If I get one more e-mail from an act telling me that their worthless music was featured in some lame TV show I’m gonna puke.<\/p>\n
I don’t give a flying fuck that some hipster music supervisor with no budget featured a few seconds of your lame track.\u00c2\u00a0 And neither does the public.<\/p>\n
In an era where music lives online, where careers are built from the bottom up, on the road, do you really think that minimal TV exposure is going to give you your big break?\u00c2\u00a0 Actually, e-mail me that your stuff’s been in TV and I know you’re desperate to make it, not willing to put in the hard time it takes to build yourself on the road, in some cases as long as a decade!<\/p>\n
Bottom line, do people like your music?\u00c2\u00a0 One fan can spread your story\u00c2\u00a0 more than\u00c2\u00a0 a zillion impressions in mainstream media.\u00c2\u00a0 But you’re looking to quantify your success, bring something home to show mommy and daddy.\u00c2\u00a0 But the landscape is more amorphous, more confusing than that.\u00c2\u00a0 You probably won’t know you’ve made it until you can buy a house.\u00c2\u00a0 And chances are it won’t be featured on "Cribs", which isn’t even on MTV anymore, is it?<\/p>\n
Don’t tell me about the VMA ratings.\u00c2\u00a0 As if the number of people watching determines whether something is good.\u00c2\u00a0 They didn’t tune in for the music, but to ogle celebrities, oftentimes celebutantes, famous for nothing.\u00c2\u00a0 If your goal is to be featured on TMZ and PerezHilton, this is your game, but this has got nothing to do with music.<\/p>\n
What I just can’t understand is why people think they’re good.<\/p>\n
One thing was better in the old days, only the great got to be exposed on a wide scale.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, there were the evanescent pop idols, but the acts who you were subjected to ad infinitum on FM radio were light years better than these idiots e-mailing me about their TV placements today.\u00c2\u00a0 Grand Funk Railroad, a band reviled in its heyday, is better than anything on MySpace, the filter of yesteryear weeded out the utter crap.<\/p>\n
But as lame as the purveyors are, that’s how confused the public is.\u00c2\u00a0 People are looking for what to listen to.\u00c2\u00a0 And they can’t trust radio, with too many commercials and jive jocks, or newspapers, with hipster writers recommending albums that may sound good to an English major, but elude the rest of us.\u00c2\u00a0 The only people they can trust are their friends.\u00c2\u00a0 And, in case you’re online deficient, in today’s world oftentimes your friends are people you’ve never even met.\u00c2\u00a0 Furthermore, amongst the younger, Twitter-addicted youth, there’s a collective consciousness that defines what breaks through on a mass level. And this collective consciousness has got a shit detector nonpareil.\u00c2\u00a0 They remember " The Macarena", they can enjoy a trifle, but if you want to be embraced, if you want to last, you’ve got to be real.\u00c2\u00a0 And they don’t abandon their favorites.\u00c2\u00a0 But getting into their bosom is tough.<\/p>\n
It’s much easier to play by the old rules.\u00c2\u00a0 But get a song in a TV show and try to book a gig.\u00c2\u00a0 Gonna be very difficult.\u00c2\u00a0 You’re better off playing at the local bar, with a ratio of 80% covers to 20% originals.\u00c2\u00a0 Not only will you be honing your chops, you’ll be garnering an audience, if you’re good.\u00c2\u00a0 And people will spread the word and bring others down to see you.<\/p>\n
If you’re waiting to ride on the magic carpet of the music supervisor and major label A&R man, be prepared to be dropped off very soon, usually not far from where you departed.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re about money, not careers.\u00c2\u00a0 And if they get any traction, they’ll jam you down the audience’s throat like an online stalker.<\/p>\n
Oh yeah, have the tables turned completely yet?\u00c2\u00a0 No!\u00c2\u00a0 Most music is still acquired in the CD format.\u00c2\u00a0 But that’s paid for music.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s dwarfed by stolen\/traded music.\u00c2\u00a0 AC\/CD was kept alive by P2P.\u00c2\u00a0 Pink Floyd too.\u00c2\u00a0 Kids discovered this music and then told all their friends all about it.\u00c2\u00a0 Are you as good as AC\/DC?\u00c2\u00a0 AC\/DC is so good, they don’t even sell their music at the iTunes Store.\u00c2\u00a0 They haven’t played live since the turn of the millennium.\u00c2\u00a0 The music itself is keeping the band alive.<\/p>\n
Is your music that good?<\/p>\n
No.<\/p>\n
So, either give up or admit to yourself that you’re a journeyman.\u00c2\u00a0 That you’re not John Lennon, never mind Paul McCartney. Almost no one is.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s room for a mediocre lawyer, a competent physician, but not an average musician, not in the Big Top, not in the arena world.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got to be legendary.\u00c2\u00a0 So give up now, or keep trying to get better.\u00c2\u00a0 But know that true greatness is innate.\u00c2\u00a0 And most of the legends were struggling, starving and playing for years before they got even a tiny break.<\/p>\n
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If I get one more e-mail from an act telling me that their worthless music was featured in some lame TV show I’m gonna puke. I don’t give a flying fuck that some hipster music supervisor with no budget featured a few seconds of your lame track.\u00c2\u00a0 And neither does the public. In an era […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-business","category-the-media"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-lN","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1351\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}