Music Career Advice For A Beginner In The Music Industry
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If you want to build a music career...
But feel unsure of what it takes to become a professional musician...
... then in this music business article, I’ll share with you some of the best music career advice I ‘wish’ someone had given me when I was a beginner in the music industry.
Fact is...
... the main reason most people struggle to build a music career isn’t because the music business is all ‘that’ hard to become successful in.
It’s mostly because many try to become a professional musician completely ‘blind’.
As in:
Most people’s attempts to build a music career are the equivalent of a medical student learning how to treat people by trial and error, reading Wikipedia pages and watching YouTube videos.
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By submitting your info, you agree to send it to Tom Hess Music Corporation who will process and use it according to their privacy policy.
But if you take the music career advice below to heart...
...you’ll be one of the few who ‘actually’ manages to build a music career and become very successful.
Here are 5 of the most important pieces of music career advice I wish I’d known as a beginner in the music industry:
Now, let’s dive deeper into each point of this music career advice so you can go from being a beginner in the music industry to a successful pro – fast.
Music Career Advice #1 For A Beginner In The Music Industry: Don’t Waste Time Reinventing The Wheel.
Plenty of musicians have already reached the goals you have. Learn from what they did to ‘make it’... and learn from the mistakes made by musicians who failed.
The key lesson here is to not waste time.
Time is the most precious resource you have (when it comes to the music business and your life).
And too many musicians trying to make it in the music business waste time doing things the way they want (or wished) things worked.
A common example: contacting record companies for a record deal too early.
Just because you wrote some songs (or even recorded them) doesn't mean any record company will care.
They can find musicians with cool songs pretty much anywhere.
What they want is some sign that your music will sell if they sign you to a deal.
Show them how that’s going to happen with you and you’ll have their attention.
How?
The most failsafe way is to show them proof of specific things you’ve done (and continue to do) to build your career without their help (more on this below).
Point is:
This is exactly why you don't want to listen to advice of people who have never done anything significant in the music business.
Because their “music career advice” (even if it’s well-intentioned) is likely to either waste a ton of your time by sending you chasing down shiny objects that don’t help you become a professional musician...
Or get you to do things that make it impossible to build a music career. (e.g. getting a day job that limits the amount of time and energy you have to put into your music business goals.)
Music Career Advice #2 For A Beginner In The Music Industry: Think Long-Term.
If you’re not sure how an action will help you reach your long-term music career goal – you’re better off not doing it. Instead, spend that time figuring out what ‘will’ help you hit your goal, so you can focus on the things that move the needle.
Too many musicians jump around from thing to thing, trying a little of this and a little of that, distracting themselves with “tactics” that are divorced from strategy and not based on success principles.
Most think only about tactics.
Here is a common example of where a beginner in the music industry may make this mistake:
Someone (who wants to become a professional musician and build a music career) takes a gig that pays good money, but misses an opportunity to build their mailing list (because the venue disallows capturing of music fan contact info or promotion of your website).
My music career advice would be this:
It doesn’t matter how much the venue is willing to pay, turn down the gig and move on.
If you need the money, get a job. (Or, better yet, start teaching music to improve your financial situation in the music business.)
In this example, the music business tactic of playing such a gig is divorced from the strategy of (building your fanbase) and principle (ensuring that YOU control, maintain, grow and nurture that list).
Best Way To Start A Music CareerLearn the specific steps to take to begin a successful career in music.
The Truth About Making It In Music Discover multiple ways of how you
can have a successful music career.
How To Make Connections In MusicLearn how to REALLY build helpful relationships in the music industry.
Here is a key piece of music career advice:
See everything you do in the music business in this order:
- Principle
- Strategy
- Tactics
Never deviate from this order – ever.
Here is an example of how to build a music career by doing things in the right order:
A band (or a musician who is a beginner in the music industry) decides to build a list of fans it owns and controls. This is an example of following a principle of a successful career in the music business.
The band then strategically only takes opportunities (e.g. gigs) that allow it to build that list.
In this example, the band would happily take the gig for any amount of money, no money at all or even PAY its own money to secure the gig.
Why?
Because the band knows that building the list will make it WAY more money and allow it to climb from being a beginner in the music industry to becoming a very successful pro-level band.
(By the way, if you want some help with getting gigs when you’re just a beginner in the music industry, this eGuide gives you awesome music career advice on how to get all the gigs you can handle.)
And this music career advice applies to becoming successful in every area of life – it’s not just for those who want to become a professional musician.
Don’t believe me?
Music Career Advice #3 For A Beginner In The Music Industry: Be Polite And Respectful To Everyone You Meet In The Industry.
You never know which low-level person will someday go from a “nobody” to someone with real power to help your career.
Conversely...
When you work with (or for) musicians who are already in power to help you become a professional musician more quickly, always go the extra mile.
Don’t be afraid to do things that exceed what you’re expected (or paid) to do, for the simple reason that almost nobody else will.
This helps you stand out among all your competitors and achieve the level of success most would be professionals in the music business can only dream about.
This music business video explains how to do it in more detail.
Music Career Advice #4 For A Beginner In The Music Industry: Have A Problem-Solving Mindset.
There is a solution to every problem you face in your music career. Somebody, somewhere knows exactly what to do, how to do it and the order in which it should be done. Find out who that person is and listen to them.
The fastest, best place to find that is through a music career mentor who has:
1. Achieved the success you want in the music business (i.e. they have become a professional musician)
2. Has coached other people achieve the same success you are after as a beginner in the music industry
Music Career Advice #5 For A Beginner In The Music Industry: Invest Money Into Your Music Career To Create Opportunities For Yourself And Stand Out Among The Majority Of Musicians Who Don’t.
Pay for your music career education, the same way you’d pay for education to become a lawyer, a doctor or an engineer. This is the fastest way to get where you want to go.
If you want to be a lawyer, you have to invest time and money to go to law school.
If you want to be a doctor, same thing. If you want to start a business, you may not need to go to school, but you will be investing startup money (and a lot of it) to succeed.
This doesn't mean you ‘can’t’ build a music career by figuring things out on your own and trial and error.
It simply means:
- It’s almost certainly will be a heck of a lot harder and take many times longer.
- Plus, this approach makes you look like every other musician who took the “easy” route.
This makes it much harder to stand out when it comes to securing the opportunities you want, such as: getting into a band you want and/or getting a record deal.
Think about it:
Why would a record company invest into helping you build a music career when YOU are not willing to do that for yourself? Does that make any sense?
Bottom line: there’s no such thing as a free lunch.
If you’re not willing to invest money into your music career, you’re probably better off changing careers and getting a job doing something else.
Otherwise, the simplest, fastest and (in the long-run) the cheapest alternative is to get a music business mentor and pay them to get you where you want to go.
Now that you know how to move past being a beginner in the music industry, let me show you how to get a lot more gigs and make a great living as a performing musician. I show you how in my free eGuide How To Get More Gigs & Earn more Money Playing Live. Download it today and discover the music business secrets most musicians will never know.
Discover what it really takes to succeed in the music business.
