HOBBYIST

Pays for his equipment.

PROFESSIONAL

Gets it for free.

HOBBYIST

Earns his living outside music, his career is first, music is second.

PROFESSIONAL

First goal is to give up his day job, second goal is to make a lot of money.

JOURNEYMAN

A subset of professional. A journeyman just loves to play, get high, go on the road, experience the camaraderie.

STAR

Needs to dominate. Being a member of the group is not enough. If he or she can’t make it to the very top, they’re disappointed.

STAR

Knows he must be batting 1000 in at least one department. Must be able to sing, play or is beautiful. In a perfect world, all three. If you’re not batting 1000 in one of these categories, either practice or admit you’re a hobbyist.

JOURNEYMAN

If you want to play behind the best, your first skill must be networking. Your second skill must be the ability to get along. Your third must be your playing. If you get in the door and can’t deliver musically, you’re going to wash out. If you’re a journeyman, practice is essential. You should never be the weak link. You should not only pick up where the front person is going, you should make him or her look better.

HOBBYIST

Has got no idea what it takes to make it. You can read “Billboard” and the rest of the trade magazines, they give you no idea how business is done, nor do any conferences or seminars illuminate the business fully. In order to know the business, you must know those in it. The music business is ruthless. Many want to be in it and it’s almost impossible to stay in it. Before you decry the person at the top, investigate how he got there and how he stays there.

STAR

Long or short term? Short term…go on TV, although that paradigm is evaporating as I write this. “X Factor” is a nonstarter, the new “Idol” will be irrelevant and “The Voice” will crater soon, just like “Millionaire.” Short term stars should think about getting out as soon as they get in. Become a movie star, tie in with the Fortune 500, you’re running a business, credibility is irrelevant. If you’re a long term star, your material is key, as is your credibility, think about tomorrow in every decision you make today.

HOBBYIST

Copies the riffs.

PROFESSIONAL

Creates the riffs.

HOBBYIST

Plays for money and complains the club owner is ripping him off.

PROFESSIONAL

Scalps his own tickets or keeps prices artificially low and employs paperless ticketing to get tickets in the hands of his fans.

HOBBYIST

Has no fans.

PROFESSIONAL

Relies on his fans. If your only fan is your label and radio, you’re in trouble.

JOURNEYMAN

Might have a few fans in the audience, but his fans are the stars.

HOBBYIST

Buys off the rack.

PROFESSIONAL

Believes in customization.

HOBBYIST

Is all about the truth.

PROFESSIONAL

Never speaks the truth in public.

JOURNEYMAN

Only speaks the truth to other journeymen. Otherwise, his job is in jeopardy.

HOBBYIST

Will never become a professional. He’s too wrapped up in his cocoon, he believes in safety, despite people telling him how good he is. It’s a personal leap of faith to professionalism, and he’s not willing to make it.

PROFESSIONAL

Exudes self-confidence. Is willing to risk everything to make it. Passion and desire are almost equal to talent.

HOBBYIST

Is afraid of getting screwed.

PROFESSIONAL

Has and will continue to get screwed until he becomes a superstar. If you haven’t been screwed, you haven’t made it.

JOURNEYMAN

Laughs about being screwed. His joy is in playing.

HOBBYIST

Has no manager.

PROFESSIONAL

Has a manager who is the secret to his success. Without a good manager, you’ve got no career.

JOURNEYMAN

Is his own manager. Nobody else cares that much.

HOBBYIST

Makes his records at home.

PROFESSIONAL

Makes his records in his engineer’s home.

JOURNEYMAN

Makes his records at home.

HOBBYIST

Thinks it’s all about luck and life isn’t fair.

PROFESSIONAL

Makes his own luck and isn’t concerned with fairness.

HOBBYIST

Has time to give his opinion.

PROFESSIONAL

Is too busy working to give an opinion.

HOBBYIST

Fields no offers. He creates demand.

PROFESSIONAL

Sifts through more offers as he gets more successful. Eventually gets to the point where he employs someone else to say no, so he doesn’t look bad.

JOURNEYMAN

Is a juggler. He’s thinking about not only this gig, but two down the line.

HOBBYIST

Is genuine all the time.

PROFESSIONAL

Is rarely genuine, he doesn’t trust people and is wary of being stepped on, having his career thwarted.

HOBBYIST

Talks like he knows everybody.

PROFESSIONAL

Actually knows everybody.

HOBBYIST

Pays for his concert tickets.

PROFESSIONAL

Can always get in, can always pay, but usually is invited for free and rarely shows up.

HOBBYIST

No one cares if he’s absent.

PROFESSIONAL

You feel his absence.

HOBBYIST

Sells crap. Stunned that the world doesn’t stop and see its “greatness.”

PROFESSIONAL

Doesn’t go to market without an ace, a killer song or production.

HOBBYIST

Wastes time arguing.

PROFESSIONAL

Has got no time. If he hits a roadblock, he finds another way.

