Grindstop Blog

Before we delve into the wonderful world of touring logistics, strategies, great ideas that can help, bad ideas that won’t, and a few stories along the way; perhaps we should ponder if, with all of the technological advancements every day AND (for f’s sake) the price of gas!, If it’s even necessary to tour anymore?

Yes it is, you know it is, stop smoke-screening you lazy bastard and get with it!!

You don’t need to look far for an example of how important it is to get out there. Do you think for one second that, if it wasn’t essential, that politicians ever leave home? Most of those guys can’t even bring themselves to think about other people, let alone touch them—(unless it’s on the ass). So the only reason they are out there is: 1. More ass, or 2. Their advisors told them that they had to, showed them the evidence, and pushed them out the door. Think about this the next time you see one of them getting on the ‘truth bus’ or whatever crap they are selling this week.

Every single element affecting your career and your ability to continue is helped by touring:

• Anyone anywhere is more likely to check out your MySpace page if they see you are coming to town.

• Any promoter in any other city is more likely to give you a gig if they see you are performing in other parts of the country.

• People on the web write about things that happened at shows they went to, not shows that didn’t happen, that they couldn’t go to…

• Your manager, if you have one, will prioritize you over another (maybe better?) band because you are working harder (unless the other band is Radiohead).

• You can be the eyes and ears for your label, if you have one… or for other bands too lazy or frightened to leave their home base. You can tell them where responses, crowds, sound-systems are good or where ‘promoters’ are baaaaaad.

• Your agent, if you have one, will pay more attention if you show him you are prepared to perform seven shows a week. That means if he can get you to a point where you are earning $1,000 a night, then he could earn $1,000 a week.in commissions. (good job agents don’t care about money huh!)

• The record store (if you can find one) is more likely to stock your music and put up a poster.

• Everyone from the local blogger to the local paper is more likely to review your CD or mention your show.

• You can leave behind promotional beacons… t-shirts etc, put up stickers in bathrooms, graffiti in the dressing room and generally ‘leave your mark’

• Your album (or collection of songs) will be better because you’ll have direct and immediate feedback from a real, live audience; either smiling and jumping up and down because the songs you thought were great really are, or throwing things because you are delusional and your songs are shit. Either way, this is way more valuable than a bunch of people on your MySpace page plugging their own albums.

• It is a great opportunity to triumph over your shyness (eventually without the aid of alcohol) and polish your people meeting skills.

• This is stuff YOU can do – (while you are waiting for all of the people who said they were going to do something to come through for you.)

• You are creating more of your own content, audio, video and mythical…. you can’t release a Live in Paris (Texas) album if you don’t go and play there!

And, very importantly:

• The more you play, the better you get!

• You can meet GREAT, enthusiastic people who can help you next time around

• You can discover wonderful things in other town’s thrift stores

In addition to all of this – many other things will just become blindingly obvious to you as you begin this journey. You will realize when the guitarist pukes on you for the fourth time that maybe his drinking is becoming a problem – you can reflect further on this as you pull out pieces of sweetcorn and carrots from the pockets of your jeans at the laundromat.

What does all of this mean? How will it really help you? Well, all of these bits of information are little bricks in your wall (I use that analogy a LOT) but, here’s an example of what you’ll be getting from this column to leave you with:

A simple decision for a band in the mid-west – between heading out to the west coast or staying closer to home but still hitting major markets – the difference in gas costs alone – $1200. That’s the tour support that the label that wouldn’t sign you, wouldn’t give you!

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A few weeks ago I sparked the conversation on Internet Music Marketing, or how musicians need to start thinking like the Internet Marketing crowd in order to really capture data and sell their music online. What sparked was a really cool conversation on promoting other people’s stuff via affiliate marketing. This is by no means the official guide, but a way to make some money by promoting offers to your fans via your mailing list or your blogs, Twitter accounts, etc.

