Dear Passengers,

How much effort is enough? How do you know when you’ve given the music business your best shot and it simply wasn’t enough?

I saw this very issue debated on our forum. Somebody was ready to give up on songwriting because he felt that he had given it all he had, and the wall was too high for him to get over. I had three reactions to what he had written.

1) He was frustrated and wanted his friends on the forum to talk him out of quitting.

2) How badly did he really want to be in the music business?

3) How much effort had he really given it?

Showing up is not enough.

Joining TAXI, making a dozen submissions and going home with your tail between your legs is not a path to a music career. Setting up a MySpace page and racking up 2,147 fake friends is not enough. Hanging out on Facebook from your cubicle at work is not enough. Sending out a few Tweets about your show on Friday night is not enough.

Yes, the tools are there for the taking, but it’s relentless effort that wins the day. You already knew that. So did the guy trying to get talked out of quitting the music business.

Yes, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and all the other tools save you printing and postage costs while building a fan base. But your songs still have to be great. Not good enough, but great! That takes focus, work and time.

Yes, TAXI brings a hundred opportunities for your music right to your computer every month, but your music still has to be great. Not good enough, but great!

Yes, the tools make it easier that it has ever been before, but they don’t mean that you get to become a successful songwriter with less effort. It means you can accomplish more in the same amount of time.

If you use those tools to get more done per hour and treat your music like a full-time job, then you can succeed in the music business. You get to determine your own timeline. You have more control than you might want to admit. If You don’t succeed, you can really only blame yourself.

Want to know how I know that? Read about Diane Warren, then come back and carefully comb through our Music Industry Listings to find a path for your talent.

Talk to you soon,
Michael