10 Tools That Will Make Your Life As An Artist So Much Easier!

Hey artist friends!

Guess what? As Bob Dylan once sang, the times they are a changin’ — and it’s all for the best. Gone are the days of booking your tours with typewriters and fax machines! There are some truly amazing tools out there in the market that you ought to be in the know about! That is if you are anything like me and are obsessed with being efficient and truly productive with your time!

Here are my favourites that I highly recommend with links and a quick overview of why I think they will help change your life for the better! I’ll keep my descriptions short and to the point so you can just get on with giving them a test whirl!

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10 Rules Of Effective Delegation: Increasing Capacity And Getting The Best Out Of Your Team

I meet many very talented entrepreneurs who are great at what they do. Often I’ll hear them using that common phrase, “if you want it done right, do it yourself”, and upon further discussion they’ll almost always reveal that they struggle with the act of delegation. It can be an incredibly hard concept to embrace sometimes, and I can surely empathize. We entrepreneurs want to own our output and are often very independent by nature.

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10 Common Mistakes Young Entrepreneurs Or Professionals Make

If you are young and reading this blog, you are probably grinding your teeth with rage at the sight of the headline alone. Don’t fret. I’m not some old crusty geezer here to teach you a lesson or put you in “your place.” I’m 25 and have been working in the music, marketing, and communications industry for 10 years. I started my company, AB Co., 6 years ago and have grown it into Canada’s leading music marketing and communications agency. I manage a team of 13 and started my company at the age of 18 with a whole lot of balls. 

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5 Tips for Making Big Career-Defining Decisions

So here you are. Faced with what seems like it could be a good opportunity. You have a decision to make and this could change everything you thought you knew or maybe it won’t. There really is no way to know. So you jump back and forth – what lies behind Door A could lead to X,Y,Z! What lies behind Door B could change everything you know or ruin you! and Oh Door C, well Door C is the elusive ‘what-if-I-hold-out-for-something-bigger-and-better’ door. Door C is the door that is totally empty at the moment but is filled with so much promise. Damn that door!

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There’s No I in Team: 10 Leadership Tips to Help You Get the Best of Your Team

If you’re good at what you do and want to see it grow further, there will likely be a time when you need to increase capacity and scale (if you haven’t hit that crossroad already). That means relying on others to handle aspects of your work and adhere to the same standards and quality that you are known for. Being good at what you do is one thing, but being a good leader is entirely different. The sooner you truly understand this, the stronger your team will be.

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5 Things the Music Industry Needs to Stop Bitching About

Managers, agents, publicists, artists, we love to b**ch! I’m the first one to admit that sometimes it’s nice to think that the big bad industry has done us wrong and our plight is not directly related to our actions and approach. While sometimes that may be the case, it’s not really useful energy now is it? 

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Understanding and Getting the Most out of the Artist/Manager Relationship

It is easy to forget as a busy artist or manager the large and very important differences that make artists artists and industry industry. We work together closely every day, but to truly maximize the greatness of this partnership it’s important we all keep in mind the very real differences.

Who is an Artist? 

Artists operate from a place of creativity. Great artists find what they need to do their best work and aim to spend the majority of their time creating and sharing their art with others. This beautiful vision of a life of art does not usually have a huge monetary payoff. It is pure and peaceful and has a lot to with the genuine ability to create and share something magical so that it has positive effects on those around them. Most artists start making art because of this feeling. Sometimes they need to be in a dark place in order to extract that greatness. Sometimes they need to go away for months and turn off their phones, sometimes they don’t. Whatever they do is necessary for the benefit of the art.

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What They Really Mean: The Musician's Guide to Industry Speak

You email your heart out to target industry people and you are probably used to not getting many responses. This is the life of a hustling artist. Don’t hate it – embrace it. I always tell my bands – if you feel like you’re doing it wrong, you’re not! You’re doingsomething proactive; therefore you’re doing it right.

First things first – don’t get discouraged by rejection (you can read my other blog here with more info on that). Sometimes you might not get any responses. But when when you do, they are seemingly cryptic. As a fellow industry person, trust me when I say we aren’t trying to make you rip your eyes out. We are talking in industry speak. We are moving quickly, managing a million things and sometimes the idiosyncrasies can get lost in translation. Sometime we are too short and a more elaborate answer could help, we know.

It takes that one email sent in the right moment to the right person to change everything. Hopefully this blog helps to navigate some of our answers and feedback.

