Today we have with us an Australian star Lily Jay, who will
be sharing with us some of her valuable experience on what starting musicians
should do to be successful in the entertainment industry. Lily has starred in
Live Shows such as the hit Musical "Chicago" and Tony Award Winning
Show "Hairspray". This year shehas released her new Single
"Renovate" which had received a lot of attention from the media. Lily
is not only a successful singer, but also an entrepreneur and owner of several
businesses. A person like her is someone we need to pay attention to, so take a
look at some of the tips she shared with us today.
Rule No. 1
— don't do gigs for free
Performing to a responsive crowd is a wonderful feeling. When
you are only starting out and need to perfect the craft of putting engaging
shows together, doing a couple hundred free shows can be vital practice. Lily
says that once you've learned the craft, though, you should taper off. It isn't
good for the music business for musicians to go around offering their craft for
nothing.
Many venues will ask you to perform for free in return for
the chance to gain exposure for your music. Legitimate venues, though, don't
generally ask for freeperformances.The ones that do usually have terrible
stages and sound systemsthat make it impossible for you to be heard well. The
exposure you gain won't be worth much then. If the words to your songs are an
important part of your music, bad sound systems will be especially damaging to
your music.
The only exception to the rule is if you simply can't find
paying gigs. If you need to go more than a monthwithout performing, you may
need to accept a free gig to keep your hand in.
Giving
recorded music away for free is a good idea
The traditional copyright system tends to be expensive and
cumbersome. The Creative Commons copyright system is easy to use, free, legally
recognized and flexible.
Getting a Creative Commons license for a song is as simple as
visiting their website and signing up for free. With a Creative Commons
copyright license, you get to state what exactly people can do with your music.
You can give it away for free while restricting users from changing your work in
any way, using it without attribution and so on.
Giving your recorded music away for free is a good way to
gain a following. Your following will buy tickets to your shows when you
perform live. That's where the real money is
Lily said that you mustn't think that giving recorded music
away for free will get you no money. When people like your music, they'll want
to support you. You should list your music on sites like TuneCore and CD Baby.
Once you're there, your music will be available on iTunes, Amazon and Radio.
Committed fans will buy your music on these sites even if it's available for
free.
Never mind
the music blogs
Since having a major music publication pay attention to your
music has always been impossible (shortly before Off The Wall, Michael Jackson
is said to have had trouble landing an interview on The Rolling Stone),
musicians for years have sent their music to small music blogs run by
well-respected amateur critics with roots in the music business These critics
accept music from no-name acts and write reviews that visitors to the blog and
major music industry people read. These days, though, small music blogs such as
Pretty Much Amazing and Gorilla Vs. Bear are not small anymore. They get
thousands of hits each day and hundreds of music submissions. In other words,
they have turned into mini versions of The Rolling Stonethemselves.
Certainly, small music blogs will pay you attention at some
point. You need to build a fan base the old-fashioned way first, though, for
this to happen — through playing at venues They can't be your first port of
call anymore.
It doesn't
matter if you aren't getting signed
Getting signed to a label is no guarantee of success— 9 out
of 10 artists signed to labels fail commercially, after all. It's a far better
idea to stay independent, learn to reach audiences through the Internet and
remain your own boss You will be in control of your music, your image and your
PR. If you don't have the marketing skillsnecessary, you can partner with
someone you get along with, who does. If you give that person a share of your
profits,you will still have better control over your art than you would at a
label.
Submit your
music to many of the Creative Commons music archives
There are dozens of popular websites out there that archive
and popularize songs with Creative Commons licenses. Names like FrostWire and
Jamendo are well-known. You'll start seeing downloads and plays practically the
moment your song goes up.
Get your
music on a YouTube soundtrack
YouTube has millions of how-to videos, pet videos, baby and
news videos created by amateurs All these videos need soundtracks playing in
the background. The usually pick music from people with free, Creative Commons
licenses — they can't afford copyrighted music.
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