Managemental Podcast With Blasko And Mike Mowery

Hypebot article "10 Music Industry Predictions For 2019" by Bobby Owsinski of Music 3.0. Predictions can be a tricky thing, but if we look at the trends in the music business over the last year we can see where things might be going. Here are 5 predictions for how the industry will fare in 2019. 1. Apple Music Nearly Catches Spotify. Spotify is still the king of the hill when it comes to streaming with 83 million paid subscribers, but Apple Music is coming on strong at 57 million at years end. Apple Music’s growth was significant in 2018, so look for the gap between the two streaming powerhouses to close even more in the coming year. 2. Tencent Music Makes Its Move. Now that Tencent Music had its more or less timid yet successful IPO, look for the company to set its eyes on acquiring more if not all of Spotify. Of course, this only happens if the market rebounds and tech stocks (especially music related ones) again become investor favorites. If not, look for an acquisition down the road. 3. Smart Speaker G

Hypebot article "5 Ways to Deal with Rejections in the Music Industry" by Alice Berg. Beatles were rejected by Decca in 1962; Lady Gaga was kicked out by Island Def Jam Records after only three months, Beethoven was called “hopeless compositor” by his teacher. "American Idol" has rejected Colbie Caillat, Hillary Scott, Bebe Rexha and many others. As you can see, producers make huge mistakes sometimes. However, there is no possibility to promote every singer or music band – some have to be rejected.   If you feel you have been treated unfairly, there’s no reason to stress about it as well. All you need to do is to learn how to deal with those refusals and find the motivation to go on trying even when dealing with constant rejection. Here we discuss 5 simple steps that help to overcome the failure and grab the needed inspiration. 1. Don’t Take It Personally 2. Work on Your Mistakes 3. Be Confident and Persistent 4. Reflect on Your Music and Ask for More Comments 5. Music Failures: Use That Rejection as a Tool A

This week Blasko & Mike take some questions from one of our loyal listeners. Hey guys, thanks for the show! I hugely appreciate what you're doing for aspiring musicians like myself. I've got a topic that I don't think you've covered yet that I know applies to not only myself, but to a massive contingent of my fellow musicians! I'm a full-time mechanical engineer with a demanding job and commute, so I've opted to devote my limited available free time resources to creating the best music that I can. I’m starting work on my second album, and trying to build some hype and a modest fanbase prior to release, and am looking for advice on the best path forward that maximizes the effectiveness of my time! Thanks for your time! Cheers! Dan The specific questions: What, in your experience, is the most effective way to connect with and build a fanbase as a non-gigging solo studio musician? Are low-effort real-time updates more or less effective than infrequent high-production-quality posts? Would I risk losing connecti

This week, Blasko & Mike recap Episode 49: 10 Predictions for 2018. 1. Traditional record sales will continue to decrease. 2. Apple will begin to shut down the iTunes music store with an estimated final closure date of Jan 2019. 3. Spotify will go public. 4. VR technology will not replace the live experience. 5. Cryptocurrency will not become an overly accepted form of payment for anything music related. 6. Print on demand services will become more of a necessity. 7. More independent artists will cross over to the mainstream. 8. Streaming only record labels will begin to sign and break bands. 9. Festival attendance will level off or decrease. 10. If we are looking for different results we will need to implement different strategies. ---- Use coupon code MENTALPOD20 to get $20 off any Outerloop Coaching course - including Breaking In for Musicians and Breaking In For Non-Musicians regularly priced at $21. That's only ONE DOLLAR for either of these great courses. This coupon is only valid until December 31,

Music Think Tank article "7 Top Marketing Strategies For Musicians" by Patrick McGuire of The Bandzoogle Blog. For many artists, marketing is somewhat at odds with who they are and what they do. Since music and the act writing songs is often deeply personal and emotional, getting into a music marketing strategy mindset might seem foreign, fake or forced for some musicians. Sadly, this doesn’t change the fact that it’s never been more difficult for new artists to put their music in front of listeners. Between music streaming platforms and the cheap cost of DIY home recording technology, there’s more music being released now than at any other point in history. Tens of thousands of new songs are being released each day, and, in many cases, what determines whether each of these songs will go on to find an audience or not depends on how they’re marketed. ---- Support the Dan Rozenblum Family Fire Relief Fund here. Support The Kyle Pavone Foundation at KylePavoneFoundation.org. Use coupon code MENTALPOD20 to get

