Are you finding it difficult to manage your money as a musician? Do you have a system you follow, or do you just wing it?

In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, I reveal the steps I’ve taken to manage my finances, and what has worked for me.

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Podcast Highlights:

00:14 – Disclaimer

00:32 – Tips for managing your personal finances

02:13 – Percentages are your friend

02:42 – Tips for managing your business or career finances

03:23 – Final thoughts

Transcription:

Thanks for joining me. Today I want to talk about managing your money. Now, I'm not an accountant or financial expert or anything, so please seek professional advice if you're looking for more qualified advice on this topic. These are just a few things I've picked up over the years and I'm sharing them in hopes that they will benefit you.

First, I’ll address personal finances. I would suggest setting up three different buckets of savings. The first is your emergency fund. This is where you should save roughly six to nine months of your expenses, whatever amount that you're personally comfortable with if you needed to fall back on it at some point.

The next is your guilt-free entertainment fund. We tend to put off a lot of things in life and delay gratification. That's fine if you're working towards a specific goal. But ultimately, we never know when we're going to be done here, so you should go and have fun while you can still have it. That's what this fund is for. Whatever it is that you want to do now, whether it's a vacation or weekend outing, you want to use the money that's in your entertainment fund to go and do that sooner rather than later.

The last one is your aggressive growth fund. With your emergency fund and entertainment fund squared away, the only thing left to do is invest your money. A lot of people are naive and assume they will never need to invest, that's simply not the case. The sooner you can begin saving, the better I find. If you already have an emergency fund, you're basically playing with money that you're okay to lose and that's really the best position to be in when you're investing.

If you could pay into each of these funds regularly, that would be ideal, but I haven't found that to be easy. So, I would suggest starting with your emergency fund. And once that's a built up, gradually put money into your entertainment and aggressive growth fund. I would suggest saving at least 10% off the top of every paycheck, 20% if possible. As your income goes up, you're going to be paying more taxes, so you want to be prepared for tax season and not be caught off guard or be taken by surprise.

One more thing I will say before moving into business or career finances is “percentages are your friend”. I like working with percentages a lot. For instance, after a check is deposited into my account, I will take 10% of that to pay down one credit card. I will take 10% of that to pay down another credit card. And I will immediately save 10% or 20% off the top, but that still leaves me with 60% to 70% of the lumpsum for my daily expenses.

When it comes to personal finances, percentages are your friend.Share on X

Now, let's talk about business or career finances. First of all, I suggest opening a no-fee bank account, not a business bank account, which can be costly. If possible, pay all your earnings as a musician into this no-fee bank account. You can still pay yourself out of the lumpsum, but it's important to save as much as you can, because there are many expenses associated with running a music career.

Also, you should effort to pay all your career related expenses out of this no-fee bank account. That way, you're never going into debt, and you're never overextending yourself unnecessarily. You just look at the amount that you have in your account and that's the amount you have to spend.

If you master these simple tips, I believe you'll be well on your way to establishing a strong financial foundation for your life and your career.

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Do you find yourself trying to do too many things? Do you easily lose track of time and find yourself unable to manage your to-do list?

In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, I discuss how you can simplify your routine to get more of the right things done.

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Podcast Highlights:

00:14 – We tend to make life more complicated than it needs to be

00:42 – Tips on how to get some time back to focus on your creativity

00:48 – #1: Eliminate unnecessary clutter

01:38 – #2: Be willing to make sacrifices

02:24 – #3: Map out your ideal schedule

03:11 – #4: Transition from a day job to freelance work

03:42 – #5: Become a student of productivity

Transcription:

Thanks for joining me. Today, I want to talk about how to streamline your life. Look, we tend to make life far too complicated sometimes and we get ourselves into a mess. The less you have to do, the easier it is to focus on the things you need to do.

The less you must do, the easier it is to focus on the things you need to do.Share on X

But so often we spread ourselves too thin with a ton of projects, a massive to-do list, and social obligations. I've had the privilege and honor of helping a few people find a better balance between their work and creative life. So, here are a few tips on how to gain some time back to work on your music career or business.

#1: Eliminate Unnecessary Clutter

Now, you might have garbage or stacks of paper or Knick Knacks just sitting around and they need to be sold or thrown out or done away with, but clutter isn't always just physical. It can also be emotional and mental.

We carry a lot of thoughts with us, and sometimes other people occupy our minds and we tend to dedicate too much energy and time to thinking about them and not enough time to think about ourselves and our own life.

So, if you have any half-finished projects, decide what you're going to do with them. If you're getting two hundred texts per day from your friends, decide whether that interaction is worthy of your time. If you have a friendship or relationship in your life that's not serving you, then decide whether that's something that you want to keep in your life long term. You'll feel a huge sense of relief when you clear the clutter in your life. And, your brain will start to clear too.

You'll feel a huge sense of relief when you clear the clutter in your life.Share on X

#2: Be Willing to Make Sacrifices

I remember my business mentors used to say, “If you're willing to do it, you may not have to.” Over the years, I haven't had any aversion to giving up things like TV, video games, and sometimes even sleep if it meant that it would help me move closer towards my goals.

Now, I don't think we need to be extreme when it comes to making sacrifices. But, if your bills are too high then you may need to sell your house or your car and downgrade. Although exercise is good, maybe spending twenty hours at the gym every single week isn't what you need right now to help you simplify your life. If you're working nine to five and then come home and watch Netflix for the rest of the night, you may want to cancel your Netflix subscription, even temporarily, so you can focus on the creative work that you know you should be doing.

#3: Map Out Your Schedule

I think it's idealistic to think that we could have a perfect week every single week, but we can at least map it out, set it in front of us, reference it often, and take actions that help us move in that direction.

I would suggest opening a spreadsheet and mapping everything out hour by hour exactly what it is that you're going to be doing, and what you need to do to advance your career, be healthy, live a great life.

