Seriously does anyone listen? If you are an artist (in any form..rapper…rocker…worshiper…whoever) wake the hell up and read below!!!! The sad thing is..I know you won’t…you won’t read below…you will just glaze over the article and chalk it up as…mmmmm interesting, but ” I WILL BE DIFFERENT”. Guess what…you probably won’t be any different….. this is the reality of our business and you need to wake up.

The climate of the music business is changing and I love it…and I work for a label. I think it is good for everyone to be shook up a bit….get back to the reason we started into this whole thing….for the love of it! I jumped on the road for $50 bucks a night doing everything from setting up/tearing down merch to running live sound….and I LOVED IT! (until tax time..hahah)

I felt like I needed to post this article from Bob Lefsetz, it doesn’t matter if you don’t agree with everything he says because when it comes to this type of thought…he is spot on. You can read the full article HERE. Be Well.

This is what MAKING IT in the music business looks like today.

“The radio station? You have to ask yourself, do YOU listen to the radio? Do your FRIENDS listen to the radio? Chances are, the answer is no. So, if your demo is not listening, what difference does it make if you’re getting airplay there. If you are garnering fans, chances are they’re not the ones you want. And Top Forty fans, the only format that truly means anything anymore, are notoriously fickle. A number one radio record is akin to being the star magician at the old folks home. A minor figure in a dying world that most people want no part of.”

“The label? Everybody hates the major labels. They’re the ones suing their customers, right? The ones who tell you what to record and when. Your mother might be impressed that you’ve got a lawyer and a record company, but the public still has no idea who you are, and chances are, never will.

And without the mainstream media attention, the record company push, that breakthrough gig…that can’t happen anymore either.

In other words, if you’re playing with the old scorecard, you must be mightily confused, because that’s for the old game.

The new scorecard is all about fans. How can you make more fans, and make them stick!”

1. Being able to give up your day job. Used to be, you got signed, you thought you’d made it, you were just a year or so from going back to McDonald’s, behind the counter. Today, since you’ve invested in yourself, built everything yourself, if you can shitcan your day job and make it playing music, kick back and have a drink, congratulate yourself, you’ve truly made it. Carly Smithson had a record deal and national TV exposure and she’s still pulling drinks in a bar in San Diego, or will be again soon. That’s the first hurdle, earning your freedom from the everyday grind.

2. Which may come before 1, getting an agent. It’s hard to book yourself. The road is where you make money. If someone’s interested in booking you, they think they can make money on you, they want their 10%. This is a good sign. This is more important than getting a record deal.

3. Owning something besides an amp and your instrument. Maybe it’s a car, maybe it’s real property. But once your musical enterprise is generating enough extra cash that you can acquire extraneous items, you’ve truly made it.

4. And this can happen anywhere in the food chain, really. An act YOU respect says it likes YOUR music.

5. You play larger and larger venues and your merch numbers grow.

And that’s about it. There is no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, if there’s even a rainbow. It’s just you, playing music, for people who love it. There’s no awards show, no instant cash, no front page story, nothing that you can show to your relatives that will make them finally realize you’ve made it.

It’s now about being a musician, not a star. Savor the little victories, because that’s all you’re going to get, that’s all that’s out there. The night you were in the zone playing for 3,500 adoring fans. It’s not about the coverage in “Rolling Stone”, they’re putting bimbos on the cover. It’s about what you feel inside, the self-satisfaction. You’re not only a player, you now own the game. It’s a big responsibility, are you up to it?

Bob Lefsetz