ThoseDazeGone

Hey guys. I'm a singer songwriter, I'm 20, and really getting discouraged. It's just impossible to make it in the game by yourself, I have no resources, and really think that somebody with some pull on my side could help me.

I've given up on being "discovered" at some random gig and riding off into the sunset. I need to be smarter, but I really just don't know the first thing about getting a manager or agent. I live in Miami. Does anybody know a good first or second step to take to get representation? I don't have any money up front and don't want to get gipped. Is there some sort of listing of certified people?

Thank you so much. I hope you guys can help me take a good step for my music.

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But you'll never find the body!!!

Guybrush

Aside from playing concerts, have you recorded and released anything yet?

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ThoseDazeGone

I've recorded a bunch of things. I have I guess what I'd call an Ep right now.

As far as releasing, I'm not even sure how to "release" something in a productive way. I made a soundcloud and put on my facebook that It was up, I'm not really sure what else to do.

Any Ideas would be helpful. I want to get myself out there but face this wall with my resources of what can be done.

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But you'll never find the body!!!

GuitarBizarre

You're not trying hard enough. If you want to get your **** out there you should be doing more than just hosting it on a soundcloud. You should be getting CDs made up professionally, perhaps comissioning artwork even, so you can get professional quality physical product printed up and you can handle distribution privately through paypal or other such services.

Also, if you only have an EP, this probably isn't the smartest idea. The only people who need managers in this day and age fall into one of two camps.

1 - Big artists whose workload if they were trying to organise all the venues and production themselves, would have an impossible task

2 - People who are too lazy to get out there, play, work up a fanbase, put their stuff on iTunes and other such pay-to-download services, make their own website, and generally work their asses off to get to the point they really need a manager.

A manager still won't help the people who fall into group 2, of course. A manager for those people will just leech your money away. If they have enough connections to get you anywhere, they will have made those connections by running with artists who they will probably still have on the books and can still sell to people. Why would they take a chance on promoting you instead of their existing sure thing? They wouldn't. They only keep other artists on for the chance of breakout success, or if their sure thing doesn't pan out too much longer.

They will, of course, still take your money, and convince you they're helping you as much as possible, but the fact is, if you want to get anywhere, especially in the digital, age, you're going to have to do it yourself and not expect any help from anyone. You're going to have to get out there, play shows, get people interested, and get things ready for you to release product, before you have any chance of ever selling that product.

If you can't do that, then sadly, unfortunately, you're either just not good enough to garner peoples interest, in which case you need to work on your craft, or, if you ARE good enough, you're just not working hard enough to make people see that.


Edit: Oh, and by the way, if you only have an EP's worth of material and you're already getting discouraged that nobody has discovered you, what gives? Its possible to write, record, and release a self-financed EP in a matter of a few months, especially if its singer songwriter stuff, by which I assume you mean acoustic guitar and vocals. The fact you have only a small amount of material indicates to me more that you haven't stuck it out long enough to really justify being in any way discouraged regards getting out there. I mean, either you've had an EP's worth of material for a very long time, in which case why aren't you writing more, or you've only been doing this long enough to build up an EP sized collection of songs, in which case why are you expecting to get places this fast?

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Guybrush

My first thought when I read this thread was that you seemed to have it backwards. I believe the way it generally goes is that you record and release something, get your name out there - and then you get a manager if and when you've got something that people wants that needs to be managed.

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ThoseDazeGone

I might have it backwards. I have far more than an EP's worth of material, my live set can go 2 hours with originals, but I have 5 songs right now of my current material that are recorded in a presentable fashion. I'm much better at actually playing than I am at getting myself out there. Part of that is fear, which you guys can't help me with.

I can play, and get very good feedback when I play live. Frequently people tell me that I should be out and better promoted. i try, but I really don't have any money or friends supporting me right now, so Its very difficult to record, draw people to shows, etc. I feel like, and have been told, that my material far supercedes my ability to do anything with it right now. Does anybody have any good tips, however big or small, to help improve the places I'm booking, how I draw people in, on a very low budget?

Really, I appreciate what you guys have said so far. You guys appear to think I sound naive, but even that has been helpful, to realize I'm naive. It has me questioning myself, and my commitment to my music, and I realized that If I can be so easily turned on myself by a bunch of randoms on a message board, I will have to to thicken my skin up to make it in this business.

Any more feedback would be helpful, I'm willing to listen and learn. Specifics would be most helpful.

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But you'll never find the body!!!