Life gets a lot simpler when you have a routine you live by, because you don’t have to think about it anymore.

Think of Steve Jobs. He always wore the same outfit. That’s so he didn't have to dedicate unnecessary time and mental resources to thinking about what he was going to wear that day. When you have a routine, you don't have to think about what you're going to do that day. You're just going to go and do it.

#4: Transition from a Day Job to Freelance Work

This may not apply to everybody listening today, but a day job is often low paying, unfulfilling, and life sucking. These days, if you're skilled at what you do, you can get paid a lot more in a lot less time doing freelance work. Wouldn’t it be amazing if you could make more money and get some time back to focus on your creative work? I think it's important to make a living, but should the best hours of your day be dedicated to it every single day? Personally, I like the freedom of freelance and entrepreneurial work.

#5: Become a Student of Productivity

There are a ton of articles, podcast episodes, and videos out there talking about how to be more effective and productive in your life. Dig into these and learn from them. Apply what you learn. It's not just about getting more done. It's about getting the right things done in your life.

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A strong mindset is essential if you want to achieve big things in your music career. Sometimes, moving forward in your endeavors is a test of the will, and your mindset will determine how far you make it.

In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, I share several questions that will help you assess how strong your mindset is right now.

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Podcast Highlights:

00:14 – Getting your mindset right

00:45 – Having a strong mindset begins with a healthy body

01:15 – Questions to help you guide your thinking

01:22 – Long-term thinking

02:18 – Commitment to success

02:52 – Your social circle

03:36 – Where your time is going

04:14 – Managing your time

04:42 – Experimentation and iteration

05:43 – Building a strong mindset

Transcription:

Thanks for joining me. Today, I wanted to look at something that doesn’t often get talked about in the music industry, which is getting your mindset right. I believe that your mindset will determine what level you will rise to in your life and your career. That’s how important it is.

Everybody has challenges in life. As you go along your own music career, you’re going to encounter some obstacles as well. The strength of your mindset will determine your willingness and ability to push through when things are difficult. Guaranteed there will be some difficult times ahead.

One thing I would like to address before I get into the meat of this episode is just that it’s difficult to have a strong mindset when you’re exhausted emotionally and physically. You must take care of yourself first. You could say that having a strong mindset begins with taking care of your body.

Having a strong mindset begins with taking care of your body.Share on X

If you’re burnt out right now and you try to push through with willpower, you’re going to discover that everything is going to be that much harder to do. If you were well-rested and in a good mental state, you will find it much easier to do the same tasks.

Here are few questions to help you guide your thinking in terms of the strength of your mindset.

Are you thinking long term? Do you have a five-year or even ten-year goal for your career? Most of the time, in life and business and in our career endeavors, we’re only focused on the present. I don’t have a problem with that. I think we should live in the present as much as possible. But when you’re trying to do something difficult, like build a sustainable and profitable music career, you must have a long-term mindset. That goes for business too. If you don’t have goals and a plan to achieve them, you need to ask yourself why, because chances are you’re still leaving the backdoor open so you can escape if you need to.

I’m not saying that we should be so stubborn that we’re not willing to adjust our strategy as we go, because oftentimes that is a necessary part of working towards the fulfillment and achievement that we’re looking for. But if you’re not thinking ahead, and you’re simply leaving a lot to chance, and you’re failing to plan which is a plan to fail.

Here’s my next set of questions. Are you committed to your success no matter what? Are you willing to make the necessary sacrifices to get to where you want to go? This goes hand in hand with having a long-term mindset. You’re going to grow over time as an individual and as an artist. Things that may appear difficult today could become much easier a couple of years down the line. Somebody with a strong mindset is always going to be committed to their personal success because they understand that nobody else is more invested in it that they are.

Here’s the next set of questions. Are you associating with the right people? Do they lift, support, and encourage you? Or do they criticize you and put you down? Everywhere you look, the “crabs in the bucket” mentality is prevalent, just as one person attempts to rise above and get out of the bucket, another crab just pulls them right back down.

Both in my coaching and personal relationships, I’ve seen some of the effects that association can have on your life, so associating with the wrong people will drag you down and exhaust you over time. A lot of people seem to like drama and want to make something out of everything, so while this is a hard question to ask yourself, you really need to look at whether the relationships you have are serving you.

Next, are you dedicating enough time to your creative work? Is your time getting eaten up by marketing, the business aspects of your career, social events, or other time-wasting activities? Whether you’re a musician or a music entrepreneur, you must dedicate time to your creative work and not let other things take president over it.

I’m not talking about anything here that I haven’t struggled with myself. Because as an author, the main thing that I need to work on is dedicate time towards completing my next book. But life happens, and things get in the way, so it’s important to be strategic about when you plan to work on it and sit down and work on it when you’ve planned to do it.

Next, are you studying how to better manage your time? Are you putting those strategies into practice? Time management is a subject I’ve covered on the blog before. The key point here being that you should be studying time management principles, especially early on in your career. Because if you constantly find yourself whining and complaining about having enough time, the reality is we all have the same 24 hours in a day, you’re just not using your time as effectively as you could be.

Finally, are you experimenting and iterating with your creative work? Are you gradually building towards a product your fans will love? Are you trying the same things expecting different results? It’s kind of funny when it happens, and it’s always easy to identify when others are doing it. But sometimes we stubbornly insist on our way because we believe the creative work that we are doing is the greatest thing on the planet.

Five or 10 years later, we’re still doing the same thing and we don’t have any more fans than when we started because we’re not doing anything people care about. I’m not necessarily talking about selling out or drastically changing the way that you go about your creative work.

What I am saying is try putting 10 songs out there and see which ones get the greatest response. Then, make more songs like them. Your next series of 10 songs should be more like the ones that got the most response the first time around. If you keep that up, it’s only natural that you’re going to make progress in your career, and you’re going to start to make more fans along the way.

