YOU CAN Make a Living In The Music Industry Podcast

By: John Martin Keith
Listen for free

  • Summary

  • Did you know that YOU CAN make a living in the music industry? Celebrities, working class musicians and people just like you who work behind the scenes in all areas of the music business will share their stories, encourage you and give you tools and how-to examples of the ways YOU CAN make a living doing what you love in the music industry.
    Copyright 2023 All rights reserved.
    Show More Show Less
Music
Show More Show Less
Episodes
  • Season 5 - Episode 10: Eric Knight & Ritch Esra of MUBUTV - Learning Who Your Audience Is, Finding Where They Are And Going After Them

    Season 5 - Episode 10: Eric Knight & Ritch Esra of MUBUTV - Learning Who Your Audience Is, Finding Where They Are And Going After Them
    Jun 5 2023
    This week we are wrapping up season 5 with two amazing guests! I’m talking with Eric Knight & Ritch Esra of MUBUTV (Music Business Television) in Los Angeles, CA. These guys have a combined goldmine of knowledge and advice that covers the whole gambit of the music industry. Ritch worked at two record labels; A&M in radio promotion and Arista in A&R where he had the privilege of working with the legendary Clive Davis who has signed some of the biggest artists in the world including Whitney Houston and Kelly Clarkson. Eric has opened for such acts as KISS, Dave Matthews Band, Aerosmith and Kid Rock. He started his own artist management company Persistent Management™ not only for his own career as an artist but also to create a vehicle for other artists to achieve their artistic vision and integrity. Their MUBUTV Insider Series and Insider podcast is similar to my YOU CAN Make A Living In The Music Industry podcast as they have guests from all over the industry sharing knowledge that will help you make a living in music no matter what area you are pursuing. We are a companion series to each other and I can’t recommend them enough to check out (after you listen to this episode of course!) We are discussing the importance of being educated about your chosen career path. Why you no longer need a record deal to be successful. Why you have to be a jack of all trades AND a master of all. Plus, learning who your audience is, finding where they are, then going after them. And we discuss how MUBUTV’s goal is to educate, empower and engage your music career. Sponsors: Edenbrooke Productions - We offer consulting services and are offering listeners a 1-hour introductory special. To request more info on consulting services, email Marty at contact@johnmartinkeith.com. In this episode we discuss: *The importance of internships. *The Music Business Registry. *Become educated about your chosen career path. *MUBUTV (Music Business Television) is a companion type podcast to YOU CAN Make A Living In The Music Industry. *How to listen to songs for A&R. *The criteria of the kind of artists today has changed because of a copy model (CDs, tapes, etc.) to an access model (streaming for free). *Artists signings today are not just about who is successful or about their music. Today its about who they are, where are they from, what do they represent? What are their values? *You no longer need a record deal to be successful. *The real challenge today is the ability to get someone’s attention. *You must find an audience for your music before A&R or labels will put time, energy and effort into you. *We are no longer just artists. We are business leaders. *A&R was a faith based business. That model changed with technology. *Today technology allows us to ask if there is a market for my music without A&R. *Who is my audience? *If you don’t know who your audience is at the beginning of your career, start making a serious commitment to learning who they are. *Being an artist who has been signed to a label and also an indie. *Find where your niche is, that narrow world where you can build your career. *Major labels are amplifiers to a career. *Adapting is the key. *A booking agent won’t sign you as an indie unless you can sell at least 300-500 seats on your own. *You have to be a jack of all trades and a master of all. *Learning who your audience is, finding where they are and going after them. *The more you know, the more valuable you become to companies. *MUBUTV’s goal is to educate, empower and engage your music career. *Study the lives of other successful people in the industry. *www.mubutv.com *www.youtube.com/mubutv BIO: Ritch Esra | Co-Founder I started my career in 1978 at Record World, a leading trade magazine and have spent my entire career in this industry. From 1980 - 1987 I worked at two record labels; A&M in radio promotion and Arista in A&R where I had the privilege of working with the legendary Clive Davis. In 1986, I began teaching several music business courses at various schools including Trebas Institute of Recording Arts, UCLA Extension, SAE (School for Audio Engineering) and Musicians Institute where I continue to teach today. In 1992 I formed the Music Business Registry with my business partner Stephen Trumbull. For the last twenty years, we have published the music industries leading contact directories for personnel in A&R, Music Publishing, Film/Television Music, Music Law and Artist Management. MUBUTV™is a blend of my passion for music as well as educating artists and others who have a strong curiosity about music, technology and the new emerging models within the business. Eric Knight | Co-Founder As an independent recording artist, I have taken the contemporarily appropriate “do-it-yourself” attitude to a whole new level; Having opened for such acts as KISS, Dave Matthews Band, Aerosmith and Kid Rock, I have worked tirelessly to introduce my original music to the masses. ...
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 44 mins
  • Season 5 - Episode 9: Julie Klinger of The Christian Festival Association - How To Work Your Way Up In A Festival

