I'm gonna' hit this one straight on the nose. The business that you are wanting to be in - most artists that do music, will never have a business that makes money.
It will be a hobby and it will be something that they enjoy doing. But it will never be profitable.
Look at it like this
You grow up as a kid playing some kind of sport because you love it. Let's say soccer.
But remember that 99.9% of the kids that play soccer will never actually get paid for playing soccer. They just do it because they love it.
In terms of music?
In my experience, there are too many artists that are putting way too much pressure on themselves mentally when they are just not good enough.
And I say that respectfully.
I don't mean not good enough to play at a local club and make a few bucks. Or not good enough to put music out on the internet. Or not good enough to build a small audience and make a couple of dollars here or there.
But they are simply not good enough to compete with the best in the world!
And the reason that they are not good enough to compete with the best in the world - a lot of the times has NOTHING to do with the music!
Instead, it has everything to do with mindset.
Because the best in the world treats their music like a business!
Treat your music like a business
Again, the best in the world treats their music like a business. This means the best artists in the world:
- Create the best possible product to put out into the marketplace
- Understand who their market is
- Hire a team of legal, accounting and marketing professionals
- Are constantly adapting to the changes in the business as advised by their above team of professionals
- Aren't afraid to spend money to hire the right people and get the job done
From this, you can see that the independent artist who tries to hold onto everything and tries to do everything themselves "on the cheap" will never be able to compete with the best and biggest artists in the world.
This is just the facts.
If you don't have a team of professionals and the mindset to treat the music as a business then you must be content and be OK with just putting out music that people love. Don't keep beating yourself up because things aren't happening for you!
Making money in the music business
Before you start making money in the music business you will have to spend some time reaching out to the likes of managers, publishers, labels and other industry reps. These folk are going to want to see that you are:
- A business
- Having some level of success (and it doesn't have to be massive!)
- A professional
This is because at a foundational level, music industry insiders are looking for a small business to invest in! Believe me, they are not into the "start-up" craze!
Right now, labels have departments full of people that are scouring the internet. They are looking to see who has songs that are popping on DSPs (digital streaming platforms) and they are looking to see artists who have videos that are going "viral".
If you are not on that list, then they are not looking for you yet.
If you want to get seen by a record company, then give them a reason and create your own business!
There are ways that you can do this, but you have to be ready to work.
You have to be ready to invest in yourself.
And you have to be ready to treat yourself like a business!
I've been there before and I truly live and breath your passion and your world!
You can contact us for a 30 minute meeting so we can learn about you, your goals, your passion and your purpose and how we can put it all together for you into a business plan so that you can be ready to compete with the biggest musicians in the world.