How to Get A Hit Record and Sell a Million Records

Want to know how to achieve FAME and FORTUNE in the music business? Yes, YOU can be a pop sensation. Check out our very tongue-in-cheek entry on "The One Minute How To" below as we tell you the secret of "How to Get A Hit Record and Sell a Million Records." It's a fun show hosted by George Smyth. In this educational, 550-episode series, you can learn everything under the sun, from how to unclog your drain to how to ride a Bactrian camel and all in sixty seconds.

Follow along with the interview here:

GS: Hello, everyone. This is George, your host. On this show, we’ve got Valerie Day and John Smith, and they’re going to explain to us How to Get a Record Deal and Sell a Million Records. Guys, can you first tell us a little something about yourselves?

VJD: Well, we had a band in the heyday of MTV called NU SHOOZ that racked up some Top-40 hits, one of which still plays somewhere on Earth every eleven minutes. Before our ‘overnight success’ though, we spent seven years playing clubs, touring in a broken-down school bus, and recording when we could scrape up the money. So this How-To will give people a leg up on the step-by-step process we took to go from local obscurity to international stardom.

GS: OK, if you’re ready, then you’ve got sixty seconds.

VJD: How to Get a Record Deal and Sell a Million Records.

JRS: Start a band, make a poster, and, oh yeah…Choose a band name.

Remember…

You’ll be stuck with it for life.

Play four or five nights a week

Four hours a night

For seven years

Oh, and don’t forget to record.

You never know

Which track

Is going to be MAGIC.

We sure didn’t know.

Get your recording reviewed in the local newspaper.

Make sure the writer says something about how you suck as a live band.

But that it’s too bad that Top-40 stations in town won’t play local music.

‘Cause the recording’s actually pretty good.

Have a DJ from the Number One pop station in your city read the review…

And put a call out over the air to bring the tape on down. They’ll pick a song and play it on the radio.

Then the next year, becoming a Regional Hit.

So you can get turned down by all the major labels.

Put your single out on a 12” record for dance clubs

Have a remix artist

In Holland

Find your record in a record store bin

In Holland

Have him remix it.

So he can send HIS remix back to the states.

Where it can wind up in all the New York City dance clubs

To be discovered by a nice Italian boy who happens to work at the Dance Department at Atlantic Records

Where his boss will hear it and sign you to a singles deal

That turns into an album deal

That produces more Top-40 Hits

That get you nominated for a Best New Artist Grammy

And help you sell over a million records worldwide.

GS: (Laughs) I’m hearing this and what takes me back to when I was in bands was the four-hour gigs, and you happened to mention that, and I guess that’s something that’s rather common.

JRS: Oh yeah.

VJD: Back in the day. Now people have opening acts in clubs and stuff, but we played the whole time.

GS: Yeah, yeah. I can remember it would be like either an eight to twelve gig or like a ten to two gig, and they’d give you one, maybe two breaks, and…not so easy.

VJD: No, no, It’s a good way to learn though.

GS: Absolutely.

VJD: Yeah.

GS: OK, Is there anything else that you’d like to talk about?

VJD: Well, first of all, there’s really no step-by-step guide, as you know, that can help you to get a record deal or sell a million records, but the point of the whole story is that if you really, really really want to do something badly enough, you’ll just have to keep going no matter what because you have to do it for you. And since the 80’s, we’ve been doing all kinds of music, everything from Jazz to Classical, Film Scores to Funk, and we got excited about combining our favorite styles to create a new sound. So, we put together a new band called The NU SHOOZ Orchestra, and we just released our first CD. It’s called Pandora’s Box, and you can find it on our website, nushoozmusic.com. We’ve got free tracks there, full streams for listening, and links to places you can buy actual physical copies of the CD if you want.

GS: And Nu Shooz is spelled N-U-S-H-O-O-Z.

JRS: That’s right.

GS: OK. I’ll have a link to that on the One Minute How-To dot com show notes.

VJD: Thanks, George.

GS: Valerie and John, thanks a lot. I appreciate it.

JRS: Thanks for having us. It’s been fun.

VJD: It’s been really fun