Find solution
How to get into the music industry?

How can a young beautiful girl with a voice to knock your socks off get noticed by the music industry?

  • If a simple country girl has an amazing voice, and plays guitar, but has nowhere near enough money to make a professional demo recording to send in, and lives near Nashville, TN, what is the best way for her to get noticed by the right people for beginning a career in the Country Music / Christian Music industry?

  • Answer:

    If there was an easy and definitive answer for this question, every pretty girl with a great voice would have a paying career in music. Without serious connections (Katy Perry) or one-in-a-billion luck (Lady Gaga/Justin Bieber), it takes years to get "discovered" by the right people. I use quotation marks because the people that get "discovered" and/or "make it" in creative fields have been honing their craft to a very high caliber, for a very long time, with little to no public recognition nor money for years. One day they get their "big break" of a record deal, NY Times article, award, etc. that brings them to a higher level of recognition and MAYBE getting paid (or not) for their craft. Several friends/acquaintances of mine have "made it" in the past year or so, so I'm pretty familiar with these patterns. This is a 5-to-10 year plan with no guaranteed outcome--you must be realistic about that and do it for the love of it all, not because you want to be famous. As Banksy says, "Art that is only about wanting to be famous will never make you famous. Any fame is a by-product of making something that means something." Now that all that is out of the way... How to do it: Start NOW: develop a serious social network and following on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc. Write songs & throw away the 80% of them that suck (because they do). The Pareto Principle applies heavily in the arts, 80-90% of everything you do will suck, but the public shouldn't know that. Record your best songs to the best of your ability and budget. Be sure to record some covers, people like them and they're google-able. Make sure your interpretation is genuinely interesting. Get good promotional pictures - If you're pretty you can probably do some "TFP" (Time for Photos) shoots on Model Mayhem and/or One Model Place for non-commercial self-promotional use. Put your music on Soundcloud & Myspace. Make a personal website & blog and link to similar musicians. Create a Sonicbids and Bandcamp profiles and submit to gigs that are appropriate for you. Use your personal connections and Sonicbids to play live shows as often as humanly possible, until you start to develop a live following. When you have a following, taper off and do bigger shows less frequently--this is where you have the potential to actually make money. Record your shows and put them on youtube. Go on Tour. By now you should have connections in the industry and know people who will book tours for and might want to manage you. If financially feasible, hire a publicist to publicize your tour so that people come and see you. Get your arty friend with a video camera and Final Cut Pro to make music video(s) for your best song(s). Wash, lather, repeat until you "make it," get sick of it, or you can't do it anymore. Things to do consistently: ALWAYS post about EVERYTHING you do on your social networking sites and build engagement with fans. Having a blog is a great way to create engagement with fans. There are a lot of plug-ins nowadays that can share content between your sites. Use them. Network constantly and be real about it. The business is all about relationships and favors. Build strong relationships and do favors for the right people. Collaborate with other artists (musicians, fashion designers, videographers, photographers, writers, etc) as much as possible. Co-branding is very important and working with people is a great way to get yourself out there, push boundaries, and challenge yourself as an artist. Cultivate an interesting stage presence and performance style. You can be a diva on stage if that's your persona, but... Don't be a backstage diva. Don't be unreliable. Don't be difficult to work with. Everybody knows everybody and if you're a diva/unreliable/difficult/etc. you'll get a bad reputation Then nobody will want to work with nor do favors for you. Don't become an addict. Drugs and alcohol are abundant, and there are many functioning addicts in this industry. Addiction will impair your performance and success. Be careful, it creeps up on many very slowly. Get all the vocal training you need so that you can sing every day for years without damaging your voice. If your technique isn't good and healthy you run the risk of ruining your sound (Kelly Clarkson) and/or making your career VERY short. Work out so you're healthy and attractive and look good in photos and on video. Work out and build strength so you don't get sick or weak on the road. Don't get obvious plastic surgery, implants, fake tans or bleach your hair. Cultivate your own unique style of dressing. Invest in good cosmetics for stage, photo and video. MAC is the best and they give a 30% discount to US and Canadian stage and on-air talent, which is amazing. Find a flexible money job and/or a wealthy private benefactor. The best kind of work for an artist is something you can do from the internet on your own schedule. While you're figuring that out, working in restaurants, bars and cafes is very popular. You're on your own for finding a benefactor. Above all, good luck! But consider... do you really want to get noticed by the music industry today? It's dying. Today it's all about self-promotion and independent labels. Don't jump into a confining record contract with a big label just because they're a big label. A lot of artists get signed and then lose complete creative control of their sound and image, which is death for a serious artist (Prince). Beware of this. If you make something original, authentic and beautiful it will take years but people will eventually notice. It might not be the kind of success then that you imagine now, but it might be better for you in the end. BTW--Making a professional demo, just to send in to record labels? You may as well throw that time and money away.

