- ArtistshouseMusic -

Recording Gear is Nice, But There

amosher — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 13:30:12 -0800

Recording Gear is Nice, But There

Article:

We all tend to get seduced pretty easily by technology. I remember the first time I was able to do drag and drop editing of a section of a song in a digital audio workstation.

I was blown away!

And like many who have been fascinated by the speed, power, control, and flexibility offered by the ongoing digital recording revolution, I looked more and more for the secrets to a great recording in the power of the processor and software.

What’s missing from this line of thought is that before anyone can begin to consider a career in recording, as an engineer, producer, or musician, they must first develop their own innate critical listening skills. That’s right, as has been said quite often, “Your most important musical instrument is your ears.” This definitely also applies to engineers and producers.

The good news is that if you're like most of the AHM crew - you are a music junkie - you most likely are well on your way to becoming a discriminating listener, a junior “golden ears.”

In his outstanding autobiography, Make Mine Music, renowned engineer, Bruce Swedien, talks about how he starts teaching his UCLA summer master class in recording. Surprisingly, he doesn’t go into a recording studio with the class.

Instead, he takes the entire class to a concert of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and he seats them front and center. The reason for this is to create a mental “snapshot” of what a great orchestra sounds like naturally, with no mics, no signal processing, no recording artifacts, and no editing. Bruce believes that until you know what every instrument and voice sounds like au naturel, you have no business trying to make a recording of that instrument.

At our school, we offer a class called Sound Recording Fundamentals, a survey class designed to familiarize a mostly non-technical student population with the process, tools, and lingo used in the recording studio. Again, one of the first assignments students complete is an Active Listening assignment which requires them to spend 20 minutes outside, late at night, identifying and localizing ambient sounds in their 360-degree listening environment. For the most part, they come back astounded at what their ears can pick up late at night in an urban environment. Your ears are in fact, more sensitive to sound pressure than any microphone ever invented.

So before you get seduced by the latest recording devices, plug ins, and esoteric microphones, figure out just how you will develop into a discriminating listener. After all, if you can’t distinguish proper timbre, pitch, accurate rhythm, or balance in an ensemble, the speed and power of your recording system probably won’t matter.

(You can find bibliographic info on Bruce’s book in the Artists House bibliography.)

Tutorial - Resume Building Blocks

khatschek — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 07:15:12 -0800

Tutorial - Resume Building Blocks

A good place to start crafting your resume is viewing some resume examples. The first one we’ll look at is found below as a PDF file for “Mark A. Webster.” Open up the file using Adobe Acrobat and print out a copy before you review this tutorial.

There are seven main building blocks used in this one-page resume example. Let’s go over each one.

1) Identity – You’ll notice that he uses the top section of the page to strongly identify himself with his contact information laid out in a block in the top right corner. The large sized font for his name will allow anyone to quickly pick his resume out of a pile of a few dozen resumes. Be sure your contact information is large enough so that if you are asked to fax your resume, it will be legible on the receiving end. You can test this by faxing your resume to a friend or family member’s office, and looking at the printed and received fax.

2) Objective – what are you seeking, job-wise? Give the reader a clue as to what position or general area of work you are seeking. Ideally, your job objective will match up with the types of opportunities that exist at the firm you are applying at. When in doubt, it’s OK to leave it a bit more general. “Obtain an internship in the record industry.” Be sure to fine tune your job objective for each different type opportunity. (We’ll consider this again later in the tutorial.)

3) Education – today’s employers realize that an educated and tech-savvy workforce is essential to remaining competitive. List your educational background in reverse chronological order, that is, the most recent school experience comes first.

4) Interests and Activities – since this candidate is applying for jobs at artist management firms, he has decided that listing some of his activities will be relevant for such a firm and has positioned it above his work experience.

5) Work Experience – this is where you can show off what types of experience, accomplishments and skills you’ve developed in whatever work situations you’ve had. You’ll note that Mark not only listed the work he has been doing for a regional jazz festival, he also included his grunt work for a local pizza restaurant. Why? Because it shows dedication, willingness to work and even as a pizza guy, he rose to the top, as Employee of the Month. That’s something an employer will notice, as such performance tends to be consistent over a person’s career.

6) Hobbies & Interests – who cares about hobbies? Although it is not essential you list hobbies or free time activities, it may offer a link to someone at the firm you are applying at. In the rough and tumble review of hundreds of resumes, your hobbies may show another side of your personality. It also shows that you have a life outside work, which demonstrates some balance in your outlook.

7) Professional Memberships – hopefully the area of the industry that interests you has a professional organization and you have become involved at some level, even if it’s as a volunteer. Some organizations like the AES and NARAS offer student memberships for a very modest fee. Aside from the career benefits, this shows an employer you are serious about building your career.

One Page?

Yes, for most people starting out in the music industry, a one-page resume should be able to clearly tell the story of who you are, what you know demonstrate how you have contributed to previous employers. Be sure to list internships or if you have done volunteer work that demonstrates your abilities and follow through, include that experience.

Templates
There are literally hundreds of templates available, so find one that you like and that will be easy to read, fax, and email. Keep a digital version of it available and practice making small adjustments to your basic resume to fine tune it for a different opportunity.

In the example, how would Mark revise his resume to apply for a job as a booking agent assistant, or an assistant to a tour manager?

Remember, fine tuning your job objective immediately signals the reader you know where you are headed with respect to their firm.

Quality Control
Above all, be *sure* that you craft your resume carefully and have it proofread by a few different persons who have a strong command of language, spelling and punctuation. There’s nothing that turns off an employer faster than a resume filled with mistakes. They’ll rightly believe that this is the level of care you’ll devote to their customers, knocking you out of the running right away.

Inside the Print Music Publishing Industry at Hal Leonard

khatschek — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 10:23:38 -0800

Inside the Print Music Publishing Industry at Hal LeonardIn today’s fast-paced information age, printed music is still a vital part of the music industry and offers various career opportunities for savvy musicians. In this interview, David Jahnke, Vice President of National Sales for Hal Leonard Corporation—one of the world’s premier print music publishers—shares his experiences getting into the music industry, as well as what skills and attributes he seeks out in new hires at Hal Leonard.

He started out wanting to play the trumpet but ended up with a pair of drumsticks in his hands and the ambition and drive to play his way through high school and college where he prepared himself for success in life and in the music industry. As some of the other interviews have suggested, skills and training are key building blocks to having a successful career in the music industry, but the so-called soft skills, such as attitude, conversational ability, and willingness to go the extra mile for a customer are equally important according to this interviewee.

What drew you to a life in music?

I would say that my Mom and Dad were the biggest influencing factors in getting me into music. My dad played saxophone in high school, but by the time I was born, he was no longer a practicing musician. Both my parents sang (and still sing) in the church choir. I remember going on family vacations and having sing-alongs in the car instead of listening to the radio. My first memory of singing a solo was at a Christmas Eve service when I was 5. My musical endeavors took a turn in third grade when I started guitar lessons. When fifth grade rolled around I wanted to play trumpet. Unfortunately, by the time they called my name for the audition, they already had twenty trumpet players. The instructor said she needed drummers so I took the rhythm test. I passed and I’ve never looked back.

Can you recall your first paying gig?

My first paying gig was when I was in eighth grade. There was a group of high school freshman that had a band and for some reason their drummer couldn’t make a gig. They heard about this kid who was a year younger and asked me if I wanted to sub. They were playing at the Knights of Columbus Hall for a private party, so I went in with one or two rehearsals and we played. They liked it so much that they kicked out their regular drummer, and we ended up playing together throughout high school. They became my best friends, and we had a blast together.

How much did you guys make for the gig?

I think I came home with around $20. They paid the whole band about $100.

In addition to your parents, were there other early mentors who influenced you?

