NO COMPLAINING

The only people who want to hear it are…other complainers. There’s a whole ecosystem of people convinced that the system is stacked against them, who are constantly complaining online how unfair the game is. The truth is they are not good enough and/or unwilling to work hard enough. As for the 10,000 hour rule… It’s not just 10,000 hours, it’s 10,000 hours of HARD PRACTICE! Jerry Seinfeld intentionally sought out tough rooms to hone his act. Furthermore, he performed his initial five minute monologue for “The Tonight Show” in excess of a hundred times prior to taking Johnny Carson’s stage. Most people are not willing to do the hard work, the rewards go to those who do.

SINGING

If you have a substandard voice get someone else to sing your songs unless you are the best lyricist of all time, in the league of Bob Dylan. Why start out hamstrung? A great voice used to be a criterion for a record deal, never mind success, back in the pre-internet era. But now that anybody can play, everybody believes they deserve success, even though they don’t have the chops.

WRITING

Not only does it give you a leg up, it’s where all the money is. Focus on your songwriting more than your playing unless you’re planning on being a studio or backup musician.

CHARACTER

However, if your voice has a unique timbre, if you can deliver a song in a unique way…some people can get away without writing their own material. Don’t equate this with having a good voice. Rod Stewart could never win a TV competition show, but his raspy delivery is unique and credible, at least in his heyday in the seventies. Sure Rod wrote, but he also sang others’ songs…he’s the one who rescued Cat Stevens’s “The First Cut Is the Deepest” from the dustbin. Ditto Joe Cocker. Who else could have even conceived of his rendition of “With a Little Help from My Friends”?

AUTHENTICITY/CREDIBILITY

You have to be perceived as real, you have to live your true identity 24/7, because there are cameras everywhere and they’re out to get you. People live to expose the faux pas and contradictions of performers online. So don’t fake it unless that’s your identity. If you’re a part of the machine, singing songs written by committee, no one cares if you’re authentic, you may be marketable, but at the core there’s no there there. People are looking for something to latch on to, they want to identify. The old days of putting people on a throne and idolizing them no longer works in a world where everybody with a keyboard believes they’re a deserving star. You need to reflect people’s truth back upon them. You have to articulate it in a way that they can feel but not put into words. You want to foster belief, not brain dead fealty.

NO

You have to be able to say no. Never forget, your handlers, those surrounding you, are percentage partners. If you do the endorsement deal, the commercial, the private gig, they make money, so they’re rarely going to tell you not to. Have a backbone, adhere to your beliefs. If it doesn’t feel good, don’t do it. If it’s going to compromise your identity, don’t do it. You’re building an image, which must be bulletproof. It’s those who stay true to themselves who have the longest careers.

DON’T BE LIKE ANYBODY ELSE

Just like the Kinks song. Music pushes the envelope, makes a difference in society, when it surprises people, delivers what they cannot even conceive of. We don’t need a new jam band just like the last jam band. And we certainly don’t need another pop singer just like the last one. If you’re not unique, we don’t need you. Your influences must come from outside the game. If all you’re doing is studying the charts and the grosses you’re missing out on life and will have nothing to say.

DO THE OPPOSITE

Just like George in the aforementioned “Seinfeld.” Get no tattoos. You’ll be asked about this in every interview. How come you’re not like everybody else? Everybody else has tattoos, why don’t you? Ditto on long hair. You’ve got to make people question, you’ve got to make people think.

DON’T BE AFRAID TO BE RETRO

We call it going back to basics. You don’t need no stinkin’ 808. You can have more than one chord in a song. You can make a record that is not stacked with sounds from top to bottom. Think of it this way… Can people sing your song a cappella, i.e. with no accompaniment? That’s right, sans the trappings, does your song stand alone, both in changes and lyrics? And never forget the basic building blocks. The magic of a bridge. Starting with the chorus. These tricks NEVER go out of style.

YOU DON’T NEED A MAJOR LABEL

Now, more than ever, that’s about commerce, not art. That’s for pop stars who will garner success via publicity and radio and TV, the traditional game. The majors want it easy, which delivers the lowest common denominator, and they want it fast, which allows for no artist development.

SPOTIFY IS NOT EVERYTHING

You may look at the Spotify numbers for an act and see they’re anemic and think the act is not happening. But then you see how many tickets they’re selling and it doesn’t add up. These acts’ success lies elsewhere. Look for unique YouTube videos, or a social media presence on TikTok or Instagram Reels. A hit on TikTok will bond the fan to the artist more than a hit on Spotify. Spotify is where a fan goes LAST! (Not to rag on Spotify, it dwarfs its competitors in consumption, and therefore it’s a stand-in for the on-demand streaming outlets, i.e. DSPs.) Don’t be demoralized if your Spotify numbers are bad, as long as you’re a success somewhere else.

YOU’RE COMPETING AGAINST NO ONE

This is not the old days, with a limited number of slots. It all comes down to you. You need to make headway and grow. It is not a zero sum game. And chances are you can be big and a huge slice of the public has never heard of you, never mind your music. This is the case for just about everybody, it’s just that those who appear to have broad traction have better publicity, but publicity has never meant less. Getting someone to listen to new music is nearly impossible. Word of mouth is the best way to grow. But that assumes you have a track that entrances people in ten seconds, OR TEN MINUTES! You can’t have it both ways. If you want the public to take your extended opuses seriously, just make extended cuts and be known for that. But if that is not your game, make it instantly palatable and memorable. This is reality, don’t shoot the messenger.

CREATE, CREATE, CREATE

The main issue is notice, not stiff material. Stiff sinks like a stone and disappears. Rather than try and polish a turd, like the majors, bringing in outside writers, remixing a track to death, write it, cut it, post it and repeat. No one can create an 11 every time out. And your only way to increase your number of 11s is to come up to bat more. Be uninhibited, start and finish, don’t second guess yourself, what feels like mediocre today people might like tomorrow. But, when you create an 11 you’ll know, and so will everybody else. If you think you created an 11 and no one else reacts…you didn’t create an 11.

IT’S A LONG GAME

If you’re not in it for years, consider yourself a hobbyist. Sure, the odds of success are low, but those who do break through and sustain have been at it for eons. There’s too much in the pipeline, it’s so hard to gain notice. And the longer you’re in it, the more you learn and the better you get.

MYSTERY IS HISTORY

Everybody posts online, everybody knows who everybody else is, and you should too. Consider social media part of your art. If you’re just posting clips, you’re doing it wrong. Be creative about it and do it YOURSELF! It must come straight from the heart.

SKILL

Conception beats execution every day of the week. Meaning the idea is more important than your ability to play your instrument, to get the production exactly right. Of course you have to have rudimentary skills, but you do not have to be a virtuoso on your instrument to create a great record.

CHANNEL

The best material comes fast, seemingly out of nowhere, you’re channeling it, not thinking about it. Sure, you can sit in a room and try to eke out a song, but the best material is almost always that which comes in a flash, a burst of creativity. And when you have this moment, write it down/record it INSTANTLY! Because the mood you’re in is as important as the idea.

WE’RE LOOKING FOR GREAT

And we want to tell everybody about it when we find it. But it’s so rare. This is your job, to be so unique, so special, so deserving of attention that we’ve got to tell everybody we know about you.