Tom Hess, I’ve always heard people say "get to know the people in the music industry! It’ll be a lot easier for you later." But where are these people??? I live next to a pretty big city (SF), I even live in the same town as Sammy Hagar, but I’ve never seen these people around. Help! How can I find and make music industry connections?

Tom Hess's Answer:

The music industry is pretty huge actually and there are people and companies all over the world in every city. Fact is, they are already around you whether you realize it or not.

But before you begin your pursuit of meeting these music industry contacts you need to fully understand that “getting to know” people and “building relationships” with people are two entirely different things (your focus should be on the latter). Many musicians make the mistake of thinking that if they “know lots of music industry people” or “know the right people” that opportunities will magically materialize. This could not be further from the truth, since the important people in the music business already know a lot of musicians. It is the musicians who have long term and fruitful relationships who will benefit the most in terms of opportunities for advancing their music career.

Read this music career article to learn more about where, how and with whom you can easily build important relationships with music industry contacts.
 

Learn more about how to build a music career.