The odds of the average aspiring recording artist or band to get signed to a good record deal has become increasingly lower every year. But, it is most likely not your shortcomings as an artist that keeps you from getting signed. You are probably the hottest new act the world has to offer, but the record labels won't immediately know that. They want a full-packaged deal. They would rather see that you have a proven track record of marketability, a desirable image, and volume of record sales. In other words, they want you to do the initial job of promoting yourself before they step in with an offer. It is after all just business to them. A few factors you have to deal with that makes it hard to get signed is the unpredictable economy and the constantly changing music industry. With the increased popularity of music downloads, less people are buying albums and CDs. This is causing a few record labels to go defunct. They can't afford to sign an artist or band with raw talent and develop that person or band from scratch only to result in the whole project going bust. This is why the record labels are so picky on who they give a record deal to. There are other alternative methods you can implement to achieving your dreams of being that famous rock star. More and more artists are bypassing the record deal in favor of the power of the Internet. These artists are selling their own music on the Internet. Even the established artists rely heavily on the world wide web to sell their music via downloads, CDs, and ring-tones.
If you decide to bypass the record deal, you will probably have significantly less record sells without the support and expertise of a record label, yet you will receive more percentage of the profits. If you have some success with only downloads and ring-tones, you can eliminate the need to manufacture and distribute albums and CDs. You will lose an avenue to make sales in the CD format, but you will have cut down on a large part of your expenses. Of course, you still need to make some promotional CDs to give to the radio stations and clubs. If you decide to pursue a record deal, you need unwavering dedication and constant practice. You will need a lot of patience. It's going to take some time. You should know what you are getting yourself into. There is no time for playing games while promoting yourself or your band.
Have you ever heard of the term, "The music industry is 90% business and 10% talent"? Well this term is true on many levels of the music industry. You will have to become a businessman (or woman) at the beginning of your music career. You will have to convince people that you or your band are worth listening to. You should expect constant rejection and ridicule. A lot of people will not take you seriously. Also, there will be some criticism. Don't take it personal. Use the criticism as a way to improve yourself. Improve your strengths and work on your weaknesses whether its your singing, music playing abilities, or stage presence. Remember....practice, practice, and more practice. There can never be enough practice. You have to hone your skills almost "to perfection". This along with perseverance is the key to success. Record your music so that you can listen to it. Make this a practice recording to analyze your music. Find the mistakes that can be improved. You have to make sure you are ready for the big time. Your music and performance have to be able to "wow" potential fans. Strive to be better than the talent that's currently out. Don't be just like them. Also, your music has to be an "ear catcher" during the first 30 seconds. This is especially necessary when you are presenting your music to the representatives of the record labels. Once you have your performance down packed, its time for some music production. This time everything has to be perfect. You will be doing an official recording of your music. It is best to do most of the production at home if you, a friend, or someone in your band have a home studio. Doing your recording in a professional studio can be quite expensive so it would help a lot to do your pre-production at home to keep your expenses down. You should play and arrange as many of your tracks as you can at the home studio. You may need to use a professional studio to lay down the vocals and drum tracks if you're using a conventional drum set. Make sure your songs are professionally mixed and mastered. This is mandatory. The quality of the production may be the difference between you getting signed or your CD being thrown into a pile of junk CDs that will eventually be trashed. Okay! You have your music productions sounding powerful and crystal clear. Its now time to start the grueling process of doing promotions to make yourself attractive to potential fans and record labels alike. It won't happen overnight, but it will eventually happen with a lot of perseverance.
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The notion of a band being a business is one that few musicians are willing to accept. A band that does not accept this fact is still running a business but is probably running it very poorly and losing countless financial opportunities. Accounting, Management, and Marketing are all crucial factors in achieving success in this cut-throat industry.
Any venture desiring success must first define what success means to them. Is success playing 50 shows per year? How about 50 shows per year to crowds of 500+ fans. Or even better, 50 shows per year to crowds of 500+ fans paying $10 for tickets. Whatever your definition of success, it must be determined from the start. That definition will be your goal and should always be your your guiding light.
"Failing to plan is planning to fail." It's a cliche'....and a handy one to bare in mind. You have your lofty goal of selling 10,000 albums per year. That is a great goal, but no goal is worth a dime if you don't know how you are going to get there. So many times, musicians take a haphazard approach to their operation. They know they want to be the next Led Zeppelin, but planning it out is too boring. They "need" to be out there playing shows and living the rock lifestyle. Wrong! Sure, shows are important. But, if there are 12 people at your show, including your parents and a couple aunts and uncles, that show is likely a waste of your time. It might be good practice, but once you're past the beginner's stage, it's time to get serious.
So, now that you're sold on business planning, here's how to do it. There are many variables that must be addressed in your business plan including marketing, competition, operating procedures, personnel, finance, and accounting. Seriously, all of these must be addressed. To have fans you need to market. That's pretty obvious. You need top of the line marketing materials, so people take you seriously. What other bands out there are begging for the same gigs that you want? What do they play? How good is their show? Can yours be better than theirs? These are all questions you have to ask yourself. Fans are going to go to the most entertaining show, so you need to be competitive with the other acts in your region.
