Artist Development: Music Business Tips for the Unsigned Band

Video Transcript

"Chris Knab for Expert Village. In the music business of old, there used to be something called artist development. An artist development meant if you go back in history and take a look at a record label, let's say Motown records during the 60's, what they would do is take an artist that they believed in and they would nourish that artist in any way that they could to make him better by giving them all the lessons in singing and presentation, vocalizing plus learning how to use a studio and learning dance routines and all that. They would then record the artist and in those days, the record industry was one where they believed in you as an artist, they stuck with you. Meaning for example, using that Motown example they released 9 singles by the Supremes. All of them failed and it took actually to the 9th release by them to have a hit record and then we know what happened to them every since. But I want to tell you right now that you are listening to an interview with me at a time when those so called major labels are in great trouble, they are not in good shape. Yes, there are super stars out there but record labels today of any type do not take that responsibility the way they used to. They require you as a dedicated musician, member of a band or independent artist of some kind, a singer song writer to make your own CD and to learn how to market it and sell it enough that it draws attention to the media and the what I call gate keepers in the industry who are looking for music. This isn't American Idol. In my opinion, shows like that have done a lot of damage to independent artist because it has created another generation of people who think all they need to do is record and their "really good" and they can be a star real quick. My job as an educator, as an advisor of some kind, as an author is to bring you back down to earth because what really changed these days is you've got to build the house from the basement up so to speak so you start small. There are four key areas that you need who do that record labels do. "