Annette

SUCCESS BY DESIGN
PART 2
CONTINUED FROM LAST ISSUE
TO READ PART 1 - CLICK HERE
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STEP 2:
Create a plan based on how you can make the best of your resources. Look at what you've got, and put it to work for you in a way that will have meaningful results. I'm talking about knowing how to get results; knowing exactly what the results of your efforts will be and if those efforts are "worth the effort". You may THINK that creating this major-killer-all-flash-journey-to-the-moon website will create the kind of online sales for you that will get you noticed by labels, but I'm here to tell you it won't happen that way. I know that not first hand, but second hand. LEARN about what gets results. READ books that will teach you about how to run your own label, or about the music business. (Unfortunately, not all the books out there are good, some are quite band and give very bad advice, and it's very hard knowing which books to buy and which to avoid. One thing's for sure, MusicBiz Magazine is not recommended AT ALL. Liz Garo's "Book Your Own Tour" is highly recommended and has listings of venues, radio, and press in over 100 U.S. cities. REAL STREET-LEVEL INFO you can USE... not corporate pie-in-the-sky advice written by people who like to see their name in print. That's usually how you can tell a good book from a crappy one: What kind of PRACTICAL stuff can you get from that book?) TALK to bona fide industry people about what's effective in getting their attention.

MY CLUES: Four areas can be focused on that will give you some results that have meaning, and the more, the merrier:

a. Have a GREAT PRODUCT. Your CDs and your musical talent and songwriting should to be of TOP QUALITY, or at least have to sound like they are. No skimping here. Only put out your BEST work. But please try not to allow a project to go on for years, 'cause that can be disheartening.

b. PLAY SHOWS. And lots of them, especially when you're first starting out with a new project. Duh.

c. PRESS REVIEWS. Next to playing shows, it's the easiest way to get your name out there. Like I've said before, it's not too difficult to get reviews if you're out there playing shows and sending out your CDs for review and you actually make those follow-up calls leaving messages as to WHY they should review your CD or show. Call 'em every or every other week with a new, more recent reason they should care.

d. RADIO AIRPLAY. It's the toughest thing to get in all of this, but the most effective way to get your music to the greatest number of people. And you CAN get airplay if you know what you're doing. Lots of bands do their own college airplay campaigns. Lots of bands hire radio promoters. I can recommend Bryan Farrish. I know he handles the band THICK LIQUID from San Diego who, just LAST WEEK, was #1 most added record on three different radio airplay charts, and that's quite an achievement. Now, we'll see if this band THICK LIQUID has a plan as to what they're going to use all this airplay for. Airplay, by itself, can't sell records. It's best to use it to build awareness. Maybe with a second or even third release, and coupled with a tour, you can actually sell some records. I hear the band plans on touring this year. Smart.

These four areas WILL get you meaningful results. Let me try and give you some ideas as to what having/doing each of these can buy you. Having a great product is a given. If people like it, they'll tell their friends, if you suck, they'll tell their friends. But it won't sell records if you're not AT LEAST out there playing shows. Derek Sivers of CD Baby will tell you that the bands who sell the most records on his site are the touring bands. Playing shows is the one thing most bands can afford to do and can do all by themselves (as opposed to hiring someone for press or radio promo). It's the thing that gets you most "out there" for those opportunities that we talked about earlier. Especially in L.A. Why, just this past Monday night we played a show that we only had a week to promote (and as a result didn't do the best job at promoting, but jumped at the chance to play) and guess what? We met this lady from ROCKWOMEN who now wants us to play some big ROCKWOMEN event in February! And guess what else? We met again with this guy who's kind of been "following" us around and also owns a label, and we found out more stuff about him, like he used to be a tour manager for a big label. Think he might be able to help us even if only just for good, solid advice, (let's be realistic, here) when we want to get out on the road sometime next year? Who knows? Maybe he'll hook us up with Incubus. You just never know.

Oh, and about being out there and playing shows, you can expect that most, in fact the GREAT, GREAT MAJORITY of any record sales you have, for most any indie band, will be at your shows. Please don't go through the hassle of getting those records placed in those out-of-town stores when you go out on the road. It's honestly not worth the trouble, especially the first time around. Just make sure you have your free CD Baby postcards to hand out to anyone and everyone at those shows, so people can buy them online with a credit card, as opposed to going to your merch page at your website, sending you a check in the mail, and hoping you'll send them their CD. I think most people buy CDs online with credit cards or they don't buy.

