SnowGhost Music

Now put yourself in these shoes: You've just left Ted's studio. Despite only knowing how to play three chords on his vintage guitar and refusing to ever play in front of anyone, Ted has ProTools and a studio and plenty of instruments. And while he dreams of one day luring Blonde Redhead into his home studio so he can help make the greatest record of 2009, he is happy allowing his actual musician friends to use his stuff in the meantime. Which is exactly what you've been doing for the past week, and now you've got an album's worth of songs to do something with, including one track which Ted considers to be, "revolutionary- maybe the best song not by Clap Your Hands Say Yeah since 2005."

You are also a relatively obscure artist. Other than immediate family and friends, and of course Ted, no one has heard of you. Up until now you've written songs just to satisfy yourself, maybe help you win the favor of a love interest, or put kids to sleep. But after an emotional pep rally by Ted urging you to "get the music to the people," you've decided that it's time to spread your artistic wings and discover firsthand just how difficult it truly is to make any money whatsoever in music.

Luckily for you, there have never been so many ways to get the music to the people as there are now. Unfortunately for you, it has never been more difficult to make money doing so. This is because the music industry is a do it yourself world these days. Record companies are unwilling to give you a contract, much less a pen to sign it with, unless you've already toured the country and developed a heavy following or sold thousands and thousands of your home-produced album. While this lack of sponsorship can be daunting, it's also a bit liberating.

As Ted has repeatedly told you, the most important thing to do is to physically put yourself out there. The easiest way to accomplish this is to play anywhere and everywhere as much as possible, from open-mic night to subway stations to opening up for someone even more obscure than you. While you'll make nothing but an appearance at first, you'll get your foot in the door. If you're good, and more importantly, if you bring people to the bar, maybe Willie the bar manager will hold off on getting another spider web tattooed to his elbow and decide to start paying you more instead. Maybe he'll even tell his bar managing friends in the region about you and your top shelf booze buying fans so that you start to make mini-tours.

You'll also need a website, or at least a MySpace page, so that you can tell whoever is listening that they can find your music there. Putting music online is easy and quick, but you still need to worry about paying off your credit card. Here's where having a CD would help. Putting a couple grand more on your credit card debt will get you about a thousand CDs, which are great things to sell at a show, or to give to anyone you might think would do something usefull with it. Think of it as a giant 2-dollar business card that comes wrapped in plastic and sounds good on a stereo.

Also think of the sweet tears of joy that will roll down Ted's acne-pocked cheeks as he realizes that you are actually getting the music to the people. With any luck, and more likely a few years of hard work and self-promotion, you'll get to a point where people will pay money to hear your music in whatever form they prefer it in. The more creative you are, the more options you create, and the more options you take advange of, the more successful you'll become. Maybe even successful enough to record the best album of 2009 (to Ted's great joy/dismay). Whether or not you'll be having a CD release party or a download release party, however, is anyone's guess.