Innovating and operating through growth
The C-levels at a music publisher I used to work at would drop by my cube once every few days. All nice people, they did their best to be friendly when asking “working on anything big?”
They’d ask that question because I was the person who had developed a system and brought in deals (licenses worth anywhere from $15K-$400K per side). My answer was typically “yes, I’m always working on something big.”
[Read more…] about Here’s Why Your Label Isn’t Getting More Syncs
Today we’re continuing the series of case studies from the exposure vs. value post. In this post we’ll be looking at someone who is self-published and has licensed music across a couple MTV series.
First, if you’d like to check out the origination of this series, you can do so here.
Also, here is a link to the first case study. Caught up? Man you can read fast. Nice work. Here we go.
I like a lot about Andrew’s story because he’s done two very smart things (which is 2 more than most people do); First, he’s acting as his own music publisher, and second he’s outreaching directly to a music supervisor. Here’s what Andrew had to say about his experience:
“I am new to the licensing side of music and when I first decided to give it a shot I was really surprised at how hard it is to get someone to listen to material! But after lots of research, emails, calls, and follow up emails I got in contact with the music supervisor for 16 and Pregnant. He listened to some of my twin brother and I’s material and liked it (and more importantly he liked us) and decided to use 6 of our songs for his shows! It was amazing!”
Pretty awesome right? Here’s a guy who literally just boot-strapped his way to some placements, represented his own catalog, and got a really nice result. Here’s what he has to say about what he gained from the experience:
“I hear a lot of people say MTV doesn’t pay much for their music but for us the amount we got up front was pleasing. On top of that MTV soundtrack was tweeting our twitter handle and song name every time our song played on the original air date…We Also got the opportunity to be the featured artist on MTV soundtrack website and with that we got extra tweets and Facebook shout-outs.
I will say that the number of fans we got wasn’t as good as the money we got from the licensing fee and royalties for being the songwriter and publisher. Over all we gained some fans and got credible placements that generate royalties! We also got to establish a solid relationship with someone who can really help us.”
This is awesome and you can probably see why this is one of my favorite stories. Let’s do a brief recap and then I’ll offer some insight of my own to see where Andrew might start setting himself up for more big wins like these.
Value Gained: Andrew got the best of many worlds. Multiple placements that paid him out fairly, royalties, exposure as featured artist and lots of twitter activity.
The Doc Brown Advantage: Like Lauren I asked Andrew what he might do differently were he given the chance again:
“Well one thing i found out is that it’s a very long process. It took me well over a year to get those placements and in that time I learned a lot. One thing I learned and will always do is to build a professional relationship. These guys get thousands of songs every single week so it is very important to stand out and be memorable, if they get an e-blasted email addressed to them and every other music supervisor I know for a fact they wont bother to read it….The reality is that i have tried ALL of the sites where you pay to submit songs for big deals hoping that it will get used in something. The most important thing I have learned is if you want something to happen you have to make it happen yourself.“
IMHO: There are three highlights I’d like to make about Andrew’s situation. First, since he was representing songs he had composed, not only is he directly negotiating his own fees & terms, BUT he also gets to keep ALL of the money generated from the license. He keeps the sync fee, the writer’s share, and the publisher’s share of the performance royalties. Generally speaking if you’re using a library or placement service, you’d get ONLY your writer’s royalty. If you had a typical publisher, you’d get half (or less) of the sync fee plus writer’s share. What a HUGE difference it makes to do it yourself. More work? You bet. But I think it’s totally worth it for a number of reasons.
Next, let’s not overlook the value of the relationship he established with the music supervisor. Yes, the placements are awesome, the upfront money and royalties are great, and all the social media attention is nice. But probably the MOST valuable takeaway from this experience in my opinion, is his music supervisor relationship. That person could go on to work on many more shows, films, at an ad agency, you name it. If Andrew periodically checks in with the music supervisor, it could mean YEARS of placements, royalties, and heck, even a new friend. This is why I constantly stress being professional and building connections in a genuine manner. It just works better for everyone.
Finally, Andrew REALLY worked hard to get these placements. One year is not an atypical amount of time to securing your first placement (sometimes it can be longer)! Remember to keep on plugging away, stick to your goal and follow your plan. Stay in touch with the good connections you end up making and let yourself grow with them. I’ll talk about this more in my upcoming book which I think you’re really going to love.
