“Music produces a kind of pleasure which human nature cannot do without.”
~ Confucius
The moment you decide to pursue a music career, you’ll probably receive brow-raising reactions from the people around you. Most especially if you’re in the middle of a blooming career and a higher chance to be promoted but then while staring at your computer screen on a busy day, you ask yourself the one in a million question: Should I do it?
Pursuing a music career is not easy. It’s a job that will require you to work more than 8 hours a day, courage and patience to prepare yourself from tons of disappointments and to bring a lot more sacrifices to the table.
But when you are into something, nothing should stop you from doing it. This is true even for music. But before you jump into that journey of starting a music career, here are some tips that you need to know:
- Treat your career as a business - Remember that you are capable of generating thousands or even millions of dollars that is why you are yourself a business. Your career just like any other business out there may have a limited run. So it is important to build a strategy not just to make it last but to make sure that it will generate enough income and that assets are protected at all costs.
- Get a day job - While you may want to leave your jobs and work on your music full time, this may not be a smart move unless you have more than enough funds to still pay for your bills while waiting for that “huge break” which does not actually happen over time. Building a career requires time. So get a day job and work on your craft at night and make sure that your funds will be invested in building your career.
- Establish an Online Presence - In today's digital age, establishing an online presence is already a necessity for all businesses. People have easy access to whatever is posted online. Putting your website or pages in all social media sites and adding great content are ways to make yourself known to a broader audience.
- Build a solid fanbase - Remember this: People are the lifeblood of any business. Once you know how to deal with them, they’ll turn into solid fans who would not mind paying for your concerts, subscribing to your every social media page, buying every product that you endorse or your albums and they will even tell the world to do the same. If you also want to get signed, know this: Before a record label would sign you up, they expect you to have a decent size fan-based.
- Create a goal - Be realistic with it. What do you plan to achieve in 1, 3,5 or 10 years? Is there an artist that you want to collaborate with? Do you want to do live performances in different cities in 3 years? Get signed by different clients to do music for their ads or even movies? Be creative with your goals. Stick it up in your wall so you’ll be inspired.
- Build your Dream Team - You need to have these people to help establish your career: Personal Manager, Business Manager, Lawyer, Agency and Groupies.
- Keep an Open Mind and Never Stop Learning - Learn about the basic copyrights, royalties, and how to get your music across a broader audience. Don’t be afraid to experiment. Read books and research to widen your understanding on the business.
- Lastly, commit to having music as a career. Begin by asking yourself why you wanted it in the first place. Once you understand and is fully committed to doing this no matter what the odds may be, then, by all means, go ahead and get started. Success and excellence will never be difficult to reach if you love what you do and work hard for it. To quote Angela Duckworth “...there are no shortcuts to excellence. Developing real expertise, figuring out really hard problems, it all takes time―longer than most people imagine....you've got to apply those skills and produce goods or services that are valuable to people...Grit is about working on something you care about so much that you're willing to stay loyal to it...it's doing what you love, but not just falling in love―staying in love.”