Make the Right Goals
So you are an independent artist and you are ready to make a record. That’s great. there are a few questions that you should ask yourself first.
First of all, what is your goal? Maybe music is just an artistic outlet for you and your don’t care about gaining attention or fans. Maybe you want to make some extra cash playing out and promoting yourself locally. Maybe to want to do this full time and are interested in making a living with your music.
All of these approaches are completely valid, but you need to have the right expectations and knowledge about what it will take to meet that goal.
Lets break this down into these three main categories that most musicians fit into - Hobbyist, Part Time and Full Time.
Hobbyist
The hobbyist musician potentially has it the easiest. You can focus on making music you love, take as long as you want and share it with only the people you want to.
The downside is, without any fans or paying gigs, you’ll be paying for your record completely out of your own pocket, and if you’re fine with that, great.
The one thing I find even hobbyists get wrong is that they still have this little hope that maybe the right person will hear their music and somehow they will get famous. Let’s nip that in the bud. It won’t happen. There are between 40k-60k songs being uploaded to the streaming platforms EACH DAY. That is a sea of music that an artist who decides not to promote themselves will surely be lost in. On top of that, record labels today are looking for artists who have done the work to get noticed, and no one is being “discovered” like they used to be 30-50 years ago.
So if you are making music for yourself, be ok with that and don’t expect more.
Part Time
The part time musician is another great way to approach this. Many people have full time jobs, maybe a family that requires them to keep a 9-5. They use their free time to write music, rehearse and go out to play regular gigs around town. With consistency they can get well known locally, and build a great fanbase that supports them in lots of ways.
If this is what you have time for you should expect to stay in this lane. Your best bet is to use the time you have to promote yourself to promote your shows and music locally. Depending on your fanbase you can sell merch and maybe even do some crowdfunding to raise support. You shouldn't expect millions of streams or measure your success by it.
Full Time
The full time musician is doing it all. They spend their work hours promoting themselves online, nurturing their fanbase and making music regularly. They may even be putting out music every month or more. They are networking and always looking for shows that will get them more exposure. They pitch their music to playlists and online music outlets to try get heard as much as possible. You will find them on every streaming, video and social media service. They may be able to make a living doing it independently, or may be looking to get picked up by a label.
If this is what you want you should consider yourself to be starting a small business. It will require all the time energy and maybe even team that a business requires to be successful. You must be proactive, and in no way thinking that people will just find your music without you finding the ways to get in front of them.
Now, it is possible to graduate from one approach to another, if things are going well for you, its absolutely reasonable level up the kind of music career you have, just remember each of these has a different mindset, and stepping out of that lane could just be a waste of time and money for you.
This series will have tips that may or may not be applicable to you depending on what your goals are. I will be referring back to these approaches to help you along the way.
