Archive for the ‘ Thoughts ’ Category

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10
Feb

Persistence is polite

I’ve spent the whole week working on booking a tour for a guitarist I work for. Not having your emails returned, voice mails listened to, or messages past on can easily become depressing and disheartening. The guitarist in question is an awesome musician, a great guy, and a wonderful live performer… But, while he is world renowned with fans found in every corner of the globe, he is by no means world famous. What this means is that it is, more often than not, a sales led process when it should be easy simply based on the quality of the performer I’m booking this tour for.

I was trying to remember the mantra that I keep returning to at times like this “Persistence is polite”.

I was trying to remember who said it??? So I Googled it… And if course… It was one of Derek Sivers soundbites!

Love you Derek :)

http://sivers.org/persistence

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5
Feb

Get the Midem app…

Get the Midem app here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/midem/id346722604?mt=8

Loads of great, free coverage from the event

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31
Jan

Be reliably reliable

This may be an insult to some, but it’s important enough to highlight, and I know a lot of musicians who find this very hard.

I was banned from driving for six month for accruing too many points in 3 years. Bummer. Very annoyed with myself for being so stupid, but there you go. Fair cop guv!

What it’s meant is that I’ve had to get a bus pass and rely on the busses and oh my god… Now I feel punished! Not only did I have to put up with some of the bus station folk who you only ever seem to meet at the bus station (there’s some characters there that I wouldn’t want to set upon my worst enemies!) but also, I’m now on their timetable…

Everyday I get to the bus stop based on the time shown on the bus companies online timetable for the service I’m using and everyday the bus is either late by 15 minutes or so (it’s supposed to be a service that runs every 20 minutes) or the one I’m trying to catch seems to not come at all and I catch the next one 25 minutes later.

This service and reliability is appalling.

Don’t do this to your fans, band mates, manager, or anyone else who’s relying on you.

As soon as I can drive again, I’m going to drive like an old man so I don’t lose my license again as the bus service has been so poor, I’d do anything to not have to experience it again.

If you say you’re going to be somewhere, or do something, be there or do it. In fact be there early and do more than enough.

It will stand you in good stead.

Oh yeah… And don’t drive too fast. “Be mindful of your driving” (a policeman said that to me a few years before I got banned! Wish I’d listened now!)

Rich Hearn
Ardua Music || Per Ardua Surgo

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9
Jan

Commitment to routine

I have a 1 month old daughter called Henrietta. The night before last, she showed me the benefit of a solid routine… We tried to change her nappy after her feed rather than before it, but she took this to mean that she was going to be fed again after her feed, as she’d already learnt to associate nappy changing with the feed following on.
She kept us up for most of the night as she couldn’t understand this change in routine!!! We should have stuck to what worked!

A bit about musicians daily routines here >>

Online routines here >>

Instrument practice routines >>

A bit about rehearsal routines >>

And possibly the most important routine, your health >>

I went from pretty much couch potato to running the London Marathon using a training routine.

Routines are really important in life as well as your musical career. Whether they be bizarre rituals before a performance, rehearsal routines to make sure you’re maximising productivity, or healthy living routines that allow you to focus on tasks throughout the day, commitment to your routine can help you get the best out of yourself.

Any essential musician routines I’ve missed? Let me know in the comments below.

Rich
Ardua Music :: Per Ardua Surgo :: Beast & Pieces

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6
Jan

Musicians associations

This is not a post about musicians associations; the MU, PRS for Music, PPL, B.P.I, BASCA, UK Music, FAC… That’s a whole other post!

This post is about the importance of considering the power of association.

That’s not supposed to sound as mystical as it does!  It simply means that who you associate with throughout your musical career, can have a huge effect, either good or bad, on your progress.

More often than not, kids in school achieve better results if they associate with a ‘good’ crowd.  The same is true of musicians.  If the rest of your band mates just want a couple of beers once a week whilst playing a few tunes, then eventually record a demo thinking that they will get signed, it might be worth reconsidering this initial association!  You want to find musicians who understand that being a musician is a career, and are prepared to treat it that way.  Teachers don’t just decided they want to be a teacher, get a job, and start teaching.  They spend two years at college, three years at University, then at least one more year on post-graduate education before they’re even offered a contract, at which point, they sign up for a lifelong commitment to on-the-job continuing professional development.  The equivalent for musicians has to be developing your business, marketing, promotion, songwriting, and live performance skills, so you need to find band members who understand this and are prepared to put in the level of commitment necessary for success.

