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Hello
to you all!
I hope that you're all having a terrific fall!
This is my favorite time of year so I'm in an
especially great mood. I've been buried in my
next book, I Don't Need a Record Deal! Your
Survival Guide for the Indie Music Revolution
and it will finally be finished this month -
whew! - and published by Billboard Books in
April. I've never worked so hard on anything,
nor has anything been so rewarding. : )
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In this issue, I've got interviews with Brian
Austin Whitney, founder of Just Plain Folks,
singer/songwriter David Ippolito, also known
as the Central Park Guitar Man, and Kevin
Kinyon, founder of Gigmasters, an online
booking agency. I hope that you'll find the
other resources helpful too. Please feel free
to write with suggestions and questions I can
answer in future issues.
Revenge Productions
http://www.daylle.com
1. Flex Your Indie Muscles
2. Interview with Brian Austin Whitney,
founder of Just Plain Folks
3. My Music Seminar Updates
4. Online Gigs
5. Taking Care of Your Music Biz: Great PR
deal
6. Interview with David Ippolito - "That
Guitar Man from Central Park"
7. Ask Daylle
8. Record label opportunity for touring rock
bands
1. Flex Your Indie Muscles: In my next
book I emphasize that if you want to make
money as a musician, be flexible about how you
do that. While you might feel most satisfied
by only playing your original music, other
music avenues can help pay the bills and keep
your chops in good shape. Many artists I
interviewed do covers to pay the bills. Many
say that eventually they introduce original
material when they have the crowd going. It
can lead to more. Musicians/singers who do
weddings on the side say that it's good money
and they've made many contacts with people who
attended the functions they played at. One met
a TV producer at a graduation party and ended
up on a prime time show. Another got to
substitute on a show when the regular player
got sick because the producer he met at a
wedding had his card. Side gigs pay bills and
are still better than doing something that's
completely out of the music biz. Keep your
eyes open for opportunities to play somewhere,
anywhere, if you can get paid for it. Paying
bills is good and paying them from doing any
kind of music is even better! Don't let your
ego stop you from earning a living from your
music. Everything you do can be a stepping
stone to the career you want.
2. Interview with Brian Austin Whitney,
founder of Just Plain Folks: I recently
had the pleasure of getting to know Brian
Austin Whitney, founder of Just Plain Folks,
an organization that was created for everyone.
He says, "Now anyone can record a nicely
produced album and release it on their own
label, but they need an organization that
supports them. That's really what we've
become." They offer online forums where
people from around the world can share. Brian
does road trips around the country where
members come together, showcase a song and
interact with each other. There are about 100
chapters around the country. There's a
newsletter written by Brian and some of his
mentors. I have now become one of the mentors
because I want to support his fantastic org.
And, Brian created the Just Plain Folks Music
Awards, which are free to enter and extensive
in the scope of good music that they
recognize. I asked Brian some questions based
on his observations.
Where do many indies make mistakes? Indies
should never assume anyone will do anything
for them that they aren't willing and able to
do for themselves. No one will ever care as
much about your music and career success as
you do. The only helping hand you can truly
depend on is connected to the end of your arm.
Don't expect others to do it better than you
can do it yourself.
Why should artists support each other? You're
not competing with other indie artists. You're
competing with the Internet, cable TV, DVD,
movies, video games, pro sports leagues and so
on. The healthier your fellow artists careers
are in your town, the healthier the whole
music community will be and the more
opportunities ALL of you will have
simultaneously. Venues need to be shown that a
thriving music community can increase their
business goals. Having lots of successful acts
means everyone has more opportunities and the
music listening community has more choices and
reasons to stop doing all the other things and
check out the live music in their town.
What do many indies need to develop in
themselves? What most still lack is how to
truly entertain an audience at a live concert.
It takes a lot more than sound and performance
skills. To build your fan base, you need to be
so entertaining that your existing fans want
to show you off to their friends so THEY look
good in doing so. When you see an amazing
movie, don't you usually tell your friends
about it? But how often have you felt the same
excitement over a live independent band? That
is one piece of the puzzle where artists are
currently falling short across all genres and
across all success levels.
