The Contract

You get woo’d by a rep at the record label or publishing company and everyone loves everyone and wants the best for everyone. They say they want to sign you and are going to send over an agreement. You’re pumped.

Then the rep sends over the contract and the contract is awfully skewed toward their benefit.

Here’s the thing…The contract that gets sent to you is never written by the rep that you’ve been spending all this time getting to know.

It was written by the company lawyer.

The rep likely has little to no relationship with the company lawyer so the thought of the rep getting you favorable terms right off the bat is not going to happen.

It’s their standard agreement. You might be special in the rep’s eyes, but you are not special in the lawyer’s eyes. You get what everyone else gets.

Artists get confused and frustrated at this realization because the dinners and coffee meetings with the rep were so fun and buddy buddy.

A few things here…

1. If you have your own bulldog lawyer who has a relationship with their lawyer, that’s your best shot at negotiating.

2. The person who sends the first version of the contract always wins. And the artist rarely has the guts to go first.

3. The rep still likes you and that is important. Once the deal is negotiated and signed, their enthusiasm and relationship can take center stage again. Their lawyer is meant to be the evil buffer, so you get to hate the lawyer and love the rep.

4. The honeymoon ends and the real work begins after the contract is signed.

Don’t miss a post. Sign up for free.

Drop me an email: gabe@gabethebassplayer.com

Should You Tour?

It’s just too expensive (financially and emotionally) to take the show on the road unless you have a show worth taking on the road.

***But if you haven’t played two hundred shows, go out and do that immediately.

Don’t miss a post. Sign up for free.

Drop me an email: gabe@gabethebassplayer.com

14,400

That’s how many monthly listeners it takes on Spotify to where at least one person is listening to your music every second of every day.

And I bet most of you have way more monthly listeners than that.

So while you’re complaining that you’re not as huge as you want to be, that you didn’t get that big opportunity…every second of every day someone is listening to your music.

Your music is constantly being woven into other peoples’ world. It’s happening right now.

That’s pretty cool. It’s worth reminding yourself.

***Obviously that’s just Spotify and there’s lots of other ways to listen. But if you’re looking for a number that’s easy to see, there ya go. 14,400.

Don’t miss a post. Sign up for free.

Drop me an email: gabe@gabethebassplayer.com

Start With Action

The meeting is the most exciting part. It’s when you actually do the thing that everyone has their complicated opinions.

Start with action, not meetings. Most of what you would have talked about during the meeting will get discussed during all the little in-between moments anyway.

It’s so much easier to call a meeting than call to action. And in the moment calling the meeting feels a lot like action. It isn’t.

Be bold enough to not have meetings.

Be bold enough to have short meetings.

Be bold enough to take action in the face of wanting to call a meeting.

Don’t miss a post. Sign up for free.

Drop me an email: gabe@gabethebassplayer.com

Vulnerable Writing

Writing vulnerably is scary because you don’t know if it will be affirmed.

If you write about your marriage your best friends, if you name names and it isn’t a hit, now it’s just out there.

Because if you write a vulnerable song and no one cares, it feels like your vulnerability isn’t worth that much. And that really hurts.

It’s as though you told the world your secrets and the world yawned.

You’re willing to be vulnerable if it means you get to be famous for it.

But that’s not how it works. The vulnerability happens in the writing room, long before anyone is there to think you’re cool for being that honest.

Adele gets credit, money and fame for writing the vulnerable way she does. But what if you don’t get that much credit, money and fame? Because chances are you won’t. Are you still willing to lay it on the line? To write from the heart? To tell the truth?

I hope so.

Don’t miss a post. Sign up for free.

Drop me an email: gabe@gabethebassplayer.com

2362

That’s the number of ticket buying fans you need in Nashville to sell out the Ryman.

So there’s no need to try and get Nashville to fall in love with you. You only need about one tenth of one percent of Nashville metro to fall in love with you and buy a ticket.

This is great news. Because there’s lots of groups and combinations of 2362 people and you only need one of them.

It’s not to say that selling out the Ryman is easy. It’s to say that you don’t have to be famous to do it. It’s to say that if you know what you need in order to satisfy your dream, it’s more likely you’ll figure out how to build it.

It’s not dream smaller or bigger, but clearer.

Don’t miss a post. Sign up for free.

Drop me an email: gabe@gabethebassplayer.com