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About the Author
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Author Tim Sweeney is head of Tim Sweeney & Associates, who are entering their 18th year of being, "the only true artist development company in the world."
Tim is one of the music industry's most sought after experts and consultants, and has written several influential books including "Tim Sweeney's Guide To Releasing Independent Records".
Send comments or questions to Tim Sweeney.
© Tim Sweeney
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One of the things that we all battle with as artists is taking action. While we can
do some things that don't require interaction with others, it is often
difficult for us to hand out CD samplers to people we don't know, book shows
or follow up with the press. While we don't openly admit it to others, we are
afraid of the rejection or what people might think of us when we try to talk with
them. Being an artist is a constant battle of not listening to the negative thoughts
in our head and focusing on taking simple actions.
Many times I will hear artists say, "All I have to do is set goals for myself
and I will accomplish everything I want." They believe by simply setting the
goals they will achieve the results until they are reminded they have to do the work
that goes with it.
Setting goals could also be more trouble than it's worth, especially if you
don't give yourself realistic ones.
Thousands of people a year give up on their music careers because they thought the
journey would be easy. Selling your first 1,000 or 10,000 CDs is not simply
accomplished by wanting it to happen, you must take action of constantly developing
and expanding your mailing list and your relationships with your fans, the media and
then in the future with your sponsors. Saying you want to sell 1,000 CDs next month
means you need to connect and bond with a base of people ten times that. You need to help them understand who you are as an artist, the value of your music and how it will benefit them. You need to go out and build relationships with your fans. Relationships where they get to know you as a person as well as an artist.
Set realistic goals for yourself. Give yourself one thing to do a day to get your
music out to people. Take small steps of going out and meeting new people who can
come to your shows, help people learn about you and your music on your web site
versus giving them hype, learn about the media people you want airplay or reviews
from versus sending them a press kit and trying to convince the wrong ones.
There is nothing wrong with giving yourself bigger goals like Traci Toguchi did in
800 CDs (www.800CDsTheMovie.com). But for many of us we must start with smaller ones like Chris Valenti did. However as you have seen in the movie, there are ways you can work with other artists who have different goals that will help both of you
accomplish what you want.
If you haven't seen the movie yet, order a copy to watch how they went from selling the leftover CDs sitting in boxes to Traci writing two books, getting her own commercial radio talk show, sponsorship deals to ABC Television working with her on her own show all within six months! You can order a copy through the web site.
If you want to learn more about what you can personally do to accomplish the goals
you have this month, click on here to watch the video I made for you.
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