Just a quick post to let you know I’m totally digging this new Ace Reporter track. Check out the full article here on SKOA.
Here’s the track itself:
Music
Get On The Right Track
My commute to work in the morning is a fairly simple process but it does involve two sensible options.
Option 1: I can get on the F train at Delancey/Essex, then change at West 4th street for the uptown C or E. I’ve made the commute as quick as about 20 minutes and typically it doesn’t take longer than 30 minutes.
Option 2: Get on the F at Delancey/Essex, and get off at 34th Street, then walk the rest of the way.
Option 1 means I have to wait for a second train but be slightly closer to my office at the exit. Option 2 means I don’t have to wait for a second train but I do have a little bit further to walk.
It may seem like a snap. Maybe choose to walk a littler further on nice sunny days like today, or perhaps take option 1 when I’m in a hurry. But more goes into it than that. Because some mornings I don’t bring coffee so I like to stop and get iced coffee at Starbucks. Of course, if it’s chilly and I want a hot coffee the cup at the local deli on my way to work on option 1 is just fine.
But of course if I stay at the back of the train on Option 2, I walk fewer short blocks and only 1 long block.
And on, and on it goes and I tell you this isn’t a single-time occurrence. This happens in my mind almost everyday depending on how close to being on time I am vs. my need for coffee, etc.
This morning I realized I was over-analyzing my situation and from now on, I’ll just take option 2. Not for any “good reason,” mostly just because it feels better and I am TIRED of over-thinking about it.
It dawned on me that in life, we often do this.
When we try to achieve a goal, how often do we over-think our situation? And how often are we presented with the same, or similar situations, and continue to choose based on lengthy mental analyzations?
As musicians here’s how it might manifest itself:
Goal: “Today I’m going to submit my music to a label”
Thought process: What if they don’t like it? What if someone doesn’t answer the phone? What if someone does answer the phone? What if I forget to attach my pkit to the email? Should I follow up with the person I’ve just emailed a couple of days ago? What if it bothers them? What if I get the wrong person? I’d better research the right person to talk to. Crap, I can’t find the person I need to talk to. Now what do I do? I found the main line but I’m terrible on the phone.
…and on and on. The reality is we think too much about almost everything and too many times we manage to convince ourselves into prolonging efforts or even worse, into in-action. Analyzation can be a very useful tool but we need to ACT more on our guts. ACT on the goal.
If you have a goal set for yourself for today, or next week or this year – what are you actively doing to move closer to it? How can you take a step right now to simply DO that thing? If it’s a long term goal can you back-track from end-result to what you can do TODAY to progress just a little more towards the desired result?
Today, choose a path to take and a take the first step to move down it. Put down the Xbox controller and write the chorus to that song. Close down iChat and make a list of 15 main-line phone numbers for labels to call. Turn off the TV, and turn on Spotify and listen to 15 new songs you’ve never heard before.
Your goal can be a simple one so long as you keep moving forward.
3 Key Tips For Getting Your Music In A Commercial
Yes, advertising pays and it pays well. The days of seeing licensing music for use in advertisements as selling out are near an end (for most bands and artists). As long as a song is aligned with a cool brand, the brand will shell out a stupid amount of money, or if a new artist is seeking exposure the placement of music in advertising seen as a smart business move.
When I speak at Universities or at panels inevitably artists will ask a question that’s burning in their minds:
“How do I get my music in a commercial?â€
I’d be lying if I told you it’s easy and didn’t take a long time to get something placed. Even major publishers and labels have dedicated people (like me!) pitching music ALL the time. At the end of the day it’s a combination of a lot of different ideas, connections, and decision-makers and it can STILL get shot down by a final party at the end – more about all that in a later article. However at the most fundamental level there are some things you can consider about getting your music in an ad (please note these are also relevant to placing your music in film and TV).
Leave Copywriting to the Pros – At times people in other departments at Imagem will throw us ideas like “Hey, you should pitch this song for an electric company commercial because the lyrics are all about being in the dark!†or an artist manager might make some obvious connection of a song with one line about “rolling along†and think it’d be just PERFECT for a car commercial. While that may seem highly relevant consider this:
The agency probably already has an idea of the kind of song they want to use (if any) or any type of lyrical theme. These people are paid to be highly creative and the chances of them either changing their original concept or basing one on a blatantly obvious connection to a lyric is really small. Most of the time when choosing a song (unless they’re doing a brand partnership with a certain artist) they already know what they want.
