Tom Hess Music Career Advice Interview And Review

Build A Successful Music Career By Reading This Tom Hess Interview & Review

By Ryan Buckner

Are you determined to fulfill your potential as a musician and build a successful music career? If so, it is likely that you continually hear various “words of wisdom” from the people you know on how to make it in the music business. These people often wish you the best, but the fact is: People who have not already had extensive success as a pro musician, likely do not really understand how the music industry works. On top of that, their advice may be detrimental to your music career dreams.

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How Musicians Can Save Money When Buying Instruments

In tighter financial times everyone would like to save some money on their musical purchases. This guide can help you save some money when shopping for musical equipment. So lets say you are about to buy some new instruments or some studio equipment, that can cost serious money when you opt for the best quality items. We are currently in a recession and it seems that there is some positive economic news of late on both sides of the big pond and that’s great. However most of us still need to watch the pennies and cents and there are ways that you can ensure you are getting the best possible deals on your equipment purchases. We can use the current situation to our advantage, as both musicians and retailers are experiencing the same economic conditions.

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MusicThinkTank.com Weekly Recap: David Greenberg & More

Where

The Music Industry

Thinks Out Loud

• David Greenberg: Resume? Resume? I Don’t Need No Stinking Resume
• Tom Dennehy: The Social Media Bandwagon: Everybody “Likes” a Winner
• Marcel Williams: What are the essential features of a hit record?

What are the essential features of a hit record?

We have all heard those hit songs that can be considered ‘timeless classics’. Whether it’s a hip hop track, a rock classic or an 80’s power ballad, these songs share some essential features that ensure they will be on the airwaves for years to come. Obviously there is not one hard and fast rule for this as every song is different, but here is a list of features that many of these hit records share.

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The Social Media Bandwagon: Everybody "Likes" a Winner

Mumford & Sons released their 2nd album Babel a few weeks ago. It’s hard to know what any listeners think of it. But one thing we all seem to know — Babel sold 600,000+ copies in its first week. That statistic was re-blogged and re-tweeted thousands of times, blindly hailing “the best debut of 2012.” Everybody {likes, re-tweets, +1’s} a winner.

Does a splashy debut lose significance as media transitions from the physical to weightless digital? We’ll get to that later. In any case, debut has replaced legacy as a benchmark of worth.

Artistic works that build their audience slowly and sustain it for long periods are becoming rare. Most works live and die with their debut. Open big or enjoy staying under the radar. In music, Adele’s 21 is the most recent outlier. No one saw it coming, and then nothing could displace it for more than a year. In the back catalog, Pink Floyd’s enduring hit Dark Side of the Moon returned to the Billboard Top 200 (at #156) for the week ending 21-Oct-2012. That’s 817 (non-consecutive) weeks on the chart (more than 15 chart-years).

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Resume? Resume? I Don't Need No Stinking Resume

Well, of course you do, but aim to have a boatload of material so you don’t have just your resume to show prospective employers. And then, during your first job, find time to do your own thing, by any means necessary, so that you don’t really need that resume after that. I landed the second job of my career with the film production house, Second Story Television without any resume at all. That was because I started that company with a few friends after gleaning enough experience and connections from working at a small film production company/ad agency based on the famed Madison Avenue in NYC. And jobs after SST were mostly pulled in from my network of friends. That’s the key and the underlying thought behind this bloggette: building your career, yourself, again, by any means necessary.

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MusicThinkTank.com Weekly Recap: What's The Story? & More

Where

The Music Industry

Thinks Out Loud

• Mark Knight: What’s The Story? The Value Of Storytelling In Music Promotion
• Mark Doyon: Building Context for Your Creative Work
• Simon Tam: Why “Post Your Twitter or Facebook Page” Discussions Don’t Work
• Alfie Davenport: Animation, Art, and Music Videos
• Cyber PR Interview Series:
  • Charting the Course: A Radio Promo Discussion – David Avery of Powderfinger Promotions
  • Charting the Course: A Radio Promo Discussion – Michael Addicott of Pandora
  • Charting the Course: A Radio Promo Discussion – Mark Muggeridge of Evil Genius Media

Animation, Art, and Music Videos

The potential for animation to express a deeper, more poetic reality than film has been evident since the days of Walt Disney. These days, music video producers are beginning to utilise animation for this purpose too.

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Charting the Course: A Radio Promo Discussion – Mark Muggeridge of Evil Genius Media

Welcome back to the seventh and final interview in our seven-part interview series ‘Charting the Course: A Radio Promo Discussion’.

The purpose of this series is to explore the world of radio promo, with insights from 7 people who work in and outside of the realm of radio promo, but all of whom have dedicated themselves to advising independent musicians.

Yesterday we spoke with Michael Addicott, Manager of Curation at Pandora.

Today we hear from Mark Muggeridge, founder of UK Campaign Management and Music Strategy agency Evil Genius Media.

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Why "Post Your Twitter or Facebook Page" Discussions Don't Work

Do you used Linkedin? If so, Linkedin Groups is a great feature to network and get to know professionals in industries beyond your current circle. It’s also a great way to promote your own professional skills, whether those are in music, marketing, movie making, or anything else. 

As a member of nearly two dozen Linkedin Groups, I almost always see the same top post in every group: a callout for members to post their social media sites in a discussion group and to encourage those individuals to follow one another. The reality is that it doesn’t work.

How often do you see people posting, maybe even posted something yourself and then followed through by looking at each of the few hundred comments to check out each person’s page? Even the people who start these groups don’t see a substantial increase in their numbers (they usually have far less followers than comments on that thread).

So how do you get real followers?

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Charting the Course: A Radio Promo Discussion – Michael Addicott of Pandora

Welcome back to the sixth of our seven-part interview series ‘Charting the Course: A Radio Promo Discussion’.

The purpose of this series is to explore the world of radio promo, with insights from 7 people who work in and outside of the realm of radio promo, but all of whom have dedicated themselves to advising independent musicians.

Yesterday we spoke with David Avery, President of Powderfinger Promotions.

Today we hear from Michael Addicott, Manager of curation at Pandora.

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Building Context for Your Creative Work

Why do you make music? Write books? Make films? You might know, you might not. Either way, you do it for a specific reason. Maybe it’s to explore. Maybe it’s to affect other people. Maybe it’s to inject a little fun and excitement into your life.

That reason gives your creative work context. So does your interest in sharing what you do. If you share your work with your family, that’s context. If you share it with your friends and acquaintances, that’s context, too. If you share it with everyone you can, every chance you get, like an Energizer Bunny of sharing, that’s context, as well. And if you keep it to yourself? That is a context all its own.

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Charting the Course: A Radio Promo Discussion – David Avery of Powderfinger Promotions

Welcome back to the fifth of our seven-part interview series ‘Charting the Course: A Radio Promo Discussion’.

The purpose of this series is to explore the world of radio promo, with insights from 6 people who work in and outside of the realm of radio promo, but all of whom have dedicated themselves to advising independent musicians.

On Friday we spoke with Adam Lewis, Co-Founder of Planetary Group.

Today we hear from David Avery, President of Powderfinger Promotions, an indie radio promoter and publicity firm!

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What’s The Story? The Value Of Storytelling In Music Promotion

Mark Knight is the founder of Right Chord Music, a management and consultancy business. The company was created with the aim of helping independent artists like The Daydream Club promote their music using insights gained from the wider marketing world. In this article Mark introduces the concept of story telling in brand advertising and shows how creating a story can help independent artists promote their music more effectively.

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