One man in particular, Dennis Glocke, my seventh-grade band instructor. I remember him because he had the ability to connect to kids of that age—very demanding but patient and inspirational. What I remember most is that he made playing in the band fun. My next major influence was my high school band director, A.J. Hoefer, who was extremely demanding—in fact, downright intimidating! I kept practicing and made it into the Wind Ensemble, which was the top band, which you had to audition for. I then progressed up to section leader in eleventh grade. As the section leader, he demanded that you show up to rehearsals 10 to 15 minutes early every day to set up and tune all the percussion instruments. I had to strobe tune the tympani three times a week to make sure they were in tune with themselves. He was very strict, but…

He was treating you guys like professionals.

Exactly, and that started me down a different path. I learned that music can be fun—but it can also be made into a career, if you push yourself. So I started taking more private lessons, and I had many teachers who helped guide me. But these two helped to get me focused and in the right frame of mind for a career in music. In retrospect, they taught me that anything worthwhile takes practice and discipline. Talent will only get you so far.

What kinds of training or skills have been helpful to you as your career has developed?

College was a big factor in getting me to where I am today. I believe college teaches one main skill: Time Management. I didn’t know it at the time but college forces you to prioritize between the stuff that needs to get done and the stuff you want to do, like socializing. I only wish someone would have communicated this to me during my freshman year! I feel I did okay, but no one really teaches time management, and that is vital to any career.As I was about to graduate with a degree in Music Merchandising and Audio Engineering, I visited my academic advisor. He said; “Yep, you have enough credits to graduate. Congratulations. I’ve got absolutely nothing for you job-wise. Good luck with your music degree.” So I started looking around on my own. I still needed to do an “internship,” so I looked at three options. At that point, there was Universal Recording Studios in Chicago. I had an option to work there as an unpaid gofer, from midnight through 8 a.m. I looked at moving to Grand Rapids, MI to work in the Yamaha warehouse. My job would have been putting heads on tympanis as they were coming in from overseas. The last option was based on a really good relationship I had with a local music store in Appleton: Tony’s Drum Shop. Tony Wagner, the owner, knew me pretty well because I bought a lot of gear from him. He was a sole proprietor, with two locations: Appleton and Green Bay. He knew I was going through the music-merchandising program, so I showed up on the day of graduation and said, “Tony, I need a job.” He said “Perfect timing. My manager is moving to Minneapolis in a week, and I’m going on a USO tour to Germany. I need someone to take over store management. So what do you think?” As it turned out, that retail music store experience was the best thing I could have done. I cannot stress how important it is for music business students—regardless of where they want to go or what they want to do or what organization they want to get a job in—a retail experience is the best thing they could ever do. If you are in college and looking for a part-time job, go work in a music store. It’s so vital. It’s the only way you can really understand what’s going on in the industry. Communication is the key to success in any organization. I know there are musicians out there who don’t want to go into sales as a career, and that’s fine. There are many opportunities within the music industry, but the only way to get a job is to sell yourself. Competition in the job market is fierce, and if you can’t communicate and sell your abilities, you’ll be passed over regardless of your talent.

Can you take us from starting at the drum shop, up through today, at Hal Leonard? There were some stops along the way, I’m guessing.

Working at Tony’s was a great experience. I was also playing in three different bands and teaching private lessons. I had the ideal life of a bachelor and then that one fateful day happened: I got married. My wife was in her last year of college and money was really tight. I started thinking that there has to be something more I could do. I loved the drum shop, but because it was a smaller location my only career path there would have been to buy it. If I knew then what I know now, I may have taken that chance but at the time, I didn’t think I had the skill-set to take on a business of my own. So I started looking at different career paths. I applied at pretty much every drum company I dealt with. Companies like Purecussion, Tama, Zildjian, Yamaha….I started researching the “who’s who of the music industry” and came across Hal Leonard, a company I knew about because we stocked their books. I didn’t know who to contact there, so I ended up sending my application and letter of introduction to a man by the name of Keith Mardak. I had no idea who Keith was at the time—ignorance is bliss. [Author’s Note: Keith Mardak was Hal Leonard’s Chairman, CEO and President. He still holds the position of Chairman and CEO.] Two weeks after I sent my résumés, I started an active phone campaign. That is the one thing that college grads just don’t seem to do today. I called everybody that I sent a résumé to, just to see if they received it. I think Hal Leonard was third on my list of people to call, so I called and asked for Keith. His assistant answered and said Keith was busy. I left a message and to my surprise, ten minutes later Keith called me back. He said, “David, I heard you called.” I said, “Hi, Mr. Mardak, my name is David Jahnke and I work at Tony’s Drum Shop. I sent a résumé and I just wanted to make sure you received it.” He replied with “Oh yeah, I remember it. Tell you what, I’m going to have our National Sales Manager, Larry Morton, give you a phone call.” Twenty minutes later, Larry called me! I was blown away. Sure enough, two days later I was down in Milwaukee for my first interview. That was the day I cut my hair and bought my first suit. I didn’t know if Hal Leonard was a suit and tie company, but I was going to show up in a suit and tie anyway.

You decided to err on the side of caution.

Right. It’s always better to be overdressed than underdressed. As it ended up, Hal Leonard was a suit and tie company. I had my interview with Larry, and to this day he says—and I find it true—you know within the first few minutes of the interview whether or not someone is a candidate for your organization. I passed the interview and started one week later. Even with my college degree and three years of music retail management under my belt, I started out at the lowest position on the Hal Leonard sales team: Telesales. An entry-level position handling incoming sales calls. Now, if you would have talked to me when I was working at Tony’s and said, “Hey David, I’m looking at my crystal ball and I see you working for a print music publisher, spending 90% of your day talking on the phone,” I would have answered, “No way! Give me drums or give me death!” Well, I found that I actually like talking on the phone and helping people solve their problems. I also came to realize that Hal Leonard was an exceptionally well-run organization. From the people I worked with to the products they offered, it was beyond expectation. I subscribed to their way of thinking and within three months, moved from Telesales to District Sales Manager responsible for a territory. Hal Leonard helped me to realize that I had a passion for helping customers and that I had a natural ability of turning negative situations into positive. For me, I just had fun getting to know people from all over North America. That’s what Larry saw within those first three months that I had worked here. I had fun and made it a point to have fun doing whatever I was doing. I’ll tell you, it was a blast having my own territory. I love connecting with dealers at that level. You get to see what’s working for them and give them ideas on ways that they can improve. While Hal Leonard is a good-sized, successful corporation, we are still very much a people-oriented, friendly, person-to-person music business.

The music products business is very much one-on-one, there’s no question about it.

That is what makes the music industry so much fun. We are all frustrated musicians happy to have day jobs! From District Sales Manager, I stepped up to Senior District Sales Manager. In the mid ’90s, Hal Leonard launched a new joint venture company called Hal Leonard Europe. Larry needed someone to be the liaison with our international counterparts, so I volunteered. In ’98, I was promoted to National Sales Manager and instead of having my own territory, I now helped other District Sales Managers with their responsibilities. A year later, I was promoted to Vice President, National Sales, which is my current position. I oversee North America sales, our call center, and our distribution partners. I’ve been with Hal Leonard for fifteen years, and my job changes every day. It’s exciting, fast-paced, fun, and I love it! But my favorite part is still visiting dealers—in fact, this week I was out in New Jersey, going out on the road with one of our reps visiting stores. Last week, I was out in North Carolina doing more of the same.

So, now you’re the mentor, passing on ideas, techniques, and strategies for success.

Our reps are all very knowledgeable, but yes, we share what we can about what works in retailing. Print music is the unwanted stepchild of the music industry because most stores, unless they’re hugely dedicated to print, are really into the combo gear. They understand the importance of print but they don’t like to deal with products that have an average retail price of $14.95. It’s just not as exciting to sell something that’s $14.95 as compared to selling a piece of gear at $300-$800. What they’re finding with print and accessories however, is that the margins, just like a grocery store, are best on the staples. At the local grocer, a customer puts his purchase on the counter, but they don’t ask, “Hey, can I buy this loaf of bread you’ve marked at $2.49 for $1?” Think about it. That is what happens with combo gear. Everything is price negotiable. With print, if the product is listed at $14.95, the customer will gladly give you $14.95.

