Being an independent musician can be very rewarding, but also very challenging. Without a record company behind you, you have a lot more work to do yourself. It can be difficult to know where to start. Here are 9 best strategies for success in a career as an independent musician.
By Team Savant
Image: Clem Onojeghuo
Never Stop Networking
You should be trying to meet new people all the time, and working on developing maintaining relationships in the industry. You never know who you might meet, or who someone you meet will know. You also can’t predict who might move into a position that could influence your career. The more connections that you can build, the more people who might be able to help you along the way.
Don’t Take Yourself Too Seriously
Remember that you don’t have to be perfect all the time. Nobody wants to spend time around someone who can’t take a joke or laugh at themselves. Know that you will make mistakes sometimes, as will everyone else. Of course, you can do your best to avoid making mistakes, but when they do happen, try to learn from them, and then move on. In a similar vein, try not to let success go to your head. Don’t take yourself too seriously.
Establish and Dominate Your Brand
Make it obvious what you want to be known for or known as. If you ignore this, the public is bound to create your brand for you. It’s always better for your reputation to be something that you choose for yourself and are proud of, whether that’s playing a certain kind of music, or including a certain instrument, such as MK Pro low D whistle, in your music. Come up with a tagline that sums you up. Once you’ve found your brand, work hard to dominate it. Your brand can be anything.
Be and Stay Easy To Find
Make it easy for people to find you, listen to your music, buy your music, and get in touch with you. Once you have set up your contact information, don’t change it. This is very important. You might do something that generates a lot of attention for your music, but if people can’t find you, that attention won’t do you any good. If someone wants to book you for a gig, but they can’t find any way to contact you, you’ll miss out on the gig. If someone wants to buy your music, but they can’t find it on their platform of choice, such as Bandcamp, iTunes, or Amazon, you will miss out on the sale. The best way to make it easy for people to find you is to set up a good website, with the name you perform under as the domain name. Reserve your domain name for ten years at a time so you don’t risk losing it. Make your email address easy too, by having it as something like yourname@yourwebsite.com. Set up social networks in the same name that you perform under.
Choose Your Team Wisely
Your team is everyone you work with, including your band members, your booking agent, manager, attorney, business manager, sound and lighting techs, or anyone else involved with your business. Choose these people wisely, and make sure that everyone has your best interests at heart. It’s also a really good idea to work with people smarter than you that you can learn from, or people who are better singers or musicians, so you can work to catch them up.
Choose Your Company Wisely
You will be known for the company that you keep. If you hang out with people with a bad reputation, people are likely to apply the same reputation to you. The press can easily turn the poor actions of your friends or bandmates into something that ruins your own reputation too, even if you weren’t involved in the incident. Choose your company carefully. People who aren’t positive or encouraging will drag you down too. The music business is hard to be in any way, without people around you who don’t believe in you and don’t encourage you to succeed.
Protect Yourself Legally
Don’t be tempted to cut costs by acting as your own attorney. Make sure every contract is reviewed by your lawyer before you sign anything. Protect your intellectual property by registering your songs with the US copyright office. Trademark your band name, your logo, and your tagline. Get your attorney to negotiate your deals for you. Hire someone who is an experienced entertainment attorney, not someone with experience in a different area of the law.
Manage Your Money Wisely
There be times when you’re doing brilliantly, and other times that are much quieter. You might release one CD that performs well but have the next one flop. A gig miht be cancelcedd. You might get ill and have to take time off. Many things can go wrong, so create a budget and stick to it. If you can, hire an experienced business manager to help you.
Keep Up With The Trends That Affect You or Your Fans
These might include trends in music, fashion, merchandise, the economy and more. These trends will also include the way that your audience demographics find new music, how their income might be changing, and more. There is no easier way to lose momentum in your music career than to get left behind in the trends. However, take care not to become something that you’re not, just because something is fashionable. You will need to know where you fit and where you don’t. Venues tend to change with the times in order to stay in business, and so will you. Be aware of how your core base of fans might be changing, and find ways to keep them and keep up with them for sa long as you can. Don’t give them a reason to move on to another musician. Go where your audience is, instead of trying to win over people who aren’t interested in you or your music.