...There's Also A Negative Side.

There is a great quote from Hunter S. Thompson about the music industry that’s been floating around for years…

"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side."

It’s a great quote. Unfortunately, Mr. Thompson never said that. It is derived from an article he wrote for the San Fransisco Examiner in 1985 about television. Here is the actual quote…

Despite the fact that he never said that, it’s still a quote that, unfortunately, resonates with anyone who has spent any time in the music business.

I started this newsletter to help share some knowledge and experience with people who may benefit from it, and it’s important to me that the spirit of it remain positive. The last thing I want is to bring anybody down. However, I would feel remiss if I didn’t address the elephant in the room. That this is an extremely tough business and it is getting tougher by the day, and everyone who has anything to do with making music on a professional or even ametuer level is affected. I don’t pretend to have the answers, but I wanted to share a few things that I’ve experienced lately, and hopefully can at least help you feel like you aren’t alone in worrying about these things.

I recently had a conversation with a friend of mine that rattled me a bit. It was the impetus for wanting to start talking about this and writing this newsletter. This friend is in a fantastic band in the UK and about a dozen years ago or so, they were signed to a major label, playing big shows, selling records, and had all the ingredients to be one of Britain’s great breakout bands. They were critically acclaimed and had built a great following, but as these things go sometimes, they never could quite reach that brass ring and ultimately decided to part ways after grinding it out for a few years. Some of them had families, some went into other fields, and my friend continued working on music but in another capacity, writing music for television and films. Recently, they decided to get back to together and make an amazing new album which was released earlier this year, once again to critical and fan acclaim. They got some great press (not easy to do in the UK) and headed back out on the road to support this new record they worked so hard on. They did a string of great shows and the fans came out with love and support and from the outside, it seemed to me like the album and the tour were the kind of thing every band dreams of. There was only one problem. They were losing their shirts financially. They no longer had the support of a label, so they self-funded everything, as most artists do these days. So they paid for the recording of the album, and the artwork and promotion and the merch, and then they paid for the tour. The stark reality that they found themselves in is that the cost of touring has significantly increased in the past decade, from travel costs to lodging to even food, as well as the cost to produce merchandise. All the while the actual pay out from venues and ticket sales has decreased, with venues actually now charging them for a percentage of merchandise that is sold at shows. All this adds up to a scary truth, that with the current state of things, even a great mid-level band doing “well”, can’t really afford to tour. So, what does that mean for the future of artists trying to make a living with their art?

Let’s face it, “Making It” in the music business has always been a low percentage bet. As they say, if it was easy, everyone would do it. Unfortunately, talent is the least of the things you ever needed to succeed. It takes an unmeasurable amount of hustle and dedication to turn your art into a sustainable business, and I have seen countless incredible musicians and artists fall short of where they wanted because they just didn’t have the right combination of skill, drive, business savvy and just plain luck to put themselves in the right place at the right time. I could easily continue on and on about all the ways it doesn’t work, and in fact, I wrote several paragraphs laying out point by point the things that used to work for bands that are no longer viable. But, that doesn’t help anybody, so I deleted it all. Instead, I’d rather talk about the art and even though there doesn’t appear to be any money in it, why it is still worth making. Maybe now more than ever.

This idea that you can’t make a living making art is nothing new. Claude Monet, perhaps the most famous impressionist painter in history, died in poverty hardly ever making a penny from his paintings during his lifetime. It took a hundred years before people recognized him for contributions. That isn’t exactly the blueprint to success we should follow, but it does go to show that had artists like Monet given up on their art because there isn’t any money in it, our museums would be very different places. Or not exist at all.

Art in any form is vital to our human experience. It is always worth making and it is a thread that connects us to one another. So, of course it is worth making. But turning our art into commerce is where things get tricky. That requires an entire new set of skills that many artists simply aren’t equipped for.

Years ago, I was struggling to grasp how to turn what I enjoyed doing (making records) into a career. I had put in my 10,000 hours and had the skills, but I didn’t know how to translate that skill into income. A friend and mentor of mine suggested I read a book called The E Myth by Michael E. Gerber. I’m not one for self-help books, or truth be told, books in general. I try, and I own lots of books, but the number of books I’ve actually read and finished is embarrassingly small. But, the E Myth is a relatively short and easy read, and opened my eyes to the obstacles most artist face when trying to turn what they love into a business. I’ll give you the super simplified version.