So, do you have any thoughts on how to build a strong mindset? I look forward to seeing your comments in the show notes.

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Search engine optimization isn’t everything, but it can still be an important aspect of your digital marketing as an artist or band.

In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, I share some of the best SEO tips and tricks I’ve come across.

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Podcast Highlights:

00:14 – Search engine optimization for musicians

00:20 – How people generally find bands

00:38 – SEO tips and tricks

00:49 – Building your website

02:24 – Listing your tour dates on your site

03:10 – Your branded keywords

03:47 – Links – internal, outbound, inbound

05:40 – SEO can be complicated

06:11 – Resources referenced

Transcription:

Thanks for joining me. Today I want to talk about SEO or Search Engine Optimization for musicians. Generally, people don’t find artists or bands via search engines. They first learn about you via word-of-mouth, social media, streaming sites like Spotify, YouTube, at venues and so forth, and only then do they search for you using a site like Google.

Here are some worthwhile tips and tricks I’ve come across. SEO for musicians is important despite the fact that it may not be how people find you in the first place.

My first tip is to build a website. You’ll want to refer to episode three of the podcast with Ross Barber of Electric Kiwi to learn more about the importance of having a website as a musician.

When people search for you online, the first thing they should see in the search results is your website. So, building your way towards the number one position in Google may take time, especially if you already have established social media profiles, because those can sometimes be prioritized in search results.

But blogging is a good way to boost your rank overtime. If you keep updating your website with fresh content and pay attention to the keywords you’re using in your tittles, over time Google should recognize you as the authority on the content that you create as a band or artist.

Building a sitemap for your website is always a good idea. This is a page on your website that basically offers your visitors an overview of the different pages they can find on your site. Every primary page on your website should be highlighted on the sitemap.

Make sure your website loads fast and is mobile responsive. This is another important point as far as search engine optimization is concerned. Generally, just keep your site updated. If you are regularly touring and then keeping in contact with your fans, this should be relatively straightforward.

And one last thing you can do is to hold on to your domain name. It seems Google over time trusts domain names that have been registered to the same person for many years. So, aged domains tend to be pretty good as well.

Another thing you should definitely do is list your tour dates on your website. Google seems to place an importance on specific days and times when events are being held and will sometimes prioritize them in search results as well.

Be sure to optimize the tittle of your tour page. Don’t just call it “Tour”, because that’s not necessarily what people are looking for. Call it something more descriptive, like “View Upcoming Tour Dates and Purchase Tickets”. This result more closely reflects what people are searching for, and also lets them know they can purchase tickets on your tour page.

Creating separate pages for each of your tour dates can also help with SEO, but make sure those pages contain valuable information. If you’re using one of the AudioTheme WordPress themes, they automatically create separate pages when you add a gig date.

Another important consideration is your branded keywords. Your band or artist name should be considered a branded keyword, so make sure it’s unique and not something that’s already out there online. The names of your band members, the name of your albums and songs, the lyrics to your songs, and other relevant words can all be considered branded keywords that you should emphasize on your website.

Try to see things from the perspective of people who are searching for you. They are probably interested in your tour dates and lyrics and specific songs, so creating pages around those specific branded keywords can help your SEO as well.

Now I’m going to talk a little bit about the power of links. Links are important in a number of ways. One of them is internal links. Basically, you want to link between different relevant pages and blog posts. This passes a little bit of link juice onto relevant pages on your website that have something to do with the topic that you’re discussing. It’s important to link naturally.

The next category would be outbound links, and Andrew Dubber of New Music Strategies suggests linking to other similar websites, especially bands or artist that may be similar to you. I don’t know how applicable this is today, but his theory is that this sends a signal to Google about the type of website that you have, so it could help on that level.

And then there’s inbound links, which has been a major topic in the SEO community as of late. Basically, you want to get as many links as you possibly can pointing to your website, especially from high-quality sources. I think this is probably another topic for another time, but for starters, you can have all your social media profiles point to your websites, whether it’s from Facebook, Twitter, SoundCloud or another site.

Another great thing you can do is get your music reviewed by music bloggers, since they will likely link to your site. It can be helpful to register your band with as many relevant music and social media sites as possible, including Wikipedia. This gives you a way to point more inbound links to your site.

When people search for you band in search engines, the first few pages could be dominated by relevant results. Naturally this is an effort-intensive process, so if you don’t have the resources or the manpower to be able to do it, then it’s not something that you want to put all of your time and attention and focus on.

Ultimately, SEO is kind of complicated. It would be a full-time job keeping up with all the changes. As search engines continue to update their algorithms, best practices will also change. Old spammy tactics just don’t work anymore, and the best approach is just to create quality content that your visitors will likely be looking for.

Now, there is so much more I could cover here, but you may be overwhelmed already, so I will talk more about SEO on another occasion. There are a couple of resources I referred to in creating this podcast episode. The first is an article by Moz which is Music SEO - 7 Lessons in Brand Optimization for 2015. This gets into a lot of detail and can be a very handy guide. Another is a little bit of an older eBook but still a good one. The 20 Things You Must Know About Music Online by Andrew Dubber. To learn more about SEO tools, you can check out the definitive SEO tools and software list.

That’s all from me for now. I look forward to sharing more in the next episode.

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I recently received a few general questions regarding music and the music industry.

In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, I field four questions that came through my email, and offer my own perspective on the subject matter.

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Podcast Highlights:

00:14 – Listener questions

00:31 – What makes someone a great musician?

02:03 – How can you evoke an emotional response with your singing?

03:37 – What is a music or record producer?

04:43 – What does “networking” mean?

06:04 – Send your questions in

Transcription:

Thanks for joining me. A few of you recently sent some questions through email so I thought I would take this opportunity to answer them. Feel free to send over other questions to [email protected]. It’s d-a-w-c-a-s-t dot com. I’ll be happy to answer them for you if I’m able.

