The Players Touch opening for Public Enemy
When an opportunity presents itself, you have to be in a position to accept it. When someone offers you an opportunity, you have present yourself in a way they deem fit for that particular offer. Your talent is sometimes not enough, your skills within your talent or field gets you a better chance of being chosen. If you have a golden voice as a singer, poetic flow as a rapper, well tuned into your instrument, a beautiful face and body as a model, you are not even half way there to be a success in the industry. Talent is something that you are born with or raised within. Skill is something that you work on within your craft that makes you better than you were the day before. If you’re a performer of any sort, you have to command attention with your stage presence, not just your talent. How you move on stage, how you interact with the audience, how you deliver the performance will show when you have skills along with your talent.
The above artists were selected in a state wide competition to perform at the Long Beach Jazz Festival to showcase their talents in front of a sold out concert.
As an artist, if you are at a industry event, show or anywhere you will by chance meet someone who is looking for talent, what will you have to present, other than your words of how great you are and you are the right person for the gig? That person will be sold on you based on how you present yourself right then and there. But that person will buy into you when you follow up and deliver more than they asked for. BE PREPARED! Business cards, demo packets, professional photos or portfolios, website or Internet presence (outside of social media) are things you should have when you are looking to do business. Not having all the above is OK but you have to have at least a professional way they can contact you or get more information on your talents, other than a phone call or meeting.
The business of the industry is also something every artist should prepare himself or herself for. As an artist, not knowing the law or how things work will generally get you on the bad end of a lot of deals or no deals at all. Finding a good manager/agent can be challenging. Finding a good marketing and promotional team is even harder. But to make these last 2 steps not be the reason you don’t move forward in the industry, YOU should be prepared as an artist, that has honed in on your craft and acquired skills necessary to make you stand out from just another artist with a demo or zed card.
Support the industry that you are a part of. Without support of any kind, shows, events, concerts are nothing more than just a gathering. If you have a show, invite those who are in the industry out to your events and show them some love. Introduce them and let the people know who they are at your show. And most of all, if you are not on a show, go support the person that is. DJ’s are a very integral part in the movement of the music industry. DJ’s are the ones people come to and ask what a particular song was, who was the artist etc., and can you play my song. Most artist do not have the budget to pay Clear Channel to get them into rotation, so the local DJ’s have to be that vehicle to move music to the masses, like it was suppose to be. DJ’s don’t be the “Greedy Greg” person, ask for payolla from an up and coming artist, just to play music that your crowd may want to hear. It is your grind and hustle to make your money but mostly, you are being paid for the gig. Who knows, you may be the DJ that gives that artist his break to be heard by your crowd, who may ask you to play more, or ask for the artist by name. Be that conduit for the industry and you will more than likely get more coming your way than a just few dollars.
On Thursday August 8th, The Soul Suite with Marcus Noel on World Tuned Radio will be hosting the San Diego Entertainment Industry Mixer at the House of Blues 1055 5th St., in downtown San Diego. The event begins at 8:00PM. Be Prepared. Bringing the City of San Diego back into the mainstream.
