As musicians, most of us just want to write our brooding love ballads or electric tuba concept albums and have people line up around the block to buy it. While we’re waiting for that to happen, though, there are plenty of marketing agencies making ads, promos, and campaigns that absolutely need original music.

On that note, Creative Directors and agencies are facing budget cutbacks that would make a public librarian shudder. In fact, most of the people I worked with back in 2007 had to jump ship to other companies as their budgets sank with the stock market. Musicians like me that run small, professional-grade studios are a Godsend for these folks. In the past, small budget meant weak sound, but there is enough power in an iMac with Garageband to create truly compelling albums. Imagine what a guy like me can do with his own independent studio.

My Name is Matthew Ebel, and I Produce Audio

That’s right, I make more music than you can find here or at Matthew Ebel dot net. I’ve done behind-the-scenes work for Coca-Cola, Porter Novelli, Bigelow Tea, and more. If you think I only write about robots and ninjas, believe me there’s a lot more going on here. Check out some of the stuff I’ve done for business clients in the past:

The Down & Up Theme for the Depression is Real Coalition

Life is Ikea for an internal pitch by Porter Novelli (This was my first attempt at something like this. Ah, those were the days.)

There is plenty more where that came from at matthewebel.com/worksforhire – If you’re intrigued at all, I’ve got a Demo Reel here:
Producer Highlights

Why This Works For Me… AND Creative Directors

Why pay a big studio tens of thousands of dollars for a 30-second clip that could be done just as well by an independent artist at half the cost? It’s a match made in heaven, the only real difficulty is making that match in the first place.

I’ve been able to establish myself with these companies as a guy who can get the work done in record time, but I’d love to hear how other musicians and producers pair up with agencies. Whether you’re the Creative Director or the musician, what’s worked for you?

Photo by Psyberartist

There is no greater threat to one’s career than playing to an audience that doesn’t want to hear you. A room full of strangers is much preferable to a room full of people that think you suck. It’s part of human nature to be vocal about that which we dislike, much more so than that which we love.

To put it simply, you’ll tell a couple of friends about something you really love, but you’ll tell the whole world about something that annoys you.

It’s like playing rap music in a country bar… If all you see is a crowd of wallets, you’re going to get beer bottles thrown at you. Before you start rapping, those people are just bystanders. Once you’ve given them a dose of something they don’t want, they become a negative PR force actively working against you.

This is the reason I do not sign people up for my email list that didn’t ask for it. I’ll send invites- ONCE -but if they don’t want my emails, I don’t want to send to them. My blacklist is almost as big as my mailing list. Why? Because each person I send an email to is remotely interested in my music. If they’re not, the last thing I want to do is annoy them!

Lately I’ve been receiving auto-DM invites to a music site via Twitter. One invite? Sure. Identical invites from many different people with no way to opt-out? Now I’m never going to sign up for that service. In fact, I’m writing a blog post about it because they’ve ticked me off. I am now a negative PR force working against them, all because they wouldn’t let me opt out.

The lesson? Don’t play rap to a country crowd. No audience is worse than the wrong audience.

I swear, there is an epidemic of Stupid going around the new media marketing world. Or maybe it was always there and I simply didn’t notice until now.

Recently an indie label added me to their mailing list without my permission (Stupid #1). Their mailings don’t have any unsubscribe link (Stupid #2), forcing me to reply and ask to be taken off their list. This amount of stupid is typical, baseline Stupid, usually doesn’t bother me. Unfortunately, they had advanced Stupid.

Then the label argues with me via email (Stupid #3) and tells me that “If you don’t want someone sending you an email without asking, then you should not post your email on the web.” As though they were sending me an email as opposed to just adding me to a list. Not feeling sufficiently stupid yet, they then have the balls to throw this at me:

I would be glad to take you off the list, but I don’t know how to do that without taking up several hours of my time, which is rather short, since I run two for-profit businesses and a non-profit organization.
(Stupid #4)

Another savvy marketer has added me to a list and is CC-ing everyone on the list- meaning I can see all their addresses and they can see mine (Stupid #5).

This morning I found the last straw. Yet another music marketing company had been sending me emails about bands since I produce the High Orbit Podcast. Initially they added me to their mailing list without permission, but I’ll overlook that for now. They typically sent me one or two emails a month.

Then there were more.

Fast forward to the present and I’m getting damn near daily emails from these people (Stupid #6). Yesterday it got so bad they sent me two emails in one day about the same damn band (Stupid #7). This is getting ridiculous, so I asked to be taken off the list (oh yeah, no unsubscribe link again. Back to stupid #2).

Once again, I’m getting argued with via email (Stupid #3 again):

You know Matthew, I’ve had you up on my MySpace top friends for awile (sic) now trying to toss you a bone.

Apparantly (sic) your (sic) not as smart as you look.

So not only can they not spell (Stupid #8) but they think that insulting me will somehow make me change my mind about supporting their bands (Stupids #9-47)?

To all of you stricken with The Stupid lately… Grab a clue from the artists you represent: If people don’t want your emails, you don’t want to send to them. If you’re a rock band, you don’t want to force your way onstage at a country bar. All you’re going to do is turn someone who was ambivalent into someone who actively works against you.

Everyone seems to be talking about the increasing irrelevance of the Major Record Labels. It’s understandable given their blatant last-ditch attempts at control (see: suing your customers) and the total realignment of the distribution system. Industry abhors a vacuum, however, and some entity must emerge to take on the responsibilities that made the labels in the first place.

Here’s my take on the future of the music business.
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