The first question I had is…

What makes someone a great musician?

What makes someone a great musician is highly subjective and often depends on the person being asked. Some might say a great musician is someone who is talented, but even the definition of talent has become elusive and less clear as our attention is dominated by Top 40 music. I know a lot of people that would hear someone on the radio and go, “Wow! They are so talented!” But technically they may not be doing anything impressive. The songwriting may not be inspired in any way.

Some say a great musician is someone who’s original. Someone who can put their own spin on a topic or lyrical idea. Or someone who’s musical ideas are outside the box. Whether it’s a great songwriter like Elvis Costello, or somebody who is always a little bit ahead of the times like David Bowie, some people would point at these types of musicians as being great.

And still, some might say a great musician is someone who’s gained a lot of experience through the years. Someone who’s played on a lot of tours and recorded a lot of albums. Think of Bruce Springsteen for example.

As I was mentioning earlier, a lot of people would say that a great musician is just someone who they enjoy listening to, whether it’s Justin Bieber or Taylor Swift.

Now, ultimately, it’s hard to say what a great musician is. I think I already pointed out the fact that it’s pretty subjective, but I think a few things are clear. One, you must be making and publishing music to be great. Two, you must continually work on your music and strive to improve. Three, you must play to your strengths and identify what’s unique about you and look for ways to emphasize that through your music.

I was also asked:

How can you evoke an emotional response with your singing?

I would suggest starting by developing your vocal ability. You don’t need to be the best vocalist in the world to evoke emotion, but you can’t be a slouch either. So, if you aren’t much of a singer yet, you should probably start there.

Working with a vocal coach could help you find your voice faster and improve as a singer. Then, you’ll either need to write or pick a song that naturally moves people. Writing is obviously the harder alternative here. The song itself should be about a feeling or an experience that many people can easily relate to whether it’s love, heartache, new life, tragedy or something else.

The subject matter is really important, because people will only latch onto what they can relate to. This isn’t to suggest that people can’t find beauty in a song that doesn’t make total sense to them. But usually it’s something about the melody, or the hook, or the chord progression that brings out an emotional response in that situation.

When you go to sing the song, it needs to come from your heart. The better you can relate to the emotion of the song, the better able you will be to deliver it with feeling. That’s really the trick here. You need to deliver with feeling.

If you want to evoke emotion with your singing, deliver the song with feeling.Share on X

Now, it’s so easy to say those three words, but it isn’t necessarily easy to do. This means the mechanics of performing the song should be second nature already. What you want to be able to do is tap into the deepfelt emotion of the song and bring that out for your audience.

So, first you just need to be able to sing the song without even thinking about it. Then it becomes much easier for you to think about other things, such as the emotion that you’re looking to put into it.

The third question is:

What is a music producer?

A music producer or record producer is someone that carries quite a bit of responsibility in the studio and recording process, but their exact job description can vary from project to project. So, even though I’m going to be talking about some of the duties, it doesn’t mean that they are always doing all of these things every single time.

At times, producers help come up with musical ideas and will even co-write if called upon. Producers will also help the artist improve their songs. Producers sometimes have a hand in the musical direction of the project including the song selection process. Producers will sometimes find session musicians for the album and will also work hard to bring the best out of the musicians performing on the album. A producer may supervise the entire recording project starting in pre-production all the way to the mastering. This is often what comes to mind when I think of a producer. They are helping to shape and mold the sound of the album. A producer may also provide funding for the project. These are some of the responsibilities of a music producer, but depending on the project, more or less will be required of them.

I also had someone ask…

What does networking mean?

When I talk about networking, usually I am referring to building worthwhile strategic relationships to advance your music career. In other words, meeting people. I believe networking is difficult when you’re trying to get something from someone, but when you focus on the other person and their needs, it tends to work a lot better.

Networking means to build worthwhile strategic relationships with people.Share on X

Networking can be done just about anywhere. If you’re asking yourself where to find people, all you need to do is look outside your window. You can also attend networking events, trade shows, industry conferences, meetups, open mics, other people’s performances, and a variety of other places to meet people.

I understand that putting yourself out there can be difficult. You need to be patient with yourself, set small goals and gradually get better.

Even I can be shy at times. There was a time when literally all I did was go up to one person and say “Hi” to them every single day. Eventually, that developed into multi-sentence conversations and I even got to the point where I talked to more than five people a day, and even had longer conversations with them.

As you’re out and about, you’re going to meet a lot of different types of people, and some of them will benefit you and will help you and become friends, and some will not. But never underestimate anyone, because they may become your next best friend, client, collaborator, investor, or any number of other things down the line. You simply just don’t know.

I hope you found this valuable. If you have any other questions, feel free to send them my way.

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Have you ever asked yourself if there might be a better way to engage your fans? Do you believe that if you could create a better experience for them, that your music career would advance further and faster? Are you looking for practical ways to create a stronger connection with your fans?

In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, Eddie Meehan, CEO of Wonderful Union shares how fan engagement benefits artists of all sizes.

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Podcast Highlights:

00:14 – Engaging your fans

00:32 – Today’s guest, Eddie Meehan

00:44 – What is Wonderful Union?

01:24 – Generating more income from fan engagement

03:11 – Databases in the music industry

05:16 – Fingers in the pie

06:56 – The importance of fan engagement

16:50 – The pressures of working with big clients

20:07 – What is bootstrapping?

25:55 – Does location matter as a music entrepreneur?

27:12 – What is direct to consumer merchandising?

29:12 – What lessons have you learned as a music entrepreneur?

34:52 – How important is social media?

39:32 – What marketing channels are most important for musicians?

42:04 – What apps or tools are essential to your business?

46:56 – Is there anything else I should have asked?

