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Mike’s Career Success Tips – Part X

Part Ten

This is the tenth of ten tips and chips I plan to impart for any interested listeners, starting out on his/her journey to work in the music industry. There are a lot of people providing access to joints that help to build your skills, and most do a great job. My goal there is not to try and compete them. I will stay in my lane. From time to time, I might suggest and recommend others, these tips and chips are aimed at your mindset, and behaviors that will either make you or break you. Whether you aspire to be a songwriter, an artist, a musician, and or producer, these tips and chips apply:

Some Chips To Dip Into:

1. You got to put in the time.
2. You can only do two or three things very well, so focus.
3. Once you are focused, decide on what value you offer to others.
4. Determine how you fit in.
5. Determine how you can market what you offer.
6. Develop a marketing strategy.
7. Provide quality service or products.
8. Follow up and communicate with your customers.
9. Always try to anticipate what your customers, followers, or clients need.
10. Keep trying, you can always do it better. (See Below)

KEEP TRYING, YOU CAN ALWAYS DO IT BETTER

In today’s competitive music industry, the level od competition for the beginner is very overwhelming. There is a need to prove your skills and talents in a manner that outperforms your competitors in the quality of sound, the needs of the listener, how your music is presented and packaged, whether it is played or used more than your competitor’s product or service, and when and where it is exposed to your listening audience or customers. There is a phrase that best depicts your focus and it is “practice, practice, practice, and/or market, market, market.”
Continue reading “Mike’s Career Success Tips – Part X”

Mike’s Career Success Tips – Part IX

Part Nine

This is the ninth of ten tips and chips I plan to impart for any interested listeners, starting out on his/her journey to work in the music industry. There are a lot of people providing access to joints that help to build your skills, and most do a great job. My goal there is not to try and compete them. I will stay in my lane. From time to time, I might suggest and recommend others, these tips and chips are aimed at your mindset, and behaviors that will either make you or break you. Whether you aspire to be a songwriter, an artist, a musician, and or producer, these tips and chips apply:

Some Chips To Dip Into:

  1. You got to put in the time.
  2. You can only do two or three things very well, so focus.
  3. Once you are focused, decide on what value you offer to others.
  4. Determine how you fit in.
  5. Determine how you can market what you offer.
  6. Develop a marketing strategy.
  7. Provide quality service or products.
  8. Follow up and communicate with your customers.
  9. Always try to anticipate what your customers, followers, or clients need. (See Below)
  10. Keep trying, you can always do it better.

ALWAYS TRY TO ANTICIPATE WHAT YOUR CUSTOMERS, FOLLOWERS, OR CLIENTS NEED

This tip is basically saying that having a product or service alone is not enough. You must dig deeper, analyze more, and investigate the bare essentials that create and drive your customer’s needs. It begs the question, “Do you really know your customers or target audience?” If you can answer “Yes” to this question, you are head of the game and on your way to effectively generating more customers and retaining them, and possibly creating more conversions or traffic to your e-commerce platform or other means of selling your product or service. If the answer is “No” to this question, you need to step up your game and focus on specific behaviors of your customers or target audience. You may ask, “how is this done?” One answer is through the use of analytics.
Continue reading “Mike’s Career Success Tips – Part IX”

Mike’s Career Success Tips – Part VIII

Part Eight

This the eighth of ten tips and chips I plan to impart for any interested listeners, starting out on his/her journey to work in the music industry. There are a lot of people providing access to joints that help to build your skills, and most do a great job. My goal there is not to try and compete them. I will stay in my lane. From time to time, I might suggest and recommend others, these tips and chips are aimed at your mindset, and behaviors that will either make you or break you. Whether you aspire to be a songwriter, an artist, a musician, and or producer, these tips and chips apply:

FOLLOW UP AND COMMUNICATE WITH YOUR CUSTOMERS

We have discussed information to help identify the market specific to what you can offer, how to develop strategies for presenting your product or service, and crucial business characteristics that are basic to building a business. Now let’s turn to another business behavior that is also basic to conducting business and a requirement for customer acquisition and retention. In today’s, online digital world there is no excuse for a business to lose touch with and/or know the needs of its customers. There are a wealth of social media, online applications, and customer management businesses and tools available to assist with the task of finding your customers, discussing or analyzing their needs, and focusing your product or service to specific target audiences. Whatever you call it, customer experience, client management, customer relationship management, etc., is all boils down to communicating with and analyzing the needs and behaviors of your customers. There are many examples of how this is accomplish and are beyond the scope of this discussion, but the meaning and value of this tip should be very evident. Don’t drop the ball when a customer inquires about any issue related to your product or service. Be responsive and don’t take forever to respond and address the customer’s needs or concerns. Send follow-up messages restating the issue of concern and show your interests and passion for resolving the problem. Include the customer’s name in your communications to show that your know the customer and provide a means to show that the response is not an auto-generated message.

