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    An Independent Musician’s Guide To: How to Make $100K in the Music Business Without a Record Deal
    An Independent Musician’s Guide To: How to Make $100K in the Music Business Without a Record Deal
    An Independent Musician’s Guide To: How to Make $100K in the Music Business Without a Record Deal
    Ebook189 pages1 hour

    An Independent Musician’s Guide To: How to Make $100K in the Music Business Without a Record Deal

    By Lamont Clark

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    About this ebook

    Read closely, there are no easy ways to riches! This is NOT a get rich quick book;it's NOT an “easy” guide to making money, and there are NO secrets in this book. The formula to make six figures with your money is quite simple, and if you want to really make money with you music without chasing a record deal, then you need to read this book!

    Many independent musicians have dreams of becoming the next big superstar. Those dreams are usually predicated on getting a lucrative Recording Deal. The reality is, very few artists will ever get a Record Deal, and even among those who are "fortunate" enough to get a Deal, most of them end up OWING money to their record labels.

    It is very possible for independent artists to make a Six Figure Income without ever getting a record deal. You do NOT have to be a "starving artist" if you know how to establish yourself as a business and create products to sell to your dedicate fan base. This book walks you through how to do it!

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLamont Clark
    Release dateDec 20, 2012
    ISBN9781301163212
    An Independent Musician’s Guide To: How to Make $100K in the Music Business Without a Record Deal
    Author

    Lamont Clark

    Lamont Clark was born and raised in Mount Vernon., New York. He is a graduate of the University of Maryland at College Park (Smith Business School) and earned his MBA at the University of Maryland University College.A man of many interests and talents, in addition to writing, Lamont has over 20 years of experience in the entertainment industry as a musician, record producer, on-air radio personality, actor, and television producer and director. Lamont is a multiple award winning producer and director for his television shows.Lamont also has over ten years of experience teaching and training both adults and children.Lamont is married with two sons.Together with his beautiful wife Sheila Clark, they have put together several cookbooks including:A Coffee Lover’s Dream! 88 Great Tasting Coffee Recipes; Cheesecake Delights! 77 Gourmet Cheesecake Recipes; Chocolate Heaven! 500 Scrumptious Chocolate Recipes; Cookie Cravings! 101 Divine Cookie Recipes; Popcorn Love! 101 Exquisite Gourmet Popcorn Recipes; Wonderful World of Wings! 85 Mouth Watering Wing Recipes;Yummy! Yummy! 101 Fun Children’s RecipesYou can check them out at www.70WestPress.com .

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      Book preview

      An Independent Musician’s Guide To - Lamont Clark

      Back In The Day

      Let me tell you upfront that I know the struggle of the independent artist, because I’ve been one myself. I know what it’s like to dream. I know what it’s like to grind. I know what it’s like be a starving artist. I know what it’s like to be on the outside looking in. I know what it’s like to sign my name on the dotted line. I know what it’s like to be a part of the in crowd. I know what it’s like to be upset and bitter towards a record label. I know what it’s like to come back and help other people reach a modicum of success.

      Back in the early ‘90s (that’s 1990s not 1890s!) I had dreams and aspirations of being a star! I was in a rap group and I had a partner who was an incredible emcee, I mean his creativity and ability was amazing! It was because of him that we were able to actually sign a record deal with a small, independent record label based out of New York City and Miami. I just knew that we were well on the road to fame and fortune.

      But unfortunately we must’ve been on the wrong road, or better yet, the driver of the vehicle didn’t really know the way.

      There were a few issues that we faced signing with a small indie label. First, while the deal looked nice in terms of the amount the deal was worth, we didn’t get an advance, which wasn’t such a big deal since we were college students and we were used to being broke. As long as they were taking care of our studio time and that’s all that mattered to us. But the wheels started falling off when a couple of our producers weren’t getting paid. Big Problem! You aren’t going to be a rap star if you don’t have hot beats to go with your dope rhymes, right?

      A number of other things started to happen that were not to our liking, so we asked out of our contract. At first we were met with resistance, after all they did have some financial investment in us. Using stuff that I learned in my Business Law class, we pointed out where they had breached the contract and were ready to take ‘legal action’ to force our way out of the contract. Fortunately we were able to come to an amiable agreement and we were released.