HOBBYIST

Is thrilled to be playing live anywhere.

PROFESSIONAL

Will not play unless you pay him, no matter what the promotional advantages or how good the cause is (unless it’s a radio station show).

HOBBYIST

Can see today.

PROFESSIONAL

Can see tomorrow.

HOBBYIST

Is shocked that illicit favors have to be performed to get ahead.

PROFESSIONAL

Would blow anybody to get ahead, of either sex. It’s his one and only life and one and only career, nothing’s going to get in his way.

Used to be you practiced in your parents’ garage, got gigs and eventually recorded. The recording was the icing on the cake.

Now it’s reversed.

Now you record first, and you may never ever play a gig.

First and foremost because there’s nowhere to play.

Second, no one wants to pay.

Third, no one wants to hear you be lousy.

So today, if you want to make it, buy a Pro Tools rig and not only figure out how it works, spend endless hours perfecting your recordings (after taking endless hours to write your songs!)

This is the opposite of everything you’ve been told to do. Not only did you have to establish a live base, supposed professionals said they could hear through a demo, it didn’t need to be perfect. Now if the recording isn’t close to perfect, forget it.

I know this is confounding, with all the money now on the road as opposed to in records, but that’s only for the well-established. If you’re just breaking in, it’s about recordings. As for live gigs, most of today’s breakthrough acts don’t play that much anyway. The Beatles did 1,000 gigs before most people heard of them, today most acts don’t even do 1,000 gigs in their career!

Of course there are exceptions, like the Alabama Shakes.

But the exceptions don’t make the rules.

Make your recordings. Pass them around amongst your friends. See if they catch fire. If they don’t, go home and make more.

As for spamming so called “filters” with your MP3s, it’s a waste of time. Filters want to see virality. They want to hear about your music from multiple uninvested (i.e. not related, not your mother or brother) sources. They want to feel the buzz.

Of course, it’s so easy to record that you’re now competing against millions. So whereas you used to be able to be a mediocre cover band and be known throughout your town, now you have to be truly exceptional or no one notices. You’ve got to cut the latest “Call Me Maybe” or close.

Anybody who tells you to build a rep on the road is clueless as to how hard, almost impossible it is.

Major labels want insurance. They want hit songs and a live base and a huge fan club. Do you know how many acts can slip through that sieve? A handful.

But you can beat the system.

By creating one great track.

That’s all Carly Rae Jepsen had.

That’s all PSY had.

And sure, they paid their dues, these were not their first tracks. So don’t expect your first tracks to break through either. Hell, Carly Rae Jepsen is 27 and PSY is gonna be 35 at the end of the month!

RULES OF THE ROAD

1. Get the new gear, don’t deplore it. Not only every plug-in, but every music service. If you’re not exploring the future, you’re going to be left behind.

If you don’t have an iPhone or Android, if your computer doesn’t use the latest operating system, if you don’t have a tablet, you’re out of touch, you’re going to be marginalized.

2. Look for the truth in that which you disagree with. It’s easy to reject conflicting opinions, but you’re stronger if you extract what works from that which does not.

3. Listen to the music you hate. And listen more than once. You might find something you like. You might still find you hate it. But determine why. Those giving knee-jerk opinions are ignored.

4. Know that everybody can never win, any change begets victors and losers. Digital killed CD manufacturing. The iPod killed the Walkman. If you’re protecting what once was, you’ll find yourself in the graveyard. This does not mean companies should jettison the past too early, but they should always have one foot in the future, and know when to jump to the other side.

5. Knowledge is power. We live in the information age. Data is at your fingertips. Uninformed opinions are laughable. Like pundits saying who’s going to win the election when geeks like Nate Silver know who’s going to win, based on the data. Everything you need to know is online. Spend the time finding it out before you go to the bar or a conference and start bloviating.

6. We live in a singles world. If you listen to the outcries demanding an album you’re no different from Karl Rove protesting that Romney won. He who cracks the singles market on a regular basis will win in the future. No one’s got time. Stay in their mind constantly and give them what they need, which isn’t always what they want.

7. Artists are leaders. Use your power to make change. Only artists can get good tickets in the hands of fans. One could call it a responsibility, but he who leads, who takes a stand, is placed at the center of the future, and will reap rewards for his or her behavior.

8. Corporations rarely change. They usually just protect their turf. Change comes from individuals.

Don’t think you can enter the corporation and make change. If you really believe in something different, you’ve got to do it yourself.

9. Tomorrow’s music business is not being built by the usual suspects, but those who are nimble, who utilize the new tools to create something that fits the modern market. You’re the future, not Doug Morris.

CHANGING YOUR MIND

“More so than any person I ever met in my life, he had the ability to change his mind, much more so than anyone I’ve ever met. He could be so sold on a certain direction and in a nanosecond (Cook snaps his fingers) have a completely different view. (Laughs.) I thought in the early days, ‘Wow, this is strange.’ Then I realized how much of a gift it was. So many people, particularly, I think, CEOs and top executives, they get so planted in their old ideas, and they refuse or don’t have the courage to admit that they’re now wrong. Maybe the most underappreciated thing about Steve was that he had the courage to change his mind. And you know – it’s a talent. It’s a talent. So, anyway.”

