This article will be of interest to you if you’re an artist/ singer songwriter.

It’s an account of my takeaways from Urban Development’s music industry day which was held on 23 Feb 2019 at Kings Place, London.

Urban Development is a charity which plays an integral role in the growth of urban music in the UK.

Sustaining an income from your music

There are 3 key ways to do this, Chris from CMU (Complete Music Update) identified:

1) Creating IP (Intellectual Property)

This is your original music, lyrics, beats etc.
With writing original music make sure you’re registered with PRS and PPL (if you’re in the UK) or their equivalent if you live outside the UK. (more on this later).

2) Live performance

This gets lucrative AFTER you hit the 1,000 mark in audience numbers. It’s something you can work up to, gradually performing in larger and larger venues. You’ll be working with a booking agent and promoters.

3) Fan relationship - Selling merchandise to fans

Get to know your fans, what they are interested in and develop branded products that they will happily purchase from you.

Do you see yourself touring the world performing to different audiences every night?
Would you prefer to be in the studio working with amazing producers and creating a great digital recording?
Or do you LOVE connecting with your fans in real time – perhaps live streaming on social media and interacting directly with them there. Perhaps you’ve got to know them really well and you share wider common interests and values. Over time you can create products that they’ll love and purchase from you – which funds your career and helps you do what you love to do – create and share your music.

As an artist you can’t be divorced from the fact that you need to pay your bills. If you’re serious about having a great music career, you need to be savvy about the business side too. It may sound daunting, but it doesn’t have to be.

You can get help, you can learn lots of things yourself, you can build up your business acumen over time. Ultimately, the most successful artists are the ones that make the business side of their art work.

Two such impressive artists that have the entrepreneurial spark were J2K and who has brought out his own sneaker line – he’s very ‘brand aware’, and Eckoes who spoke about how she worked with a music lawyer to get the best deal with her label. She was actually co-signed with two labels for one year (love this!) and at the end of the year she got to decide which label best suited her needs and who she wanted to move forward with.

Important to know:
You never have to negotiate a deal under pressure or take a label’s first offer, you get a full say too.

“If a contract is good enough to sign, it’s good enough to sign tomorrow”.

Take your time and work in conjunction with a reputable music lawyer who will help you with all the legal ins and outs. There’s no need to be intimidated with this aspect of your career.

J2K told us one of the biggest factors that influenced his success was the relationship he built with his fanbase. You could tell he’s a real people person and this came natural to him.
The sneaker deal? That was a natural progression of something he’s passionate about that he shared with his fans (over social media). The common interest in sneakers, created an extra connection (show your fans different sides of you) and J2K took advantage of the business opportunity he saw here and went down the merchandising route. He’s since worked with some big names in the sneaker industry.

Something like this can happen for you too!

UK artists – stop leaving money on the table! – register with PPL and PRS !

If you’re up to speed on this already, cool, skip this bit. If not, here’s a quick overview:

PRS – Performing Right Society.
Will pay you money (royalties) when your song is played on the radio. How much?
BBC Radio 1 = £12 per minute
BBC Radio 2 = £25 per minute
Register your original compositions on their database.
If you perform live, they’ll also pay you for this (in addition to the fee you received from the venue/ promoter). Simply send in the details of your live performance with set list.

PPL - Phonographic Performance Limited
PPL is more for your recorded music catalogue. They pay you for your recorded music being played on radio, tv, in live venues etc.

Both organisations collect royalties for your music globally (so you don’t have to!).

Getting signed up now is a good idea, before you have a no.1 hit and save yourself an admin headache. Stay on top of this small bit of admin now so you don’t lose out on money you’re entitled to.

We heard from artists Big Zuu and Yizzy who had both benefitted from PRS grants of up to £15k (that’s a grant not a loan i.e. you don’t have to pay it back) to support their music careers so make sure you check out both organisations and benefit from all they have to offer.

Health and well being for Artists

This is such an important topic and one I’m extremely passionate about. It was interesting to hear some artist managers talk about their job and how intense and full on it is. I knew this already of course but it’s always a bit shocking to hear first hand. The business side of art is just as influenced by capitalist, patriarchal society as anything else. Productivity is the key word, management teams work around the clock (apart from Sundays) especially when there is an artist campaign. One music industry person mentioned how they don’t like when they have down time in work because it forces them to ‘think about stuff’. !

We unfortunately live in a time where we live with a level of stress that has become our new normal. We don’t know how to fully relax or come down after a day’s work. We don’t know how to switch off. We’re so ramped up and ‘ON’ that it’s simply too much to come down from this way of being. We’ve lost our connection with our bodies and the ability to tune in to what is needed. It’s a real destructive force of modern society. Young working adults don’t realise the pressure their bodies are under (more specifically the adrenal glands which secrete the stress hormone adrenaline). These glands work over time and at some point – perhaps not now – but in the future – can make us susceptible to things like adrenal fatigue and burnout. And once the adrenals are worn out and ‘on strike’ it is a long, long slow road back to recovery.

For you as an artist, it’s vital to protect yourself – your health, your time, your energy, your resources. And the labels and artist managers do such a great job at this to the extent their resources and knowledge allows. It was great to hear that they employed coaches to work with their artists.

Ensure you have a great team and surround yourself with great friends. Set up systems which allow you to focus on your art and creative process as much as you can.

The day finished with an open mic competition. It was brilliant to hear so many talented emerging artists and also observe how they dealt with the pressure of live performance.

The ability to engage with an audience is a skill that can only be developed with experience. These artists were performing unaccompanied so that was an extra challenge. Apart from the obvious raw talent and passion to perform, it also requires such presence of mind, an ability to reach out and engage with the audience, portray your message and believe in your gifts.

You have to believe in what you’re offering BEFORE the audience respond. You can’t wait for the audience to warm up. I noticed how one gifted performer shy-ed away from their incredible gift as if they didn’t quite own it fully yet (a bit like they were wearing a coat that was one size too big) and I noticed how they couldn’t take in the audience appreciation. I’m sure they’ll learn with time and develop more self trust.
Massive congrats to Emiko who won, whose incredible performance brought the house down. Such a joy.

This article first appeared over in my blog at https://marytoolan.com/2019/02/25/what-went-down-at-urban-developments-music-industry-day-feb-23rd-2019/

Get in touch if you’re interested in a complimentary music career coaching consult. You’ll come away with insights and deep discoveries as to what the next right lucrative steps are for you in your music career.