4 Questions About the Music Industry You Should NOT Ask

Chances are, you are already ruining your potential for success in the music industry because you believe in one or more music career myths. How can I know? I get emails from tons of musicians all the time (all looking for answers to the BAD questions). These are questions that may seem like good questions at the highest level, but are actually very damaging questions that keep them from their musical dreams.

To build a successful music career as quickly as possible, you need to know the questions you DO NOT need to seek answers to and understand how to ask much better questions that will put you on the right path to achieving your goals in music. music industry.

Here are the 4 worst music career questions you should avoid asking in order to build a successful career as a professional musician:

Bad Music Career Question #1: Should I Become a “Starving Artist”?

Many people think that making a living as a professional musician means one of two things: you either “make it” and tour the world and sell millions of albums, or you “become a starving artist.” » and have to play shitty bars and street corners just to get by. This myth of the music business sabotages people’s careers from the start, either by making them believe they need to find a full-time job unrelated to music and “try to make music on the side”, or by scaring them from trying to get into the music business.

The fact is that the music industry is made up of a large middle class and there are countless ways to make a living. You’d be surprised how easy it is to make a good living in the music industry versus succeeding in an outside field. However, before you make a lot of money, you need to stop asking low-quality questions. Stop worrying about becoming a starving artist and start imagining all the different ways you can make money as a musician.

When you work in the music industry, you don’t have to live paycheck to paycheck like a normal day job. Instead, it is always possible to earn multiple sources of income at the same time. This makes becoming a professional musician a much more stable career choice since you don’t need to rely on a single source of income. Besides the obvious ways musicians look to make money from music (selling albums/downloads, playing gigs, or recording as a session musician), there’s one thing you can do right now which will quickly increase your music-related income:

Start growing a music teaching business. This will immediately produce multiple sources of income (your students) for you while you work significantly fewer full-time hours each week.

When you create numerous music income streams as shown above, it is very possible (and not as difficult as one might think) to earn over $100,000 each year over the course of your music career (I know , because I have helped many musicians do it). he).

Bad Music Career Question #2: How to Get a Recording Deal?

To understand why this is not a good question to ask, answer this: “Why should someone give YOU a record deal?” If you think it’s because you write good music… try again. That’s never a good enough reason for someone to sign you to a record deal. No one will invest thousands of dollars into your business just because you know how to write good music. This would be WAY too risky an investment (so much so that it doesn’t even make sense). Imagine you had $200,000 saved, would you then go to a casino and put it all on the line for a spin of roulette? OR would you instead invest it in someone who has proven they can help you earn even more (at least at a lower level)? There is no doubt that you would make the right choice and invest your money in someone who would help you earn more money. That’s how record companies think. So stop wondering how to sign a record deal and start becoming a “wise investment” that any label would immediately consider valuable. It requires more than just writing good music, playing your instrument well, or having a Facebook page.

Here are the actions you should take to become a valuable investment for a record label:

Understand what the music industry is looking for in musicians before you start working with them.
Work every day to build your music career. Record labels want to make sure you have a good track record before they start working with you. The more things you do as an independent musician, the more likely you are to attract interest from a record label.
Get music industry training from a successful mentor who has already accomplished great things in the music industry and helped others sign record deals.

Once you start developing your music career on your own, you will become like a beacon of light and record labels will come looking for YOU!

Bad Music Career Question #3: How can I get my music “heard” by more people?

The majority of musicians want their music to be heard by as many people as possible, believing that this will help them earn money and become successful professional musicians. However, the number of people who listen to your music is not very significant in itself. What really matters is how many people you are able to turn into highly devoted fans who will do anything to support you and your music.

Stop wondering how to get more people to hear your music and start turning anyone who is already your fan into a true FANATIC. Only after you have a strategy in place to turn “casual fans” into “hardcore fanatics” will the total number of people listening to your music start to matter.

Bad Music Career Question #4: What’s the Best Music City to Move to?

Many musicians believe that they will have a much better chance of succeeding in the music industry if they move to a “music town.” Then, with this belief in mind, they pack up their belongings and move, believing that opportunities will “just fall into their lap” once they present themselves. Once they’ve been in their new location for a while and nothing has changed, they blame the city and look for a new place to move (while completely ignoring the REAL reasons they’re not successful).

Here’s the truth about “location” that leads to success in the music industry: Your location has nothing to do with your ability to become a successful professional musician. This especially applies today where it is easier than ever for someone to get a recording contract, release music, organize world tours or work as a session musician, whatever or the place where he lives. Successful musicians don’t become successful because they lived in one region rather than another. If this were true, there wouldn’t be any successful musicians living in cities that aren’t known for their great music scenes. The principles that lead to developing a successful music career apply exactly the same no matter where you live.

Rather than putting massive (futile) effort into trying to research and find the best music scene, follow the following process that has proven to work for musicians:

• Determine your specific musical goals.
• Start working with a music industry mentor to develop an effective strategy to achieve your music goals.
• Work every day to get closer to your goals until you achieve them.

When you focus on what’s most important (using the process above), you’ll find success in your music career much faster.

Now that you understand why many common music career questions are steering your music career down the wrong path, here’s what you need to do to get back on track:

Step 1. Think more deeply about your music career goals. Use the resources in this article to better understand how the music industry works.

Step 2. Start asking yourself quality questions regularly when trying to determine what you need to do to achieve your music career goals.

Step 3. Don’t build your music career alone. Take a music business course to quickly achieve big things in the music industry.

Tom Hess is a recording artist, online guitar teacher, and music career mentor. He plays guitar for the band Rhapsody Of Fire. Visit his musician development website to become a better musician, get free music industry advice, music career advice and professional music industry advice.