Lyric 'SEZ':

People question me constantly on everything from how to write a better tune  to starting  a record company or a publishing company. Other people suggest that I CREATE the "new" music industry.
The suggestions would easily total in the thousands if I counted them all up.

Got someone  in the music business you can trust.? I have a handful, and I know thousands upon thousands .  Most of the people who send me the emails include links to their MySpace pages or web sites. Much of it is good,  but greatness, that takes staunch musicianship and devotion to one's craft for a lifetime. 
  

 The record companies and music publishers generally don't accept unsolicited demos or CDs -- they know what the odds of finding the GREAT artists or songwriters really are -- almost non-existent.
The people who email me and want me to change the world (as it relates to the music industry),  and I wish that I COULD make it easy for them to sell their music. But it's not about THEM. It's not about me or corporations lowering the bar to accept songs or artists that are just "pretty good."

It's not even about the people at the major record labels. In the end, it's ALWAYS about the consumer, the music lover -- the fan -- yes, it's about making great music that gets your fans to tell their friends about you and your songs. No matter WHO is in power, great songs will always rule the day. Especially in a more decentralized music industry where musicians will market directly to their fans. The days of shot-gunning your demo out to every A&R person in a music business directory are toast!

The days of the multi-million sellers are mostly behind us as well. The dawn of the empowered artist may be cresting the newly lit horizon, but hold up there just one little minute!

~~Don't you HAVE your MySpace page cranking, boxes full of great looking CDs in your basement, your music on a bunch of digital music distribution sites and every other thing you can do to sell your music?

~Haven't you found that you don't NEED the "man" to sell your music or to share the royalties with?

~What's that? You're not selling enough of your music to quit your day job, let alone fly around in your Gulfstream IV?

~You don't have the time or the money to market your music in any significant way?

~You're just a songwriter or a band . . . an ARTIST and certainly not an expert in the music BUSINESS -- what?!

~Well then, how are you going to make it in the "new" music business? Who's going to fund your recording?

~Who's going to market your music?

~Who's going to take care of all your music business needs like hooking you up with the right producer or tour manager or making sure you get paid?
Not the major record labels, because they'll be gone. Illegal downloading has all but wiped them out.

How will YOU do it without a manager, a publisher, a record label, a publicist, a tour manager, a music attorney and a host of other support staff?

How many singer/songwriters or bands can you name that have sold multi-millions of records without a major record company behind them? Maybe one or two at best?

And how long will their careers last? They're probably over already or they've gone to the dark side and signed with a record company to take them to the next level.

And don't give me that "Radiohead"/"Arctic Monkeys" made millions by letting their fans decide how much to pay" crapola. They wouldn't have HAD the millions of fans if not for their major label helping them build their career for a decade prior to their grand experiment.

What would happen if you tried the same thing tomorrow?
Don't get me wrong. There's no bringing back the major record labels with their rosters of hungry A&R people. Maybe not even the top Indie labels. They ARE doomed. I just don't want to see the entire music business doomed along with them! I don't want to see songwriters, bands and artists become a footnote to YouTube or video games.

The best thing you can do to ensure your place in the "new" music industry is to write GREAT songs. Not good songs. Good ain't good enough, no matter what form the new music business takes.

Why do you think we all still love the Motown classics, the Beatles, Zeppelin and the Stones? Because their songs are still GREAT. Great sells itself. Always has. Always will.