Transcription:

David Andrew Wiebe: Here to talk about Wonderful Union, I’m joined by president and co-founder, Eddie Meehan. How are you today Eddie?

Eddie Meehan: I’m doing well. How are you doing?

David: I’m great. Thanks.

Eddie: Thanks for taking the time.

David: Oh, it’s my pleasure. Let’s begin by talking about what Wonderful Union is. It sounds like you are doing a lot around fan engagement, ticketing, and VIP experiences.

Eddie: Yeah, exactly. The way that I like to put it is it all starts with - for us, the plan of engagement is the website. It's where people are going, whether it’s on their mobile device or whatever. We focus on building and managing websites, fan clubs. When you have your own website and fan club you have to sell tickets, and you have VIPs. If you have a fan club, you have merchandise. It all kind of works together in this big circle, and that’s kind of what we do.

David: Right. And overall, I think that would help a lot of artists generate more income from their art, right?

Eddie: Yeah, 100%. Especially when you have an engaged fan base. You are able to focus on driving all the traffic into one centralized place. A lot of times, a lot of artists will give those right away to a record label or sometimes even their friend’s cousin who does websites in their basement.

We come in and we maintain and build. We have a platform that we built from the ground up that allows for scalability, large bursts of traffic, large bursts of transactions and commerce. And so, as an artist you-- The climate is changing for album sales and whatnot. Being able to have that website as your centerpiece of your business because people, let’s face it, they go on Twitter and they engage and they communicate. It’s a short-lived conversation. Facebook is a little bit longer, but there’s a lot of trolling. Maybe you like some artists who you don’t want to talk about in your system.

The official website is that place where fans can go to obsess. They can build a troll-free environment, if you will. For the artist, it allows you to have a CRM. It allows you to have a database. It allows you to have all of your user information in one centralized spot and mailing for about a t-shirt or ticket or VIP package or for just a casual user who comes on to the website to hang out and discuss with other fans to talk. A one place and one platform for us that we’ve developed.

David: You raise an interesting point, because it’s so easy to give away a portion of your income or revenue to companies these days without even knowing necessarily what you’re agreeing to. That is a good thing for artists to be aware of. I think a lot of people may not necessarily be familiar with CRM. That’s a customer relationship management tool. You could also look at it, I guess as your email database, if that helps. Having that database, I think is like really becoming key in the music industry these days. What do you think?

Eddie: Oh, 100%. Especially-- And even if you take it to the next level. You have your mailing list database, all of the people who you know their zip code, you know the state they live. But if you're able to then go, “Oh. Well, on our last tour, these people bought on average $70 worth of product.” Being able to target them in different levels. Being able to know who your first tier, your second tier, your third-tier fans are and able to market to them creatively and specifically knowing their past purchase history and their engagement too, because you're tracking everything. You're tracking every click. You're tracking every conversion. You're watching everything they do and rewarding them for that.

Maybe you're able to offer somebody who bought a VIP package to the last tour - let them have the opportunity to get it before it goes on to... You know it's like a pre-presale before it goes on to the general public. When I say general public, it could be like past buyers first, and then fan club second, and then the credit card people third, and so on and so forth. Record whatever local promoter pre-sale. Things like that you're able to reward fans for being active and knowing that information.

Reward your fans for being active.Share on X

It blows my mind that so many artists just don't… I don't know. They don’t even think about that. They don't even focus on it. They don't own that information. No. Maybe the record label has the database or it's like an old manager, or again it's that dude who's in the basement. It blows my mind.

David: Yeah, because what you described is like incredibly powerful. Maybe even just knowing who your best customers are could change the way you do your releases and help you generate more profit upfront. So, it is absolutely crazy the things that artists hand over. And it does require a little more conscious effort to manage and think about the business side. It's not maybe thrilling to a lot of artists, but it's just becoming so important when you have so many fingers in the pie.

Eddie: Yeah, I agree 100%. More artists are starting to think about it. And you know as the changing in regard to some extent, the managers of the 1980s and 90s are – now, a lot of new artists are coming up, and a lot of people who think tech. They think it's been long enough.

When I started in the business, Wonderful Union has been around - formerly known as Ground Control - We're going on our 11th year now, but I've been doing this way before that. Back in the days of the Blackberries and you know before the Sidekicks, and so like data is always been something that I've always thought as extremely important. Especially, I mean the same way you go to a website now and you go to Amazon and you look at something weird, it's going to haunt you on every other website you go to for the next two weeks.

David: It’s true.

Eddie: Like it’s just the way it is and that's why you need to think of your fan base. You need to be where they are and give them what they want.

David: Yeah. We might get sick of it at some point, but I'm sure the conversations around data are just going to keep increasing in the times to come.

Eddie: Yeah. I’m already a little sick of it but it's a definite for me.

David: Me too. Yeah. How important is fan engagement these days? What kinds of things can we do today to create memorable fan experiences versus like 10 or 20 years ago?

Eddie: It's so funny. Like 20 years ago you would never think of-- fan engagement would be maybe your local radio station would give away a meet-and-greet or something. Because 20 years ago is about your would tour because you wanted to promote the record to sell more records. Now, the script is fully flipped, you do a record just to go tour.

Back in the day, you would have the radio stations and you would have the record labels to the radio stations or maybe magazines depending on the case, doing giveaways and contests or whatnot. Now, over the last - especially the last 10 years turning it into not... And it's more than just me increasing. There’s the type of things that we do that can range from anywhere your traditional “Oh, here's the photo of meet and greet with the band before the soundcheck" and all that kind of stuff before the concert to, you know vacation packages where we work with partners to get entire Carnival Cruise ship and fill it up with fans and throw events on it all weekend. That's a mega fan experience. You’ve got 3,000 people on a boat sailing around the Caribbean or wherever you happen to be. That's definitely a fan experience.