If I were to offer advice to Andrew, I would tell him first and foremost to keep following up with that music supervisor. Ask him what new shows he’s working on or even if he wants to grab coffee sometime soon as a thank you. Second is to reflect on that year of research and outreach and try to hone in on the processes that worked. What did that music supervisor respond well to? Was it a particular email or phone conversation? What were key talking points with him that might be relevant elsewhere? Use it as a starter-template to start outreach to new connections. Finally, Andrew had a lot of social media attention but it seems like there’s more opportunity there to engage fans and potential fans. What about creating an email list sending a free single to anyone who saw his music on the show?
I hope you enjoyed Andrew’s story as much as I did and Andrew, I hope you’re really proud. You did excellent work and I’m really happy it paid off for you. You’ve all heard my opinion, what about yours? What would you tell Andrew to do as far as social media goes? Have any of you found really effective strategies for capitalizing on quick bursts of activity online? I’d love to hear about it so send me an email!
We’ve got a couple more case studies to review and I think you’ll find them equally as interesting. Also, please do me a huge favor and check out Andrew’s band Ratham Stone online as a thank you for sharing his story, ideas, and thoughts with us:
What do you mention when talking about what you’re up to musically? Anything! As an indie musician you need to be highly versatile and agreeable to ANYTHING that has to do with music. A friend wants a band to play at a party? Someone else needs a DJ for their wedding? Your boss needs help choosing music for her kids? Yes, yes, and yes.
Get used to saying yes to everything that has to do with music. Even if you’ve NEVER done it before. Even if you don’t have the right equipment. Say YES and figure it out.
This is a key insight into the minds of some of the world’s greatest entrepreneurs. They see someone with a need and find a way to fill that need for that person. Eventually their reputation grows as a problem-solver and soon enough they’re making money – or even building a company – by simply having capitalized on the opportunities all around them.
Here’s how it could work:
Your friend’s friend needs a band to play at a party.
You say YES, figure out what kind of music they want, and do it.
When you go to the party, use it as an opportunity to:
Sure, you may get nothing or you might meet a bunch of people who work in accounting firms who seemingly can’t help. However, if you convey your message clearly, it makes your message easy to remember and easily repeatable. They can then relay your skills to their friends. You can see how literally anyone becomes a great new lead. Plus you might need an accountant some day anyway!
Here’s another more basic setting:
Your friend needs some new music for their daily workout.
You say “I know a TON of great workout music, what kind of stuff do you like?”
You put a playlist together, put yourself in the meta-data in iTunes with your email address, and tell your friend to spread the playlist around if they like it.
– This could potentially lead to a few new fans or mailing list subscriptions, or just some new friends-of-friends who loved your choices, who can now think of you when they think of music.
Saying “yes” is also a great way to learn new skills and develop side projects and alternate revenue streams as you pursue your passions – all because your friends know that when they think “music,” they should think of you.
But this email is titled “what to say” and I know how most of you feel when it comes to self-promotion. You think of it as annoying or contrived and it may make you feel uncomfortable. Well the great news is if you’re starting with friends and colleagues conversations are immediately more comfortable.
But the key when talking to anyone is to thinking about talking UP!
U – Updated
P – Positive
This means that everything you say about your career should be some new detail with a positive spin. Let’s say you’re currently trying to find a music publisher. When your friends ask “hey how’s it going” you could respond by saying:
“It’s going really well, thanks for asking! I actually reached out to a few different music publishers last week about my new EP!”
Your friend might ask what a music publisher is, or ask to hear your new songs, or maybe they just change the subject. Whatever they do, if they engage in a conversation later and music comes up, you can bet they’ll say “oh yeah my friend’s in a band – in fact, I think he just recently was talking to a music publisher about his new EP.”
Simple phrases like that go a very long way. From here it’s possible your friend’s friend could want to get in touch and ask how you did what you did. Maybe they need advice because they’re starting to record their own EP. Or maybe it’s something simple like they’re looking for a new guitar player. This means potentially being able to advise them about publishing, helping produce their EP, or getting an extra gig with their band.
Either way you can see how each time you simply mention what you’re working on in a positive way, the response can lead to a situation where your skills become relevant, interesting, and useful.
Why is it so important to be positive?
Well, check out this response to the same question of “how’s it going?”
“Pretty good I guess. I tried emailing some publishers but I haven’t heard anything back yet. It’s really frustrating. The music business is so tough to get into. I’m not even sure my new EP will get listened to by anyone.”
WHOA! Big difference right? This statement sure says A LOT about how you feel about your own music, and how successful your friends perceive you to be. What do you think your friend might say to their friend now? Do you think they’ll relay a simple, positive statement that gets the person they’re talking to interested? Probably not.