As with all marketing, this is best used in a transparent mode (read the new FTC stuff by Frank Kern, who was sued for millions by them a few years back), and used in moderation. Just because a few people bought something from an affiliate link, doesn’t mean you need to star over stuffing your emails and blog posts with them.
The Major League Affiliate Networks

This post will feature 2 networks and I aim to continue to work with music companies to get their affiliate info. The overall data will be inside Label 2.0 (sorry, need to give preference to those that put food on my table). We will be looking into iTunes and Amazon and how you can use their expansive network and product catalog to make some extra change.
iTunes Affiliate Program

Sign up to becom an iTunes affilaite here. It is super easy and done through LinkShare (affiliate link), a reputable affiliate marketing company that is known for paying its affiliates on time and tracking your stats pretty aggressively. The notion of the iTunes affiliate program is that you can link to albums, singles, movies, ringtones and really anything else in their marketplace and make 5% on all transaction. This means if you sell an album for $9.99 you will generate about 50 cents. Not exactly retirement money, but get creative and grow your audience, and the residuals can add up. Signing up for the iTunes program may take a few days for approval.

Check out a FAQ here.
Amazon Affiliate Program

Amazon was one of the pioneers in online affiliate marketing and is essentially how they grew to the size they are. With their affiliate program, you can link to digital singles and albums, physical CD’s, books to guitars and musical instruments along with the millions of other products they offer. Amazon pays commissions directly and has a tiered commission structure, meaning the more you sell the higher your commission. You start at 4% and can easily work your way to 6% and higher by gaining a few sales. Again, this may not be the money to retire on, but in the following idea session part of the blog post, you may be able to get gas money for your next road trip.

Sign-up to be an affiliate on Amazon here (disclosure: Affiliate link)
How to Use These Affiliate Programs for Your Music

Now that you are signed up to the top 2 networks you need to start putting the links in your content, in a very usable and trustworthy way. In this tutorial we are going to use Amazon as they offer a wider range of products and the ideas can be structured for all of them.
Campaign Ideas

The first step is to generate an idea of what you want to promote. Some things off the top of the mind include:

Your gear – Talk about the guitars you use, why you use it, the sound it gives you, etc. At the end of the post say something like, if you want to try it out, here’s a link to grab one yourself.

Bands of a bill – This is the easiest and most efficient. When you have an upcoming show, do quick reviews on the bands you are playing with. Maybe a few sentences on why you are excited to play with them, some pics and maybe a YouTube video. Tell your fans that if they want to check out their music and start learning the lyrics before the show, grab a digital download here and thus link to their album on Amazon. This will get your fans excited about the show if the other bands are cool too and helps promote the other acts and they may return the favor.

Bands of a bill on Twitter – Fire out a Tweet or two saying something to the tune of: “Can’t wait to rock with XYZ Band this Friday – Insert Affiliate Link”

Sidebar links – If your band has a blog (Music Marketing 101) use the sidebar as a place to promote stuff you believe in, from music to gear to great books you read on a road trip. Your fans are interested in the stuff you do and these links can get a good amount of attention. The best part is that if they click on a link to buy something and end up buying something else during that visit, you get credit for that sale as well!

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I remember seeing a Seinfeld episode where Kramer – who was always full of brilliant ideas – decided that he wanted to open a make-your-own-pizza restaurant. When he unveils his concept to Jerry, the look on Jerry’s face is one of awe. He says something to Kramer like, ‘the reason why people get pizza is because there is no work involved. They just order it, and pick it up. Nobody wants to make their own pizza.’

It’s true no one wants to make their own pizza. For a quick lunch, you buy a slice of pizza. For a casual dinner out, you have pizza. For an easy dinner at home, you order pizza.

And yet, more and more for artists the do-it-yourself (DIY) model is touted as the way to go. At the Future of Music Conference this week, there was a fascinating panel dedicated to this topic, among others. I can see why DIY in its most raw form would be appealing to so many people. You have complete control over expression, packaging, marketing, and audience interaction. Musician Erin McKeown, is an avid fan and user of this model. She has produced and reached her fan base with her DIY music videos.

But some artists don’t want to take the time or energy to do all the work themselves. Emily White of Whitesmith Entertainment works with those artists who want to do it themselves, but realize they need help in some areas of promotion or artistic development. Artists come to her with ideas; she helps them figure out exactly what they need, and how she can help them get to where they want to be. This approach may not be for all artists. But for those artists that want to focus more on their artistic creation than marketing, companies like this might be helpful.

