The popular view of the music industry is that of a closed and mysterious business that seems closed to outsiders, but if you are one of the lucky few and manage to break into this closed society, untold wealth will descend upon you.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

So I thought it would be fun to just make a list of myths about the music industry that just do not seem to want to go away. Here they are:

• Most rock and pop stars are not real musicians and have little or no musical ability.
• Labels make huge profits just from CD sales and do their level best to cheat the artists signed to them.
• Autotune can fix a poor voice.
• You can make it big by sending demo CDs to labels.
• Huge hits have been recorded, using ordinary PCs and cheap software in someone's bedroom.
• Using modern technology, engineers can make even poor musicians sound great, even when they are playing live.
• The hardest part is getting signed by a label.
• You can become a star, just by selling CDs on the Internet.
• Winning a talent show is a great way to get a break.

OK, let's go through these one-by-one:

• Most rock and pop stars are not real musicians and have little or no musical ability.

Ask yourself a simple question - with so many brilliant young musicians coming out of the colleges nowadays, why would one go out of one's way to pick one of the few who can't sing, can't dance, can't play an instrument? Stars like Britney Spears, Robbie Williams, Shenia Twain and Justin Timberlake may have made looking like the boy or girl next door into an art form, but they happen to be brilliant.

• Labels make huge profits just from CD sales and do their level best to cheat the artists signed to them.

Just one look at their share prices and their PE (prices-to-earnings) ratios shows a very different picture. 

• Autotune can fix a poor voice.

Nothing can fix a poor voice. Anyway, why bother? There are so many great voices out there, it makes little sense to even try!

• You can make it big by sending demo CDs to labels.

Labels get hundreds of demo CDs every day. Some are great, but most are not. Would-be rock and pop stars seem to think that somehow, the label is just interested in their music, but that is rather like saying an employer is only interested in the qualifications of its employees. A label is interested in the complete package and is likely to attend several gigs to get an idea of the band's musical abilities and what kind of audience they are able to draw, before making the first approach.

Also, all large labels state quite emphatically that they do not listen to demos sent to them for legal reasons.

• Huge hits have been recorded, using ordinary PCs and cheap software in someone's bedroom.

It does happen now and again that a project may be started in a bedroom studio or similar, but they are always finished using the very best equipment. But this myth continues to be peddled, usually by manufacturers of home-recording equipment. Also, there are home studios and home studios - can you really call a studio that represents an investment of over one million Pounds a home studio?

• Using modern technology, engineers can make even poor musicians sound great, even when they are playing live.

You can turn a sow's ear into a silk purse in the studio if one throws enough time and money at the project, but to do so live would mean having to use backing musicians - and here again, the question is 'Why bother?' It would make more sense to sign the backing musicians!

• The hardest part is getting signed by a label.

The hardest part is after you get signed. Then you have to live up to all that promise. It's a bit like staking a claim on a gold mine, the hard part is digging out the gold. There is the additional danger that if there is no gold, the mine will get quickly abandoned. And there are very few people who are prepared to pay for an old, abandoned mine.

• You can become a star, just by selling CDs on the Internet.

One day this might just happen, but it has not happened yet. Until then, it is still all about musicianship and gigging.  That does not mean that you should not have a website, you must have a website and you can sell CDs from that site, but you will only sell to fans and they will become fans at your gigs.  Also, remember that nearly all the people who visit MySpace and people with space on MySpace - or as that great philosopher Yogi Berra once said "Nobody goes there any more.  It's too damn crowded!"

• Winning a talent show is a great way to get a break.

No. Think about it! How many people are entering the talent show? 100? 1,000? Perhaps 10,000 or if it is one of those TV shows that look for the 'next big thing' it would be more like 50,000 or 100,000. That means that for you, losing is an almost certainty. All that hard work, effort, heartache and pain is better spent putting an act together and getting on with your career.