So that’s a new tactic a retailer can look at and think, “Although it’s going to take me a little longer to sell $1000 worth of print than a guitar and amp, that $1000 in print is going to have a better margin on it, one I don’t have to haggle over or match an Internet price point.

Right, and for some of the stores that do commission-based sales, the sales reps are starting to realize that as well. In commission-based retail sales, the employee gets paid based on profit margins. A sales person can improve their weekly commissions by selling 5, 6, 7 books a day, whereas they may only sell a $300 guitar once a week. The “step-child” mentality is starting to turn around. Print is all about profit per square inch and GMROI (Gross Margin Return on Investment). Really, if I had paid more attention in my accounting class in college and learned about GMROI, I would have probably purchased Tony’s Drum Shop. Most storeowners are musicians that simply need a good accounting lesson.

Could you describe your day-to-day work?

My job changes every day. As a VP, I have a business plan that I need to execute but as a manager, I have 38 people who come first. One of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever received was from Keith when I accepted the National Sales Manager role. He told me: “If you let the administrative side of your job take priority over the people you manage, you will fail.” I repeat this phrase daily, and it helps me to keep things in perspective. People are our greatest asset. We have great people, and my biggest responsibility is to help them grow. It’s not easy, but it’s very rewarding. The last part of my job is to handle difficult situations or customers. Every company will stumble from time to time, but I love being able to solve problems and flip situations around to everyone’s benefit.

Let’s talk about an entry-level position at Hal Leonard. First of all, how many employees are at Hal Leonard?

We have about 350 employees. The majority, about 230 people, are in our Winona (MN) facility. Winona houses our printing, distribution, accounts payable, and warehouse operations. The rest are here in Milwaukee where we have the pre-press, business affairs, sales, and marketing operations. By pre-press, I mean editorial, transcribing, engraving, and graphic design. There are many entry-level positions in both facilities. In Milwaukee, the largest division is the sales team, so we have the greatest need for entry-level people. Our sales lines are open Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. until 9:00 p.m., as well as Saturdays and Sundays 9 to 5. Telesales/Customer Service is a perfect entry-level position.To work in editorial, you need to have (musical) chops. You need to have the ability to put on headphones, listen to a song, and edit what the transcribers give you to make sure it’s accurate. Our editors need to have a higher level of musical ability than our sales team. Each area—business affairs department, sales, graphic design—requires specialized skills. But in sales, I can generally bring in people who are looking for a career in the music industry and set them on a career path.

As far as hiring telesales staff, what do you look for?

You’ve heard the phrase that there are three things that will sell your house: location, location, location. There are three things that will sell me on a potential telesales candidate: attitude, attitude, attitude. During the first interview, I’ll look at the candidate’s body language, how they greet me when I go down to meet them and the elevator conversation. My office is on the second floor, so we take the elevator and I purposely stop talking as the elevator door closes. My goal is to see how long the candidate will let the silence go on. If they let it go on the whole elevator ride, I know this person is not good for sales. I’m looking to see if they can draw a conversation out of me. If they can do that, I know I have somebody who can have a career in sales.

So does Hal Leonard offer internships?

At this point, we don’t, but it’s something we are investigating. I have a lot of friends that teach music business and music merchandising classes. I’ve told them to let us know when they have a prospective student that is interested in what we do. I’ll usually do an informal phone interview to find out if they might fit. If they have the right skills and attitude, I’ll set up a regular interview, which can lead to full-time employment.

Down the line, five to ten years, where do you see career opportunities?

There are great career opportunities in music, in publishing, and in sales. There will always be a need for people who are energetic and can be the voice and the face of Hal Leonard. Print music may change and the delivery of music will change. But [PQ: having the need for people who can communicate will never change. As long as there are products to sell, we’ll need outgoing people to spread the word.]

Any Yoda-like final thoughts for the readers?

If you think you have the ability, then you need to go out and let other people know that you are something special. You cannot let a résumé speak for you. Find out who the decision-maker is in the business and call them, even if it’s just for an informational interview. If someone is looking for a career in sales, that’s huge. Doing this will pretty much guarantee you an interview at most music companies. If you can turn the informational interview into a conversation where the decision-maker is talking more about themselves than the job, you’ve hit a home run.

This interview is an excerpt from “How To Get a Job in the Music Industry,” by Keith Hatschek, published by Berklee Press.

Career of the Month: Composer

khatschek — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 12:47:41 -0800

Career of the Month: Composer

Article:

Welcome to a new Artists House Music feature!

Each month, we'll be learning more about a particular music career, providing you with an inside look at what it takes to develop a successful career in music within a specific area. For November, we'll be chatting with an accomplished film composer, Jeanine Cowen, and learning that her skilled writing and arranging music is only one aspect of the talents one must develop to make it today as a composer.

Jeanine's Backstory

As owner of her own film and video scoring firm, JMC Music, Inc., Jeanine Cowen is uniquely qualified to talk about the dual track career of a composer/entrepreneur. A classically trained percussionist, she first became captivated with film scoring when a college friend asked her to write music to accompany a short film. She loved the nuance and power that music could bring to the art of film making.

Jeanine has resided in Boston for 20 years, tapping the city’s exceptional array of musical talent to perform on her soundtracks including members of the renowned Boston Symphony Orchestra. She maintains writing and production studios in Boston and LA to service her stable of film, TV, and game development clients. She also teaches Pro Tools for Berkleemusic.com, within the Music Production and Engineering department on the Berklee campus and is heading up a new Recording Arts program at the Center for Digital Imaging Arts located at Boston University, which has the potential to link young composers and filmmakers together just as each are beginning their careers.

In this interview, she references the points in her career where she has had to rely on making a “leap of faith.” It is clear that for Jeanine, these leaps have led to an expanding range of musical possibilities and accomplishments.

How did you discover your interest in a career in music?

Well, I can’t even tell you when I didn’t imagine having a career in music.

Did you grow up in a musical family?

It’s not so much that I had a musical family but that I was always interested in music. I started playing drums at a very young age. My family always encouraged me. The school system I went through had a very strong music program, which was wonderful for me. I started private lessons in third grade and then continued to play from there on out.

You studied classical percussion at Northwestern and then switched over to Berklee. Then you ended up studying at Berklee in music production and engineering, and then also added the film scoring degree?

Northwestern is a fine program and when I went there, I wanted to be an orchestral player. After a few years I realized my passion was really with film scoring. The only two film scoring programs were really at Berklee and USC. Once I landed at Berklee and I saw the MP&E department, it was the best of any world that I could imagine.

What was your first paying job or gig in the music industry?

My first paying gig was playing in the pit orchestra for a local music theater organization when I was in school. I vividly remember getting paid for that first gig!

What kind of shows were you playing for?

Oh, you know, we did Fiddler on the Roof, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat, all of that stuff. This was while I was in high school.

You started playing music at an early age, so as your career has unfolded, what skills have been helpful to you along the way?

Every piece has been helpful to me along the way. Being able to read music has been huge. I started composing when I was in high school—being able to orchestrate and arrange and think about what other musicians need and can do has been important to me, and I think it has led to me being more comfortable in the studio and being able to get out of the musicians what I need from them. The other thing that was actually key for me was my education at Berklee—forcing myself to think out of that classical box and thinking about improvisation and jazz. Having an experience with a lot of different genres of music has led to me being a much more versatile film composer. You never know what you’re going to be writing. You need to be able to deliver. You need to be competent in a lot of genres.

So being a film composer or orchestrator is actually a generalist job because every filmmaker comes to you with a different set of challenges.

And you also need to know your own deficiencies, so you can go out and hire or consult with people who will be able to deliver the pieces you can’t.

Early on, were there some mentors who influenced you, who helped shape your direction?

