Posts by Pinky

Passion: A Self Portrait

Posted by Pinky on Nov 10, 2010 in Blog | 24 comments

I hated school more than anyone I know. From the 4th grade on, I fought with teachers, ditched class, refused to do homework, switched schools, and but by the grace of teachers that knew I would be better served by a D- than an F, I miraculously graduated from high school without having to repeat a grade. Which is good, because I wouldn’t have done so anyway. In fact, I tried to get my parents to allow me to take the G.E.D. when I was 16, going so far as to begin the process of legal emancipation so I could make the decision myself, then predictably quit that too. When all was said and done, I had attended twelve different schools between grades 6 and 12.

I landed my first “real” job at age 15, working in the paint department at Sears. I was fired 5 months later for stealing money from the register. And while my criminal career ended there, I went through nearly 50 jobs before I was 21. From most, I was fired, and from the rest, I quit. Some were temp jobs, others were not. And I did everything from pizza delivery to customer service to retyping medical insurance manuals. (I was pretty good with a keyboard.) I had problems with authority, a knack for arriving late, and often quit by simply not showing up to work at all. I was quite a catch.

On paper you would have assumed that I would end up as some transient, thieving, burnout. Yet somehow I ended up a millionaire at age 30 (and no, it wasn’t from some crazy pyramid marketing scheme ). I have been teaching at Belmont University for three years now and was given the Adjunct Professor of the Year Award this past Spring. I just married the love of my life and look forward to having kids myself someday. All around, life is pretty good right now.

You’ve heard this story before, right? Bill Gates famously dropped out of college, as did his nemesis Steve Jobs, Walt Disney, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, and my favorite, Albert Einstein. (For a ridiculously long list of others, click here.) Unfortunately, dropping out does not guarantee success, but there is something you don’t hear often enough…

Passion Hurts

We love to think about these guys just gushing with energy and enthusiasm for the things they love, earning unfathomable fame and fortune along the way, but let me tell you what it feels like to see your mom break down in sobbing tears after you have been caught ditching school just hours after a deep heart-to-heart about making a true effort to get through the end of the school year. What it’s like to wonder how you’re going to pay the rent because of your own stupid actions… again. Wondering how you can possibly survive another 30, 40, 50 years of being hired and fired from an endless string of jobs, and most seriously, wondering if suicide might literally be a better option than putting yourself and your family through the pain of watching a life perpetually crash and burn. In fact, I tried when I was 17… and you guessed it… failed at that too.

How’s that for a downer?

But you know what? That’s what passion does. It COMPELS. It FORCES us to move in mysterious ways, seemingly against our own will at times, and opens impossible doors at others.

I’ve blogged about this before, but my world turned right-side-up the day I met Strangewood, the band that got me started in the music business. Six months to-the-day after seeing their first concert I was in Zurch, Switzerland managing a 13 country tour for a group that had just come off the road with No Doubt. When I met my destiny, everything clicked, and suddenly my need for constant stimulation and ability to adapt to any social situation were my greatest assets. The funny thing is that I was terrible at the job. Too young, unorganized and impulsive to handle the responsibility, but I knew beyond any shadow of a doubt that I had found my path, and I think anyone who knew me at the time would tell you that they could visibly see the change in me.

It’s nearly noon on a Wednesday afternoon and there are 100 things I should be doing right now, but I came into the office today jet lagged and unmotivated to do much of anything. I scanned through job listings at facebook and Google just for fun, dreamt about moving to the beach with my new bride and opening a coffee shop or a tourism marketing agency to pay the bills, popped on a little Zac Brown Band and wondered what it must be like to make your living making music, and then I remembered…

Music is the greatest expression of passion there ever was. There is a reason we like sad songs. Angry songs. Sweet, loving, emotional songs. They remind us of what passion is. What passion does. What life is all about.

I’m not great at anything I do, except for one thing. I let passion lead the way. It’s really the only choice I’ve got. I have the joy of working with artists, musicians, entrepreneurs and a long list of “creative types,” and if there’s one thing this world can use a little more of, it’s people like them that channel their energies into creating new things.