Bertis Downs, longtime adviser to R.E.M., talked about the band’s DIY approach. If you know R.E.M. you might be wondering how that famous, money-making band, that has a label, uses DIY. Well, Bertis made it clear that it’s not about label versus no label or money versus no money, but it’s about the approach the band takes to reaching and connecting with its fan base. R.E.M. is always seeking out new models that it can use to promote its music.

Sometimes, it seems, there might be too many choices. But, when trying to weigh your options, keep these few things in mind:

1. Don’t get caught up in the hype. There are many ways to promote yourself, and you have the choice to go DIY or work with a marketing firm or sign with a label. Any one way, or many ways, that gets your work out there and stays true to your core values as an artist is a good way.

2. Sift through the noise. DIY used to be the way for the super genius, the outcast, or the underground. Now it’s the way for most everyone. Because of this, there is a lot more noise in the marketplace. Figure out what noise you need to sift through, and partner with those who can help you do that.

3. Selling doesn’t mean selling-out. Shepard Fairey discussed recently the benefits he has derived from straddling both sides of the fence: the underground and the mainstream. It’s not one versus the other, as many artists think. Just because you make it big in one market doesn’t mean you can’t play in another market. You’ve only sold out if you think you have.

4. Be flexible. Know your long term goal and define paths to get there, but don’t ignore new options. Technology and the marketplace are constantly changing. A strategy that works today may not be the best strategy tomorrow.

5. You define your own success. When will you feel like you’ve become a successful artist? If you sell one album or painting, or if you can live solely off the revenue from your creative energies? Remember that what is successful for one artist is not necessarily the same level of success for another. You make that decision for yourself as to where your success lies.

So, a DIY pizza restaurant may not be the best idea for pizza entrepreneurs. But for an artist entrepreneur, the options are endless.

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Back in the late 1980s when Jane’s Addiction was in its prime, I saw an interview where front man Perry Farrell was asked about sales figures for their albums. His response: “If I wanted to sell records, I’d work in a record store.” He knew that the key to success was touring, which the band did almost incessantly for about three years.

Flash forward 20 years, and it’s harder than ever for artists to make a living selling CDs. According to a report in the Chicago Tribune, a speaker at the Future of Music Coalition gave a breakdown of album numbers that will be particularly shocking to young independent bands who hoped they’d be able to make a living selling discs. More than 115,000 new albums were released in the U.S. last year. Of those, 110 sold more than 250,000 copies in the U.S. last year–that’s not such a surprise, as big stars have always been rare. But only 1,500 titles cracked the 10,000 mark, and fewer than 6,000 sold a paltry 1,000 copies.

To give you some idea what 1,000 copies means, that used to be the standard manufacturing run for self-produced CDs. Indie bands imagined that they would use a hundred or so discs for publicity–sending them to radio stations and reviewers, for instance–and then sell the rest to local fans and on tour. Selling 900 CDs at $12 a pop would gross almost $11,000, which would be enough to cover low-budget recording and manufacturing expenses and perhaps buy some new guitar pedals and drumheads. Nobody makes a living selling 1,000 CDs. (Nowadays, bands can order reasonably priced smaller runs from companies like Disc Makers, and even use manufacturing-on-demand from services like Audiolife and Amazon’s CreateSpace.)

What about 10,000 discs? If you’re just starting out, making over $100,000 from CD sales sounds like a dream. Of course, you have to split that money among the band members, and anybody else who gets a cut, like the producer and manager. And if you’re signed to a label, you might already be that deep into the hole for your advance and recording expenses, so forget about royalties and just hope they’ll pay you an advance for the next one. At 10,000 copies, you’re probably getting a little radio play somewhere, so you might earn a few small paychecks from publishing royalties, and if you’ve got a good live act and are willing to tour endlessly, you might be able to sell more tickets than CDs over the course of a year. So perhaps 10,000 is the low-end baseline for making a living playing music.

Of the new titles released last year, almost 99 percent of them didn’t sell enough copies to let their creators earn a living from CD sales, and almost 95 percent of them didn’t sell enough copies to cover the most basic expenses involved in their recording.

You still think your unsigned band’s good enough to be in that slim line? Remember that these figures include CDs released by well-established artists like Bob Dylan and new artists who are the lucky recipients of massive publicity pushes by major labels.

