By, Wendy Day 8.06
Attending conferences and seminars is a great way to build a career in the music industry or to promote an artist to industry insiders and industry wanna-bes. Industry functions are a great way to learn, network, promote, and meet other people. It’s also a wonderful way to see who’s who. Over the phone, any radio promoter or street team person can tell you they are the shit, but seeing how others interact with them and who they know and how they do their jobs is priceless.
Most artists who are coming into this industry have weak teams. This is due mostly to the fact that when you are brand new or up and coming, it’s hard to attract the top level people to help build a career. To drive my point even further, in the past 15 years I have been in this business, I can count on one hand the number of artists that have had worthy teams behind them (the reality is: who an artist has representing them is a huge reflection on how that artist handles business and the level of success he or she achieves). An industry-savvy team, with some knowledge of how the industry works (real knowledge, not perceived knowledge), with good networking skills can balance out a host of negative qualities.
The best way to prepare for an industry event, convention, or seminar is to get an advanced copy of the schedule of events. This can usually be found on the event’s website, or by calling ahead and asking for it. A smart person has already registered in advance for the event, which often includes an automatic receipt of the information and schedule. Look over this information before even leaving for the event. Know which panels and performances you want to attend.
If you already have some experience and connections in the industry, call around and see who else you know will be going there. Then, you can set up meetings ahead of time to reconnect with people you know, or people who are crucial to moving your career, or your artist’s career, forward. Make sure you attend as many educational events as you can—that’s where the real movers and shakers are. Coming up, that’s how I met Puffy. I happened to be sitting next to him in the audience at a panel at the New Music Seminar. We were both relatively new (he was an intern at a record label back then) to the industry and shared information.
If you are attending the event with more than one person, and there are simultaneous events happening at the same time, you can each attend separate events so you can share knowledge and meet the most people. Ask everyone you meet for a business card, and make sure you have one to give to them (Kinko’s is the cheapest place to print up B&W business cards if you don’t have a budget).
You can jot a note on the back of each card you receive to remind you who they are and what they do. So if you meet Blue Williams from Family Tree, for example, you might jot down on the back of his card: “tall, bald guy manages Nas and Nick Cannon.” When you get home, you have a better chance of remembering who and what Family Tree is. After you meet hundreds of people, it’s hard to recall who’s who without these little triggers for your memory.
At each event you attend, break out of your comfort zone and sit or stand next to people you don’t know. Be outgoing and introduce yourself to people. Meet the folks that everyone else seems to know, and the person to your left and to your right. Everyone is shy, everyone is afraid of being rejected, but if you want to succeed, this is what you need to do. This is a “who you know” business, and if meeting people scares you, you need to be working at another job where you don’t need to interact with others.
If meeting the speakers or the panelists is your goal, bear in mind that this is the same goal as hundreds of others. They will not remember you, even if they just met you on the elevator yesterday. Keep reminding them of who you are and where they met you, if being remembered is important to you. For example, I meet hundreds of people each week. If you walk up to me and say you met me ten years ago when I spoke on a panel, I won’t remember you or the demo you gave me. Best to reintroduce yourself and update me on what you’ve been up to or what you feel I can do for you.
When you step up to the panelists, either right after the panel or elsewhere at the event, don’t take up a lot of their time. They are there to be accessible to everyone, not just you. If you don’t have that little voice in your head that tells you when to walk away, a good rule of thumb is to never take up more than 3 minutes unless they are speaking to you as much as you are speaking to them. Someone nodding while you are running your mouth a mile a minute is politeness, not them being engrossed in what you are saying. If they are engrossed, the conversation will be more of a give and take with them asking questions and interjecting ideas and thoughts. Get their card, move on, and follow up later. You only get one chance to make a first impression—make it a good one.