If you hate your job, your school… your life, I’ll refrain from telling you to throw in the towel on any one or all of them, but do remember this – life sucks for everyone, but those that thrive are often the ones that direct their inspiration into creating things. Write, paint, sing, design, invent, construct… do what you’ve got to do to get those juices flowing, and watch, actively, for opportunities that allow you to spend more of your time on the things you genuinely love.

And give your mom a hug. She probably deserves it.

Artist Management 101: A Manifesto

Posted by Pinky on Oct 19, 2010 in Blog | 15 comments

My very first “real” job in the music business was managing a band from Petaluma California called Strangewood. They were a pop/rock outfit that played around the Bay Area on a regular basis. Zach Hammer and Jed Friesen, the vocalist/lead guitarist and drummer respecitvely, are still playing together in a group called Five AM.

I had no idea what I was doing. I wasn’t sure if my job was to book the band, get them a record deal or drive the van. (The correct answer was ‘yes.’) I just wanted to be of help as we all stumbled our way through this great and mysterious business of music.

That was many years ago. Since that time I have had the joy of working with people in all facets of the business – agents, promoters, publicists, publishers, licensors, label execs and the like. Twelve years on, I think I finally have a handle on what it means to be an artist manager. Though ironically, it was working OUTSIDE of the business that taught me to think like a ring-master. These are some of the lessons I have learned along the way.

Lesson One: Don’t call it commission.

Managers are famous for taking 10% – 20% of the gross revenue from the artists they represent. This is considered a fair sum as the manager is ultimately responsible for the overall strategic direction of an artist’s career, including the hiring (and firing) of additional team members.

In business, we call that equity. If I was hired to run a new company that had very few resources and required a great deal of my time, it would be perfectly appropriate to take a piece of the business as part of my compensation. HOWEVER: It should not be confused with “commission,” which is a percentage of whatever you went out and sold. When you’re a business owner, you are responsible for sales, but you’re also responsible for marketing, infrastructure costs, HR issues and the overall performance of the company. None of that earns a commission, but all of it matters to the bottom line. You must think holistically about your artist’s business or you’re missing the entire point. If you want to avoid all of those headaches and just get paid a piece of what you sell, become an agent or a promoter. It’s a much different gig. (And an important one at that.)

Lesson Two: Experience Matters.

This one hurts if you’re in the position I was in when I started out. I had enough passion to light up the city of San Francisco and absolutely no idea how it should be directed. The resulting insecurity led me to ask my artists to sign multi-year management contracts just so a “big-time” manager couldn’t swoop in and take me out of the picture. How sad is that? I was limiting my own friends in the name of personal security… which in the end, those contracts did not provide. They created animosity and frustration on all sides when I couldn’t deliver the holy grail of indie super-stardom – a major label record deal. The paper was worthless and made us all feel trapped. Don’t do it.

Lesson Three: What your professor doesn’t want you to know…

There didn’t used to be such a thing as a college degree in “music business.” The very notion was so uncool you would literally have been at a disadvantage up to and through the ’90s if you had one. But as this ship has begun to list, the rules are changing and the roll of the artist manager is as well. I am very fortunate to teach at Belmont University, which is famous for its music industry undergrad and graduate programs. But if I may be so bold, I don’t think that we are teaching the skills required to succeed in the music business. We’re teaching the mechanics. We’re teaching WHAT it is, not how to bend it to our will. Our students should out-perform anyone that lacks a formal education in our industry, but the fact is, it’s mostly trial and error, and you pretty much start at the bottom and work your way up with or without a degree. It’s called “on the job training,” and it has historically been the only way to make it in this business.

But there is a solution.

Today’s managers should learn how to develop talent. To refine performance. To create a spectacle. To produce a show. And to sell tickets to high quality entertainment events. Those are things that can be taught. And in tomorrow’s world, where CDs no longer exist and the only reason to buy a download is out of sympathy for an artist, tickets to shows and souvenirs are all that will sustain us. If a manager doesn’t know how to produce an event that is worth paying for, they don’t know the first thing about the business they’re supposed to be “managing.”

Mötley Crüe knew that 30 years ago. The Grateful Dead knew it 40 years ago. And Lady Gaga will make a billion dollars in the next decade because she knows it now.

Let me rephrase that… It works in heavy metal, it works in psychedelia and it works in pop, and it always has. Don’t tell me it won’t work for your artist. If it doesn’t, you’re in trouble.