For an unknown band just starting out? Better polish those chops and gas up the van, then get ready to live on ramen noodles for a couple years. And don’t worry about devaluing your recordings by selling them cheap or giving them away–worry about getting enough fans to hear them so they’ll be interested in coming to your shows, and dragging a few friends with them.

Is it time to hire music PR? It’s a big decision. After all, PR is expensive, and the results are never guaranteed. Before you sign up with a music PR firm, ask yourself – and them – these questions, so you can be sure PR is the right choice for you right now.

Can I Afford This?

PR is expensive. In many cases, it is VERY expensive. Although hiring PR can eventually help you make money, you have to put it into the right space in your budget. First and foremost, you need money to get your release ready, distribution set up and a reserve to cover the costs of playing shows. Consider these the basics. If you have to divert money from one of these expenses to pay for PR, you may not be able to afford to hire a PR company right now. If you compromise the basics, you won’t get the most of your PR campaign anyway, since you won’t be in the position to take advantage of it.

* Should I Hire PR?

Can I Do This Myself?

If you want a small, regional promotional campaign, chances are that you can handle the work yourself. It will require some research and time, but if money is an issue, this might be your best bet. A PR company really becomes valuable when you are ready to mount a national promotional campaign that you might not have the time or contacts to accomplish yourself.

If you don’t have the time and inclination to do a regional press campaign, outside PR can certainly handle the job. Just be aware that a campaign of that level is easily handled in-house and if money is a problem, this kind of campaign is a luxury.
What Am I Promoting?

A PR campaign shouldn’t be general. It should be centered around a specific project and have specific goals. Such a project may be a new release or a tour. It should have a start date, and that start date should give the PR company plenty of time run the campaign (ie, don’t hire PR three days before your tour starts).

* How to Self Promote Your Music

Will The Project Get Press?

What is the likelihood that the specific project you want PR to work on will actually generate enough press coverage to justify the investment in outside PR? Be realistic. Your first indie release is probably not going to get reviewed in Rolling Stone. The best time to hire PR is when you have built up a little bit of buzz through your own work and have a project with a good promotion angle. This angle can be anything from an album promotion anchored to some tour dates or a unique story about how the project came together. This way, your PR company has something to work with.

* When to Send a Press Release

Are My Expectations Realistic?

When you hire PR, you aren’t buying guaranteed press and exposure. You are paying for the service of PR – someone to send out your music/tour dates/news to the media, follow-up with them, and try to convince them that you deserve some coverage. They can’t MAKE anyone want to cover your projects, and unfortunately, they can’t make anyone give the music a good review. Even the best PR company in the world with a lofty past client list can’t guarantee you that even a single person will want to write about or play your music. That’s reality. Get comfortable that you are paying for effort, not guaranteed fame and fortune.
Are They Being Honest With Me?

When you hire a PR company, you want one that is going to be honest with you about what they think they can achieve. If someone is trying to sell you the moon, steer clear. A PR company that is really on your side can sell you their services without pulling the wool over your eyes. Take promises that sound a little far fetched as a red flag.

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The Topspin blog has a story of one of the bands they’ve worked with, a lesser known act called Fanfarlo, that was able to reach some specific goals in promoting itself and building up its fan base, while getting many to commit to paying. From that, the post discusses a four step “formula” that the band used for success (listed here with my summary):

1. Don’t suck: something that often gets lost in these discussions. The music still does need to be good. All of these business models are that much harder if the music isn’t any good and fans don’t like it. Playing good music is a definite first step.
2. Get others to introduce you to their audience: This is another good point. I’ve been talking to some musicians lately, who were trying to understand how to best apply some of this stuff, and I often suggest looking for other, more well-known acts, that the band can work with to get some sort of endorsement, or “opening” slot on a tour (or even just a gig) as a way of reaching more fans. The Topspin post points out that some people assume that this is the real story behind the success of Fanfarlo, but the numbers don’t bear that out. It probably accounted for approximately 30% of the band’s sales. Not shabby, but hardly the only reason for the band’s success.
3. Make those audiences an offer they can’t refuse: In this case, the band offered a download of their album, plus four bonus tracks for $1 for a limited time. Yes, all of the songs combined for a dollar — not each of them for a dollar apiece. While I normally support just giving away the music for free, I can see a reason to offer them all for a dollar in some situations. In this case, it gets more people to commit to the music and the band, but at a price that is much easier to deal with. I’m still not convinced that $1 is better than free, but it sure beats regular album prices. While this offer was for a limited time, after it was over, the band still offered the download cheaply ($6).
4. Repeat: This is another important one. We keep hearing bands put in place business model promotions that are one time deals, rather than a fully thought-out continuous and ongoing business model. By repeating the process, not only can a band keep making money, but it lets them iterate and experiment, and find out what works (and what doesn’t.).

