[ padding=”0 20px 0 20px”]Chris “Seth” Jackson is one of those great people dedicated to helping his fellow musicians. He does this by teaching techniques for creating a successful band through his site HowToRunaBand.com.
A bass guitarist and composer Seth describes himself as an average musician, working a day job as a software engineer, in pursuit of fulfilling his life’s dream of being a self-sufficient musician.
His blog shares the ups and downs of his adventure and imparts great techniques that everyone can use to achieve success in the extremely difficult and ever-changing world of music.
Seth was generous enough to answer a few questions for me and I was blown away with the depth and thoughtfulness of his answers.
There are many actionable lessons in here that I hope you’ll find useful.
How To Run A Band | Seth Jackson Interview
Seth: A little over 2 years now. I’m still amazed at how quickly it grew.
I just read Darren Rowse’s “ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income” and went from there. I highly recommend reading that book for anyone wanting to make their own blog.
Neil: I’ve actually read that too! It’s a must read for anyone interested in running and online information business. How has the business of running a band changed over the last year, 5 years and decade?
Seth:
Last year: Live interactive video is the forefront. Services like StageIt.com and StreetJelly.com allow bands and solo artists to play live online and get paid. Every musician should be taking advantage of these services.
Last 5 years: Social Media has leveraged the playing field, allowing musicians to connect with fans directly as well as monetize that engagement. Social media has matured and is a requirement for any band, musician, or business.
Direct to fan engagement has created business models such as KickStarter and TopSpin to allow bands to get funded by their fans instead of major labels.
Last 10 years: In the big picture, the basics are the same. You need to work hard and play music. Play a lot of music to as many people that will listen.
CDs still sell. But you need to supplement your merch booth with digital download cards. However, CDs only sell at your shows. Not online.
Your recorded music is a means to build fans more than make money. Newer services like Spotify are trending streaming music over digital downloads at a lower payout to the musician.
Your recorded music grabs fans and leads them to more expensive items you have. Live shows, t-shirts, and creative packages are the money makers.
Still, your music has a greater chance to be heard by the world now more than ever. There are no gatekeepers. Your passion and hard work can get your music heard. Not a major label record deal.
Neil: So it seems a big part of being a successful band is still getting out there and just playing shows in front of real people. What are your top 3 tips for bands looking to start getting out and playing?
Seth:
1. Perfection Doesn’t Exist: Don’t worry about your set being perfect or having a perfectly recorded CD before you go out and start playing. Perfection never exists. Perfection will prevent you from acting.
Always prefer action over perfection. Especially if perfection is preventing you from taking action.
2. Be Different: See what everyone else is doing and don’t do that. See how you can make your music and your live show different.
Try combining two different forms of music together that people aren’t used to hearing. Experiment with lighting or props or dress that is not expected for your live shows.
Being the same is easy and safe. You need to hit the edge of your comfort zone to break away from the pack.
3. Love Everyone: Yeah, it sounds hippy, but hear me out.
The biggest thing for your career is the positive relationships you build. The bartender, the weird dude that buys your stickers, the ugly person that has a crush on your band: love them. They are important.
Treat everyone like they are the most important people. Remember their names. Write their names down.
Never discount the people at your shows.
The road to selling out shows is built on relationships. Each and every fan counts. They are not numbers on Facebook or Twitter. Those numbers are meaningless.
Try to meet each and every person at your shows and on your social media. Build real friendships.
Neil: Those are three great tips that are timeless but younger bands might not yet know. On the flip side, what are your top 3 tips for veteran bands that are trying to break out of a rut?
Seth:
You need to do what makes your heart beat fast. Something that makes you worry and get anxious.
If you are scared of online video, force your band to be exclusively online video for a month.
Does one minute of planned silence on stage scare you? Try it. No movement. No sound.
Get off the stage and go busking.
Whatever scares you or tests your comfort zone is a good indicator of what you should really be doing.
2. Dramatically Change Your Music: If you are a punk band, go mellow acoustic. If hip hop, go metal.
Take your current songs and play them in a completely different genre.
