Ian ‘Dicko’ Dickson On The Five Mistakes Musicians Make

I honestly cherish my job as a music biz coach, and I’d love to share all of the amazing things that developing artists do that surprise and impress me…but really, where’s the fun in that!?

Much more of a good read if I share the five terrible mistakes that most developing artists make that really give me the galloping shits!

Okay… let’s see how many of these pitfalls ring a bell with you.

1. ‘I’m an artist, not a content creator’

Social media appears to represent something of a double-edged sword for a lot of musicians.

A huge percentage of artists I work with absolutely understand the potency of social media as an audience-building tool, but they also tend to mostly resent it with a bitterness that I find baffling.

Sure, I get the idea that competing in the social media space effectively can be something of a daily grind, but to hear a lot of you talk, having a crack at TikTok is equivalent to being consigned to 10 years’ hard labour in the salt mines. C’mon, guys!

At the risk of sounding like an old git here (guilty), I started my life in the music industry back in the 1980s in the UK. The industry back then was completely controlled by gatekeepers. If you wanted to release a record, you had to be super connected to the right people, and even then, just the possibility of recording and releasing a song commercially was comically remote to most mortals.

Honestly, if you were to tell an indie artist in 1985 that this slab of plastic was a phone, a recording device, a film studio, an encyclopedic oracle, and their own personal broadcast channel which could transmit their cool shit to the whole world in real time, their mop-topped heads would have exploded.

So, instead of howling about the work involved to do social media effectively, I would love to see more artists feeling grateful about what this amazing technology really represents to their projects, an incredible conduit for their creative vision, and some fucking awesome cat videos!

2. Actually, I’m more Wonky-Cuddle-Core-Dream-Beat these days…

It appears the easiest way to panic a musician these days is to ask them what genre they are.

I am astounded by the rampant commitment phobia that developing artists display when simply asked to explain what sort of music they make and where in the industry it might find a home. ‘A bit of this, a bit of that’ is not really the great selling tool that some artists imagine.

Listen up, people! Eclecticism might sound like a creative virtue, but it is generally a luxury afforded to only the most successful artists and exists as Kryptonite for new acts trying to find a way in.

In the digital era, where algorithms sit there patiently like giant music dating sites eager to match your music to just the right listener, understanding your genre (and even micro genre) is crucially important to powering your streaming numbers.

A little hack for you. Submithub has a really useful ‘What’s My Genre’ tab for giving you a heads up on what kind of music you are really creating. Discogs, too, is chock full of music nerds who will not only help you to classify your music, but often the Discogs community will be keen to suggest other similar artists from your micro genre with whom you can maybe form a connection and take another step to training the algorithm to find your perfect audience.

You gotta know yourself before you can expect others to fully appreciate what you do.

3. I’ll tell you what I want, what I really, really want…

Most artists are way too focused on results.

It’s understandable, of course. Most artists are hopeless dreamers. It’s natural to dream of headlining the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury, supporting Tay Tay when she comes down under or winning the ARIA for Best New Artist.

But dreaming will not deliver these goodies, no matter how many times you read ‘The Secret’. Most ‘results’ in the music industry are controlled by gatekeepers who have never heard of you and are not in the habit of giving wannabes a free ride.

There is a saying in military circles (super relatable, hey?) that states, ‘Amateurs study tactics, professionals study logistics’. Transposed to the music biz, I would paraphrase this as ‘amateurs focus on goals, professionals focus on processes’.

Good solid processes, established and committed to over time, will build resilience in your project that will absolutely make you stand out from the lazy dreamers who make up the other 99%… you just have to back yourself and get your arse back in those salt mines.

A simple question (almost a cliché) normally sorts out the real contenders from the tire kickers and time wasters: How much do you want it?

4. The Contortionist Trick

This is a hard concept for some to grasp, but when it comes to the music industry, if you want to fit in, you need to stand out. That is the contortionist trick facing development acts all the time. There they are, on their tippy toes, noses pressed to the window, peering enviously at the chosen ones who have made it inside, sitting smugly at the top table, filling their faces with a smorgasbord of A-list blessings. Of course, you want to be in there with them!

It is at this point, however, that a lot of artists decide that the best way forward is to start towing the line, smoothing their edges, speaking in full sentences and generally attempting what they figure ‘growing up’ is. They become predictable and boring, and of course, inevitably… they remain outside.

I love to see artists who take risks, who mess with form, who sever vital connections to see what the ensuing chaos delivers. These, what I would call “Active Artists,” are the ones who invariably rise above the dullards to grab the industry’s attention because they awaken in all of us that dormant rock and roll gene that instinctively reminds us music tragics that we are the restless generation and pop stars are our catnip.

5. Touchdown!!! (Copyright Mark Holden 2003)

Now, I know this is probably gonna be like throwing down a bag of hot chips to seagulls but what the hell!… A lot (and I mean ‘a lot’) of my clients tell me they have been asked to go along and audition for The Voice, Australian Idol or any other of the Zombie Talent formats still lifelessly roaming the networks searching for new flesh to devour.

I tell them, ‘Go if you must, but I shall cease to respect you and, in all honesty, so will the rest of the industry’. Now, I know that does sound like the sour grapes of a no longer relevant ex-talent show judge (and that is probably partially true).

But honestly, much as these shows do still occasionally manage to create the odd morsel of prime-time gold, they rarely manage to back up their claims of searching for the next superstar. As soon as the studio lights shut down, it really does start to become rather chilly for most contestants, and life on the outside is not the profile-building career juggernaut they hoped for.

I’m not saying they haven’t had a great experience! Shit! Being on the telly is actually awesome!!! It’s just that I know that most of the contestants who decide to have a crack justify their decision as ‘A great chance to build my profile’, and the reality of the past few years really doesn`t support this strategy. (Actually, I need to add a caveat here.) There is one clearly defined, (yet poorly dressed) group of contestants for whom these shows really do deliver some tangible results… Australian country artists.

That’s right. I think because the Australian country music industry is so compact, so defined and full of good-natured loyalists, country singers tend to exit Idol or The Voice and return to the Australian country scene almost like heroic returning warriors back from battles in a strange, faraway land.

There have been several Country Artists who have really made their spell in the TV prime-time sun work for them, such as The Wolfe Brothers, Kaylee Bell, Tori Darke, Dylan Wright, Denvah, and Jake Whittaker, who either have or will make their TV show experiences work for them.

Pop artists, musical theatre, and, God forbid, rock artists? Nah, mate; you are honestly better off never knowing how you would have gone. Stick to the salt mines.

Dicko provides a music business consultancy and coaching project as part of his one-on-one service, Hey Dicko!, which is tailored to help Australian musicians navigate the music industry. You can lock in your session here.