My high school band director really instilled a love for music and also the confidence that I could actually make a career out of it. Beyond that, I think my two private instructors, who were both college educators, had a big influence. They were remarkable because they pushed me to be a better player than anyone else was. It’s very important to be the best player that you can be. At Berklee, George Monseur and Danny Harrington, who taught the core music classes, and the entire MP&E department. And then the whole Berklee vibe—that’s really where I learned to listen. People don’t talk much about hearing and listening but they are critical skills and rightly emphasized at Berklee.

You started freelancing in high school. What’s it been like to be the person in charge of your next job… and the next?

I’ve been freelance almost my whole career. There was a brief stop when I was employed at a game company. Besides that year, I’ve been working for myself. It started with an internship with another film composer, Mason Daring, which turned into my first scoring job. Working for him and seeing him work was really an in incredibly eye-opening experience. It informed me as to how you are successful as a film composer.

So having an apprenticeship with someone already scoring films gave you a good idea that there’s more to it than just sitting down at a computer and sketching out scores.

Oh yeah! It’s this way in a lot of the industry. Many times, as a film composer, you write something that you normally wouldn’t write if left to your own devices. You are, in the end, working for someone else. You need to be able to meld your intuition with what their needs are.

Was it scary leaving school and realizing, “I’m responsible for my next paycheck, I’ve got to find my next client, I’ve got to open a business bank account?” Was there a point when you thought, “Wow, this is a big challenge,” or was it a straightforward evolution?

It was a challenge for a long time! When you’re working for yourself and you are really the master of what happens to you, you have to have a leap of faith. You have to be able to say, “I know it’s going to work out.”

One of the things I learned is that I have to have at least a month or two of living expenses in the bank, so when it comes to the end of a project, I don’t freak out and take a project I wouldn’t necessarily take otherwise. I think that the payoff of working for yourself is incredible. Being able to guide yourself to the projects that you are more drawn to makes a huge difference. As a composer, you have to write music that comes from within you. Having projects you connect to allows you to do that. If you’re writing for a project that you don’t truly believe in, you’re going to have a hard time being convincing.

That’s important in creative careers anywhere. You need to have a sense of passion to go along with each commission.

The one thing that kind of got me through all of that—and it took me many years to realize this—is there are a lot of qualified film composers who on some level you are competing with, but if I write your score, I’m the only one who can write that score.

What is a typical day for you?

My typical day is a combination of writing music but then being an administrator of my business. You have to pay the bills, write the checks, make the calls. And then, there’s a certain amount of troubleshooting that seems to happen every single day. If I get to spend half of my day writing music, I’m really happy about it.

Composing is a fundamental part of the business, but it isn’t the whole business.

Yeah, and I think that’s the difference. You are a musician in a business. You’re not a hobbyist; you’re actually running a business. And that’s the same whether you’re working for somebody else or you’re running your own business. There are certain things that have to happen because you have clients.

What part of your work gives you the greatest satisfaction?

The struggle is always worth it, but probably the two things that I really love are being in the studio with musicians—making music with other people is an amazing experience, especially when you have this commonality of the final goal—and the other thing is actually seeing that final product and how it really does add to the final experience.

Talk about your first film scoring gig. How did you land it, how did you find out about it, how did it go, and what was it?

My first film-scoring gig was a feature film called Home Before Dark. I got it because the filmmaker had called Mason Daring and he simply didn’t have time so he recommended me. It was unbelievable. The filmmaker, Maureen Foley, and I just got along really, really well. It was a low budget film, but it was done very well. I still listen to the score and I don’t know how I wrote it. One of the cues in the score I wrote the night before the session, early in the morning.

Your résumé also includes a bit of work in the videogaming community. Is it a very different kind of composing and client management exercise from film?

Well, I think it’s different because if you’re working for a development company, it’s much more structured and they have milestones you need to meet. The collaboration is very different because you are frequently working with the visual artists, the animators, and the development team. As much as the film industry is very team based, it’s not as much face time. [PQ: Composing for film can be a very solitary position.] And it can be a much longer process.

Talking about a career as a composer, can you identify a few key skills or attributes someone should be strengthening or developing?

An ability just to make deadlines is enormous. You can’t be the one to miss deadlines or you just won’t get hired again. You really have to have a passion for the music you are writing so you can’t let yourself get talked into writing a score for something you’re really not into. You need to be able to figure out a new angle. If the client wants something you are just not willing to deliver, you need to figure out why that is and how you can work it to something that you can deliver.

How long did your apprenticeship last with Mason Daring?

It was just a few years. It was a couple of years on and off. And then for the next few years, he would hire me on and off for projects that were very specific.

Do you think a composer coming out of school today will have a hard time finding someone to apprentice with or mentor them? What do you think the next step would be once you’ve gotten a degree in film scoring?

I think it’s changed drastically since I got out of school. There are a couple of ways to go. There are definitely composers who need help; the thing is, they’re not going to advertise for a film composer to help write. They need somebody to get their system up and running, they need engineers, they need music editors. I think that those positions are really valuable for the same reason I really enjoyed working with Mason—to just get in the door and watch. I would suggest though, that if you get in that position, set a time frame so you’re only doing that for so long. The other possibility is really you can set up shop and have a sign that says “I am a film composer” on your door and really start going after the independent films that are happening around the country. Go out there and do your best. One of the things about being a film composer is you have to build up a clientele. A great thing for me is I have directors who do projects every few years but they always call me.

I’m working on a film right now with Roland Tec, which is the third project we’ve done. I won’t pass up a score from one of the filmmakers I’ve had a long-term relationship with.

You have to build up this group of people who love what you do. Start out with the indie films. Don’t promise them a fifty-piece orchestra. Promise them two or three key players that you know will work hard for you.

It seems as if we’re getting more visual media, and more ways to distribute visual media. Do you think long term there will be good career opportunities for people who want to work in the visual arts, or do you think there will be a glut with way more people trying to get into the industry than there are actual jobs out there?

I think that in the creative fields, there has always been a glut of people trying to get in. You have to be persistent and willing to stay in there for the long haul. The assumption is that you have the talent, but the question is whether you can hang around long enough to make it. So if you have a long-term goal, maybe you won’t be a full-time film composer right away, but that long-term goal is that in ten years you will be, so you can work toward that. I think there’s always been a glut. But if you are persistent and believe in your music, people will start to believe with you.

Looking back at your career to date is there anything you wish you knew from the outset that you know today?

Wow . . . I think that the thing I didn’t know was I was going to be a business person. I assumed I would just be writing music, and I wouldn’t have to worry about money and worry about contracts and all that sort of stuff. You have to have a business sense. You have to be willing to think about your contracts and think about your bank account and think about all of that stuff.

Is there a Yoda-like last thought to share with someone who’s going to start on a quest to become a composer?

The thing that I’ve realized—and it’s happened to me many times in my career—these moments are going to happen when you really need to make a leap of faith. You really have to believe in yourself. You have to just go for it. If you don’t go for it, then you’re gonna wonder for the next ten years if you should have just gone for it. You also have to realize that when the work comes, be prepared to do it. Don’t pass on a job with a previous client unless you absolutely have to.

The other thing that I’ve been very fortunate to grasp is that your life is actually happening at every moment. As much as you need to be dedicated to your craft, you can’t let your life slip by unattended. You need a community around you. Don’t alienate yourself in your own world.

Thanks very much, Jeanine, for sharing these insights!

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Ethics in the Music Business

khatschek — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 21:11:24 -0800

Ethics in the Music Business

The title of this article is not a misprint.

The legendary gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson wrote, “the music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side."

Thompson was accurately portraying a small slice of the music industry, one in which incentives are seemingly provided for doing “bad” onto others. That incentive, in almost every case, is quick money. Contrary to Thompson’s colorful description, as a 35-year industry veteran, I’m pleased to say that 98% of my experience in the business has been with professional, ethical colleagues and companies. They realize that in the long-term, treating others with a modicum of respect and consideration will bring in more positive benefits than taking every opportunity to stick it to your neighbor (we’ll get to the other 2% near the end of this article).