In this case, it looks like things definitely worked. It was able to get 15,000 new fans on its mailing list, with a rather stunning 13,000 of those buying something (but fans just want stuff for free, right?). Of those who simply viewed the download offer, an amazing 22% made a purchase. That’s an insane conversion rate. Also 30% of the download buyers came back and bought a physical product later (CD, vinyl or special edition).

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Most aspiring artists intuitively understand that there’s value in building an audience for the long-term rather that focusing solely on short-term revenue. Bands offer free downloads, play free shows, and spend countless hours on- and offline interacting with listeners in hopes of developing a fan base that will support them over their careers.

But how much is a fan actually worth? How much should an artist be willing to sacrifice (or spend) today to acquire fans? And how many fans are needed to be able to make a living as a musician?

These aren’t easy questions to answer, but I want to try anyway. Or at least start. That’s why I’ve created a spreadsheet model to help artists estimate the lifetime value of the average fan.

What is Lifetime Value?

In marketing, lifetime value is a framework that companies use to figure out how much a customer is worth. A customer’s lifetime value is essentially the total expected income that he or she will generate for the company over time. By calculating the present value of these future payments, the company can in theory determine exactly how much they can spend to acquire a customer and still be profitable in the long run.

For musicians, the lifetime value of a fan depends on several factors:

* The products and services (recorded music, merch, etc.) that they plan to offer over time, and the expected income from each

* The probability that a fan will purchase each product offered (“conversion rate”)

* The probability that a fan will remain a fan over time (“churn rate”)

Who is a “fan”?

How exactly we define “fan” is important. In order for an analysis like this to be useful, the artist has to have some sort of direct communication channel with the fans we consider. This could include email subscribers, Facebook fans, Twitter followers, or any other relationship that is observable. It’s important to keep in mind that each of these segments is likely to have different conversion and churn rates.

To keep things simple, I’m restricting my analysis to an artist’s email list subscribers. In general, email lists tend to be more valuable than other online marketing channels, so this seems like good segment to focus on as a starting point.

How the model works

To use the model you need to:

* Download it (it’s an Excel document)

* Enter your product information – what you plan to sell, how often you plan to release new products, the expected income from each, and a few other inputs.

* Enter your discount rate. You can also change the default churn rate and sales conversion rates if you are so inclined.

The model then calculates the lifetime value for:

1. A hypothetical fan who purchases all direct-to-fan products that you offer over your career. This represents the maximum potential lifetime value of a super fan.

2. The average email list subscriber. This scenario considers the likelihood that someone would buy each of the artist’s products over time and calculates the average expected lifetime value per email signup.

Limitations

* The model DOES NOT consider potential income from concerts, licensing, and other sources where it’s difficult to allocate or estimate income on a per-email-subscriber basis. (If you can think of an elegant way to include something like live shows in this analysis, let me know!) It only considers things like albums, merch, fan club subscriptions, and other items that can be sold direct-to-fan.

* The model also makes a simplifying assumption that income per product will be flat over time. Depending on the situation, this could be a conservative assumption (underestimates top/bottom-line growth) or an aggressive one (overestimates ability to sustain margin).

Please share your feedback

This is definitely a work in progress. Like any model, I know this one isn’t perfect. But I’m hoping to make it as useful and simple as possible for artists and their teams to use.