How will you run the band? How many times per week will you practice? What time are these practices? How many songs need to be rehearsed/written at each practice? These things must be planned out, or too much time will pass with nothing accomplished. Who is going to buy the van, PA, and other equipment? It may be necessary to look into financing and work with your band to find options that work for you. And finally, the most boring of all, accounting. You will sell albums, T-shirts, hats, tickets, and a multitude of other merchandise. You must know what you owe your suppliers for these items, when it must be paid, how many you need to order to satisfy the demand of your fans, how much you must charge to turn a profit, and how much tax you owe.
There you have it. The primary components of any worthy business plan. If you're serious, figure out how you're going to get there first and be persistent.
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Most aspiring musicians receive a lot of advice from friends and family about the best approach to take with building their music career. Among the many things suggested, is the idea of having a backup plan. Many people give advice about “the need to have something to fall back on in case the music career doesn’t work out” or “a Plan B”. Typically, musicians are encouraged to go to school and get a degree in something they can easily find a job in, and do music on the side, in their “free time”.
I received much of the same advice mentioned above. I persevered in my own manner. I studied and became a State Registered Nurse. I always considered this to be my "second career." Simply because I wore a uniform, people assumed that this was my career. Very few of these people saw me doing my "real" music career as I rarely performed in the same town that I lived. When people did ask me what my career was, I was very evasive as I find it find it a rather "small-talk" question. If/when you reach the point where your music career begins to develop, you are probably advised to work less in your day job and focus more on the music until you can leave the day job and make the music career work for you. This advice sounds good in theory, but in reality fails to work as intended in almost every case. Why? Usually the job that most musicians get to support themselves until their music career kicks off, has nothing to do with music in general, or their music career specifically. As a result, most end up in a very frustrating situation that makes it virtually impossible to achieve any kind of lasting success as a professional musician. The idea of slowly phasing out your day job while building your music career is good, but in order to work, it needs to be done in the right way. Most musicians have nothing planned or prepared that will allow them to gradually decrease the time spent at their day job and focus more on music. When choosing a “backup plan”, musicians typically find a job that is the most “safe and secure” and the one that pays the most money. However, most people fail to plan the “exit strategy” and think ahead to the time when their music career situation will allow you to focus less of your time on the day job. When they finally reach that point, they realize that they are trapped in their day job and are unable to “gradually” phase it out. They are faced with the choice of either quitting the job entirely, or sticking to it until retirement (more on this shortly). The best exit plan is to have a job that will allow you to gradually decrease the number of hours you spend on it: from 40 hours per week to 30, from 30 hours to 20, from 20 to 10, until eventually you can quit the job altogether! So you must take care to select an occupation that allows a lot of flexibility in work schedule. That means you need to be careful to select an occupation that allows a lot of flexibility in work schedule. This way, when the time is right, you can make a “gradual” transition into a full time music career. Unfortunately, most traditional occupations (such as being an accountant, computer programmer, office manager etc…) do not allow this flexibility. Remember, your boss at work will not all of a sudden allow you to “work 3-4 days per week instead of 5”, simply because you want to work on your new CD an extra few days per week. It is possible to begin by working in a non-music related job at first, BUT do not select “any” job offer without considering the exit strategy first. An ideal job for an aspiring professional musician is teaching guitar. Not only can you make very good money doing it, but you are in complete control over how many hours you choose to work. Not everyone may desire to teach full time for the rest of their life (and this is fine). But as long as you are going to be working anyway, why not do something that is already related to what you enjoy, help students reach their goals faster and make money in the process? In addition, teaching is already a “music related” activity that is probably much more fun to do than sitting in an office! Another possibility is to work as an independent contractor in sales or marketing or doing consulting work for hire. Always check about the flexibility of work schedule before accepting a job offer. Remember that in most industries, the 40-60 hour work week is the norm, with little or no possibility for part time employment. This makes it impossible to make a smooth transition to a full time music career. Slowly phasing out your day job seems to be a very ‘safe and secure’ approach, but it can actually backfire and “trap” you by its sense of security. If you are making $60,000 per year at your day job, and have managed (through working nights and weekends) to build up your music related income to $25,000 per year, then, all together, you have a total income of $85,000 for the year. Here is where the reality catches up to you. Should you decide to go full time into music, you will invariably need to quit your day job completely at some point. Until you can recover and build your music career to higher and higher levels, you will be making $60,000 less per year than before! This kind of risk is uncomfortable to think about for most people (especially those who get married, have kids and/or have significant expenses), and keeps them trapped at their day jobs their whole lives.
