If I was an unsigned/indie artist and I had £2,000 to spend on my career, what would I spend it on?

According to Abba, money is a thing of hilarity if you are lucky enough to have plenty of it in the first place, but as the majority of artists I know are yet to have written enough über hits to fill a musical and then some on top; it appears to be more of a thing of worry then joviality.

Here at Sentric Music we’ve distributed a lot of money to a lot of artists and quite often when I inform an artist of the amount coming to them I usually add the question “So what plans have you got for this cash?” within the email as I’m genuinely intrigued to know where it’s going to be spent.

So I thought this week I’d pick a  figure (£2,000) and propose some ways in which it could be spent to help you out.

A few justifications before I begin.

Firstly; why £2,000? There are a good few of our artists who have received more than £2,000 from us since joining Sentric Music so I don’t believe it’s an unattainable figure to achieve. Also, I’ve mentioned several times before that if you’re seriously wanting to make a career from your music then you have to realise it’s an investment. If there are four of you then £500 each isn’t too big of an ask really is it? If you’re a singer songwriter then just go put £15 on red 16 on the Roulette table at your nearest casino and you’ll be fine.

Secondly; every artist’s situation is unique. Hopefully at least one of the areas mentioned within this post may make you consider a potential avenue for your cash.

Thirdly; money is highly more effective when used within conjunction with a strategy (a point that @Mr_Trick feels very strongly about). It’s all very well having a couple of grand in your pocket, but if you randomly piss it up a proverbial wall without a plan to accompany it then it’ll be far less useful then if you did. Read here for advice on how to apply basic business theory to your music.

Ok then, let us begin (I asked a few friends their thoughts as well).

Equipment - Who do you want to sound like? Muse wouldn’t sound like Muse if they didn’t have the futuristic gear they do and The White Stripes wouldn’t sound like they do if they didn’t have all the vintage gear behind them; both of which cost a lot of cash. If you want to sound like The Wombats however you’d probably end up with £1,750 spare after kitting yourselves out.
Never rush a purchase; do your research online firstly. Do you really need a new guitar? Or would an effects pedal give you the sound you’re looking for at a fraction of the price? Once you’ve narrowed down your search then go and annoy the staff at various music shops to the point of insanity by trying out every alternative and most importantly; don’t be intimidated by that one guy that every guitar shop has who is in his mid thirties and is insanely good at ‘masturbating the fret board’ and who makes your ropey rendition of the solo from Night Train by Guns ‘N’ Roses sound as awful as it truly is. They may be able to compete with the guys on the G3 tour, but they’ve never set foot on a stage in their life so you win. Fact.

Recording – I like to think it’s pretty much essential to have at least 3 tracks recorded to a high level of quality good enough to be played on the radio if the opportunity occurs. These tracks can be then used for a lot of things; giving them away for email addresses for your mailing list, content for websites/MySpace etc, you could put them up for sale on iTunes if need be (although I don’t think it’s worth releasing anything digitally until you’ve got a decent fanbase going). A friend of mine who is an A&R for a major label suggests “Find a really local engineer/producer and spend a little bit of money working on a couple of tunes. If they’re on the same page as you and you’re happy with the sound and direction they’re taking you in, then spend some more money and do some more tracks. If not, find someone else“. A wise point there; don’t commit to spending too much money until you’re happy with the engineer/producer.

Pressing – You could get a hell of a lot of CD’s pressed for various reasons; selling, sending out, frisbees, mirrors for guinea pigs etc, or you could get a few vinyl pressed to sell to your hardcore fanbase. If you are going to get some vinyl pressed then don’t go crazy with the amount, get enough pressed to satisfy the demand then when they sell out you can tell everyone on your website that ‘YOU’VE SOLD OUT!!!’ and therefore must be really good so when the next single gets pressed other fans who missed out may be more eager to click and order therefore increasing your sales. It’s not technically lying per se; it’s just not telling everyone how many you had to sell to actually sell out.