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Sites like propeller.com, digg.com, stumbleupon.com and other social bookmarking sites can give you a huge traffic. How about having 30,000 or more visitors everyday when your website is on the front page. Here are some useful tips on how to get huge traffic from these social bookmarking sites:

* Catchy Headlines – There are many articles got ignored on social bookmarking site because of their headlines. Your title should always be catchy because people first see the title of your article. If the headline or title is not that catchy, expect a small traffic from that article.

*Short but Meaningful Description – Write a short but meaningful description about your article. The description should be intriguing to catch more attention but don’t use false facts just to get the interest. If you want to have long description paragraph to describe your story, always remember that people usually don’t read above 100 characters. Plus, other social bookmarking site have character limit in description, so you need to think a short but meaningful description about your article.

*Outstanding First Paragraph – It is important that you have great first paragraph with your article on social bookmarking sites. If you already have successful headlines and description to have the User’s interest, don’t forget to create great first paragraph for them to visit your site or else they’ll not going to visit it because of your awful first paragraph.

*Content is Everything – If your article is a junk, social bookmarking is useless. Your site can also get banned on social bookmarking sites if you continue to post junk articles.

*Right Time to Submit – Most of social bookmarking sites only have 24 hours for your article to stay there in front page. So it is not advisable that you post when Users are still sleeping. Weekdays is also a right time to post in terms of traffic because you can have more competitors on weekends.

*Right Category – Some sites might not have the right category for you. If you find that there no right category for you, you can submit to Miscellaneous, General etc. where all uncategorized matter goes.

*Build a Good Profile – If you have an old profile user in social bookmarking sites that posted hundreds of interesting stuff, there is a chance that you’ll receive a notice on what you submit. Many social bookmarking prohibited to add links to the interesting articles because it like self-promotion. The worst part of it, you could get banned to their site.

*Cooperate with other Users – There are many articles that made it to the front page of the social bookmarking site because they have networks of friends. If you have at least 15 votes from your group of friends chances are other user might also vote for you. On Digg.com, if have 50 votes your story is on the top of their page.

*Submit in English – Majority of the users are English speaking. So, social bookmarking sites only accept English language. Using different language is not recommended. If you really need to submit your story in different language, make sure that you include English translation.

*Don’t submit Old Stories – If you really need to submit old news, make sure that you have updated story related to that.

*Check your Facts and Spelling – You could have negative votes if other user found that you haven’t got the right facts about your story. There are some social bookmarking sites that that don’t permit to edit your post after you posted it. If you misspell your keyword, title or even your URL, it will stay forever when you posted it. So before posting your story, check your facts and spelling first.

*Have Related Articles – One of the technique to keep your visitor longer on your site is to have related or similar article so that they’ll read more articles on your site.

*No no to Automated submitters – Submitting stories on different social bookmarking sites takes a lot of time and you could think that automated submitters is the answer. It is not advisable to use this because it has malware that steal passwords and you could get banned on social bookmarking sites if you use this.

*Responds to Comments – Always respond to the comments on your article. It is possible that you could make more friends and have a top-profile if your story has many comments.

*Prepare your server for a Huge Traffic – If your articles gets the interest of many user to visit your site, thats a great news because of huge traffic you have but if you have a so-so server you need to changer your server that can handle huge amount of traffic.

*Snowball Effect – The good thing about snowball effect is that if people find your article interesting they could start talking about your story. They could start blogging your topic and you could have lots of backlinks from them.

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For many songwriters, the business side of music publishing is a curse; they would rather focus on the creative aspects of their jobs and leave the marketing of their songs to the “suits.” But for others, pitching their own songs is empowering. After all, nobody is going to believe in your music and look after your interests as much as you are. So why not take control?

Perhaps the biggest challenge for songwriters trying to gain a foothold in the music-publishing business is obtaining contacts with the industry’s decision makers (including record producers and labels’ artist and repertoire staff) and learning how to most effectively pitch their songs. To find out how it’s done, I interviewed two industry veterans who are in different markets and on opposite sides of the table: one pitches songs, and the other solicits them.

Mark Bright (see Fig. 1) is both a famed record producer and a publishing-company executive. The Nashville-based country-music icon has produced hits for Cowboy Crush, Sara Evans, Rascal Flatts, Lonestar, Jo Dee Messina, Jamie O’Neal, Carrie Underwood, and many others. Formerly the vice president of EMI Music Publishing, Bright went on to cofound Teracel Music (since acquired by Dimensional Music Publishing). He currently owns Mark Bright Productions and My Good Girl Music, the latter of which is a publishing coventure with Sony ATV Music.

