The Famous Thursday Post!
RIP Jimmy Buffet, Steve Harwell, Gary Wright...
My goodness, that list is getting mighty long…2023 Musician's deaths
Welcome to The Famous Thursday Post!
Our focus on Thursdays is on songwriting, recording, production and commercial release.
For today, definitely things about “the biz” from some articles I found this week, mostly from the Disc Makers blog. I know I’ve been leaning on them a bit lately - nobody pays me to - they just have a lot of relevant stuff. I will say they manage to get in a number of plugs for Disc Makers and the business their CEO, Mr. Van Veen, was formerly in, CD Baby.
First, note I’m not getting paid by anyone, as it says in my disclaimer, but I’m also not complaining about Disc Makers or Mr. Van Veen. In fact, just the opposite, I want to point out what the Disc Makers blog, and Mr. Van Veen’s YouTube videos and references to CD Baby are doing is exactly what you, as a performing/recording artist, singer/songwriter, or a person with any other connection to the “biz” should be doing. Promoting yourself as an artist, instrumentalist, vocalist, band member, songwriter, producer, audio engineer, manager, whatever your connection to the “biz” is.
BUT, the “biz’ is Leviathan: it will eat you alive, crush your dreams, spit you out and leave you behind.
Unless you don’t let it.
How do you prevent that? I want to reiterate the idea of goals. Yes, we’ve talked about them before:
Is it to sign a deal with a record label?
Become a well known recording and/or performing artist?
Sell a lot of records, make money, retire?
Collaborate with others for any or all of these goals?
Write songs that others will cover, and make money from royalties because we’ve copyrighted every aspect of our songs?
Any of those are possible of course. The first 3 are going to be very difficult and might result in (probably at best) a transient popularity, with some amount of accompanying monetary and fame rewards. It seems like there are a lot of very popular, enduring stars out there. That’s true in one measure - there are in fact enough popular, reasonably wealthy, artists and performers to fill the music press, and often the popular press as well, with articles and trivia, puff pieces and the occasional scandal. But those folks are actually a pretty small slice of a very large pie. Almost all of the rest of the “pie” is made up of made up of us “Harrys”. Who’s Harry? Not the one you might be thinking of. “Harry” is this guy:
“And Harry doesn't mind if he doesn't make the scene
He's got a daytime job, he's doing alright
He can play the honky tonk like anything
Saving it up for Friday night
With the Sultans, with the Sultans of Swing”
“Sultans Of Swing”, 1978, Written by Mark Knopfler, from the album “Dire Straits”
Credit: Genius Sultans Of Swing
“Harry” is the rest of us at one stage or another. I follow some forums on other websites and a question often pops up that appears in varied forms but nearly always boils down to: “How do I get my music heard by/infront of/noticed by “X”?” where X equals someone in the biz that’s already famous or thought of as a “star” maker. I always silently in my head wish the person good luck, but in fact the chances of that actually happening, much less turning out well if it actually does, are vanishingly small.
What do, Michael?
Live your dream without expectations while hustling to fulfill your desires and doing something that pays the bills so you don’t have to hock your guitar to keep the lights on.
There ya go.
How do you do that? What does hustle mean? In this context it doesn’t mean doing things that put you in a position of unfair advantage over others. Things like plagiarism, taking credit for things you didn’t do, demeaning others for your own gain.
It definitely does mean becoming a better musician, constantly improving your instrumental or vocal or songwriting skills. It means learning some level of music theory because that’s the language that musicians and producers and audio engineers and others use to communicate with one another. Past that, don’t let yourself be taken advantage of by the unscrupulous, who are legion in the music business, but help who you can and pursue your goals right up to the point where they hurt you, your life and health, your family, your relationships, your freedom. Sometimes you may have to be a “Harry” for awhile or maybe for a very long while. It’s not a bad life when you love and are loved, and the alternative can be much worse.
Also, a little faith, both in yourself and something greater than yourself, whatever that may be, doesn’t hurt.
Some links with commentary:
Photoshoot Ideas So this is more than just cover art, especially if you’re in a band. The band members should be seen. That doesn’t mean if you’re a solo artist you shouldn’t be seen, but there are probably questions of who’s getting more face time than they should that don’t need to be addressed. It’s not just face time though, make sure your session players, audio engineers, managers, everyone who is on your “team” that gets you there has a credit line. I personally think, and your mileage may vary - too much cover art/liner notes type of stuff for a single may not be a good thing, especially if that single is going to be included in an EP/LP/album later. That’s the place for an extensive photo/graphics/lyrics/notes layout. FWIW, IMHO….
