What "Entrepreneurship" Really Means For Musicians, Part 3: Looking Towards The Future

In the first two parts of this series of brief articles on entrepreneurial musicianship, I provided a definition of entrepreneurship, and a model for critical reflection to practice entrepreneurial musicianship. In this final installment of the series, I am going to begin to discuss how we can apply this rethinking to our planning for the future, and why looking towards the future is one of our fundamental responsibilities as artists and arts leaders. This discussion will open from two major viewpoints—the artistic, and the business—then culminate in a synthesis of how these two viewpoints relate to one another, through the principles of the new economy.

Click to read more ...

What "Entrepreneurship" Really Means For Musicians, Part 1: Rethinking Entrepreneurial Musicianship

We are fortunate to live in a time where we have an incalculable amount of information at our fingertips. “How do I distribute my music?” “How do royalties work?” “Why won’t Logic save my volume levels?” Just about any problem can be solved when a musician knows what questions to ask. However, when it comes to bigger questions about artistic and business growth and direction, it can become hard to find the next step. There are many resources for artists that cover the topic of entrepreneurship, but they are often near-sighted or just blatantly covering a topic other than entrepreneurship altogether—such as how to gain Facebook followers, or how to make a killer set list. My aim with this series of three brief articles is to clarify what entrepreneurship actually means, and hopefully empower artists towards harnessing their natural—or unnatural—entrepreneurial spirit to make change in their world(s).

Click to read more ...