Have you noticed?  Not a whole lot of people you know (I’m guessing) are making a sustainable, prosperous living from their music or other creative art.

Not that this is anything new in the music industry (arts industry, publishing industry, etc…).  Since the days of Mozart, Dickens, and the ancients, it has ever been so.

Access to technology that, just a few short years ago, was the exclusive territory of industry gatekeepers, has opened up the ability to create, publish, and distribute your own music or art to, well, just about everyone.  This is great news … and it means the competition for scarce arts dollars has only escalated.

Here’s the truly good news:
Some of that same technology has now made it possible for you to also gather a large, growing, hungry audience for your work that can sustain  a prosperous music career for you quite handily … if you stop beating your head against the frustrating wall of the old music industry business model … and learn an entirely new model that works TODAY.

I’m talking about a combination of

1. Niche Marketing, and
2. Internet Marketing

While most musicians and other artists are struggling as much as ever for dwindling dollars and gigs, there ARE a growing number of quiet success stories out there who are making a satisfying, fun, and sustainable living doing what they love – sharing their music with the world.

And you can too, if you’re willing to learn and implement this new Music Success Business Model.

To learn it, I recommend you opt in where the guy is pointing at the bottom of this page.  (If you don’t see him, refresh the page and he’ll reappear.)

Also, last week I did a powerful interview with Prosperous Artist niche-marketing musician Carla Ulbrich, “The Singing Patient”.  I urge you to watch the video I recorded of our conversation, and learn how Carla increased her fees and gig opportunities by ten times or more what she used to get, and how you can model her success.

To get the video link, send an email to NewArtsModel@TheProsperousArtist.com.  You’ll get immediate access to the video, plus I’ll keep you posted of future events of interest and more tips and techniques to get your music out to your own targeted tribe.

I wish you speedy success on your journey to Artistic Prosperity!

I just posted a reply to a new Yahoo! Answers query on how to sell songs:  http://answers.yahoo.com/question/answer?qid=20110618042834AA5d6hR.

Here’s my advice on how to sell songs that I offered to this young songwriter with a dream:

The specifics of how to sell songs depend in part on whether you want to sell recordings of you singing your own songs, or you want to sell songs for others to perform.  The ideas below should help you with a bit of both.

First of all, hooray for you for following your dream.  I hope you keep going as you get older, and that you continue to study, learn, and practice diligently, as you grow into the artist your heart wants you to be.

Don’t ever let anyone tell you you can’t.  You can, though it will take everything you’ve got.  Know that almost everyone who tries to make a living as a musician fails.  But there are a handful of “bright spots” out there who are doing it.  Learn everything you can about what they do that makes them successful, and emulate them.  Get support.  Build a team, and a strong base of people who love you and will help you.

It’s great that you’re already asking for the wisdom of others.  Keep doing that!

Next, get some feedback on your music from others around you – friends, family, music teachers, other songwriters.  If others think your music is as great as you do, share it as widely as you can.  Post a video of your best song on YouTube, and email / Facebook / tweet it to as many people as possible.  If it spreads wider, you’ll know you have something.

Don’t worry that by sharing your music for free initially, you won’t be able to sell your songs later.  You will, and free is the quickest way to build an audience, which will lead to bigger opportunities once you’re known.  Besides, you’re young, and you have many more even greater songs inside you yet to come.  So get your best songs out there, and get them in front of people.

Also, develop your craft.  Get trained any way you can, and just as you are asking for help here, share your music with more experienced songwriters, and learn from them.

Find a local songwriters group, if you can, and participate with them.  They’ll help you improve your songs, plus you’ll learn from others’ songs and their songwriting and editing process.

Nashville Songwriters Association is a terrific resource.  They have local songwriters groups, and also will critique your songs for you.  Their membership is inexpensive, and comes with 12 free critiques a year.  When your songs are good enough, they will connect you with music producers, publishers, and agents you can sell your songs to.

Other services, like Taxi, will also connect you with potential music buyers who are looking to buy songs for specific projects, like movies and TV.

If you have some early successes with these methods, then you’re well on your way.  If they don’t work as well as you hope, please please please don’t let that stop you.  Expect setbacks.  They’re part of the process.  They’re just an indication you have more to learn, and more work to do.  You’re young.  You have plenty of time and ability and will get there, so long as you believe in yourself, keep learning and growing, keep your eyes on your goal, and let nothing stop you.

I hope this helps you with how to sell songs.

I’ve been blogging lately about how to sell songs at http://MusicMarketingMagic.com.  There you can also get my report on “How to Market Your Music in the Internet Age”, that’s full of great tips on how to sell songs and market your music.

Nashville Songwriters Association is at http://www.nashvillesongwriters.com.

Taxi can be found at http://www.taxi.com.

I hope you also find this posting helpful if you’re interested in how to sell songs.

Okay, so is it really possible to sell your songs to other artists, especially big-name artists?  As with most things, it’s unlikely you can jump right to that level without working your way up the industry ladder, developing relationships and earning your cred along the way.

Here’s an article I came across that counsels this kind of sensible, step-by-step approach to how to sell songs to other artists:

How to Sell Your Songs to Artists

So you’ve written a few songs recently and don’t want them to languish in a drawer forever. You have a feeling at least a couple are hits or at least album cuts and can easily hear your favorite artist performing them. Your dilemma: How to get your tunes heard by the right people. I know this because every songwriter has been at the same place you are now.

