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| How
Others "Perceive" Your Musical Success May Be Just As Important As
Achieving Real Success By, Tim Sweeney (January 14, 2001) Perception is not always reality. That's something that I have been saying now for many years--especially when it comes to our beliefs and perceptions about how well major label artists are doing. Too often, our perception of how well major label artists are doing in their careers or how successful they are is based entirely on how often we see their music videos on MTV or how many reviews or articles we see about them in the press. Not to mention the amount of times we hear their songs over and over again on the radio. The same holds true of independent and developing artists in your area. The sheer amount of shows they are doing in your town and the promotion related to these shows can make you think they are further ahead in their music careers than you are in your own. Ironically, it is often this misperception that most influences new or developing artists to switch musical genres or join the latest new musical trends to become as successful as the artists they 'perceive' to be as successful. On the other side of the fence, what other artists think of you, your music and how successful they perceive you to be, is not always reality either--although you may want it to be! Making others believe you have something going on that is 'buzzworthy' (monthly shows at local or out-of- town clubs, people talking favorably about your music, CDs in the stores, radio airplay, write-ups in the press, etc.) is usually based upon how well you can manipulate the media and music industry into believing you actually do have something going on (even if you do not). Your first reaction to this statement may be, "so, how can I manipulate the media and music industry when they don’t even return my phone calls?" Whether radio programmers, press, retail buyers or club/venue bookers return your phone calls or not is not always the most important part of this new "perception" strategy. Let me explain. Most artists don’t know that before a record deal is offered to a new act, record companies usually conduct a market-by-market reality check to see how well that unsigned act is doing and how 'buzzworthy' they are. This entails having a special staff (or usually hiring my company) contact the various radio programmers, retailers, club bookers and press in each market to see how much they know about the act, how well their CD is selling in the area and generally what they think about their music. While support in the form of constant airplay or write-ups in the press is nice, record companies really want to know how familiar the musical act is to each market's retail outlets--in other words, are they selling any CDs? It is very important for labels to see that unsigned acts have some record sales under their belts and how many people come to their shows before a deal is eventually offered to them. While record sales and attendance at shows is something you can control through effective music promotion, the question is, how can you get radio and press to know about you and your musical act, even if they don’t want to play your music on their stations or write about your music in their papers? Actually, the answer is quite simple. Most often radio programmers and local press aren’t going to play your CD or write about you until there is more of a story developing (especially if you didn’t send them your Artist Profile or press kit). Your job is to keep these 'influencers' up-to-date on how well your career is developing. And you can do that by simply emailing or faxing them a monthly update about what is happening with your music--for example, airplay on radio stations they monitor, write-ups and reviews in music publications both online and offline, where you are playing and how many people are coming to see you, and probably most importantly, which stores are stocking your CDs and how many sales you are ringing up. Updates such as these are passed on to record company A&R scouts and can be the key to getting a record company (or any other important music industry bigwigs) pay attention to your music. The perception of how well you are doing in your market is a major determining factor in not only getting a record deal--but whether or not you get lucrative sponsorship deals for your music. Ones that will give you thousands of dollars to help you promote your music. Although perception is not always reality, it just may be the key to deciding your musical fate. |
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