This sounds silly until you try it. When you change your music so dramatically, you unlock new elements you weren’t previously aware of. You challenge yourself as a musician.
Hopefully, it changes your music forever and takes your band’s sound in a new direction.
3. Break Up: If you don’t have the passion or your band mates aren’t showing the passion, kill it. Give it a merciful death.
A band without passion is going nowhere. There’s no future.
Music is passion. Entertainment is passion.
Don’t ever let others get in the way of your passion for music. Even if you have spent 10 years in a band, you are better off doing something new that excites you.
The longer you wait for others, the longer your success will be delayed.
Neil: Those are some bold statements Seth. We all have a comfort zone and I know that leaving mine almost always leads me to some great results. Great advice. What are some do’s and don’ts for bands?
Seth:
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Do…everything possible to make your fans happy and excited.
Do…have an email list signup at each show. (Mailchimp is free.)
Do…experiment with social media and technology.
Do…cut down on all expenses.
Do…treat your merch booth the same as your show.
Do…record everything.
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Don’t…let alcohol or drugs mess up your show or networking at shows.
Don’t…be a prima donna. Are you selling out shows yet?
Don’t…think someone else in the band is going to handle everything.
Don’t…give away the rights to your music. (360 deals suck.)
Don’t…leave your merch booth unattended. Ever.
Don’t…let anything stop you.
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Neil: Wow. Great answers. So how do bands promote their music and find fans these days?
Seth: YouTube. Most people discover new music on YouTube. Especially if your band does a popular cover tune.
Use a service like CD Baby to get your music distributed digitally everywhere.
Make sure your music is on music discovery sites. CD Baby gets you most of the way there, but Pandora has its own weird requirements to get on their service. Last.fm, Grooveshark, Spotify are popular discovery sites.
Music blogs, podcasts, and internet radio.
Facebook groups. Forums.
But the good old fashioned way still works. Play shows. Find bands that you love playing with. Play with bands that have the fans that you want.
Get out of your city. Book shows within a 2 hour radius of where you live to really expand your fan base.
Neil: You said earlier that CDs don’t sell at shows anymore. How is digital music affecting bands? the good and the bad
Seth:
Many businesses use free things to get customers that will eventually pay. You need to treat your music this way. Free music leads to paying customers. Have a plan for turning freebies into money.
Neil: That is a common tactic that many business books recommend. It’s an easy way to create a relationship with your fans (customers). Tell us some of the bizarre things band do to alienate fans without knowing it?
You just hang out with your band mates instead of meeting new people at shows. It’s more comfortable to hang with your buddies. However, to grow your fan base, you need to meet strangers. You need to talk to people and make new connections.
Stay at your merch booth all night. Fans want to support you and buy merch from you. However, if you are off listening to the other bands or drinking at the bar, you miss out on both sales and a chance to connect with a new PAYING fan.
Stay on top of your social media. Actually treat your social media like a personal, one-to-one conversation to connect with real human beings.
That means, don’t always be selling your shows or your music. Actually try to talk like a human being.
People want to be taken to a different world through your entertainment. The worst alienation of your fans is to not entertain.
Neil: That is so true. Or aim is to entertain. Tell us about your current band where are you playing.
Seth: Unfortunately, my current band, Shiplosion, is going on indefinite hiatus after August this year.
I’ve been splitting my effort between my band and my business, HowToRunABand. So both have suffered. In the short term, I’m going to focus on How To Run A Band.
I really want to help musicians out, and I think my blog and podcast have really reached a large number of musicians in a positive way. I want to focus on that and see if there’s a way to, maybe, make a living doing so.
But I can’t give up music. I’m already working up a solo project, Jackson’s Oddities. And I’m not giving up on my band, but I need to be honest with my current workload.
If you want to take anything away from what I’m going through, focus your efforts. Don’t split up your energies between multiple things. Focus on one.
Thank you, Neil for letting me ramble on!
Neil: My pleasure Seth, thanks again for being a source of great inspiration and advice for musicians everywhere.
Download Chris “Seth” Jackson’s FREE eBook “Get More Fans to Your Shows” by signing up on his site HowToRunABand.com
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