As an artist, you want to spend 100% of your time working on your art. If you’re a songwriter, that means the thing you love the most is writing songs and you want to spend all of your time doing it. But, if you decide you want to make money doing that, you have to turn it into a business. And any business requires three jobs. It requires someone to make the thing you are selling, someone to market the thing you are selling, and someone to handle the administrative or “business” side. Since your business is just you, you now have to divide your time equally among these three jobs. So, instead of working on songwriting 100% of the time, you now can only work on it 33% of the time, while you work on marketing and “selling” (bookings, promotion, social media) another 33%, and the admin (contracts, billing, taxes, etc.) another 33%. The problem lies in the fact that you spent countless hours and years honing your skill as a songwriter because that is what you love. Chances are, you have spent zero time developing the marketing or admin skills necessary to maintain a successful business because, if you are like me, you have zero passion for those things. In fact, I hate them. I passionately hate them.

So, according to the book, if you sacrifice two thirds of the time you want to spend on your art to things you don’t like or care about, then you’ll make it, right? Nope. There are an infinite number of other factors at play, but this book at least gave me a better understanding of what a business really is and if I wanted to make a living doing this, that I would have to shift my mindset in certain ways.

I am the last person to offer advice on how to “make it” as an artist these days. The music business is evolving so fast that it’s impossible for me to keep up. It’s a moving target. It isn’t all doom and gloom though. There are people out there doing it. For some, social media has been a huge way for them to get the word out on their music and that has translated into actual income, or at least opportunities for income. Playing local shows still makes money for a lot of my friends. For others, licensing their music has generated some income. Some have found some success in getting into the right streaming playlists that have resulted in enough plays to generate some mail box money. Others have been successful with crowd funding and things like Patreon where they offer exclusive content to subscribers. Some people I know have actually figured out ways to be profitable from touring. But the commonality among all of them is that their income never comes from just one source. It’s a combination of a little here, a little there, and through their efforts in multiple areas, they are able to generate enough to make it work. Juggling all of that takes a lot of work, and nearly all of that work that is spent away from their instruments.

I listen to podcasts pretty often, especially while driving. I find it inspirational to hear how others in different fields got to the places they are now. I recently listened to an interview with Wiz Khalifa. If you don’t know who Wiz Khalifa is, don’t worry, I didn’t either, but he’s one of the most successful rappers of the last 20 years. I don’t have anything against rap, there is a lot of it I love, but I’ve definitely been out of loop with anything made after 2000 or so. So, it was interesting to hear how he came up and the things that led to his success. One thing he is known for and he discussed in depth in this interview is his Mix Tapes. I have to admit, I (along with the interviewer) have always been confused on the difference between a Mix Tape and an Album. Luckily for us, he clarified it. For one, a Mix Tape is usually comprised of what might be considered demos. Sketches or ideas, or things that aren’t fully realized. But the most interesting difference is that Mix Tapes are free. They are designed to give to fans and to build more fans so they can feel like they are part of the journey. He didn’t hold back his best material for a year or more to try to capitalize on the anticipation of something new, he kept his fans in the loop of what he was working on. He allowed them to be a part of the evolution of his music. He still makes fully produced albums through a major label and sells those albums, but in between, he lets his fans in on the process. He certainly didn’t invent this, Mix Tapes have been around since the start of Hip Hop, but interestingly, I’ve seen a few other artists from different genres adopt a similar approach. Zach Bryan comes to mind, who before his self titled “debut” studio album, released several EP’s and singles and the ambitious American Heartbreak album which had a whopping 34 songs on it, many of them bedroom demos and what sounds like iPhone recordings. He also consistently posts new song ideas and snippets on social media. Perhaps this idea of letting people in on how the sausage is made is the way to connect and truly build an audience. Maybe we shouldn’t be so precious about the process and let people in on it. If all music is virtually free now, why not give it freely? And if it truly is like winning the lottery, wouldn’t everything you release into the world be another lottery ticket? More tickets, better odds? I think it’s at least food for thought.

No one know what works anymore to “make it”, but one thing still seems to be true, doing good work and sharing it with people still generates fans. Maybe somewhere in this mess that can translate somehow into a making a living. But even if it doesn’t, isn’t it still worth it?

Thanks as always for reading.

Mike

Mike Butler is a professional mix engineer, guitarist and producer currently based in Southern California. His list of credits range from The Rolling Stones, Phoebe Bridgers, The Pretenders, The Shins, Ray LaMontagne, Five For Fighting, Reba McIntire, Fleetwood Mac, The Doobie Brothers, Eminem and many more. He recently mixed the music for the hit HBO animated series, “Batwheels” and has composed and produced music for commercial clients including Shure Microphones and Progressive Insurance.