Closed Mouths Don't Get Fed!

So your project is done, has been done, or you thinking about going into the studio...Well wait one minute! The truth has to be discussed and it may hurt or discourage many. But, if you truly want to know about your career, you have to know what you're really up against. What ever you need to do to get in your zone, I suggest you do it NOW! 

Let's look at music posts like you look at your social media posts. 60 seconds...Over 12 hours of audio is uploaded to Soundcloud every minute. That's not including any other site. Yep! That's a lot of noise. So how will you be noticed, please tell me?!?! 

Here’s the problem my colleagues and I face on a daily basis, as media journalist, and it’s getting "worse” by the day. Too much content. My only filter and is a benefit for an artist is

to submit music to me via Fluence. I can guarantee: a listen, feedback, and possibly a share if it's up to par. Really there's too much noise out there. During the "iHeart Radio Awards" Madonna said, "2 million songs released to the world." That's mainstream only...DAMN! It’s easy to get lost in this sea of new tracks and songs, so you need to WORK on getting heard. 

I played the fly on the wall a couple of days ago and it really took a lot for me not to blow my cover. I am sad to report, people are not listening! No matter how good your music is, no one is taking the time to listen. Strangers won’t sit for an hour with their headphones on to appreciate the structure of your track, the melody or lyrics. If your music is very good it could help win their ears, but they just won’t spend one minute to listen. They will scan the track list briefly, looking for those mainstream features. With No big feature, it's likely your music won't be allowed inside their world which is already overloaded with music and information. I've always said, "people listen with their eyes, not their ears, and they may not even know it.”

Artists and DJs alike, "listen to me now and believe me later on" (in my Kujo Goodie voice), campaigning needs to be turned up! If you're giving away material, get something in return,

 even if it’s not money, i.e. some type of social media contact. Gain a connection don't walk away from a potential fan empty handed. You put money and time in the production of your project, so totally "free" is not something I'm a fan of. I can't give you a dialogue for that because the environments that you may be in might seem like it's not ideal for that type of exchange, however, become clever when you distribute your material. O.K. I will give you one idea...Take a pic with the potential fan and ask for their IG handle so that you can mention them when you post. (hint, hint) There’s still some dialogue required, but the engagement was made. 

As you could notice, I didn’t mention promotion at all, although without marketing and

networking you won’t get too far. You need to work on your brand first, then you can think about reach. A new listener will pay attention to your look, the cover artwork. It’s sad how many artists still think all it takes to achieve success is to have great music and to reach as many people as possible. Thats a logical idea, but its madness. The truth of it all. Its a tough industry, but if you use the legit and effective tools to get your brand noticed, this could lead to that “Dream come true.”   

#LeslieMac

Tidal Gotcha Money...

If you slept on the iHeart Radio awards, you slept on Rihanna’s ‘Bitch Better Have My Money’ bars that indicated its time for artist to get whats due to them. In a Twitter post Rihanna stated, “NAVY, turn the tide.” 

WHHHHHHAAATT? Well the story begins with Jay-Z’s $56.2 million dollar purchase of a Swedish streaming company Aspiro.  A countdown clock on the TIDAL homepage moves closer to the 5 o’clock Eastern Standard Time launch. TIDAL is a high-definition music streaming service. The company has been sending out invites for a press conference today, in which Jay-Z will announce, “a commitment to a new direction for the music industry from both a creative and business

perspective.” The unofficial buzz is, the company will be using the event to confirm the first big-name artists to stream music exclusively on the Tidal platform. 

Over the weekend, the Swedish blog Breakit reported — citing sources close to the deal — that Tidal’s plan of attack will be to ink first-window deals with the artists, where Tidal would get first releases of tracks from big-name artists ahead of any other digital streaming services. This would be exclusive, but only for a period: Spotify, Pandora and others would eventually also get these tracks, but only later. Now that is major!

What’s in it for these artists? From what I’ve found on the net. It seems that Tidal may offer a more attractive set of terms to musicians than other streaming services — often agreeing to payouts of twice as much as its rivals. Now do you hear Rihanna singing “Bitch Better

Have My Money?”  Many artists have been complaining that digital music streaming is not providing decent enough returns. This makes the rumored deal TIDAL very appealing. But it’s a bit of a long shot when you do the comparison with its biggest rival Spotify. 

TIDAL currently offers some 25 million tracks and 75,000 music videos. Users can currently sign up to Tidal for either $9.99 or $19.99 a month. Unlike Spotify, Tidal doesn’t have a free tier, and its standard-quality subscription is available for the same price as Spotify Premium package $9.99. Not to mention Tidal has only 35,000 subscribers paying $19.99 per month, where as Spotify had 15 million paying subscribers in January. The numbers may be off but the Jay-Z connection along with his ROC Nation brand would ease the mind of any artist who even began to give this deal a questionable thought. 

Remember I spoke of a change is going to come…Here’s the ball rolling in that change direction! 

#LeslieMac