CONTENT
The trick is not to become just a writer/musician, but STAY a writer/musician. That requires work.

One of my writer friends said that in order to succeed in any independent endeavor whether it’s being a recording artist or an author is that you must have content. Whether its song samples, short stories, ebooks, or e-albums, you need to have a library of your content available for a potential publisher or company to peruse should they look you up. Content = product. Your product is your writings, music, or other artistic offerings you make or produce.

You may wonder whether what you have is viable for the public. If you have published a short story in an ezine, a school newspaper, or self-published your first book at Kindle, that’s your content. It you have jingles, solo songs, or complete digital albums at a CD Baby, that’s your content. You should include as much content* (digitally protected of course) and  as you are able to include.

MAKE IT VISIBLE
Once you have content, you have to also make it available to be viewed or at least perused. A recent article at WGA stated, writers definitely have more options in self-promoting to advance their careers than ever. The draw-back for them though according to entertainment industry psychotherapist and panelist Rebecca Roy is, “The same thing that makes each of you great as writers – self criticism and self doubt – is what gets in the way of self-promotion.”

The article goes on to report, “It is as important to your career to be proactive in publicizing yourself as it is to take the next pitch meeting.” Hollywood Reporter Film Editor Gregg Kilday sought to allay writers’ concerns that the press was uninterested. “The writer often has the best story to tell, and thus the most to offer the reporter,” Kilday explained.

MAKE IT SOCIAL
The consensus that experts in the industry noted, such as new media expert Douglas Welch,  it is vitally important to use online self-promotion tools like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and YouTube. Writers and musicians should try each of these services, or at the least have a blog where the public could find a writer’s or recording artist’s work.

MAKE IT NOTICEABLE
In preparation of this article, the list of self-published authors has been growing every year. One such success story reported in USA Today was H.P. Mallory, who self-published her paranormal e-novel, which sold 70,000 copies! Her success caught the attention of a traditional publisher Random House, who offered her a three-book contract.

SUMMARY
You don’t have to self-publish to get noticed by a publisher, but you do have to have a social presence and content/product. It is important to show that not only are you a talented writer or musician, you can produce and already have an offering should a company want you to get started right away. This is of course you are interested in making your books or music a career.

  “Produce! Produce! …

Work while it is called Today;

for the Night cometh,

wherein no man can work.”

–Thomas Carlyle

(*please note this is not about having the work in its entirety up. Please review appropriate articles about protecting your work.)

Music is organized patterns of sounds and silence that uses chords and structure that have been developed for centuries. Computer programming and mapping out musical tones is not all that different. There are certain patterns of tones that are pleasing and those that aren’t. Listeners have a threshold of duration, organized, pitch perfect, and ratio to the loudness of instrumentation. If you were to put all those components together into a program, of course a computer could replicate it.

The question is, is that art?

It’s the song that doesn’t seem to follow certain protocols that pulls at our heart, tells us a story, or is the song where you can almost feel the singer’s soul while they barely make it through the piece – that’s what a computer can’t account for or copy.

I had the opportunity to attend a writer’s workshop featuring a new author “East of Adonia” along with one of her publishers from Zova Books. You may be wondering why this has anything do with music publishing or songwriting.  I will get to that just keep reading.

After the workshop, the publisher and I began a dialogue about the changing dynamic of publishing companies (books and music alike) and what is expected of the “talent” even when they are published. I recall the days when hopeful artists waited to be discovered by playing in as many venues as possible with the expectation to hear their song on the radio some day. If you were discovered then you were propelled forward into a media machine that revolved around you. From Aerosmith to Tolkein, people around the globe were familiar with the longevity of your work. I think that for many of us musicians and writers that is our expectation when we finally get ourselves published.

The publisher said that for them, getting published means you already have a following and that they expect their authors to be prolific in social networks. What that means is that if you want to be published, you need to already have a book(s) published and you need to have a following. It seems like a circular set of circumstances though, how do you have a following if you aren’t published yet? It reminds me a lot of real estate agents who get hired more readily if they bring their own clients. If you have your own clients why do you need the company?  This all comes down to management and protection. The publisher yesterday was very clear about how some artists have been burned by deplorable or archaic business model practices of some publishing companies.

In the current technological trends, you CAN manage your own career as a musician or author (see CDbaby and Bookbaby). The publisher from Zova said that for new authors (this applies to new musician/songwriters) the expectation exists for them to be present on their own sites/blogs and social networking tools such as Twitter and Facebook pages. The podcasters at CDBaby DIY Musician Podcast have been exploring the topic of social networking for over year now and have said the same thing –you must be blogging and social networking even if you have a publisher/record deal.

If you want to be a professional musician/author on a bigger scale than just your living room, you need to be your own promoter. Even when you do get signed with a company, many companies still require you to keep that social presence going to build community and rapport with the audience/readers. Why wait? Start doing it now!

Rachelle Gardner of My Life as a Literary Agent in the article Marketing Yourself and Your Book says, “a writer should be thinking about two things: marketing this book (building your platform), and beginning work on your next book, whether or not it’s contracted. Build up that blog, useTwitter and Facebook to build relationships with your readers, and create a strategy for getting out and speaking.”