Hands down, the most likely music professional to listen to your song is a song publisher. Many song publishers function as agents for songs and songwriters. If one of them accepts your song into their catalog they’ll assume the job of pitching it (playing the song) to their contacts under a “single song deal”. And they may want to hear more. If sufficiently impressed perhaps they’ll offer you what amounts to a development deal- a staff writer position paying you a salary in return for a cut of your future royalties.

Now I know what you’re thinking, “But I want The Interplanetary Headless Guitar Godz to record my tune, that’s my favorite group! And their lead singer, Jimmy Heavierthanmetal is the best singer on earth, period. I want them to cut my tune, dude, I know it will be a huge!” Unfortunately, if you have no track record of hits and you aren’t Jimmy Heavierthanmetal ‘s best friend or something, it will be very, very difficult to get anyone in The Interplanetary Headless Guitar Godz or anyone even remotely associated with them to listen. It seems crazy, right? Don’t they want hit songs? Yes, but if they don’t write their own 1) they know their time is much better spent reviewing pre-screened songs in a publisher’s catalog 2) they don’t want to risk a lawsuit from an amateur songwriter if they are rightly or wrongly accused of subliminal or outright song theft. It can cost them nearly as much to defend themselves in a frivolous lawsuit as it does in one that has merit.

So that’s why your next task should be to locate song publishers who publish in the genre(s) you write in. There are other possible paths to song pitching success I’ll deal with in a separate article, but statistically song publishers are a novice songwriter’s most likely avenue to the big time.

Bill Watson is the owner of http://www.playitagaindemos.com which is a demo service for songwriters and song publishers that creates top-notch demos that get contracts for songwriting clients. He has also written magazine articles for publications as diverse as Small Business Opportunities, Entertainment Weekly and Sports Afield. His book “Guitar Shop: A Beginner’s Guide To Learning Rhythm and Lead Guitar” was #1 in its category on Amazon.com for nearly two years.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Bill_E_Watson
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/5393125

How to Sell Songs to Other Artists is Not a Get Rich Quick Scheme!

So, patience, Grasshopper!  Yes, you may be able to sell your songs to other artists, even (eventually) some big names.  But you have to take it one step at a time, and develop a business.  If you want to sell your music directly to a targeted audience that will love what you do, then you may want to investigate my Prosperous Artist Freedom Formula program.  More on that anon. In the meantime, you can learn how to identify such an audience, and other great tips to help you sell your songs, in my ebook How to Market Your Music in the Internet Age.

People often ask me how to sell songs to high-profile artists. Songwriters who want to make a living from their music often think that if they could just sell a song to a big-name performer, their career would be made.

There’s a kernel of truth to that, though most artists I know who’ve managed to do it are one-hit wonders. But even the royalties from one big hit can make a big difference to your bottom line.

Unfortunately, as with most big dreams in the music industry, the song market is extraordinarily competitive to break into.

As you know if you’ve been reading here, I’m a big believer that your most reliable pathway to success is to go outside the industry entirely.  If you want to control your own career, instead of relying on high-powered middlemen to make it for you, I recommend you sell your music directly to an eager, hungry audience that’s built around a particular niche … one that’s narrow and specific enough, and sufficiently uncrowded, to provide you a smaller pond where you can be the big fish.

Here’s a case in point of how hard it is in the big industry ocean to sell your songs:  http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110505043702AA1MLhU

As you see, no one had a good answer for this question about how to sell songs posed on this high-profile site.

That doesn’t mean you can’t sell your songs, or that I’m suggesting you should drop this idea entirely.  (Though I am suggesting not to base your business plan on it!)  Some other folks have ventured better answers elsewhere about how to sell songs, and I’ll post some in a day or two and see what else we can learn.

Here’s what some of my clients have been up to in creating their own hopefully soon-to-go-viral videos, using some of the principles I teach.  My $1 ebook, How to Market Your Music in the Internet Age, includes tips on how to create potentially viral videos.

Knowing what to put into your video is important. Even more important is knowing how to promote it to its natural audience. Only your audience (not you!) can make your video “go viral”, by sending it out to everyone they know who will love it as much as they do.

If your video has what it takes to go viral, the right audience will do that for you

Watch here soon for more ideas on how to promote your video to an audience with the power to take it viral for you!

Steve Warner’s “Beer With Jesus” speaks for itself:

Another irreverent fun favorite, by Bill Bly and Headlong Retreat. Be sure to watch till the chorus. It’s worth it!

And a couple of political hot-button-issue videos, by Katherine Rhoda, playing a remarkably unusual instrument…

… and showing a darker, more visceral side of Steve Warner.

Enjoy this fun holiday video.  In it, Jeffrey Paul Bobrick models many of the points covered in my $1 guide, “How to Market Your Music in the Internet Age”, http://www.MusicMarketingMagic.com/offer.

In the guide, I outline 5 techniques for creating a viral music video - Jeffrey uses three of them in his charming take on a classic holiday song.  See if you can identify which ones.

Happy Holidays to everyone, and best wishes for an amazing New Year!

You can waste a lot of time promoting your music through old-fashioned channels that never really worked all that well, and that work even less well today.  Or you can learn the new ways that work in the age of the internet.   Here’s a good article by Chris Rockett on “Guerrilla Music Marketing” that’s worth a read:

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Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Chris_Rockett

Yes, you can promote and sell your music and reach a wide audience of raving  fans, without a booking agent, manager, radio airplay, record contract, or even touring … and these guys prove it.

100,000 iTunes sales in a year - a record most touring musicians would drive cross-country and back again three times over for.  Only Pomplamoose did it from their bedroom!

For more about Pomplamoose and how they do it, check out this NPR story. Be sure to read the comments, some of which really capture just exactly how ground-breaking this duo is.