Simple Growth Hacks That Are Necessary For Building A Solid Music Career

As the great Louis Armstrong once said, “Musicians don’t retire; they stop when there’s no more music in them.” Despite the challenges of the industry, you should never stop trying to find ways to keep making good music and growing your career.

My take on this topic is not just based on inspirational quotes and fancy sayings. It comes from having been involved in music as a marketer and entrepreneur.

Over the past few years, I have worn several hats on the business side of music, from managing upcoming artists to starting companies. My experience has given me an insider’s perspective into how different people approach their careers and the little things some people do differently (or don’t do), which sometimes makes the difference.

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Why Musicians SHOULD Want To Earn As Much Money As Possible

By Tom Hess

Do you believe that when you finally make money with music you’ll be all set? Wrong! Making some money through music is nice, but you won’t be able to really fulfill your potential until you make a lot of money in this business.

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Creating Small Goals For Maximum Success In 2017

Are you looking towards the end of 2016 and wondering why you didn’t achieve more? Why didn’t your band get signed to a label? Why didn’t you get added to a major music festival? Why didn’t more fans support your music?

When you look at goals from a large-scale point of view and evaluate how you did on your quest to achieve them, it’s easy to get discouraged. It’s easy to say, “What’s the point anyway?” Big-picture goals are fantastic and it’s important to dream big, but sometimes you need to take a step back to look at ways to create forward momentum.

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The 5 Worst Things About Being A Musician Around The Holidays

You might have noticed it’s December and everyone is full of cheer.  But the winter holidays aren’t just about decorations and egg nog.  When you’re a musician, there are also some pretty annoying sides to this time of year.  Here’s our rundown of your worst holiday moments as a musician.

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Six Fun Jobs To Consider If You Have A Passion For Music

One thing many people have a great passion for is music. However, you don’t have to limit music to your hobby. There are actually many very well paying jobs that allow a person to user their love of music to make a living. Having a music career doesn’t have to be a pipe dream. You can make it a reality. Below are six great examples of music careers.

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Why Nothing Compares To Prince

There’s always been a notion that if we could emulate the lives of those we admire, then our lives would have the same outcomes as theirs – talented, successful, rich, famous, happy, whatever. That, of course, explains all the “Seven Secrets of…..” books and the popularity of biographies as treasure maps to our desired fortunes. Although the lives of successful music artists fall into that same category and there are certainly crafts and skills to be mastered, there are two areas that cannot be duplicated, which are, unfortunately, the two most important things required for success – artistry and luck. Which is why nothing compares to Prince. His was the perfect storm of skills, artistry and luck.

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8 People Who Can Help Your Music Career Right Now

This article originally appeared on the Sonicbids Blog

You know the story: one fateful night at the local music hot spot, an up-and-coming local band is playing a show to a packed house. The place is going wild when suddenly, the crowd parts as a hot-shot record executive strolls in. The band plays their last song and starts packing when, out of nowhere, a sweaty, diamond-ring-encrusted hand is thrust into the face of the lead guitarist. It’s the hot-shot record executive, and he wants to offer the band a record deal. It could happen to you, right?

Don’t count on it!

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101 Things To Do In 2016 To Improve Your Music Career

You could call these New Year’s Resolutions if you wanted to, but then you’d stop doing them after two weeks, along with the diet and exercise resolutions already on the list. Think that through.

Assuming that you are really intent on doing something meaningful about your music career this year, you could implement these somewhat random and relatively straightforward but not necessarily simple tasks. OR you could just keep on doing things the way you’ve been doing them. But you need to stop and ask yourself at this juncture: How’s that working out?

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How To Be Yourself In The Music Industry

People are so weird. Last week, I was at this amazing barbecue restaurant and the table next me to opens up their bags, pulls out some ribs, and asks the waiter: “Uh excuse me, can we get some plates? We brought our own food.” WHY WOULD YOU BRING YOUR OWN FOOD TO A RESTAURANT After I wondered how this …

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5 Rewarding Careers to Explore With a Music Degree

While many people dream of becoming a musician, most people assume there are limited career options. However, there are actually many exciting jobs available to music degree graduates. Below introduces five rewarding careers available to those with a music degree.

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The Most Underrated Things in a Musician’s Career

A few weeks ago, I posted about The Most overrated Things in a Musician’s Career. Due to some requests, I’ve decided to write about the most underrated things that we often don’t think about or use to the fullest extent. Like my previous article, there are a number of things that depend some time or commitment. However, unlike the “overrated” list, these are all things that you can probably never have too much of.

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Resume? Resume? I Don't Need No Stinking Resume

Well, of course you do, but aim to have a boatload of material so you don’t have just your resume to show prospective employers. And then, during your first job, find time to do your own thing, by any means necessary, so that you don’t really need that resume after that. I landed the second job of my career with the film production house, Second Story Television without any resume at all. That was because I started that company with a few friends after gleaning enough experience and connections from working at a small film production company/ad agency based on the famed Madison Avenue in NYC. And jobs after SST were mostly pulled in from my network of friends. That’s the key and the underlying thought behind this bloggette: building your career, yourself, again, by any means necessary.

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Getting Into Songwriting w/ Triple Platinum Songwriter Drew Lawrence

Over the last three years the career growth of one musician in particular has been extremely fun to watch. Los Angeles based songwriter, Drew Lawrence has balanced music, life, family, and bills to build a sustainable career in music over that span. A classically trained Pianist and graduate of Berklee College of Music, Drew has a career record that includes gigging around LA, a few west coast and US tours, teaching music lessons to families in Beverly Hills and a more recent focus in songwriting for heavy hitters like Christina Perri, Kelly Clarkson and a ton of up and comers.

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The Indie Artist Launch Plan - Part TWO

Welcome Back!

So in part one of the Indie Artist Launch Plan we addressed what seem to be the two major problems as well as the importance of BUILDING  a solid foundation.

The importance of creating the structure - built of the right habits, the right people, and the right attitude are the fundamental building blocks to the success of an Indie Artist Career today.

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