What to Learn: Become well-versed in multiple recording technologies and develop file management skills. Some jobs in sound engineering may require additional training in mixing and editing. This means you have the freedom to dabble in multiple styles, genres, and sounds. You may be asked to contribute to a recording session or join a band on tour.
And some recording studios even have their own house bands. See these movies! What to Learn: A successful session musician is a connoisseur of their instrument and has a solid reputation for their craft. You should be able to step into any musical arrangement to offer your skills and also be proficient and experienced at improvisation. Another necessity is to learn how to build a reliable network and solid relationships. An artist manager exists to create opportunities, connect, and propel the musical act forward in the music business.
You have to wholeheartedly believe in your artist and help them build a strong and sustainable career through planning, organization, directing, and negotiating. See that photo above? You probably recognize at least 80 percent of the people, and know their names.
But how about the man in the center? What to Learn: Management and leadership skills are key here. There are music business management programs you can study but you should also self-study tour logistics, accounting principles, and daily scheduling management. Never ever Pay to Play - it is mostly a con set up to benefit promoters I know, some exceptions, but if you are new to this sort of thing, assume it will be a challenge figuring out which ones!
Marketing and selling songs nowadays is straightforward - you can do the entire thing yourself, and promote through facebook , fandalism etc. I am very part time these days on the Music side of things, averaging about one gig a month, and I still make money from it. As we are not a covers band, we don't make a steady income by any means, but festivals pay a decent amount, large venues also pay well, and even pub gigs cover our petrol and beer. Royalties from online sales make us a wee bit each month as well.
I would like to make much more, but it's good to have a hobby that makes anything Already good answers to this, so I'm putting out a list of things I've done to add to ideas for possible music income. Some have already been mentioned. Tutoring - good for steady income, but sometimes hard to do if you have a performing schedule that takes you away for some weeks.
Students stick with you longer if you have a regular schedule with no long breaks between lessons. Selling Product - This is changing as music is distributed more on-line now, but producing recordings and promotional products can still generate income. I have music up on-line from a show I did almost twenty years ago that still produces a small amount of money each month.
At physical shows people still like to buy souvenirs from the band, so shirts, stickers, videos and recordings all can generate income. You can either work your own group, which can be promoted through various planning services and web sites, or hire yourself out as a sub-in to multiple groups or both.
Wedding music tends to be seasonal. Businesses often hire cover bands for corporate parties such as the Christmas party, product launches etc.
For weddings I worked in a cover band as well as a "theme band", playing "Celtic" music, and subbed in with a Country band. Theme Festivals - This depends on where you are, but in some places specific styles of music are popular. For example, I had a "Celtic" band that played at Celtic fairs and other theme events. In some places Jazz festivals are popular.
Occasionally we did well setting up a vendor booth for the street fairs and selling our recordings out of the booth. Handing out promotional material also lead to private bookings for the band. In the area I lived there were a number of recording studios in travel range for me and they would occasionally need musicians to come in for session recording for projects.
Maybe you want to be signed to a major label. Or do you want to create your own label, band or collective? Not everyone will have the same goals or aspirations. It may take some time to realize what your long term goal is, and it may even change as you gain more experience. But once you have your end goal, you gotta reverse engineer it. Keep in mind, the purpose of this blog is to broadly outline the different elements you need to think about to be an independent, performing artist and songwriter , but of course, most of the points still apply.
We live in a massive, globalized world where we can communicate and interact with just about anyone anywhere on the planet through the internet. This means you no longer need to make a name for yourself in your local area first or move closer to a certain city or music scene to make it. However, I still think it helps to do those things if you can to optimize your chances of success.
Whether you like it or not, being a music artist is like starting a new business. Part of the artist development process is learning how to operate your own business and hopefully turn your passion into a sustainable living.
In a traditional sense, your music is your product, like physical copies of your music. But even that is changing. Your brand has now become the commodity you monetize through your merch and tickets to see you perform. Regardless of the form your product takes, you need to operate as a business entity. If you plan to pay others to handle parts of your business and marketing, it is important you still educate yourself in these areas and know what to expect from them.
You may hate the business aspects, but you still need to be informed and educated to make the right business decisions for your career. Even if you know you have skills to excel in the business side, it may not be the best use of your time, as it takes you away from focusing on making music, so you will still need to surround yourself with a strong supporting team. For bands or music groups: You will need a band agreement to decide on things like splits and percentages for copyrights over original song compositions and gigs, etc.
