Being a Musician Is Like Running Your Own Small Business
Being a Musician Is Like Running Your Own Small Business
Often overlooked skills that are essential to being a musician in today’s music industry
When I graduated from music school in 2006 I felt confident and aptly prepared to start my career. I spent four years at a top music school honing my skills with some of the best musicians in the world. It would be easy for me to find work as a musician, right? Wrong. It turns out that musical training accounts for roughly 50% of the skill needed to launch a successful career as a musician. I’m not trying to knock my school experience, rather, my aim is to share with aspiring musicians some of the skills they should be developing now in order to be adequately prepared for a sustainable career in music.
Since getting “discovered” and acquiring a record deal are so rare these days (and a lot of times even undesirable) you’re going to have to learn how to do most things yourself. Today’s mantra is “DIY”. You could be the best player in town, but you’ll soon find out it takes much more than that to be successful.
Recording
So let’s say you’ve spent the last four years refining your craft – playing awesome solos, writing great songs – whatever it might be. Now in order to sustain yourself you’ll have to make some money from your music. You’ll need to make recordings to sell to fans, give to venue promoters and let people know what you sound like. Unless you have thousands of dollars to drop on studio time, learning a bit about the recording process will go along way. You’ll want to budget for all of the steps in the process: pre-production, tracking, editing, mixing and mastering. Home recording technology has improved by leaps and bounds in recent years and you can cut costs by doing many of these steps on your own and hiring a professional to handle the rest.
Web / Marketing
Now that you have recordings you’ll have to get them out in the world and compete with thousands of other musicians who are trying to do the exact same thing. Unless you have thousands of dollars to drop on a PR company and a marketing team, you’ll want to at least learn the basics of how to promote your music. You’ll need to create a brand and a website and push your music out to as many social media sites as possible. Having some basic web and graphic design skills will also go a long way here. It’s important to learn how to distribute your music through platforms like itunes, cd baby, tunecore, etc. This will enable you to sell music directly to fans without the need for a record label.
Videos
With the popularity of youtube and vimeo it’s essential to create video content in order to reach as many people as possible. Unless you have thousands of dollars to drop on a professional film production crew, you’ll want to start understanding the basics of how a music video is put together. If you’re motivated enough and have the proper equipment, you can shoot your own high quality videos. Otherwise, it’s important to start developing contacts with aspiring film makers who will help when the time comes to make your own videos.
Merchandise
Another revenue stream you’ll want to tap into is selling your own merchandise. My band maximizes profits by printing t-shirts ourselves. It’s easy enough to create great looking shirts with a printing screen and some ink. It’s important to use your creativity to differentiate yourself from other artists by making your merch ideas unique.
Licensing / Contracts
One of the biggest ways artists generate income from their music is through licensing for film, television, and commercials. Start familiarizing yourself with how this process works – understand how contracts are laid out and what is fair so you don’t end up with a bad deal. It’s important to start networking and developing your contacts in this area because most of these deals start with “I know this band that would be perfect for this project…”
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