As I’m working today, I’m reminded about how important it is for you as a music artist to stay on top of your emails, social networks and other types of correspondence that relate to your music career. If you read Making it in Music on a frequent basis, you know that I’m all about giving tips and bits of nuggets to improve your game and get one up on the other person. Randomness does nothing but place you in the pack of a whole lot of ot...

To me, it’s a waste of time to stay in a band that is not willing to acknowledge the very things that have obstructed their view. Now that the new year has arrived, it’s the perfect time to step out and take an objective look at what can be done to take your band up a couple notches. I see a lot of live bands. What I tend to notice, is that many of them have exactly the same issues or similar ones that prevent them from reaching their potent...

Pitching your act to music business professionals should always be included as a necessary part of your daily activities as a music artist. However, it is important to understand how to properly promote yourself in a positive way that will create real impact and potentially move yourself forward in the minds of decision makers and people in the industry that can prove to be beneficial for your career. I receive a lot of emails on a weekly basis ...

It’s no big secret that playing and recording original music for a living is an incredibly sexy notion - a thought that provokes a mental orgasm at any given moment! It’s the building block in which this very blog was created. But is it possible? Can you really play original music and pay the bills at the same time? The answer to that, is yes - of course. People are doing it all the time. But there are four things to keep in mind if you wan...

This guest post was writ­ten by Dave Scotford. Dave is a music industry entrepreneur from the UK with experience as a promoter, manager, booking agent and more. He is the author of No Bull: The Music Industry, which will be available July 1st. You can contact Dave at dave@davescotford.co.uk. We’ve pretty much all got social networking profiles, probably two or three different sites too. It’s rare these days for anyone with regular access ...

Lyric driven music videos are starting to become the real deal. Once thought of as a format that was driven by music fans, music artists are starting to see the benefits of creating lyric videos to maximize ad revenue, direct fans to their website or provide links to buy their music. It’s a great tool to utilize for those particular fans searching for lyrics. According the article “The Power of Words,” in the March 26th copy of Billboard, ...

Bending the ear of the music industry used to be narrowly defined around album sales. An act that could sell 5,000 units and above would normally garner attention. I know this from personal experience. As we all know, file-sharing and loss-leader tactics from big box retail changed the attitudes of what music consumers were willing to pay for music. There is a significant differentiation between the record business and the music business. The fir...

With all the buzz about the long-tail in the last few years and how giving away your music will drive more fans to your show, I say to all those advocates to give me proof - that is, any hard data that this model consistently works in generating profit. I mean, even Marty Winsch hasn’t been as lucky at duplicating the success of his largest client, Corey Smith, the poster boy of the long-tail theory in music. I’m by no means knocking this str...

Think fast. What is the one thing that you really want as a composer and/or music artist? My guess is to get out of the haystack.  There are too many needles and most of them are dull. I mean, geez. There is a TON of music in the digital pipeline. 10-15 years ago, distribution was a controlled entity. If you wanted to get distributed, you had to normally be signed to a record label.  Obviously this is no longer the case. However, one thin...

John Mays is one of the most respected executives in Christian music having discovered and signed Matt Redman, Point of Grace, Nicole Nordeman, Warren Barfield, Cindy Morgan, Scott Krippayne and the Passion worship recordings. He worked in A&R at Word, Sparrow and Star Song Records, and sat at the helm of Benson Records as president of the legendary label. Mays co-founded Centricty Music in 2003. Their current roster includes Aaron Shust, Dow...