This will need to be done in writing. You should use contracts and written documentation to detail copyright ownership, band operation agreements, payment expectations, rules, decision-making processes and other important procedures. To combat the oversaturation of content and competitive climate for attention, speed has become a huge factor when it comes to making music.
By speed, I mean how often you can release music consistently to stay top of mind and keep fans engaged. It may be challenging to balance the business and creative sides to produce quality music, but that has become the cost of entry. Your success in the music industry ultimately starts with how good your music is. A good song can help jump start your career, but you need to keep pushing out music to build off that momentum. Promoting your music is arguably as important as making the music itself.
Your priority is to make quality music, marketing it through various channels is second. Keep refining your talents and skills. Never stop developing as an artist! Russ, who has a record deal with Columbia Records, is an Atlanta based rapper known for building his fan base from the ground up by basically releasing a free song every week for 2 years on Soundcloud.
In addition, Russ produced, mixed, mastered, engineered, written, and perform the songs all by himself. Lastly, make sure the music you do put out has good sound quality unless the style of music you create is meant to sound raw or unpolished.
Your network is your net worth. One of your first goals should be to develop relationships in your local community and music scenes. You can network in your neighborhood, city and school by knowing the different music venues and establishing relationships with other local artists and people involved in music. Of course, you should be doing this online as well as in person. There are networking opportunities, but you just need to know how to approach it.
Instead, find relevant online communities to be active in and support artists similar to you. This way you can meet other artists to collaborate with and possible industry connections that may help you in the future. The goal with networking is to build relationships, meet artists to potentially collaborate with and find possible people who may be a good fit for your team like a manager, photographer or even booking agent. I was that person who needed to find artists to help.
In fact, the first artist I started working with was an artist I met through college. Remember, relationships are key to success in this business, so start developing them locally.
Just like in business, presentation is important. Part of treating your music career like a business involves presenting yourself as an artist to take seriously. If you come off as amateurish, people can subconsciously associate you with lower quality and someone not worthy of attention.
This is why having good quality visual components photos, graphics, videos is key to a strong online presence. When starting out, invest in a professional photographer to get high-quality photos of yourself, or band, that you use for your bio, website and social media.
Make sure to communicate with them and plan out how the specific shots are going to be used ahead of time. For example, a close-up portrait style shot may be great for a bio.
But if you need to use that photo for a Facebook or Twitter cover photo that requires a landscape widescreen composition, parts of your face may be cut off when you have to crop the photo to fit. Another area is graphics. For graphics you might need like album covers , merch designs , flyers and even logos , I highly recommend this FREE app called Canva.
Affiliate Link. However, if you do want to try their paid plan to access even more template designs, they have a free 30 day trial. In addition to setting up your social media accounts and optimizing them, you should also have a clean and professional website.
I personally use WordPress and Squarespace for my clients, but there a lot of different options out there. Plus, they offer a 14 day free trial with no credit card needed if you wanted to try for yourself.
Start by registering for a domain name, ideally something that is the same as your social media usernames for consistency. Social media has opened up a route that wasn't available a decade ago.
Singers and musicians are now being signed after being spotted on YouTube. And music journalists are securing jobs off the back of blogging. However, you still need qualifications and work experience, whether that's a degree, apprenticeship or internship.
With outstanding talent as a singer, songwriter, dancer or musician you may be able to enter the industry directly - whereas if you're interested in business, educational or technical jobs you'll likely need a degree. However, in this competitive industry, no matter your end goal, studying for a music degree can be beneficial in more ways than one. Courses give you in-depth practical and theoretical knowledge and the chance to develop transferrable skills, make industry contacts and find industry work placements.
Discover what you can do with a music degree. Check the details of individual courses carefully to ensure they match what you're looking for. Some universities run performance-focused degrees while others are more academic. When it comes to choosing where to study, it's useful to check subject-specific rankings and league tables.
You'll find that the best performers are a mix of traditional universities and specialist institutions, such as the Royal College of Music RCM , and Guildhall School of Music and Drama. These provide different study environments and deciding which you prefer is another important thing to think about as you do your research.
Depending on the course, you may also need to demonstrate performance skills. Entry requirements vary so always check with your selected university. Meanwhile, there are a variety of postgraduate options to choose from, with taught and research-based options available. You can study for a Masters in:. Search for postgraduate courses in music. While music jobs are undoubtedly competitive, they're by no means out of reach for those with the right qualifications and experience.
Here are some of the music jobs you can do. Portfolio careers are common in the music business.
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