We are proud to present the CICAS® interviews.
Featuring young professional artists, bands and other creative individuals who are members of our creative industries careers advice service, sharing their experiences, knowledge, and letting you know who they are and what they’re about.
This month it’s Jumeee. Hear him talking to Ahmad about his music and future plans!
Our Deaf Rave programme has been running for three weeks now, and the word is spreading. We’ve been featured in the South London Press, and on Record of the Day.
Initial feedback from students this term has been very positive, with a full house every week!
CICAS® member Hazel Jane MacLaurin reveals how you can find a wider audience for your music by harnessing the power of syncing.
In both my earlier posts, I talked about the importance of mastery and preparing for success. They’re both things that require time, commitment and patience. So it might seem strange that my final post is about a shortcut to music success.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t believe that poor music can take a shortcut to success. One thing I have learnt is that even if you don’t rate someone’s music, chances are that they have trained, practised and mastered their craft. Even if all they do with that craft is play three chords over and over and fit the rhymes ‘time/shine’ into every single song. (Yes, Oasis, I’m talking to you.)
But even when we have mastered our craft, there is one thing we desperately need. One thing we can’t succeed without. And if you don’t have it yet, it can seem pretty daunting to acquire.
Your audience.
No audience equals no career
We all need to build our audiences. The brutal truth is that we don’t really have a career without people who love what we do and therefore want us to do more of it. Whether you want to follow the DIY route or get signed to a label, neither is possible unless you already have an audience who knows and loves your music.
How you build your audience is up to you. There are many routes. If you’re a singer-songwriter like me, or in a band, you’ll want to gig and gig and gig. If you’re a DJ, you might want to start a club night, or present a radio show – or both. Your audience are like you, they hang out where you are, so go to your niche and find them.
But what if you could build your audience really fast? What if you could reach loads of people all at once and put your music in their hearts and minds?
Well, there is a way.
Synchronisation.
Sync and swim
Synchronisation or ‘sync’ is the fancy name for putting music to TV commercials, films, videos, etc. And sync deals are not only lucrative at the time they’re made, they can also deluge artists with new fans.
So that’s new fans who love what the artist does. New fans who want the artist to do more of it. New fans ready to support the artist and come to concerts and buy new records etc etc etc. Sounds great, doesn’t it?
One artist who went from minor to mainstream via sync is Feist. She was already prominent in the North American/European indie scene through her solo work and her collaborations with bands such as Broken Social Scene and The New Pornographers. But in 2007 she was broadcast on TV in every English speaking country in the world, usually many times a day. How? Why?
Because her track ‘1234’ was the soundtrack to Apple’s iPod Nano TV advertisement.
To remind you, here’s the video:
Suddenly her global tour was sold out. Her album, ‘The Reminder’ went double platinum. And the track has ended up on compilations galore.
Feist burst out of her niche and into the mainstream. She just headlined the UK’s Green Man festival earlier this year, and her career has gone from strength to strength since syncing with Apple.
Syncing with TV commercials means that your music reaches an audience – probably exactly the audience you are looking to reach – AND someone pays you for the music, AND pays for all that expensive airtime.
Of course, there is a catch.
Prove yourself
Unsurprisingly, getting sync deals is pretty competitive. And, with the decline in record sales, more managers and musicians are looking to exploit one income stream that is still running strong.
As an emerging artist, this is where your commitment to mastering your craft and the respect you have for your own talent come back into play. If you want to get your music on TV commercials, you have to learn how to do it. Advertisers will have their own brief, their own needs to fulfill. There will probably be different musicians vying for the deal. You need to show them that your music can support their message. Your music can reach their audience.
And if you’re successful, you’re likely to make that audience your audience too.
You probably know by now that specialist music agency A-Bomb are teaching a Music for TV Commercials course at the Midi Music Company. What you might not know is the depth and breadth of their experience. So even if you’re not interested in pursuing the sync route, take a look at how they’ve achieved success through matching the right music to the right commercial. http://www.a-bomb.co.uk/music.htm
And if you are interested in seeing how sync could be a shortcut to music success for you, book a place on the course now.
Last week we were lucky enough to be invited onto the Feel Good Friday show on Reprezent Radio.
We gave our 15 minutes of inspiration, talking about everything we have to offer, from courses to career advice, and how to get in touch.
You can listen again here: http://www.reprezent.org.uk/feel-good-friday-w-sandy-and-jj – we’re about 25 minutes in.
Yesterday a few of us from MMC were lucky enough to be invited along to PRS for Music Heritage Award at the iconic Jazz Café in Camden. The award was being given to British dance/electronica band Faithless.
