In the last lesson you learned that there is a lot of old and outdated advice out there. It is advice that used to work, and in many cases-can still work for some people, some of the time. I also made the disclaimer that I am not writing this to contradict or instigate, nor am i interested in any sort of new vs old kind of contest. Now before we get into story time and you meet our Jennifer...

Let's recap and remind you of some of the pervasive myths and idea-memes that may run around your think-box with or without supervision.

In The Modern Music Industry:

• You do not need to regularly perform live.

• You do not need to live in a major music city like LA, New York, or Nashville.

• You do not need a bunch of money to get started.

• You do not need to possess or display genius levels of talent.

• You do not need thousands of facebook likes or even thousands of email subscribers to make a full-time living doing what you love, on your own terms.

• You do not need to be exceptionally tech savvy or interested in digital gadgets and gizmos.

• You do not need to have exclusive inner circle connections to “pull strings” for you.

• You do not need to be particularly good looking or fit into some pre-approved mold in terms of appearance or personality.

• You do not even need earth shattering or even fantastic songs…!

I can hear a collective gasp from the crowd as I even dare utter such blasphemous ideas. Of course great songs are what it’s all about for most of us, but the statement remains valid.

In the modern music business, there are only two required components for success.

These two components are the bare minimum building blocks for a successful career as an artist or musician in the modern music industry.

A. You need to love what you do, and...

B. You need an audience that loves and supports it.

That’s all folks! Simple formula that works every time.

But simple ain’t the same as easy.

In The Modern Music Business you do NOT NEED...

• a vc or “investor”

• a record label.

• a publisher.

• a publicist.

• a manager.

• an art gallery.

• an agent.

• an seo or social media company.

• someone to handle the “sales and marketing” for you.

• You do not even need to TOUR.

As you’ll learn in an upcoming chapter, it turns out that success is scientific. Their is a universal cycle of success that is mathematical and predictable. It is called the success or failure cycle, and we’ll be going over that shortly.

But let’s quickly unpack one of the MAJOR areas of concern I see today…

• A survey conducted by Reverbnation and Digital Music News revealed that 75% of unsigned artists listed a major label record deal as their goal.

Still makes me wince a bit. Certainly clues me in that we need to do a better job reaching and teaching artists just how in control you really are. Let’s discuss the primary reasons why you do not need a major label record deal, and why you should never start there anyway, or until you have something that you must have before they'll even notice you anyway.

Why You DON'T Need or Want a Major Label Record Deal or Publishing Contract

Let’s take a quick step back.

Well. Let’s start with economics.

Mathematically you will just pay too much.

Despite any ill conceived notions about her, miss Courtney Love has the floor for a couple of minutes, and she does indeed weigh in with some just plain spoken truth, spoken in the kings plain ol english. I think her take and all that's she's been through represents the highs and lows, the ups and downs, and ultimately the unsustainability of the  traditional music industry pretty clearly.

My goal is not to grandstand, it is not to point fingers, (though some may have it coming) it is to plainly illustrate a need for a better way forward in the modern music business.

Though i don't agree with every notion she brings up, and her arguments may be a bit over the top at times, I fundamentally stand behind most of what she says, and that it is what made the traditional record/music industry sick and die.

If you want to see how Major Record Labels and the major label record deal aren't what you really want anyway...

Watch the 30 Seconds to Mars-case study (trailer for the Documentary Artifact can be found here)

We could go on and on, but, i'm going to go out on a limb and just say this as a rule a thumb, (a broad, vague, sweeping statement) is that the major record labels are a bad bet. See that about sums it up right? I'm being tongue in cheek, but it's a safe assumption and I encourage my clients and students to air on the side of caution.

Our new GAME Flips the industry on it's head and breaks down the resulting situation and evolution into our modern music business. Talented hard working Artists, they are still here, only now everyone else works for us. The modern music industry is truly and couldn't be more about the real gift of music, it's power to UNITE. It's power to connect, to heal, to influence, inspire, empower, transcend.

