Too Good To Be True

Sadly, for every musician out there hoping for that big break, there are a number of thugs just waiting to take advantage of those hopes and manipulate those hard-earned dollars away from even poor musicians without a second thought. Here are a few scams you might not be familiar with that you should look out for and how to get around them.

YOU REALLY NEED ME

Some labels only talk to an artist's manager or lawyer, but who says you want to talk to them? If some high-dollar person walks up to you saying you can hire them for a retainer fee, suggest they keep walking. If they are a real lawyer or manager, the standard practice is they don't get paid unless you do. If you are any good at all, they should be knocking on your door offering services for a percentage, not expecting cash up front. Always check backgrounds on people you hire to represent you, or insist on taking needed classes or educating yourself so you can do your own negotiating, not relying on just the word of your work pal who has a brother "in the business." You would be doing them a favor, not the other way around. If the person really does know his or her stuff, knows everyone you need to know, and is excited enough about you to agree to just being another equal partner in your group, then by all means, give that person a shot-with a vested interest, that employee may well earn every penny, leaving you with a lot more writing and practice time.

PAY AND WE WILL LISTEN

Yes, there are fee-based tip sheets, and music conventions where reps are present. In many cases, those are very much worth the cost, and people actually got signed with these. Many also allow you to attend free if you work for them, so it's not like you actually have to pay full price. Good bands often get free admission, pay, additional passes, and a showcase, so be a little suspicious if you are being asked to pay a huge fee for a chance to do the same thing. There's a big difference in a convention like South By Southwest where the place is crawling with reps so you can easily make up your costs in seeing fellow bands and handing out your own product (don't forget that all of that is a tax deduction, too), and some teeny place charging almost as much to have only a few tiny labels show up to listen to your demos and give caustic critiques on your work. You will spend much less money just mailing off your demos to reps yourself, and many won't even bother to send you back a critique, even if you send it to the right rep with return postage. The ones you do get back are often much more professionally worded, and have a lot more useful information-many kind ones may even suggest where you can send it instead, and I mean that in a nice way. Real labels don't charge you money to listen to your demo-if they are going to rip you off, they will have you sign a contract and rip you off by stealing your publishing. There are plenty of real tip sheets that are free, plenty of reps that run around in all the major cities that are being paid to take your demo from you for free, and most of us know you often make much more money just playing and gigging your butt off, not waiting for deals that often just don't exist anymore. Most of the "buzz bands" get signed because they already have an audience, already have albums out, already are making money, and the labels figure they are a safe bet. Those bands can pick and choose contracts-be one of those bands.

Go To Page: 1 2 3