Lesson Four: Be bigger than the sum of your parts.

Even the best manager in the world would be worthless if it weren’t for the team of people and companies that surround them. The most important thing a manager can do is hire the right people to play their parts. This is a basic list of the professionals a manager needs to be able to wrangle:

Booking Agent – Everybody knows this but most artists will hire anyone that promises to book shows. An agent that believes you’re the next U2 will put dollars in your pocket. An agent that doesn’t know what they’re doing will waste your time and give you 100 excuses for why the shows aren’t coming in. A great agent has connections and calls in favors for their most important clients. A manager that doesn’t have access to serious agents isn’t a serious manager.
Promoter – These are typically selected on a tour-by-tour basis, but developing acts don’t have to wait until the 80 city world-tour to find and take advantage of the skills a promoter brings to the table. Re-read “Lesson Three.” A promoter should know what an audience wants, what they’ll pay and how to advertise and evangelize an event. This can be an individual or a major corporation, but they should be just as excited about your events as you are.
Road Manager - This person is your protector, your babysitter, your travel agent, your assistant, your best friend, worst enemy and often times, your driver. Trust me when I say that you don’t want just “any” road manager. They should be 5x more responsible than you are on 1/5th the sleep. They should also smell nice. (You’ll thank me later.)
Publicist – Be careful with this one. Many publicists think that their job is to write press releases and send out mass mail to journalists that get 400 requests a day and don’t give a rip about your new album or local event. A great publicist, above all, knows people. They get ink. They get blog features. They work with you to develop a market-by-market strategy. If yours doesn’t do ALL of those things, you’ve got an expensive spammer on your hands.
Business Manager – The money miser. This person handles everything from taxes to pay roll to long term investments. They are your financial advisor and very best friend. This is the scariest position for a manager to hire, because they have direct contact with the artist and can tell them if a manager is acting irresponsibly – either in terms of what they’re being paid or what they’re turning down. Never trust a manager’s “best friend” to be your business manager. It’s a highly skilled occupation and is best managed by a firm such as Flood Bumstead McCready McCarthy.
Attorney – Where would the world be without lawyers? Ya can’t live with ‘em, and you certainly can’t protect and/or defend yourself without them. Yours should have gray hair. They should understand intellectual property. They should be respected. And your manager should know several and give you the choice of who to work with.
New Media Manager – If you’re really lucky, your manager will be an HTML 5 wizard, a social media guru and have drinks with Steve Jobs every Thursday night. What’s more likely however, is that your manager knows who to call when it’s time to build an effective web strategy. There are several reputable companies out there to choose from and I’d be glad to make a recommendation if you need one, but your manager should have a 100% solid grasp on the importance of digital media in today’s music industry. (Hint: It IS today’s music industry.)
Oh yea… and a record label. Yes, they still matter. If any of the above-listed professionals are going to get paid, you need to be famous. You’re only going to get famous if zillions of dollars are spent marketing you to the masses. Record labels are the only investors stupid enough to risk millions of dollars on 20-somethings with no clue about how the business works and zero interest in anything but hot chicks and guitar licks. It’s quite a model. There are 101 ways to get a deal, but the more people your manager knows, the easier it is to get a serious shot at a contract. No one knows EVERYONE, but a manager that can assemble a solid team will know someone that knows everyone. And everyone is everything.

So now that I’ve written a 4,000 word essay on what management *should* be, let me take it all back and say this…

If you are a developing artist, you need to be your own manager until someone fits the description above. You need to build, book and promote your own shows. (Just like Mötley Crüe did way back when.) You need to create a spectacle. There is nothing more attractive to a hot shot executive than an artist or a band that is already making money. You want them competing for you. You want to be their priority. You want to find someone who has been around the block but isn’t over-worked with their existing commitments. This person is nearly impossible to find, but they will find you if you’re building a scene. If the idea of managing your own career does not appeal to you, I’m really sorry, but you should quit now. There is a profound difference between crafting emotional works of art and making a living selling them. Anyone can make music but very few can make it their living. And that’s what makes those who do so special.

Happy hunting!