The tools and technology of the modern world allow us to do that better than ever before. The jump has been exponential and the marketplaces are already flooded and new opportunities are generated every single hour, across our globally connected culture and community.

See, the best part about it is that the time we've been dreaming about forever, is now. The Artists Revolution is about us, the artists and creators, and our fans. Everyone else can prove their worth and try to add value to us. Artists are the value creators, after all.

If I start to sound like a jaded combat veteran that wasn't willing to compromise with my passion and my purpose... That's because this has been a major series of breakthrough, a long journey, trial, and battle i've fought for a long time. It really is an abundant and amazing time for everyone, and this movement, the one you and I are involved in-is how we can truly liberate the experience of music for the fans, and cultivate the development and proper nutrients required for the complete artist development, that simply unites and makes us all better.

I think you're great, but tell me how you can help me exactly?

Seriously, I think you have lots of talent and potential, but even though we don't want to invest in helping you grow that fruit, let's cut a deal for how we can get a piece of that apple?

We cannot kid ourselves, labels don’t want us because they see and believe in our unique talent, or that they want to invest in us as an act of goodwill… They want your audience and the fan base you’ve built up. They believe that you will payoff at some point, and are willing to bet on that.

Let’s not get it twisted… Labels today won't sign you for you. They'll sign you for your Fan Base. Of course, what modern musicians and everyone else around here refer to as their Relationship Database.

Be very careful before signing anything. Take your pick of horror stories… From The 30 Seconds to Mars fiasco - or any number of Bad deal stories, to the many signed-to-soon cases, which can derail the career of an artist for a very long time with very little control all the way through. I don't think we need to spend a whole lot of time bashing or calling other organizations or individuals out, as of right now, i just don't see it as necessary in any way that will be beneficial.

Music Business and Music Career Super Secret #1 

No matter what, you have to build a grassroots fan base first.

Grassroots Music Marketing gets it right at the source first.

 You have to work the ground you got, managing your resources effectively

 Bottom line, before you have this… do not pass go, do not collect 200.

 Before you have this… You do not need a manager, or a label, or a promoter….

 No matter what your goals are in the future, we believe this is the place to start. If you don’t have a Core fan base built before you try to get signed, then you are putting yourself at a huge risk, a disadvantage, and don’t really have much of a career yet anyway. I don’t mean to sound harsh, my tone isn’t negative, it’s just that in the modern music industry-that’s the bankable asset that makes you appealing to any professional organization. Not to mention that foregoing the phase of developing your content and building that grassroots following, that loyal base of core fans that you truly connect with and experience your career with, then you are in some ways skipping parts of the natural process of Modern Musician skills development, in some ways it won’t be Complete Artist Development.

Empower yourself NOW-honor and embrace the opportunities around you right at this moment. Today. Start from where you are and build up. Realize that you have what you need to make progress now. That you don't need to feel trapped between where you are now and where you want to be. It will start with a shift in your thinking pattern or perspective, and then you’ll be on your way to growing your career in the modern music business.

Complete Artist Development Starts with Grassroots Career Development

An incredibly bright, talented, beautiful, emerging comedian. Jennifer was an enthralling performer. She was totally funny, down to earth, extremely engaging and was getting pretty good feedback at the open mic nights she was doing a few times a month.

She was still working her day job, which she did not enjoy much but did it anyway because it was how she paid her rent and her bills.

She came to me because she was interested in making the jump to a full time comic-but was not only afraid, she wasn’t sure what to do or how to do it in order to make the transition…

“I have always dreamed of playing Madison Square Garden…” She told me.

“I’ll bet you will someday,” I replied.

I had no reason to doubt her capability, nor would i ever discourage anyone’s dream or ambition.

“That is a fantastic goal, Jennifer. What, if you don’t mind my asking, is your plan to get there?” I said with sincerity and curiosity.

“Well, to be honest I don’t really have one,” she admitted with a little smile.