PR – As Amy Woodhouse of Creative Cultures rightly says: “If you are creating a buzz and you’ve got a small tour lined up and/or are recording of a few songs, investing in some PR can help to alert the industry to a new band on the scene with potential. Don’t go mad with this, you aren’t Pete Doherty just yet, but a few well placed calls and emails may help to secure you some column space both online and offline – and the power of the media shouldn’t be underestimated. There are a lot of small music PR companies who can help you with this without breaking the bank.” It’s very hard to get decent media exposure unless you have contacts within the media outlets themselves so a good PR person can be worth their weight in gold, but they can also charge their weight in gold as well. Before committing to any PR work always be sure to ask what campaigns the company has worked on in the past and do a bit of research into how well it worked for the other clients. A good PR company should have stats to back up any campaigns they have so be sure to be filled in with any analytics available to you: data is valuable. Read here for more info on analytics and how you can apply them yourself for free.

Transport – We all need to get around now don’t we? You can get a second hand white van for under a grand these days which allows the rest of your budget to be swallowed by the other costs that come with owning a vehicle. Gigging outside of your local city is pretty much essential but don’t aim too far; try and conquer an area bigger than your city but less than ‘the north’ or ‘the south’ I.E. the north-west or the midlands etc.

Tour – If you’re already lucky enough to have transport sorted you could organise a small tour of the UK, or if you’re feeling adventurous and are incredibly frugal; the EU. Sentric artist ‘Baddies‘ have a bucketload of European festivals lined up due to some clever and strategic gigging in Holland. With help from Music Glue they played a few dates in Holland a couple of months before the music industry conference Eurosonic, at these gigs they collected email addresses and distributed free MP3’s and whatnot in order to create a fanbase. Then when they returned for the Eurosonic conference they invited loads of booking agents to their gig who then witnessed loads of Dutch people dancing like loons and singing along to a band who don’t even use the same currency as them. Booking agents: Impressed. Baddies: summer of European fun now lined up.

Radio Plugger – Radio plugging is a tricky art; they can cost you a lot of money with absolutely no guarantee of return, but then when they do get it right it could end up being the best money you’ve ever spent. When you start receiving high profile airplay, not only do you gain the exposure to the listenership, you also earn performance royalties which you could put against the initial cost of the plugger. Be aware though; radio plugging is extremely competitive and you’re up against the big boys within the industry.

Lessons – Have you got the technical guitar skills of John Smith or Ian Britt? Do you have an audience silencing voice like Andrew Metcalfe or Liam Frost? Can you drum to the ability of Suren De Saram? If not, maybe you need to tone your talent somewhat. Being outstanding at what you do will always get you attention, if you’ve ever seen John Smith play winter live then you’ll know what I mean (and if you haven’t then watch this video and prepare to be agog)

Branding – I’ve used branding as an umbrella term here as it could include the services of a graphic designer, a photographer, a stylist, some new clothes, a drum skin etc. Branding yourself is nothing new and is something I’m quite the advocate of, even if it’s as simple as something as a colour, a shape, a ‘look’ etc. Get a logo, get some good pictures (where YOU’RE NOT stood leaning against a brick wall, Out From Animals and Everything Everything had some great photo’s, check them out), make sure your website/MySpace/Twitter etc is all aesthetically similar to help build and maintain the brand within your fanbases conscious.

Event – Why not throw a massive party? You could dress up an industry showcase as a single launch or just a ‘normal’ gig if you wanted to be a bit sneaky about it. Once you’ve convinced some important industry people to come down to your gig bribe your fans, friends and family with free booze so they all go mental when you come on stage making you seem like the next Arctic Monkeys to the sober, and a tad confused, industry types at the back.

Web Presence – A domain name won’t cost you more than twenty quid, but if you want a high, high, high quality website then expect to pay a lot of cash. But you don’t need a high, high, high quality website. So don’t bother.

Music – Another tip from the A&R gentlemen from before that initially failed to cross my mind: “If I was in a band I’d probably spend a bit of money on buying music and getting as many influences and ideas as possible, although no with Spotify this is an expense saved.” If you’re in a group then make each member compile a mix CD (or Spotify playlist) of their favourite music, swap them and swot up on each other’s influences and remember, if the bass player loves Journey then you’re inclusion of that rare Radiohead B-side just might be what he needs to help him gel with the rest of you.

