Music Business Blog by Jason Feinberg

Be VERY careful when using CC and BCC in email while dealing with conflict or problems.

It is extremely unprofessional to go above someone’s head via email. If you are unhappy with something, need an answer, or want some resolution to a problem, the first step (and often second and third step) is to email your contact directly. Give them a chance to answer and respond.

By also CCing their boss or other parties, you are essentially saying that you do not expect them to be able to resolve it and that it requires higher involvement. The problem here is that, if this is not the case, you’ve just lit a match and are holding it dangerously close to the bridge. Nobody wants to look bad in front of their bosses – if you are the reason they do, and especially if it was unnecessary, you can forget that person ever going out of their way for you again. Trust me on this one.

BCC can be very dangerous too – if you BCC their boss, when they reply it doesn’t go to the boss. The boss then doesn’t know the status or if there was resolution. This can often snowball into some very bad situations.

Be professional. Don’t be a baby. Solve problems, don’t create new ones.

It’s very dangerous to ignore history. I made a big mistake in high school and college – not paying attention in my history classes. It is certainly true what is said about history repeating itself – if you are unaware of what has transpired before you, it is very easy to make the same mistakes again.

Trust me on this one – every band has faced what you are facing now. There have already been scores of people facing the same challenges you feel are new and overwhelming. People before have made it through, you are able to as well. You simply must be aware of what has happened before.

Read books on the history of the music industry. Here’s some essential reading. Here’s another. And one more.

I’ve read each of these, often more than once, and the lessons I learned from the successes and failures of those before me has surely had an impact on my speedy accomplishments in this industry.

On the road, so gotta make this a quickie.

Over and over I’ve mentioned passion being a requisite for success in the music biz. I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately – how the successes I have accomplished have usually generated from someone in a hiring position seeing a drive and fire in me that assured them I could handle the job. I never tire of hearing how my proposal won the bid due to the sheer passion I displayed in the meeting.

Accomplishments say a lot about your abilities, but it can be difficult to get people to give you a chance to prove yourself without prior accomplishments. The ol’ chicken and egg. So how do you get the gigs that allow you to rack up accomplishments? Show that you love what you do and cannot get enough; that you’d be doing this for a hobby if it wasn’t your job; that you lie awake at night thinking of ways to (market | promote | sell | play | etc) better than you currently do.

Passion + Hard Work = Success

Simple as that.

From this article:
The record industry’s hardline stance on illegal downloads appears to be paying off, with the number of people paying for them expected to overtake the pirates within a year.

Fear of prosecution was the number one reason music consumers were put off downloading illegally. About 44% of survey respondents cited fear of prosecution, 39% said illegal downloading was unfair on the artists, and 29% were concerned about viruses.

It’s interesting – this seems to be the trend lately. People are realizing, for one reason or another, that using a subscription or pay-per-download service can be both affordable and fulfilling. Excellent.

Something people often forget is that in the music industry (and really all industries) you must constantly be aware of how you are marketing yourself. I have touched on this before, but it is far too important a lesson to not reiterate and expand on every so often.

How you dress, what you say, how you act, and how you carry yourself all add up to the impression you leave on others. People often forget that they are being evaluated near constantly.

When you are at a club, at work, at a networking event, or even just grocery shopping, it is important to remember to carry yourself as you would expect someone in the position you desire would carry themselves. Part of this game is selling an image – you must convince people you are capable enough to accomplish the big tasks we take on in this biz. Never underestimate how essential it is to be self-evaluating.

Side note – for my regular readers out there, sorry for the lack of updates the past week or two. Busy would be an understatement to describe my workload. But I’m back on track and will be posting near daily as usual..

I really, really hate clichés – I also usually hate metaphors. I am all about saying exactly what you mean and (ideally) meaning exactly what you say. So, begrudgingly I present today’s topic:

Making Lemons Into Lemonade.

Ugh, it makes me wretch just to say it. I am always looking for better ways, and if someone has one please post a comment. But as a concept, it is an invaluable business practice.

In any job you are going to be faced with obstacles. Some small (the boss wanted Sweet-and-Low in their coffee, not Splenda) and some large (the entire shipment of 45,000 CDs went to Las Vegas, New Mexico and not Las Vegas, Nevada)… We are all going to make mistakes or at minimum have to clean up someone else’s. What is important here is how well you can turn a negative situation into a positive one.

Quite often, the difference between success and failure is as simple as how adept one is at damage control. Being able to correct a problem is equally as important as being able to do the task at hand. It is essential to spend time both learning your craft and developing ways to deal with the inevitable issues that will arise.

Normally this blog is reserved for music business related posts, but I simply must post this:

I am a HUGE Sopranos fan, so this is a very exciting day. I have Seasons 1-4 on DVD and watch them regularly. I find one can actually pick up business acumen by watching this fine series. Let’s call it real world education.

In other news, the Bob Seger reissue of “Smokin’ O.P.’s” has been released! OTMG is in the middle of a marketing campaign for this and the upcoming “Back in ‘72″ reissue.

Very very busy otherwise. More meaningful post tomorrow.

We are busy. Simple as that.

Fortunately, we love what we do and happen to be pretty good at it, so busy doesn’t phase us. It just means we have to get smarter. I am a full believer in working smart over working hard. Don’t get me wrong – hard work is essential, but if you can shift some of your hard work efforts to smart work efforts, you’ll usually find much better results.

So what’s an example of working smart over working hard? Read on.

As I grow my company I spend a tremendous amount of my time building infrastructure. I don’t just go out there and work work work (hard). Instead of taking on every client I can and either working myself to death or doing a half assed job, I take on enough clients to pay the bills, but few enough that I can spend very valuable time building internal structure and organization. This way, each project becomes more and more fluid, allowing us to get more done with less effort each time. Everyone wins, all the way from the artists and labels to me and my staff.

Remember – you can get just as much done in a fraction of the time if you focus on working smart as well as hard.