Tim Cook on Steve Jobs

I was against Napster before I was for it.

And if I was a politician, that statement would doom my career right there. We live in an era of teams, playing gotcha, whilst the winners refuse to participate, create their own league and search for excellence, changing on a whim. Ever heard of “pivoting”? That’s the buzz term in Silicon Valley. That’s when you’ve got something and you take the kernel and turn it into something else. Kind of like a heavy metal band becoming a boy band, or vice versa. And I’m not talking about expedience here, I’m talking about extricating what does work from what doesn’t and creating something wholly new, that can be successful and game-changing.

Something big happened this week. Lars made peace with Sean Parker. It was good for both. Metallica’s image still suffers from its anti-Napster crusade of yesteryear and Spotify is laboring under the illusion that it is ripping off artists. Now let’s not forget that Metallica is doing this deal because they now own all of their masters. But having said that, Lars admitted he was wrong, that he didn’t know enough, didn’t do enough research back then.

Whew! Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. Even better about Lars. Because unlike so many in our nation, in the music sphere, he not only admitted he was wrong, but that he could learn something!

And you can learn something too. That Spotify pays 70% of revenue in royalties and it or its “equal” competitor, whether it be Apple or Rdio or whomever, will be good for artists and the business, not bad.

But this breakthrough will depend upon artists joining up, and lobbying for the success of streaming services, instead of sitting on the sidelines uneducated, too afraid to play.

But this is not about streaming so much as a way of life. Do you make a snap judgment and stick to it or do you investigate, changing your mind constantly until you decide what you’re going to do? And if it doesn’t work, are you willing to tweak it, to change it into something else?

Kind of like all the people e-mailing me that they haven’t made it yet, that they haven’t broken through. Maybe the onus is on them, not the public or the media, maybe they need to morph into something different. If you’re not willing to look at yourself, question absolutely everything, you’re going to have a very short tenure in the entertainment business, if you’ve got one at all.

So learn all you can. And question not only authority, but yourself. If you’re inured to the present, you’ll get left in the past. CDs are dying and vinyl is never coming back. New computers don’t have disk drives and if you think the future of hi-fi is vinyl disks, you’re probably driving a Rambler. The future of hi-fi is digital.

Change happens constantly. Once upon a time we were thrilled to be able to make wireless phone calls. Now if our handsets don’t send e-mail and texts and surf the web at high speed we laugh. And it’s great for consumers. But if you’re a player, you must adjust your thinking, you must get yourself in tune with this culture…where everything is up for grabs, where you’re willing to change to not only stay afloat, but get ahead.

This is hysterical! They’re trying to SHAME scalpers into doing the right thing!

While they’re at it, why don’t they tell heroin addicts they’re despicable parasites and file-traders they’re ruining music. The effort would be just as successful.

One thing you’ve got to know about politicians…they’re CLUELESS!

Obama wins the election by employing young ‘uns who can slice and dice data and Charles Schumer, a tool of the bankers who are both underwriting this concert and overpaying to attend it, is shocked, positively SHOCKED at the inequity!

Let’s start at the beginning. Madison Square Garden is a small hall in America’s biggest market. Staples Center has thousands more seats. Stuff sells out at MSG that doesn’t do a full house anywhere else. Who in their right mind didn’t know this would be a scalper’s field day?

This is Christmas, Thanksgiving and your personal birthday wrapped into one. This is the kind of event resellers DREAM about! This is like trying to fight Al Qaeda by telling them they’re doing bad things. Huh? Today you fight with technology. You don’t go to the media and tell people who don’t care and are not paying attention to stop.

Utterly ridiculous.

And do these same politicians ever look themselves in the eye and ask these questions when the scalpers lobby them to ban paperless? Yup, all those grannies bought 12/12/12 tickets for their families, who can’t attend, because of soccer games, and now they’re forced to get rid of these ducats on StubHub. Please let the eBay company help them out, otherwise they’d be stuck with these tickets and lose money. Thank god there’s a resale market!

If this fiasco isn’t the number one advertisement for paperless ticketing I don’t know what is. But blame the music industry. They like it the way it is. This is how they make a profit. On ticketing fees and scalping your own tickets and…

If we bring in paperless these heritage acts, and it’s almost all oldsters on the bill, would have to forfeit seven figures. Yup, these icons of creativity are all about the bucks now. They don’t want to leave any money on the table.

So be like the Stones. Overcharge, to try to eliminate the scalping. Then scalp your own tickets too! Ha!

Either sell the tickets at their fair market value or go to paperless. It’s an either or situation. Otherwise you’ve got third parties profiting while the government kicks and screams in ignorance.

“Benefit’s Producers Condemn Scalpers”