of anyone who’s been “discovered” while sitting around in their living room.

The second thing would be to not quit the day job, and save the money they make from playing out to pay for recording. If they don’t write their own songs, perhaps team up with a local songwriter or two so they’ve got some original music to record. If they’re going to record cover tunes, they’ll need to pay royalties in order to be able to legally release the recording, and they’ll need to bring something unique and fresh to the performance to make it worthwhile for others to listen and buy.

Getting people to come to your gigs to start with is great. But if they like your music and buy a CD or download a few MP3s, they’ll start marketing you without your having to do anything. They’ll talk about this great new artist they “discovered” and spread the word to their friends and family. Which can lead to bigger audiences, better venues and more CD and merchandise sales (which in the end means a bigger paycheck for you).

Once you’ve got some fans, you can offer for sale all kinds of things besides just CDs: autographed photos, T-shirts, limited-edition “premium” versions of your recordings, etc. The possibilities are limited only by your imagination. You might want to read my article on making a living as a musician with 1,000 true fans and my take on Trent Reznor’s new model for music business success for some more ideas.

And it all starts with getting out of the house and playing gigs.

Metallica seems to be changing their minds about online music downloads.

It isn’t that the music download experiment wasn’t successful for Radiohead. It worked well for them, as it seems to have worked for other musical artists such as Trent Reznor and Prince. From what I can tell, it’s just a matter of “been there, done that” now — they want to move on to try something else new.

And given their history, when Metallica’s Lars Ulrich says, “We’ve been observing Radiohead and Trent Reznor and in twenty-seven years or however long it takes for the next record, we’ll be looking forward to everything in terms of possibilities with the Internet,” that’s just about as radical a change in attitude as I’ve seen recently.

The point is, no matter what Radiohead, Metallica and other forward-thinking artists do next, the Internet is going to figure in their marketing and sales plans. The online world offers unprecedented opportunities to connect with your fans and get your music in their hands. The trick is to figure out a business model that works for you and for them.

So, what sort of out-of-the-box ideas can you come up with to use the power of the Internet to get closer with your fans and make a living from your music?

Article copyright © by Diane M. Aull. All Rights Reserved.

Awhile back, he offered a series of article on music production. James has self-produced most of his albums (he’s recorded over 20 CDs). But does he recommend self-producing for others?

Well, according to James, if you have four things in place, you can consider producing yourself. And what are those four things?

• The ability to listen to yourself critically. Does it work? If not, do it again, as many times as necessary.
• Distance from the project. You know how hard it is to proofread something you wrote yourself? You tend to read what you meant to write, not what’s actually on the page, so you can easily overlook typos and grammatical errors. But when you come back a day or two later, they stand out like a sore thumb. Same thing with your music — do what you need to do to ensure you hear what’s actually there, not simply what you intended to record.
• The willingness to cut something from the project if the first two points above reveal to you it doesn’t belong. No matter how much you like the song, no matter how cool the effect sounds, no matter whether the vocalist is your best buddy… if it doesn’t work, it has to go. You have to be ruthless.
• A trusted adviser. This could be a friend, your significant other, your recording engineer, etc. No matter how critical, distant and ruthless you are, it’s still helpful to have another set of &lquo;outside” ears to listen and critique. The trick is, they have to be willing (and able) to be honest — if necessary, brutally honest. And you have to be willing (and able) accept their honesty. If they’re going to tell you it sounds good (even when it doesn’t) just to avoid hurting your feelings or starting an argument, they’re not going to be much good to you.

If, after considering it, you decide you might be better off with an outside producer, James has some excellent tips for finding a good producer without spending a fortune.

Article copyright © by Diane M. Aull. All Rights Reserved.

This time, I’d like to take a closer look at specific techniques and tactics you can use to reach those 1,000 True Fans.

Over on The Future Buzz, Adam Singer has written an awesome post just chock full of tips and ideas for how to tap into social media and user-generated content to build your fan base. It’s a little long, but well worth the read. Don’t just skim this one, as there are hidden gems lurking in almost every paragraph. Here are a few highlights:

Don’t Do These Things

Number one rule, don’t be a dick.

In other words, don’t spam. Don’t relentlessly talk only about yourself everywhere you go in the social space. Most of all, don’t just do the same old tired things everybody else is doing. Adam compares it to shouting in a noisy, overcrowded room — the rest of the noise will drown out what you have to say.

Think (and Act) Different

Step One: Take Care of the Basics

Instead, learn the right way to “pitch” bloggers. Track what others are saying about you online, and be sure to thank them when they say something nice. Set up (non spammy) profiles and play nicely on the social networking and social bookmarking sites. Create (and use) an email address database to keep in touch with your fans.