Furthermore, how do YOU feel when someone talks to you in this fashion? How does someone who is positive affect you? Start paying attention to it today – you’ll be blown away.
Here are a few more examples of updates you can give to friends when they ask you “what’s going on?”:
You might even mention that you dig working your day-job because every paycheck brings you 10% closer to your next studio day or an awesome effects pedal or whatever.
Finally, I’d like to talk about when you really don’t want to, or can’t say “yes.” Keep in mind you can always TRY to help. Let’s say someone loves Neil Young and wants to meet him. Well, unless you know Neil or his manager, it’s unlikely you can help, right? But what you might do is head home, hit up the internet and see if you can find a few tips others have used to meet famous people. Then fire off an email with a link.
It might not be an intro to Neil Young himself, but you never know how it can help someone until you try.
Action Step: Write down an example phrase you can use no more than 2 sentences long for each of the 5 examples above. Then, just like you would when working on a song lyric, edit them relentlessly until they are positive, precise, and clear. Start putting one or two of them to use immediately the next time someone asks you “How’s it going?”
We covered a lot in this email, but I hope you found it useful. If you have, please pass it along to a friend, or tweet it and mention my name (@andylykens). I would very much appreciate it!
In the final LHF article we’ll be covering WHO the best people are to find when it comes to advancing your career, and how to find them more quickly through genuine connections to build strong relationships.
The how to be the first thing to spring to mind when a contact thinks about music.
Low Hanging Fruit is a sales concept which means that we need to be sure we’re capitalizing on the opportunities in the places where the fruit is ripe, and easy to pick.
While the metaphor is obvious it exists for a reason: we often get so focused on some large, grandiose plan that we tend to miss out on the easy-wins that surround us everyday…or we get so paralyzed and distracted that
This is especially true in the music industry and getting music licensed. Yes, it’s insanely competitive. Yes, there is a TON of specialty knowledge to learn. Yes, there are a LOT of things you “need” to do.
So we focus on major projects or outreach looking for that big score – music in a commercial, a music publishing deal, some mega-artist recording our song…
But what would we see if we looked for the low-hanging fruit first?
Friends, colleagues, and aquaintances. That’s where. Maybe relatives sometimes too.
“But I don’t have any friends in the music business.”
Shut up and stop being dumb. You don’t HAVE to have friends directly involved in the music industry. In fact, it’s probably better if you don’t since the music industry is a complete shit show right now anyway.
Capitalizing on the opportunities that are around you everyday will involve people that work for an entity that simply uses music. There are obvious ones like ad agencies and production companies, but it could also be less obvious like a dog food company, a car dealership, or even a school.
Being tuned in to what your friends are talking about, getting interested, and simply talking about what you do is the next HUGE step you need to take. Once you do that, you’re on way to being able to genuinely help them while applying those skills and traits we mentioned before.
Now pay attention because this next bit is SUPER important:
Think about that. It means that when you talk to a friend or connection, you realistically cannot expect that because of one conversation all of your dreams will come true. Instead, you should expect that it leads to ONLY ONE MORE step toward uncovering an opportunity to exploit your music.
Yeah, yeah, that isn’t sexy and it certainly isn’t what people want to hear. Tough cookies. Take a look at the goals you created from the last email. How many of those can you instantly achieve in one fell swoop? Probably none. But the nice thing is there is good news about this too:
It also means that you don’t need to know someone super important to take a step in the right direction with your music career.
You may not know anyone directly in the music industry, but I bet there’s a great chance that you know someone who knows someone that can use your skills. Or who knows someone who knows of a conference or event where you can meet people to start making real strides.
What does this really mean though? That you need to be some sleezy, sales-y, douche-bag handing out business cards and CDs to any and everyone you meet? Excuse me while I puke.
No, quite the opposite (this is why your friends are great contacts – they’ll make funny faces or throw bagels at you if you’re being creepy and weird). You can never look ahead into the future to see where things may lead. So, even if you think your friends don’t know anyone it’s important to just talk about what you’re up to as far as music goes. Then, if they ever hear of someone needing a musician or song or something related to music, they immediately think “oh wait, my good friend can help!”
Now we start taking action. Here’s what I’d like you to do to start practice this technique, do it now:
*note: if you’ve only mentioned something to someone one or two times in the past, they don’t know you do it. Trust me.
The next time you see anyone from your list above, try and work just one of those things into the natural conversation. Maybe you have a live show coming up, maybe you love making playlists for peoples’ parties, or maybe you have an in at a studio. Whatever it is, just be concious of that one thing the next time you see that one person.
