I made a record in high school and set up shop right outside the cafeteria. And I sold a lot.
I had three things going for me…
1. Everyone had a CD player (medium)
2. No one else was selling their CD by the cafeteria (competition/attention)
3. It was a small school so everyone knew who I was (reputation)
Take away any one of those three and I would have sold a lot less.
So when there’s a new idea, no one can do it…and then the hiring process begins. And it takes a long time.
But what if there was always someone on board with fifty percent margin in their day, paid for 40hrs but only doing 20 so that when the new thing is thought of they can dive in immediately, while it’s hot.
A commonality in successful artists is that a lot of biz people know who they are. And this helps when the artist starts to really get some hype because lots of people on the inside feel as though they had a little hand in it.
So if you’re an artist, go meet with all the publishers, try a few different agents, get to know all the managers, say yes to the co-writes, get on the festival bill even if its the 11am slot, go to other people’s shows, try different producers, be a guest on other records, get a song mixed by a few engineers, meet with the labels (and make them sell to you), play the writers nights, get good at playing your songs in offices…
You’re spreading good will. You’re spreading connection. So that when you start winning, they feel like they’re winning. And then everybody wins.
But in all likelihood, in order to use your degree you’re going to have to get off your couch.
(So the ease of getting the degree, certificate, license or credential from your couch can be the very thing that builds the road block that keeps you from utilizing it.)
You can do a lot from your couch but it’s still hard to go do something if you’ve never done anything.
Go do.
You’ve just written what will become one of the most famous ballads of all time. It’s called Something, and you’re George Harrison.
It’s an acoustic song with a beautiful melody so you’re thinking strings, bgvs, maybe some brass, probably no drums.
And then Paul comes in and wants to put this super busy bass line over it.
—
There had to have been fights.
George was already shy about his songs and now Paul wants to step all over it.
It took a lot of guts to have that bass line in there (which would also require a fuller drum groove to blend the rhythm track).
I don’t think most of us could handle Paul playing on our track. Most of us would be too precious to have a lead bass line on our sweet ballad.
Glad George had the guts.