It's not who ya know in the music biz, it's...
Elsewhere, a beginning songwriter asked about the possibility of coming out of nowhere to sell a hit song, perhaps elevated by a popular YouTube video, wondering if it was possible, or if the admonition to build and cultivate relationships with music biz insiders was still the reality...
Business relationships are key to doing anything in the music business. It is all about making connections and exploiting connections.
It is how the business works. The music business is -- with painful obviousness -- no kind of meritocracy.
It is all about who ya know and who... ahem... you help out.
That doesn't mean that all those interconnected people like each other -- far more often the contrary.
But they know each other. They know what to expect. And, when the song or album flops -- as is most often the case -- they can hide behind the reputation of the "known quantity" they hired to perform each key function. ("Well, they can't blame me, I hired a well known producer fresh from a number one, a top engineer with a bunch of gold, the same back up crew that worked with Joe Superstar on his big hits... the fact they're all my in-laws is immaterial.")
Are there occasional rags-to-riches stories? Sure. Are some of them true? Sometimes.
Often, they're just p.r., because one of the number one fantasies sold to pop fans is the rags-to-riches fantasy.
Because most pop fans are not, let's say, at the top of the economic spectrum. And the fantasy of having someone discover your genius and pluck you out of every day life and pop you into all the trappings of success and popular recognition of your gifts is hugely appealing to those caught up in the mundane struggle to survive.
But the reality is that most folks who get anywhere have been working long and hard to get there. That story is often rewritten to make it fit the standard rags-to-riches/Cinderella fantasy framework, but the reality is usually far less exciting -- or marketable.
And, all too often, the folks who haven't come up the hard way through lots of hard work, experience, and building connections, the folks who really do shoot to the top, find out the unfortunate truth of one tireless show biz maxim:
The faster you come up -- the faster you'll go down.
Business relationships are key to doing anything in the music business. It is all about making connections and exploiting connections.
It is how the business works. The music business is -- with painful obviousness -- no kind of meritocracy.
It is all about who ya know and who... ahem... you help out.
That doesn't mean that all those interconnected people like each other -- far more often the contrary.
But they know each other. They know what to expect. And, when the song or album flops -- as is most often the case -- they can hide behind the reputation of the "known quantity" they hired to perform each key function. ("Well, they can't blame me, I hired a well known producer fresh from a number one, a top engineer with a bunch of gold, the same back up crew that worked with Joe Superstar on his big hits... the fact they're all my in-laws is immaterial.")
Are there occasional rags-to-riches stories? Sure. Are some of them true? Sometimes.
Often, they're just p.r., because one of the number one fantasies sold to pop fans is the rags-to-riches fantasy.
Because most pop fans are not, let's say, at the top of the economic spectrum. And the fantasy of having someone discover your genius and pluck you out of every day life and pop you into all the trappings of success and popular recognition of your gifts is hugely appealing to those caught up in the mundane struggle to survive.
But the reality is that most folks who get anywhere have been working long and hard to get there. That story is often rewritten to make it fit the standard rags-to-riches/Cinderella fantasy framework, but the reality is usually far less exciting -- or marketable.
And, all too often, the folks who haven't come up the hard way through lots of hard work, experience, and building connections, the folks who really do shoot to the top, find out the unfortunate truth of one tireless show biz maxim:
The faster you come up -- the faster you'll go down.
posted by TK Major at
12:55 PM
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