When we sat down to sketch out some basic planning questions It became clear that

she hadn’t really ever written down her ultimate purpose, or detailed a Vision in writing, or had a written Mission statement. She certainly didn’t like the idea of “setting goals,” and she had a little bit of resistance to formulating a “Strategy” and creating “Outcomes.”

After some discussion and pointed questions we found that internally, intuitively, on some level, she felt that doing all that “goal setting stuff” somehow infringed upon her “go with the

flow” spirit and value system of “just enjoying and being the moment.” Just being an “Artist.”

“Do you think having some basic and measurable goals would require you to give that up?” I said with curiosity, because certainly we all want to enjoy being in the moment right!?

I told her about the deceptive ways of the Starving Artist Syndrome, but my attempt to convey the point missed it’s mark. She sort of shrugged it off, “it’s all so official sounding, so serious!” She said with an innocent and carefree tone of voice.

She noticed that my facial expression and body language changed. I hadn’t bought in to her attitude, nor was i swayed by her charm. She saw that my face had wrinkled and I was about ready to wish her good luck and good day, when she said she would play my game.

It didn’t take long for us to realize that playing madison square garden wasn’t even really what she wanted to do. When it boiled down to it, we determined that she wanted to make a full time living doing what she loved, when and where she chose.

“Ok. So what does that take?” I probed.

“well, making more money, getting paid gigs…” She snapped back.

“So basically you need to find a way to get paid to continue to do what you love, enough to cover all your expenses in order to do it full time and quit your job, is that right?” I asked.

She nodded her head. “That about sums it up.”

Ok. “So where’s the gap between that vision, and where we are at here in this moment?”

She poured out… “Well I don’t have enough material, and what I’ve got isn’t polished enough,

I don’t know how I’m going to make money… How to get a paid gig…

all valid concerns.

“Ok. Forget about all that stuff for a moment. I don’t know the first thing about how to get a paid gig as a comic, but i know that’s not what you really need. What you need is what every Artist in this catch 22 situation needs. See, the problem is that you need to go to “work” to pay the bills, but you need to be spending that time at “work” DEVELOPING yourself as an Artist!”

“So… What would the solution be then?” I prompted.

She looked at me like I had lobsters crawling out of my ears… “Well, how about YOU TELL ME!”

She facetiously implied that if she could answer that question, she wouldn’t be talking to me!

I read it right and came back at her with an alarmingly simple solution.

Get PAID to develop her content and grow her career as an ARTIST.

“Well, wouldn’t that be nice…” She puffed out of her lips.

I love this part, so I had to work hard not to ruin the big “breakthrough moment.”

It came after I asked her if she thought there were 10 people in the world, that she could reach, who would pay her one or more new pieces of content every month…

“I’m… pretty sure…” She said… “ok, so is that a yes, or is that a no?” I prodded…

Ok. Well, IF I really tried... yes, I could find 10 people.

Ok. Great. I said. So there you have it. You’ve answered your question.

That’s when the lightbulb went on… “just go out and find 10 people to pay me to develop more content...”

Precisely!

That’s your next mission.  Let’s stop the conversation. You have your marching orders Jennifer. Don’t come back to me until you complete the mission.

Before the wheels now turning in her brain had a chance to land in “guess again gear,” I quickly walked her through exactly how to setup the technical details involved in creating an autoresponder and protecting a page in wordpress as well as how to accept payments. She then enthusiastically shuffled off to enroll her first 10 paying members in her “backstage pass” membership area of the website where she simply uploaded exclusive new content once a week and delivered it to her customers.

I had taught her how to setup her very own fan conversion system. A very simple process using automated technologies that leveraged her email program and her website and repackaged much of the content she had already made to create a mini-sales system that worked for her on autopilot.

She just made a connection with a new person in real life, directed them to a page on her website and then delivered the experience of her content for free and afterwords made an offer for the monthly backstage membership.

What was so great for her was that she was being paid to develop new material, and she had a forced deadline of sorts to deliver on her promise of 1 new piece of content every week.

