How To Get Well Connected | Access 2 Knowledge

You know the old adage that if you want to be successful; it’s not what you know, but who you know? There is indeed a certain element of truth to that fact. In order to get hired at any job, climb the corporate ladder, to get elected to any public office, or to make it in the business world, you need to have good social connections to key players within that industry who you can rely upon to help you get to where you need to or want to be. The same holds true for anyone who is looking to get established or to become successful within the music industry.

The fact of the matter is that no matter how talented you are, no matter how creative you are, no matter how masterfully skilled you are within your particular niche area of expertise, you can only get so far within your career, vocation, or business venture without knowing the right people. Nobody can earn income in a vacuum. Money is all about exchanging goods or services for money. And that exchange of goods or services is based on supply and demand. There has to be a market out there for the particular product or service you are offering. And the music industry is no exception.

There has to be an audience (preferably a captive audience) who enjoys the music that you produce and values it enough to want to pay money to buy your CDs, download your MP3s, visit your concerts, or to have you perform at a particular venue for the entertainment value of their particular facility (like a banquet hall, a stadium, or a night club). In other words, the money that you earn for performing or producing music has to come from somewhere, right? It either has to come from fans who are willing to pay for your music, or it has to come from a commercial sponsor who is willing to pay you to perform in order to increase their own business.

(For example, a restaurant might want live bands for hire to perform while consumers come to dine there, as it adds to the atmosphere of the restaurant by making it more lively. This in turn means that customers will have a positive experience at the restaurant and will want to come back… which means more business for the restaurant. Therefore the restaurant’s investment in hiring your band will have paid off in terms of increased business revenue for them.)

The bottom line is that you cannot just expect to get paid out of thin air for performing music. There have to be people who want to pay for your music. And therefore, in that respect, it matters who you know more than it matters what you know. It’s all about people.

This of course by no means implies that you could be a terrible musician and you can expect to earn big money just because you happen to be well connected. If a big record label company decides to pick up, produce, and market your band’s music that does not automatically mean that people are going to like your music. That would be just like saying that just because some athlete endorses a particular energy drink, that people are going to like it. That drink, or that product, has to be inherently good. But the positive endorsement aids to help market that product. And in many instances, good marketing can often times trump a lackluster product, but that is not always the case. If the general consumer doesn’t like it, then that would reflect poorly on the producer of that product. And the same applies to music.

There are so many talented people out there in the world today. But because they are not well connected, they never get to see their dreams materialized. The next Bill Gates, Henry Ford, Michael Jordan, or Michael Jackson could be out there, but because they don’t have a good producer, manager, or agent, they are never able to get their name out there and never gain enough publicity to make their foray onto the national or international spotlight. In fact, it can be said that there are many people who are better athletes, better musicians, and better politicians out there among the masses, than who is currently basking in the spotlight, but nobody knows who they are.

(In the world of politics, this is quite apparent… if you have ever wondered why our choice of candidates for the President of the United States are so lackluster and find yourself wondering “why are these only two choices” and wonder why more people aren’t stepping up and seeking their candidacy. The answer is quite simple: Those who aren’t well connected will never be able to see the light of day in the public arena.)

So what can you do to increase your chances of getting well connected within the music industry? Obviously you can’t just call up the president of some record label company and invite him or her to lunch, and try to kiss up to him or her, and try to schmooze your way to success. But there is one thing that you definitely can do:

In today’s modern era of Internet contentedness  you can leverage the power of social media in order to get your name out there. If you have ever wondered why some YouTube videos go viral, receiving millions of views, for example, whereas other videos are complete duds, with a mere trickle of web traffic, this is again, because of who you know. If you see a video that you like on YouTube, what would you do? You would most likely share it on Face book, Twitter, or Google Plus. Or you might simply forward a link to that video to all of your friends, family or colleagues. If the video is good enough, then each of these people may be very likely to also share the same video on their social media accounts as well.

There are many things you can do in the offline world as well, but in this day and age, it’s all about social networking. You don’t need to have lunch with some music executive. You don’t need to be the brother in law or nephew of some famous, well-connected person. Social networking is a highly democratic medium that has leveled the playing field for many people who are seeking fame in the music industry.

Insofar as “it’s who you know, not what you know” is concerned, this implies that you don’t have to know just one well-connected person. You simply need to know enough people with whom you can share videos of your band’s demo performance, for example. Somebody on

Your friend’s list, or perhaps even a friends’ friends’ list, may be connected to somebody who receives that share and happens to be well connected in the music industry and decides to reach out to you.

So while that old adage still holds true, the nature of “who you know” has evolved quite a bit.

Kristen is a freelance writer who writes on different topics such as music, entertainment and social media. She holds bachelor’s degree in electronics. Her famous articles includes article on Music Job in band. She loves to travel and make new friends.

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Music | March 22, 2013

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