Here are a few reasons why ethics, fair play and common sense will get you further in the music industry than lying, cheating or stealing in an attempt to make it to the top.

It’s a Small Industry

Compared to the computer industry, the defense industry, or even the alcohol industry, the music industry is a small market. U.S. record sales in 2005 amounted to roughly $12 billion in retail value. By comparison, packaged alcohol sales represent roughly $80 billion while the current U.S. defense budget is $439 billion.

Due to the relatively small nature of the music industry, people tend to collaborate often on various projects and the old saying, “Burn me once, shame on you; burn me twice, shame on me,” really does apply.

Here’s a hypothetical example. Let’s say you are helping to manage a local band and that the all ages show you just wrapped up provided for the band to receive 50% of the door charge of $5.00. 100 people paid to attend the show and as the club owner is counting out the band’s share, his cell phone rings and he hands you what he thinks is half of the night’s revenue, $250. As he talks, you realize that there is an extra $50 bill. You are holding $300.

Welcome to the world of ethical dilemmas!

What you do at that moment may determine not only how much money the band goes home with that night, but also whether or not you, and the band, will be welcome back at that club or at other clubs in the region. So although it might seem like you are “getting away” with something by pocketing the extra $50, you are probably doing more long-term damage to your reputation than the money is worth.

Why Your Reputation is So Important

Ultimately, no matter how talented you might be as a performer, manager, technician or composer, the values you employ in your daily activities will either make people view you as a trusted resource or as someone who is unreliable, or worse, dishonest.

Now let me share a real world example with you. Sid was an amazing drummer, able to quickly play any style of music, read charts well, and fit into a variety of ensemble settings. Back in the day when I was working professionally as a recording engineer and producer, I hired Sid a few times to play on recording sessions, but quickly found out that Sid usually arrived late, was often easily distracted, and often complained about how little he was earning on the session to the client! It only took a few sessions before I realized that hiring Sid was a liability.

I replaced Sid as my first call with Casey. He didn’t play quite as well as Sid, but he showed up early for every session, went out of his way to stay focused and engaged in the recording process, and made it a point to politely introduce himself to clients and when appropriate, compliment them on their songwriting or musical ideas. About a year later, Casey had moved to LA and quickly became an in-demand session drummer. All based on his reputation as a reliable, steady player.

What about Sid? He’s no longer a working musician. His poor reputation had quite a bit to do with his change of career.

One Career Ladder Up… and Down

As you climb the career ladder in the music industry, you’ll meet a variety of characters, some good, and some bad. There may be a few persons who may try to take advantage of you or secure what might be seen by someone with more experience as an unfair advantage (remember that other 2%?). They may try to rip you off in a variety of ways. The best defense against getting ripped off is learning about how the business of music works. Regularly visiting this web site and learning from the experts on it will help you protect yourself.

Another reason to consider having a sense of fairness and ethics is that the ladder you ascend on the way up your career is the same one you may take in the phase of your career where your popularity or success may decline. So the very same people you either treated fairly and ethically, or unfairly and unethically, will once again be booking you into a club, considering whether or not to play your song on the radio, or to hire you back as an assistant in their office.

Much like “Sid,” if you burned your bridges ethically or otherwise, you probably don’t stand much of a chance of getting any opportunity to work or play because most people have a long memory for those who didn’t act fairly.

A Secret Weapon

Since the music industry is an exceedingly competitive industry, why wouldn’t someone want to take any advantage possible, ethical or not, to “win” at the music career game? Because fair and ethical behavior is a type of secret weapon. Assuming that you have a basic sense of right and wrong, operating ethically, realizing there will be moral dilemmas you will face in your career, and being able to stand up and take the actions that you feel are best for you but also don’t hurt others needlessly, you will be building up an arsenal of good will among other professionals that you encounter.

And when the day comes, and it will most definitely arrive, that you are in a difficult spot or need a favor from an individual or a company, your track record of ethical behavior may be the deciding factor in getting the help or advice that you need to move ahead.

It’s certain that if you’ve burned people, you won’t get the time of day when the chips are down.

So hand the extra $50 back to the club booker. You’ll be going a long way to building a reputation as someone who can be trusted and is in the business for the long haul.

Doing the right thing isn’t always easy.

But it has short- and long-term benefits that make it worth the investment.

Nobody Loves A Starving Musician: Seven Rules To Getting Your Music Career on the Fast Track

amosher — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 08:32:22 -0700

Nobody Loves A Starving Musician: Seven Rules To Getting Your Music Career on the Fast Track

Have you ever been a starving musician? Not metaphorically, but in reality.

It’s no fun.

Wondering where this month’s rent money is going to come from, scrounging up change in the sofa to put gas in your car to get to an audition, hoping that a string doesn’t break during the gig…

You get the idea. It isn’t pretty.

But most musicians know that no one goes from unknown artist to self-sufficient professional overnight. So how DO you do it?

Here are seven rules that will help you make the transition from someone with talent to someone with talent and a level of financial self-sufficiency. Someone who is well on their way to building a successful career in music.

Rule 1: Always Bring Your “A” Game

Making the decision to spend your life as a professional musician is a big commitment. Once you’ve made that decision, you need to focus on bringing your “A” game to every interaction that impacts your music studies, performances, networking and other points of contact with what we loosely call the music industry.

Never put a half-hearted effort into anything musical. First, the competition to get work and keep working is fierce in every city and town in the world. Second, since so much of the music industry is based on personal relationships and reputations, if word gets out that you gave a weak effort at a gig or rehearsal, chances are you may not be getting a call back in the future.

Rule 2: Get Out of Your Practice Room

Isn’t practicing supposed to be the road to musical success, more gigs and maybe even superstardom? Well, no, it’s not.

Actually, your musical chops, whether you are a shred guitarist or a composer of madrigals, is only one part of your overall career skill set. Not to say that playing, singing, of composing extremely well is not absolutely essential. It is.

But there are thousands of talented guitarists who can play every lick by whoever the hot guitarist of the month but seldom play a gig. Why?

They spend their lives studying music, perfecting their skills, however they are unfortunately violating one of the most important rules of music career building. You must develop connections to people and institutions (think clubs, radio stations, booking agents, other bands, etc.) that are like-minded and can help you.

So if you’ve been spending 4 hours every night after work practicing, take one night a week off and get out and meet some music professionals. Ask around your local music store or music school about meeting up with some people who are interested in similar types of music, careers, etc. Find a club that hires bands like yours to play, go to a show, get the phone number of the booker and get your promo kit into their hands.

Most importantly, find a way to learn how other musicians and music industry professionals have become successful and what advice they might offer you to build your own career. (Hey, you’ve found Artist’s House, so you’re already well on your way to learning more about building your career!)

Rule 3: Nurture Your Network

All of us have a network of friends, family, and most of us have various professional connections. This is your current network. To fast track your career you need to continually work to expand your network, adding persons who can help you grow your career and you need to keep in touch with your network.

Social networking sites such as MySpace.com have created excellent opportunities for musicians and bands to create, grow and profit from an expansive network. But MySpace is primarily a fan-oriented medium. Additionally, you also need a closer group of individuals who will offer support, guidance, keep an ear open for opportunities that may help you, and even offer a shoulder to cry on from time to time. Call this the “inner orbit” of your network.

Start today by making a list of everyone who you would consider supporting your music career goals and ambitions. Then, set a goal of adding a few people each month to your network, as well as giving support and aid to the members of your network. In more than 30 years in the music industry, I’ve found that the vast majority of gigs and jobs were the result of a personal connection, rarely from a job listing.

Ignore your network and you are condemning your music career to the slowest possible track.

Rule 4: Get A Music Industry Day Gig

This is counterintuitive to many talented young artists. Why should I get a day gig when I could/should be practicing my brains out, much less a music industry day gig? (Re read the first few sentences of the article, OK?)