What if you put extraordinary effort on nights and weekends into recording a great sounding CD with your band, spend a lot of time promoting it in hopes of getting signed by a record company and go on tour, and then you really get the opportunity to do a 10 week tour in another country in the world. It is VERY probable that you would NOT get paid a lot of money while on a first tour, but as a whole, this kind of tour is exactly the kind of breakthrough you have been searching for. What are you going to do? Are you going to turn down a huge opportunity to advance your music career? Or are you going to agree to take a huge cut in pay by quitting your day job to do the tour? I think you can agree that neither of these options sounds entirely appealing. Wouldn’t it be great to do the tour and not worry about how you are going to feed yourself (and your family) while you are gone? Now for a more subtle issue, but it is actually very important. If your most productive hours in the day are spent on the least productive activities, then reaching your goals will take MUCH longer than it needs to. Think about it: if you wake up at 6:00, get to work by 8:00 or 9:00 and spend 8-10 hours there, and another 1-2 hours commuting back home, by the time you are ready to begin working on your music career, you are already tired! This is also not taking into account the time taken up by other things in life that you have to tend to. It will take a truly extraordinary effort to get anything worthwhile accomplished during the time on nights and weekends, to build multiple streams of music related income that will enable you to quit your non-music related job without putting yourself and your family in financial struggle. Now that you see why this kind of backup plan isn’t as good as it seems to be, you may ask yourself what you should do instead. Well, having no backup plan is definitely NOT the solution. In order to build a successful music career, you need to be prepared and you cannot simply hope that “things will work out”. The underlying problem with the conventional backup plan I described is that it originates from thinking about how not “to lose”. This type of thinking lacks real ambition and it forces you to stick to that which is the most familiar and so called “safe and secure”. As a result, you typically end up with what you wish for: a familiar, average, safe and secure life. However, this attitude rarely leads to significant achievements, breakthroughs and victories in the music industry. What the most successful musicians do is arrange their backup plan or Plan B around their MUSIC CAREER GOALS (Plan A). This requires real ambition and courage, and it is based on thinking about how “to win”. This also requires you to think how you can integrate Plan B with your present and future life as a professional musician. There are many possibilities for truly effective “back up” (which are more like “support”) plans. In many cases, they involve designing systems and multiple income streams coming from music business sources that will support them continuously. It’s important to put a lot of thought into which kinds of “backup plans” and approaches are best suited to your specific goals. To find the right plan for you, there are two important things you need to do: First, study how the music business works (this is key!). Understanding it will greatly help you with designing the most effective strategy for reaching your goals in the fastest period of time. Building a successful, long term career takes a lot of focused effort and dedication. The more you understand about the music business, the easier it will be to design the kind of backup plan that will help you reach your goals instead of restricting and trapping you. Second, be careful about taking advice from people who may have great intentions, but lack knowledge and experience about how the music industry works. Very often, our friends and family, with the very best intentions at heart, attempt to give us advice on what to do to “make it”. However, if you pay attention, you will notice that this advice has a common theme, which is “here is what you must do in order not to lose”. Very rarely do you get advice about how “to win”! This mentality (as described above) keeps you away from taking steps that will propel your dreams forward.
To make matters worse, although your friends and family may have the best intentions in their heart, most of the time, they simply aren’t qualified to give advice about the music business. It will be similar to you asking your brother who is a plumber (for example) about how to cure a disease, or asking your uncle who is a carpenter (for example) about how to solve a legal problem. It doesn’t matter that these people have your best interest at heart. If they don’t know what they are talking about (in a particular subject), they are not likely to give helpful advice. If you truly want advice that works and if you want to learn the strategies of how to reach all of your music career goals, you need to find a mentor who you can rely on for effective advice. This means learning from someone who has already done what you want to do, and ideally someone who has trained many others to do the same. The most effective, predictable and safe strategies to “phasing in” your music career Now that you know about the problems with the conventional approaches to backup plans, I will show you the characteristics of a good backup plan (Plan B). Your plan must be flexible. This can mean many things. One of them is having the ability to “gradually” decrease the amount of time you spend working on Plan B and increase the time you invest into Plan A! This can also mean the ability to integrate (leverage) the skills acquired (or the results earned) from Plan B into Plan A. Your plan should be mostly passive: it will really help if your Plan B mostly consists of passive income streams that you have created by only investing the work once! It should be pretty obvious to see how this will free up a lot of time to dedicate to your Plan A! (your music career) The plan should be diversified: do not become so dependent on only one stream of income! Many people argue that a music career is not secure, when nothing could be further from the truth. Which do you think is more likely, that a company lays off an employee in the blink of an eye (cutting off his one and only source of income, the paycheck), or that a music teacher with 40 students (who essentially has at least 40 “diversified” income streams) will suddenly lose all of his clients overnight? By making your Plan B options diversified, you also build your own financial security, without depending on anyone else. I don’t know about you, but I feel much safer knowing that I am in control of my own future, rather than putting my faith into someone else’s idea of security. Plan B needs to make your primary goal (music career) MORE likely to occur! This also means (ideally), that the time you invest into developing skills and experience in Plan B can be easily used to enhance Plan A. For example, if you are known as an excellent guitar teacher, you can easily integrate teaching clinics and workshops with performances of your music, selling your future music CDs, other merchandise etc…etc… I hope that you can see now how this strategy is vastly different to the conventional wisdom of getting a day job, and then doing your best on evenings and weekends to launch a music career from scratch. As you design your own path to a successful music career, compare the steps you are taking against the criteria above and modify your strategy if necessary. This will help save you from the frustration felt by most of the ‘wannabe’ musicians, who realize (much too late) that their strategy leaves them no way to manifest their dreams.
