Why be nice to everyone in the music business

Be nice to everyone?

People new to the music Industry are often told to: "Be nice to everyone in the business because the music industry is a small place and word gets around if you are not."

This "advice" is basically bullshit. People tell the young and dumb to be nice so they can more easily take advantage of them. (Of course you should not walk around being a dick head either.)

Four common undesirable personality traits I frequently see in people in the music industry are:

· Jealousy,

· Shonkyness with money,

· Unreliability and

· Inability to control their emotions.

What you should do is be a genuinely nice person. Keep that "green eyed monster" of jealousy under control. Be truly glad for other people's achievements. Help other people when you have the opportunity to do so.

Be reliable and expect people to be reliable for you. Turn up on time to things. If you are running late call them as soon as you know. Don't join a band unless you really feel you can make a long term commitment to it. Musicians are notoriously unreliable, so being reliable is one way to stand out.

Because this is an industry that does not have a lot of money to go around it is really important to be straight with money. Pay people what you promise and pay promptly. Being shonky with money is a reputation that really will get around.

There are lots of shonky operators who will try to take advantage of you. Avoid these people when you can.

Example: There is an agent who was well known for asking his acts to play in venues for free with the promise that he would give them paid work in the future. From his point of view he could go to the venue and say, “I will give you free acts for a month if you will make me the exclusive agent for the venue.” This costs the agent nothing but there are a stream of musicians working for nothing. This might seem half reasonable unless you imagine it is a cleaning company rather than a music agency saying to their cleaning crews: “Can you take your van and equipment to this office a couple of nights this month and spend the night cleaning for free so my agency can secure the account?” You would say “NO!” as soon as you stopped laughing at the agent.

What to do with people who don’t play by the rules or rip you off?

Mostly what you do is avoid them. The first things you should do is talk to people who have worked with them before so you never get into the bad situation in the first place. (Always be aware that there are 2 sides to any dispute.)
If they are an agent or manager you may decide to make a complaint against them with NSW Dept. Commerce, Office of Industrial Relations who licenses them.
You may make a business decision that enforcing your legal rights is not viable or will cost too much in “bad vibe” and just walk away taking your losses.
Make sure you have proper band booking forms filled out before you go on stage.
Before you hire a lawyer and start taking legal action. See the music Business Scams page.
Getting your paperwork sorted out before you do the gig does not make you look like a difficult performer. It makes you look professional. You should be suspicious of people who won’t sign booking forms or confirm things in writing. This is a warning sign.

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

One of the most important lessons you can learn is to regulate your emotions. A good musician, with control over his/her emotions, will go much further than a very good musician who can't control their emotions.

Find out what Emotional Intelligence is and how you can improve it. Start by doing a search on the Internet. Here are a few tips that may help get you started.

Learn to control your emotions, don’t let your emotions control you.
Becoming mature is mostly about gaining control over your emotions.
In disputes or arguments learn to take the heat out of them with humour or by showing you understand the other persons point of view.
Feel energized, not angry. (He who makes you angry controls you.)
Think carefully about how the things you say and do will make the other person (or audience) feel.
Show respect for other people’s feelings.
Avoid people who invalidate you.

I value your feedback and peer review. Please send me your comments to: info@digitalharmony.com.au

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