A special plaque was unveiled at the Jazz Cafe where they played their first full live gig in 1996, and marked the start of their incredible musical journey from underground outfit to live band. In a year their track Insomnia was number one around the globe.
After we’d ‘indulged’ in the bucks fizz and cupcakes, Faithless were introduced by Paulette Long, the Deputy Chair or PRS, and the floor was opened up for questions. Wozzy asked Maxi Jazz what advice he’d give to aspiring musicians.
Sister Bliss then spoke about what it takes to make it as a female DJ.
Thanks to PRS, the Jazz Cafe, and of course Faithless for inviting us along!
In the second of her blog entries for us, CICAS® member Hazel Jane MacLaurin reveals how to get lucky and get your big break in the industry.
Luck.
Some people seem to be born lucky. Others…not so much. How come some people spot – and get – all the lucky breaks?
Unexpected opportunities for us creative types pop up everywhere, all the time. We might not see them, but they’re there.
The reason we don’t see them?
We’re not ready.
How to get lucky
I’ve met literally loads of musicians, both at the Midi Music Company and at gigs, networking events and songwriting conferences, and often the same subjects come up: how we want to progress forward in our careers, but we feel that we can’t, because something – or things – are blocking our way.
I’ve also met a few, calmer musicians who are often a little further on the path. To be fair, some of them are older, and therefore you could argue that they’re simply more established. (However I personally know quite a few ‘older’ musicians who are just as hungry as us). Others are well under thirty but they don’t exude that anxiety, that gnawing belief that something is blocking their path and stopping them reaching their full potential.
Why not? How did they get so lucky?
Answer: They learnt their craft
Learning your craft requires patience. Learning your craft requires time. Learning your craft requires commitment, and dedication, and belief in yourself.
And, above all, learning your craft involves you respecting yourself and respecting your own talent.
But before I talk further about respecting your talent, let’s look at just one of those ‘elusive’ opportunities, and why you need to be prepared in order to exploit it.
The Internet is an enormous opportunity for creatives
Yeah yeah, I know, you’ve heard it all before at least million times. Maybe you see all the possibilities laid out before you, maybe you’re comparing yourself to SBTV and have got just a bit jaded. If you are a bit jaded, here’s a reminder.
As creatives, we create content. That’s our job. Content is quite a vague word for all the amazing multimedia things we can create – and access – online: video, rich media, photographs, graphic design, animation, writing, blogs, podcasts, radio and…
Music.
Without content – without music, videos, new songs, new blogs, text, images, podcasts, etc, all the Internet-based platforms we take for granted simply couldn’t exist. No YouTube without user-generated content. No Last.fm without the songs people already listen to on their mp3 players. No Internet radio stations – and if Internet radio and Last.fm hadn’t started up, Spotify could have never been born.
The Internet needs new content all the time.
Not just any new content. Great, awe-inspiring, jaw-dropping, infinitely shareable, inherently viral and totally social content.
And this is where respecting your talent comes back into play.
Online, everybody knows your name
I’m making an assumption. I’m assuming that when you are ready to release your music that you’ll use an online platform such as iTunes, Bandcamp or your own website, even if you get CDs and vinyl pressed to sell at gigs or send out to radio promoters.
So when you put your latest track up on Soundcloud, or on your Facebok page or website, and tweet links to it, and send it to bloggers to review it…
…everybody is judging you.
Everybody is listening to your track. Everybody is evaluating it. Everybody is deciding whether they’re going to recommend it, whether it is so good, or so funny, that they’re going to look like a genius for discovering, and sharing it.
Because that’s what people get out of sharing content online. They get to look good. They get to look like experts. They play the role of the genius, the innovator – and that is a powerful driver for sharing things – in this case, your music.
So if you’re creating content – music, videos…whatever – you need to make sure it is great. Because if it’s great, it will get shared. And if it isn’t, it will get ignored.
So now’s the time to make sure you have learnt your craft. Now is the time to take those steps, patiently, one at a time, until you have all the right ingredients. Now is the time to be honest with yourself and see what else you need to do to respect your talent, get your music to the best it can be, and reach for your full potential.
Because once you’ve done that, you’ll be prepared.
And once you’re prepared, you’re ready to get lucky.
See if any of the following Midi Music Company courses can help you develop your craft and get prepared for music success:
Music Production
Cre8tiv® Voices
Cre8tiv® Keys
Music for TV Commercials
We are proud to present the CICAS® interviews.
