Welcome to episode 59 of The Music Biz Weekly, a weekly podcast co-hosted by Michael Brandvold and Brian Thompson. This episode is brought to you by Bandzoogle and Music XRay.
This week’s episode, May 18, 2012 – Top 10 Reasons You Will Not Become the Famous Rock Star You Think You Are.
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Top 10 Reasons You Will Not Become the Famous Rock Star You Think You Are
- Because wishing for fame and riches proves you don’t understand the reality of today’s music business.
- Your fan base right now is made up of only family members.
- Because you probably don’t have the tenacity, persistence, perseverance and determination to slog it out below the poverty level for another 10 years it’s going to take you.
- You have only played 3 shows so far.
- Because you’re still trying to “make it” the old way by waiting for a big record label to discover you and treat you like a god.
- When you hear marketing and business plan your response is… What?
- Because you haven’t quit your job yet.
- You would rather drink beers at the bar than find new fans.
- Because you don’t embrace and encourage file-sharing.
- You still use MySpace as your band website.
Featured Track Of The Week: Luke Dowler.
We’re stoked to announce our brand new Featured Track Of The Week, as selected from the submissions we received on the opportunity we created on our Music XRay account. If you want to submit your song to be featured, create a profile on Music Xray and send it to us here.
Our Featured Artist Of The Week, as selected from the submissions we received on our Music XRay account, is Luke Dowler with his song Coming Alive.
Following in the footsteps of artists like Springsteen and U2, Luke Dowler manages to take the singer songwriter’s plight for honesty and social change and combine it with wide-open guitar textures and pop sensibilities that can fill an arena or break down perfectly to a small coffeehouse.
Visit Luke online at his website here, on Twitter here and on Facebook here.
Welcome To Our New Sponsor: Bandzoogle.
We’re pleased to welcome our good friends over at Bandzoogle for being one of our new sponsors for The Music Biz Weekly Podcast.
Use the promo code “musicbiz” when joining and get a 6 month completely free trial of Bandzoogle (vs. the standard 30 day).
If you’re a solo artist or in a band, you need a website. That’s Step 1. And if you don’t have one, Bandzoogle is the place to go to get one up and running in no time. It’s super easy and totally flexible. No programming required. And you can sell your music digitally and keep 100% of the sales. Killer. Check ’em out at Bandzoogle.com.
This podcast was brought to you by Music XRay.
Music Xray automatically matches your songs to real industry opportunities. Then, they give you direct access to the decision makers. Then, they guarantee they listen AND respond. No, Seriously.
Each week Michael and Brian will discuss the latest events in the music business and music marketing events and techniques.
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About Michael Brandvold:
Michael Brandvold is a freelance music industry consultant based in Northern California. Having launched Michael Brandvold Marketing to leverage his years of experience to provide direction to large and small clients in the areas of online & social marketing as well as e-commerce and customer acquisition and retention.
Gene Simmons of KISS first tapped Michael’s skills as a pioneering online marketing strategist to launch and manage all aspects of Kissonline.com’s multi-million dollar enterprise, including their ground-breaking VIP ticket program.
Michael has also managed the online efforts for Motley Crüe, Rod Stewart, Madonna, Ozzy Osbourne, Madonna and Britney Spears to name only a few.
About Brian Thompson:
Brian Thompson, Managing Partner for Thorny Bleeder Records, is a Vancouver based music industry entrepreneur, record label owner, artist manager, marketing consultant, radio promoter, publicist, web designer, blogger, and industry speaker.
Formerly the corporate head of music buying and marketing for a large national music retail chain, Brian has since moved on to become a well respected voice on the convergence of artist development, music marketing, social media, and technology.
I love #10 – hehehehehe!!!!!!
I miss Myspace actually..lol I am also still somewhat stuck in the old ways before the Internet, but I still know that touring and merch are still where the real money is anyway or I tunes could be more in the mix now to I guess been out of the loop way to long..trying to slowly get my groove back tho!
I love #1. Reality bites. This industry is changing by the moment and marketing is key in these days. Thank you.
great podcast! i wonder if the top 10 reasons would change at all if it were… “the top 10 reasons you will not become the famous songwriter you think you are” ~ not trying to become a rock star, but a rock songwriter 🙂 any thoughts on if the top 10 would be much different??
Well for a songwriter it matters less that you have fans or play live shows.
Regarding flying versus driving-
Cost to drive your van 2400 miles from Denver to L.A. and back at 82 cents per mile for a Honda Oddysey minivan-$1968
Once you have replaced transmissions on the road, you will realize that a van does not run on gas alone.
——————————————————————————————————–
Cost to buy 3 tickets on Southwest Airlines- $750
Motel room $80
Local one day minivan rental $100
Cost for each musician to bring two 49 lb. pieces of luggage (small amps, guitars, and drums, even small Fender passport P.A.) $0
total cost to fly a trio Denver to L.A. and back $930
Savings over driving $ 1038.
All legit reasons, and more important than most acts realize.
That said, I maintain that rock stardom can still be my destiny — I’m just working on a very elaborate “Plan B” at the moment. 😉