How to Make it in the Music Business Today - An insider's Guide to the Cold Hard Realities! Part 3 of 3

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I get at least 1 new singer or rapper each month asking me for advice or help with their music career. I love to help when I can but there are some basics that today's aspiring musicians need to know and do before they approach anyone who might want to help.

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8. Yes talent and hard work are necessities to success in the business. Justin Beiber is talented. I am tired of this argument. No he is not a great singer, but some of the most successful singers of all time were not great singers. But they all knew how to maximize their talents and put them in the right package so they were appealing (or people around them did). Justin understands how to do what works for himself at a very high level. This is a necessity in the business and he has mastered it and understands that he has mastered it.

You cannot pull any cute dude off the street and make him a star for a decade. The record companies wish they could do this. Look at how many people win Idol or the Voice, and go NOWHERE. Some of them have incredible voices or look amazing. You have to have much more and a combination of things.

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Here are the facts. If you do not have the talent, an ability to navigate the industry, an ethic for hard work, and the smarts, you are doomed. Make sure that you do by asking people who know and will be honest. If you are not sure they are being honest with you, you are probably not talented enough or smart enough or both.

9. If you are just a singer/rapper/producer/etc. and you become successful, you will be exploited and never control your own career or money. Being a talented musician is not enough these days. You must be an entrepreneur because you need to understand the business. Yes I have said this earlier in this series but some of you are hard headed or hard of hearing and need to be told things several times before you actually get it. LEARN THE DAMN BUSINESS. Take classes, read books (do not listen to people who have no experience or success however, they will not lead you anywhere). You must do whatever you can to understand how to exploit yourself to your best advantage and get others to do the same so they see a win for themselves. Yes everyone you work with needs to win too whether it is a record company, distributor manager or music producer. They have to know they will win big or they will not give you their best. Talk business with them. What do they need to make them work hard for you? Do they want a piece of you, money? Figure it out and be prepared to negotiate, but have the conversation with them today. In other words, understand your real worth in the business and how to use this worth to get other interested in you. Your talent will not get anyone to treat you fairly, but you understanding the business and knowing your value in it will.

That is it. Now you know everything you know about making in the music business today. In closing, let me talk about a few things I purposely did not cover.

Does it matter what style of music you do? No, but if you do some style that is not mainstream rap, pop, rock, or country, you had better be super special. If you play an accordion or look like Korean singer Psy you better be undeniable or no one will ever call you back. Remember this is if you are either not a conventional artist. You have to work harder. That is a fact.

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Should you release your own music or try and sign with a label? This is a personal choice. I have given you my thoughts in art 2, but doing it yourself is Hell. You need time money and a never say die attitude. You need to be prepared to put in years of work. And even then the odds are you will never achieve success and if you do you will likely never approach the success you would have if you had signed with Sony. But you will control your career. So you decide. But in either case, LEARN THE BUSINESS so you know what you are getting into.

Why did I leave the music industry? I hated the politics. I was one of the people in it because I loved writing songs and working with artists, but I hated most of the execs. When they started firing all of the ones I liked and brought in ones who had no love or understanding for timeless music, it was time for me to go.

Is there hope for the music industry? Music is the most powerful product on the planet. It is the soundtrack for all of the important things in our lives. We fall in love and make love to music. We get married and celebrate our happiest moments with music. But the business has been hijacked by Internet companies who exploit with no regard for the art form. It is now a product to get people to pay $9.99 per month. As a result artists are not as important and quality has gone down.

We now have Spotify which is a joke exploiting artists and songs to go public next month. They call themselves the saviors of the music industry yet their company lost $1.2 billion USD last year. They will fail and so will the rest of them. No music service makes money today as a stand lone business. They are all borrowing money to stay afloat and trying to figure out a revenue model that works. The revelation is that no of the ones they consider will work because it has to begin with putting great artists and great songs first. Until that happens the industry will continue to run into the ground on autopilot. If you saw the recent interview with Mark Zuckerberg talking about the Facebook data breach you understand what I mean. He is clueless and cannot see the obvious issues because his perspective cannot account for what is obvious.

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But with all of this said, I am a big believer in the power of music and music artists. I love them and will always take the calls and give the advice. You might think I have been harsh here but it is because I want to you take music seriously and become great. Trying to make it will be the hardest thing you ever do and you need to be tough.

One more final thing. Never give up. If you keep getting knocked down get up and limp your way along or crawl, but never stop.

One more final, final thing. If you want to know what every super successful artist has in common, it is simple. There is no musical style, look or language they sing or rap in. They are not all the same height or wear the same size shoe or were born under the same star sign. The simple reason is that they each had something to say. Every artist must find their voice and learn how to project that voice into the hearts of others. So you must find your and get it loud and clear. That is the success formula for every musical icon from the Beatles to Nirvana to Michael Jackson to Eminem. FIND YOUR VOICE.

Here are Parts 1 and 2 again for you and I expect to see you at the top and thanking me for the valuable guidance I gave you. Good luck and I believe in you!