NHT Blog

Last week on Episode 338 of “Now Hear This Entertainment” you heard Jack Forman, the president of BiCoastal Productions, a New York City-based concert and theatrical booking agency, talking about (among other topics) cold calls that he receives.  He referred to unsolicited phone calls, U.S. Mail, and, of course, email.

If Taylor Swift were a baseball player, she’d quickly find herself behind in the count, 0-2.  As quickly – and in the same timing – as the Major League Baseball season started, so has the songstress initiated a new campaign that, like the proverbial boys of summer and their bizarre 2020 season, seemingly will require an asterisk also.

In an interesting turn of events, I suddenly find myself mired in a three-interviews-in-less-than-two-weeks run, meaning, where I’m the guest this time instead of the host.  The most recent (and second) of those came yesterday during a show that was being streamed live across Facebook, YouTube, Twitch, and even BandLab.

With baseball season comes the inevitable references to “Field of Dreams” and probably the best-known line from that film, despite it now being 31 years old.  (Yes, really.  Look it up!)  Without a doubt you’ll read or hear, “Build it and they will come.”  Turn it into a little game, to see how long it takes for that dialogue to come up once the Major League Baseball season begins.

Being in the entertainment business as long as I have, not to mention writing a weekly blog and hosting a weekly podcast, plus with the number of events that I speak at, you can appreciate the volume of questions that I get asked, via email, face-to-face, through social media, and so on.  Some of them repeat, some of them are, ahem, quite unique, and others deserve praise for their depth and/or quality.

You’re in entertainment and you’re nervously watching your bank account as compared to the monthly bills that for some reason don’t seem to stop coming in.  (I know, how dare they keep sending those, right?)  You keep working hard and are hoping and praying that music sales will (finally) pick up and/or that more fans and followers will buy merchandise.  You’ve tried crowdfunding, Patreon, an electronic tip jar, and anything else you can think of to make being a performer your full-time job.

I wish that I didn’t have to write about this topic.  And I actually wouldn’t mind being proven wrong about this – sooner than later!  But for now, revisit what you’re doing online-performance-wise, and fine tune every aspect until it’s a well-oiled machine.

Can you name five “American Idol” winners since the show’s inception?  What if I said that you can’t include Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood?  Then could you?

The truth is, it’s what you do with your time on and, more importantly, after those shows that can keep your name top of mind, whether you have that number 1 entry on your performance résumé or not.

The first four Wednesday nights in April featured the Now Hear This Entertainment Virtual Music Series, with artists from around the country performing live on Instagram and, in between their original songs, talking about what they were up to, what with the pandemic hanging over everyone, as we were all hunkered down in quarantine mode.  One of the performers, Atlanta-based singer, songwriter, guitar and piano player Melissa Bret, didn’t talk about a new single or EP or album.