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

Because your genre limits your potential audience, you’ll often make more money by doing it yourself than you would if you signed to a record company. For a record deal to make sense, the company has to generate more money for you (after they take their piece) than you would get by going it on your own. With niche artists, that’s often questionable

Nobody talks about their screwups, because self-aggrandizement is part of the Hollywood dance of the sand crabs.

In other words, if the company gets $100 from your recordings, and you have a 10% royalty, you get $10.

Sometimes you can pre-negotiate the fee, based on results. (For example, if I get you X, you’ll pay me Y. If I get you two times X, I get Z.) At a minimum, get a ballpark range.

But if they dazzle you, be even more cautious—charming crooks are the most dangerous!

Remember, you’re hiring people to guide your professional life, not to hang out on the tour bus. It’s nice if you strike up a friendship with your professionals, but it’s not essential. (However, with your personal manager, I think you need at least a solid rapport, if not a true friendship.) I’m not suggesting you hire someone you really dislike,

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.

Making a living from a business you don’t understand is risky. Yet a large number of artists, including major ones, have never learned such basics as how record royalties are computed, what a copyright is, how music publishing works, and a number of other things that directly affect their lives.

As we discussed on page 15, a direct relationship with fans is the next generation of marketing, and young artists are proving savvier in this area than a lot of established companies.