Another perspective and possible catch 22 to this tip is the obtrusiveness of some methods of communication. Everyone requires your email address in order to take advantage of some free material or trial subscription. The result of which is the spamming and overloading of your inbox due to the selling of your email to company affiliates or other marketing agencies. The use of global positioning systems (GPS) in our smart phones that know when you are near a specific restaurant or business, and sends marketing and advertisements to sell or offer products to your phone.

In today’s, online digital world, it is getting impossible to avoid the technology being used for the marketing of products and services. It almost makes you want to turn off the GPS feature, turn off pop-ups, refrain from visiting websites, etc. The point here is that the methods for following up and communicating with customers is one that you must be sensitive to, so that you won’t turn away your potential customers. The question of whether to use these marketing strategies and techniques, yes is a conundrum for any business, but somehow must be done to generate business leads, acquire customers, market and sell your product or service. Just be savvy and sensitive to how this business act is conducted. What is next? In Tip/Chip 9: Always try to anticipate what your customers, followers, or clients need, we will focus on another aspect of marketing your product or service that is germane to developing you marketing strategy. So keep reading and stay tuned for more insights from MiJen Publishing.

Mike’s Career Success Tips – Part VII

Part Seven 

This the seventh of ten tips and chips I plan to impart for any interested listeners, starting out on his/her journey to work in the music industry. There are a lot of people providing access to joints that help to build your skills, and most do a great job. My goal there is not to try and compete them. I will stay in my lane. From time to time, I might suggest and recommend others, these tips and chips are aimed at your mindset, and behaviors that will either make you or break you. Whether you aspire to be a songwriter, an artist, a musician, and or producer, these tips and chips apply:

Some Chips To Dip Into:

1. You got to put in the time.
2. You can only do two or three things very well, so focus.
3. Once you are focused, decide on what value you offer to others.
4. Determine how you fit in.
5. Determine how you can market what you offer.
6. Develop a marketing strategy.
7. Provide quality service or products. (See Below)
8. Follow up and communicate with your customers.
9. Always try to anticipate what your customers, followers, or clients need.
10. Keep trying, you can always do it better.

PROVIDE QUALITY SERVICE OR PRODUCTS

What is the use of having a good marketing strategy, if the product or service being offered to your customers is a bunch of crap? The answer is the marketing of a bad product or service is useless. Per the New York Times, the Ford Motor Company replaced its 17-year old slogan, “Quality is job one”, for a new slogan, “ Better Ideas. Driven by you.” Believe me, “Quality and service is still job one.” Get in your mind that in order to be competitive, you must have a better product, or a service second to none, in order to make it in today’s market. Customers buy the best or better product that meets their needs. Customers respect a company that provides good or better service. Companies such as Netflix, Amazon, Uber, Cosco, Samsung, and Nvidia got to the top of the market by offering their customers a quality product, or a better more responsive service. Although of late problems with the supply chain has and is still impacting this provision.

So what does a better product or service mean in the entertainment industry? The answer to this question is dependent upon many variables. Oftentimes, the answer is specific to the talent of an individual, the skill that one possesses, the quality of people interacted with, the experience of an agent or agency, the process used to create the product or how representatives treat potential customers. The answer to the question eventually gets down to the personal level. Each person involved in the creation of delivery of a product or service must understand that what they produce or deliver is going to have personal meaning to someone, used by someone, consumed by someone, or will have a lasting affect on someone. A product or service that doesn’t consider the customer’s needs and behaviors as it relates to the product or service is bound to fail and not be very successful. This attention to detail is omnipresent and prominent in successful products or services and reap the rewards from customers who buy or use the product or service.
 
This act of providing quality products and services should not be taken lightly. The competitive landscape in the entertainment industry is huge and new competitors are getting into the business everyday. Make what you offer to your customers unique and standout from the crowd, and don’t let a little thing like a crappy product or non-responsive customer service take you out of the game. A very good read and great motivational self-help ebook that provides insights on the pursuit of any type of career, and not only songwriting is, “Don’t Keep Your Day Job” by Cathy Heller. This ebook focuses on how to turn your passion into a career.