Featuring young professional artists, bands and other creative individuals who are members of our creative industries careers advice service, sharing their experiences, knowledge, and letting you know who they are and what they’re about.
This month it’s Ralph Phillips. from Bank of Joy, talking to Tamsin.
At the Midi Music Company we support our artists through learning and career development . Starting at age five, all the way through to thirty, we have a range of different programmes to help young people develop as artists. CICAS® member Hazel Jane MacLaurin writes about her experiences at MMC and why it’s important to keep learning.
Why lifelong learning is the key to music success.
You’re gifted. You’re talented. You’re well on your way – whether you’re already a Midi Music Company CICAS® member or you’re new to MMC. So why bother learning anything else?
Why you must understand the different parts of your craft
As musicians, as lyricists, rappers, singers…whatever, we’ve put a lot of time into learning our craft. Sure, we’ve got natural talent but we also know that in order to unleash that talent and reach our highest potential we need to always learn more, always do more, always try more. Why? Because mastery is the key to success. And mastery requires you to learn more, and strive for more.
An example. You’re a singer – or a rapper. You’ve got your lyrics, you know how your melody line is going to go – now all you need is a great producer to make the right beat. And that’s their job – what more do you need to do?
Respect your passion
If you’re talented enough to have written your own rhymes I’m betting you’re passionate enough to want a good beat. And this is where doing a course such as Music Production really pays off.
You should know about the basics of industry standard programs such as Reason and Logic. You should understand the differences between manipulating audio and MIDI – and which format is appropriate for which situation.
Why? Because even if you’re not in charge of making the beat, you should know enough about making beats to tell when someone really knows their stuff (and you should be able to spot the fakers a mile off before you part with your hard-earned cash).
Get past your limitations
Limitations aren’t a bad thing. They’re just an indication of what we need to work on, or what we need help with, at any particular moment in time.
Here’s another example: the basics of songwriting. Let’s say you’re a producer. You’re given the lyrics and it’s your job to add a really great chord sequence to make them shine. You know enough songs in your style to create a progression that really sets them off…
…and then you realize you’ve accidentally plagiarized a really famous, classic work (believe me this is incredibly easy to do – even X Factor judge Gary Barlow admitted to doing it in Take That – and then getting in trouble!).
What do you do with all that hard work? How frustrated do you feel?
Well, the trick here is to reharmonize – take the notes from the melody line, usually the vocal, and create new chords around them to carry the tune. This is something I find really hard, even after twenty-four years of playing the piano. But, because this is such a common problem in songwriting, a course such as Midi Music Company’s Cre8tiv Keys, which deals with chord progressions and reharmonization, amongst other techniques, can be incredibly helpful – even if you never want to play live keys.
(If I’ve lost you in either of these examples, by the way, it’s an indicator that you really need to do a course).
Learning for success
I’m willing to bet that you’re talented and committed enough to want success. Am I right or am I right?
Well, another great bonus of lifelong learning is it helps clarify what you want and what success actually means to you – remember it’s different for all of us. And even if you decide not to use the knowledge you gained, that’s information. For example, you could go to a seminar on music management and decide that you definitely don’t want to be a manager – but perhaps you need one. That information could take you to the Music Managers’ Forum to find the perfect manager…who could then point you to a new course…introduce you to the perfect booking agent…and you could literally go anywhere else from here: but brilliantly, you’re always moving even closer towards your success. To achieving your dream.
Julia Cameron, author of The Artists Way, said, ‘Large changes occur in tiny increments. It is useful to think in terms of a space flight: by altering the trajectory very slightly, a great difference can be made over time’.
How are you going alter your trajectory for even greater success today?
Courses at the Midi Music Company – Choose from:
Music Production
Cre8tiv® Keys
Cre8tiv® Voices
Music for TV Commercials
If you’re planning on enrolling on a course this autumn, please note that the last date we will be accepting cheques as payment is this Friday 7th September. After this date, we will only be accepting cash. There’s now extra information on all our courses, see the Budding Musicians Club and Cre8tiv® Short Courses pages.
The Midi Music Company is recruiting for a new CICAS® Young Producer Intern. In addition to regular access to our facilities, Interns receive extra support and advice to help them reach their full potential. This opportunity is open to all CICAS® members and is a paid internship, you will be expected to commit to the programme for two years.
If you are interested in applying please complete the application form and return it to Tracy French – tracy@themidimusiccompany.co.uk by 31st August 2012. Applications received after this date will not be eligible. Interviews will take place on 11th September.
CONNECT WITH US