The goal is to make sure you’re easy to find online. When you go on to step two (Viral Marketing), you want to be sure you’ve already got all your ducks in a row. It’s like throwing a party — you want to make sure the house is tidied up and the party food is set out before your first guests start arriving.

Step Two: Go Viral

Adam has some great ideas for viral marketing techniques that have the potential to work well for creative artistic people.

• Create fresh, unique and compelling content and submit to social bookmarking sites (or social networking news sites, as he calls them). Excellent advice: take the time to look around these sites and see what the “citizens” of these communities like before you go charging in there submitting your stuff right and left.
• Create your own music videos and submit them to YouTube and elsewhere.
• Can’t get signed to a label? Create your own. Distribute your own music.
• Team up with other creative people to get more exposure for your music.
• Give something away.

The point is, the current online environment offers tremendous opportunities for dedicated, talented, passionate musicians to interact with their fans in ways the old models never allowed. The potential is great. Will you take advantage of it?

Article copyright © by Diane M. Aull. All Rights Reserved.

The first, by Kevin Kelly, is entitled 1,000 True Fans. In a nutshell, the idea is if you can cultivate a relatively modest number of “True Fans” you can make a comfortable living in music (or any form of the arts) without ever having to hit the Big Time — which, let’s face it, doesn’t happen for too many people.

Kevin makes it clear there’s nothing magic about the number 1,000 — you might be able to make it with as few as 500, or it might take 1,500 (or even a few more).

But the point is, you don’t need to try to attract millions, or even tens of thousands, of fans. The kinds of numbers he’s talking about are very do-able.

The key is, these have to be True Fans. Not casual fans who will download a track or two, maybe buy a CD, and put you out of their minds. No, to quote the article, True Fans are different:

A True Fan is defined as someone who will purchase anything and everything you produce. They will drive 200 miles to see you sing. They will buy the super deluxe re-issued hi-res box set of your stuff even though they have the low-res version. They have a Google Alert set for your name. They bookmark the eBay page where your out-of-print editions show up. They come to your openings. They have you sign their copies. They buy the t-shirt, and the mug, and the hat. They can’t wait till you issue your next work. They are true fans.

And it’s not just about putting stuff out and waiting for these True Fans to snap it up. You have to work the crowd. Be willing to get down in there and interact directly with these fans. It’s all about building relationships with these fans.

If you’re not willing or able for some reason to do that, you need to have someone else — a manager, a fan club president, a publicist, etc. — who will handle the direct interaction and nurture the fan relationships.

There are some comments on this article from doubters. People who don’t think it’s possible to make a living with only 1,000 (or fewer) fans. Frankly, it looks to me as though most of them are missing the point. They’re writing off the idea without even trying it. They aren’t thinking in terms of True Fans. Yeah, for sure you won’t be able to make it with only that many casual fans, but True Fans? Oh, yeah.

Look, for a long time, I was a True Fan of a musician. I literally traveled thousands of miles a year to see him perform all across the country. I bought every solo CD he released, T-shirts, posters, promo photos and every CD released by his bands (past and present). I scoured eBay for out of print releases on vinyl and various bits of memorabilia. I even designed, maintained and SEO’d his band’s website, managed fan e-mail and handled online publicity requests on his behalf — for free.

Between what I bought from him and the value of the services I provided at no charge, I made (and saved) him thousands of dollars a year.

Now, imagine that extended by 999 other True Fans. Imagine this small army buying your CDs and merchandise, bringing their friends to your shows and encouraging those friends to buy CDs and merchandise. Imagine them bugging the booking agents at local venues to book your show, starting fansites and fan blogs on the web, and writing glowing reviews of your music on CDBaby, MySpace and anywhere else they can find to post them.

Oh, yeah, 1,000 True Fans could very well be just enough.

(Next time: some ideas for how to connect with these fans online)

Article copyright © by Diane M. Aull. All Rights Reserved.

Ladies and gentlemen of the band and orchestra, I give you the VIBRASS.

From the sales pitch:

VIBRASS is a completely new device for massaging the lips and facial muscles. A vibrating mouthpiece gently massages the lips increasing the blood circulation. VIBRASS helps to relax and regenerate the embouchure after a concert or practising. Tired and aching lips are no longer a problem.

So, for all you brass and double reed players, if you’ve got issues with a tired and aching embouchure, relief is at hand (or at lips, as the case may be).

Hat tip to Dave Barry’s Blog for bringing this “Musical Product of the Millennium” to Mom’s attention!