Hypebot article "5 Things You Should Share With Your Fans Besides Music" by Michael Hahn of LANDR. While sharing the music they've created should certainly be an artist's number one priority when it comes to interacting with fans, but as the distance between audience and creator shrinks, it becomes important for artists to share other information with fans as well. Today’s communication tools have broken down boundaries between audience and creator. It’s clear that sharing your music with your fans is the number one priority. But your community is looking for more than just tracks. They want the extra details that bring the sounds to life. Your music has a story, and it’s up to you to bring that story to your fans—it’s the part of speaking to your audience that’s more than just music. There’s tons of ways to tell the story around your sound. But to get you started here’s 5 useful ideas of what to share with your fans beyond your music. 1. Why you make music 2. Your studio, gear and recording process 3. Yo

Threatin coverage on MetalSucks: http://www.metalsucks.net/tag/threatin/ Jered Eames, who goes by the stage name Jered Threatin, began Threatin as a solo act after his departure from Abigail Williams. In 2015, Threatin released a single, "Living Is Dying". In 2017, the album Breaking the World was released, with Jered Threatin performing all instruments. In November 2018, Threatin was booked to tour the United Kingdom and Europe having informed venues they had sold hundreds of tickets and had paid the hire fee before each gig. However, the tour achieved widespread news coverage when it became known that the shows had been played to empty rooms. It was later discovered that the 38,000 likes on the band's Facebook page had been bought. It was also found that Threatin created a series of fake websites for a booking agency (StageRight Bookings), a record label (Superlative Music Recordings), a PR company (Magnified Media PR), a music recording studio (Mindframe Studios), a film production company (Glass Cas

Hypebot article "Checklist To Decide If Your Album Is Release Ready" by Angela Mastrogiacomo of Muddy Paw PR & The Symphonic Blog. So you’ve just recorded an incredible new EP or album and you’re dying to get it out into the world. After all, this is your latest masterpiece—your best work to date—and your fans are going to love it! Plus, you’ve been promising them something new for a while and it’s time to deliver on that promise. Before you go releasing an album on a whim, make sure you are release ready so you get the maximum impact and exposure for the album. Ask yourself, do you have the following? 1. Enough Time 2. A Gameplan 3. Hi-Res Press Photos 4. A Professionally Written Bio 5. Active Social Media 6. Grit ---- Register for Release It Right - Ice Nine Kills Edition here. Use coupon code MENTALPOD20 to get $20 off any Outerloop Coaching course - including Breaking In for Musicians and Breaking In For Non-Musicians regularly priced at $21. That's only ONE DOLLAR for either of these great courses. This

In this week's episode, Blasko & Mike discuss the Hypebot article "3 Reasons Your Last Music Release Failed" by Suz Paulinski of The Rock/Star Advocate & Ariel Hyatt of Cyber PR. Reason # 1 You Took Your Time Writing & Recording But Then You Felt a Sense of URGENCY to Release (So You Did Without Really Preparing!) Reason # 2 You Hired A Music Publicist or A Radio Promoter and They Didn’t Get The Results You Expected Reason # 3 You Put Off Learning How to Release Your Music Properly Because You Thought that “Great Music Will Always Find it’s Way and “The Cream Always Rises To The Top” ---- Support The Kyle Pavone Foundation at KylePavoneFoundation.org. Design and launch your band's website in minutes. Use code MENTAL for 15% off your first year of website hosting at Bandzoogle.com. Rockabilia is your One Stop Shop for all band merch with the largest selection of officially licensed music merchandise in the world! Use PCJABBERJAW for 15% off www.rockabilia.com Want more industry insight? Head over to Outerlo

This week Mike is joined by special guest Ryan J. Downey. Ryan is the founder of Superhero Artist Management, representing Demon Hunter, Killer Be Killed, Throwdown, and Zeuss (whose producer credits include Rob Zombie, Queensrÿche, Hatebreed). He is a longtime journalist who has contributed to MTV News, Billboard, the Hollywood Reporter, and other outlets. Downey hosts Speak N’ Destroy, a podcast about all things Metallica, and No-Prize from God, which features conversations with creative people about belief, unbelief, and everything between. You can find Ryan on Twitter @ryandowney and Instagram @superherohq. Original article "ACE FREHLEY Would Only Participate In KISS's Final Tour If He Could 'Take Back' His 'Make-Up, Costume And Character'" on Blabbermouth.net. "Don’t give up your face! Ace Frehley has said he will only return to KISS if he is able to take back his makeup, costume, and character. How does someone end up without the rights to their own likeness? We dive in to the complicated histories of s

