Cover image for Jumpstart Your Music Career

Jumpstart Your Music Career

Author Simon Cann
Release Date: 2011/08/01
ISBN: 9781435459526
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Book Description

A must for every musician's bookshelf, Jumpstart Your Music Career offers all the information and strategies you need to make your professional dreams a reality! Author Simon Cann offers a comprehensive plan of action you can follow to navigate and succeed in today's rapidly-changing music marketplace--from building a fan base to taking advantage of the latest technology to craft your own opportunities to handling the ins and outs of publicity and finance. The most thorough and up-to-date guide on starting and building a music career available, this text puts you in the driver's seat as both an artist and as an up-and-coming businessperson!

Table of Contents

  1. Copyright
  2. Acknowledgments
  3. About the Author
    1. Get Connected
  4. I. Getting Started
    1. 1. First Principles
      1. Do You Really Want a Career in Music?
      2. Fundamentals
        1. An Introduction to the Business Strategy for the Musician
        2. Why Adopt a Business Strategy?
        3. Your Guarantee of Success
      3. Defining Success
      4. Why the Emphasis on Being Proactive? I Just Wanna Play Music!
        1. Own the Relationship
        2. Economies of Small
        3. Control
      5. The Commercial Imperative
      6. Adopting the Strategies Set Out in This Book
      7. Getting the Most from This Book
        1. Changing Times
        2. Regional Variations
        3. What This Book Does Not Cover
        4. Things You Don’t Understand
        5. Scalability
        6. Products and Services
      8. Onward...
  5. II. The Fan Base
    1. 2. Building and Keeping Your Fan Base
      1. Exploiting with Integrity
      2. What Can Your Fan Base Do for You?
        1. Income
        2. Credibility
        3. Power and Influence
        4. Support at Gigs
        5. New Fans
        6. Radio/TV Coverage/Chart Position
      3. Your Fans’ Expectations: What Can You Do for Your Fan Base?
      4. Communicating with Your Fan Base
        1. Communicate the Way Your Fans Communicate
        2. Making Communication a Two-Way Dialogue
        3. How Should You Communicate?
          1. The Social Networks
          2. Video
          3. SMS/Text Message to Cell/Mobile Phones
          4. Email
          5. Mail
        4. What Should You Communicate?
        5. Mind Your Language
        6. The Mechanics of Bulk Communication
          1. Mechanics of Social-Network Communication
          2. Mechanics of Bulk SMS/Text Communication
          3. Mechanics of Bulk Email Communication
          4. Mechanics of Sending Out Letters in Bulk
      5. So Will You Exploit with Integrity?
      6. Building and Keeping the Fan Base in Practical Terms
        1. The Conversion Process
          1. Generating Interest so That People Come to You
          2. Developing Interest into a Fan
        2. Deriving Income from Your Fans
          1. Spending Money Directly
          2. Advertising
        3. Keeping Fans Happy
        4. Finding Potential Fans and Building the Fan Base
          1. Family and Friends
          2. Social Networks
          3. Website
          4. Gigs
          5. Press, Broadcasting, and Blogs
        5. Losing Fans
          1. Bad Things You Can Do with Your Contacts
          2. Bad Things You Can Do with Your Website
          3. Other Bad Things You Might Do
        6. What Do You Do if You Don’t Have a Natural Fan Base?
          1. Non-Performing Musicians: Products
          2. Non-Performing Musicians: Create an Act
      7. Publicity
        1. Active Publicity
        2. Advertising
          1. Search Advertising
          2. Display Advertising
        3. Promotion
        4. The Role of PR
      8. Other Forms of Publicity
    2. 3. Your Presence on the Web
      1. Passive Publicity
        1. Creating Value for Other People
          1. The Motivation to Share
          2. The Sharing Ecosystem
      2. How to Be Present on the Web
        1. Who’s Talking about You?
          1. Alerts
          2. @ mentions and #hashtags
          3. Web Analytics
          4. Inbound Links
        2. The Social Networks
          1. Twitter
          2. Facebook
          3. Orkut
          4. Buzz
          5. YouTube
          6. Flickr
          7. Which to Join?
          8. What to Post?
        3. Helping People Who Are Looking for You
          1. Getting Picked Up by Search Engines
