An old acquaintance of mine worked for years in the entertainment business, including a long career as a Motown producer, and now goes around giving seminars to aspiring musicians. We visited for a few hours recently and he let me record his comments about "breaking into the music business" to write an article. Here it is!
This will save you the $299 seminar fee, although I will have to break up his "lecture" into about ten parts or so. However, just his introduction to the subject is fascinating, and blows a lot of old stereotypes and public perceptions out of the water. Here's my friend, who shall remain nameless, had to say:
"About 90%of the aspiring artists I meet at showcases, seminars and conferences have a childhood dream of obtaining a record deal with a major label. On the Internet's numerous sites for unsigned and/or indie artists the vast majority of those artists say their goal is a 'major label deal.'
"I do not understand why anyone would want to have a record deal of any kind with a major label, or any kind of label, for that matter. The deals give total control to the record company, and any so-called signing bonus or advance is really just a bad loan. Very few artists or bands will make it this way. The rest start their (usually short) careers in a position of weakness, owing the record companies money.
"That approach is becoming ancient history to those in the know. Educate yourself to 'work smarter' and your chances improve dramatically. That said, there are some things that every aspiring artist should know.
"Label deals just don't pay. Sure, you might get an advance against sales so you can fund your project, sometimes as much as half a million dollars, a million or more. But only the shortsighted would consider this a 'good deal.'
"You see, this way you are starting from a position of weakness. You start out owing the record company money, and you become another piece of property on their balance sheet. All the rights to your music will be tied up in this deal, so you can't go outside of your "record deal" to make any licensing deals for the Internet, foreign markets, TV/film or anything else. You are locked into a deal for at least three years.
"Who owns you, think about that? All of the choices, all of the decisions and all of the money will be handled by the label. That includes all the ancillary merchandising that adds so much to a successful artist's bottom line, like endorsements, ads, t-shirts and anything with your name or your band's name on it. Someone else will decide what your single will be. Someone else will decide what videos you make. Your vote may count for nothing in this arrangement,
"At the same time, there are things that the labels have never been good at, and that's part of the record industry's current weakness. No one really knows what will be a hit, otherwise every record would sell a million. In fact, the bigger the label the less they really know how to work a record on the street, how to work your fan base or what to do with a fresh, new sound. For a big company, it's all about the bottom line, and only about the bottom line.
"It is simply no longer true, if it ever really was, that a major label deal will enhance your career. As the layoffs of recent months continue to reverberate through the music business, the labels have been hard at work offloading expenses, as well as responsibilities, onto the artists, as well as setting up special 'outsourcing' deals. And it's still all about control.
"The outsourcing deals are often nothing more than a way for the labels to establish new companies, with new revenue streams, for their families and friends to run. This is just another ruse to extract more money from artists, as the labels start outsourcing retail distribution, Internet downloads and everything else."
Wow, that's a lot of inside information to digest. It sounds like it's the best of times and the worst of times, all at the same time, for musicians and singers and performers. But in all times, of economic ups and downs, those who work the hardest - and the smartest - will always come out on top. Never give up, but remember to get the truth about how things work before you jump in the deep end!
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After founding his first security firm in 1990, Scott McQuarrie built several security-related companies into regional and national powerhouses over the ensuing years. Since 2000 he has focused his sales and marketing efforts on the Internet, which opened up a virtually unlimited, international market for his flagship product line, EZWatch Pro
The EZWatch Pro brand has come to stand for world-class expertise in electronic security, video surveillance and the myriad technologies involved in both fields. From small houses to gigantic international airports, there is an EZWatch Pro solution to meet any and every residential, business, commercial and government security challenge
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