Get rejected, get filtered
Have you heard of rejection therapy? It’s a challenge — kind of a game — where you make it your mission to get rejected by someone every day. You have to do crazy things, like asking a stranger if you can try a bite of their sandwich. If they say no, you win for the day. The real point of the challenge is to overcome the fear of rejection by constantly exposing yourself to it.
Musicians usually send their music only to places that take everything. In other words: places that won’t reject it. It’s easier and feels better.
But think of the places that reject most music. Like media outlets, venues, and festivals. Like top professionals: successful agents, promoters, and producers. And ideally, places that usually don’t have music at all.
If you look hard for them, you can find them, and do whatever it takes to get your music accepted by them. It takes more work, and you’ll be rejected a lot. But you could approach it like rejection therapy.
Because once you get into any of these places, your credibility sets you apart from the rest, and opens more doors. You can even re-approach the places that rejected you before.
When you can show that you’ve made it through the filters — the places that weed out the bad music — it puts you in finer company: the best of the best.
Many more opportunities will open to you once you’ve earned your way through a few filters.
This works until the filter is one who wants to maximize profits by minimizing risk. You see this in every field where there are filters:
1> Music
2> Movies
3> Publishing industry
4> Venture Capital
5> Newspapers
...
But I think there is a glimmer of hope on the internet. There are millions of blogs but the best still surface and build a large audience. There are infinite number of videos on youtube but still the best still gets 100 million views. The common element here is social media. As twitter and facebook gain popularity general public will decide winners and not a media executive.
"Deal with the 'gatekeepers' to get to the mansion"
That's an awesome way of putting that.
Hi Derek,
I wonder if you mean research at the library, or by word-of-mouth from becoming a member of the music community?
According to people in my acquaintance, the old practice of a slush pile at the five (formerly six) big publishing houses is no more. Meaning: Despite all this video and digital, there are more writers than ever. As with more musicians, that would be a surprising good thing.
I suppose filters can be ethically grey. I've heard of filters that say "no" as a trick, to see if you will try again. I am not worldly enough to work for an outfit that uses tricks.
I've often wondered about corporations where you aren't supposed to know the name of the person hiring or in charge, meaning: the administrative assistant won't give out the name. I have wondered: If you sneak around the loading dock to learn the name, would you be applauded for showing initiative, or called a dirty sneak for going against company policy? (I am just being curious, as I would never want a corporate job)
This applies to insurance sales as well. I get rejected all the time especially by big clients. Instead of being a pest, I do my best to upgrade my presentation, knowledge and try again.
A line from my Book of Rules: "Every rejector is my benefactor."