This my blog if you like where I will discuss varies topics over
the coming weeks...
Managers
Lesser known bands and musicians often seem to think that if
they can only get a manager they will be more successful. In
real life this is generally not true! What a manager can do for
you is nothing that you can't do by yourself and they are going
to be charging you money for every minute they work for you. The
number one dream seem to be to be able to go on tour as support
act for a well known band. Support acts are never paid and they
will actually have to pay for all the costs associated with
touring by themselves. A management can't change this fact and
they will never put their own money into your career. In the old
days, before file sharing killed this business sometimes a big
label could invest in their acts tours but these days are gone
now. When it comes to getting noticed by a label you can easily
find the information you need by yourself rather than having a
manager do it for you.
Everybody's lying
One thing I was told very early about the music business was
that when it comes to sales and success "everybody is lying".
I did not believe it then but I later found out that this really
is the case. Most record labels, distributors and specially
artists are sugar coating the truth when they are asked about
their sales. In this business very few people are making a lot
of money, it's very common that a record cost more money to
produce that you can earn from it, specially in these days of
illegal file sharing. If you want to make money, then you should
become a lawyer or a business man - don't think you can get rich
from making cool music. Of course there are exceptions but then
again, some people also do make a fortune from lottery. Yes - I
would say the odds are about the same, and skill has very little
to do with it... So why would people have to be lying about
these things? The truth is that as an artist you are trying to
sell the image of yourself and the cooler (or more successful)
you appear to be, the more interesting you look... If you you
tell people you only sold 400 copies of your album then you
don't seem to be nowhere as cool as if you claim you sold 10
000, or why not 60 000! And the same goes for your last gig, a
sold-out venue or 25 drunken morons who just came for the
beer:-)
