Protected: The Voice of Dick Bremer
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Music Industry
What I’ve learned and am learning as a career artist and songwriter in Nashville.
From College Dropout to Career Musician: A Letter to Worried Parents
I couldn’t concentrate in class. I kept thinking about my guitar, lyrics to songs I was working on. I’d daydream about performing in front of thousands. Old high school classmates in the crowd. My junior high crush apologizing for not noticing me: “If I could only go back, Aaron,” she’d say, “I’d do things differently.”
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Confessions of an Introverted Marketer
The other day, I emailed 1,257 people, asking if 124 would volunteer to stream my song five times a day for five days on Spotify. I’ve been doing this long enough to know that everything is a percentage of a percentage. For example, I knew about 50 to 60 percent would open the email. I
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Should You Move to Nashville?
(From Aaron’s book On Songwriting: Practical Tips and Insights from a Decade in Music City) I’m often asked by songwriters whether or not they should move to Nashville. I remember asking my Nashville songwriter friends the same question when I lived in Denver. What they (and I) were really asking was, “Do you think I
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For Songwriters: Top 3 Books I Read in 2024
Deep Work This was my introduction to Cal Newport. In March 2024, I changed much of my work behavior based on this book. Learn more. Profit First Don’t let the title fool you. It’s not “profit over people” or anything like that. I took over our finances in September without even knowing our bank account
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Sustaining a Career
Just the other day, I had an opportunity to arrange a song for a commercial. As I thought about how the opportunity actually came to me, I had to go back fifteen years. It was a relationship made that long ago, which was yielding results now. That’s how long some opportunities take. The groundwork is
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Lessons from Elliott Smith’s Appearance on a Tacky Morning Show
I stumbled upon this YouTube video. It caught my attention because it seemed off-brand for Elliott Smith: the dark, brooding artist on a couch at six a.m. with a puppet behind him (not Sesame Street) and the host of America’s Funniest Home Videos. Huh? It made more sense when I saw the date. It was
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Confessions of an Extremely Moderately Successful Singer-Songwriter
I was at the age when all your friends start getting married. It seemed as if every other month I was performing “I Will Be Here” by Steven Curtis Chapman, while a bride and groom lit the unity candle. Their pacing always much faster than rehearsed due to nerves and the unnatural activity of lighting
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The Art and Science of Choosing Cover Songs
I wasn’t just interested in recording “I Love Rock N Roll” because I liked the challenge of reinterpreting it. I also recorded it because I knew my publisher controls the copyright. Back in 2020, they gave me a list of popular songs they can clear for licensing. I scanned through them and picked several that
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A Lesson in Copyright Law from Grey Goose Vodka
I was on my way to meet my friend Claire for our cowriting session one day when I drove past a billboard for Grey Goose vodka. The sign said, “Fly beyond.” Before I go any further, did you know titles are not copyrighted? Copyright law sees titles as too short and vague to be copyrighted.
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