    Season 5 - Episode 9: Julie Klinger of The Christian Festival Association - How To Work Your Way Up In A Festival
    May 29 2023

    This week I’m talking with Julie Klinger who is the executive director of the Christian Festival Association. Julie oversees 25 festivals around the country. We are discussing what the CFA does, the importance of volunteers to make music festivals of any genre successful, how to start your own local festival and what artists who want to perform at music festivals need to do to make sure they are invited back.

    Sponsors: Edenbrooke Productions - We offer consulting services and are offering listeners a 1-hour introductory special. To request more info on consulting services, email Marty at contact@johnmartinkeith.com.

    In this episode we discuss: *Honoring volunteers. *Volunteers make festivals happen. *What an executive director does for a festival association. *Maintain and support the efforts of all the festivals. *Putting showcases together to listen to new talent for the festivals. *Networking and education. *Working with national sponsors to bring into different festivals. *Every festival needs to engage in the community. *Getting the local community involved to make your festival successful. *Festivals should find partners to have mission trips through the year or local shows to keep people engaged and serving. *How to get involved working as a volunteer at a festival. *How to work your way up in a festival. *How artists and speakers get booked at festivals. *Have a servant heart. *Give a festival 3 years to even get noticed. *How to start a local festival. *As an artist, don’t ignore your promoter. *Engage with the festival fans and promote the festival to your fans. *Bad attitude artists usually won’t get invited back. *Honor who has brought you there. *www.christianfestivalassociation.com

    BIO:

    Julie began her career in Christian music as a volunteer for a small start-up free festival called LifeLight in Sioux Falls, SD. While volunteering, she worked full-time as an adoption social worker receiving her Master's Degree in Social Work in 2005. She then became the Adoption Program and Grants Director. Over her nine years as a volunteer, the festival grew from a small one-day festival on a church lawn to the largest free outdoor Christian Music Festival in the nation. Julie left her career in social work in 2007 and joined the LifeLight staff full-time as the Festival Director. Eventually, Julie was promoted to the Vice President of Events and Operations at LifeLight.

    During her time at LifeLight she became an at-large board member for the Christian Festival Association (CFA) and eventually became the Vice President of the CFA Board. After leaving LifeLight in 2016, Julie returned to nonprofit management work. Julie was offered and accepted the position as Executive Director of the CFA in January of 2019, while also continuing her nonprofit work. Julie started her own consulting firm, The Tricycle Group, in August of 2021 and currently works full-time for various organizations helping them accelerate their momentum in the areas of program development, grant management and strategic planning. Julie's vision for the CFA is to see the love of God spread across the country and globe through Christian music festivals and to inspire festival attendees to get involved in serving others in their communities.

    The Christian Festival Association was formed in 2006 and is comprised of North America’s largest Christian music festivals united by a common goal: to bring glory to God. We meet regularly via conference calls and at an annual meeting in Nashville to discuss matters such as talent development, spiritual content, event production and marketing, national sponsorship acquisition and much more.

    The mission of the Christian Festival Association is to promote positive communication and synergies between the nation's top Christian festivals.

    Our goal is to see these member organizations grow both spiritually and fiscally so that more lives can be changed for glory of God.

