If you are looking at starting a brand new career in music, you’re in the right place. You might not know where to start in the industry and even if you have a passion for music, it doesn’t mean that you will be able to get where you want to be right away. If you’ve been doing music for a while, you might consider getting more serious about it and starting your career is going to take some time. In the following article music experts from SoundCampaign shared some insightful tips on how to do it right and a secret sauce on how to escalate your career.
Whether your end goal is to sign with a music label or it’s to go ahead and learn to compose your own music, you should think about how you can break into the music industry and become something amazing while you do it. Signing with a label will help you to learn all that you can about being in the industry but it’ll also put you in control of your music career. You can get to know experts in music and build some contacts, and eventually upgrade to a headphone stand from Luckies when you build your music studio at home, too! You have the complete freedom to start your career in music and really make it count. Below, we’ve got fifteen tips for making your start count!
Keep your day job
That’s usually something that someone throws as an insult, but it’s not in this case. When you want to break into music, you need to make sure that you keep your day job that pays you a regular salary. You can still make sure that you make waves in the industry, but it’s easier to do this when you can support yourself. You can market yourself as a musician independently and even sign with a label, but you need to think about how you plan to pay your bills until you make it big.
Write down your goals
Do you love to sing? Are you great at playing an instrument? No matter what it is that you can do with music, you need to have goals for where you want to be as a result of your expertise. If you know where you want to go with your career, you’re going to be able to get there. A dream in your head becomes a list of goals and after that, it can be a plan that you make come true! You need to know what you want to be and where you want to go, so write it all down and start making plans to get where you want to go.
Remember, you are a brand
Your music career isn’t just a job that you want to do for the rest of your life. This is a brand that defines you. Being a music artist is a lot like starting a business anew and part of that process is learning how to make your passion something sustainable. The music you make is a product and your brand is something you can sell to others. This means that you need to learn a marketing strategy and identify where you want your music to go. You have to have a budget for your music expenses, too. You should also consider hiring a lawyer to work with you on music contracts. Those days you sat playing instruments and using brand new headphones you wished for will be something to build on!
Keep making music
One of the things that most budding musicians forget is that they have to keep improving and learning so that they hone their craft. Take extra classes and meet music moguls. Get a job in the industry in some way or another and continue to make your music, but no matter what you do, keep practicing and improving. Go to lessons and make sure that you know how to make your craft work for you.
Network
As a musician, you can get a foot in the door right away when you network and get into the community of music. Your network is going to be your golden ticket into areas of the music industry that would otherwise be hidden from you. If you know where to network, you’ll know who to talk to when you need to step up. You need to work on developing relationships with both big and small time musicians and that means that you have to have a lot of support around you to make yourself known in the industry.
Get online
Some of the most prominent musicians today are those who are on social media or who were discovered on social media. If you want to be known in the music industry, you need to get online and make a name for yourself. A YouTube channel is going to help you to get your brand out there and you can then share this on other social media platforms. TikTok, for example, has been responsible for some of the most well-known musicians these days. Think The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical and even Jessia! They wouldn’t exist if not for social media.
Establish who you are
Before you can get the attention of others, you need to put in the work establishing yourself as a brand. A good way to do that is to market your music to your intended audience and start making connections. You need to decide whether you are going to be static or fluid in your music and that will help you to define who you are as a musician.
Work on building some leverage
Some musicians start out with just one song that they put out there into the world and sometimes it takes just one song for a musician to be known. Getting your career going means giving people a taste of what you can do. You could put your music on Spotify and other streaming sites, too, and then let people discover you! It’s a great way to show others that you can offer value and this will get your name circulated in the music industry – exactly what you want!
Know the law
Music isn’t just something fun that you do as a hobby or a job. It’s full of rules and copyright laws are something that you really need to understand. Music is copyrighted once it’s created and recorded but if you don’t register your name with a copyright office, you can’t get the right protection for your amazing talent! It’s a little more complicated if you’re in a band, so make sure that you speak to a lawyer to help you out here.
Perform live where you can
If you can perform live online on a slot you create for yourself, you’re going to drum up interest in your music. You can also ensure that you go live in local clubs, pubs and hole-in-the-wall bars. You want to know that you can perform live and do it with some great feedback, and this will give you some experience of smaller crowds before you really go onto the larger ones! Find as many opportunities as possible for this to work for you.
Build a team
It can often help to have management involved with you if you are trying to make your mark in the music world. In fact, a team of people around you will ensure that you can take your music career to the top. Managers, a booking agent to get you gigs, stylists and a publicist can all help you to shape your music career. You can be independent here, or you can go with a label. Either way, you will need this team to make your music career work for you.
Learn how to distribute
If you want to make moves in the music world, it will help you to know how to distribute your music online. You know you can get on social media, but did you know about Amazon Music and Google Play? These two things will help you to get your music right out there in the world in no time at all. You can spread the word about who you are and learn what works for your particular type of music at the same time!
Learn about royalties
In music, there are different ways to make money and one of them is music royalties. You can earn these from your various streams. If someone streams your music, you get paid something called a royalty for the stream.
Be prepared
Being a musician isn’t something that happens overnight. You need to think about the fact that this is going to take some time. You might get some streams but that doesn’t mean that you’ll go big. You will get calls and you will grow in the music industry but only if you are prepared for it! You have to talk to experts and get to know what your next steps are going to be.
Be ready to invest in you
You are the brand, the talent and the musician. You will need money to build your career, pay a manager and learn how to stream your music. Even a small investment will help you to grow over time!