Aside from keeping home and hearth together, using your love, knowledge and passion for music to help a music industry company meet some of their goals is a fantastic way to expand your network, and learn more about an area of the industry that you will be involved in when your career takes off.

For example, a rock musician may learn quite a bit about record distribution or radio airplay by working at a well-managed record store or a radio station that features the types of music you perform.

An aspiring opera singer can learn a tremendous amount about how opera companies or other non-profit arts organizations are managed by working for an opera, theater company or orchestra.

An aspiring jazz drummer may forge many useful connections by teaching beginning drummers at a well-managed music store, opening up the opportunities to meet drum manufacturers, clinicians and other drum and percussion professionals.

Remember, flipping burgers is not likely to help your career onto the fast track we all want to be on.

Rule 5: Get Educated

Are you in school right now studying music? If so, congratulate yourself. You are investing in your future success and should make the most out of every opportunity to connect with teachers, fellow students and professionals who have contact with your program. Of course, you attend every master class at your school for performers, no matter what instrument, right?

Through with school? Not to worry, there are literally thousands of opportunities each month around the world to continue to learn about music careers at conferences, seminars, workshops, clinics and the like. How do you find out what opportunities are available in your area? See rule 3. If you’ve been building and nurturing your network, you’re already in the know.

One final element pertaining to your musical education is that everyone in music can benefit from a mentor. Did you know that even the highest paid opera singers in the world have a voice coach on whom they rely to keep their performance in tip-top shape? Who are your mentors?

Rules 6a, 6b & 6c: Be Humble, Self-Aware and Self-Critical

Getting up on stage in front of ten people or an audience of 10,000 takes courage. If you are very talented, it’s easy to “believe the hype” that may be swirling around after a particularly successful concert or club gig.

Don’t do it.

Remember, there’s always someone who plays, sings, arranges, or composes better than you. Not to diminish your musical accomplishments in any way, but remember to be humble, because everyone in the industry would prefer to support a talented artist who is striving to be the best they can, rather than a stuffy, egomaniacal artist who causes everyone backstage to roll their eyes when she or he struts past.

People also love to see a windbag fail, but will often make considerable sacrifices to help out a centered, respectful and humble new artist.

Being self-aware is a wonderful life skill for everyone, but especially so for musicians. When you play your instrument, what is your body language conveying to the audience? Are you loving or hating the piece you play?

When you go to meet with a potential agent, are you prepared, confident and able to communicate what you can offer as a musician? Or are you nervous, edgy and feeling naked in front of the world?

Know yourself, and your level of preparedness for whatever the next step you are about to take in your career.

Being self-critical means taking your work as a musician seriously and providing yourself with the tools and time to evaluate your own efforts. This can be as simple as making a tape of the piece you have been learning and listening back to it to identify which spots still need work, to asking a trusted colleague or music teacher to offer you some constructive criticism after your next show.

Remember, to a musician, there is really no such thing as a perfect performance, instead successful musicians learn how to create a situation each time they perform for an optimal performance on that day, time and place.

Rule 7: Keep Your Sense of Humor

Did anyone tell you the music industry is a pretty crazy way to make a living? One minute your life can be filled with the rapture of a musical triumph, and the next day you’ll be wallowing in agonizing doubt because you didn’t get a call back for a crucial audition.

In order to cope with the stress and struggle of a career in music it is absolutely essential that you maintain a sense of humor, as well as a few non-musical outlets to allow you to keep on an even keel.

Take these seven rules and start building your professional music career today. Nobody likes a starving musician but everyone wants to support a young artist on the way up in his or her career.

Take charge of your career and good things will start to happen. Really. Endnote: The author gratefully acknowledges the inspiration for performers that can be found in Angela Beeching’s excellent book titled, “Beyond Talent,” which goes into much greater depth on how to become a peak musical performer.

Four Tips to Market Yourself

amosher — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 18:50:13 -0700

Four Tips to Market Yourself

One of the most overlooked strategies for landing a job in the music industry is to plan and execute an effective marketing program to market the latest, greatest product… you!

Assuming you’ve done your research on the companies you’re most interested in, and you’ve put together a strong résumé to highlight the accomplishments, education and experience you’ve built up so far in your career, it’s now time to show a prospective employer the benefit of your actions, not just list the job or internship you completed.

Doing so is the single, most powerful asset you can communicate as you search for your dream job. It’s not that you had an internship at a record label, it’s what you did while you were working as an intern at that record label that helped the company meet or exceed their goals that will get the attention of your future boss.

When it comes to marketing yourself as a strong candidate for any music industry job, keep these four tips in mind:

1. Bring enthusiasm. Your “A-game” must include a dash of enthusiasm for the professional life you envision in the music industry. Don’t be afraid to speak about your interests and passion for the music industry, showing off some of the industry knowledge you’ve gained as you’ve prepared yourself for your career.

2. Communicate the measurable benefits previous employers enjoyed due to your efforts. Again, emphasize what you have done that has helped someone else achieve his or her goals. Remember, volunteer work, clubs, and civic organizations are all valid ways to show off your ability to make a difference on a project or in the work place.

3. Follow up religiously. Don’t waste your hard work preparing and submitting a strong case in the form of a résumé and cover letter to a prospective employer and then miss out on an opportunity because you didn’t follow up. Generally, most employers will be willing to give you an update as to their progress on a hire-in-progress. Just remember to be polite and not overly aggressive in your follow up. (Calling three times a day is way too much!) Following up also gives you the added opportunity to showcase your professional phone and email skills.

4. As your career develops, highlight your progressive career growth. Remember to at least mention your early successes in the music industry, as a forward-thinking employer is often not only searching for the best person to fill an existing position, they may also be looking a few years ahead and wondering if the latest new hire has the talent, skills and drive to become a company leader. If you show that you have been able to successfully assume more responsibility as your career develops, you will likely be a candidate for such “management” consideration.

Keeping these four tactics in mind now and using them throughout your working life in the entertainment business will help you get to the head of the class as you develop your career.

What Does It Take to Be a Recording Engineer?

khatschek — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 18:01:24 -0700

What Does It Take to Be a Recording Engineer?

If you are wondering what it would take to break into the industry as a recording engineer, here's a list of skills that you can begin to develop to position yourself as a future top engineer. Notice that four of the skills are what I describe as "foundation skills," that is, they are likely to be required for any music industry job. The skills in the second group are termed "job specific skills" and relate specifically to your work in then recording studio.

Foundation Skills

1. You have to be able to read, write, and (yes,) follow instructions. Why is this critical in a recording studio to follow instructions? Well, you could damage the equipment. You’re working with people’s master recordings that are the result of thousands of hours and perhaps hundreds of thousands of dollars’ investment. More importantly, following instructions means that the studio, the first engineer, or the head tech can say, “Tim, go take care of this for me.” That person is not always going to have the time to sit and coach Tim through that activity. So they must be confident that Tim is going to be able to listen, integrate what the request is, and get it properly accomplished. If that’s the case, then Tim is a person a studio will want to employ. Because they can teach, mentor, and coach him, they can move him ahead on the career track. They can develop a valuable employee for the firm. Following instructions is critical to learning how to work successfully in any type of a studio or production environment.

2. The ability to communicate clearly. Many times when I was engineering a recording session, the producer or an artist said, “It just isn’t right. I don’t know what it is. It isn’t getting me.” We often spent hours trying to find out what it would take to “get them.” Or you may find yourself working with musicians from another culture or a new genre of music. You have to be able to communicate clearly in order to be as efficient as possible in the recording studio. Many of the delays and problems encountered in the studio are the result of poor or complete lack of communication skills. Knowing when to communicate is also crucial. With practice, you’ll learn when to tell an artist, “This isn’t working, what if we tried something like…” You also must know when it’s more appropriate to remain quiet and allow the producer or recording artist to solve that problem for themselves.