ASCAP, BMI, And SESAC, oh my! All of those acronyms are another acronym: PROs. Performance Rights Organizations. I happen to be affiliated with ASCAP and I don’t know anything at all about BMI, except that they’re more or less the same type of thing. SESAC is invitation only (that may be more or less, I’ve read different things, dunno), and like Groucho says, “I wouldn't want to belong to a club that would have me as a member”. So. PRO’s collect royalties when your songs are performed. They also may collect your royalties due from streaming services, but it seems like an awful lot of folks are doing that: The Mechanical Licensing Collective, your record label if you have one, or a distributor and publishing admin if you don’t (like CD Baby/CD Baby Pro or Distrokid or Songtrust or a bunch of others), and maybe also your PRO. Not sure if everybody is getting a cut along the way, but if I find out sometime this year, I’ll let you know. If there are independent artists out there earning royalties from their songs, especially from streaming services, please leave the rest of us a comment below and give us your perspective. Please.
SEO and KPI So you’ll kind of need to know these two acronyms for the following article, and many of you may already know all about them. If not, “SEO” is “Search Engine Optimization” and “KPI” is “Key Performance Indicators”. There’s a lot more information at the link to each that may be helpful in any event, but even more so in reading this next link:
How To Sell Music Online - this is a pretty good introduction, with a lot of links to related articles as well. Have fun!
The Space Saving Disclaimer!: This Substack, (not just the first one!) is free, always will be, none of the people or companies or products I link to or write about pay me a damn thing. Neither do you unless you buy my song(s) (See what I did there?). Some stuff may be copyrighted by somebody else…whatever. “Fair Use” doctrine for “educational purposes” (Link: Fair Use) applies, suckers! No stinkin’ AI here unless it’s in something I link to. So.
Michael Acoustic
Today’s musician’s quote:
“I think if you write from your own gut, you’ll come up with something interesting, whereas if you sit around guessing what people want, you end up with the kind of same schlock that everybody else has got.”
John Prine
A Different Link For Today:
Some memes and stuff: “Best Album Covers” by me…
I’m always looking for artwork - I favor sort of “analogies” for song titles, or something that captures the “geist” (German for ghost or spirit) of the song, as opposed to artist photos or whatnot. I also always want to work in my “Waning Crescent Moon” and stylized script “Michael Acoustic” sort of logo. Other artists do other things.
I find articles that purport to list the best album covers pretty funny, mostly because they all feature the same ones, but in different orders, so Pink Floyd “The Dark Side Of The Moon” is either THE BEST! or just a measly number 35 or so. Whatever. Here is some album/song artwork from some of my favorite artists, the ones I’d really like to sit down with over a tasty beverage at a big table. Except a couple have passed on, RIP Mr Prine and Mr. Van Zandt. But still….
I realize I’m being a bit cheeky placing my own song art alongside some pretty legendary names, but every once in a while it’s good for a “Harry” to get a little press, too…
Plus I’m the guy they’d be sitting at the table with while they’re drinking my beer, so…
Shameless Self Promotion Section:
My song is out! “Long Road Back” (click on link for streaming options)
Hey look at me taking advice from the links above and engaging with my audience!! Questions on why and how the song came about, both lyrically and musically?
Questions about what it “means”? - I can answer that one right now - it’s about a road…
Questions about recording, overdubbing with other artists, studio work, mixing and mastering?
About releasing the song? - I can answer that one right now too - all indie, no label, professionally mastered locally, distributor and publishing admin, signed up with PRO, MLC, and SoundExchange.
Ask me in the comments section below to expand on any of these questions or others, I’ll answer!!!
Odds and Ends: Fellow Substack musician, Fog Chaser, has a great new single out. Very nice, and make sure to check out his entire catalogue on Spotify and follow him on Substack - great stuff!
Cheers, and keep playing!
Michael Acoustic
“It’s never really final - you just run out of things you can bear to change…”
The business sure has changed since I started listening in the late 60s. Back then, the problems were different ... godawful contracts and unscrupulous promoters, label execs and agents. Just ask John Fogerty. Now the artist has to face the daunting matrix of streaming services. A great reminder, Michael.
Excellent post once again, Mr. Michael! Yeah, the rock ‘n’ roll deaths seem to come in threes. Could possibly be more than that depending on how wide a net one casts.
Your advice to would be musicians or musicians who would be stars if only they could, is excellent. The whole idea of having well thought out goals is one I have to constantly re-teach myself. And your favorite album covers collection — I thought you were going to say, they are your favorite album covers with the artists face on them. Which then made me think including your album cover was your way of saying “my face is the moon!“ There’s a good pun in there about saving face, but I’ll let Brad take that one!