Instead, focus on making your lyrics GREAT. Edit them over and over again until you’re not using too many or too few words, get your metaphors just right, and leave the creative interpretation to the pros. Often times staying on theme and on point with your lyrics can really make your music stand out.
Have Your Splits Ready – While not always necessary, it’s really important to have your backing tracks bounced out and ready to roll. Sometimes agency will want just the instrumental because there’s a lot of VO (Voice Over) on the spot, and sometimes they may want to have just the chorus come in at a certain timing.
The point is, if you don’t have them now it will probably take you too long to track them down once they’re requested. That means if a brief calls for a non-vocal cut, your music simply won’t be considered. And guess what? Non-vocal usage usually pays just as much as a spot with vocals.
Do Your Homework – And you thought your days of homework ended when you handed in your last Schenkerian analysis! Just because you’re not in school anymore doesn’t mean you can’t constantly be improving and learning. Since you’re so keen on getting your music in a commercial, why not learn about trends in advertising?
Ever notice how lots of commercials for the past few years have sounded a heck of a lot like the Juno Soundtrack? And before that all you heard were songs that sounded like “Clocks� The Moldy Peaches and U2 seemed to have made a lasting impression on advertising. Currently, that genre has been expanded and if you’ve got something folky and slightly under-produced that has whistling, hand-claps, a ukelele, or some combination thereof you’re seemingly in good shape.
All half-kidding aside, people involved in branding are susceptible to trends just like everyone else. Head over to AdWeek.com and check out the AdFreak section. Watch a ton of ads and note what musical elements are common in them. Does your sound match anything you hear? What do certain brands choose as the soundtrack to how the want to be presented to millions of people?
Keep in mind I’m not suggesting you immediately run into the studio and record based on what you hear in the latest Old Spice commercial (a solo whistling album probably wouldn’t be on anyone’s top 10 anyway). In my opinion being yourself and finding your own voice will ALWAYS be the MOST important thing. But it does help to take a look at which music brands are choosing to use in their ads.
If you have any more tips or any questions feel free to address them in the comments! Like what you read here? Don’t like it? Let me know, I’m here to help!
How Does An Independent Artist Stay Relevant While Creating New Music?
How often does a band you love come out with new music? If your answer is “typically once a year” you win the prize (which is getting to read the rest of this article). Last night at a happy hour with some clients I had the unique opportunity to chat with Wise Girl (an independent artist) and the CEO of Melody Robot (and freelance ad agency producer) at the same time. It was great. I love picking their brains to see how the two different sides think and bouncing ideas off of them to see how they resonate.
Looking to successful businesses and marketing campaigns can help eschew old music industry models to advance independent music. Lately my big thing is product cycle.
If you’re an avid Apple fan you really look forward to June, September, and January. Why? Because these are typically the big refresh dates for Apple products. If you watch Breaking Bad on TV chances are you look forward to every Sunday night for 13 weeks in a row and then download the series to watch it again in a few months. Or maybe you love to shop at J. Crew and can’t wait for Fall, Winter, Spring and Summer catalogs to show up in your mailbox.
Are you starting to formulate what I’m driving at? At its fastest music generally comes out once per year. You get 10 songs, sometimes as many as 16, and maybe a concert, and then it’s back into hibernation.
Now, for a band like Pearl Jam that has sold nearly 32 million records and has a huge global fan base, you can choose to release an album once a year (or longer) and go on tour for 3 months and know you’ll sell a ton of records. People will punch each other in the face just for the miniscule chance they’ll be able to buy a ticket to see a live performance too. Leading up to that release, they’ll scour the web searching for every tidbit they can about the band. They have the luxury of already having a hungry public in place. But what if you don’t have a huge fan base? What if you need to transition from being “this band I kind of like” to “I cannot wait for their next album!”?