      After that experience I was a little weary from the business of music, but I still loved making the music itself. We never sought to get another record deal, we didn’t think about become famous, and we didn’t chase fortune. We decided to just make the music we enjoyed hearing, and we were able to do some cool things on our own. We had the most fun performing. We were able to perform in several venues opening up for such acts as Wu-Tang, Poor Righteous Teachers, and De La Soul. We never did record an album, and we never made it to the corner of Fame and Fortune.

      After that experience I stayed in the game by producing music, producing and directing a music video show, and was on the radio as a ‘co-host’ of a Hip Hop show with Big Tigger, and I was the captain of a Street Promotions team.

      Because of all of this industry experience, and my exposure by working with Big Tigger, I began to get quite a few people asking me for advice on how to do things within the music industry. They wanted to know things like - how they could get a record deal? How they could get their music on the radio? Could I give them advice on getting shows? And so on, and so on.

      I became sort of an impromptu music consultant.

      Then I completed a hip hop and spoken word CD that I gave away free on MP3.com (who remembers THAT site!?). Then I was asked to produce for some artists. I was asked to produce music for award shows. I began producing/directing other television shows. And then a friend of mine asked me to hear his girlfriend sing. I heard her, and boy could she blow!

      I told her I would work with her to help her get from A to C, and someone else, would have to pick it up from there. I didn’t claim to be a big time producer, manager, record executive, or anything of the sort. I was just a guy who knew a little bit of stuff and was willing to help out a friend. At the same time I began working with a friend of mine who was an exceptional rapper. I was able to help both of them put out CDs around the same time.

      They say a man with experience is not at the mercy of the man with an opinion. So I began to use my past experiences to help the artists I was working with. From my experience working on the hip hop poetry CD I was able to figure out online methods to sell their CDs. From my street team experience I was able to figure out ways to do offline promotions. From my college degree I learned how to establish a business. Everything that I learned over the course of years, as well as my willingness to learn new stuff, was coming together to help me work with these artists.

      I was able to be fairly successful with the rapper, selling several hundred CDs online. I was even more successful with the singer. I was able to sell a few thousand of her CDs, all over the world. We were able to get her interviews in magazines in England and France. We sold CDs in from Africa to Japan. As far as I was concerned, we were successful!

      If you want to check out their CDs on CD Baby, you can check out the RnB artist here (or http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/msnyema2) and you can check out the Rapper here (or http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/sinhiphop).

      So there may be some of you who are wondering "Have you ever made $100K selling music? and the answer is no, I haven’t. However making 100K wasn’t my goal with those artists. My goal was to get them exposure, not money. We did make tens of thousands of dollars (upward of $30K), and that was made mostly using what I call old paradigm" thinking. Old paradigm thinking is when you don’t fully utilize the technologies available to you. We thought like most artists do, we sold a good number of CDs on the streets, at shows, and other off-line places. We definitely used some online strategies, so we weren’t totally old school, but the majority of our focus was offline.

      The strategies that we discuss in this book are mostly new paradigm along with some old paradigm mixed in. After stepping away from the music I was able to see things from a different view. I began learning techniques of Internet Marketers, how they were using certain techniques and resources to run their businesses, and I figured out that some of the same stuff they did could be done for musicians. As I continued my research I found various resources that began catering to musicians via online processes, and I will discuss those tools and resources here in this book, and how you can use them.

      Believe it or not, but we live in one of the greatest times for businesses and for you as musicians alike. I will say this a few times throughout the book, but the internet has really changed the game for you. Things exist today that didn’t exist 10, 20, or 30 years ago. You have the opportunity to do things that your musical counterparts couldn’t even imagine doing. The internet has allowed the small guy a way to do things much faster and efficient than the big guys who have to have a meeting about the meeting just to make a simple decision. You my friends can take advantage of this wonderful opportunity in a big way. But will you?

      Beyond American Idol

      Because of my moderate success working with those artists, and my past experience, I continued to get the How did you do…? questions from indie artists. Even after taking a respite from the producing and managing music, I still got questions, and that’s what lead me to writing this book.

      Well, that AND the fact there are a few things that have disturbed me over the years. One of those disturbing things is what I call the Curse of American Idol. I don’t have a problem with people trying to win a contest to win a record deal, but I DO have a problem with people believing that’s the ONLY way to become successful.

      Okay, so one of those music talent shows that allow people to showcase their skills to some panel of judges for a chance to win a record deal is on and one more than a few occasions the wanna be contestants keep talking about the same theme. In a nutshell it goes

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