What other meaningful results can we aim for? Use your resources (a-d above, that is,) NOT to expect to sell records, (MAYBE you can sell records WITH THE RIGHT AMOUNT OF AT LEAST REGIONAL AWARENESS ALREADY IN PLACE with a second, or, more likely, third release,) but to achieve one or more of the following:

-build awareness of your band name and/or your label (VERY VALUABLE)
-get more fans
-get better gigs, including paid gigs and even better-paying NACA (National Assoc. of Campus Activities --college) gigs
-attract industry people who will want to "keep an eye on you"
-get a deal with a small distributor or a number of small distributors to cover more than one region of the country
-get more press
-get more airplay

And it snowballs.

So, look at what you got, what you have the time to do, and decide what are the things you can utilize to build your business: your band and/or label. What is the order of priorities you have for your goals and how are you going to "snowball" them to build? Is it going to look something like that first scenario at the beginning of this article, which focuses primarily on touring, and secondarily on press and airplay? This is a great plan for the band who is basically broke, but has the ability to tour. The RV issue can become a problem if you don't know someone who can loan one to you, since then it requires more expenses that may not be covered by your merch or door revenues and the band will come back from their tour even more broke than before they left, which is most often the case with young bands out on their own indie tour for the first time or two.

Is your plan going to focus more on radio airplay? Radio airplay is a completely different-looking type of plan. A plan focusing on airplay could sound something like this: "The band has enough money to do a commercial specialty airplay campaign for 8 weeks, and can build some radio contacts with that. In the meantime, we'll play locally and continue building our local fanbase. We'll get out of town for the weekend to go to San Diego/Phoenix/Las Vegas/Bakersfield/ S.F. twice a month. Also during this 8 weeks, our funding campaign will begin. This will require about 10-15 hours/week for about 2-3 months, making calls, sending out CDs, soliciting investors for our label, and depending on how much funding we get, we may look for a distributor so distribution is in place for our second release. Our funding goal is $50,000, allowing us to function as an indie label, with sales people to handle getting our records into the stores after distribution is secured. We'll be going back into the studio a month or two after that, so we'll have another release to send out to radio shortly thereafter. Since that will be our second release, we can expect that campaign to be even more successful. The band will then go on a 3-4 week tour, and supporting the record with such a tour should create at least some modest sales (10-30,000 units, over a period of 3-6 months with continued radio support,) if the funding came through and we have distribution and a sales department. With no funding, we will still focus on a tour over the summer, albeit shorter, and sales will be through CD Baby only. At this point, we will be working on a third record, and will plan on a January release, avoiding the fiercest radio competition from the major labels in the fall. We will again solicit funding, this time with a stronger story from our second release."

That was a year-long plan, with a completely different focus and goal in mind. The goal with this plan is to be and build a totally indie label; there was no plan to shop for a deal, like with our first plan.

And do note: In each example plan, the planner KNEW about the realities of what they were putting into their plans, and what kinds of goals could be expected. Be realistic in your plans and research the ins-and-outs of its specifics. What you're trying to create here is a FOOL-PROOF PLAN; one that is very, very likely to create the results you have in mind. Getting funding in the amount of $50,000? Nowhere near impossible if you know what you're doing and what it really takes to secure that kind of funding. Any plan you make, you need to make sure you have the resources, including the TIME it takes to follow-through will all the busywork involved.

Perhaps your plans will not be so lofty. Perhaps I have inspired you to reach that much higher. Just know your limitations as well, and your chance of failure decreases.


STEP 3: Implement the plan. Set deadlines. Require your band members to kick in a little more dough for those projects that you feel are crucial to your plan. FOLLOW THROUGH. And have plans B & C (like in our second example) for those plans that fall through. If you have a plan that you believe in, and you can convince others that it will work, then you have yourself a team. Direct them. Go after what you want and never give up until you get it.


So, "success by design", oddly, was also how Wind-Up Records describes how they did it with Creed. And I'm not talking about the online/underground fanbase plan they talked about in that completely skewed article you may have read about Wind-Up and Creed in the Music Connection earlier this year. I'm talking about the effective things they did with that $5 million, which, of course was never mentioned in that article. And you can create a plan for your band that will work, too. Maybe you won't be as big as Creed was "practically overnight" because you don't have quite that much money. But if you have the dedication and motivation to actually CARRY OUT the plan you create, then you have a chance.

No more shots in the dark. Everything you do from now on fits in somewhere. Even if it seems like a shot in the dark. Integrate those random opportunities into your overall plan. Make your own success.

And isn't it just the right moment, at the end of one year, and beginning of another? Take inventory on what you accomplished for your career this past year, and make yourself a solid plan of attack for the upcoming year or two. Buy yourself a big wall calendar so you can look at the whole year and mark deadlines for each phase of the attack.

So, what's the plan?