PERSPECTIVES
by Kenny Love

At the risk of becoming the male equivalent of either "Ann Landers" or "Dear Abby," I now present to you a degree of the mindset of a typical independent artist seeking global recognition within the commercial music industry.

I have responded to this individual, of which the answers I have included below, taking care to omit the name and contact information. Hopefully, this communicable interchange will serve as a mirror to other artists as to how they are often perceived in the music industry.

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"Hi Kenny,

Here are some answers after studying your info & suggestions, thanks

At the moment I have zero budget for promotion.

Do you think it would be very terrible to wait until I have some funds?

In the meantime I think it would be great if you could try to get me and my bands some bookings.

I have a GREAT flexible band, very hip, up to date and we have a repertoire that can bring houses down on most audiences. Minimum I would like to play with a 5-piece band, for straight ahead jazz places & festivals with (name withheld until confirmed by next of kin) & special guest (name withheld until confirmed by police).

For pop places/hip places my 5 piece band includes a GREAT rapper from Texas. Soon I hopefully will have a video material edited from my tour.

I’m seeking the following venue types: hiphop/soul/reggae/latin/African/alternative/blues/ progressive jazz places."

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At this junction within the correspondence, begins the Question/Answer interchange:

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Artist: "It’ll take me a while to find the responses of the radio people but will follow up w this asap."

My Response: "Okay."

A: "About the response cards, this might be true but I got quite a lot of spontaneous response from people who liked/returned the package."

MR: "Do you want to base the success of your career on haphazard spontaneous results, or documented verifiable results? Even though you are an artist, as you operate your own label, you are still responsible for maintaining a business which requires accurate accounting in marketing, promotion, and financing."

A: "And we made phone calls to all the jazzfests."

MR.: "Did you document the responses and results?"

A: "But honestly I am thinking, I made a very good product, I am a fully professional artist with repertoire and proven success. Also I have quite a lot of performances and I practice a lot of trumpet and try to follow up on my business."

MR: "Yes, but there are also thousands of other musicians who meet your same qualifications as well, especially, in the U. S. Thousands of units of great product...thousands of professional artists with solid repertoire, and thousands of artists with proven success locally and regionally. Many of these artists are your immediate competition. However, therein lies the problem. In other words, great artists are, as we say here, ‘a dime a dozen’, with there being no small order of them.

Now, have you ever heard on the radio what you deem to be a very sorry record that you felt should NOT have been receiving radio airplay? Well, want to know what got it there? Promotion and Marketing. This is why many great artists never become successful at radio, while inferior artists can become millionaires consistently."

A: "If somebody can bring this to a higher level for me which might be the opportunity for a bigger audience to learn about me and I have already quite some fans in USA. In LA they play my music a lot on the radio and jazz ans refer in according to my playing to Miles Davis which is great, he ‘s my favorite, well, you know."

MR: "Okay, so why are your CD sales so low, as you informed me before? In my opinion, even though radio may be playing your material consistently in LA, there are promotional loopholes that are going unfilled.

For instance, are you following up and supporting the LA radio play with ads and news releases in local LA newspapers? Are you also running supportive ads on local LA radio? Are you requesting to be interviewed in local LA publications in order to support the local LA radio airplay? How about local LA television interviews? These are just some of the loopholes that are going unfilled."

A: "So I am not worried, I have no money to spend but will invest into practicing my horn. Soon I will start demoing in my own recording studio at home, so have plenty to entertain myself with."

MR: "This is not productive to promoting your recording, and I see no relationship to such."

A: "...and if I have a nice new product/idea for product (I am thinking about this smooth jazz CD for Heads Up or Verve) then I ‘ll see what that will do."

MR: "It sounds like there is no established concrete promotional plan...that you are reaching out in all directions for any possible result."

A: "Also I have a feeling that there might be a (name withheld) revival, at least in my country it seems like it, lots of media attention, tv/press etc"

MR: "No comment."

A: "Anyway, see if you feel it ‘s a good idea to get me some bookings in USA?"

MR: "This all requires more than simply bookings. Bookings ALSO require promotion, or else, no one shows up at your gig to hear and see how great you are. All in all, it requires funding, and someone must pay for it, just as someone must pay for the recording studio. And, the advertisements to announce your performances all require funding. Otherwise, you are stuck with the hardest way to go, which is local flyer distribution.

You appear to be a fine artist, from what I can tell without having reviewed your CD personally. But, as you can see, that is not nearly enough in such a competitive industry. And, hard as it is to believe, it is also not nearly enough to become a commercial music success. In fact, talent is but 1/10th of importance in the commercial music business, as difficult as that might be to accept. For 90% of the success of artists is derived from promotion...promotion, and even more promotion."

[end of interchange]

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Lord, aside from what’s currently going on at the upper echelons of the music industry, more importantly, in regard to Indie artists, sometimes the future of the music industry is just downright scary. It’s almost the equivalent of a surgeon who has somehow made it through medical school, but can hardly read his own prescription.

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Editor’s Note: Kenny Love is president of the National Music Agency, as well as Chief Information Officer for a new Houston-based record label. See his main web site at http://www.kennylove.net.

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