Video – When most people see a professional looking video they expect that the artist in question has some financial backing behind them (more so than a couple of grand) so this is a good way to get people to grab people’s attention. ‘New Franchise‘ by Grammatics and ‘Dorothy Millette‘ by Screaming Mimi are two very good examples of music videos that didn’t cost too much to make but look brilliant. Caroline Bottomly from Radar Music Videos suggested that she’d spend the money on a tour whilst filming everything and then commissioning a music video from the subsequent footage. She went into so much depth that I’ll link to her full response at the end of the blog.

Live (as in life) – Gerd Leonhard argued “I’d pay myself to start blogging, sharing photos on flickr, setting up my video channels on Youtube, launch a Twitter channel, do Facebook etc — build my audience.  Getting engaged is what costs time which is £££ these days!” Time is indeed money so if you could justify leaving your job/girlfriend/boyfriend/children behind and use the money raised to live off whilst you spend 24/7 Tweeting things like “follow my band… LOLZ!” then go for it. Jokes aside though, I know artists who have done just this and used their savings to spend a good few months focusing on their music and nothing else and in the circumstances I know of it has usually paid off in some form or another. You can set yourself targets; “Within two months I want to have achieved, X amount of followers on Twitter, have 3 new songs recorded, have made 5 new contacts within the radio industry, have one of my tracks played at least once on BBC 6Music” etc.

A Sim Card – This obviously won’t cost you much, if anything at all, but in the responses I received from my blogosphere friends Tom Robinson (6Music DJ and new music advocate) noted “I would also buy a cheap PAYG mobile phone & sim card to receive calls for for my “manager”. Either you or a friend can field these; many business people prefer not to deal with the artist direct.” – An interesting musing there to take on board.

Holiday – or you can sod it all off and go on your jollies.

Have a gander here for suggestions from Andrew Dubber (New Music Strategies), Tom Robinson (6Music DJ), Amy Woodhouse (Creative Cultures), the A&R gentleman, Caroline Bottomley (Radar Music Videos) and Gerd Leonhard (Media Futurist). – Click on names for Twitter links.

What I’ve been listening to this week: Liam Frost and Skeletons

What I’ve been reading this week: the musings of David Mitchell.

Stay tuned

sP

Follow me on Twitter @sentricmusic

According to Abba, money is a thing of hilarity if you are lucky enough to have plenty of it in the first place, but as the majority of artists I know are yet to have written enough über hits to fill a musical and then some on top; it appears to be more of a thing of worry then joviality.

Here at Sentric Music we’ve distributed a lot of money to a lot of artists and quite often when I inform an artist of the amount coming to them I usually add the question “So what plans have you got for this cash?” within the email as I’m genuinely intrigued to know where it’s going to be spent.

So I thought this week I’d pick a random figure (£2,000) and propose some ways in which it could be spent to help you out.

A few justifications before I begin.

Firstly; why £2,000? There are a good few of our artists who have received more than £2,000 from us since joining Sentric Music so I don’t believe it’s an unattainable figure to achieve. Also, I’ve mentioned several times before that if you’re seriously wanting to make a career from your music then you have to realise it’s an investment. If there are four of you then £500 each isn’t too big of an ask really is it? If you’re a singer songwriter then just go put £15 on red 16 on the Roulette table at your nearest casino and you’ll be fine.

Secondly; every artist’s situation is unique. Hopefully at least one of the areas mentioned within this post may make you consider a potential avenue for your cash.

Thirdly; money is highly more effective when used within conjunction with a strategy (a point that @Mr_Trick feels very strongly about). It’s all very well having a couple of grand in your pocket but if you randomly piss it up a proverbial wall without a plan to accompany it then it’ll be far less useful then if you did. Read here for advice on how to apply basic business theory to your music.

Ok then, let us begin (I asked a few friends their thoughts as well).

Equipment – Who do you want to sound like? Muse wouldn’t sound like Muse if they didn’t have the futuristic gear they do and The White Stripes wouldn’t sound like they do if they didn’t have all the vintage gear behind them; both of which cost a lot of cash. If you want to sound like The Wombats however you’d probably end up with £1,750 spare after kitting yourselves out.

