073 – You Can Achieve Your Desired Level of Success as a Musician – with DeCarlos Garrison of Bandbasher

Do you find it difficult to make money as a musician? Does it seem like reaching your goals is a major struggle? In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, I interview DeCarlos Garrison of Bandbasher, and he explains why it is possible for musicians to achieve their desired level of success, even today. Download the PDF Transcription Podcast Highlights: 00:14 – Introductions 00:24 – What is Bandbasher? 01:00 – How does a musician get noticed? 01:35 – What makes the music industry so complex? 02:32 – What are the unique challenges experienced by musicians today? 04:01 – There are great opportunities for today’s independent musician 05:01 – Why is it important for musicians to understand the business side of music? 05:50 – Is it possible for every musician to achieve their desired level of success? 08:02 – Why create a business serving artists? 09:51 – How do you sell information in an age when it’s so commoditized? 13:22 – What are some of the biggest struggles you’ve encountered as an entrepreneur? 15:57 – What are some of the biggest victories you’ve experienced as an entrepreneur? 19:31 – Are there any books that have helped you on your journey? 20:39 – What tools and apps are you using to run your business? 21:37 – Final thoughts Transcription: David Andrew Wiebe: Today, I'm chatting with President, CEO, and co-founder of Bandbasher, DeCarlos Garrison. How are you today DeCarlos? DeCarlos Garrison: I'm great David. Thanks for having me onboard. David: Yeah, thanks so much for joining me today. So, for those who don't know, what is Bandbasher and how does it help musicians? DeCarlos: One, Bandbasher actually teaches the artists and the people in the music business in itself. We always feel that artists are undiscovered not from lack of effort but more sort of lack of knowledge. And so, with that being said, our goal is to educate them on the process to be successful whatever their term of success is in this industry. Artists are undiscovered not from lack of effort but more so from lack of knowledge.Share on X David: That's fantastic, and you make a great point, which is that a lot of musicians do work hard to get noticed. But what sort of knowledge are they lacking to get noticed? DeCarlos: Actually, it come down to most of the lingo part, right, of understanding where the money is and how split sheets work, publishing work, and how you're seeing licensing, and how you can make money off your music. I think it's more of they understand that you can make money, but I think it's more to a point of how to make money is kind of throwing them off and getting comfortable with that lingo. David: What makes the music industry so complex? Why do so many musicians struggle to find traction? DeCarlos: With that being said, I think it's a couple of variables. Like right now it's so many opportunities to be in the music business. So many ways to get your music out in the outlet. Well, back in the day where it wasn’t… I mean our lessons are on their way to really be heard or be seen or get started with a label. And the label kind of like you know – was like the dam, right? So, they only let a small amount of water to throw the artists through to actually get into the industry. Now, there's no barrier, no dam. This is open flow. And now it's just flooded. So now there is a whole lot more to be noticed. Easier to be in the music business, but to be noticed and have a career is harder. It’s easier than ever to be in the music business, but getting noticed and building a career is harder than ever.Share on X David: What are some variables that make it harder for musicians right now? DeCarlos: I guess the separation, right? It's the fact that I think artists don’t understand the value of their data is one. The second part of a barrier I believe is that the fact that there's no A&R of artists. There's no development of artists. So therefore, they kind of like develop their selves. They are kind of like seem to just… in my opinion, they seem to just, "Oh, this sound is working so let me do this sound." Right? I'm not saying that copycat styles haven’t happening a lot regardless. But back in the day this wasn't tolerated. Now, it seems to be okay to sound like somebody else, because so many people… and so many fans eventually become a fan of the sound, not a fan of the artist. David: And to your point, like 30 – 40 years ago, you might have heard of development deals in which labels sort of took a chance on artists and gave them an opportunity to grow into what they saw the potential of them becoming. But today, you basically have to have a crafted image, and brand, and talent, experience, skill, knowledge, the whole works if you ever expect to be signed by labels, which isn't necessarily the best thing to aspire to for artists today. Some may still choose that route, but there are so many great opportunities for independents today as well, don't you think? DeCarlos: Oh yeah, definitely. And Bandbasher is definitely.... We're not anti-major or pro-indie. We just want you to make the best decision for yourself. So therefore, at Bandbasher if you decide to – “I want to stay independent”, then we have tools in place that will support your effort in how to give you some of the tools that major labels are using right now with their artists. But if you choose that you want to actually be signed to a label, then that's okay too. We want to make sure we prepare you for that process as well. So, in hindsight, we do have elements on our site that will teach you A&R, how to develop your sound and how to actually figure out where you're going and how many shows it takes to be successful and things like that. David: That's great. Thanks for clarifying that. Why is it important for musicians to understand the business side of music? DeCarlos: Oh man, because that's really how you feed your family, right? Like you know we spend so much time on our art, developing our art. Why wouldn't you spend just as much or not more time on the business side, so you can benefit from your art? Because everybody else wants to benefit from your art. Why shouldn’t you? Everybody else wants to benefit from your art. Why shouldn’t you?Share on X David: So true, because you could blindly create and keep making more and keep making more without any regards to the art and how it's being monetized. Pretty soon you could be in a position where you're exploited, perhaps by a third-party company or potentially a label or manager or something like that. So, it's really good to be in control, I think, of your music and what you do with it. Is it possible for every musician to achieve their desired level of success given the right circumstances? DeCarlos: To me, I feel yes. Everybody is not going to be Madonna, Beyoncé, or any of these huge celebrity stars right now, right. It's only a certain few that's going to have that kind of breakout success, right, where they can do all those things. But if you can make, and you can, you can make six figures as just a touring musician or a touring artist you know. You can make enough to feed your family, pay your bills, have some nice vacations, and get paid to do what you love to do. So yes, I definitely believe that because I think success is based on a person, not what others think you know. David: I think a lot of artists would be surprised to hear that you could go on the road and make six figures. That sounds like some pie in the sky dream, but you and I know that it isn't, and there are artists out there that have proven themselves and shown that it is possible to do that very thing. And using some of the tools that you have would certainly assist in that process. DeCarlos: Yes, definitely. Definitely. And this is what we designed it for. The funny part is that when we started to design it, we didn't design it for the megastar. We designed it for that everyday working artist that had the dream that is still working a nine to five but every evening or every weekend they find somewhere to gig and just to play. You know what I'm saying? We can find a way to increase static, increase the way they go about doing it and how can they "Okay, fine. I got this show right now but how can I double it?" "Well, I got two shows like this a week" and keep doubling from that point on to expand your area. So, some days we try selling. Like don't look at it as, “Oh, it's a huge task.” Let's take it one bite at a time and gradually increase that. David: That's right. One step at a time. I love it. I want to switch gears and ask some business-related questions. Of any industry, music might be one of the toughest to succeed in today, why create a business serving artists? DeCarlos: Well, to be honest it was never set out to be a "business". It was set at first just to help people. In the process, we realized that, okay, we may need to turn this to a business so that we can keep helping people. I spend hours on the phone with artists I work with. Either those that I manage or those I just knew that was artists and just giving them advice on what they should do and how they should do it. It's just that people need this information, so we have to keep the lights on. We're like, "Well, to do this, we have to charge some kind of a fee, so we can provide the best information." So, it wasn't originally thought as to be a business. We just kind of like figured out "Okay. We got to make some money doing it." And I just met some creative people that was good with what they're doing so we brainstormed. And okay fine, how can we make this a very viable tool, right? We know we can make money, but let's make sure that they are viable too for the people we are creating it for. That's what we feel we did. David: That could be a viable teaching point for entrepreneurs or aspiring entrepreneurs that are listening,...