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“How To Make It In Music.” (A True Story) from Paul Alexander on Vimeo.
There is a message in my film about band promotion within my website that I don’t want my viewers and readers to miss. Band promotion ideas I researched ended up fostering the (almost) greatest accomplishment in my career as a Singer, Performance Artist, Writer, and Film Maker. As a singer and writer, I was awarded with a 1st place international singing award/trophy by the IMTA (Ashton Kutcher, Katie Holmes). The trophy broke into two pieces. During a period of down-time, coinciding with a necessary “spring cleaning” at my (then) apartment in Studio City, CA, I considered throwing the broken trophy in the trash. I wanted to start a slew of free band promotion websites, and ended up founding: www.MusiciansCompanion.net. I was “down” on my self-esteem and felt awards and accomplishments meant nothing. I needed inspiration by inspiring others to pursue their dreams in music. Plus, I had a broken piece of material that I was hoping to get rid of to lessen the amount of (unnecessary) objects I had placed away in a cabinet. Still, I wanted to teach Artists how to sell songs.
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As I made trips to the dumpster with various objects I was willing to part with, I pondered “fixing” the problem of my broken trophy with super-glue (it’s still mine, da&* it, I earned it, plus it’s my only proof!), I came across a wicker basket carefully placed on a wide cinder block directly next to the dumpster. The whole “scene” humorously came across to me as an intentionally visual sarcastic statement. In the dumpster was an “Emmy.” It was, however, to the (former) owner, a “lesser Emmy,” or more appropriately, a perceived “slap in the face” from Hollywood (I’ll explain in just a moment). Not unlike the difficulty of independent music promotion, the only other item in the wicker basket (NOT featured in this film) was an empty container of cat food (RRaaaaar…hissssss); “Hilarious,” I thought to myself, as I grabbed the “lesser” Emmy (for no particular reason at the time), and bolted from the sight. This was where the IDEA for this very short film was born, as the dual incidents of “one person repairing a trophy and another person throwing out a perfectly good one,” aligned in a most noteworthy way with my creativity.
While the Emmy in the film is not a “real” Emmy, it IS in its own right, since it was a “lesser, inside Emmy” given to someone who performed on-the-job but was not presented with the trophy “on television,” and did not have his/her (individual) name on it (talk about the difficulties of the business in general, not to mention independent music promotion). The Emmy was (likely) manufactured as a well-meant gift from the network to say: “you matter,” (believe it or not). I checked Souvenir Shops around Hollywood to compare the quality, and this was superior (much like the courageous challenge of marketing independent music). In many ways, it was not unlike the trophy I had received, and I had a celebrity performing with me as my “sidekick.” In the world of music and marketing, he instead became a Soap Opera Star.
I got to thinking about the emotional state of whoever left the basket there. In terms of music and marketing and other entertainment jobs, I thought to myself: “why be so hard on yourself and take away all your accomplishments? WHY DID YOU THROW THIS OUT, and why do you think your story is over? Where is your pride and sense of self-worth? You EARNED this (measly) little trophy, and how many years did it take you? You would HAD TO have been good, and I’ll bet you can earn FAR more than this (maybe even some money). You have MANY years left too, so why throw out the (lesser Emmy) with the cat water? (Okay, it was cat food, but I just wanted to sound more like the original quote). Then I started to think about a whole universe of music business advice and education I had behind me. I wanted to give away music business marketing advice and web resources for FREE.
I had a broken trophy from a first place international singing competition, and instead of throwing it out, I glued it together (with an attempt to re-glue my spirits). In terms of music marketing, this was the crux behind the invaluable resources, advice, and information I decided to offer Musicians and Songwriters, regardless of where they were at within their careers. I was already MORE than established with multiple publishing awards, excellent press for my albums, honors, live shows, CD sales, and plentiful online sales of MP3s. Music marketing and promotion are constant responsibilities that I firmly believe can be SIMPLIFIED by doing a MINIMUM of “1 task a day.” The problem is, most people don’t know what to do. This is where I decided to come in. Automation of your music promoting efforts is key.
Music promotion is a much easier (luxury?) today, thanks to the Internet, itunes, Amazon, etc. Hence, I created: www.MusiciansCompanion.net as a FREE music promotion site, along with the book: The Musician’s Companion, which offers EVERYTHING you need for online and real-life music promotion tips and web resources for the development of a SERIOUS music career, ON YOUR OWN SCHEDULE & TERMS. My music promotion website and book will give you EVERYTHING you need for a successful career. Musician Marketing does not require you to “reinvent the wheel.” Promoting your music should be as easy now as “The Jetson’s” had it in their own lives (believe it or not). I guarantee it. The wisdom and the advice I continue to offer is from the heart and from a multitude of REAL-WORLD successes.
P.S. I hope you enjoy my film!
