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In The Music Business...
Living in Nashville, I meet a lot of people who are "in the music business."
But 99% of them are not really in the music business. It's not because they're not making a living at it...lots of people have other ways of paying the bills. In fact, like my friend who owns a gas station yet doesn't make his living selling gas, many "full-time musicians" are doing the same thing with t-shirts, licensing deals, and other income streams rather than music.
Forget those people though... I want to talk about the people, regardless of how they make their living, who only claim to be "in the music business." I want to talk about the folks who talk big and dress the part, but just pretend to be doing this for real.
As many of you guys know, I'm a big fan of yoga. I've been practicing for seven years and do it daily for at least an hour. And not only that, I subscribe to a couple of yoga magazines, I take workshops, I've got all the props here, I've got a shelf full of books, and all the other things you'd expect somebody who is interested in yoga would have.
So I find it amazing that people who are "in the music business" aren't doing something similar.
Before I locked the doors on my music business consulting program, the first thing I'd do when a new client would come though is send them a box via UPS which contained several of my music business books, hours of recorded conference calls, seminars on CD, and a lot more information on the business to really give them a jumpstart on things. All in all, it was probably $800 worth of stuff.
During this time, I had a moneyback guarantee. If you'd work with me for six months and what I told you to do didn't help you to sell more music, get more people to your shows, and make more money, you'd simply send everything back and I'd give you back not only everything you'd paid to me, I'd also throw in a check for an extra $50.00 just to say thanks for giving me the opportunity to work with you.
While I was doing this, I only had two people (out of hundreds) return their stuff to me. And both of those packages, contained the books, the conference calls, the seminars, and whatever else I'd thrown in...still in the shinkwrap.
Now, I supposed I could have called these people up and said, "You guys have to actually open my stuff and use it for it to work." But the truth is, I've seen enough folks like this to know you can't do anything to help them if they're not going to help themselves.
Don't move the lazy. It's one of my 14 Qualities of Successful Musicians, Songwriters, and Music Business Professionals. And it's why most bands never get the attention they think they want.
If you're "in the music business," wouldn't it make sense that you'd want to read up on everything that the music business involves? If you don't, you might want to think about how bad you really want this.
About the Author
David Hooper is the founder of Kathode Ray Music, an artist development organization specializing in promotion and marketing of independent musicians and bands. Visit http://WWW.JOBS-IN-THE-MUSIC-INDUSTRY.COM>http://WWW.JOBS-IN-THE-MUSIC-INDUSTRY.COM for more tips and hints for musicians, bands, and songwriters.
Written by: David Hooper
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