          2. Make It Easy to Share Your Content
          3. Helping People Who Want to Find Out More about You
            1. Participate in Other Communities
            2. Other Websites/Communities That Have Information about You
      3. Building the Perfect Website
        1. The Need for Speed
        2. Easy to Navigate
          1. Navigation from the Home Page
          2. Navigation Bars
          3. Structuring the Navigation
          4. Alternatives to Navigation Bars
          5. Amount of Information on a Page
          6. Does It Promote You?
          7. Visual Impact
          8. Things That Frustrate Your Viewers
          9. Choosing a URL
          10. But Where’s the Interaction?
        3. How to Build Your Website
      4. Now That You’ve Got the Fan Base, What Are You Going to Do with Them?
  6. III. The Product
    1. 4. Creating Products: Generating Income
      1. Doing the Arithmetic
      2. Opportunities for Income
        1. Music
          1. Digital Downloads: MP3s and iTunes
          2. CDs
            1. On-Demand Delivery
            2. Fulfillment Services
          3. Music for TV/Films/Games
          4. Songwriting and Performing Royalties
          5. Ringtones
        2. Video
        3. Live Performance
        4. Advertising
        5. Merchandising and Other Non-Music Income Sources
        6. Associates’ Arrangements
      3. Choosing the Right Product
        1. Who Are You? What Do You Do?
        2. Who Is Your Market?
        3. Is There an Audience?
        4. What Does Your Audience Want?
          1. Tuning Your Act to Fit Your Audience
          2. Evolution
            1. Renewing Audience
            2. Maturing Audience
            3. Getting Stale
      4. Logistics of Creating Products
    2. 5. The Logistics of Creating and Developing Products
      1. What Is a Product?
        1. Product Process: From Creation, through Development, to Market
          1. Product Development
          2. Manufacturing
          3. Marketing
          4. Distribution and Delivery
          5. After-Sales Service
        2. Developing the Product
          1. Size of the Product Range
          2. Which Products Do You Need? Setting Your Priorities
          3. Market Testing
          4. Making Your Product the Best You Can
        3. Releasing the Product
        4. Product Renewal
      2. Development Time
        1. Planning
        2. Critical Path
        3. Logistics of Product Development
      3. Product Pricing
      4. The Cost of Developing Products
        1. Time Is Money
        2. The Profit Margin on Products
          1. The Cost of Developing Your New Product
          2. Manufacturing Costs
          3. Marketing Expenses
          4. Distribution and Delivery Costs
          5. After-Sales Service: The Hidden Costs
      5. Making Money from Products
        1. The Number of Products You Sell
        2. The Profit per Product
        3. Profit Levels
        4. Expenditure
        5. Break-Even Point on a Project
        6. Profitability
      6. Hard-Core Finances
  7. IV. The Nasty Commercial Bits
    1. 6. Economics 101
      1. Sources of Income: How Much Can I Earn?
      2. Earnings from Music
        1. Downloads
          1. Getting into the Download Stores
          2. Your Own Download Solution
          3. Subscription Services
          4. Ringtones
        2. CD Sales
          1. On-Demand CDs
          2. Pressing Your Own CDs
      3. CD Sales with a Record Label
        1. Size of Record Label and Your Status in the Industry
        2. Type of Deal
          1. Exclusive Recording Contract
          2. Production Deals
          3. Demo Deal
        3. Other Types of Deals
          1. Licensing Deal
          2. Joint Venture
          3. Pressing and Distribution Agreement
        4. Clawbacks under Recording Contracts
          1. Advances
          2. Producer and Recording Costs
          3. Overseas Sales
          4. Container Charges
          5. Breakages
          6. New Technologies
          7. Promotional and Free Copies
          8. Cross-Collateralization
          9. Videos
          10. Independent Promotion and Other Specialized Marketing Activities
          11. Tour Support
        5. So What Will I Actually Get Paid under a Recording Contract?
          1. Royalty Percentage: Percentage of What?
          2. Example of Possible Royalties
      4. Moving Images
        1. DVD (and Video)
        2. Synchronization Fees
      5. Merchandising
      6. Live Performances
      7. Sponsorship/Endorsements