The last three tips provided information to help identify the market specific to what you can offer, how to develop strategies for presenting your product or service, and crucial business characteristics that are basic to building a business. What is next? In Tip/Chip 8: Follow up and communicate with your customers, we will explore other aspects of conducting business that is crucial to the acquisition and retention of customers. So keep reading and stay tuned for more insights from MiJen Publishing.

Mike’s Career Success Tips – Part VI

Part Six

This the sixth of ten tips and chips I plan to impart for any interested listeners, starting out on his/her journey to work in the music industry. There are a lot of people providing access to joints that help to build your skills, and most do a great job. My goal there is not to try and compete them. I will stay in my lane. From time to time, I might suggest and recommend others, these tips and chips are aimed at your mindset, and behaviors that will either make you or break you. Whether you aspire to be a songwriter, an artist, a musician, and or producer, these tips and chips apply:

Some Chips To Dip Into:

1. You got to put in the time.
2. You can only do two or three things very well, so focus.
3. Once you are focused, decide on what value you offer to others.
4. Determine how you fit in.
5. Determine how you can market what you offer.
6. Develop a marketing strategy. (See Below)
7. Provide quality service or products.
8. Follow up and communicate with your customers.
9. Always try to anticipate what your customers, followers, or clients need.
10. Keep trying, you can always do it better.

DEVELOP A MARKETING STRATEGY

Now that you have determined how you can market what you offer, you have to put other actions into play to further expose your intellectual property. In today’s world, advertising is a very important aspect of your marketing strategy. The act of making music alone will not get you heard or known, or develop a fanbase for your music or product. The metaphor of just build it and they will come will not work, and is not true reality in music.
Continue reading “Mike’s Career Success Tips – Part VI”

Mike’s Career Success Tips – Part V

Part Five

This the fifth of ten tips and chips I plan to impart for any interested listeners, starting out on his/her journey to work in the music industry. There are a lot of people providing access to joints that help to build your skills, and most do a great job. My goal there is not to try and compete them. I will stay in my lane. From time to time, I might suggest and recommend others, these tips and chips are aimed at your mindset, and behaviors that will either make you or break you. Whether you aspire to be a songwriter, an artist, a musician, and or producer, these tips and chips apply:

Some Chips To Dip Into:

1. You got to put in the time.
2. You can only do two or three things very well, so focus.
3. Once you are focused, decide on what value you offer to others.
4. Determine how you fit in.
5. Determine how you can market what you offer. (See Below)
6. Develop a marketing strategy.
7. Provide quality service or products.
8. Follow up and communicate with your customers.
9. Always try to anticipate what your customers, followers, or clients need.
10. Keep trying, you can always do it better.

DETERMINE HOW YOU CAN MARKET WHAT YOU OFFER

If you have accomplished the first four tips, you should be well on your way to realize our career goals. However, now that you have, what do you do next, and how do you market what you offer? Again, there are caveats to this tip which is related to what your career goals are, what role you decide to pursue in the music industry, and your overall skillset. So again, let’s hypothetically choose the role of a songwriter, but let’s also assume you are a singer.

Continue reading “Mike’s Career Success Tips – Part V”

Mike’s Career Success Tips – Part IV

Part Four 

This the fourth of ten tips and chips I plan to impart for any interested listeners, starting out on his/her journey to work in the music industry. There are a lot of people providing access to joints that help to build your skills, and most do a great job. My goal there is not to try and compete them. I will stay in my lane. From time to time, I might suggest and recommend others, these tips and chips are aimed at your mindset, and behaviors that will either make you or break you. Whether you aspire to be a songwriter, an artist, a musician, and or producer, these tips and chips apply:

Some Chips To Dip Into:

1. You got to put in the time.
2. You can only do two or three things very well, so focus.
3. Once you are focused, decide on what value you offer to others.
4. Determine how you fit in. (See Below)
5. Determine how you can market what you offer.
6. Develop a marketing strategy.
7. Provide quality service or products.
8. Follow up and communicate with your customers.
9. Always try to anticipate what your customers, followers, or clients need.
10. Keep trying, you can always do it better.

DETERMINE HOW YOU FIT IN

It seems as if the music industry changes a little everyday. The world is a very complex place, but there are things that remain the same, and are constant. In this complex world, we knowingly and maybe even unknowingly are looking for the same things out of life. Some of us are looking for a better life for ourselves, or a better life for our family. Unfortunately, although the American Dream may be achievable in various ways, population growth impacts how many pieces of the pie can be divvied up, almost like the maximum number of bitcoins that can be mined.

