Musicadium Blog

An event management professional said to me recently that she came across a band who believed that “Professionalism” has no place in the music industry and should not be taken into consideration when choosing bands for a lineup on a gig’s bill.

Sounds crazy, right?  I believe in professionalism in any industry (your band as a business and a brand depends on it), but I also believe in creativity and creative licence in a performance.

I understand to some extent what the musician is talking about - I am a musician myself (well, drummer anyway) and I understand that there is the whole credibility vs corporate “Don’t sell out to the man!” mantra amongst musicians.  Anyone who knows good music will know a band who has sold out to the “man” and are not being true to themselves. There is a big difference between being a professional and sacrificing credibility for dollars.

Let’s have a look at what professionalism actually means in the music industry.

From what I can tell about the statement made by the musician, he believed that a good-looking MySpace or website, facebook page etc, good quality recordings, a bio and playing to a timeframe given for the gig was all irrelevant and that his “good music” should be considered above all else and that he should be given gigs based on that. The event management professional had given him gigs previously and the band turned up late for soundcheck, complained when they could not have one because of lack of time, played a lot longer than the allocated timeslot and ignoring directions from stage management.  Sounds like a nightmare, right? But still, he insisted that Professionalism was periphery to the music industry.

Musicians are always busy people and often working 9-5ers as well as creating art, but is that any reason why professionalism should be dropped?

I do not believe that being a musician and being a professional are mutually exclusive, even after a musician has got to the point where they pick up a manager to take care of business affairs. So here’s a list I have come up with. Feel free to add to it or cut it to pieces.

Top tips for interacting with music industry

• Get yourself an appropriate e-mail address with which to do all written correspondence, even if it’s a free one. i.e. bandname@gmail.com.
  The email account you started for yourself at high school using your nickname or some such reference is not professional and does not indicate that you are taking the correspondence overly seriously.
• Check your spelling, be neat and fact-check!
  This goes for all written correspondence - MySpace page, facebook, bio, twitter, e-mail, applications to festivals.  Paste text into your text-editor of your choice and have it give you a cursory look at your paragraphs to quickly identify any major problems with your spelling.  Then go over it yourself and give it an idiot-check.  In my opinion, nothing shoots down your credibility quicker than (consistently or obviously) spelling words wrong. Worse is spelling names wrong or getting names/facts wrong altogether!!
• Be on time.
  Whether it’s a meeting with an industry person, a soundcheck or for a gig or a media call, don’t be late or lazy! Obviously, acts of God or massive traffic jams aside, being on time and having a great attitude counts a lot! The easier you are to deal with and the smoother the process of working with you to provide a great show/service, the less resistance you will encounter from that industry worker again. Remember the old rule of restaurants. If you get bad service from a restaurant, a customer will tell 8 people. If they get good service, they are likely to tell only 1 or 2.  You are the one providing the service in this case and you are the one who can leave a good impression!
• Sound great!
  Don’t go to industry people (labels, booking agents) with your music until you have something that you feel truely represents you.  Obviously, this will be a continuous battle to perfect this.  I am simply suggesting don’t go public with demo that will be detrimental to your chances of interacting with that industry worker again.  Additionally: choose wisely who you send your material to and do some research. If a label specialises in dance music releases, as a general rule, they won’t be interested in your alt-country release, so it’s probably safe to say it’s a waste of time committing your time to that.
• Look good!
  While not necessary, a great press shot will turn heads.  While what REALLY matters is the music, of course, often a promo photo or CD cover art will be the first contact a band will have industry, hopefully just prior to listening to your tunes. You have a chance to tell a story very quickly with these tools and the more concise you are with your message in these mediums, the more chance you have of someone giving it a spin.
• You don’t have to be Formal, but be respectful.
  While you don’t have to lay out any e-mails with Dear Sir/Madam or To Whom it may concern, professionalism in this case certainly takes on another guise. It means acknowledging that Music Industry professionals are busy people and your e-mail/call is going to be one of hundreds of things they do that day. So keep it simple and short, well-written and to the point. Ask what you want to ask and leave it with them. Don’t follow up every two hours with “Have you had a chance to have a look at my e-mail?” etc. Maybe a follow up after a week if you feel that there is some urgency.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 17th, 2009 at 11:12 am and is filed under General, Useful Resources. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.