(Part 1 of 2)

As a music creator, I’ve made a living in the music business for over two decades now, gaining credits which, I only used to dream. This success has brought me numerous musicians seeking my song-coaching or career development services. Usually, I receive an excited, but nervous, email with attached song from a hope-filled musician with wording like this: “I have been writing and singing songs for a while now. To keep my music true to my own soul, I wrote the entire song, arranged and played most of the parts (my friend played bass) and I recorded and mixed everything myself. I have a website, EPK and a Facebook page that my friends and I put together. I feel I’m ready. My friends and family are all very supportive and we all really believe that if the right person heard it, it could be on the radio. So I really look forward to your thoughts!”

When asked for my professional opinion in this capacity, I’m being paid for my expertise, or as I see it, helpful truth. (In the music business, helpful truth is rare and is usually substituted with buttery lies or delivered in a callous and brutal tone.) As I fire up the MP3 player, I listen. My ears and feelings frequently come to the same conclusion. Despite a musician’s passion and a decent dollop of songwriting and performance talent, the music is usually mediocre, non-creative, not arranged, recorded or mixed well; the image, story and branding is too homegrown; and the whole of it just isn't something anyone outside their circle of family and friends would pay any lasting attention to.

In a nutshell, it’s forgettable music when it needs to be "sellable music."

Attention to detail equals great.

To sell your music in today's market, you can't just be good. You have to be great. (Really, isn’t that how it’s always been?) I don't care whether you're trying to be the next Nirvana or the Mighty Clouds of Joy, you have to pay attention to mastering the subtleties of your craft. Think about how you got your day job--did you just walk in to the boss's office and say, 'Hey, I can run that machine or write that newsletter or defend that client in court'? No. You had to train and study to learn the job, then you had to craft a resume, clean yourself up for the interview, learn to sell yourself in that one-hour interview. And then go out and do the job, learning and getting better at it every day, getting along with your colleagues all the while.

You mastered the subtleties.

All of that applies to the music business if you want to make "sellable music." But I've seen far too many musicians who pay no attention to those very important subtleties. So when their opportunity does come, they're so busy fiddling with feedback they don't even know what just passed them by.

Are you a “subtleties master?”

Mastery of the subtleties of the music business leads to success. Raw talent is a good starting point, but unless you are willing to put in the time to master the subtleties, you won't make it. This is a hard, lonely road. You'll be practicing long hours by yourself on your instrument to find your own style, sound and technique. You'll rewrite that tune that's got some potential so that it's loaded with hooks and has a killer chorus by the time you're through. You'll practice till dawn, then force yourself out of bed for a 9 a.m. meeting because you said you'd be there. (But then show up on time!) You'll take that third job running sound for a bad cover band because the money you make will pay for the great producer you'll hire to round out your sound. And when your show’s over, you'll shake every hand of every person who came to hear you, and you'll try desperately to remember their names, or at least their faces.

You could take the easy road. That's the one where you play your instrument (and the same 20 songs) but don't really practice or learn anything challenging. Where you choose the amp presets and toss away the manual. Where you play the same tired riff over and over again until people in the audience wonder how you stay awake on stage. Where you're so busy arguing with your band-mates after a show about who missed a beat, that you don't take the time to thank anyone for coming out to hear you. Where you forget (or just wait too long) to return phone calls to people who want to help you. Where you spend endless hours laying down uninspired tracks in--I'm going to say it--that Death Row for music known as...the home studio. 


[Visit us in two weeks for Part 2 of this article.]



Rizzo (aka Michael Nelson Rizzo), is an award-winning writer/producer with over 20 years' experience writing “sellable music” for the world’s leading corporations, TV and cable networks, film companies, musicians, record labels and publishers. Able to stylistically navigate from hip hop to orchestral, his diverse body of work has been heard by hundreds of millions of people since 1988, when at age 17 he wrote his first nationally syndicated TV theme song in the U.S.A., a feat no kid had done before. A notable highlight in 2012 was his composition, "Oregon Mist" being used for the viral video, "Finding Oregon" which has nearly a million views, became a VIMEO ‘Staff Pick’ and garnered international media attention.
His eclectic mix of abilities in entertainment, technology, law and business--coupled with his passion for people--has allowed him to thrive in such distinct creative communities like Minneapolis, Nashville and concurrently in Virginia Beach, Virginia and Portland, Oregon.
“My years of business, music and copyright experience have given me a vision to develop a ‘new model for an ethical music business.’ A system where the actual creators are in control of their content. I’m looking for others who have the heart and spirit to create a grassroots movement that doesn’t just break the rules--we reinvent them.” ~ Rizzo