"Make Money With Your Music"
|
Music Publishers |
If you want to make a living making music, there are some habits that you need to develop to be successful. Developing these will help you be a better musician and find your place in the highly competitive world of entertainment.
First, you want to find ways to get music lovers to love your music. Not everyone has what it takes to get to the top. Testing your music out on the people who will actually listen to it will help you find your niche and promote yourself. If people love it, they will tell their friends.
Second, play live as much as you can, even if it is for free. While money is important, your fans can tell the difference from the artist in it for the art and the one that is in it for the money. You probably will have to have a second job during your early career days. Take your music to the streets if need be -- no job is too small. As you play live, you will earn fans, and as you earn fans, you will find yourself with more paying gigs.
Third, know everything about your instrument that you can. Make sure your talent is not just good, it is great. The same thing goes if you are a singer -- constantly strive for perfection and practice, practice, practice!
Copyright your work. This investment now will pay off big later. If you have your own unique style of music, then learn the basics of copyright protection and file for it. Make your promotions pop! There are plenty of books and online resources on creating effective promotional materials. Make sure that yours stick out above the rest and offer plenty of information. Then take the time to look into who needs to be seeing this material, and what they like to see, and get it to them.
If you were starting a new job, chances are you would want to know some things about the company. The same thing goes for the record labels. While a record deal is exciting, you want to make sure that you sign with a company that is really going to help you go the distance for you and your band. Take time to research the company, read over the contract, and go with your gut feelings.
Get yourself and Entertainment Law Attorney. When it comes down to the nitty-gritty of the fine print, it will always be your lawyer with the label's lawyer hashing out the details. You will not be present during these negotiations, so find yourself and good attorney that you can trust with your career.
Next, get yourself a personal manager that is connected and respected. While you can manage yourself in the early stages of your career, if you are successful there will be a time where the day to day business tasks are going to be too time consuming. Never pay a flat fee upfront for a manager -- the good ones will negotiate for a percentage of the business transactions.
Be careful who you listen to. The only opinions that you should be interested in are the people who actually have been there and know what they are talking about. Lastly, get yourself informed on the business of making music. Not understand the process will not be an excuse if you get scammed or ripped off. Being informed will help you to make better business and financial decisions and get your career off to a running start.
**********************************************************************
Brian Cook is a freelance writer whose articles on music and songwriting have appeared on many websites.
You can find more of these at SongwritersGuide.com.
**********************************************************************