During your path to enlightenment, you will face many obstacles which you may only have limited control over. My advice is to stay the course, identify your career and career goals, and build and practice the skills necessary and consistent with where you think you may fit in. To me, this is one of the hardest tasks/goals to achieve, but again it depends on your career path, and other factors. This assessment requires a birds-eye view. If you have accomplished the first three tips, you are well on your way to fulfilling tip 4. The first three tips discussed were using your time wisely, limiting your focus on a few things and knowing what value you offer. For Tip 4, there are always caveats. All three of the first tips are important ideas and must be taken into consideration for determining how and where you may fit in.

Continue reading “Mike’s Career Success Tips – Part IV”

Mike’s Career Success Tips – Part III

Part Three 

This is the third of ten career success tips, I plan to impart for any interested listeners. Whether you are trying to decide if a music career is for you, just starting your music career, or a seasoned music professional, I think one or two of these tips will be of interest to you. There are a lot of people providing access to joints that help to build your skills, and most do a great job.  My goal here is not to try and compete with them. I will stay in my lane.  From time to time, however, I might suggest and recommend others.  I view these tips to be aimed at your mindset, and behaviors that will either make you or break you. So, whether you aspire to be a songwriter, an artist, a musician, and or producer, in my experience, these tips may apply:

Some Tips To Dip Into:

  1. You got to put in the time.
  2. You can only do two or three things very well, so focus.
  3. Once you are focused, decide on what value you offer to others. (See details below)
  4. Determine how you fit in.
  5. Determine how you can market what you offer.
  6. Develop a marketing strategy.
  7. Provide quality service or products.
  8. Follow up and communicate with your customers.
  9. Always try to anticipate what your customers, followers, or clients need.
  10. Keep trying, you can always make it better.

Continue reading “Mike’s Career Success Tips – Part III”

Mike’s Career Success Tips – Part II

Part Two

This is the second of ten career success tips, I plan to impart for any interested listeners. Whether you are trying to decide if a music career is for you, just starting your music career, or a seasoned music professional, I think one or two of these tips will be of interest to you. There are a lot of people providing access to joints that help to build your skills, and most do a great job.  My goal here is not to try and compete with them. I will stay in my lane.  From time to time, however, I might suggest and recommend others.  I view these tips to be aimed at your mindset, and behaviors that will either make you or break you. So, whether you aspire to be a songwriter, an artist, a musician, and or producer, in my experience, these tips may apply:

Some Tips To Dip Into:

  1. You got to put in the time.
  2. You can only do two or three things very well, so focus. (See details below)
  3. Once you are focused, decide on what value you offer to others.
  4. Determine how you fit in.
  5. Determine how you can market what you offer.
  6. Develop a marketing strategy.
  7. Provide quality service or products.
  8. Follow up and communicate with your customers.
  9. Always try to anticipate what your customers, followers, or clients need.
  10. Keep trying, you can always make it better.

Continue reading “Mike’s Career Success Tips – Part II”

Mike’s Career Success Tips – Part I

Part One 

This is the first of ten career success tips, I plan to impart for any interested listeners. Whether you are trying to decide if a music career is for you, just starting your music career, or a seasoned music professional, I think one or two of these tips will be of interest to you. There are a lot of people providing access to joints that help to build your skills, and most do a great job.  My goal here is not to try and compete with them. I will stay in my lane.  From time to time, however, I might suggest and recommend others.  I view these tips to be aimed at your mindset, and behaviors that will either make you or break you. So, whether you aspire to be a songwriter, an artist, a musician, and or producer, in my experience, these tips may apply:

Some Tips To Dip Into:

  1. You got to put in the time. (See details below)
  2. You can only do two or three things very well, so focus.
  3. Once you are focused, decide on what value you offer to others.
  4. Determine how you fit in.
  5. Determine how you can market what you offer.
  6. Develop a marketing strategy.
  7. Provide quality service or products.
  8. Follow up and communicate with your customers.
  9. Always try to anticipate what your customers, followers, or clients need.
  10. Keep trying, you can always make it better.

Continue reading “Mike’s Career Success Tips – Part I”

My DAW Recommendations

My DAW Recommendations

Learning to use a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) can be very formidable and oftentimes confusing.  I have now learned to use Sonar 8 Producer Edition, Fruity Loops v20, Pro Tools 2018.12, and Ableton Live 10. While all of these DAWs had their own learning curves, and technical challenges, I would rank their ease of use as follows: Continue reading “My DAW Recommendations”

On Thomas Rhett

My June 4, 2019 provides some details of my music career, bands I have recorded and toured, and have been affiliated with.  I have dabbled in songwriting for years, have a meager professional music background, but only recently started really paying attention to the skills and mechanics of my songwriting craft. What I would now like to convey is some of the recent moves to promote my first and forement passion “songwriting” and how one particular artist has had and continues to have an influence on me as a songwriter.

