Making a Living in Your Local Music Market: Realizing Your Marketing Potential
March 5, 2010 in Featured, Local Music by stagemaster
Product Description
This newly updated book is an invaluable resource for the musician or aspiring musician who lives outside the major music business markets. The author has lived in New York, Los Angeles, Denver, and Portland, Oregon, and he details the differences in strategies that a musician can use to make a living outside the mainstream music marketplaces. This book shows you how to expand and develop your skills as a musician and composer right in your own backyard. It explores… More >>
Making a Living in Your Local Music Market: Realizing Your Marketing Potential
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This book is a good introduction to the local music business. It is really oriented to the musician that is just starting out. What you can expect to find is a fairly complete description of getting started in music. The headline on the back cover says ‘You can survive happily as a musician in your local music market.’
I think it might better say you ‘might’ survive happily. Making a living at any of the performing arts is not easy. You can expect a lot of time spent on non-music activities like marketing yourself, like deciding what kinds of music can sell in your area, and so on. As my daughter said before she entered this business (Broadway), ‘it’s not something you necessarily want to do, it’s something you have to do.’
If you have to do it, this little book will give you a good grounding in what its all about.
Rating: 5 / 5
If you’ve ever played out and are looking to ‘expand your horizons,’ (whether in the U.S. or Canada,) YOU NEED TO LOOK AT THIS BOOK! Weissman covers so much in here – the advantages and disadvantages of current music centers (Portland, Austin, etc.) and explains everything from contracts to union membership to record label auditions. One of the best features is that he’ll give you the pros and cons of any area – he wants you to find the best fit for YOU (whether its the local music scene or major market scene.) Producing, advertising, financing, record deals, agents, polishing your own music skills – the list goes on and on. AND there are some great appendices – contact information for arts councils, songwriter’s associations, performing rights organizations, etc. These lists and other sections of the book also include the Canadian music scene.
Rating: 5 / 5
Although I never met the author, I attended Bill Fowler’s modern guitar class with him in Denver in 1975. I would think that anyone reading this book would find at least one good idea for increasing their musical income.
I have been a professional musician based out of Denver since 1975, and have toured the U.S.A. several times promoting the CDs for my band, Hillbilly Hellcats. My only disagreement with the book is the Alan Remington pricing formula, found on page 50, in which Alan states that the average patron will stay two hours and drink four drinks. That was true in the pre-MADD days. In Colorado people go to jail for driving after two drinks, .05 BAC being the legal limit. Because of this, the average patron is now drinking only 1-2 drinks in two hours, and the resulting lack of sales means that many clubs have closed, and those open are struggling. No club is about to give any band an admission fee and a percentage of the bar, as Alan suggests that a band ask for. Books by Tim Sweeney and Peter Spellman both mention the effects of the anti-drunk driving campaign on clubs, and I was surprised that such a significant economic development was not covered in this book.
Rating: 3 / 5
I bought this book several years ago, when I first started my “Career” as a professional musician. I knew that to be a working musician, I’d have to hustle, do anything and everythng I could to make a buck. I knew that the road ahead would be rough if I weren’t willing to get out there and find out what was available in my area. Most musicians don’t make the bulk of their income by record sales. Even with my album doing well, I had to utilize every resource locally, in order to make ends meet. After reading this book, I realized I was doing a lot of things “right,” but there were several ideas I hadn’t looked into. This book motivated me to squeese every drop of brainstorming I could muster- to really make a name for myself in my home town. So far so good. I still use this book when gigs are down, to remind myself of the things I could be doing out there. After all- this is what I chose as my “profession.” From weddings to school presentations, and from studio work to local festivals, I try to remind Sacramento CA. that I’m here!
Rating: 4 / 5
Wow. This basically boiled down to a waste of about ( ) of the book’s purchase price. Before you buy, beware. This would probably be a good book for you if you are just out of school or are just getting started in “the biz”. However, as an experienced musician who thought this title might provide some helpful marketing tips and ideas, I was very disappointed. Its extremely basic. Also, Weissman’s idea of what constitutes a local music market seems to be off as well-I would consider Boston, or Portland or any of these cities major metropolitan areas– not just New York, LA, Nashville and Chicago. At least 2 chapters are wasted on the history of the music scenes of some cities, including those I just mentioned– how is this important to you if you live in a small Metropolitan area, such as Harrisburg, where I’m at? Also, as a former Boston resident, I don’t think Weissman really does the city’s scene justice– major acts besides New Kids on the Block have been broken out of Beantown– look no farther than the Mighty Mighty Bosstones or Aerosmith. However, there was some interesting, albeit vague, info about the Union, Grants, and Artist in Residence programs. I would think that someone with the qualifications of Weissman would be able to offer much more specified info instead of vague statements such as “Try to set up a meeting with the Creative Director of an Ad Agency”. But, then again, maybe its supposed to be more of an overview kinda book. If you’re just getting started, this might be a good book for you. If you’re out there doing it full time, look elsewhere- there’s not much I got out of this book.
Rating: 2 / 5