3. The ability to stay calm and cool. Artists get emotional in the studio. They’re pouring out their whole persona into their performance for everyone to hear. So, they do get emotional. A capable engineer must know how to stay cool when an artist vents their frustration. I’ve been in sessions where fights have broken out in the mix room between management and the band. People have actually taken a poke at each other. Generally, that’s not conducive to the creative process. You have to stay cool, and you have to remember your job is to keep the project on track.

4. Basic computer skills. How much computer knowledge do you need to make it as a recording engineer? Many aspiring sound engineers and producers have a good deal of knowledge and experience working on a computer in a sound recording and editing program. That’s certainly a plus. The more you know, the more valuable you’ll be. But you also need to master the basics such as how to type a letter with word processing software. You must know what a database is and how it works. You must know spreadsheet functions so you can use the computer to add, subtract, multiply, and divide. You must be comfortable with those three basic applications, in addition to the computer’s sound recording programs. You can get adequate computer “basic training” at your local community college. A basic computer class covering these applications will teach the fundamentals. If you walk into your first day as an intern or a gofer, and your boss tells you, “Go log these fifty tapes into the tape library,” and he points you to the computer and you can’t figure it out, you’re out. Should you be proficient on the Macintosh or the PC platform? Good question. Those using the computer for composing, sequencing, and making music tend to use the Mac. The folks who are counting the beans, checking whether the gear has been fixed or not, and managing the business are for the most part running PCs. It’s helpful to know both. All of the best computer editing software for sound and music initially was Mac-based. However, during the last few years, the PC is coming on strong with respect to music software, and many formerly Mac-based programs now run on the PC platform, too.

Job-Specific Skills

5. Critical listening skills. When I was working as a producer, a computer company came to me and said, “We made this disk of samples with some musical instrument sounds on it for computer users. It shows musical instrument graphics on the screen and then plays that instrument’s sounds. We’re getting quite a few back with complaints about the sound.” So they sent me one of the disks, and we loaded it up and played the sound file. It was a little tiny sound file, at a very low sampling rate. (Remember what the video game “Pong” sounded like?) And it sounded like a chainsaw. I told them, “Well, we don’t have the original sound source to do a comparison, but it kind of sounds like a chainsaw.” And they said, “Oh no, no, that’s a clarinet!” So the end-users were seeing a picture of a kid playing a clarinet on their computer screen, but they were hearing this chainsaw sound. It had been sampled with so much distortion that it didn’t even sound like a musical instrument anymore. In the studio, no one was listening to see if the musical instrument samples really sounded like instruments! That’s an extreme-but real-example of how critical listening skills could have saved a lot of time, money, and headaches. If you have not listened to or experienced music in an acoustic environment, you may not know what you’re listening for, and you’re going to have problems as an engineer. So, you’ve got to listen to music. And not just recorded music, because recorded music is an illusion of a performance, even if it is a live recording. The well-respected engineer and producer Bruce Swedien encourages up-and-coming engineers to get out and experience every type of music there is in a concert setting, from rock to opera to string quartets to jazz, folk, big band, and blues. Bruce reminds young engineers that records are sonic illusions or sound paintings. In order to become a competent engineer, you have to build up a library in your mind of what instruments sound like naturally -- one at a time, and in ensembles. Truer words were never spoken. View your time spent developing listening skills just as you would doing homework. Go out once a week or once a month. Listen to classical, listen to jazz. If you want to be a recording engineer, you need to hear it all. Because one day, you’re going to be in a session, and somebody is going to come in with an accordion, a didgeridoo, a harp, or a banjo. You should know how each instrument naturally sounds. One day, I was engineering a jingle session and the producer brought in a gentleman who said, “I’m a whistler.” That was one of the hardest things I ever had to record in my engineering career. I had to experiment with a number of different setups to get it right. But I started by just standing in the room with him and moving around to assess how he sounded in different spots in the room as he whistled, before I even plugged in a mic.

6. Having audio expertise. You have to develop a thorough knowledge of audio, such as signal flow, phase, and microphone selection and placement. Whether you are self-taught or went to a recording school, you have to acquire the basic knowledge of how to make a recording, do overdubs, and handle a mixdown efficiently.

7. Having a good “bedside manner.” That’s the mood or tone that an engineer sets as they work with a client or artist on a session. Why is that important? The most successful studio engineers I know are the ones that create an environment that is conducive to getting creative work done. The finest equipment doesn’t mean a thing if the vibe is not good in the studio. Even if you have a $750,000 recording console, what good is it if when the artist walks in, he or she doesn’t feel comfortable? If artists are cared for, even pampered, a good engineer will capture their best performance. So now you know the basic marketable skill set required to have a solid career in engineering. When a student asks me, “What do I have to do to get a job as an engineer?” Well, get those seven things together. The first six, you can learn in school. The seventh, there’s only one-way to learn it: experience. You’ve got to sit down in a session and watch other experienced engineers work, in order to observe and learn what’s good about their bedside manners. That’s why it’s a good idea to start out at an established studio that provides some training or internships. That way, you can learn from pros. It’s also very helpful if you’ve played music, can read music, or are conversant with the musical language. Know enough about musical structure to understand what forte, ritardando, and the “B” section of a musical chart represent. If you are booked to record a Dixieland band next week, go to a record store or online and buy a couple of well-regarded Dixieland records. It won’t break your bank account to spend a few bucks and a couple of hours listening to them to understand how the instruments blend and how the solos sit in the mix. Then, when that Dixieland band walks in and you meet the musicians, you’ve already got a point of departure to build a rapport. You can say, “Yeah, I bought a Turk Murphy recording, and I was checking out how these guys sounded together.” The band will think, “My engineer took the time to learn something about what we do. All right! Let’s make a great recording.”

Today's Job Market

khatschek — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 17:04:42 -0700

Today's Job Market

It’s no secret I believe it’s one of the best times ever to be preparing for a career in the music industry.

Why? Because the old system (which operated like a Monopoly game with all the music biz money, resources and “utilities” controlled by a few big shots in LA and NY) is in the process of dying, or at the very least going through a radical makeover.

No longer do you have to pass “Go” to collect your paycheck.

There are thousands of new companies being born each year that are using music as a major part of their company’s product or service mix. Just look at the multi-billion dollar ringtone market that didn’t even exist five years ago. Even the old guard companies are looking to hire new talent to help them in their efforts to adapt to the changing face of music and technology.

But even as newer and faster technologies are released, the fundamental skills of doing business are in some ways more valuable then ever in our IM, text-message heavy world.

Let’s start with what has most likely got you thinking about a career in music. People looking to get into the music industry share a common buzzword: passion. They talk about their love of music and how much it means to them. However, no matter how great your passion for music, an accurate understanding of the job realities is necessary before you plunge into developing a career in this field.

Job Supply and Demand

Like all industries, the music and entertainment industry adheres to the law of job supply and demand—a basic rule of all economic systems. When it comes to jobs and opportunities, the supply of industry jobs falls well below the demand of those wishing to enter the industry. This makes every job precious—even those internships that don’t pay one cent. It also means that in order to better your chances for success, you have to take advantage of every single ethical opportunity to better your skills and status in the industry.

When I was managing a recording studio, we would receive an average of four to five résumés a week. About half of those jobseekers would follow up with a phone call. Some would say, “I’d love to just stop by, meet you, and see the studio.” Others would boldly state, “I’ll do anything to get started, from scrubbing the bathroom to running for lunches.”

When there are more people willing to work for no pay, it makes it harder to get paid. That’s the first reality you’ll discover about entry-level positions in the industry.

The second reality is that when it comes to succeeding as a recording artist, the vast majority of recordings fail to break even for their record label. A well-known manager and label president shared a staggering statistic quoted in Billboard in the late 1990s: Of the approximately 32,000 records released each year, only 189 sell at least 250,000 copies, which at that time was considered the “break-even” point for major labels.

Making a hit record is a long shot. Only about half of one percent of artists break even. The other 99.5 percent fail to do so. Don’t be discouraged by this statistic.

