There are career development people and then there are agents, producers, music company executives and the rest that just do their job.
The career development people are the ones who make stars. The others just play out their various roles in the scheme of things.
Remember music may be an art, but the music industry is a business. What any business ultimately wants is a reasonable profit for its time. Believe me, no one wants to put money into a band, no matter how talented they are, to only have them get into a personality spat and break up six months later, or to have them refuse to listen to seasoned advice because they are arrogant and know it all. So, there are a number of things that career development people and most others in the music industry are looking for besides talent.
When you present yourself you want to have all of these things in place–not just talent.
1) But, yes, you do need talent. And, your talent must be developed to professional levels. But, it is a given, an understood. Everyone knows you need talent. But talent doesn’t have to be the best thing ever, but it does have to achieve professionalism. Talent is unfortunately only about 1/10 of the formula.
2) Longevity. The longer your act can last, the more money everyone will make. This is obvious and can happen is several ways: Youth–you are young (this is why you see so many young kids developed into stars) and you have a potentially long career ahead of you. So you see a talented 15 year old has an advantage over a talented 50 year old. But don’t despair, if you are not 15 any more. Longevity, can be presented in other ways. A 30 year old Rocker may have a longer potential career ahead of him than a 15 year old rapper, because if the difference in the sub-industries. So, whatever your age (even if you are 50) don’t give up on longevity, just figure out how you can present a case for it. Show them how you will potentially have a long and prosperous career.
3) Built in audience. This guarantees sales, and sales means everyone will potentially make a profit. The bigger the existing audience the better. Use to be you had to go on the road a couple of years to develop a national audience. Now My Space can do it for you.Groups who have never been on the road are signing record contracts solely because of their MySpace following. Shows there is more than one way to skin a cat.
4) Staying power. Having lots of material means you are not a one song wonder. Three CDs worth of material is good. It means you will be around awhile (Longevity again.) Most career development people feel it takes three CDs to make a star. Have this in place when you start meeting people and it will go better.
5) You haven’t given the whole pie away. No one in the industry wants to work for free, or less than they feel they should. Probably one of the biggest deal killers is the bands who have sold half their publishing rights to this guy, half their movie rights to this other guy, and they are locked into an obnoxious contract with an manager, etc. Career development people are going to have to work with you for years. They won’t do it if you have given half the pie to other people. Approach them with the whole pie in place.
6) Cooperative nature. No one wants to work with a snarly, crazy, egotistical, arrogant, fool of an artist. So don’t be one. People working with you would rather work with the guy who has a pleasant easy to get along with personality. So be him, not the other guy.
7) Crossover potential. If you music can cross over into other genres, there will be more sales. If you as an artist can also, act and dance, there is a potential for movie deals and good concert sales. The more income streams you can tap into, the more attractive you will be. Know your strengths and abilities present your ability to tap into multiple income streams.
Do you have surveyed material or are you guessing? All successful career development people survey. It isn’t how good you think your material is. It is how good others think it is. So start now. Survey your own material. Ask your fans to rate your songs on MySpace and after a performance mingle and ask people what they liked the best. Play your songs for school children and teenagers, get them to rate what songs they like best. Be willing as writers to throw away half of your material and develop fully surveyed CDs of your best material. Music is a communication. If it doesn’t communicate to anyone but you, it is pointless. If you have surveyed show those record company people the statistics. It will go a long way.
9 Watch who you get hooked up with. There are many famous people who can kill your career. There are famous people who have backstabbed others along the way to their success, and now others don’t trust them. Check out the people you hire and chose to work with. No one will want to invest a lot of money in you if they think your manager, or agent, or producer, or lawyer is just going to screw them sooner or later. If you hook up with the wrong people it can result in what is in effect a partial blacklisting.
(c)2007 Stan Medley
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Jackson Brown, Noam Chomsky, Douglas Rushkoff and more than 50 musicians exposed the problems within the corporate music industry from lack of airplay to lack of protest.
Help answer the question aboutUS Music Industry
How would todays music industry/pop scene react to another singer with an equally "omg" performance style?No doubt his performances were things you just don't see now, and no doubt no-one will *ever* come close to Michael Jackson's musical caliber. Still, all talent aside, if someone came along with a performance style as "ho-lee lowrd, none of us have ever seen anything like this" as Michael Jackson's…in todays music world, do you think it would be massively accepted or massively rejected?
