The white lies of Music Business

Every once in a while we hear that someone got lucky and became rich and famous with their music overnight and they didn't even see it coming. Like it was no effort on it. Lies Lies Lies...

Well, I don't see why people do that, it's sad but it's common. And the problem is that this gives the wrong impression of how things work. 
I'm not saying that all things work in the same way but there are some things that followed some rules like the licenses for remixes, streaming playlists, record labels promotions and priorities... So when I hear those stories I can clearly see the gap between each information. So please, again, there's no recipe for success but work.

If you dream of success, work should be like breathing. Because it will take work to study to do a great song, even if you are a producer already, to do a song that will become a hit takes research. Especially if you are a Dj, you should take references and find out how to create your own sound. Alan Walker talked a lot about that in our interview, how he came up with the idea for "Faded", it was a combination of two different songs he got inspired. If you are a songwriter, I can say from my own experience that you have a lot of different ways of creating a lyric.

My favourites are taking something from the daily routine that will relate to a specific group of people, and turn into a song, can be happy song, can be sad, can be funny, can be romantic, but it's got to be something with your vision, that's really the key to be unique. You will hear a lot of songs talking about love or a heartbreak, some artist release 3 or 4 singles with the same theme, but their vision and way of saying things will make it different,
but, making music is something, turn into a business is another thing.

That means how to compete for space in some areas and get the right attention of the audience that will like your song? That's mainly when the white lies work, most of the artist doesn't like to talk about business, not clearly, but don't fool yourself, every word means business. Contacts are important, but contacts with no song on the pocket it's a waste of time, don't make routines will not be able to follow like: "now I will only care about the productions" you must never isolate yourself for a long time because your music is for people, you must not lose the connection with the world. But the most important thing is to be ready to talk business. Electronic Music or Dance Music has something really useful called remixes!

When Pop Music needs to make collaborations, featurings, that have to have a great advantage for both sides and normally may compete for the same spaces in Radios, Festivals, The DJs have the power to do remixes that will be played in places that the artist doesn't have space, the artist doesn't need to do a new song, so one product became two for the same cost, what makes the artist help to promote even more the remix inside the fan base, what helps the DJs be known by other people and grow their fan base. And this is just the beginning, a lot of things can be negotiated in this process, and the best part is that everybody wants to make the song work, win-win situation. What makes it easy for the artist to sign the remixes as the official, with that being said, it's already clear that the remix should be good, that it's your obligation, getting the licences is a negotiation with the labels, producers, songwriters and artist, most of the times in that order, and everything can be the last thing that influences the final decision, lately the popularity on the social media has been the treasure for some artists. Something that bloggers taught well the market, how influencer can sell things better than just a face.  

Because your music is your responsibility, needs to be in a high quality, something new and that represents you, but fans, tours, and a big career are business and especially selling. You don't need to do it all, but you need to know everything in the game and play with what you got, to get where you really want. 

White lies cause damage when makes you believe stories that are made up to sound like lucky, don't go for lucky, go for what you want because things are simpler than they seem but that doesn't mean it's easy and that takes no effort. For my experience, everything that we work for can turn into something that we couldn't even imagine at the beginning, great things, and it worth every second you were working on it, but you need to plan it and make it happen.

@2017 DJ Mag Malaysia 
The Kraken Music