Never rush a purchase; do your research online firstly. Do you really need a new guitar? Or would an effects pedal give you the sound you’re looking for at a fraction of the price? Once you’ve narrowed down your search then go and annoy the staff at various music shops to the point of insanity by trying out every alternative and most importantly; don’t be intimidated by that one guy that every guitar shop has who is in his mid thirties and is insanely good at ‘masturbating the fret board’ and who makes your ropey rendition of the solo from Night Train by Guns ‘N’ Roses sound as awful as it truly is. They may be able to compete with the guys on the G3 tour, but they’ve never set foot on a stage in their life so you win. Fact.

Recording – I like to think it’s pretty much essential to have at least 3 tracks recorded to a high level of quality good enough to be played on the radio if the opportunity occurs. These tracks can be then used for a lot of things; giving them away for email addresses for your mailing list, content for websites/MySpace etc, you could put them up for sale on iTunes if need be (although I don’t think it’s worth releasing anything digitally until you’ve got a decent fanbase going). A friend of mine who is an A&R for a major label suggests “Find a really local engineer/producer and spend a little bit of money working on a couple of tunes. If they’re on the same page as you and you’re happy with the sound and direction they’re taking you in, then spend some more money and do some more tracks. If not, find someone else“. A wise point there; don’t commit to spending too much money until you’re happy with the engineer/producer.

Pressing – You could get a hell of a lot of CD’s pressed for various reasons; selling, sending out, frisbees, mirrors for guinea pigs etc, or you could get a few vinyl pressed to sell to your hardcore fanbase. If you are going to get some vinyl pressed then don’t go crazy with the amount, get enough pressed to satisfy the demand then when they sell out you can tell everyone on your website that ‘YOU’VE SOLD OUT!!!’ and therefore must be really good so when the next single gets pressed other fans who missed out may be more eager to click and order therefore increasing your sales. It’s not technically lying per se; it’s just not telling everyone how many you had to sell to actually sell out.

PR – As Amy Woodhouse of Creative Cultures rightly says: “if you are creating a buzz and you’ve got a small tour lined up and/or are recording of a few songs, investing in some PR can help to alert the industry to a new band on the scene with potential. Don’t go mad with this, you aren’t Pete Doherty just yet, but a few well placed calls and emails may help to secure you some column space both online and offline – and the power of the media shouldn’t be underestimated. There are a lot of small music PR companies who can help you with this without breaking the bank.” It’s very hard to get decent media exposure unless you have contacts within the media outlets themselves so a good PR person can be worth their weight in gold, but they can also charge their weight in gold as well. Before committing to any PR work always be sure to ask what campaigns the company has worked on in the past and do a bit of research into how well it worked for the other clients. A good PR company should have stats to back up any campaigns they have so be sure to be filled in with any analytics available to you: data is valuable. Read here for more info on analytics and how you can apply them yourself for free.

Transport – We all need to get around now don’t we? You can get a second hand white van for under a grand these days which allows the rest of your budget to be swallowed by the other costs that come with owning a vehicle. Gigging outside of your local city is pretty much essential but don’t aim too far; try and conquer an area bigger than your city but less than ‘the north’ or ‘the south’ I.E. the north-west or the midlands etc.

Tour – If you’re already lucky enough to have transport sorted you could organise a small tour of the UK, or if you’re feeling adventurous and are incredibly frugal; the EU. Sentric artist ‘Baddies’ have a bucketload of European festivals lined up due to some clever and strategic gigging in Holland. With help from Music Glue they played a few dates in Holland a couple of months before the music industry conference Future Sonic, at these gigs they collected email addresses and distributed free MP3’s and whatnot in order to create a fanbase. Then when they returned for the Future Sonic conference they invited loads of booking agents to their gig who then witnessed loads of Dutch people dancing like loons and singing along to a band who don’t even use the same currency as them. Booking agents: Impressed. Baddies: summer of European fun now lined up.

Radio Plugger – Radio plugging is a tricky art; they can cost you a lot of money with absolutely no guarantee of return, but then when they do get it right it could end up being the best money you’ve ever spent. When you start receiving high profile airplay, not only do you gain the exposure to the listenership, you also earn performance royalties which you could put against the initial cost of the plugger. Be aware though; radio plugging is extremely competitive and you’re up against the big boys within the industry.