Buckethead is the only reason I do anything.
torrents for this movie …need torrent for this 1!! help help!
Buckethead!! Have to see this film.
go to Benjamin Meade on myspace. Order it from me-
B
You’re so right.
You’re so right.
Buckethead!!!!
Thats the only reason im gonna watch this…because he’s on there
Love Noam chomsky
Hate his mumumummmmuummuuummuttering dialogue.
anyone having this movie plz upload it on google videos..been waiting a long time
Possibly the IRS or an Entertainment Guild could better direct you. You can contact your local IRS office or one of the Entertainment organizations at this site
http://www.afm.org/resources/labor-unions
Not the best answer–but a start
Its all about looks today, talent seems to have become meaningless. A lot of the greats wouldnt get a contract today bc they dont look hot by todays standards. So all we get is crap musically , its all eye candy. MTV changed things bc music became about visual rather than sound. Most of the great bands are pre MTV era.
From one who was there, it was minimal. Instead, it was more the other way around….protest music reflected popular sentiment among the American youths' peace/anti-war movement, not influenced it. Country Joe didn't convince draft dodgers to burn their cards and run to Canada; he sang about them doing that. And John Fogarty and CCR didn't convince Congress and others to to allow for draft deferrals due to colletge, allowing America's "fortunate sons" to remain at home while to lower classes went to the front lines; instead they sang about the economic disparity of the front line soldiers. The music simply gave yet another dimension to a voice of the the anti-war movement.
HTH
I completely agree. This is why I have been listening to XM Satelite Radio for the last 3 years…
I still listen to regular radio every now and then, but an hour or so later (and after hearing one song 3 times), I no longer listen.
XM or Sirius is THE way to go…
The music industry is a corporate cash machine where marketing and money rules over real talent.
Music has been reduced from an art form to a product to be bought or sold.
Yes, people are lame everywhere and the popular music that young people listen to here in the US is terrible. On the other hand, isn't most popular music terrible?
sadly, it's a resounding yes. Charice Pempengco ought to be another Sarah Geronimo if it weren't for Ellen DeGeneres and Oprah Winfrey. OPM doesn't have an identity with the way it sounds. J-Rock/J-Pop is distinctly unique because it barely relies on synthesizers or turntables, they emphasize the use of all types of instruments like brass, strings, and piano to blend with their specific genre; and it has a certain tempo and rhythm to it. (Flow, Orange Range, Asian Kung Fu Generation, Mr. Children, Skapara, Utada Hikaru, Ken Hirai, Yui… their music sounds unique)
it's not that Japanese Music has worldwide recognition, but it's develoved a following among those interested in their culture especially J-Drama and Anime. their hit singles are ususally made into a show's theme song, and if that show becomes a hit, the artist/band who sang the theme song is recognized.
does talent alone dictate if an artist or band should gain worldwide recognition? of course not. we have a few talented artists here… but the reality is if the Americans don't know them, the rest of the world won't know them.
*edit for Karlo C*
you'll be surprised how poetically deep most Japanese lyrics are when translated to english, it actually makes OPM lyrics look bad.
sample Jap lyrics in english:
"even if it’s light like fireworks, that can never be caught
one more time, one more time… I want to reach out for it."
"the sky I looked up at was blue and perfectly clear, I decided to open the locked window, the moment that changes me and the world is always right here with me."
"may our two winding roads merge here together and become a rainbow."
"where did the burning tears, the outcry of love, the sparkling days vanish off to? if we keep wandering down this aimless path… we'll never go back to the way things used to be"
Maybe for now—-but not forever. If you notice with more and more upcoming artists this country has, plus the ones that are becoming more popular here from overseas—-traditional "black" music is slowly starting to "fade" and/or incorporate other musical genres from around the world. I personally don't care for Rap, RnB or other typical Black music. I can't say what type if music will dominate in the future,but I doubt the African music we know today will.
This question is too generalized.
Even a guess is unlikely to come close because of the sheer number of songs that have actually been produced, let alone published.
The Library of Congress or the US Copyright Office might be able to provide some info regarding the number of songs that have been submitted for copyright protection, however you would have to be able to weed out the songs submitted but never actually produced – this will most likely be an astounding number in and of itself.
Sorry but I haven't a clue where you would start your research in the UK.