Songwriting Tips plus Archive copies of 'One Minute With Dec' ..the weekly Music Making, songwriting, singing, producing, performing Ezine that should explode your show biz. career.

I wanted to let you know that I am enjoying your 'How To Make a $Million From Your Music' materials very much, thank you! I have taken a serious look at my approach to the music "business" and it's been pretty much what you described. What a lot of time (and money!) I've wasted in the past.

Steve Thompson - Glenville - New York [member no. 50%-0745030W]

"Just finished re-reading the 20 releases - I think I may need to re-read them again you've packed so much into them!"

Andrew Watson [Master Class member MAS053040]

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"One Minute With Dec"

"My Emails are written in good humour, and should be read with a smile"

Got a nice quote by Email this week which rang a sweet chord with me:

"Launching a new artist, if done correctly, is a very expensive undertaking for a record company and everything must be looked into in the evaluation process, instead of later in a Marketing meeting , to give your artist an edge over the competition. - Steve Lunt, VP A&R, Jive Records"

I have quite a reputation for speaking my mind...I don't have much time in my life for chit-chat, so I generally am forthright and say my piece. Sometimes it may hurt but my Goodness you always get the truth from me. And if you listen and heed what I say, you get results.

So that quote sort of amplifies in my brain that there are tens, no hundreds of thousands of guys out their supposedly in the music business who have no conception of what it takes to have success. They still think it's all to do with 'luck', with having 'contacts', with 'who you know' and all that cr*p. I am not in the business of patronising guys and telling them their music is great, their looks are great...they are exactly what the public need...when 99% of the time they sound 15 years too late, they look like sh*t and not one person, male OR female, would ever fancy them in a month of Sundays. Oh by the way, they probably just sit in their bedroom making their PC based music all night long, smoking spliffs and swigging Jack Daniels. And their constant moan is that they cannot get the attention of the Record Companies, Publishing Companies, Production Companies.

So, look at that quote again.

The real figures I get quoted are that a major label will spend £4.5Mill or $6.5Mill. promoting an artist or band. Then, of all the artists and bands promoted only 5% [YES - FIVE PER CENT] of those signed will have a hit!

Aren't those statistics frightening? Would you like to be a record company Executive?

So, does it not make sense to make sure that your input, before you even attempt to get signed or get your music put out there into the marketplace, is 120% sellable? In other words, should you leave no stone unturned to get your music sellable, sought after, marketable...and then get yourself sellable, sought after and marketable? And I haven't even mentioned your band yet!

I read another interview with a major Executive the other day. He openly said that it was outrageous that artists who go to stage school, fame school, rock school, whatever school, should then come to a record company and expect to be taught how to be successful!

I couldn't agree more.

In my 'How To Make A $Million From Your Music' at www.makehits.com I lean on all these points heavily. Because that is how our business works. Your music and yourself, both, have got to have the marketing edge of a new model BMW. Not a fifteen years old Lada.

So - don't moan at the record companies because they won't grab you and your music....just read those figures above and then examine your own music...and most of all, examine yourself! Whether you are just a writer or a full fledged budding Superstar.

Make yourself a good check list and apply it to you,

your music and if you have a band,

make sure you apply it without favouritism

to every member of the band:

1) Is my latest music so innovative, so different, so sellable that any kid would rush and buy it in preference to 'Crossroad's by Blazin' Squad [and if you don't know that track - you most certainly have lost the plot!]

2) Is my music just killing the live audiences we play to three nights per week? [and if you answer that you are not playing live then you SERIOUSLY have lost the plot]

3) Is your database at an almost uncontrollable level...you are thinking of looking to automate the applications and the newsletters, plus the mid week notifications?

4) Does each member of the band have an individual following....such that there is great enmity between those groups over who is the most fanciable? [if you think that is crazy...why do record companies put those little questionnaires in CD cases asking which member of the band you like best?]

5) Do you spend ten minutes counting the dosh you take from the merchandising after each show...and importantly do you have a good negotiating brain for paying an honest percentage to the venue?

6) Do you have a constant program of recording, mixing, mastering new music just for merchandising to live audiences and to your database?

Let me tell you that if you even faintly turn up your eyebrows or smile a wry smile at any of those points, you need to re-evaluate your position in this game....they are all the points that the Record Companies and Publishing Companies will be most interested in.