Stephen J. Finfer (see Fig. 2) is co-owner and chief operating officer of Hollywood-based Arthouse Entertainment (www.arthouseent.com), a parent company to the Art for Art’s Sake (ASCAP) and Art in the Fodder (BMI) music-publishing companies. Arthouse also includes production and management operations. In terms of publishing market share for the pop charts, Arthouse Entertainment ranked in the Top 10 throughout 2006. Finfer previously held prominent positions at TVT Music Publishing, Famous Music Publishing, and Universal Music Publishing.

In the music business, success comes only after making the right connections. How does an unknown songwriter get his or her foot in the door in order to pitch songs to a producer or an A&R person?

Bright: It’s really important to focus on affiliations. Our business is built on relationships and networking. It’s always going to be more difficult, and in some cases almost impossible, to send an unsolicited song through the mail and have somebody hear it [if for no other reason than] the legal repercussions that can come from that.

Finfer: That stack [of unsolicited songs] builds and builds until they get a truck and throw it out — because that’s the lawsuit bin. It’s one in a million [great songs] out of that bin; but five out of that million will sue you [on fraudulent copyright-infringement charges]. So it’s not a bin, you really want to go into. What you need to do is find a filter, someone who’s going to say, “Listen to this guy.” Those people are lawyers, managers, agents, and friends of A&R people. When it comes from a lawyer or agent, I’m going to listen to it.

Are referrals from writer- or publisher-relations staffers at the performing-rights societies (ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC) helpful?

Finfer: Yes! Any music-industry professional works.

Establishing initial contacts is only half the battle. Considering that most producers and A&R people are too busy to answer many of their phone calls and emails, how do you find out who’s looking for songs to record?

Finfer: All major publishers prepare an internal “who’s looking” list. If you have a friend who’s signed to a major publisher, ask them for a copy of it.

Bright: The information on those sheets is gleaned from personal conversations with A&R people at the top of the pecking order at record labels.

Finfer: There are also many services that you can pay for that will give you briefs [tip sheets] on a weekly or monthly basis. Many new writers use them.

Tip sheets can sometimes be woefully short on details, and artists sometimes change their musical direction from one album to the next. How do you know if the songs you’re pitching are on target?

Bright: As a publisher, we got a couple of songs on Faith Hill’s Breathe album [Warner Bros., 1999], and the way we did it was by doing homework and trying to look at what she was saying in the press and on fan sites. In interviews that Faith was doing toward the end of the project, she was saying, “I’m going to be more contemporary this time out.” We publishers and songwriters have to be better at the marketing side of being creative. The more-successful songwriters are those that tend to be a lot more savvy at figuring that stuff out. Go to the artist’s fan site and blogs and see what they’re saying right in that moment.

Finfer: You’ve got to get the tip sheet [so you aren't] shooting in the dark. Artists these days are changing their colors from record to record. Someone who made a rock record last time could now be making a country record. Was Kelly Clarkson going to make an urban record? She made a rock record. If you can’t find anything else, you guess that you need to make the new version of the last record, the contemporized version of what was on the last record.

So if details on the new project’s direction aren’t available, you should stick closely to the previous album’s direction?

Bright: Yes. Don’t try to become an A&R person yourself and think [that] maybe they’re going to go off in this wild direction. Stick closely to what they’ve done before. You need to listen to the last album and try to cast the song as best you can. That’s extremely important.

MySpace is a great research tool in that way. Even major-label artists post some of their recent songs there.

Bright: It’s made it a lot easier, I agree.

Okay, suppose that you pitch your song and the producer or A&R rep passes on it. How many times can you pitch that same song to them, but for a different artist or project, before it wears out its welcome?

Bright: There isn’t a statute of limitations. If you’ve gotten [an] indication that an A&R person or [a] record producer likes that song, and then a new artist comes up and you feel like it’s the right pitch, you pitch it. It gets down to casting it well for the next artist and plugging it again. “Bless the Broken Road” megahit for Rascal Flatts] is a case in point. I had pitched that song to eight or nine acts along the way. It took me until Rascal Flatts’s third album to finally get that to work.

