D.I.Y.

10 Tips To Getting Ahead In The New Music Industry

image from www.google.com1. If you want to earn money during your music career – get a day job.
2. If your songs are not connecting with people – dedicate all your free time to writing new ones.
3. If nobody is coming to your shows – do number 2 then dedicate all your free time to practicing with your band.

4. If nobody is buying your MP3 Downloads – don’t bother giving them away because people still won’t download them, instead concentrate on numbers 2 and 3.
5. If you worry that you look fat and old in your promo photo – lose some weight and invest in photoshop.
6. If you can't get the sound you want out of the amp you have – practice a shit ton more until it does sound good – then get a new amp.
7. If still no one is coming to your shows – maybe your drummer sucks.
8. If your band is not the first thing that comes up when you google your band name – change your fucking name.
9. If you already have your dream guitar and amp set up before your first show – sorry Rock and Roll is not for you. If you have to ask why – it’s definitely not for you.
10. If you think that anyone cares what your music means to you, they don’t – they only care what your music means to them.

Robin Davey is an Independent musician and Head of Music and Film Development at GROWVision and runs FreeMusicAcademy.com follow him on Twitter @mr_robin_davey

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16 Comments

  1. Best rules I’ve seen on this site. You wont get fans by twittering, blogging, making keychains with your logo on them, paying to open for a name act, Telling your “Story” on the new timeline, bing on itunes, amazon, cd baby, reverb, myspace, fb and 35 other sites, paying for a fb ad, signing up for a contest to get a spot on Warped Tour, etc, etc, etc, etc…….
    unless #2 is done first.

  2. One day maybe internet marketers will learn that the key to successful marketing is great music. With great music a majority of the hard work is already done and a marketers job is a much easier one. Then it comes down to how creative you can be with marketing and that’s when you get big success. You should be encouraging bands to embrace these tips before you even decide to work with them. If they are not ready it doesn’t make you or them look good.

  3. fascinating that numbers one and two complete contradict each other and are the embodiment of the paradox in”freehadist”logic… awesome, everyone write great songs… while working your day job… hope to have a career… but give all your music away or allow it to be stolen… effing get real already…

  4. I guess these tips are only for bands just starting up. For bands which have been going for some 10 years and found themselves facing dwindling ticket sales after that time, they are just cynical. I mean if great rock bands such as Backyard Tire Fire and The Bridge (from Baltimore) quit for the sole commercial reason that nobody has come to their shows anymore, it’s either because the economy is that bad or rock music is dead.
    I guess they have gotten day jobs now, but this is not a music career then anymore, or is it?

  5. Free time is the time when you are not at work, so no contradiction. Judging by your lack of understanding about what having a job actually means, maybe #9 applies to you on this one. Perhaps Mommy and Daddy have been funding your career for too long?

  6. Great Tips. I agree with most all of it. But can someone working a full-time job, gigging at night, connecting a little with their fans, hoping to one day be able to gig full-time and sell original song CDs get any credit? You make it sound like if a performer is not making any money, than they are successful?? Wuh?? And not all performers make money writing songs. Music careers are the new middle class if a person can build it as a true business. Waiting and starving to connect with an original song is stupid and ignorant.

  7. I think this list is RIGHT ON. 🙂 Regarding getting a day job, Robin did say “IF you want to make money. . .” Musicians who want to do music full time just need to live on less, be resourceful and shrewd. Or find ways to diversify within the field of music to make money.

  8. Pretty shitty, smug and self explanatory article written by someone with a shitty and inexperienced attitude. By inexperienced, I mean someone who hasn’t actually gotten ahead in the music business.

  9. The genius thing about your comment is that when you click on your link, the first article on your blog is about how to deal with haters. Ummm doesn’t what you just wrote make you a hater? I have no need to defend against that, I think you just shot yourself in the foot.

  10. You know Robin, I admit that you got me there. Honestly. 🙂
    It was a pretty biting comment. I never have left a comment like that before in my life. Also, not a hater of yours (actually really like some of your other stuff on here). But I take issue with this because of what it’s conveying to those who really don’t know.
    The issue I have with it is not some vague “dislike”, but more specifically that it could be communicating some strange things to musicians who are trying to make a play to make a life in music.
    As someone who has made a very decent living in the industry as a musician and songwriter, I find some of what you are saying to be baffling and beneath your personal level of experience (from my limited knowledge, admittedly).
    I agree wholeheartedly that great music performed well is the basis for the music industry. No disagreement.
    But there are so many other things that come into play as well. Why not include those (for instance, expand on Tip 10)?

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