Jim Carlson dot Net

As I mentioned in my previous posts Sharpening Your Music Marketing Skills and The Blame Game, I believe that educating yourself about the music industry is a critical factor in being successful.

Martin Atkins has released his latest book, “Welcome to the Music Business, You’re Fucked”. Quite frankly, this is a must read. The book is easy to digest (I read the digital version on my iPod), uses the “F” word very creatively, and most importantly, spells out how your are f’ed and how to get un-f’ed. There’s some cool pics, too.

You can pre-order the paper version of the book at invisiblerecords.com, get a downloadable digital copy (.pdf) and a t-shirt for only twenty five bucks. You can also personalize the book….just type in what you want Martin to sign….be creative.

Disclaimer: Although I’m a big fan of Martin and his books, I have absolutely no financial stake in the sale of this product.

I recently attended Martin Atkin’s : Band Tune Up at the Madison Media Institute in Madison, WI. As I mentioned in my previous article, Sharpening Your Music Skills, I’m a firm believer that musicians must educate themselves and take control of their career.

One of the most important lessons Martin stated was simple, “Stop blaming anyone for anything. Everything is your responsibility”.

I can’t tell you how many musicians I’ve heard complain about: The club stinks. They didn’t promote me properly. The audience was lame. My people didn’t show up. I need someone to sign me. Someday I will be discovered…

Find a better club. Promote yourself. Build your audience. Play for the 2 people who showed up as if they were the last 2 people on Earth. Record yourself. Sign you, to what? Be discovered? There are millions of bands on MySpace, Facebook and ReverbNation ‘waiting’ to be discovered. Create momentum for yourself, no one will do it for you.

Martin went on to say, “Nobody gives a f*%# about what is important to you, except you”. Read that again.

If you want to succeed in the music business or any business for that matter, learn all you can and take control of everything. It is your career on the line, and if you fail, there is always someone waiting to take your place.

Years ago when I was dreaming of a career as a successful musician, I attended a music seminar by the (now) late Shad O’Shea and purchased his book, “Just For the Record“. [I loaned the book to 'someone' and really wish I had it back.....] Shad pretty much covered everything I needed to know, from publishing to releasing an ‘album’, and thoroughly explained the in’s and out’s of the music industry.

Years later, I released my “Out of Fashion” CD by using the techniques he had taught me. To be fair, I was never a mega folk rock star, but I enjoyed modest success. And ‘for the record’, the marketing skills I used to promote myself actually led to my internet marketing career.

Why am I telling you this? Musicians who want to be successful need to be educated. In my two decades of performance, I have seen talented musicians fail because they didn’t take the time to understand how this business works. In contrast, I’ve seen moderately talented musicians (myself included) have pretty successful runs simply because they understood the music business.

A friend of mine invited me to Madison to see a free seminar called Band Tune Up by Martin Atkins on Saturday, November 13th. I can’t wait to attend. In preparation for my next CD, I want to make sure my skills are sharpened and the effort I put into the release is well worth the time.

As of this writing, there are still a few spots left. Fellow musicians, if you can attend this event (or another on Martin’s tour), surely you’ll increase your odds of success.

Editors note: Other articles in this series:Facebook Band Pages, Musicians and Social Media Networks and Surviving a Recession as a Musician.

The original Facebook Pages (for bands, businesses and non-profits) had completely different functionality and visual layout from the personal profile pages.

The layout differences were startling. While personal profiles were dynamic (with status updates, friend feeds, applications), the Pages had a boxy, almost web 1.0 layout. There was no interaction on the pages, they served as a glorified Facebook ‘business card’.

Read the rest of this entry »

An innovative twist to music marketing as covered in wired.com.

Freese, who’s recorded on hundreds of albums and played with top acts like Nine Inch Nails, Devo and A Perfect Circle, roped in famous friends to offer extravagant, limited-edition packages to hawk alongside his new record, Since 1972, which will be released Tuesday.

Drummer’s Crazy Album Extras Take ‘Freemium’ to Weirdville | The Underwire from Wired.com.