Shouldn’t independent artists be in frequent contact with their fans? Shouldn’t they seem prolific? Wouldn’t scheduling yourself to write and record music be an insanely useful exercise? So why bust your ass to save up $5K, take FOREVER to complete a project, then release it and act surprised that you don’t immediately gain fame and fortune?
Here’s the deal: as a new artist you have a lot of work to do and only about 20 percent of it is actually writing music. You need to garner some attention from current fans, they need to know what you’re doing, hear the results, and get an exclusive look at how you did it. Fans need to be engaged in your work and encouraged to pass it around to their friends due to its raw magnetism. It is NOT good enough to release an album once a year or an EP every 6 months, play a few shows, and then go back to waiting tables while you wait for something to happen or try to shop your 10 songs around.
The game has changed. Consider using a content calendar. Tweet photos, post temp tracks, ask for feedback, populate and maintain a mailing list (I LOVE Mail Chimp). Find ways to engage your fans, solicit new ones, and keep them posted with what you’re doing, what it looks like, how it’s sounding, and building that anticipation for the final product. After all, it works for Apple.
**Feel free to leave your ideas in the comments about how or if you currently do this, and note which tools you like best.
Spotify and Google Music leave me searching…
In my opinion, there still isn’t a good solution. Granted, in a 2.0 world, these are 1.0’s. They’re the first music services of their kind, they probably won’t be the last, but I expected a lot more (and still do from Google).
Let’s start with Spotify: great idea, amazing implications, lack-luster executions. The best part about Spotify is that I could find an amazing array of music any time I wanted. The downfall is that after 2 months, I found myself barely using the app on my iPhone, and having never downloaded the desktop version. In fact, when I paid for premium service and found it wasn’t just a web app, I actually got mad. Not a good sign.
The iPhone app worked, but it left a lot to be desired. The interface isn’t terrible smooth, the playlists aren’t terribly well organized, and there just generally seems to be a lot missing from it.
So, when my credit card expired and Spotified notified me to update it, I just didn’t bother. I suppose I don’t find myself desperately needing to listen to music I don’t already own terribly often.
Google Music is different. The first and best thing I like about it is that it is an online interface, and the second is that the interface is nice and makes sense. Sure, I had to spend about two weeks uploading my music, and that really, really, really, really….really, really…really blows. But once it was up, it worked well.
The other big bummer is there is no iOS app for it.
I suppose you could say the verdict is still out for google, and sure, they’re probably just trying to avoid getting sued by basically everyone, but at the end of the day it just isn’t really doing it for me.
iTunes, you’re up next. Can’t wait to see what Apple brings to the table in the realm of hosted music services!
Too big of a ship or too big of a head?
This week HP announced that they will no longer be competing in the PC industry, instead they will be focusing on cloud computing. Hold on. What? You mean the largest PC manufacturer in the world is going to just stop. And they’re going to stop making tablets and smart phones too? Yes, it’s true. In fact, if you’d like to read a great article about what this means to their industry, check out this one.
So why am I writing about this in a blog typically geared towards the music industry? Well, as usual it’s to point out the failings of the music industry. Let’s think: when the music industry was faced with a competitor that absolutely, 100% got something right, what did it do? What was the RIAA’s reaction to Napster? And what’s more, what does the industry continue to do?
The solution probably wouldn’t have been to resign the administration of all copyrights to Napster, but in the late 90’s and early 00’s, the industry was in pretty good fiscal shape and it’s my contention that they could have bought Napster, or at least made some sort of deal. But no. What did they do? Lawsuit.
And now the industry sits atop their recent “accomplishment” of having earned money instead of lost it for the first time in years. Wow. Way to set the bar high for yourselves. I’m not sure if you knew this music industry, but you’re actually supposed to make money in ever-increasing amounts EVERY year. Not fail miserably for 10 years and then trumpet your prestige when you finally earn a few pennies. Anyway, I digress.
What is really interesting and even quite cool about this HP thing is that they’re turning an awful big ship. Everyone uses the excuse in the music industry “well it’s just too big of a ship to turn quickly!” Really? Bigger than HP? Nope. Now what’s the excuse? Oops.
Now the only thing left to blame is the ‘vision’ (or blindness) of the leadership of the major music companies.