Growing at the Speed of Failure
Songwriting Hacks: 5 Tips That Will Help Your Next Song (Part 2)
(continued from February 1, 2011) [read part 1]
4. Collaborate with others more talented than yourself – 10% [watch video]
I don’t want to spend too much time rehashing the last point. Take your organized notes and whatever you can play on keyboard or guitar (or even just with your voice) and meet up with a key musician as soon as possible. Don’t wait until everything is perfect, because it won’t ever be.
You need enough to get the creative juices going and to respect the time of the other musician. If you act professionally, musicians will be willing to work with you again as well as recommend other great musicians within their network.
I pay musicians $50 for meeting with me. Unless they are going to be a part of a choir or are a good friend already, I pay them something. If it is a group of people, I provide food and drinks – it is the least I can do. Why? I want them to know I am paying them something for their time and expertise and that they have been paid in full. They will not be getting a cut of the song royalties ifthe music is ever recorded. I also have everyone who works on or is recorded in any way to sign a simple release that states…
”I hereby consent for value received and without further consideration or compensation to the use (full or in part) of all audio recordings made of my voice or instrument and/or written extraction, in whole or in part, of such recordings for the purposes of illustration, broadcast, or distribution in any manner.”
Even if they are friends I have them sign? Especially if they are friends. Have everyone sign a release form. There are too many nightmare stories of songs that have taken off – bringing participants running to find legal representation to claim a piece of the pie (i.e. Pink Floyd’s The Wall choir lawsuit).
Once I have worked with one musician, I ask them who they think would be great to help write or play another instrument. This has worked every time. Just because they are well known musicians doesn’t mean they have to cost a lot to hire for an hour or so.
Contact a well known musician number two and tell them that they were referred to you by Bob Smith of The Smithies as one of the best pianists in town. Let them know that you would be looking for about an hour of their time to write and possibly record one song to see if you are a good fit for each other.
The better the musician, the less time it takes for them to write and record the song with you. I’ve had musicians come in cold on a recording and leave 40 minutes later with finished tracks that we were both very happy with. To most musicians 50 bucks is 50 bucks. They may get $100 for playing three or more hours on a Friday night at a club.
There is also a feeling that they are a part of something new. Your “something” may just take off. Trust me; musicians want to be recorded. They will love the opportunity to play your song for little more than recognition – save for a record contract that prevents them from doing so.
5. Campaign your creation – 10%
Writing and recording a single song (or even an entire album for that matter) is relatively easy compared to getting people to hear about you and your music. Even more difficult is to get people to care enough about your music to pay for a recording or get into their car to see you in person.
I once was concerned about people stealing my songs before they were done. It turns out that nobody has the time to do anything with your song nor do they care about it in most cases.
Your music will sell through your personality and your talent. There are a lot of talented musicians with no personality; the point here being you need to get one.
With portals such as iTunes, Pandora, Napster and other distribution channels, it no longer is a question of how to get music out to the masses. The question now is how do I get the masses to care? The fact is that your friends and family will all want you to give them your CD for free (If you decide to print or burn a CD). They don’t realize how much of your life and money went into your creative endeavor.
Out of the literally hundreds of thousands of CDs that flood the market every year, you need to stand out. Even if you are one of the best musicians in your area, chances are you still may have a hard time getting people to care enough to pay you anything for your music. So what do you do?
Without going into a lot of detail, I will tell you three things:
- You have to be both unique and memorable
- You must connect to your audience on a personal level
- Read Kevin Kelly’s 1000 True Fans
Set up a social presence online. Create a Facebook fan page and a My-Space page. Get your WordPress blog up and begin to write your thoughts on your blog at least once every week. Share video, photos, hold contests for creativity. Put lyrics up and get feedback or collaboration from friends and fans.
Get a YouTube account and start playing your songs for your little video recorder and upload them to YouTube. [watch video] Post your YouTube videos on your My-Space and Facebook fan pages, link it to fee to your blog. Invite your friends to check them out and comment on them. Do something crazy and get a little publicity around it. Experiment and see what is right for your audience; the most important element here is creativity.
Don’t just promote; learn to campaign. A campaign is a series of promotions along a theme. String them together with some form of continuity. Be sure to have every appearance, gig and article revolve around the theme of your album or help build upon your brand.
Without a plan to have a compelling campaign that has some semblance of continuity, your message will not grow to a crescendo; rather it will be watered-down in a sort of pointless, meandering progression of promotions without any focus on who you are as an artist or where you are going with your music.
Matthew Peters is a recording artist, filmmaker, author, radio host, life-hacker and entrepreneurial evangelist. His next book “Don’t Own Don’t Rent Live Well” focuses on how he and his wife Fiona have literally hacked their housing by paying NOTHING for their housing for over 9 years. Matthew was able to live out a life dream by completing his project – a music, film and cross-country treasure hunt titled Far From Haggersville created with the help of 32 musicians and cast and crew of 20.
