How Musicians Make It
Learn how to develop a thriving career in music. Host Adam Meckler talks with artists about how they've built their careers, and music industry professionals about strategies for navigating a music career in the digital age. Meckler draws on his extensive career as a bandleader and freelancer (Cory Wong, Dave Koz, Steve Cole, The Hornheads, Youngblood Brass Band) to bring you tips for growing your fan base, prepping for the gig, booking a tour, writing that grant, syncing that song and more. Presented by Gig Boss.
Episodes
Adam talks with Saxophonist/vocalist/composer Braxton Cook about how he first got connected in the music scene during his time as a student at Julliard, how he found is first manager, why he decided to sign his first multi-album record deal, how a young musician can develop language, his desert island albums and a bunch more.
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Follow Braxton in Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/direct/t/105491034183068?hl=en
Adam talks about why you should have an email list, how to build an email list, and what sorts of things to do with your email list. Fund your next project, sell tickets to the next show, and do it without the need for social media.
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Stuff I talked about
MailChimp: https://mailchimp.com/
How Musicians Make it on Youtube:
How Musicians Make in on Insta: https://www.instagram.com/howmusiciansmakeit/?hl=en
Adam sits with Billboard-charting Blues and Roots artist Joyann Parker for a talk on setting boundaries and knowing your worth as an artist. Joyann discusses what it is like breaking through the Blues and Roots scene, paying dues, and smartly leveraging original music. In particular, she explains how she leveraged social media to get the attention of the Green Bay Packers, and the Wisconsin Badgers over her song "Sconnie Girl". Ada...
Adam responds to Geoffrey Keezer's (Julliard music professor and accomplished pianist) viral Facebook post asserting that today's music students can't be bothered with attending early morning classes, and often use lame excuses for missing things or being unprepared. "How will they be able to make a 6am lobby call on tour?" he asks - Meckler breaks down things that resonate with him as a university professor, and things that seem t...
Adam sat down with drummer Jay Epstein, who has been a full time drummer since the late 1960s when he toured with the band Gypsy and rubbed shoulders with people in the Southern California Rock scene like Jimmy Hendricks while going out to see bands with players like Chick Corea, Freddie Hubbard and Miles Davis on his off nights. Adam and Jay talk about the economics of being a full time, life-long musician. Jay gives us three thin...
Adam sits down with his old friend and frequent collaborator Scott Agster. Scott talks release strategy for his upcoming record that features many folks from Prince's bands, discusses what it's like to book events for Blue Water Kings while being an active performer, and even dives in deep on what it's been like for him to learn animation to create content for his next release. Scott and Adam meet in person at University of Mary's ...
Adam discusses his recent trip to New Orleans, going viral for not-the-best reason, and all things Waterfall Release strategy. What is it? Why is it? Should you do it? What are the pro's and cons? Meckler specifically touches on using Distrokid for the Waterfall release, but this can be applied to any DSP.
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Host Adam discusses how the major labels are able to manipulate the CEO of Spotify to keep the golden goose laying them golden eggs while they point the finger at Spotify when artists express their anger in the small bits of change they are paid via streaming services.
Adam discusses ideas how to fix the streaming problem. How companies like Ticketmaster are industry parallels to Spotify and the major labels, and why your hate towar...
There are all kinds of different royalties for your music. Original compositions, arrangements, music for the club, and music for the concert hall...ASCAP has a way for you to collect royalties when your music is performed in music venues and traditional concert halls. Adam walks you through how to register your music with ASCAP, how to get publishing royalties through ASCAP, and how to use ASCAP's On Stage to submit set lists of y...
Curious about what will happen to BMI now that they've transitioned to a for profit model, and been bought by a private equity firm? Look no further. Adam talks what to expect, what to look out for, and what you can do about it.
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Join the Gig Boss Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/gigboss
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Did you hear that Spotify will be paying artists differently in 2024? In this episode, Adam discusses the 3 things Spotify says is "Draining the royalty pool", how Spotify is going to deal with these three types of users, and what the impact of those decisions will be on artists.
Spotify WILL NOT be paying for certain songs. Spotify will require certain songs to be longer than the previous allotment. Spotify is BANNING certain kinds...
Funky Spud, AKA Shane Cox, went straight from high school in Boise, Idaho to living out of his car and busking across the West Coast until arriving in New Orleans. He's since gone on to become a successful Twitch streamer where he loops layers of Tuba, Trumpet, and Trombone for excited fans, and a full-time brass player doing a variety of gigs on all three of the brass instruments on which he is able to wail. Some great insights on...
Adam goes "under the hood" and does a full breakdown on the Adam Meckler Orchestra's August 4th show at Crooners Lounge in Minneapolis. Meckler goes over: How he booked the gig
What the money deal was with the venue
what he told his band leading up to the show
how he promoted the show
the final numbers
his takeaways (spoiler, they're not all positive)
Booking a large-scale group like an 18 piece orchestra can be a real challenge. Learn t...
Adam sits down with Teghan Devon, the winner of the Mid-Atlantic Song Writing contest, and they talk about Teghan's recent songwriting workshop in Norway, what makes a good song, songwriting process, sync licensing, and a bunch more.
Teghan on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/teghandevon/?hl=en
Teghan on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/0wQKdeg6E2T3hggyYlDBmA?si=XVwQqSA0T1uVGJ5Df53uUA
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Host Adam Meckler talks with Hippo Campus drummer and singer/songwriter Whistler Isaiah. Whistler gives a rare look into his early life in the circus. He discusses his struggles with performance anxiety, and what steps he takes to combat it. He breaks down the making of his song Baseball Cap off of his 2021 EP "Small Yard", digging deep on his writing style, the song's production, and the making of the music video.
Host Adam Meckler met up with trumpet virtuoso and founder/owner of Lotus Trumpets to talk about how Rapa built his career as an artist while also building a company based on his trumpet designs. Lotus Trumpets is a growing brand making waves in the trumpet community, and Adam Rapa has long been making waves as a player with his virtuosic trumpet playing with orchestras and bands around the world. Rapa reveals how he pulled himself...
Listen along as Adam grows his band's monthly listeners on Spotify from 9 to more than 5,000 in seven weeks.
Lulu's Playground has now released 7 singles over 7 weeks as a part of their 17 singles in 17 weeks campaign. In this episode, Adam talks Spotify-specific release strategy and covers how to pitch to editorial playlists, and what strategies you can take to maximize your chances of getting on to Spotify algorithmic playlists. ...
This episode is a re-run of Adam's inspiring conversation with Bassist, content creator, recording artist, MD Ian Allison. Ian discusses his approach to content creation, the things he's learned on his path of being a studio bass player, and shares insights on how to tap into the best part of you as an artist.
Ian on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ianmartinallison/?hl=en
Scott's Bass Lessons: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MN...
The numbers are in, and host Adam's plan to take over the world via Spotify is...working? It's pretty wild how much the Lulu's Playground Spotify listenership has grown in just three weeks and a few days. Listen to hear more about the numbers, the trends, the approach, and the plans for the future. A must-listen series for artists getting ready to release new music!
Lulu's Playground on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6iRIN...
In this episode, host Adam Meckler talks 5 mistakes musicians commonly make in 2023. Discussing release strategy, balancing social media output versus building a live show, merch, creating a scene vs waiting for the phone to ring, and repetition. This is a big one. Lots of advice on how to overcome these obstacles and make the best of 2023.
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