Tiana Cornelius at Quora Visit the source

Was this solution helpful to you?

Other answers

It will take time and hard work with no guarantees, but she should continue to hone her craft, write songs, and perform as often as possible. Nashville has plenty of sing songwriter nights and coffee house performance venues at which people with connections attend. If she truly has potential someone will take notice and approach her. There are many different financial arrangements that can be made to get a demo recorded up front with interest in backend income in the future. In addition to all of this, simple YouTube videos of playing cover songs can help people take notice and point them towards her originals.

Scott Horton

Songwriters are always looking for singers to sing on their demos. She can volunteer to do these demos for free or very cheap (at least in the beginning). The songwriter in this case would pay for the studio and producers fees etc but save on spending money on a session vocalist by having your artist lay the vox, and your artist would benefit with the studio experience, an opportunity to network and work with industry professionals (producers etc) and even get herself a free demo in the process, all paid for by the songwriter. Any exposure the artist might receive as the song is passed on and hustled by the songwriter and their publishing company to all the industry folks is just going to be icing on the cake. From this you build relationships with everyone you meet, the producers, the songwriter, the musicians and keep building your network. As with anything else this industry has its fair share of posers, liars and sleaze, so make sure she remains safe and protected. If the artist is genuinely serious they have to be active on the scene. By playing gigs locally, collaborating with other musicians and ofcourse doing the youtube and social media thing. You may not be able to reach the power brokers right away, but as you do this, you will meet the gatekeepers who can get you access to them.

Jay Kodero

I suggest going the YouTube route a la Justin Bieber. Plus, getting in touch with the right people, e.g. artist managers, always helps. Top Nasvhille management companies include Borman (Keith Urban, Lady Antebellum), Paradigm (Garth Brooks), and Turner & Nichols (Rascal Flatts).

Karina Paje

To score a record deal, you might want to consider the following: - Start writing your own stuff, even if it's a three-chord song that sounds like this: - Model for Abercrombie & Fitch, if they still have a Rising Stars campaign. - Get money from the modelling gig and invest in a laptop with a digital audio workstation, it doesn't have to be Protools or Logic, there are countless other freewares, or you can stick to Garageband. If you think a laptop is too expensive, get an 8-track recorder. Still too expensive? Get a 4-track recorder. - Record your three-chord original and send it out. Put it out on Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Reverbnation, whatever. - Have one of your demos put out in some cosmetics compilation release. - Gig a lot in the local pub/bar/festival circuit. - Be humble. In other words, be a @http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taylor_Swift of the 2010's. I hope your parents are as supportive as hers. Good luck!

Florence Lee

Related Q & A:

Just Added Q & A:

Find solution

For every problem there is a solution! Proved by Solucija.

  • Got an issue and looking for advice?

  • Ask Solucija to search every corner of the Web for help.

  • Get workable solutions and helpful tips in a moment.

Just ask Solucija about an issue you face and immediately get a list of ready solutions, answers and tips from other Internet users. We always provide the most suitable and complete answer to your question at the top, along with a few good alternatives below.