Two other things where we have artists where we've done, you know, hologram karaoke on site at concerts, or we've done "get your hair cut just like the artist by their own barber". You know, those type of packages. People, from the moment they purchase that ticket on wherever they purchase their ticket, to whether it's a big--. A lot of the stuff I'm talking about is obviously big big artists, but even young and up and coming artists, it's definitely being able to create things where you from the moment the fan purchases a ticket or thinks about going to the show, you want to be in their mind, you know, the VIP packages and those type of ticket bundles, etc. That's a good 5% of the market, I would say, out of 100%.

And so, it's a real small niche, but you want to think about them from the moment they're getting in their car and going the show from the time they walk in the building from the seat location to the experience they have to - maybe it's backstage. It's creating at the basic, basic level. Creating an evening, creating an experience, creating a moment that will live with them forever and they'll want to

No matter how well you plan, things can fall through the cracks. Sometimes, they will go horribly askew. It happens to everyone.

So, it’s not about trying to dodge difficult situations. It’s about how you respond to them.

In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, you’ll learn about the importance of going with the flow.

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Podcast Highlights:

00:14 – Hi, I’m David Andrew Wiebe

00:20 – Going with the flow

00:38 – You can’t control the results

00:57 – How to be flexible when performing with other bands

Transcription:

Hi! I’m David Andrew Wiebe with The Music Entrepreneur. Today, I’m sitting in The Brass Monkey in Calgary. The quick message that I want to share with you today is to go with the flow. It’s inevitable that things are going to come up in a music career. The unexpected may occur and you are going to have to deal with the situation and deal with it as necessary.

For example, tonight I actually have no idea how many people are going to show up. I did a lot of promotion. I put up some stuff on YouTube. I even bought some Facebook Ads. It’s all over social media, but the results aren’t up to me. That’s where going with the flow can really make a big difference in your attitude.

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Same thing with if you’re playing with multiple bands on the same night. Sometimes you may be asked to cut your set down to shorter amount of time. If you go with the flow, you’ll be remembered as somebody that is flexible and able to cope and deal with the situation as necessary. But if you whine about it and complain about it, you may not be invited back.

So, that’s the quick message that I wanted to share with you today. Go with the flow.

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Is it worth reading books? How much time should you put into it? How can it assist with your personal growth?

In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, I share why I choose to invest in my personal development.

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Podcast Highlights:

00:14 – Disclaimer

00:56 – Reading books

01:22 – Reading is on a lot of people’s minds

01:40 – How many books I’ve read in the last couple of years

02:00 – Book reading is an activity I prioritize

02:08 – Why I keep reading

03:06 – Reading Tools of Titans

03:26 – What is your motivation?

04:11 – Leave a comment

Transcription:

What you are about to hear is the audio from a video I put together back at the end of February. You may hear me make mention of the New Year, but as I record this episode, it’s already the end of August. The video has obviously been sitting on my hard drive for a bit, and I just didn’t get around to editing it and publishing it until now.

I also made a bit of a mistake. I said the book Tools of Titans is by Tim Francis. It’s not. The book was authored by Tim Ferriss. Tim Francis is a cool guy too. I’ve had the chance to talk to him in the past, but he didn’t write Tools of Titans.

So, there’s my disclaimer for this episode, and without further ado, here are some thoughts on why we should invest in our personal growth by reading books.

Thanks for joining me. Today I wanted to talk a little bit about books. This is not a new topic to the Music Entrepreneur community by any stretch of the imagination. I’ve already done some fairly in-depth posts and podcast episodes on a topic of books. I even have a ton of book recommendations on the website.

So, there may not be a ton of new insights here, but I still wanted to take some time to talk about it, because I think it’s on a lot of people’s minds right now. That could be because we’re still fresh out of the New Year and we’re just about headed into March here as I record this. But it’s something probably many people are thinking about in terms of New Year’s resolutions, and goals, and how many books they are reading.

I’ve succeeded in reading 52 books both in 2015 as well as in 2016. In both cases, a good chunk of those were books I hadn’t read yet, but there were some books that I had read before and took a second look or perhaps even a third look through those books.

So, for me, as you can probably imagine, book reading is a very important part of my studies and my life.

Now, because I’ve accumulated so much knowledge and information, some of it is just a regurgitation of things I’ve already read. So, I’m not always finding new insights, new ideas, new concepts in the books that I’m reading anymore, which has caused me to think about “why am I reading?”

Really it comes back to the fact that I want to keep growing myself. So that’s a huge part of it. But I also am looking for insights and ideas and things that I can share with you. Even just seemingly small things, because all it takes sometimes is little tweaks in our lives to make it to the next stage or the next level of growth that we’re looking for.

Sometimes all it takes is a little tweak to change your life.Share on X

So, if I can find those ideas, I can find those concepts or even methods, whether it’s a marketing method or a method to apply to your life and fitness and health and things like that, I think there’s tremendous value on those things.

I’m reading a book [called] Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss right now. That book is full of those kinds of ideas and thoughts that could be of tremendous value. I’m getting some value from it, and hope to share some of that with you in the future. But that is why I choose to read 52 books per year.

I want you to think about “the why” as well, because it’s not just about accumulating knowledge after a certain point. My friend Maveen Kaura says he’s done with personal development books. He’s read a ton of them. And he probably doesn’t need that inspiration or motivation anymore. He can motivate himself.

You’re going to come to that point too if you’re reading a ton of books. Because you’ve probably seen so many different things and read so many different things, at some point it becomes a bit of a repetition of all concepts and ideas you’ve already heard about and already studied.

So, again, reconnect with your why. Why are you going to choose to read?

I look forward to seeing your comments. Leave them below. I’ll be connecting with you later.

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If you want to achieve anything of significance, you must work on it consistently.

But how is consistency achieved? How can you discipline yourself to work on your most important tasks daily?

In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, I share the importance of routine and how to develop one that helps you move quicker towards your goals.

