A career in music can be an extremely varied and rewarding path to follow. It gives you an opportunity to do something you really love and work alongside new, growing and famous artists. If you decide to work independently, you will have the opportunity to run your own business and be your own boss. You can also choose to work with a record label for a more secure role. You should be creative, be able to work independently, have good communication skills and a taste for successful music.
This field is extremely competitive, so you need to have something about you to make you stand out from the crowd. If you think that you have that special something and have decided that you want to build a music career, here are 6 things that you need to know before you get started.
Have a Plan Prepared
Before getting yourself into a music career, you should know where you will want to end up in the future. To get to the position you want to be at, you need to make sure that you fully understand the route you will have to take. There are many fields that fall within the music career category, so you should do your research to familiarize yourself with them to ensure you choose the right path. Setting goals and preparing a plan will stop you from wasting time on things that won’t help you.
Get a Day Job
Becoming successful in any job doesn’t happen overnight, and this especially applies to a career in music. Dropping everything you have and trying to live off your music career straight away is definitely not a smart idea unless you are financially well off or have a strong and stable back up. Having a day job isn’t something that should be looked down on, especially if you get music-related work at a venue, music school, music shop, etc. Even teaching music on the side can benefit you in the future.
Focus on Your Speed
As we all know, practice makes perfect, so you should be making music and improving your craft as much as you can. Speed is a huge factor that will help you stand out from the crowd and will turn the heads of music professionals. By speed, we mean how often you can release new music content consistently and how well you can engage your fans. Finding the balance between your creativity and business to produce great quality music can be challenging, but it has become the cost of entry.
Build a Home Studio
Setting up a studio at home will help you to perfect your music producing skills. It allows you to familiarize yourself with all of the equipment and when set up correctly, it gives you an opportunity to start an independent music career. There is a lot of different equipment you will need and there is plenty of choices. To find the right equipment for your home studio, this Musicauthority.org post is a good resource to compare and review equipment, in this case, studio monitors. If you have none if these equipments yet, you can start with a home studio desk and build from there. Nowadays, you do not have to large equipment to make great music, a lot of genres today are built with a laptop and a few other professional-grade devices.
Work with the Community
Your network will become your net worth. Many of us are familiar with the phrase, ‘it’s not what you know, it’s who you know.’ This phrase definitely applies to the music industry. Building relationships with people in your local community, as well as music scenes, is a great place to start. It will help you establish relationships with local artists and other people that are involved with music. Once you gain confidence, you can go into networking. Relationships are the key to success in the music business.
Establish Your Online Presence
There is a big difference between making music professionally and doing it as a hobby. Just like any profession, presenting yourself well is very important. If you have an amateur vibe, then people will assume that your music quality is low and won’t consider you worthy. The best way to make yourself look professional is by creating an online presence, through a website and a strong brand. Using methods of digital marketing will also get your name out there and develop online relationships.
Pursuing a music career isn’t easy. It takes a lot of work, commitment and practice, especially if you choose to work independently. However, once you get there, it will definitely be worth it. You just need to make sure you are prepared and work hard.