Fan Landers Advice For Musicians Column In The Village Voice

[Tre]

This afternoon I stumbled upon Fan Lander's Advice column in the Village Voice while doing some googlin' on DIY recording. It is an advice column answering questions from musicians concerning their careers, band issues, etc. I found it quite enjoyable and informative. This looked to be the best place to post the link in the forum, but if it should be elsewhere perhaps one of the moderators could move it.

[john]

Hi Tre. An interesting read, though I wouldn't necessarily make the same recommendations she does I do a gree with quite a lot of it. For example I don't necessarily agree with her conclusion about bands carving out a living being quite as pointless as she makes out.

Like most things in the music business, getting to the next level is as much about the attitude of the band. With the right mind set and a healthy dose of creativity the field is as open as it ever was.... as long as musicians get the fundamental that making a living as a musician is not just about making recordings and selling them. You need far more in your toolbox now. Both gigs and merchandise are primary income streams for musicians now, with music providing income, yes, but far less than it used to. Selling music is gradually becoming a loss leader. It opens the doors for new fans to come in. If you have a big hit you can still make a lot of money from selling recordings, but the promotional cost at the stage of "break-through" singles (that first massive hit) means much profit from music is wiped out. Because only the very top singles make back the cost of breaking through it becomes a bit of a lottery, an outside bet with huge sums. A top end break-through single can easily cost $750k - $1.5M to put together, at least to recreate the break-through moment for a star the likes of Rhiana.

Of course, lower budget bands can break-through into the next level up for much less, with a lower expectation and lower returns, but still it is a step up.

Making living in the music business relies on one thing, like any other business, and that is making more money than you spend making it, with enough surplus to accommodate your lifestyle. Being successful at this depends on your business model, and fundamentally accepting that if you want to progress in the music business, you have to approach it like any other business.

If you're not sure what to do, then reseacrh successful bands and find out what they do, to break through, research what baands that succesfully break through now are doing. What work for you might not be exactly the same, but you can see steps you can take, opening up your understanding of what works and what doesn't and help give yourself a grounding in the business aspect of playing in a band, helping you grow your business vision. It's not good enough to replicate either, you have to evolve ideas, and that means using your creativity to expand on what you know works.

Sharing costs and fanbases etc has it's place, but it's not the be all and end all of bands progressing on low budgets. Bands need to engage their fans and motivate them to spread the word. A nig part of that is having good quality music, and a good image, but these days there are so many ways bands can interact with fans and encourage them to be active in pushing them forward that not doing so is just crazy.

I'll shut up, before I end up writing a book within this post lol A good link and I'll be interested to see what other advice she offers.

Cheers

John

[Tre]

I found the posts to her column to be interesting as well, and it is always nice to see an advice column for musicians! With regard to making a living playing music, I think that Danny Barnes' article "how to make a living playing music" is probably more realistic for the vast majority of those who wish to be able to feed themselves and their families from the music they make.