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT:

Since we introduced the monthly payment way of having 'How To Make A $Million from your Music' the applications have been overwhelming. We had no idea that you would want this service. It's there now, just click on the link and go to 'Chose product required'. Here is the link:

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Hit The Floor!!!

For anyone who didn't see David Letterman's take on this: (And it's a true story...)

On a recent weekend in Atlantic City, a woman won a bucketful of quarters at a slot machine. She took a break from the slots to have dinner with her husband in the hotel dining room, but first she wanted to stash the quarters in her room. "I'll be right back and we'll go to eat," she told her husband and carried the coin-laden bucket to the elevator.

As she was about to walk into the elevator, she noticed two men already aboard. Both were black. One of them was big, very big . . . an intimidating figure. The woman froze. Her first thought was: These two are going to rob me Her next thought was: Don't be a bigot, they look like perfectly nice gentlemen, but fear immobilized her. She stood and stared at the two men.

She hoped they wouldn't guess what she was thinking, but her hesitation about joining them in the elevator was all too obvious now. She couldn't just stand there, so with a mighty effort of will she stepped forward into the elevator. Avoiding eye contact, she turned around stiffly and faced the elevator doors as they closed. A second passed, and then another, and then another.

Her fear increased! The elevator didn't move. Panic consumed her. She thought, I'm trapped and about to be robbed! Her greatest fear was realized when one of the men said: "Hit the floor."

Instinct told her to do what they said . . . The bucket of quarters flew upwards as she threw out her arms and collapsed on the elevator floor, as a shower of coins rained down on her. A few seconds passed, and she prayed to herself: Take my money and spare me. More time passed.

Finally, one of the men said politely: "Ma'am, if you'll just tell us what floor you're going to, we'll push the button." The one who spoke was trying very hard not to laugh. The woman lifted her head and looked up at the two men, and they reached down to help her up.

Confused, she struggled to her feet. "When I told my friend here to hit the floor," the shorter one explained, "I meant that he should hit the elevator button for our floor. I didn't mean you." It was obvious the men were very amused by the woman's scene. She thought: "What a spectacle I've made of myself." She wanted to blurt out an apology, but was too humiliated to speak.

She was also feeling a little faint. The men helped her to gather up the fallen quarters, and insisted on walking her to her room. At her door they bid her a good evening, and as she slipped into her room she heard them burst into laughter as they walked back to the elevator. The woman composed herself and went to dinner with her husband, hoping to put the incident behind her.

The next morning, one dozen roses were delivered to her room. Attached to EACH rose was a crisp one hundred dollar bill. The card said: "Thanks for the best laugh we've had in years."

It was signed, Eddie Murphy & Michael Jordan

"A child of five would understand this.

Send someone to fetch a child of five."
Groucho Marx

Regards

Dec

"Any woman who thinks the way to a man's heart is through his stomach is aiming about 10 inches too high.
Adrienne E. Gusoff

Tip of the week: When in a live situation with a live band...it is always fifty times better to use a track with all the added studio type instruments and effects on plus the band. But the big tip is to have the keyboard player in control of the mini-disc player [still the Industry Standard format]. That way the illusion that all the sound is coming from the stage will be complete. It also puts the stops and starts in the firm control of the musicians and not the sound boy out front, who will be sipping his pint whilst forgetting to start the next track. Yes?

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Gag of the Week:

"Mr. Rabbit was walking down the road when he spotted a crow at the tip top
of a very tall tree. He shouted, "Good Morning, Mr. Crow."

Mr. Crow shouted back down, "Good Morning Mr. Rabbit." Mr. Rabbit shouted
up, "Whatcha doin' today?" and the answer shouted back down was, "Absolutely
nothin' Mr. Rabbit - Absolutely nothin' and loving it."

Well, that sounded pretty good to Mr. Rabbit, so he shouted back up, "Do you
think I could do that too?" Mr. Crow shouted back down, "I don't see why
not!" So, Mr. Rabbit lay down on the side of the road and began Doing
Absolutely Nothing. In 30 minutes a fox came along and ate him.

The moral of the story is: You can get away with Doing Absolutely Nothing,
but only if you are really high up."

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One Moment with Stuart Goldsmith

"So if shares are heading down, what is a safe place to put your money, assuming you have any?

http://www.medina.co.uk

the website of my good friend - Stuart Goldsmith

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'One Minute With Dec' The widest read weekly music Ezine on the Music Net. The Archive

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'One Minute With Dec'
The widest read weekly music Ezine on the Music Net.
The Archive