As of this writing, I am reminded of the article about Adam Young (Owl City) that was featured in Rolling Stone magazine in 2010. He was a 23 year old community college student who worked at the Coca-cola factory and at night he recorded songs in his parent’s basement. He would share his newly created tunes on myspace, which at the time was the place to share music. It starts out with a few but quickly more and more people were listening to his music, and it rocketed him out of the basement and into stardom.

Referencing a recent article at CDBaby’s DIY MUSICIAN (dated January 06), Jon Simson (SoundExchange ) wrote about a recent study which showed that Americans think musicians should have second jobs to support themselves. That means that Americans don’t think music is a “real job.” Simson went on to say that, “[Musicians] should not expect to be paid for their art!  We must educate the public and eradicate these extremely destructive beliefs.”  Chris R at DIY MUSICIAN went on to write that in a perfect world this would be ideal if “performers AND listeners, conceived of art as a profession.”  Conversely, he also believed that good art should be rewarded and stated that it should be “transparent and alive in order to transmit the musical message.”

The rest of Chris R’s article was confusing. It wasn’t clear what the main aim of the article was or where he was going. Did he agree that musicians should or shouldn’t have second jobs or was he trying to tell us about how bad bands should stay in the basement longer in order to “practice their great ideas until we don’t have to guess at the intent?”

There  is certainly nothing wrong with creating music and sharing it by means of selling it. However, as a musician I think it is more important to be an artist first. A musician friend of mine said, “People need money. Better to compromise some of your time than compromise your art.” Without Googling the actual definition of art, I think it is important to understand that there is a difference between art and commodity. There is a difference between a performing and service. As a musician who is also a recording artist, have to decide what is important to you, getting people to hear your work or getting paid for your work… or both. Once in a while there are extremely talented musicians who are not only great artists but also great entrepreneurs. If that is your goal, be sure to include a business and financial plan in your mission and don’t be afraid to continually work to refine and be your best.

Back to Chris R’s article, there is definitely a difference between being a musician and being an entertainer. The latter we often see being birthed through huge record company star-making machines. I think I can understand a little of where Chris R was going towards the conclusion of his article/rant. If I am correct, he was indicating that the reason that Americans think that musicians should get “real jobs” is due to the large number of bands who are mediocre. He believes that bands should take their artistry a little more seriously both professionally and musically.

I guess what it comes down to, is if you choose to be a professional musician are you an artist or entertainer? Find your niche, do your best and be professional the rest of America is watching.
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Women Composers, Technology, and Electronic Music

I wanted to take a moment to commemorate strong women composers who have helped pave the way for women songwriters and composers everywhere. Many of these women are not only writing the songs, they are playing instruments, singing, and even recording them. Some are using technology and electronic media and others sound engineering.  Many of these women have inspired me as well as inspired generations of  other women around the world who follow after them laying out sound scapes of notes, lyrics, and orchestrations.

Daphne Oram was probably the single driving force behind the BBC’s Radiophonic Workshop in 1957. This English company which was most noted for releasing the infamous Doctor Who theme, went on to be a forerunner in electronic music and sound recording technology. Although not technically a composer, she was an entrepreneur and revolutionary in field for women in electronic arts.

Delia Derbyshire graduated from Girton College in Cambridge with a degree in mathematics and music. Although the BBC’s Radiophonic Workshop’s primary role was sound effects and sound-scaping for audio projects, it was her ability to utilize this electronic media in arranging Ron Grainer’s Doctor Who composition which put her and the workshop on the map.

Suzanne Ciani is a composer who is another pioneer in the field of electronic music and sound design. She established her own record label in 1995 in order to further direct her creativity and career. Throughout her career, Suzanne has had a fascination and love for being able to produce music with technology and machines.

Meredith Monk is an amazingly diverse musician who came to the college I was teaching at. She presented the most amazing and thought provoking concert. Utilizing musical sounds, textures, and movement she was able to convey stories and emotions without requiring texts or descriptions in advance. I think the part that stayed with me was the use of nontraditional items as instruments such as tape recorders and the Theremin.

Enya we know from her far reaching soothing music and vocals, but we need to remember that she also is a composer. In addition to her layered ethereal vocals, she uses piano and synthesizer programming and multitracking. In 2001, she was named the World’s best selling female artist of 2001 for her album, A Day Without Rain and has several compositions in various Tolkein languages which appear on the Lord of the Rings soundtracks. She admits that she composes slowly and the term “enyanomics” has been used to explain how Enya is able to sell millions of records without giving  live performances or going on tour.

Kate Bush is an English singer, musician, composer, and record producer in a rock/alternative genre. Her song textures use a myriad of instrumentation with subtle uses of electronic textures. Her song writing ability has been recognized by the Invor Novello Awards.

Keiko Matsui is an amazing Japanese  keyboardist, musician, and composer noted for her spiritual new age and smooth jazz sounds using acoustic piano and electronic instruments. She believes that music has the power to bring people together and change their lives through a connection to music no matter the continent.

Loreena McKennitt is a musician who plays a variety of instruments from harp to vocals and composes world music in Celtic and middle eastern themes. Loreena still records and distributes on her own label and manages her career.

More women composers of note include (but not limited to), Sarah McLachlan, Tracy Chapman, and Tori Amos.Other links that promote and celebrate women composers are: Cyndustries and Women of Substance Radio