Hypebot article "5 Key Priorities for New Artists" from The TuneCore Blog. 1. YOU HAVE TO BUILD A TEAM If you have decided to pursue a career as an artist, you must know that you cannot do it alone. Having a strong team with experience and connections can be the key to furthering your career. These people will represent you and guide you through the tumultuous early days as an artist, as well as through the many challenges you will face on the road to success and beyond. This team can include, (but is not limited to), a personal manager, business manager, booking agent, attorney, publicist, publisher, tour manager, and producer. 2. CRAFT As an artist, you have to practice your musical craft like a professional athlete practices their sport. Even the best practice; only the best practice the small stuff. There are two main categories of your craft: musical/technical ability and live performance. 3. BUILDING A GREAT LIVE SHOW When it comes to establishing a position within the industry as a new artist, put

Original Article: "Five trends for digital music marketing in 2018" by Music Ally. There are three pillars for music marketing in 2018: what you do with social media; what you do with digital service providers (DSPs, principally streaming services); and what you do with your own platforms – mailing lists, most obviously, and direct-to-fan sales be it on your own site or something like Bandcamp. But what are the trends around those three pillars? That’s something we think about a lot at Music Ally, particularly for our fortnightly Sandbox music-marketing reports, and that has influenced the programming for our upcoming Sandbox Summit conference in London. Here are five trends we’d pick out: 1. Shifting responsibilities between managers and labels. 2. YouTube throwing its weight behind artist marketing. 3. Labels are bringing advertising in-house. 4. Augmented Reality offers playful potential for artists. 5. Flexibility is everything in the modern music-marketing campaign. ---- Support The Kyle Pavone Foundatio

This week we answer some questions from you, our loyal listeners. This is gonna be killer, so let’s get mental! ---- It might benefit from an episode going over who the players are in a local show (the promoter, the venue, etc.) what they do, and what the best practices are. Keep it Mental, Robbie ---- I’m writing you because I heard the part about physical promotion in your recent ManageMental episode, and how you guys asked for feedback from a younger crowd on their opinions. I’m only 21 so I’ve only dealt in the age of digital promotion, however I see some serious benefits with physical promotion. These benefits aren’t necessarily for growing a larger fan base, but rather a stronger fan base. When it comes to getting the word out, digital seems to be the only way people really hear about things, but I think physical components are a key way to make fans feel more involved than they can on a digital platform, even with simple things like printing a handful of posters for a gig and giving them out for $1 or

Original Article: "5 Ways to Help Your Music Get Discovered in the New Digital Age" by Jeremy Young on Soundfly's Flypaper Blog. Recently our friends over at The Outline published a great piece called, “Finding New Music in the Algorithm Age.” The article collects input from six experts and industry veterans, people who work with artists day in and day out, about where they turn to find out about new music in the changing digital landscape of music discovery. Spotify’s algorithmic innovation still may not be very good at that — that quirky randomness and personal subjectivity of peer-to-peer music discovery — but what it definitely does have over the old system I grew up in is the ability to help listeners “discover en masse.” And if you’re an artist, you’ve got a better shot at reaching ripe global audiences now than ever before. So here’s some advice culled from The Outline’s guests about what you can do as an artist to up your discoverability. 1) The community aspect is still important for listeners. 2

Article: "10 Music Mistakes The Turn Fans Off" by Cari Cole: https://www.caricole.com/10-music-mistakes-turn-fans-off/ This list is not for everyone. It’s for you if you are ready to pull out all the stops and get serious about your career. It’s for you if you like to hear what no one else has the guts to tell you. This advice, which is my professional opinion comprised after 30 years of coaching thousands of independent artists, celebrities and Grammy-winning artists from my voice studio in New York City, is for the express purpose of helping you become a great artist (musician + songwriter) so you can get ahead and make a dent out there. It’s not for the faint of heart. Keep in mind that this is a list to work on accomplishing –  it’s not important to have all of this aced ~ consider it 10 lessons to work on. 1. You post your demos publicly.   2. You only have one or two or three songs up.   3. You think that marketing is what makes people convert into fans.   4. You did your vocals in one day.   5. You