What does support mean to you? Support doesn't
mean someone stepping in to do the work for
you. Support is about having resources,
sharing resources and being a resource for
others. Most of the work in an indie artists
career will have to be done by the artists
themselves. Having friends who can offer you
shortcuts to getting work done is invaluable.
Connections to venues, places to stay while on
tour, access to other artists fan bases,
trusted first hand information on which
companies to use for various career needs and
a sense of community to fall back on in a
crisis is what support is all about. And just
as important of taking advantage of this
support is offering it up to everyone else
that you can as well. You'll build far more
support in far shorter time for your career by
helping others first and letting them pay you
the favor back than the other way around.
Aggressively work to support your peers and it
all comes back in both predictably helpful and
sometimes surprisingly life changing ways.
Just Plain Folks is a community around music.
There are over 25,000 members, the largest
music community there is. Brian exemplifies
the spirit of what goes around, comes around,
which you know that I live by too. I HIGHLY
recommend that you visit the Just Plain Folks
site and click on "join." Why? For
one thing, it's FREE. So it costs nothing to
be part of it. And the community feeling that
you'll experience is a rare one in the music
industry. So finish my newsletter and then
click to join! http://www.justplainfolks.org
3. My Music Seminar Updates: My next
seminars are coming up - Saturday, October
16th with Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts here
in NY. Instead of a full day seminar, I'll do
2 shorter ones in one day. I'll conduct them
solo this time - 2 guerrilla workshops packed
with all the info I can pass on in that time -
no breaks. Here's a reminder:
Seminar #1 11 A.M. 1:45 P.M. Start &
Run Your Own Record Label - This seminar
covers all the basics of running a label
successfully.
Seminar #2 2:45 5:30 Making a Living from
Your Music - This seminar teaches how to
develop yourself as an artist to make a living
from your music. It covers all aspects of how
to build a career, whether you want a record
deal, or to earn a living independently. It
includes all the areas of licensing your
music, how to build your press kit, developing
a successful domestic tour and details on how
to tour internationally. It complements the
Start & Run Your Own Record label seminar.
Each seminar is $60 - $100 for both - in
advance.
Or $75 each - both for $125 - at the door.
You can charge registration on my site http://www.daylle.com/seminar.html
mail in a check or money order, or pay in
person. I'll accept cash through the day
before.
The location is the law firm of Hughes,
Hubbard & Reed, One Battery Park Plaza in
Manhattan. You check in at security and will
be guided to the room. The firm is near the
N/R Whitehall Street stop or the 1/9 South
Ferry Stop.
My full day workshop - Start & Run Your
Own Record Label - will be on February 26,
2005 at the New Yorker Hotel. http://www.daylle.com/seminar.html
4. Online Gigs: One way to stay solvent
as an indie is to get side gigs or ones
playing covers, at clubs or at weddings. Kevin
Kinyon runs Gigmasters, an online
entertainment service that connects people
wanting to hire entertainment with their
performing members. Different types of people
look for entertainment festival planners,
club owners, brides, corporate owners who want
music for office parties. If you're flexible
about the type of events you'd perform at, his
company can bring you customers that allow you
the opportunity to get paid to play. There's a
yearly membership fee (introductory fee is
$99) to join. Kinyon says all memberships have
30-day money back guarantees. Great cover
bands and soloists do best, but he says almost
everyone gets bookings. Once you join, you get
your own page and can include whatever info
you'd like for the many people who search for
potential musicians or singers. I asked Kinyon
about Gigmasters.
What kind of gigs do you offer? We open a lot
of avenues you haven't considered or known
about. Customers do a search on our site and
get accurate results for exactly what they
look for. They can listen to audio samples and
watch a video, if that's been provided. They
can read about pay rates. Through our site,
bands can do online what they did offline
sending out press kits and over-nighting a CD.
We generate lots of leads for the majority of
our entertainers, which turn into bookings,
which hopefully turn into longer careers than
they might have otherwise.