    Our vision is to provide and facilitate an open communications environment to link Christian festival organizers together for: encouragement, shared information and resources, and addressing common business circumstances and goals, all for the purpose of increasing the success and professionalism of participating festivals so that the Gospel of Jesus Christ may be advanced and glory brought to Jesus Christ, our Lord.
    Show More Show Less
    39 mins
  • Season 5 - Episode 8: Brian Steckler - Deciding What Success Looks Like To You

    Season 5 - Episode 8: Brian Steckler - Deciding What Success Looks Like To You
    May 22 2023
    This week I’m talking with writer, producer and composer Brian Steckler in CA. Brian has made a successful career for himself producing albums, composing for sync and library production music with NBC, CBS, Netflix and more. Brian has won a Clio award for helping create the audio and star in one of the most famous Super Bowl ads of all time as a certain frog who liked to say “er!” We are discussing working for a jingle company and creating world famous ads, writing production library music used on countless shows, finding your niche to work in a field of music that only you can provide and how you need to decide what success looks like for you. Sponsors: Edenbrooke Productions - We offer consulting services and are offering listeners a 1-hour introductory special. To request more info on consulting services, email Marty at contact@johnmartinkeith.com. In this episode we discuss: *Working for Hummingbird Productions in Nashville. *What a jingle company does. *Creating the voices of the Budweiser Frogs commercial soundtrack. *The difference in studio budgets from the 1980s and today. *Working in sync music. *Writing library production music. *Writing to briefs on a deadline. *Writing for a children’s preschool curriculum program. *Making the right connections. *Having a breadth of knowledge to do many things. *Writing custom cues for Netflix. *Putting favorite sounds into a template for speed. *Align yourself with people who are good at things you aren’t. *It’s a long term numbers game. *Send it, forget it. *Tear tracks apart to learn how to create them. *Making your first instinct sound good. *https://www.briansteckler.com/ *@briansteckler on IG. BIO: I have made a career of creating music in a wide variety of forms and genres. The scope of my experience includes collaborations with directors, editors, and ad agencies for commercial musical purposes as well as working with individual artists, and bands to create and hone unique musical styles.This range of experience has given me a broad musical basis to draw from. I enjoy learning what people want and need musically, and then bringing even more than they expect to both the process and the result. After receiving my BFA (piano performance) from Western Michigan University in 1993, I moved to Nashville and began my career at Hummingbird Productions, one of the leading jingle houses on Music Row at the time. It was there I co-produced the audio and lent my voice to one of the most recognized, Clio-winning Super Bowl commercials of all time: Budweiser “Frogs.” I wrote and produced national, regional, and local spots during my years at Hummingbird and it was there that I learned how to deliver great sounding audio on very tight deadlines. I moved to Los Angeles in 1997 in order to pursue songwriting and production and began working with artists and bands crafting songs, producing tracks, and mixing my own work, as well as other producer’s songs. I wrote songs for Sony ATV Music Publishing, including co-writing with Billy Porter, Gary Barlow (Take That), Paul Stanley (KISS), 2Gether (an MTV boy band spoof series), and many others. With artist Angela Via, I co-wrote and produced a song that landed in Pokemon: The Movie and on the multi-platinum selling soundtrack album. It was also during this time I had my first taste of film scoring, working closely with Keith Forsey (Billy Idol’s long-time record producer) to create the score for Wisegirls, a film starring Mira Sorvino and Mariah Carey. As the record industry underwent significant changes during the Napster era, my wife and I chose to move our young family to Northern California. While maintaining my relationships in LA, I was able to work with independent artists and bands, as well as grow my skills and experience scoring, working for Universal Pictures on trailers and promos, as well as regularly placing cues in TV shows. Recently, I’ve written the score for the Netflix series The Day I Met El Chapo, provided the bulk of the music, including the Main Title theme for a number of other series: Hunted (CBS), S.T.R.O.N.G. (NBC), Ultimate Beastmaster, Awake, Cooked with Cannabis (Netflix). I also had the opportunity to score the award winning documentary Hand Rolled: A Film About Cigars, as well as Sun, Soil & Water, which is currently being screened at a number of film festivals. My wife and I live in Granite Bay, CA which is situated between Folsom and Roseville, about 30 minutes from downtown Sacramento, and 90 minutes from Lake Tahoe. Living somewhere beautiful, outside the “rat race,” certainly helps my creative flow. I work in my well sound-proofed custom recording studio called “The Stickhouse,” which is an ideal place for creating and mixing music. My studio is built around the Slate Digital VRS8 system, running Pro Tools Ultimate and Logic Pro, depending on the functionality I need for each project. I have a substantial library of Virtual Instruments and ...
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 33 mins

What listeners say about YOU CAN Make a Living In The Music Industry Podcast

Average Customer Ratings

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Audible.com.au reviews

Amazon Reviews
No Reviews are Available
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.