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Podcast Highlights:

00:14 – Developing an effective routine and how to achieve consistency

00:53 – I don’t have the perfect routine but I’m working on it

01:26 – Your routine should change based on your goals

01:43 – Steps you can take towards building your personal routine

01:56 – #1: Determine what your goals are

02:17 – #2: Understand what your goals will require of you

02:53 – #3: Plan your ideal week

03:38 – #4: Stick to your plan

04:11 – Routine will help you build consistency, momentum, and traction

Transcription:

Thanks for joining me. Today I wanted to talk about developing an effective routine. Now, you may have heard me talk about consistency quite a bit on the podcast, as well as in my book, The New Music Industry. I do believe consistency is important, but you may be left with this question: “How do I achieve consistency?”

Well, it is achieved through routine. Now, routine is something that sounds relatively commonplace but it actually requires quite a bit of self-discipline to execute. Sticking to a routine allows you to find your groove within it, and to achieve more because you’ll be doing tasks daily instead of whenever you feel like it or whenever you have the free time to do them.

I admit that I don’t have the perfect routine right now for reasons I’ve already shared with you in the last few podcast episodes, but it’s still something I like to use as a tool.

Earlier this year, I had a very regular routine of going to bed at 1:00 AM and waking up at 9:00 AM. This is something that worked well for me with all the assignments that I had. When summer came along, this became unsustainable, because there’s a major difference between the daylight we get here in Canada between summer and winter.

So, in a way I’m kind of finding a new routine based on what I’m trying to accomplish in the next few months. I think this is an important point for you to understand. Your routine should change based on your goals and what’s required of you. You shouldn’t just stick to a routine that you’ve already established, unless it’s getting you to where you want to go right now. Ensure that your routine supports you. Don’t become a slave to the routine.

Here are few concrete steps you can take towards building your personal routine, because I can’t tell you what’s going to be most effective for you. You must determine that based on what you’re trying to accomplish.

Number one. Determine what your goals are if you aren’t clear on them already. You can certainly skip this step if you know what your goals are for the next year.

But without knowing what you’re aiming for, you can’t develop an effective routine around it. If you don’t have goals, it’s like starting a journey without a destination in mind. Yes, if you keep going, you’ll end up somewhere, but it may not be where you want to end up.

Without knowing what you’re aiming for, you can’t develop a routine around it.Share on X

Number two. Take the time to understand what these goals will require of you. What will it take to achieve these goals? What will you need in terms of connections, resources, time, and so on?

Time is obviously the most important consideration here as it pertains to creating your routine. I find setting goals is a bit of an art form and rarely if ever can we set them perfectly, because we don’t know how much time or effort it’s going to take to reach those goals.

So, the better you understand what it’s going to take to achieve your goals, and the better you understand yourself, the better equipped you will be to set a realistic schedule for yourself.

Number three is to plan your ideal week. This is an idea I got from Michael Hyatt’s blog. I think it’s a really great exercise to go through. You can use a piece of paper or a spreadsheet, whatever suits you best. The idea is to turn your vision of a perfect week into a workable schedule, even if you can’t entirely live by it right now.

You want to take some time to map everything out hour by hour, whether it’s lunchtime, workouts you’re going to be doing, shows you’re going to be playing, marketing duties you’re going to be doing… You want to put it all into your weekly schedule.

I would suggest leaving some margin in your schedule, because ultimately you just never know what’s going to come up and you may want to prioritize different people or different activities based on where things are going.

Number four. This is the most critical piece of the whole thing. Once you’ve made your plan, stick to your plan. As you began living by your plan, you’ll likely discover certain areas that need adjusting and you can always alter your schedule as you begin to see those omissions and problems with it.

But your routine and plan is of little consequence unless you persist and keep going with it. It’s unlikely that you will execute perfectly, and that’s not the point. The point is to have a plan and to follow it and to tweak it as necessary.

Routine will help you build consistency. Consistency will help you build momentum. Momentum will help you build traction in your career.

Routine will build consistency, which will build momentum, which will build traction.Share on X

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People often talk about setting boundaries.

And while boundaries can be important in certain situations, they don’t always work. Sometimes others end up violating them, and sometimes we put ourselves in situations where they have the chance to be crossed, intentional or not.

So, we need to ask ourselves: Are boundaries important? Do they exist? What situations should they apply to, and in what situations do they do more harm than good?

In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, I share some thoughts on boundaries based on my own life experiences.

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Podcast Highlights:

00:14 – Why this podcast episode will be a bit different

00:48 – How I’ve been spending my time this past week

02:27 – How important are boundaries?

02:57 – Boundaries and client relationships

06:36 – How boundaries apply to musicians

07:13 – Setting boundaries with difficult people

08:48 – Setting boundaries with people you love hanging out with

11:35 – Life happens whether you want it to or not

12:38 – Final thoughts

Transcription:

Hey, thanks for joining me. This is going to be a little bit of a different podcast. I’m not at home, so first of all, I am not recording in front of a broadcast quality microphone. Second of all, it’s going to be a little bit of a different topic that I might not normally choose to cover on the show, even though you’ve probably noticed, I cover everything from like personal development and finances all the way over to various music marketing tactics and methods and so forth.

Today, I wanted to cover this issue of boundaries. Now, first of all I just wanted to let you know I am on the road right now. I am headed over to Chase, BC where I am staying in British Columbia. It’s a beautiful place. I just came out here to spend some time to recharge, and recover, reflect, think things over.

I haven’t really taken much time for myself in the last six years or so. I do believe I had a little bit of work vacation back in 2011 followed by a fairly brief true vacation where I took a little bit of time to rest and enjoy myself in Canmore and Red Deer.