      8. Commission
      9. Songwriting Royalties
        1. Mechanical Royalties: How Much Do I Get from Writing Songs?
          1. U.S. and Canada Mechanical Royalties
          2. Rest-of-the-World Mechanical Royalties
        2. Performance Royalties: How Much Do I Get from Writing Songs?
        3. Collecting Songwriting Royalties
      10. Gifts
      11. Income from Your Infrastructure
      12. Sources of Finance
        1. What Are You Getting? What Are You Giving Up?
          1. Loans
          2. Equity
        2. Initial Financing
        3. The Fan Base as a Source of Finance
        4. Banks
        5. Business Angels and Private Investors
        6. Venture Capital
        7. Business Partners
        8. What Sort of Investment Should I Go For?
        9. Drawing Up a Business Plan
          1. Main Headings in Your Business Plan
          2. Assumptions
          3. The Need to Suffer Pain
      13. Costs
        1. Record-Label Expenses
          1. Property Costs
          2. Computer Costs
          3. Taxes
          4. Dividends
          5. Getting the Product to the Customer
          6. Advertising
        2. The Cost of Hiring Staff
      14. So What Do I Get Paid?
    2. 7. Your Pay Packet
      1. The Cat-Food Years
      2. The Income Stream
        1. “Conventional” Highly Successful Career Income Stream
        2. “New” Style Income Stream
      3. How Much Money Do You Need?
        1. Tax
        2. Pensions and Retirement Funds
          1. Betting on Your Life
          2. How Much Does an Annuity Cost?
          3. How Much Do I Need to Invest?
      4. Some People Just Earn Less Than Others
      5. End of Commercial Boot Camp
  8. V. Putting the Theory into Practice
    1. 8. Building the Team around You
      1. Structure of Your Business
        1. Key Functions That Need to Be Performed
        2. Separate the Goals to Be Achieved from How You Achieve Your Goals
        3. The Right People at the Right Time
        4. So Who Does What?
          1. The Shareholders and the Board
          2. The Management Team
          3. The Workforce
          4. Advisers
      2. Picking the Team
        1. Does the Team Work Together?
        2. Hiring the Right People
        3. Finding the Person Who Actually Does the Work
        4. Errors and Omissions
      3. The Shareholders
      4. The Manager
        1. What Can a Manager Do to Help You?
          1. Strategy
          2. Business Administration
          3. Representation
        2. Who Should You Get as a Manager?
        3. What Does a Manager Charge?
      5. The Business Manager
        1. What Does a Business Manager Do?
        2. What Does a Business Manager Charge?
        3. Risks in Hiring a Business Manager
      6. Lawyers
        1. Which Lawyer Should You Appoint?
        2. How Much Do Lawyers Charge?
      7. Accountants
      8. Bankers
      9. Booking Agents/Promoters
        1. Booking Agents
        2. Promoters
        3. Alternatives to Booking Agents and Promoters
      10. Merchandising
      11. Record Company
      12. Publishers
      13. Putting the Team to Work
    2. 9. Developing Your Own Career Plan
      1. The Jigsaw Puzzle of Your Career
      2. A Question of Scale
      3. Reducing Risks and Increasing the Certainty of a Sustained Career
      4. The Arc of Your Career
        1. Preparation for Your Career
        2. First Public Outings: Accelerated Learning
          1. Soliciting Feedback
          2. (Not) Building a Career on the Web
          3. Setting Up Your Web Presence
          4. Live Performances
          5. Releasing a CD
          6. Funding
          7. Accelerated Learning
        3. Turning Pro
          1. How Do You Know When You’re Ready to Turn Professional?
          2. Making the Transition
          3. Marketing
          4. Keep On Keeping On
          5. Generating Income
          6. Non-Performing Artists
        4. Building the Business: Opening an Office
          1. Raising Money for Investment
          2. People
          3. Places
          4. Processes: Getting Your Product to Your Customers
          5. Manager
        5. Increasing Income: Increasing Profitability
          1. Increasing the Product Range
          2. Licensing Deals
          3. Expanding the Fan Base
          4. Increased Risks
        6. Superstar Status
        7. Managing the Downward Path
          1. The Start of the Downward Path
          2. Maintenance Not Growth
          3. Publishing Income
          4. Other Sources of Income
      5. And to Conclude