P.P.S. I also got to show off, though briefly, a piece of artwork I did in the film. What’s wrong with showing off your skills if YOU are multi-talented? I highly recommend that you do. PEACE.
(C) 2012 – Paul Alexander for: www.MusiciansCompanion.net – All Rights Reserved. Paul Alexander Music: http://www.PaulAlexanderMusic.com – The Official Home of Paul Alexander Music.
Music promotion, music marketing, and music publicity should be fully automated. In the cyber-age, this cannot be emphasized enough. If I sound like a broken record at times (no pun intended), be thankful. The key point to remember is that, sources of automated music promotion, music marketing, and music publicity should not serve as a substitute to your own efforts with promoting your songs. They are meant to enhance your music promotion efforts, and help save you valuable time and money. Many companies exist solely for the purpose of promoting your songs to online magazines and media outlets. This doesn’t mean that all companies that do this will benefit you, especially if you happen to be lazy and expect them to make you a Star on your own behalf. You (ideally) need to be playing live or, at the very least, promoting your songs and their message for yourself, with a minimum of one serious task a day (as I continually mention throughout this blog). Make sure you know exactly what you’re getting, and if it is possible to follow up with any company that has received your music. The great news is that you can also ingest a music video these days, and thanks to high definition video cameras available at very inexpensive prices, getting a crew together and creating a WELL-EDITED video (your music video should be very well-edited) should not be difficult or expensive to shoot, copyright, and release.
More to come.
(C) 2010 – Paul Alexander for: www.MusiciansCompanion.net – All Rights Reserved. Paul Alexander Music: http://www.PaulAlexanderMusic.com – The Official Home of Paul Alexander Music.
I want to continue where I left off in the last article about getting yourself organized for this new month of music marketing and promotion. If you would like to read the previous article, CLICK HERE. Thank you SO much to those of you who responded with kind words or additional resources for musicians and songwriters.
I’m going to assume that you have fully organized your computer desktop, and that all your music and lyrics (that is, your complete music catalog) are ready to “go to bat.” Everything should be ready to shoot out to companies online, and you should also be working on having enough songs for an EP or a full-length album for instant pressing. Now, let’s get you performing.
If you have prepared and polished that one magic song I told you to prepare for a live show, you will do an open mic night. The open mic night will only serve as a “decoy” for getting the actual gig. Assuming you have not yet begun to automate your club bookings using a site like www.onlinegigs.com, or that you are still short on finished materials, you had better have that magical “one song” just about fully rehearsed and ready.
5 STEPS TO SUCCESS IN GETTING A GIG:
1.) Go to: www.openmikes.org. They have a database of clubs with open mic nights each week from all over the country, so you should be able to find one in your area. The Songwriters Guild of America also has a database. If you are in California, you would visit: http://www.songwritersguild.com/open_mic_cal.htm. There are many other databases out there as well.
2.) Find an open mic night that is near you, and to your liking. The smaller the club, the better, because you will eventually want to pack people into the club.
3.) Have one song ready to perform (perhaps a second or third as back-up), go to the open mic night, register in the line (get there early and you won’t have to wait).
4.) Put on a kick-ass performance and bring on a standing ovation.
5.) Even if you don’t get the standing ovation, if the performance was solid, go right back to the booking table immediately after the performance, tell them you’d like to put on a show, and that you will pack the place with customers. Ask them to book you on the spot for a future date. Have a CD and bio with you (with contact info). You have just turned an ordinary open mic night into a fully booked gig.
It’s a big ol’ fashioned full moon this evening, and excess energy, frustration, excitement, or even anger could be building, simmering, or just plain vibrating through your veins regarding your accomplishments in music (or lack thereof). Music promotion of your own songs is essential. I have found that any time there is a full appetite but an empty plate, it’s usually because you’re busy mingling or having drinks at the party instead of serving yourself a quick, daily completed portion of a single task each day from the buffet, in order to not only fill your plate (and your inner hunger) by month’s end, but to make sure you are completely “stuffed” and “fulfilled” with what you have accomplished. A single, small portion of a task each day equals one mother load of a hefty plate each month to fill you up. The variety of tasks is key.
A full moon always seems to change peoples’ moods, and some are more affected by them than others. I am one of them. I always feel the effects of an upcoming full moon, often guessing without looking at the calendar. I sometimes feel it in an agitated way, sometimes in a purely energetic way. If we regard a full moon as a completed culmination of a cycle before the beginning of a whole new cycle, we must REMIND ourselves to use this energy to complete a worthy song or daily music marketing task. We must tie up loose ends and finish up worthy music projects.
Pure energy can actually be dangerous if it doesn’t have a determined sense of direction. The problem is that, the moment by moment direction of our efforts can constantly veer off course (despite the initial precision), and must be readjusted each and every day, each and every hour. Thankfully, you have always had a worthy sense of direction through your songwriting and performing.
