Notes for a Successful Career

Spin Plugz
Aug 26, 2019
3 min read

If you haven’t read my blog “CD Baby’s DIY Musician Conference Experience,” I’d recommend you to before resuming this blog. I’ll be discussing the notes I’ve taken in depth from mt favorite lectures from the DIY Musician Conference in Austin, Texas August 26th-28th followed by YouTube links to Questlove’s and Darryl “DMC McDaniels’ keynote session.

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“Make Your Passion Your Paycheck: The Mindset to Leave Your Job”

J. Rhodes is an award-winning producer, artist, and author from Dallas, Texas. Rhodes has produced tracks for artists such as Lacrae, The Game, Black Thought, Talib Kweli, and Rick Ross. A very down-to-earth person, well-traveled with stories from places individuals in the audience mentioned they’re from. Rhodes had an unorthodox way of presentation, but it put a fire in the audience from his passionate words of encouragement.

The presentation itself was motivation-based starting with a three-minute Alan Watts YouTube video. However, Rhodes talked about a concept that is worth keeping in mind as an artist’s career continues. First, I’d like to share a quote of his I jotted down: “The first level of success is defining success.”

Rhodes talked about building a “Career Tree” starting with our first skill as the root of the Career Tree. Once the first skill mastered, the artist is then able to repeat the process with another skill to develop into a mature stem. Keep in mind, the skills mastered should be monetized and already placed the artist on the road to their success. The Career Tree should have at least seven skills mastered with the intent of establishing multiple streams of income. Rhodes credits his success to the Career Tree concept.

“Playing Live for Money: How to Get Started”

Talent buyer and event producer Mike Henry spoke about how to professionally book shows. Mike’s presentation was informative, yet, felt personalized since he was speaking from experience. It was a “this is what I like, this is what I don’t like” type of lecture. Honestly, his lecture was the session I wrote the most notes on leaving multiple pages in my notes filled with ink.

Mike began the lecture stating four reasons artists get booked: They’re good at what they do, they’re able to draw a crowd, they can solve a problem for a talent buyer, and have personal relations with staff members of the venue and its owner, the booking agent, and other artists who performed at the venue. Mike emphasized emailing a booking agent. Before sending an email, do research on the venue to know if it matches your musical style. The email sent to the booking agent ought to be simple, short, contain links to hit songs and past work, and be well-organized. Post-performance, a “follow up” email should be sent thanking the venue and booking agent. Stay in touch with the booking agent by sending new projects and scheduled events you’re performing in the area. As far as getting paid, Mike mentioned negotiating a deal with the venue. The traditional way is receiving a percentage of the cover fee. Another way is selling tickets through Ticketfly or Evenbrite and dividing revenue between artist and venue. However, there are things an artist shouldn’t do: Don’t undervalue yourself, don’t try to get over on the venue, and don’t worry about the small things. A note to also keep in mind is bar revenue cannot be negotiated. Revenue from selling drinks is the venues’ main source of income toward expenses. Lastly, the best way an artist can make money is diversifying income. Merchandise is a popular way of earning extra income especially on tour. Merchandise includes apparel, physical copies of music, and miscellaneous items like coffee mugs (El Bles, a producer I met during the conference, will be selling coffee mugs as a promotional item for his collaborative album Qahwah con Leche). He concluded the presentation by stating “the best thing to do is be honest.” To be honest with yourself and the booking agent about popularity and worth.

I’ll end this section with some of Henry’s quotes that I liked.

“Keep thing simple.”

“Embrace the power of a well-crafted email.”

“The reason to play the first gig is to get the second gig.”

“The door is your money, not the bar.”

There were many lectures I've missed while I was volunteering but these two plus the keynotes I mentioned were all I needed for inspiration and information.