How To Get More Music Gigs In The Music Industry
Recently, I met up for dinner with a successful professional musician (friend of mine) and the conversation turned to how to get more music gigs.
And my friend told me about these 2 blues clubs in a tourist-heavy area of his city where many professional musicians are trying to grow their careers in the music business
Both clubs are across the street from one another.
Both have live music seven nights a week.
Club A offers bands a $120 payout per gig (as music career income for the whole band).
Club B attracts more upscale customers (because they have more expensive food), but offers bands no guaranteed money.
Instead, the band could keep 100% of the door charge.
What do you think:
Which club are most musicians fighting to get into as they try to get more music gigs?
Club B - where you can potentially make 7-8 times as much money at the door (if you work to get a crowd)? The one with upscale clients (some of whom may later help the band get more music gigs via corporate & private shows)?
Or Club A - that guarantees any band a few bucks for the absolute minimum effort?
If you said Club B, you are…
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In the minority of the music business :(
Why?
As my friend said:
“Most (wannabe) professional musicians avoid the place (Club B) because of no guaranteed $$. But they trip over themselves to get into the sh*thole across the street as they try to get more music gigs.
They just can't see any possibilities past the few dollars they KNOW they can put in their pocket from a guaranteed payout in the music industry.”
This story is a microcosm of the music business.
Where most musicians whine & complain how nobody pays them enough and nobody gives them opportunities.
While club owners, promoters and record company executives sit scratching their heads and face-palming themselves, wondering:
“Where the heck is any professional musician with even an ounce of ambition and common sense?
“Where is any professional musician who can see opportunities past their nose as they try to get more music gigs?”
“Where is anyone who understands how the music industry works & can think like a business person?”
And here is the thing:
It’s not the job of the music industry to teach musicians how to play the music business game (e.g. how to get more music gigs).
Any more than it is a hospital’s job to teach their doctors how to do surgery… or an airline’s job to teach their pilots how to fly a plane.
(Doctors and pilots get training BEFORE applying for jobs (duh!). )
But on the flip side:
All this is VERY good news for anyone serious about making it in the music industry and building a thriving music career.
Because it means the amount of real competition you have in the music industry is very low. For all their heart-piercing rhetoric of how much music means to them…
… most musicians suddenly have the ambition of a sloth on 3 hits of valium when it’s time for action in their music careers (like, for example, buckling down to learn how the music industry works).
And anyone with real desire can easily catapult themselves light years ahead of other musicians and build a music career most only dream about.
To learn even more about how to get more music gigs, check out this music career article.
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