09 Nov Why music artists still have trouble with the business
There are many experienced professionals in the music biz who will tell you that the music biz is all business. I agree. With any business, proper planning is the key to success in the music biz. This article describes some things to consider for your success in the music biz.
Think of your career as a business. Have you assembled your business plan? How do you plan to market? What is your mission statement? Are you going to start your own record label to be distributed by a major, or are you going to be independent offering the full resources of a major label? These are all important issues that you have to have in order to really succeed in the music biz. A music biz plan helps you resolve these issues well in advance.
A lot of recording artists enter the music biz with one big goal “to make it” this hasn’t changed in the last 80 years. These artists see themselves on a big stage in front of thousands of screaming fans, but often that is as far as the planning goes. Artists rarely conduct the planning that it takes to succeed in the music biz.
I’ve yet to speak to an artist who has a business plan. In my experience, if you don’t have a business plan, then you shouldn’t plan on being in business. A good business plan will cover your business and legal structure, your marketing model, financial projections, goals, benchmarks and finally what you’ll do after your career is over.
I’ve met many recording artists who treat the music biz like a glorified hobby. They often don’t have business cards, a website or in many cases, a valid email address with several personal social media accounts. Many more artists don’t have the marketing structure in place that will allow them to get the attention from fans or record labels. Remember that the music biz is all business. If you treat your music career as a hobby then you might as well just perform your music for friends and family and be content with people pretending to take you seriously.
Getting the structure to build your independent music career is easier today than its ever been, there is also more competition than there has ever been. Many Artist and Music Execs agree that if an artist is making it happen for themselves (by selling a couple thousand ” Yes” CD’s locally or selling out a 2,000 seat venue, 10’s of thousands of followers, streams, and social media engagement) they will get on the major label radar or major distribution interest. You can’t get your business off the ground (or your fans) if you are flying by the seat of your pants and living in a prayer.
As a wise person once said “failing to plan is planning to fail”.
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