Michael Redman - The Best Jobs in the Music Industry: Straight Talk from Successful Music Pros

Copyright 2013 by Michael Redman

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, without written permission, except by a newspaper or magazine reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review.

Published in 2013 by Hal Leonard Books

An Imprint of Hal Leonard Corporation

7777 West Bluemound Road

Milwaukee, WI 53213

Trade Book Division Editorial Offices

33 Plymouth St., Montclair, NJ 07042

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.

ISBN 9781476817019

www.halleonardbooks.com

This book is dedicated to my two daughters, Grace and Julia, who entertain me on a daily basis and share their love so freely, and my surfing, guitar-playing son, Tyler, who is making his own way in our world.

If its a career in the music business you want, and you dont want to be a performer, you have limitless options. Engineering, like I have done, or producing, mixing, artist representation there are plenty of ways to make a good living in the music business, just find your passion.

Ours is an industry of passions and emotional connection. A lot of people dont realize what it is they really want out of a career, what will satisfy them personally, until theyve tried something new; so dont be afraid to try.

T ODD R UNDGREN

contents

Philip CohenUniversal Studios Film, Television, and Production

Arnold McCullerFeatured Vocalist and Session Singer

ITS DARK, VERY DARK. The excitement and anticipation in the room is electrifying and the audience is on the edge of their seats; you have been waiting years for this moment. The lights come up and the applause is deafening as a lone figure walks to the stage, and says, Please welcome the Berklee School of Musics graduating class of 2013.

When the ceremony is over, with your room packed and you catching a flight home to Peoria, some scary thoughts of hoped for employment opportunities and a career that generates income for you and your future family weigh heavily on your mind.

What will I do if I cant make enough money playing trumpet to afford to live on my own?

What if I still need to live with my parents?

What if I need to get a job bagging groceries to survive until Im famous?

Crap! What if my hair falls out and I dont look good on camera playing my guitar and shaking my hairless head?

If you have questions like these bouncing around that cerebrum of yours, then I certainly hope you will read this book cover to cover. The music business is stronger, with more opportunity than ever, and with a little planning you can be quite successful while staying close to the music you love. You wont need to work in a grocery store, sell water purification systems door to door, or even stand in a manufacturing line punching out little metal parts for some refrigerator door.

In my life Ive been a drummer, guitarist, banjo player, saxophonist, singer, songwriter, publisher, studio owner, composer, recording artist, jingle writer, audio engineer, producer, serial entrepreneur, technologist, consultant, filmmaker, and the list goes on. Ive been told its my ADD, but I prefer to think of it as an overabundance of creativity flowing through these bones of mine. I want you to live your dream as I have and experience the ever-changing path of musical magic.

The dream: Whats yours? Do you dream of being onstage in front of thousands of adoring fans screaming your name? Or do you live and breathe for musics sake? The pursuit of music is a lifelong passion for many of us and not a one-shot deal.

I have but one goal with this book, and its to open up the world of music and the music business to younot just the microcosm of performance, which makes up a mere 10 percent of the business.

A music career today looks very different than it did ten years ago. Our parents typically worked at one job for most of their lives, and companies promised to take care of them after thirty years of service; there was loyalty on the part of the company and employee alike, but like everything else, times change.

Companies no longer have the desire or luxury to keep employees one day more than they are needed. They instead opt for outsourced, freelance, and part-time workers to avoid paying benefits and supporting their workers during slowdowns. Its Wall Street that demands a return on investment and company growth of 15 percent year after year that drives this particular change. To accomplish this goal, companies are faced with an unsavory solution: cut costs. The easiest way to cut costs is to reduce the workforce, which is just what theyve done. Employees have lost favor with the company and the company has lost the loyalty of employees.

Todays employees also look very different from where I sit. Theyre not interested in working if the job has no meaning; they have more of an entrepreneurial spirit, are willing to take more chances, are faster on the uptake, and have a curious confidence in themselves and the future.

Like everyone else, musicians today might be working at five different jobs and loving it like one of our contributors, Paul Ill, to make ends meet. Your career will undoubtedly lead you down a very exciting path if you allow your spirit to take control and appreciate the music industry as a whole.

Musicians exhibit the unique ability to encapsulate expressions of the human experience like no other artists, and I must say that Im still filled with wonder when I listen to the Beatles and peer into the soul of a young Paul McCartney and John Lennon through their lyrical windows that were far beyond their years. For the many years Ive worked at writing music and I have yet to bridge the lyric and melody combination they seemed to possess naturally.

This book is not about my life, challenges, and successes, or for that matter me at all. It is, as they say, all about you and your music. Its about keeping you in the game and positioning you to make a good living; its about shortcuts to positions and careers that will keep you close to the music.

I wrote this book as a guide for all of you who love making music but who might not become the next Led Zeppelin, Justin Timberlake, or Marc Broussard for that matter. You wont find any business speak (EBITDAearnings before income taxes and depreciation or RIO return on investment) or flamboyant literary twists, so you wont need a dictionary to comprehend whats written here.

There are many levels of success that are attainable in the music industry, and stardom is but one of them. The simple fact is that with 13 million bands worldwide, only about 2,000 make a great living. That leaves the rest of us to make hard decisions down the road when and if stardom eludes us.

For our purposes, I am going to concentrate on what I call career enlightenment. I understand that musicians as a group dont like to read books when they could be playing their instruments, so Ill try to stay on task and get right to the point whenever possible.

In this first volume, we will cover many of the more prominent and well-known jobs in the music industry. Ill share a few of my comments followed by interviews Ive conducted with people who have been very successful in their particular jobs, and interview myself in jobs where I have personal experience. I believe this is the best way to deliver straightforward information, rather than