So now we’ve honed in on our skills and goals, and we’ve started integrating those skills into conversations with friends. The journey continues! Do you feel like a hobbit? That’s too bad cause I’m dressed like Gandalf today.
This is part 3 of a four part series on treating your career in the music business or as a professional musician like an entrepreneur.
Click here for Part 1 – Being A Music Industry Entrepreneur
Click here for Part 2 – Goal Setting in the Music Industry
Click here to register for the newsletter to be sure you don’t miss out on the rest of the series…
Crafting a plan for any music industry project is key. It allows you to materialize an action plan, gives you a tangible list of tasks that act as a checklist and can present to potential partners, and allows you to lay out risks and pitfalls in order to nip problems in the bud.
The key element to ANY music business plan starts with your end goal in mind. We talked about setting goals in the last newsletter so if you missed it, click here. Clearly state the specific goal you have and then list a few of the positive outcomes it will create. Your goal can include acquiring new fans, creating a fanbase mailing list, getting in touch with music supervisors about music licensing opportunities, or even your next EP or album project. Let’s use creating a mailing list as an example.
Example: Create a mailing list based on email addresses acquired at live shows of at least 50 fans over the next 4 gigs.
Once you have your goal stated clearly, you can then consider the steps it might take in order to achieve the goal:
Your list might look very different than mine for this particular project, but you get the idea. You’ve got a goal, you’ve got action steps. An excellent start to any plan. What’s next? Adding a deadline of course!
We already know we want to populate the list with at least 50 people over the course of 4 gigs. We can take this 1 step further by adding something like “or in 1 month, whichever comes first” (although, without a live gig it might be tough to populate an email list).
Then take a look at your other tasks, and work them into that time frame. Once you’ve got it planned set calendar reminders on your phone or laptop, write it down on a calendar near wherever you work, or just refer to it in the plan anytime you boot-up your computer. I will say here it is DEFINITELY a good idea to have it in front of you physically and having your phone beep at you once in a while so you don’t lose sight of your project.
Great! We’ve got our goal, our plan, our schedule, what could go wrong? Exactly! That’s what’s next. Let’s try and come up with as many things that can go wrong along with at least 1 solution for each. It might look something like this:
Again, your solutions and dilemmas may look different than this, but the key is to find reasons why you CAN achieve the goal despite setbacks. This helps break barriers. Again keep in mind, you won’t find the BEST process for goal-planning immediately. It will take time to learn how long it takes to do things, and what things work best as far as accomplishing certain goals. Once you find some processes that work for you, iterating the process and tweaking it to increase your success rate.
Whatever you do, remember to craft a plan, and get started. You may not hit your mark exactly at first, but like we said in the last email, there really is no such thing as failing. Learning, improving, and tweaking is all part of the process.
As my mailing list has grown and my twitter following increases, I’ve been getting emails from some of you. The crazy part is despite the writing I do, I still get some of the most ridiculously crappy emails you’ve ever seen in your life.
Today I want to highlight two such emails and encourage the folks that sent them to write down any complaints, put them in a letter, address an envelope, and then crumple it up and throw it away. There’s no helping you if you’re constantly sending garbage to people.
Seriously? They haven’t even changed their default mail name from “Yahoo! Mail” – and, oh yeah, they SPELLED MUSIC WRONG. Are you serious? How does this person expect me to respond? Here are a few responses that immediately jump to mind:
Look. If you can’t write a complete sentence, give up now. If you can’t do an inkling of homework BEFORE you reach out to someone, give up now.
People will tell you to follow your dreams – I am telling you to stop immediately following your dreams if you can’t write a complete sentence with properly spelled words – you’re wasting everyone’s time. I’m more compelled to open spam emails than garbage like this.
This person can at least write sentences and has included their name. Big improvement.
However, they COMPLETELY miss the point of one of my FIRST key elements of marketing your music: they make it all about them.
I’ve blurred out the info but take a look:
Do you see why people aren’t listening to your music? Do you get it?
If I sent you an email that was incredibly verbose and offered nothing but biographical information, would you ever read it? No, you wouldn’t. You’d sigh heavily, throw your sandwich across the room and run to cry under your bed.
Remember, your goal is to get the person to listen to your music, but you want to be relevant to the person you’re writing to.
If you want to jump-start your outreach efforts, subscribe to my email list. You’ll get a free 8-part music licensing how-to course delivered right to your inbox.