Her paying members loved the exclusivity, the engagement, the honesty, and of course the content that she consistently delivered. They really felt like they were “apart of her journey”, and had a behind the scenes window into this very interesting woman’s life and career adventures.

It was a total win win. She came back and reported how excited she was and told me some funny stories and conversations that she was having with her tiny but totally tuned in little tribe.

Now, exuding with confidence I dared her to go out and do that same thing 3 or 4 more times if she thought she could…

Needless to say. She did. And this time when she came back to me she was astonished by what had happened…

“I went out and enrolled 40 more members, in chunks of 10 at a time, like you said, as well as continued to deliver my content and engage with my members every week… and somehow I just signed my one hundredth backstage member, Gary.”

What happened is the 50 monthly customers/paying fans that she enrolled had gone gone out and told a friend. “it just doubled.” my little content business suddenly went from 3 to 100 members. It was faster than i expected, and it felt like it almost happened on its own. I just had to give the ball a nudge to get it rolling.”

Now, let’s take a step back and look at this a little further.

In the span of less than 60 days Jennifer suddenly built a content business that paid her $3,000 Net, in pure monthly recurring profits. What’s more is that she had leveraged the best of both worlds and created an artist development system that kept her accountable, continuously creating, and paid to do the work she loved while building an unbreakable, authentic bond with her super-fans who not only fell in love with her, but told their friends and family and spread the word about her.

In just six short months that seemed to fly by in an instant she had 1000 engaged, backstage pass members paying her 30$/month.

Not only that, but she learned how to use most of the tools by slowly being introduced to one new one at a time and then utilizing it in practical application for creating content and generating new subscribers (guest pass) as well as monthly members (backstage pass) paying her to deliver exclusive new content every month.

You do the math. PLUS, Instead of raising her fees, which she could have done, we worked out some additional packages and membership levels.

Realistic. Do you think you could achieve something similar with your career-if you really gave it your best shot?

Again, In the modern music industry, there are only two required factors for success.

You need to love what you do, and you need an audience that loves and supports it. Period.  The rest of it is determining exactly what success looks like for you.

Point is, you have to start small no matter what route you take-if your goal is long term sustainability. You have to take responsibility and take control of your career.

In almost all cases, whether or not you believe me right now, you likely have what you need already-you have access to most of the resources, you have the talent and potential, you just need to be strategically developing and/or distributing it.

You have access to virtually the same tools as the major and indie labels & publishers

We both have the available tools and resources to create, produce, publish broadcast quality music for less than $1,500 to and from virtually any place in the world.

We both have the available tools and resources to market, distribute and promote your content to and from anywhere in the world and build a loyal fan base that supports you through a direct relationship of mutual benefit for very low, or in some cases, no monetary investment cost.

A large and growing number of distribution channel-networks are now looking to essentially "rent their platform" to anyone able to pay their fees, including one of the latest we’ve seen being called “Label Services.” This is where a major label lets you rent out their distribution structure and platforms for a fee or percentage of sales.

So basically all the benefit of their infrastructure and relationships without long term contracts, and adherence to their policies and procedures. This is what Macklemore did when he had enough of a following and buzz built up on his own.

You can do it more effectively, more authentically, more enjoyably, yourself

• You control the communications: who’ll better speak for you, than you?

• You own the copyrights, and do it all on your own terms. Keep your masters, don’t give up massive percentages.

• You get to build just the right support team. All the fancy office buildings with official titles all have official costs, getting on a major label doesn’t mean you won’t have to pay those costs.

• You don’t have to deal with the pressures and headaches of being venture backed

• No one cares about the integrity of your vision and art as much as you!

Still not convinced? That’s ok. We’re just getting started.

What do you think? Still want that Major Label Record Deal? Add your voice below.

To HAVE THE REST Of the MUSIC BUSINESS BLUEPRINT delivered to you automatically, for free, signup below if you haven't already.

• Email*

• First Name*

• Phone*

* required information