Your task for these final 3 days of April has been referenced in the past 3 weeks. Clean up your computer desktop if you haven’t already. Create separate, neatly labeled folders of your WAV and MP3 files, another separate folder for all your lyrics, complete with copyright and contact information on each lyric sheet, and back up all materials on a memory stick or cd rom(s). I want you to have everything right in front of you whenever you turn on your computer. Delete and dump every unneeded item on your desktop and in your recycle bin. You must have a desktop completely devoted to music marketing because May will be your month to promote. I also want you to choose your 1 favorite song and start rehearsing it until you know it cold and warm, left and right. Get this one song polished, and choose it carefully.
I want to expand a bit on the previous article on creating your laptop music arsenal. The entire purpose of doing this is to accomplish the goal of “automating” (previously) tedious online promotional tasks on a DAILY basis, in order to “streamline” those daily efforts, even if you’re only handling one single promotional effort a day. It’s a lot like strengthening a weak muscle into top shape by commiting to a minimum of one task daily, and continuing to do so until it is a habit. “One task” is BETTER than “no tasks,” especially if you are stuck in a busy day job while experiencing complete downtime with your music. Of course, try to do more than one task a day, even if it is promoting one or two of the songs from the organized mp3 folder on your desktop to multiple (reputable) companies seeking your musical style.
© 2010 – Paul Alexander for: www.MusiciansCompanion.net – All Rights Reserved. Paul Alexander Music: http://www.PaulAlexanderMusic.com – The Official Home of Paul Alexander Music.
If you’re a band member or solo artist creating and promoting music on your own schedule, taking about an hour or so to organize the “desktop” on your laptop computer’s opening screen is time well-spent, and then some. A quick suggestion is to back up all your music files and lyrics on 2 Cd Roms or a memory stick (I prefer the latter for holding up to 8 gigs of music files), and copying the files to the desktop in a neatly labeled folder, in wav AND mp3 formats. Why? The wav files are what you will use to burn music cd’s for quick music promotion when needed for booking a venue, or to piece together for your album pressing, while the mp3 files are for you to ingest into online mp3 sales sites such as amazon and itunes and daily promotional efforts to online music-related websites and radio. There’s nothing greater or more convenient than having the ability to instantly upload and register your mp3’s with the copyright office, entirely online, for instant peace-of-mind. Clearing the clutter on your laptop’s homescreen, and making it “lean and mean” with all music files in wav and mp3 format, neatly labeled in a folder for quick access, THEN taking all of your lyrics, organizing them using a word processing program like MS Word (or your laptop computer’s pre-installed word processing program), placing all relevant copyright and contact information on your lyrics, and making the presentation of the lyrics look as professional as possible, will enable you to place them all in ANOTHER clearly labeled desktop folder for quick access (back them up on a disc or memory stick along with the music files), to be placed right next to the folder containing your music files. This way, you can have two separate folders for music and lyrics, and when one song needs to be uploaded for quick promotion, you have the music files and the lyrics all ready to upload, and right in front of you.
Promote your music and don’t blame the big online companies if they are giving you an opportunity to work with them. Some of the very biggest names in music promotion, music marketing, distribution and sales are enabling you to promote your music and sell your work alongside some very prominent names (think itunes here). The digital arena, in particular, is leveled on your behalf, and you can thank some of the big guys (believe it or not). A little laptop can go a long way; this is the crux of The Musician’s Companion blog, along with the book, which focuses on utilizing the process of “automation” in your music marketing plans, and in all areas of your life as you promote your music.
Only the wise know that there is very little point in trying to visualize a tangible music promotion line that divides the major and indie music companies out there. What’s interesting is that we share the marketplace within one “universal marketplace” called music (and to the largest extent, a global economy pushing all goods and services). Interestingly enough, it is the larger companies that have responded to the need for musicians and writers to share their work by offering distribution in various capacities to all who take the initiative of creating quality work. This is a good thing. Don’t blame the big companies and create an intangible line out of what was never tangible, especially when the larger companies are the ones who appear to be recognizing and (somewhat) broadcasting the idea that they consider all forms of music and writing for ingestion within their servers.
There are large businesses in America and small businesses in America. Mutually beneficial arrangements should be regarded as a sign of hope. It isn’t like the big guys will try to buy you out unless you have something to offer them in the first place, so don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, regardless of your “vantage point,” or what you call “home” within the music industry. The best type of existence is a “working, harmonious coexistence” between larger and smaller companies (in this case, music companies). Again, don’t blame the big guys. Your chances are there to sell, so why wait? If it’s not about money for you, look at it as the ULTIMATE opportunity of getting people to “hear you.” We’re all in this together.