How does it work? Gigmasters connects acts
with people who might book them. They contact
artists with any offers. If you're interested
and agree on a fee, the customer can click on
a link that books you, pay any deposit agreed
to and forward it to you. Or, it can be booked
by phone. You set your fee. Gigmasters charges
a 5% finders fee to customers who hire their
bands the only fee for a booking.
How much can you make playing alternative
gigs? I've seen as low as seventy-five to one
hundred bucks. Some corporate planners are
just handed a blank check to find great
entertainment. A solo guitarist who might only
make one hundred to one hundred and fifty
bucks for an hour or two, can do really well.
Musicians put a pay range on their page.
Corporations can go for up to four thousand
dollars for a good cover band. We book about
five hundred plus gigs a month in the US and
Canada.
What type of music works best? A good cover
band on our site seems to do the best. Almost
55% of our bookings are from corporations and
weddings. Soloists do well also. We have such
a broad range of people who do business
through us and it's not only people looking
for cover bands. We'll have people who want to
propose to their girlfriend, so they want a
strolling violinist. It's not the type of
thing you could find very easily in your phone
book. If they come to us, we can find them ten
strolling violinists within an hour of where
they want to have it. From the customer's side
of things, it's amazing for them to be able to
find thing s so quickly. If they need a
guitarist in three days, we can probably do
that for them. Just about everyone gets
bookings from it. You would have to be really
obscure to not get any, such as a gospel
singer. Some people use it as a stepping stone
to make themselves better.
Why should musicians consider this type of
work? It can make you tighter as a band. A lot
of bands can get to the next level simply
because they are gigging a lot. It keeps you
playing pretty much the most important
thing.
Kinyon says if you have THE GOODS and are open
to new options, you have the best chance of
earning a side income in music. There are many
agencies that book these kind of gigs in a
variety of ways. Another resource for getting
side gigs is Musicans Contact Service (www.Musicianscontact.com).
For a reasonable fee, they provide a musician
referral service, connecting individual
musicians and singers with people who need
them, mainly for working bands. And it can pay
bills! Kevin Kinyon says that on his site,
fees range from 1500-3000 dollars for a four
or five piece band. Their average wedding pays
about 2000 dollars. That's a lot more than
many musicians make at a club. http://www.gigmasters.com
5. Taking Care of Your Music Biz - Great PR
deal: I recently spoke to Ariel Hyatt,
who's run her own PR agency (http://www.arielpublicity.com)
for 7 years. I have a special kinship with
Ariel, who I met at her going away party as
she was about to embark on opening her
company. My first book, The Real Deal, had
just come out. So we both were beginning our
current music industry careers. Since then
she's gotten a great rep for helping artists
promote their music. One service that she is
involved in is Music SUBMIT (http://www.musicSUBMIT.com),
an internet PR and music promotion service
that offers VERY affordable Internet publicity
for all musicians. Ariel says they have an
infrastructure in place for every genre of
music, and soon they'll be marketing it
internationally. For a limited time it's only
$59 to submit your music to hundreds of music
related web sites, Internet radio stations,
music writers and online music magazines. All
you need to give them is a bio, a one-line
description of your music, and good sound
clips (and they'd better be super before
spending money promoting them!!). They do the
rest. Take advantage of this amazing bargain
for exposure on the Internet. Most PR
campaigns don't get off the ground for less
than a thousand $$. The more places that have
your music, the more chances of getting an
opportunity to make money from it.
6. Interview with David Ippolito: David
Ippolito is known as "that Guitar Man
from Central Park." In 1992, he didn't
want to play in bars anymore. He bought a
mouse amplifier, had a microphone duct taped
to a stand and went to Central Park, hoping to
make lunch money. About nine people stood
around. He left quickly. The next week David
spotted the place where he plays now. He set
up his stuff that Sunday. After an hour, there
were about two hundred and fifty people on
that hill. He invited people to sing along.
He's played for about five hundred people at a
time ever since. As crowds continued to
return, he recorded CDs and sold them. David
puts together his own concerts in winter
months. He's been written about in both the
New York Times and the New York Post many
times. PBS did a documentary on him. Here's
how he does it.
