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Last month’s article was about love…my love for the greatest music this side of heaven, and why I feel compelled to defend it. Amazingly, most of the many emails I received were urging me to identify the companies who are ripping off our artists. I could easily do that, but I like my house and don’t want to risk losing it in a court battle. Also, it’s not necessary to name these characters if you will ACCEPT the truth when I tell you what to look for.

ACCEPTING THE TRUTH

My articles are about truth. Those of you who are sincere about doing this business the right way can look into these articles and see the truth staring right back at you just like looking into a mirror. But there is a big difference in “seeing” the truth and “accepting” the truth. For whatever reason, we sometimes refuse to accept what we know as “the truth”. Perhaps we’re in denial. Or it could be downright stubbornness. Regardless, this I promise you. Until you are willing to accept “the truth” about your singing, you will not succeed. As long as you refuse to believe the truth about the scoundrels in our industry who are conning you into doing the “wrong” things, you will be just like the wicked witch who looks into the mirror and sees a beautiful princess.

THE TRUTH ABOUT THE GOOD COMPANIES

A good record company has artists with real success. There is a reason for this. A good record company takes the time to produce quality recordings. As I’ve taught you in previous articles, time is one of the key ingredients in the formula for a quality recording. A good record company helps its artists find and arrange fresh new songs. A good record company carefully plans a budget with the artist and develops a well planned strategy for radio releases and marketing. Most importantly, a good record company limits its roster of artists to a manageable number. No SG record company can properly handle a roster of 60 or 70 artists. You cannot do the things I’ve just described and give the artists the attention they deserve.
It makes no difference whether you are a major artist or just starting out making custom recordings, the company you record with must do these things for you. If they don’t, congratulations, you’ve just identified one of the bad guys.

Just because some companies have been around for a long time doesn’t mean they’re doing things the right way. In fact it could mean they are still playing on success they had many years ago. What is more important is what they are doing now. Look at their roster of artists. Is it a reasonable number? Are any of them achieving real success? Talk to artists who have left the company and find out why they left and how they were treated.

We recently signed a group that was formerly with one of these companies, a very high profile company. The story they told regarding this company was not really a surprise to me. After all, I’ve been preaching these truths month after month, and it’s certainly not the first time I’ve heard it. It seems this group signed on to do a recording with all the whistles and bells, you know, radio promotion, marketing, etc. The group paid their money but the company never did what was paid for. Instead, the group got an inferior recording, and a song put on a compilation with other groups that also got inferior recordings. They got no reports about their song, and were pretty much “Shuffled off to Buffalo” along with the dozens of other groups this company did nothing for,
[n]UNTIL……it came time to do another recording. Then the sweet talk started all over again.[/n]
Folks, I know these people like the back of my hand. They are not interested in you, or your ministry, or SGM. They are only interested in signing more groups. That’s the only way they can make money and keep their cash flow up. They take the cheapest approach to maximize their profit margin on each group.

The group I’ve just mentioned got “snookered” but you don’t have to. You can accept “the truth”. Once again I’ll give you 2 (two) undeniable, irrefutable, incontrovertible TRUTHS.

I write the next line almost every month, and almost every month someone emails me to say they got ripped off, and it’s because they didn’t follow this advise…OK…I’ll say it again…Sit down and study the next line and memorize it:

#1 DON’T DO BUSINESS WITH ANY COMPANY UNLESS YOU RECEIVE A LINE ITEM BUDGET.

Wait…maybe I typed too quickly. Let me say it one more time.

DON’T DO BUSINESS WITH ANY COMPANY UNLESS YOU RECEIVE A LINE ITEM BUDGET.

A line item budget is a detailed accounting of each expenditure, including, but not limited to: musicians, instrument cartage, studio time, producer’s fees, arrangements, orchestrations, background vocals, piano tuning, mastering and vocal tuning.
If you would like to see a line item budget just email me at: and I’ll be glad to send you a blank line item budget for you to review.
You have a right to know where every penny is being spent because it’s your money. Don’t listen to the sweet talk, “We’ve been doing this for 30 years and we’ve never given a line item budget, our artists trust us.” Yeah right… and I’ve got an ice company in Alaska that I’d like to sell you.
Any company with integrity will be glad to provide you with a line item budget.

#2 DON’T BE CONNED INTO RADIO PROMOTION UNTIL YOU ARE READY.

To be honest with you, I am baffled by people who send me emails telling me they’ve been reading my column for months but were still bitten by this scam. My only question is why they didn’t accept “the truth” they’ve been reading all these months.
There are literally hundreds of groups that have fallen for this scam, and since this column is about Truth…I’d have to say that the truth is many of these groups don’t want to believe the truth about themselves. They don’t want to be honest and admit that when someone tells them that their singing is simply not ready for radio, it’s the truth. They would rather believe someone else’s lie because it’s what they want to hear. Are you one of those groups? If you can, tell us about all the success you’ve achieved by “putting a song out there”. I’d be glad to hear it. Also, tell us if your date book is full? Are you now a national group? Are you selling lots of product? Which night are you singing at NQC? What is the title of your next single? Where is the company you signed on with now? You know…the same guys that were saying, “Oh Yeah, this is a hit! Give us your money and we’ll send this out to radio and the next thing you know, you’ll have your name out there”. I can tell you what happened. They got your money and you got “NUTTIN”.

My friends, this is truth. I pray you will clearly see it, and after seeing, ACCEPT IT.

I love the scripture that says, “Fix your thoughts on what is true and good and right”. Philippians 4:8 (LSB)

As always, I welcome your comments.

God Bless You,

Nick Bruno
http://www.songgardenmusicgroup.com

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