Music Business Hacks

If you've ever wondered how to book SXSW and if it's even worth the trouble, money, and energy to get there, you definitely need to take a listen. Then, create a decision making metric to help with all future music career related decisions. Resources: 3 Decision Making Models Used by Warren Buffet and Jeff Bezos

Today's episode is on beginning the sponsorship conversation. If you’ve done the preliminary work of making your brand attractive to sponsors, developing your niche market, and identifying sponsorship prospects with the most potential, then you’re already off to a great start. Those steps are the foundation on which your sponsorship campaign is built. The more carefully you work each of those areas, the more effective you will be in securing sponsorship. Resources for today: How to Get a Sponsorship or Endorsement - book How to Get a Sponsor pt. 1 (Episode 3) Company Researching Tools: Hoover's One Source Business Information Duns & Bradstreet Vault Corporate Information Linkedin Cool tools: Norbert Linkedin Sales Navigator for Email Also, if you want to connect with me on Linkedin, click here!

This week, we covered a couple of big ideas but they can really be summed up in one theme: it's all about value Episode 15: How to Get on the TED Stage - Being consistently on delivering value to relevant communities can open incredible doors. Episode 16: Hacking Yelp for Your Music - The power of creating a fan biography can lead you down unexpected paths Episode 17: Breaking Into New Markets - You can pair up ingenuity with proven traditional methods to develop new markets for yourself. Episode 18: The Surprising Benefits of Transcribing Your Own Music - The soft and hard skills of musicianship will determine if you'll be a world-class performer or not. These exercises seem simple but will stretch you in amazing ways. Episode 19: Non-obvious Stuff Every Musician Should Carry - My favorite 8 things that every touring musician should bring on the road. Episode 20: It's a Long Way to the Top if You Wanna Rock with Eric Stuart - My conversation with Eric Stuart features a lot of great content and shows the powe

Brooklyn born and raised singer/songwriter Eric Stuart is a special blend of talent. He has successfully combined the world of music, voice acting and directing for many years. Besides starring in hit shows including Pokémon (Brock, James) and Yu-Gi-Oh! (Seto Kaiba), Eric has toured with such rock legends as Peter Frampton, Ringo Starr, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Jethro Tull, Chicago, Hall & Oates, Dave Mason, Julian Cope, Dave Davies, John Entwistle, Steve Howe, The Alarm, John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band, Jeffrey Gaines, and The English Beat. Show Notes: Introduction song - My Love Can Change That by Eric Stuart Band (01:30) - A typical day in the life of a musician-voice actor (03:00) - The Pros and cons of being a full-time musician (03:30) - Daily habits: always have a guitar nearby (05:20) - When should recording a demo happen? (08:00) - How Eric broke into the recording industry (13:30) - Favorite tools, gear, and habits (16:35) - Catching the attention of Ringo Star (19:35) - How gratitude pays off bi

What are the tools that every touring musician should have them with at all times? Tools/Gadgets to check out: Hydro Flask Double Wall Vacuum Insulated Water Bottle Po Chai Pills Vigbagnia Garment Packing Envelope Snark SN5X Clip-On Tuner Ampeak 750W Power Inverter Anker Portable Charger Powerbank Loquat Syrup Dude Wipes (for face, not toilet) Do you have some tour must-haves? Tweet your recommendations to @SimonTheTam or email them to Simon@musicbusinesshacks.com Other Resources: Episode 5: How to Stay Healthy on Tour Episode 9: Perfecting Your Pitch

Transcribing your music involves translating everything from a piece of music that is performed to written form. It's dictation for music. Action items for today: - Start with a song - Adding variation to a transcription - Transcribing music from a different artist/genre Resources: Software: Transcribe! from seventhstring Software: Amazing Slow Downer by Roni Music Software: Avid Sibelius 8 First (notation software) Book: Contemporary Eartraining - Level Two: A Modern Approach to Help You Hear & Transcribe Chord Progressions, Modal Scales, and Key Changes Book/tool: Standard Wirebound Manuscript Paper (Music sheets)

Looking at the traditional methods of making new fans as well as new and unexpected ways of making new fans. How do you measure the return investment? How can leverage old school methods with unconventional ideas? Resources: Episode 2: How to Book Better Shows Episode 9: Perfecting Your Pitch Book: The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell How to Fund New Audiences Through Market Segmentation (article)

Have you ever thought about using Yelp as a viable social media platform to sell music and get more fans to your shows? That's right, Yelp. The food sharing guide. 3 Actions Steps: 1) Define your audience (write a fan bio) 2) Find the communities of the super fan 3) Create a list of engagement opportunities in those communities Recommended Resources: Book: How to Sell Without Selling Book: Jab Jab Jab Right Hook: How to Tell Your Story in a Noisy Social World by Gary Vaynerchuk

The TED stage has a certain clout of prestige in our society. But how do you get there? Today, we talk about how delivering value with consistency can earn opportunities like the TED and TEDx stage. As someone who has appeared on the TEDx stage over a dozen times, I can assure you: this works. Activity: Reflect on this - what is your greatest idea to share? Then, find events to share that idea. Resources: Video: Pitching Your Way to the TEDx Stage (TEDx talk) Book: TED Talks: The Official TED Guide to Public Speaking by Chris Anderson Book: Talk Like TED: The 9 Public-Speaking Secrets of the World's Top Minds by Carmine Gallo How to Get Invited to the TED Stage and What to Do When You Get There (article) 7 Essential Tips to Prepare for a TED Talk (article)

