This my blog if you like where I will discuss varies topics over the coming weeks...

April 2008
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 thise 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. 


March 2008
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:-)