All You Need to Know About the Music Business: 10th Edition

Since you wouldn’t open a store without something to sell, before you start assembling a team, you want to be sure your music is ready for the big time.

Be very careful when negotiating the term of a management deal. Many artists have lived to regret being tangled up in long-term contracts with lousy managers.

As always, make sure you get a good vibe from whoever you’re hiring.

So it’s best to plan as if your career isn’t going to last, then be pleasantly surprised if it does. Setting yourself up so that you never have to work doesn’t stop you from working all you like—it just becomes an option, not an obligation.

For one thing, if the lawyer is being paid by a record company or publisher for work on other clients, it’s human nature to think twice about how hard they want to beat them up and jeopardize a profitable relationship—especially for an artist who will pay them much less.

Most decisions can be condensed down to a fairly simple summary, and you should make all the significant decisions yourself. Be wary of someone who just wants to tell you what to do and seems offended if you question it.

As of this writing, most mainstream artists still want to sign to a record company. Apart from guaranteeing you money (so you can avoid sleeping on park benches while creating your music), the record companies have the resources to get your music heard above the noise of all the other artists out there.

When your music is available, it doesn’t help much if no one knows about it.

If you’re going to spend everything you make, then start spending money you don’t have, you’re going to end up broke. It’s that simple.