I was going to be in Canmore again this year. Unfortunately, that didn’t work out because everything was booked up. That’s just following a theme with things that have happened this summer because I also got away from the long weakened with a friend. We headed out to Cranbrook. Now, we may have chosen to stay in Radium instead but the issue was that everything was booked up.

Anyway, that’s just a little bit about some of the adventures I’ve been on this month specifically. If you’ve been following my updates and everything else, you already know that I’ve done quite a bit of this this summer.

It’s just really important for me to do this, to take some time to recharge because not everything has gone according to plan, which is somewhat normal in life, and we have to roll with the punches a lot of the time.

So, getting back to this topic of boundaries, I think first of all we have to consider how important they are. To be perfectly honest, I don’t believe they apply to every single situation. Now, a lot of people talk about boundaries and setting boundaries. I think there are certain situations where they totally apply, but there are also other situations where they sort of get in the way and don’t serve you. That’s what I want to get in to.

I think boundaries are specifically important when it comes to client relationships. Now, as a musician you may not have clients, but as an entrepreneur you may. But in my situation, I still have other work outside of The Music Entrepreneur HQ, so I do serve clients in different capacities, whether it’s ghost blog writing or developing websites.

In some situations, I’ve either had to say “Look, I’m going to be a day late on this. I’m still finishing it. It’s still going to be important for me to do that. I’m going to get around to it right away. I hope you’re okay with me taking a little bit of extra time to put this together for you.” That hasn’t ever gone badly for me. Generally, if you’re a day late, people don’t care that much.

I am a person of integrity and I believe in getting things done on time if not before. But some situations have just led to a point where either I was not able to complete the work on time or the email somehow got missed.

Or, I just don’t really feel like it. Honestly, I haven’t felt a whole lot like just sitting on a desk in a basement. It actually doesn’t seem to matter whether it’s in a basement or in a hotel room. I haven’t had a whole lot of desire to just sit out at a desk and plug away at things. I think it’s been important for me to find that motivation, but also take some time away from doing that.

I’ve also had to set some boundaries with other clients. Those have been a little more [of a] difficult situation. Not like the ones I just mentioned where there is a day or two of a delay, but sort of letting them know like, “Hey, I am doing the best I can. I just don’t seem to have the focus and energy I need to do this right now. Plus, like I just told you I am away right now. I actually plan to be away for a full week even though it is technically a work vacation. I’m getting some work done, just not necessarily a lot.” I had to say “I’m sorry. I will have an update for you this week, but I’m not going to be able to get to your project right away or necessarily be able to finish all of it.”

Fortunately, people have been understanding. In some cases, they’ve come back and said, “I have a timeline in mind. I guess I should’ve communicated that.” I mean, normally it doesn’t come to that point with me. Normally, I finish things way ahead of schedule before anybody even asks “Hey, is it done yet?” So, it’s been a little bit challenging for me to let go and sort of let things sort themselves out. But I don’t think I’ve lost any business as a result. I’ve just had to sort of bite the bullet and say, “I’m sorry, it’s going to take a little bit longer for me to do it. Your project is important to me. I haven’t forgotten you, but please just be patient with me.” That has worked out okay.

Obviously, I don’t want to wreck those relationships, because clients are important to me and the work that I do is important to me. But I still had to set some boundaries that way. It’s much easier for you to be in the moment or like if you’re going to get away like I am right now, you don’t really want to be contacted constantly about the work that you have to do, so setting those boundaries can be really important in those situations.

As a musician, it might just be some of the gigs that you’re playing at bars, and pubs, and agreements that you have with the venues. Making sure that you’re doing what they require you to do and they follow through on their commitments to you.

It’s important to have those expectations laid out whenever you are signing a contract or organizing some kind of show. Having a contract has become even more important these days I find because there are so many venue owners out there that just don’t get it and don’t follow through on their agreements.

Okay. So, there is a couple of extremes with boundaries that I’ve noticed. I used to have the “roommate from hell”. I absolutely hated living with him. It was really one of the worst experiences I’ve had with roommates. I’ve had magnificent and wonderful roommates aside from this one dude who shall go unnamed.

But I had to set some boundaries in terms of choosing not to communicate with him anymore, not speaking with him. It’s not like I don’t forgive. I forgive people, but I don’t forget what they’ve done either. Depending on the severity of that and the trouble it caused me or the pain it caused me, I don’t necessarily have to let those people back into my life. I mean who am I, right? Why would I want to torture myself with the same problem, the same issues over and over again?

And we do this to ourselves. It’s a form of insanity. It’s a form of not feeling like we deserve better. We just keep putting ourselves in situations to be hurt by others because we can’t see ourselves deserving better than that. I think that’s a situation where you absolutely need some kind of boundary. This kind of stuff, believe me, will come up. If it hasn’t come up in your life yet, at some point it will. You just got to say “no” and start to move away from those people.

Okay. On the other opposite extreme, we have people that we absolutely love being around. I’ve heard Steven Paige talk about the fact that – I can’t remember the other singer’s name from Barenaked Ladies right now [Ed Robertson], but he absolutely loved hanging around with him. He simply could not get enough of that.

And so, we run into that in life. It could be a significant other. It could be someone with whom we’re infatuated, or somebody that we like or it might not be… It actually might just be a friend or someone who is a best friend.

You have to ask yourself how realistic it is to have boundaries in that situation. This is going to sound really odd, but I’ve found boundaries don’t really work because your desire to hang out with them isn’t going to diminish just because you say, “Oh well, I don’t think it’s right for us to spend this much time together.” It’s not going to work. You’re just going to find yourself back in the same situation wanting to hang out with them.

It could almost become torturous at some point. You realize you might kind of be addicted to this person and that can be problematic in the sense of… if that turns into some kind of codependency, then you’re both getting something from each other, and that can become very unhealthy.

That’s something to be aware of, but if you find that you’re not codependent but you’re nevertheless addicted to this person and you want to be around them and want to hang out with them all the time,...