As booking agent I get many requests from artists, managers, labels etc. to start working for them and their artists. Usually it starts with an e-mail that I read and I listen to the link with music. If I like the music and the story behind it, I’ll react to the request and ask for an album. Last month I listened to an album of a female singer. The albums intrigued me, but somehow it didn’t fit. When the manager […]
It starts with hot temperatures, followed by summer, sun, great company, music … All the right ingredients are in place for the festival fever. And next Saturday it’s Conincx Pop Festival, the 30th edition of this great free boutique festival, with an alternative program of 9 bands from 7 countries, and a great atmosphere. We do the bookings for the 10th time already. Yes, I’m really looking forward to it. Finally I’ll meet all the artists playing there, that I’ve […]
You probably heard it too in your childhood: you have to say thank you when you get a treat, you have to count your blessings when you are complaining, and many more of those boring rules. That’s at least how I thought about it. I thought that it was about being polite on the surface, but that it didn’t have any deeper meaning. In the mean time I’ve learned that I was oh so wrong. Years ago I found Elizabeth […]
Last night I was at a very inspiring meeting. One of the present women told her story of success, failure and getting up again. She had a company with dozens of employee’s, a yearly turnover of millions of Euros, and never shortage of new assignments. Everything was perfect, no reason to change anything, or even to think about it. That is how it feels to be successful. She took everything for granted, and than the crisis of 2008 hit her […]
What? Yes, you’ve heard it right. I’m asking you to spoil yourself! But it’s not as easy as you might think! I grew up in a very rigid catholic rural environment and leaned, that I have to work and achieve before I’m allowed to rest. So I often don’t allow myself to get spoiled, because I haven’t worked hard enough, or because the results are not as good as I hoped for, or the house is not cleaned yet, or […]
The word ‘sabotage’ has a great history. It comes from the French word ‘sabot’, which means ‘wooden shoe’. During the industrial revolution workers in France put their wooden shoes in the machines, to bring them to a grinding hold, as protest against the work conditions. This act therefore was called sabotage. Success often generates envy, and we use to think that this might be the biggest enemy when successful. Though I think that we have the biggest enemy within us! […]
Brian Hetherman is Manager and President of Cerberus Management and Consulting. He is also the current Co-Chair of the IMMF (International Music Managers Forum, co-chairing with Volker May from Germany). You can find more info about him at http://www.cerberusartists.com As manager you want your artists to become successful, and your own success is often measured on the fame of your artists. What does success mean to you? How do you measure the success of your artists? That is absolutely true, […]
Since I started this blog, I’m convinced that artists can learn a lot from theories about (personal) leadership. Though I’ve might been a bit vague on why. And now I read the answer in an article of Bob Lefsetz: “Artists lead, they don’t follow. They’re not beholden to their audience, IT’S THE OTHER WAY AROUND!” And this is what my blog is about. I want to inspire and help artists to lead instead of to follow. Link for the article […]
In the last couple of weeks I’ve told more and more people in the music business about my blog. I’m getting great reactions, thanks to all of you! It encouraged me to start interviewing managers and artists for this blog. At Tallinn Music Week in March this year I had a personal conversation with Ed Bicknell, manager of Dire Straits, Mark Knopfler, Bryan Ferry and many more. It was a great pleasure to listen to all the great stories he […]
What do you do if you have lots of fans, many people admire you, but you still feel insecure inside? Yes, you start hiding or running away from your fans, but most of all from yourself. This happens to many famous people. I quoted Bob Dylan before: “Being noticed can be a burden. Jesus got himself crucified because he got himself noticed. So I disappear a lot.” That is hiding. There’s nothing wrong with it, it’s a necessity to all […]
Last week I spoke to a manager about this blog. He sounded very interested. Though his problem was not that his artists are famous and don’t know how to deal with their success, but that they are NOT famous, and don’t know what to do. He thought that this blog would not be interesting for him. Let start from the scratch. What is fame? When I was a little girl I thought, that if everyone in the small village I […]
“When you get a good review, you feel good! When you don’t, you just have to realize that you can’t please everybody. We make music for the people who like it, not for the ones that don’t.” (Sass Jordan) Sass Jordan twittered this some weeks ago. It’s so to the point! This quote made me realize, that everything is about making choices. Here it’s the choice of who you make your music for. And there are always people who don’t […]
At Tallinn Music Week yesterday I heard the speech of the Estonian president Toomas Hendrik Ilves. His speak was about freedom. Music is also about freedom, and about freedom of speech. In a free country you don’t have to take much risks to speak out freely. He mentioned PJ Harvey in a TV interview with the English prime minister Cameron, expressing freely her opinion in word and music about the policy of the English government. The risk she takes here, […]
On Wikipedia I found the most simple definition of an artist: a person who creates art. And when art originally just meant ‘skill’ or ‘craft’, it’s now used as an abbreviation for creative art or fine arts. ‘Creating’ is the key here. And a more contemporary definition adds the concept of ‘imagination’: art is “the use of skill and imagination in the creation of aesthetic objects, environments, or experiences that can be shared with others.” This also marks the difference […]
Many people believe that once you are successful, all problems will be solved. With success, you become attractive, rich and happy. All people will love you and you can get anything you want. Wow, that will really make you happy. The only think you need to do is being succesful. In the music business, these people often also believe, that you will get ‘there’ if you are good. And for being good, you need a bit of talent and a […]