It’s great that you’re doing well in your home country, but I understand that you want to expand! In order to determine how to do that, I recommend that we sit down and do an assessment of your band’s current reach and opportunities in other Countries. I will then put together a step-by-step plan to help you maximize opportunities and strategize options to expand to new Countries.

A lot of bands, comedians, and other touring entertainers have this issue. They go on tour, sometimes for months at a time, and find that they come back in the red or will break even with pockets empty. I typically do an assessment and look at your costs such as transportation, production, backline, road cases, accommodations, insurance, food, salaries, per diems, merchandise, and other touring expenses to determine what is truly necessary and how you can walk away with more cash in your pocket.

Think about what brand you are attempting to appeal to and how you can help them. What is the brand’s needs? What is their target market? What can you do to make yourself appealing to the brand. When you’ve answered that question, you’ll have a better idea of how to pitch to a brand. Contact me to help!

Talk first! Write after! Producers get paid in different ways. Talk to the Producer ahead and see how they want to be compensated. Think about what you feel is fair too. You don’t want to be in a session, write a hit, then not be able to do anything with it because you and the Producer can’t agree! I have a packet of useful information and tools you can use at any co-write session to answer these extremely important questions ahead.

Do you need a manager? Are you finding it difficult to balance communicating with your label, planning releases and meeting release deadlines? Are you overwhelmed communicating with your booking agent(s), PR, and publishing company? Then you likely need a day-to-day music manager. Managers are hard to find, and will likely approach you first. However, a good tip is to ask your label or publishing company if they have any recommendations. They’ll likely introduce you to a person or company that can help. If you’re not quite at the stage I described yet, consider a fan or friend. An enthusiastic friend or fan can be great help, even if they don’t have experience as a music manager. Go with this person. They’re stoked on you, they want to help you succeed, and they likely aren’t going to demand crazy compensation. Who knows, maybe you’ll work with them your entire career.

Booking agents, like day-to-day managers are difficult to connect with. I find that booking agents will likely approach you first. If that isn’t happening and you need booking assistance, try looking up bands of similar genres to you and seeing who their booking agent is. Check out the band’s “About” page on Facebook. They’ll usually list their booking agent(s). Before you reach out to the booking agent, make sure you have information ready about your band. I also recommend trying to self-book a few shows in the area(s) you’re trying to gain traction in and have that information ready to present to the booking agent. Tell them which cities you hit and where you went. Tell them what size venues you played and the fan response. This information is extremely appealing to the booking agent.

A business manager is someone who assists you with managing your finances. They collect your money, track it, invest it, pay your bills, help you decide whether you can afford things, and, make sure you file a tax return. In CA you do not need credentials to be a business manager. There is no license and you do not have to be an accountant. Be careful about who you hire. Some business managers are superstars, others are scumbags. If you need assistance with finding or assessing a business manager, contact me.

Develop a relationship with sync licensing companies, publishing companies, and music supervisors. If you need a list of sync companies, reach out to me.

I think that Spotify gives major labels priorities on playlists, so it’s an uphill battle if you’re an unsigned musician. It helps to get on other playlists of popular brands, artists, tastemakers, and publications. My friend Sam from the band BEGINNERS had a track placed on Foster the People’s playlist and it really helped the band out. Here are a couple other ideas: there’s a self-submission feature through the Spotify platform, it can help tremendously if you know someone at Spotify or formerly at Spotify. For example, if you’re a rock band, it’s helpful to know Alli Hagendorf, Global Head of Rock, or a person who works under her. You can look these people up on LinkedIn! Organic growth is helpful i.e. have a lot of streams already because your friends and fans are rabid about your music.

First figure out who you want to be and work from there. What do you stand for? Who are you? What values does your music reflect?

PR stands for Public Relations. PR helps get you press and other opportunities as a result of press. Radio interviews, magazine features, reviews on blogs, and so on. PR can assist with a roll-out of a release, music video or tour. They can re-write your bio. They can help determine what publications are most likely to cover your music based on your genre. They have a good relationship with journalists, they write press releases, and most importantly, they hound journalists and writers for you so you can focus on creating.

There are different types of radio campaigns. My general feeling is that radio isn’t doing well right now. Unless you’re on a major label and the major label is pushing for a radio campaign, I’d skip it and save the money.

Yes! There are companies that can help you manage your social media and post for you. Again, I recommend an enthusiastic fan or friend to help you run socials if you do not have time, can’t run your social media sites yourself, and do not want to pay a lot out of pocket for a company to do so.

Do you need help printing and shipping merchandise yourself? Then yes – there are merchandising companies that can help you manage orders, ship them for you, and even assist you with merchandising creation. They do charge a fee though, so be conscious of that when you’re pricing your merchandise.

You have to assess the opportunity presented and determine if it fits within your artistic vision. For example, if you do not drink alcohol and Absolut Vodka wants you to promote their new Juice brand line of vodka, it’s not going to be a good fit.

I wrote a fun article on the importance of connecting with fans and how to connect with fans, here’s the link: https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/daniela-oliva/making-it-music_b_3267029.html