Lessons – Have you got the technical guitar skills of John Smith or Ian Britt? Do you have an audience silencing voice like Andrew Metcalfe or Liam Frost? Can you drum to the ability of Suren De Saram? If not, maybe you need to tone your talent somewhat. Being outstanding at what you do will always get you attention, if you’ve ever seen John Smith play winter live then you’ll know what I mean (and if you haven’t then watch this video and prepare to be agog)

Branding – I’ve used branding as an umbrella term here as it could include the services of a graphic designer, a photographer, a stylist, some new clothes, a drum skin etc. Branding yourself is nothing new and is something I’m quite the advocate of, even if it’s as simple as something as a colour, a shape, a ‘look’ etc. Get a logo, get some good pictures (where YOU’RE NOT stood leaning against a brick wall, Out From Animals and Everything Everything had some great photo’s, check them out), make sure your website/MySpace/Twitter etc is all aesthetically similar to help build and maintain the brand within your fanbases conscious.

Event – Why not throw a massive party? You could dress up an industry showcase as a single launch or just a ‘normal’ gig if you wanted to be a bit sneaky about it. Once you’ve convinced some important industry people to come down to your gig bribe your fans, friends and family with free booze so they all go mental when you come on stage making you seem like the next Arctic Monkeys to the sober, and a tad confused, industry types at the back.

Web Presence – A domain name won’t cost you more than twenty quid, but if you want a high, high, high quality website then expect to pay a lot of cans. But you don’t need a high, high, high quality website. So don’t bother.

Music – Another tip from the A&R gentlemen from before that initially failed to cross my mind: “If I was in a band I’d probably spend a bit of money on buying music and getting as many influences and ideas as possible, although no with Spotify this is an expense saved.” If you’re in a group then make each member compile a mix CD (or Spotify playlist) of their favourite music, swap them and swot up on each other’s influences and remember, if the bass player loves Journey then you’re inclusion of that rare Radiohead B-side just might be what he needs to help him gel with the rest of you.

Video – When most people see a professional looking video they expect that the artist in question has some financial backing behind them (more so than a couple of grand) so this is a good way to get people to grab people’s attention. ‘New Franchise’ by Grammatics and ‘Dorothy Millette’ by Screaming Mimi are two very good examples of music videos that didn’t cost too much to make but look brilliant. Caroline Bottomly from Radar Music Videos suggested that she’d spend the money on a tour whilst filming everything and then commissioning a music video from the subsequent footage. She went into so much depth that I’ll link to her full response at the end of the blog.

Live (as in life) – Gerd Leonhard argued “I’d pay myself to start blogging, sharing photos on flickr, setting up my video channels on Youtube, launch a Twitter channel, do Facebook etc — build my audience.  Getting engaged is what costs time which is £££ these days!” Time is indeed money so if you could justify leaving your job/girlfriend/boyfriend/children behind and use the money raised to live off whilst you spend 24/7 Tweeting things like “follow my band… LOLZ!” then go for it. Jokes aside though, I know artists who have done just this and used their savings to spend a good few months focusing on their music and nothing else and in the circumstances I know of it has usually paid off in some form or another. You can set yourself targets; “Within two months I want to have achieved, X amount of followers on Twitter, have 3 new songs recorded, have made 5 new contacts within the radio industry, have one of my tracks played at least once on BBC 6Music” etc.

A Sim Card – This obviously won’t cost you much, if anything at all, but in the responses I received from my blogosphere friends Tom Robinson (6Music DJ and new music advocate) noted “I would also buy a cheap PAYG mobile phone & sim card to receive calls for for my “manager”. Either you or a friend can field these; many business people prefer not to deal with the artist direct.” – An interesting musing there to take on board.

Holiday – or you can sod it all off and go on your jollies.

Have a gander here for suggestions from Andrew Dubber (New Music Strategies), Tom Robinson (6Music DJ), Amy Woodhouse (Creative Cultures), the A&R gentleman, Caroline Bottomley (Radar Music Videos) and Gerd Leonhard (Media Futurist).

What I’ve been listening to this week: Liam Frost and

What I’ve been reading this week: the musings of David Mitchell.

Stay tuned

sp

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Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

• If I was an unsigned/independent artist in 2009, I would (in no particular …
• I’ll Manage By Myself – 28/5/07.
• Sentric Music announces In The City Showcase. Do you want to play?
• Music Tech Battle: Music Power Network vs. Artist House

~ by sentric on June 10, 2009.