I am an African-American male who writes R&B, Pop, and Jazz, but believe it or not one of my most favorite and the most influential artist of my current songwriting is country artist, “Thomas Rhett.” I have never met him, but his pedigree in the country genre is well-known and speaks for itself. Learning and reading about his upbringing, trials and tribulations, career, and his own inspirations and influences is amazing, and I love his songwriting style. I attribute his writing style to helping me understand storytelling.

I recently listened to an interview of him on Songville on Siris XM and it was great. One big take away from the interview was the importance and influence of collaboration in songwriting.  While I tend to study my craft and write alone, I will definitely consider his advice, utilize, and consider this social element of the songwriting process. Thank you TR!!

On Supervised Learning: My Perspective

I am not an artificial intelligence (AI) (NLP, Machine Learning, Deep Learning) expert, but I am a Cognitive Psychologist with a keen interest involved in developing a deeper knowledge and skillset in these areas.  As a researcher with knowledge of human factors (human abilities and limitations related to human sensory systems), I asked the question, “Do artificial intelligence strategies, approaches, algorithms, and applications, fully and appropriately utilize human factors in their development and modelling of human-like tasks?” It is my opinion that at least the classic and cited examples of supervised learning does not. Continue reading “On Supervised Learning: My Perspective”

Free Your Mind

My semi-professional music career started with a Dayton, Ohio group named “Record Player.” Record Player was founded in the Summer of 1975.

During this period, Record Player was one of many popular Dayton dance bands, such as the Ohio Players, Faze-O, Slave, Roger and the Human Body (aka Zapp featuring Roger), the Gap Band, and the Honey Bees. All of these bands featured the sounds of Pop, Funk, and Jazz.

In 1976, Record Player recorded the 45RPM Single and Regional Hit, “Free Your Mind” on the Gem City Records Label. Free Your Mind was written by Michael C. Jennings, and arranged by Charles “Cedell” Carter of the group, “Slave.” Listen to an audio sample of “Free Your Mind” in the music section of the MiJen Publishing web site.

Use of Persuasion Principles

Songwriting is an art that uses many techniques and principles to create compelling, emotional, and creative intellectual property. Songwriters draw upon many resources to come up with ideas for their songs. I was reading an article from Changing minds.org entitled “Persuasion Principles” and had an ah-ha moment.  You can find these principles at: http://changingminds.org/principles/principles.htm.

The ah-ha moment consisted of reading the description of each of the sixty(60) persuasion principles listed, and realized, hey, these are and could be used as song themes and/or topics. If you find yourself having writer’s block, I encourage you to visit the Changing Minds website to view the full descriptions of each of the 60 principles.

As an example, the principle of confidence is described as “If I am confident, then you can be confident.” When thinking of this description, there are a plethora of ideas about confidence or a lack of confidence that come to mind to write a song about. Try your luck at using the principles listed, the next time you sit down to write a song.

Reference:

Persuasion principles. (2019). Retrieved from http://changingminds.org/principles/principles.htm

Mastering: Rules of the Road

While the business model of the music industry has its ebbs and flows, the general methods of creating a good audio mix and master have only slightly changed.  The competition level of producers in the music industry to create the best sound track or master is still at an all-time high.  The goals are still to deliver a master to the client that sounds better than their competitors.  There are so many books, videos, tutorials, websites, blogs, etc. on recording, mixing, and mastering that it can be somewhat overwhelming and esoteric for novices to learn the proper methods and best techniques.  Everyone has what they feel are best, but provide such information with complexity and confusion.  Not all efforts are this way, and finding the ones that are clear and succinct can be a daunting task.

You might ask, “what is the information that a songwriter, musician, producer, sound or mixing engineer needs to know?” Hopefully, this blog will provide tips and insights that are useful for helping to deliver a master can compete with the competition.  The task of mastering can be very complex and involve pulling aspects together to create an album with seamless transitions between songs, preparing files to be sent to a CD or DVD manufacturer, wav file conversions, etc. So, let’s keep it as simple as possible, and touch on the most essential aspects of the mastering process.

Continue reading “Mastering: Rules of the Road”