This week while Blasko is out, Mike is joined by Nick "Biggie" Grimaldi of Good Fight Management. Check out Biggie's roster here. Follow Biggie on Twitter/Instagram: @biggiexxx. Mike and Biggie discuss the Hypebot article "How Much Does It Cost To Tour In 2018?" by Royalty Exchange. ---- Touring is where the money is at in today’s music business. But it’s also where most of the expenses lie as well. Creating a realistic tour budget can help your time on the road be successful, but it’s far from a guarantee that you’ll end up turning a profit. The band Pomplamoose famously lost almost $12,000 on the month-long tour they wrote about in 2014. From transportation, to gear, to routing, to accommodations, to paying third parties… having a good idea how much touring costs is essential for musicians who hope to make their time out on the road worth their while. Don’t let your tour turn into a money pit. Smart budgeting, and planning expenses ahead of time, can make the difference between a meaningful payday

This week while Blasko is out, Mike is joined by Emily White, author and host of the Interning 101 book and podcast. Mike: “I’ve been enamored with Emily White since we met as panelists at The Yellow Phone Music Conference in 2014. She has continued to inspire me with her passion and consistent record of achievement. As a CEO of a boutique music company, we mentor and work with interns every day and have always wanted to provide them with a valuable learning experience. That has been made all the better once we began following the advice of Emily White’s Interning 101 book. Emily’s charismatic personality combined with her extensive industry knowledge makes her a natural to be a podcast host.” The Interning 101 Podcast takes listeners through the journey of how to successfully navigate and succeed in one’s field of choice. Episodes include interviews with Warped Tour Founder and USC Professor Kevin Lyman, Brian Viglione (The Dresden Dolls, Scarlet Sails, Violent Femmes, NIN), as well as Emily’s current busine

Hypebot article "Proof the Album is Almost Dead" by Bobby Owsinski of Music 3.0 Listener Joe writes: "I know you guys have touched upon releasing music in 2018, specifically the relevance of the album versus EPs or even singles. I wondered if you guys could dig into this a bit more. As an independent metal artist who is getting ready to release new music in 2019, we've had several discussions in our camp about the appropriate way to do this, which has clearly changed since our last release. The metal and hard rock audience does seem to hold dear its albums and it doesn't seem to me that this will ever completely go away. However, considering how most people are consuming music now, it almost seems like a waste to release an album in which several songs will immediately get lost in space upon release. Currently, we're thinking of releasing an EP, in which we first release each song individually every few weeks before the official release. We know that having CDs, vinyl, and a full EP/album digital release stil

This week we talk about booking agents. This is gonna be killer, so let’s get mental! Listener Nick writes: "What’s up Blasko, Big fan of the podcast and what you do. My band is currently in a situation that I haven’t heard you and Mike talk about yet. I’m in a band that has been signed for about 4 years. We’ve put out an EP and a full length, done several national tours with bigger acts, as well as many smaller tours across the states. Recently, we had to fire our booking agent because, for lack of a better term...he completely ghosted us. No letter of resignation, no emails, nothing. He just stopped answering our manager’s calls and emails one day. We’ve tried to think of any reason why he could have left, but in all honesty we are totally confused. SO, given that we aren’t the type to wait around for things to happen, we got back on the DIY booking grind. In return, we’ve been able to book ourselves at better venues and get better deals for the band than when we had an agent - leaving me to ponder why we

Hypebot article "How To Get a Blog Premiere For Your Next Release" by Jeanette Kats of Symphonic Distribution's Symphonic Blog. Press coverage is pretty important in the digital age, and it’s all about connections. But where do you start? Sure, you can send out cold e-mails to writers and editors who may never open them, but there are a few tips and tricks to help you get noticed in a sea of demos. 1. Create a spreadsheet and organize your options There is an endless number of blogs out there on the web, but it will be a waste of time to reach out to sites that don’t cover your style of music. Do some research and find blogs that fit your sound. From there, find the contact emails for writers and editors, recent articles to mention and submission requirements. You can even team up with other artists in your field to tag-team a database. 2. Get all of your release information together You’ll want to put together a list of what editors and writers will want to know. Make sure to include the release date, a h