OK, I know it’s hard to get executives (or anyone who is actually doing something) to call you back. I used to pride myself on returning EVERY call and email. That stopped about 7 years ago. It’s impossible for me to call everyone back and respond to every email (although I do try). It’s impossible! I get over 300 calls a day, and close to 150 emails (Saturday and Sunday are a bit slower, but not by much). And I consider myself VERY accessible. If you think you will call Chris Lighty at Violator or Jermaine Dupri at Virgin, and get a call returned immediately, you are nuts (or you are a platinum recording artist and they actually might call you back). Everyone has a business to run, and experience has told the executives that 99% of the calls they get are a waste of time. They are from people who: 1) didn’t do their research and are asking questions they could have found out elsewhere by doing some reading, or 2) they are asking for something that the executive can’t do for them anyway, or 3) they won’t be in the business by next week anyway because they thought it was easier than it really is.
If you want to catch the attention of someone who is relatively well known, or successful at what they do, you may need to have some level of success, even if it’s minimal. When you meet people at an event, tell them what you’ve accomplished. If I meet 50 people with names I do not recognize, but one person is someone I’ve read about or heard about, that person is getting my attention first. Because they have built something already, they have a better chance of catching my eye (and ear). This goes ditto for phone calls, and if I have time leftover at the end of the day, I call back as many people as I can—but the names I recognize get called back first. Also, do the research…if you are a new artist looking for a manager, for example, don’t stalk managers who never take on new artists as clients. You get one chance to waste people’s times.
In this industry, we all remember the people who have lost us money, made us money, or wasted our time. If you have to be one of those three, be the one to make us money. But don’t be angry when you call us out of the blue with a “million dollar” idea and you don’t get a return call. Chances are good we are already working on our own million dollar ideas. Better to build your idea and call us when there is a buzz on it and we feel we can just apply our connections to help you. I find most people in this industry are helpful and will share their connections and contacts, but only when you are ready for that (ready in our opinion, not yours).
If you are handing your demo to people, make sure it has your name, phone number, email, website address, and myspace page clearly on the CD label. At the very least, this should be in Black ink, but with the ease of CD label printing today (Office Max, Kinko’s, etc), there is no reason your CD should not have a nice label printed for it—the presentation represents you. A smart artist would also get the person’s card and send another demo in the mail in a few weeks. Last week, I went to the Tampa Music Conference. I received over 200 demo CDs. I had to buy an additional suitcase just to get them home. The airline lost my bag, losing every CD I received. Regardless, even if I got them all home, how long do you suppose it would take me to listen to all of those CDs, with me working 20 hour days, 7 days a week on my own projects? I don’t critique music or demo CDs, nor am I qualified to give feedback, so why am I even listening to them? The only way to catch my attention is to build a buzz in your area and stand out (selling 30,000+ CDs regionally according to SoundScan is the ultimate way to catch my attention). I will have already called you to find out who you are and what you have going on. If I can help you, I will—you don’t even have to ask.
If you are giving packages to label reps at an event, you need to stand out in their minds as well. If they are going to sign you (although I do not know of any artist who really got signed from a demo), they need to be able to rationalize the signing to their bosses. The best way to get a deal is with leverage, some regional sales, and some radio spins. This reduces the label’s risk. For a major label to put out your record, they will spend close to $2 million (total) on everything. That means you saying “I’m the most talented and I know it,” is not good reasoning to them. But having a buzz and a track record and a few thousand fans already in place (or 30,000) IS good reasoning. Learn the business. Learn why and how artists get signed. Learn which labels are good and which ones suck. This way you won’t look stupid when you step to them and give them reasons why you’d be a good risk for them. Just wanting a record deal does not make you worthy.
Lastly, once you get home it’s important to follow up with all of the people you met. Not all of them will respond to you, and not all will even return your calls. Just do the best you can, be as professional as you can, and don’t stalk anyone (if you call everyday for two weeks and don’t get a call back from anyone—not even an assistant, that’s a hint that they are too busy for you). Attending industry functions can be worth the money you spend to be there, but you have to do the work to get the most out of it.