A big week of big ideas! This recap goes over: Episode 8: SMARTER Goals - Your goals should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, timely, involve everyone, and revisited often. They will affect where you go more than nearly anything else. Episode 9: Perfecting Your Pitch - How do you pitch your music? Episode 10: How to Get Venues to Respond - The specific best practices for improving open and response rates from promoters Episode 11: Find New Sources of Inspiration - Ideas about how you can get new ideas for your songwriting Episode 12: Crowdfunding Your Way to the Top - Building support for your work en masse Episode 13: Kicking It with Kickstarter Record Breaker Shanna Germain - An interview with Shanna revealed some great tips for any artist to use for building more support for their work

An interview with author and crowdfunding success story, Shanna Germain. An award-winning writer and editor, she has published more than 350 stories, novellas, novels, articles, essays and books. She is an Associate Fellow at the Attic Institute and has taught classes in writing, publishing, media and photography at a wide variety of places. She is also co-author of Kicking It: Successful Crowdfunding from Stonebox Press Show Notes: Introduction: song - From the Heart (instrumental) by The Slants) (04:26): Why use Kickstarter instead of other platforms? (07:57): The pros and cons of working with collaborators (09:24): How to use stretch goals to raise extra money (13:15): The momentum cycle with crowdfunding campaigns (13:45): How to avoid failure (15:37): The make it or break it point in a campaign (20:22): Using a tool like BackerKit (21:00): Budgeting/goal setting (22:28): Best practices for creating backer rewards (24:36): How to provide incentives so people give more (31:35): The typical day/routine for

Everything you need to know about Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and other sites. Whether you are raising money or crowdsourcing for ideas, we talk about the best practices to apply in campaigns. Whether you decide to launch a campaign or not, it's a good idea to learn about these concepts and lessons that you can apply to your career. Resources: Amanda Palmer: The Art of Asking TED talk The Art of Asking: How I learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help by Amanda Palmer (book) Kickstarter Success Stories (podcast series by John Lee Dumas) How to Create a Successful Kickstarter Campaign (blog)

Today, we talk about how you can continue to get inspiration for your music. We focus on two main action items: - Create an Idea Book - Learning to Write Stories - See What's Selling, Then Do Something Else Resources: - The War of Art: Break Through the blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles (book) - 6 Steps to Songwriting Success (book) - Rocketbook Reusable Smart Notebook - amazing for songwriting ideas! - Pilot FriZion Ersable Pens (for your reusable notebook) - 30 Ways to Find Inspiration for Your Music (blog)

If you're having trouble getting venues to respond to your messages, you need to listen to this episode. We'll go over 7 key tips in improving your booking email response rates as well as activities you take on today. Resources: How to Book Your Band's First Show (article) How to Book Your Band's Tour, Step-by-Step (blog)

Imagine you had an opportunity to directly pitch your music to the record label of your dreams - what would you say? Today's episode focuses on one of the most important skills needed to advance in the music industry: pitching your music. We talk about best practices and specific action items that you can take today for improving your pitch. Resources: Pitching Your Band (blog) Derek Sivers/Ariel Hyatt on creating the perfect pitch (blog/video)

"If you aim at nothing, you'll hit it every time" - Zig Ziglar How you can make goals SMARTER: S - Specific M - Measurable A - Attainable R - Relevant T - Timely E - Everyone R - Revisited (often) Additional Resources: How to Create SMARTER Goals For Your Music (blog)

Our very first weekly recap covers the launch of the Music Business Hacks podcast, including some of the ideas from: Episode 1: Welcome to the Music Business Hacks podcast - how artists can carve out a consistent, daily time for achieving their music business goals and selecting the best types of goals for a career in the industry. Episode 2: How to Book Better Shows - What does "better" mean? It's not just the venue, but also the relevance of space to your audience. Episode 3: How to Get a Sponsor part 1: Creating Partnerships - Redefining "sponsorship" from a one-sided relationship to a partnership. Episode 4: Don't Practice. Rehearse. - My argument for why bands shouldn't waste time practicing and how they can make rehearsals more productive. Episode 5: How to Stay Healthy on Tour - A large part of the battle on the road is staying in peak performing condition. Episode 6: From Sweeping Floors to Smashing Success with DaRealWordSound - An inspirational conversation with DaRealWordlSound on creating a hustle

Our first weekly industry interview is with DaRealWordSound, AKA Elwin G. Williams, III. He is known for his eccentric flow, hardcore nerdcore beats, and his big heart. He's toured with artists like Del The Funky Homosapien (Hieroglyphics), The Artifacts, and Slightly Stoopid, and more. Show Outline: Introduction - Song: New You by DaRealWordSound (03:48): What a Typical Artist Work Day Looks Like (06:00): Pre-show Routines (08:00): Freestyle Exercises at Shows to Engage the Audience (10:10): Learning to Work in a Studio/Breaking Into the Industry (18:50): The Qualities that Set the Pros Apart (31:10): Most Life-changing Books (36:50): Best Music Business Investment (42:50): How Possible Failure Can Turn Into Success (45:00): The Power of Building a Community (49:05): How You Can Be Ready for the Big Moment (58:02): Advice That Every Artist Should Ignore Resources: Book - Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill Book - Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell Book - Who Moved My Cheese

In today's episode, we focus on some basic but important guidelines for staying healthy while on tour. From eating properly to the type of exercise you can do while in a van, these habits will help you feel better on the road. Action items: Learn basic stretches and exercises Create a tour grocery shopping list Resources: 8 Things Every Touring Musician Should Carry 8 Ways to Exercise While You Commute

Perhaps the biggest impact on your live performance is how you approach practices and rehearsals. In this episode we focus on: The difference between practicing and rehearsing 3 Essentials for making your rehearsals more often Why you should rehearse just like a live show Rules for rehearsal If you like this episode, be sure to share it with someone who needs to learn how to rehearse more effectively!