What's it like to play Central Park? Every
Sunday, I play to seventeen year old girls,
thirty year old women, forty year old men,
fifty year old couples. They all sing the same
music. They've show up every weekend for
twelve years now. It's a little field of
dreams right in the middle of Manhattan.
Nobody knows about it, except for a few
thousand people. Friends help me. In twelve
years, I never ask for money. My guitar case
is open and just sits there. I make a living
doing it.
Do you want a record deal? "I want to do
exactly what I'm doing now, but [for more
people]. That's the only difference. I don't
want anything else in my life to change
just the zeroes after the one in the check. If
I took anything, it would have to be a
distribution deal."
Can others do this? Yes! Just do what I did
show up. When they tell you to stop, smile,
pack up and disappear like a drop of water on
a hot rock. Then come back and play. When they
write you a ticket, pay it. When they
confiscate your equipment, go to court, get
your equipment back and go back. If that's
what you know you want to do, follow your
heart and you can do it too.
You've rented halls for indoor concerts,
including Merkin Concert Hall, for about six
years because you can't play the park in
winter. How can others try this? Renting a
hall is a big one. If it costs fifteen hundred
dollars to rent one and you've got Fifteen
hundred and twenty dollars in the bank, rent
it anyway. Worry about the twenty dollars
later. Put up a sign and hope people come.
You're doing your own thing grassroots.
Your other choice is to complain that you
can't get a concert, that nobody knows about
it and nobody's going to come. I hate sounding
like Nike but just do it.
How do you feel about being independent? I
love being independent in every way. It
gives me freedom and a platform. I feel like
independent artists are in the front covered
wagon in a whole new frontier. No one knows
where we're going yet. I love the word
independent and everything that goes along
with it."
David has certainly found a unique niche for
making a living from his music. I met him last
year when he was on his way to entertain kids
and their families at a Ronald MacDonald
House, where he manages to fit volunteering
into his busy schedule. Check him out! http://www.thatguitarman.com
7. Ask Daylle: An A&R rep from a
major label saw our show and commented that we
had great potential but our bass player needs
to change his style of playing and cut his
hair. Should we be concerned?
That's one person's opinion. You can't jump to
do whatever everyone tells you. Image is
important though, and you should get some
feedback from others whose opinions you value.
If a label wants to sign you, they'll do it no
matter what. At that point, if they suggest
something you can take it more seriously. You
may do what he says and kick yourself if he
still doesn't sign you. What matters most is
how big a noise you're making. Focus on
finding tons of fans who love you and that
will make the biggest impression.
8. Record label opportunity for touring
rock bands: Patrick Arn, President of
Gotham Records, who I interviewed for Start
& Run Your Own Record Label, is looking to
sign some bands. He says, " we are
looking for Rock artists who have been
self-sufficient in the way of touring,
marketing, sales and promotion of themselves
and their releases". Patrick is flexible
on the style but doesn't want to get swamped
with inappropriate material. Only send
material that is REALLY good, with a
following, and falls at least somewhat into
rock. You can send materials to: P.O. Box
237067, New York, NY 10023. Materials will not
be returned. www.gothamrecords.com
George Bernard Shaw said, "Success covers
a multitude of blunders." Have you done a
gig (or a bunch of gigs) and didn't feel you
gave a good show? Did you call a promoter and
stumble over your words, which you believe
lost you the gig? We all make mistakes.
Sometimes they're doozies. But they always
teach you something if you can take your
tongue off your wounds and see the lessons
instead of moaning about what an idiot you
are. Been there, done that! It accomplishes
nothing except to make you feel lousier.
Blunders are part of the road to success.
Everyone makes them, but not everyone succumbs
to the self-pity or self-loathing they can
evoke. Learn to say "oh well"
instead of "stupid me!" when you
goof up. Let mistakes motivate you to succeed,
instead of letting them drag you down. Success
is a lot more fun! : ) Until the next
issue.....
Keep your passion strong,
Daylle
© 2004 Revenge Productions
http://www.daylle.com
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