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Why The Hardest Workers Win And The Complainers Lose…And I’m Totally Fine With It

In and around Ontario, the war on internships rages on. It’s been a hot topic in the press as of late since 2 Canadian magazines (Toronto Life and The Walrus) dismissed their interns after the provincial government questioned the ethics behind unpaid youth employment. This isn’t the first time internship drama has made an impact in the media – there was the Fox ‘Black Swan’ lawsuit that created quite a swell of excitement in September 2013 and it’s got me thinking.

As an intern you have an opportunity to prove to a company why you deserve to be hired over anyone else. In J.J. McCullough’s article for the National Post titled ‘Why Internships Should be Illegal‘, he likens unpaid internships to “something [that] can be very good for business yet still ugly and immoral.” He even goes as far as to educate young internship victims (eyeroll) on “9 tips for ending your internship on a positive note”. As a business owner who employs unpaid interns, I regularly come into contact with many people who agree with McCullough’s point of view on a practice that is a personal career choice many young professionals make. A wise career choice, if you ask me.

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5 Types of Managers You Don’t Want Managing Your Band

Choosing a manager will be one of the most important decisions you make as an artist. Who you let represent you to the outside world is a direct reflection of how you handle your business, and a great manager can do magical things for your career. More often than not, you come across the not-so-great managers that are slowly putting your band’s career in a dank, dark corner one email at a time. The wrong fit can quite literally sink you. Here’s some common manager archetypes we recommend steering clear from if you’re looking to grow a long and steady career in the music biz. 

#1 - The Too-Busy-To-Call-You-Back-Ager 

We know… they’re busy and ‘important’. Being a busy manager is usually a good thing, but not taking time to hear their artists’ needs, cater to them, and collaborate with them will often cause fractures in the relationship. Beware the chronically-busy manager. As the artist, you need to be able to reach your manager at any time for advice and late night strategizing. A constant dialogue is essential; after all, your manager is out on the industry front lines hustling for your career.

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15 Very Quick and Simple Things You Can Do to Help Your Music Career

Quick. Simple. And they make a huge impact. What’s not to love? 

#1 Remember Peoples’ Names 

Ya ya ya, you meet a lot of people… we get it. If you want people to remember your name, you better sure as hell try to remember theirs. Find a good system. Make notes. Facebook stalk. Do something.

#2 Send Thank You Notes 

A small and simple gesture that goes a long way to ensure you leave a great impression.

#3 Database Relentlessly

Keep organized and detailed databases of your mailing list, the local media, your supporters, promoters, and everything else. This will save you tons of time and help you manage relationships with ease. There’s a kazillion great databasing tools out there and a simple spreadsheet does the trick as well.

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5 Reasons Why Taking Extra Time to Plan Each Day Will Make You a Happier Person

We all know how hard it is to keep up with tasks. The sheer quantity of things itching for completion each day is a point of contention for everyone I know.

It’s easy to get overwhelmed by how much work there is to be done and just dive in, rather than to take a second to step back and organize all the work before doing so. I would argue that taking 5 to 30 minutes each day (depending on your quantity of tasks) to organize and lay out your tasks will allow you to be more productive while you tackle them. Because of the 5 reasons below, I suggest you take a second to revamp your daily routine if it doesn’t already include planning time!

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Networking: Why it’s So Important and How to Do It

Everyone talks about networking and how it’s so important for your business, but when it comes down to it, not many people know how to do it and why it’s so valuble. Here are a few tips for all the new networkers out there.

No matter what your business, if you’re a up and coming musician, a publicist or an accountant, it’s important to know people in your industry. Industry connections, no matter the context, can make a considerable difference when it comes to growing and maintaining your business. People you meet along the way in life can help you to learn new things, and with our ever changing culture, you never know who you will need in your corner in the future.

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20 Sneaky Rules About Being in a Band That No One Ever Told You

This industry is clouded with unspoken rules that define your band’s career every day. I’ve seen the frustration on both sides of the fence. Artists frustrated because they crossed a line they didn’t know existed and got shot down by a promoter/agent etc. and industry cursing a band because “THEY DONT UNDERSTAND!!!” Perhaps this keeps happening because no one has ever explained the inner industry politics to these artists. No one has ever said, “this rule exists to preserve this and when you are ignorant to it, it pisses everyone off!” Instead we go on cursing each other rather than working together. 

Hopefully this will demystify some of the industry inner-workings and help create a common ground! Working on the industry side for so long, these are some of the most common conflicts I’ve seen happening again and again. There are loads more out there I’m sure, so feel free to add yours below in the comments section! 

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