The industry has been trying to argue for some time now that music sharing “steals money from artists.” They’ve used scare tactics to try to convince musicians that music sharing will leave them all penniless on the street, with hand-lettered cardboard placards reading “will compose for food” propped up against their tattered guitar cases.

Now, in my opinion, those arguments are pure hokum. And these latest moves by Trent and Radiohead simply confirm what I’m thinking. Music sharing and the big bad Internet thingie may have an adverse effect on the income of record company executives, but it seems to me all the changes of the past few years are actually terrifically empowering for musicians.

Now that music can be easily copied and distributed electronically, the old business model is unworkable. And it’s too late to go back. The genie is out of the bottle. Instead of trying to shove the old rules into the new model, it’s time for people to start thinking of some new rules. Which is exactly what Trent and Radiohead have done.

That’s probably why the whole thing has “the industry” in such an uproar.

Seems to me the Grateful Dead did okay while allowing (or more accurately, actively encouraging!) their fans to make and share bootleg recordings on a massive scale. So I’m pretty sure music sharing is not the problem, at least not in terms of depriving musicians of the ability to make a living.

The real problem — as I see it — is a fundamental flaw in the system the way it’s been set up, with virtually all the cards in the hands of the labels and virtually none in the hands of the artists or the fans.

And I think another big part of the problem is, the labels have for years convinced everyone the music is the product. In my opinion, it isn’t. If that were the case, there would be no real reason to attend live concerts — it’s a lot easier, it’s a lot cheaper, and you get better fidelity and production by listening to a studio recording.

No, I think the product is the artist, and the experience of interacting with other fans. That’s why people endure standing in line for hours in the hot sun or freezing cold to score tickets to hot shows. That’s why they’ll sleep out on the sidewalk to be first in line for a “general admission” show so they can get the best seats. That’s why Deadheads would spend all their disposable income attending concerts around the country even though they already knew every song by heart and probably had several hundred (thousand?) bootleg concert recordings already. That’s why one of the first things fans do when they get their new car is put stickers advertising their favorite band on the back, why they join fan mailing lists and clubs, and why they use their favorite band’s logo as their forum avatar.

The way I see it, basic music tracks are becoming like ebooks or whitepapers in the corporate marketing world — marketing tools you use as teasers. Put them out there free or at very low cost, with a goal — not to make money directly from selling the ebook or the whitepaper (or the music track) — but to use the teaser to capture people’s interest, so they come back to you for “the good stuff.”

And by “the good stuff” I mean tickets to your concerts, tour T-shirts, programs and schwag, limited-edition colored-vinyl albums, paid fan club membership, holographic posters autographed by the band, access to special invitation-only live chats with the artist to discuss the making of the album, etc.

In other words, the kinds of things fans will pay good money for that are pretty hard to duplicate and “share” online (or offline, for that matter).

The really cool part is many of these “premium products” are well within the reach of the average artist to offer their fans. No major label backing required. Screws the labels’ business model a bit, but they’ve been screwing the artists and the fans for decades.

Karma’s a bitch sometimes.

Article copyright © by Diane M. Aull. All Rights Reserved.

According to this article from Yahoo News, Gibson is introducing a self-tuning guitar.

So how cool is that?

Well, about $3,400 worth of cool, as it happens. That’s roughly the price tag for a limited edition Gibson Les Paul Silverburst model with optional automatic tuning, which will apparently be available in the US starting on Friday, December 7, 2007.

The guitar will come with six present tunings and can remember additional custom tunings. That means if you use special tunings for certain songs when playing out, you no longer have to lug along a second guitar (or figure out how to entertain the audience while you spend 10 minutes retuning before and after). Just turn the knob to the desired position and the guitar will tune itself in about two seconds via tiny motors attached to the pegs.

If you’ve already got a guitar you love or you just don’t want to shell out $3,400 for a new Gibson Les Paul, the “Powertune” technology is reportedly available for purchase online for 899 Euros. Tronical says it can be added to “many different models of electric guitars” without leaving a mark.

Article copyright © by Diane M. Aull. All Rights Reserved.

James has been in the business for decades and recorded well over a dozen of his own CDs, as well as producing for others, so he definitely knows whereof he speaks. His blog is a must-read for songwriters and working musicians.

In this latest post, he offers recommendations of how to prepare for your session, tips on mic selection and vocal technique, and a few production hints. One bit I found interesting was his methodology for “sequencing” the final CD (that is, figuring out what order to put the tracks in).

Check it out!

Article copyright © by Diane M. Aull. All Rights Reserved.