MySpace Music Marketing w/ The New Band Page Layout

Posted by Pinky on Oct 14, 2010 in Blog | 0 comments

MySpace may have earned its reputation as the slow-moving, non-listening, Fox News-affiliated former network of choice, but when it comes to music discovery and search engine magnetism, facebook still doesn’t hold a candle to them… at least for now. In today’s class we walked through the front end of the site and then built a band profile with the new MySpace Music band profile tools.

Class is in session!

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/10202087

… and because this was the last class session before the Fall break, we spent a little time watching YouTube videos and discussing the epic experiment that was “I’m Still Here,” Joaquin Phoenix’s faux documentary. It’s a little rough so I split it off as its own segment. If you’re so inclined, that video is available here:

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/10201753

Using Twitter to Build A Fan Following

Posted by Pinky on Oct 12, 2010 in Blog | 0 comments

I’m not sure why Ustream.tv didn’t want to stream the webcam but did fine with the screen cast and audio, but hopefully there’s enough from today’s class to get some use out of.

We covered the basic’s of Twitter today, including lists, hash tags, retweets, @replies, and most importantly, the ins–and-outs of building a following with tools like Tweet Adder.

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/10163706

Investing In The Music Business Part VII

Posted by Pinky on Oct 12, 2010 in Blog | 9 comments

Earlier this year I began a series on “investing in the music business,” which was based on the lessons I have learned over the last 12 years as a music industry professional, entrepreneur and investor. My question was:

Why can’t we apply a venture capital-style model to the music industry, give artists a way to own their own creative works, consider live performance the new distribution model and standardize music licensing to encourage technological and creative innovation?

In my last interview with Larry Pareigis, we learned the answer. We can’t do any of those things because it costs $500,000 PER SINGLE to promote a song to radio, not including the expense of recording, touring, eating and clothing ourselves in the process. In other words, if you don’t have $2,000,000 minimum, you’re not even in the game, and if you do, as Larry puts it, “you’re entering into a business that has a 98% failure rate, why do you think you’re a part of that 2%?”

This can’t really be right, can it? If it were really this expensive, how could there be any record labels at all?

Labels have historically made it work in 3 ways:

They have an in-house radio promotion staff so their per-song cost is lower than independent promotion would be (though not by very much).
They play the odds. Most of what they sign fails, but the artists that succeed pay so well it makes up for their losses.
As the gatekeepers to a $38.6 billion dollar industry, there was plenty of money to go around.

Forester Research is predicting that the industry could shrink to $9 billion by 2013, and any time an entire industry shrinks to a quarter of its original size in just a few years, blood gets spilled.

So what’s the solution?

For starters, if you’re an aspiring artist and you’re in it for the money, you’re in the wrong line of work.

Next, if you don’t want to play live, you’re in the wrong line of work.

Third, if you don’t want to tour, you’re in the wrong line of work.

Fourth, if you expect someone else to handle all the “business” so you can just be an “artist,” you’re in the wrong line of work.

But if you believe in miracles, make music for the pure joy of doing so, get out and play every single weekend and write songs that truly stand out, you might just make it in the music business. And by “make it” I mean “pay a normal sum for a normal house in a normal neighborhood.” Until you’re 35. And then you’d better get a job.

The irony is that I teach a course in the digital marketing of superstardom and have made a living on the exception to the rule for most of my career. In fact, I’m being interviewed by NPR today about Taylor Swift’s digital strategy. (They want to know if her online efforts have brought more fans into the country music fold.) I also work with about 10 technology startups in various capacities – some that even focus on music technology and innovation. But if you ask me if a venture capitalist can take the place of the modern music label, I’m sad to say that I really don’t think so unless they approach it from a philanthropic perspective. Meaning, if a wealthy investor wants to “risk” $2m – $5m for a good cause, an artist will be able to write, record and perform music and have a true shot at mainstream success. (It can and has happened.) But even with that kind of firepower, their songs will just be songs played on radio stations with lots of high quality music competing all day and all night, every day and every night. You can’t buy a hit song, but you probably won’t have a hit song without a serious investment. And of course, one hit does not guarantee another.

So these are the problems we face. For now, there is still enough money being made at the top that a handful of folks are still making millions of dollars a year in profit. But for those that are just starting out, stay focussed on the purpose of your art and the joy of live performance, and forget about the mansion in the Hills. Your chances of finding joy and fulfillment along this path are far greater than your chances of retiring at age 30. And there ain’t nothin’ wrong with that.