12 Things Every Musician Needs to Know - Part 2 Building Relationships

12 Things Every Musician Needs to Know – Part 2 Building Relationships

By Quinton Jones • April 6, 2009

The following excerpt was taken from the book

“Don’t Get Taken – Take Control,
12 Things Every Musician Needs to Know”

written by my friend Tom Sabella of Page2 Management.
If you are seriously considering a career in the music industry,
I highly recommend you get a copy of this book.

Chapter 3: Building Relationships

It’s Not Only What You Know, But Who You Know

How do you make the contacts you need to make? This was answered at a conference I attended in Nashville.

During this conference I felt that it wasn’t going anywhere and was just about ready to leave. When they introduced the next speaker I started to listen, and the man on the stage was making me think about what I was really doing.

He said if you want to make it in the music business you needed to be either in New York, Los Angeles, or Nashville. These cities are important because this is where the business is happening.

I thought for years that I could make it in the music business from Ohio. I remembered that the Beatles were discovered in a small town in England called Liverpool.

Why couldn’t my “Brian Epstein” find me in Hubbard? It’s not totally impossible to get it done in a city other than the ones mentioned, but it is improbable and highly unlikely you will meet the right people.

Every day there is something going on related to the music business. This is where you can build the relationship you are looking for.

When you live in one of these cities you can make contacts and meet musical impresarios at any time. Living hundreds of mile away makes this impossible.

So, if your intention is to make it as big as possible, you will have to relocate or at least visit one of the aforementioned major cities on a regular basis.

If you are content to be a Big Fish in a little pond – that’s fine too – then make the best of building relationships with the local radio station personnel, trade papers, booking agents, venues, recording studios, and everybody else connected with the music industry in your town.

Copyright © 2006 by Tom Sabella. All Rights Reserved.
It is illegal to reproduce any portion of this material except by special arrangement by the publisher (or author). Reproduction of this material without authorization, by any duplication process whatsoever, is a violation of copyright law.