8 Proven Rules For Making It In The Music Business
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In this music career article...
I share with you 8 proven rules every musician needs to know about making it in the music business.
If you want to become a pro musician, there is good news and bad news:
The bad news is:
Making it in the music business (and building a music career) is not as easy or as straightforward as following the traditional career route most people take.
(e.g. getting a day job and working that job for 40+ years until retirement.)
But the good news?
With the right guidance on how to become a pro musician...
Just about anyone can reach their goal of making it in the music business...
And you can do that no matter where you live, how old you are or whether or not you have a music degree.
EMAIL TO GET ACCESS
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.
Here are the 8 proven rules for making it in the music business:
Rule #1 Of How To Become A Pro Musician: Don’t Take Advice From Anyone Who Has No Business Offering It
When it comes to advice on making it in the music business…
The best advice comes from those who have been where you are, tried many things, failed at most and eventually broke through.
Unfortunately, few people manage this in the music industry… but many people love to give their 'two cents' of advice about it.
The majority may mean well, but are simply clueless about how to become a pro musician.
While some may be trying to make themselves feel good about their own failures to get into the music industry (or get ahead in life) at your expense.
A simple question to ask yourself when deciding to take someone's advice (or not) is: "do I want their life?" If the answer is no – think twice.
Rule #2 Of How To Become A Pro Musician: Surround Yourself With The Right People
There was a study done at Stockholm University that followed children from the 1950s to adulthood. It found that children from low-income families who had even one rich friend earned more as adults than their peers who didn't.
And I find this to be true in all areas of life where you want to excel… like for example building a career in the music industry.
One of the best ways to speed up your progress towards making it in the music business is to surround yourself with people who are either further ahead in their music careers… or like-minded people who are on the same mission as you are.
You need people who inspire you, support you, share ideas with you and challenge your thinking (when needed) to keep you on track towards your goals.
This will motivate you to build your music career much faster.
Rule #3 Of How To Become A Pro Musician: Your Ego Is Worth (Literally) Nothing.
Don't let your ego become inflated after you have some success. Musicians with big egos rarely last long in the music business and rarely build successful careers.
What does it mean to have a 'big ego'?
Here are some examples:
1. Thinking that you're owed success because you're a great player. (You're not.)
2. Feeling like you're entitled to a bigger opportunity just because you've had some success earlier in your music career. (Again – you're not.)
3. Wasting money on useless crap once you have some success (instead of saving or investing that money to grow your career further).
4. Or conversely, feeling somehow cheated if other musicians you work with didn't struggle like you did before they became successful.
These are all examples of ego getting in the way of focusing on what matters when it comes to getting ahead in the music industry.
Bottom line: nobody cares about your ego (or mine). If you're serious about making in the music business, find out the exact steps that go into becoming successful – and do them. (A proven music career mentor – one who has helped lots of musicians build successful careers in the music industry – can help you a lot there.)
Rule #4 Of How To Become A Pro Musician: Do Not Waste Your Time
Time is the only asset we all have the same amount of. Many people waste it, some people spend it, only a few people invest it. Invest your time wisely to build your career faster.
Pro tip: Hire someone to do low-level tasks that take up time and energy but don’t move you towards your goals (e.g. cutting your lawn, taking your car for oil changes, fixing stuff around the house, etc.)
If you struggle to wrap your head around paying someone to win back your time (or you fear that this is a reckless waste of money), remember that you buy things every day. Buying back your time is no different. Plus, it allows you to stack the odds of music industry success in your favor and speeds up the process of reaching your goals.
Rule #5 Of How To Become A Pro Musician: Don't Be Lazy. Get To Work.
Nobody is going to build your music career for you. If you want to become a pro musician in the music business, you must do what successful people do and what success requires.
And becoming successful in the music industry requires quite a bit more than just good musical skills.
On top of being skilled at your instrument (and/or as a songwriter), you need to develop music business-related skills, like negotiation, sales, marketing, copywriting, and management, to name just a few.
The more skills you have, the more valuable you become. And that lets you leverage your skills to achieve great success in the music business.
Watch this video (about what it takes to become a pro musician) that explains how:
Rule #6 Of How To Become A Pro Musician: Be (More) Assertive
To some extent, making it in music is a numbers game. Work on your skills and build value, but learn to follow up on opportunities you want to be part of and believe you're qualified to get.
Question: "Tom Hess, how do I know if I'm qualified for the music business opportunities I want?"
Answer: There is no way to answer this question without knowing the exact music business opportunity you are applying for. That said, if we took 'getting a record deal' as an example of a common music career goal, here are the 22 qualifications record companies will look for in you:
Rule #7 Of How To Become A Pro Musician: Music Can't Be Just Your Hobby
To become a pro musician, you cannot just play (or write) music for fun. Many aspects of building your career will feel like (and be) actual work. But they allow you to live the dream and make your music career possible.
Rule #8 Of How To Become A Pro Musician: Be Determined
Even if you're doing all the right things to build your career, becoming a pro musician doesn't happen overnight. Think long-term and don't get discouraged if success takes longer than you'd like.
That said, you'll have a much easier time building your music career if you don't rely on trial and error. Find a mentor to guide you.
Here are 12 awesome benefits of having a music business mentor:
1. A great mentor helps you develop a success mindset - a crucial aspect of what you need to make it in the music business.
2. A great mentor guides you to become who you must become to have the greatest chance to succeed in the music industry.
3. A great mentor teaches you how to think like a successful person to navigate all the challenges and take the right actions in the proper order and at the right time.
4. A great mentor helps you avoid all the common mistakes musicians often make as they enter the music business.
5. A great mentor lays out a road map for every stage of your journey in the music business.
6. A great mentor can often see far beyond the horizon in ways that an inexperienced musician cannot yet see.
7. A great mentor has relationships and access to people and companies that you do not. Those relationships can be worth their weight in gold to you.
8. A great mentor helps you not only do the right things in your career, but do them in the right order (the order matters a lot!)
9. A great mentor helps you to not get frustrated when things don’t go your way and persevere where most would give up.
10. A great mentor helps you spot solutions to problems you likely wouldn’t think of on your own.
11. A great mentor likely knows a lot of (success-minded) musicians with whom you can collaborate and possibly start a band.
12. A great mentor can give you unbiased expert feedback on your music career plans in ways no one else can.
And no, you don’t have to get mentoring from me. Get it from whomever you want and from whomever you trust. But you should know that I've helped many, many musicians build full-time successful music careers and live the dream most musicians only envy.
Now that you know the 8 proven rules for making it in the music business, I want to show you how to get more gigs, so you can make more money playing live and grow your career much faster. I show you how in my free eGuide: Gigs On Command. Download it today and discover how to get far more gigs at any club in your city, even if nobody has ever heard of you or your band.
Learn how to make it in music by getting music career mentoring.
