"The Music Powers That Be"

Advice excerpts from the award-winning book: "The Music Powers That Be" 1. You, your company name, and everyone around you, represents your business. The last thing you want to do is to upset a club owner or a promoter that you'll need to do business with in the hopefully very near future. This applies when speaking with labels and the DJs too. Also, a new act should at least have a road manager on the road to speak for them, and also handling the in-and-outs such as keeping up with itineraries, show CDs, promotional items, etc., along with any other necessary elements that the artist shouldn't have to worry about. Plus, it adds a bit of professionalism to the package-as long as the artist is well represented. FYI: Keep the people that just cause problems at home. This is your job, and it should be run as your business. Think about it-you don't take your friends to work with you. ~Sabrina Montgomery - Dreamcatchers Entertainment 2. Watch your reputation, and be protective of your reputation. Do your best to do good business, and be someone that people will find it a pleasure to do business with - as much as possible. Sometimes, the only way to be able to compete is for people to genuinely like you - and then want to work with you. Honestly, someone genuinely liking you often can go further than the money you spend. ~Vince P. Phillips, Esq. - www.vincentphillips.com 3. Relationships politically dominate the music business. In other words, business with one person will mean more than business with another person. If you're doing a deal with somebody, and you're first stating out, your key person may value their relationship with the person they have already been doing business with, before you-the new guy. This is because they've already been doing business longstanding with the other person. So the allegiance may be with the person that's already "in". And you will have to keep all of this in mind, and in focus when you are going after what you must get! We are in this information age, and you should forever be learning. And as a musician or artist, you should take that state of mind or attitude, and then you build from there. The only person that can stop us from doing anything is our self. Or it's a failure to come into the knowledge that you're supposed to have - or the failure to implement what it is, and what you're supposed to do. In life, you have 2 ugly things that can stop us from doing whatever we must do to succeed: One is "Doing nothing at all", and the other is "Procrastination". Doing nothing and procrastination will put you right out of this music game! And that is not only in music, but also in everything that we want to do.

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