After you band mates, you may find your self having to associate with a manager, producer, record label, PR company, or radio plugger.  It’s really important that you check out their associations and make sure that you want to fit in with who they’ve worked with before.  It’s also important that you make sure that their outlook and ethos fits with that of your band.  There’s no point hiring a PR company, or trying to sign to a label, whose previous clients have all been Europop artists if you make death metal music!

I was once in a band who were offered a deal to put out a few tracks through a local label.  It was at a time in my life where I was jumping at every opportunity but my band mates did a bit of research and weren’t happy to be associated with the type of artists that the label were putting out.  The musicianship left a little to be desired and the production was pretty poor… so, we ended up self-releasing our music which worked great and has since allowed me to help other artists do the same.  It’s important to not get caught up in every opportunity that comes your way and really evaluate whether the fit is right for you… There will always be other opportunities.

Another association that deserves serious consideration is brand partnerships.  Early in an artists career there are few opportunities (Jager Bands & Converse Rubber Tracks are all I could think of off the top of my head) but later in your career you could be presented with what looks like a very attractive offer, with huge payouts that may be more difficult to properly evaluate.  Paul McCartney released an album through Starbucks for example while Prince gave a couple of albums away for free with the newspapers.  What’s important, is not associating yourselves with a brand that alienates your fans… You couldn’t imagine Coldplay partnering up with Monsanto Company for example.

So the point of this post???  Just be aware of the associations you make and the effect they could have on your career.

Rich Hearn
Ardua Music    ::    Beats & Pieces    ::    Per Ardua Surgo

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31
Dec

What is artist development?

It’s not an easy question to answer, which therefor means, it’s not a stupid question to ask.

It used to be that the first sort of deal you’d get from a major label would be a development deal.  You get signed for a few singles, or demos with label having the option to move you onto a proper recording contract.  At which point you’d be sent out gigging for 6 months or a year to hone your performance skills.  If they signed 20 artists to this type of deal, the one who broke through would pay for all the others… But this doesn’t seem to be the same anymore with recorded music revenue not being what it once was during the CD boom years.  Most labels worth their salt are looking for artists to have done this early development groundwork, the grass roots level stuff, themselves.  Artists need to show labels that 1) they’re committed and 2) they’re is something there that the label can take to the next level.

To me, artist development is about taking stock of every part of a musicians career, making an assessment on where each element is at, setting targets, and prioritising, planning, performing and tracking the development of each part.

A hugely important part in artist development is planning.  This can be as simple as having an idea of where you want to be in 12 months time or it can take the form of an elaborate written plan which clearly outlines goals, strategies, performance, impact tracking procedures, and much more.  It’s really all about getting from A to B, or from A to Z if that’s where you’d rather end up.  What’s important about good artist development is knowing where you are now, and where you want to be, so that a plan can be created and followed and results can be tracked.

Development without good impact and performance tracking is lacking in it’s potential.  If you don’t know the impact of what your doing, and what effect it’s having on moving towards your goals, you’re effectively driving blind and could find out, after hours/days/months/years of effort, that you’ve been spending your energies on the wrong things.  It’s easy to do but it’s also really simple to avoid with good impact tracking.

Of course, development can sometimes happen with no planning at all, but more often than not, an element of luck will be involved in these instances and I believe that you’re far better off putting in the time and effort to plan goals and strategies in the first place to assist you in getting lucky.  Essentially creating your luck.

At some point in an artists career, development focus can shift from the creative aspects to the business elements.  The development of income streams for example.  Unless an artist is simply producing music for the love of it, there will come a time when career development is as essential as artistic development.

So… Artist development can mean a lot of things but essentially it boils down to the pursuit of progress and is relevent throughout all of an artists career, although to a seasoned veteran, it may take on the name ‘artist management’.

Rich Hearn

Ardua Music :: Beats & Pieces :: Per Ardua Surgo