Instead, understand that although it can be done, it’s a risk to hit it big as a recording artist. That’s why I encourage you to look at careers not only as a recording artist, or performer, but also to seriously consider the cornucopia of other jobs in the music and recording industry. Don’t lock yourself into one career path too early in the game. The very same skills and passion you’ve developed for your music can be a tremendous asset in the business side of the industry.

Are You a Team Player?

Talent, perseverance, and people skills are givens to making it in the business. A colleague who worked as a tech at George Lucas’s renowned Skywalker Sound once said, “Fifty-one percent of my job is getting along with my coworkers, and 49 percent of my job is knowing how to keep all of our technology running.” Her statement has stayed with me over the years as one of the most important pieces of information I could share with you.

To make it in the music and entertainment industry, you’ve got to be able to work in a group environment. If you feel compelled to work alone, be your own boss, compose on your own, perform on your own, then perhaps you shouldn’t be working in a studio, or for a record label or management company. Why? Because you’ve got to be able to get along with people around you. Don’t panic now if “people skills” don’t appear to be among your strongest talents; you can develop them. Basically, it’s just a matter of wanting to play on a winning team, learning to be respectful of those around you, and realizing that your contributions are part of a larger team effort.

Perseverance is Essential

Perseverance is a huge asset. Depending on the opportunity, there may be from 2 to 2,000 people knocking on the door for an industry job opening. You’ve got to be willing to persevere. Otherwise, you’re going to run out of gas in your quest.

Just about everybody starts out at the bottom in this business, even today’s top dogs. I encourage you to read some of the informative and inspiring music industry bios out. A few examples would be Quincy Jones “Q,” George Martin’s “All You Need is Ears,” or Ian Copeland’s “Wild Thing.” Each one emphasizes the importance of staying the course and working hard for what you believe in. Each man made it to the top of his field using his talent, guts and intuition.

Seeing that just about every top executive started out as a mail clerk, gofer, or assistant will help you strengthen your resolve to climb the mountain ahead with respect to your non-performing music industry career.

The benefit of starting out at the bottom of the company’s organizational chart is that you meet a lot of people on the way up, you see how a company works, and you learn about every function in an organization. It’s very helpful to learn about what parts work efficiently as well as what parts may not run smoothly, and more importantly, the reason why.

Competition is central to the industry. There’s always new blood coming in—new bands, new songwriters, new musicians, and new Artist & Repertoire (A&R) staffers. It’s the nature of the game. You’ve got to have a bit of a competitive streak in you to make it in this business.

Radio and television both use a formal rating system. That’s the way the entertainment industry works. The anecdote that a recording artist is “only as good as the sales of their last record” is true in an economic sense. Competition is always going to be there, so you have to have the drive—the “fire in the belly”—to stick with your dream and push yourself to make it. Few, if any, things will come easy to you as you journey along your career path in the industry. You will be earning your stripes every step of the way.

And that’s what will prepare you, strengthen your talent, your resolve and your passion to make a mark in the music industry.

Goal-Setting Skills

khatschek — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 17:38:24 -0700

Goal-Setting Skills

No matter what you tackle in life, setting and achieving goals is a key to becoming successful. And setting goals is really as simple as defining various long-term, mid-term, and short-term goals. A goal must be written down and have a date by which you will complete it. Getting a job is not a goal, because you have no control of when and if you will be hired.

As an example, let’s say that your eventual goal is to become a successful songwriter. Right now, you’re working at a bank. But your long-term goal is to write Top-10 pop songs. You also need a mid-term goal, because it’s unlikely one can go from being a bank teller to a hit songwriter overnight. So what might be a good mid-term goal? Perhaps a mid-term goal is to be a published songwriter and have two to three songs recorded on an artist’s album. Pretty darn good; you got a paycheck. That’s a very realistic mid-term goal.

One short-term goal is to study and learn the craft of songwriting. For instance, you discover (via detective work) that there will be a master songwriting class going on at a local college taught by a well-known songwriter over a three-day weekend. You beg, borrow, and steal the money to go to it. Take time off work. Borrow a car, if yours is a clunker. You get there because you’re determined. Other short-term goals include practicing and learning your craft.

The craft of songwriting requires you to constantly be recording. At one point, you’ll be ready to put together a demo. You don’t need to hire a symphony orchestra for your demo. If you work with one good musician/arranger, you can do just about anything that’s required at this point. This demo may be a short- or mid-term goal, depending on where you start your songwriting odyssey.

How about identifying and subscribing to key trade magazines? That would be a short-term goal. Another is to locate a teacher/mentor. Say you attended a songwriting workshop given last year, and you began to correspond with one of the teachers via e-mail. Perhaps they would take on a student like yourself because you can learn so much in the right mentor or teacher relationship. Even if they’re writing in a different genre than you are, the craft of songwriting is nearly identical across styles and genres. And being exposed to those who are further along on your intended career path, no matter what it is, is essential to speeding up your learning process.

This is how developing your own short-, mid-, and long-term goals will help you to chart a path towards your ideal career. Let’s say you identify four short-term goals and set a six-month window to complete them. Your mid-term goal mentioned above-getting songs onto a record-is your one-and-a-half- to four-year window. And your eventual goal of writing a song that goes up the charts is your five- to ten-year goal. Break it down into bite-size chunks, and you will have a clear roadmap to take you to your long-term goals.

Don’t just stay up every night biting your fingernails worrying, trying to write that magical hit song. You may nail it, but your odds are so long it’s like playing the lottery. Don’t lose sight of your overall goal and timeline. Make your goals concrete with a chart in your composing room. Review the short-term activities in process now that are going to take you to your long-term goals.

It’s human nature to want to avoid setting goals and timelines. However, without using this tool and others like the marketable skill-set workshop and the interview workshop, careers in the music and entertainment industry seem distant and out of reach. You won’t know if your short-term goals are in sync with what’s required to make it on a particular career path if you haven’t researched your area of interest. Desire alone will not make your dream a reality.

If you want to be a program director at a major market radio station, you’ve got to know what it takes to get there. What skills, experience, salary, and geographic moves will be required? All that information must be at your fingertips. When you have that information, it will be crystal clear to you whether or not that is the right career path for you. If you don’t do your detective work, you may spend months or years pursuing a career path that really isn’t what you want from life. Don’t make that mistake.

That’s why goal setting is so important in this industry: everybody is following their star and chasing their dream. Almost everyone wants to write, record, sing, produce, promote, or engineer that smash hit. But how do you put yourself in the situation where you’re actually working with the artist who can write those hit songs? How can you work with a Tony Brown, Glen Ballard, or Quincy Jones?

Defining and achieving the little steps (short- and mid-term goals) will help you achieve your long-term goals.

So to recap, you need to identify attainable goals and set a timeline for accomplishing each one. Review goals as often as possible. Use the two one-year calendars in your career binder to track your progress. You can find and print annual calendars that are handy for goal-setting at www.timeanddate.com.

Update your goals as you move forward. Some will be completed and you can cross them off. New ones will become clear to you as you continue your career development.

Finally, remember to be patient. Be sure to print out and keep your career goals visible-for instance, prominently posted near your computer or in your personal rehearsal space. Doing so reminds you daily of your goals, nudging you to gauge your progress to achieving them. Maintain and update those goals, pat yourself on the back when you accomplish each one, and let the goal-setting process work for you. If you are diligent in maintaining your goals, you have a much better chance of achieving long-term success.

Here’s a table with a sample set of goals for our aspiring songwriter.

Short-term Goals	Mid-term Goals	Long-term Goals
(6-18 months)	1 ½ to 5 years	6 to15 years
Subscribe to trade mags	Publish songs	Place a top 10 song
Enroll in songwriting classes	Build relations with publishers, writers, artists, producers	Songs placed in films and TV shows
Secure a teacher/mentor	2-3 songs recorded by established artists	Win Grammy for “Song of the Year”!
Join trade association	Co-write with established writer
Affiliate with PRO
Investigate co-writing options
Record and pitch demos

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