Finfer: It’s really if the A&R person likes it or they don’t, not how many times you’ve pitched it. If they like it, I’ve had people hold on to songs for years waiting for the right artist. They think it’s a hit, but the artist didn’t like it or it wasn’t the right artist for the song.

But you’d better be sure they liked the song in the first place before pitching it to them again.

Finfer: If you keep coming back to an A&R guy with a song they don’t like, you’re going to lose your credibility with that person and it’s going to overflow to the other things you pitch. You have to not waste their time. You’ve got to find what they like so you know they’re not going, “Uh! Here it is again.” You also don’t want to be the guy who’s sending the same song all the time. You want to always be coming with something new and fresh.

Any final thoughts?

Finfer: If you get that opportunity to have somebody listen, you better have your production together, not just your song. We’re in a world now where everyone has the best gear you can have for very little money. It’s a lot to ask people to hear just songs. In my world, people are more likely to react to great productions than to songs these days. You can have a great song and play it on a guitar-vocal or piano-vocal demo — that’s going to be tough. If you’ve got a reactive, dynamic production that screams out at you, you’d be surprised by how things can find their way.

Bright: I don’t really care what writer writes the song. I don’t ask first who wrote the song, ever. And you’ll find that most record producers in this town really don’t care who wrote the song. I just came off of a big hit with Carrie Underwood: “Before He Cheats.” It was written by two writers who had never had a hit before.

Everybody these days wants to create buzz. They want to grab people’s attention on a large scale. And they want to do it sooner rather than later.

Therefore, everyone wants to know the secret steps they can take to ensure their marketing idea sticks — that it gains traction and reaches the people who need to hear it the most.

A good lesson on this topic comes from musician Paul Hipp. Check out his YouTube music video called “We’re Number 37” — which, as of this writing, has nearly a half million views.

It’s a rockin’ original song that tackles the current health care reform debate in the US with a decidedly liberal slant. And it’s been seen by a LOT of people.

You may think you know where I’m going with this, but I guarantee there’s an unexpected twist coming. So stay with me here …

If I were to ask you why this song has been watched by so many people, you’d probably say because it’s a decent tune about a timely issue. Plus, it features some clever editing and funny moments throughout — which makes it more likely to be enjoyed and passed on by those who watch it.

Correct! You can’t go wrong with songs about current events, especially when they are done in a creative way that elicits a reaction from people who are exposed to it.

But here’s the thing …

This is not the only music video Paul Hipp has posted. He has several others, most of which also deal with current events from a liberal perspective. And those have respectable numbers — from 1,000 to 18,000 views each. But they pale in comparison to the half million views that “We’re Number 37” has earned.

Here are three lessons we can learn from this:

1) You have to throw a LOT of stuff out there to find something that sticks. Sure, some people hit on something big right out of the starting gate, but that’s rare. The usual pattern with artists who create popular viral videos (or songs, blog posts, ideas, etc) is a history of trial and error.

The more active you are in creating a volume of content to share with your audience, the greater your odds of producing something that will spread on a larger scale. So stay busy creating new stuff!

2) Regular output hones your craft. “We’re Number 37” is Paul Hipp’s 18th and newest video. Look through his previous clips and you can see an evolution. His most popular video is his best one, because he learned by creating all the ones that came before it.

Learn as you promote yourself. Consider it a living, breathing classroom.

3) Being bold and specific helps. “We’re Number 37” is not a generic rockabilly song. It’s about health care reform — a polarizing topic being hotly debated these days — and Paul makes it clear where he stands on the issue.

Don’t be afraid to take a stand or directly appeal to a specific slice of the population with your art.

Another quick example comes from Maria Andros, who has posted 47 YouTube videos on social media marketing and other topics. Most of her videos have between 50 and 25,000 views each. Not bad.

But one stands out at 151,000-plus views. The title? “How to Get Rid of a MIGRAINE Headache.”

Who knew? I’m sure she didn’t.

So … Throw a lot of stuff out there, hone your craft as you go, and don’t be afraid to be bold and specific!

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