It's no secret that most musicians fail in their attempt to establish a fullfiling career that allows them to support themselves. A lot of them end up getting unfulfilling jobs to pay the bills while keeping music as a weekend activity. A lot of them just quit music altoghether. Everybody has their theories and their point of view about this subject and a lot of discussion has taken place on the Internet about it. In this article I explain my particular opinions on the matter and the seven reasons why I think that musicians themselves are to blame for their lack of success.
1. They Have a Childish Mentality
When you're in high school being in a band is fun. You get to jam with your friends, perform at parties and school festivals and receive the attention of the ladies (and/or lads). Not a lot of thought goes into the financial aspects of being a working musician; you just do it because it's a lot of fun. But, as with everything, one day childhood and adolescence come to an end and you need to face the harsh realities of being a risponsible adult.
This is where most musicians fail. They never make the necessary mental transition from what it was just a youthful passion into a career that can not only give them all the creative satisfaction they want but support them and their future (or present) families.They just keep going with the hope that maybe someday someone will "discover" them and all their dreams will become true. After a while, their youthful idealism fades away, but instead of talking serious measures to bring their careers to the heights that they expected, they resort to blaming the world for their problems. Much like a child would.
2. They don't look at it as a business
Most succesful modern musicians out there have one thing in common: they look at their career as a business. Is not that they've "sold out" and given up creative integrity in exchange of wordly rewards, it's that they care enough about their music and their career as musicians that they have decided to take control of it.
Business oriented people don't blame the world for the lack of opportunities available, they create opportunities for themselves. They don't sit around waiting someone who will come into their lives and organize their business for them, they learn the skills necessary to organize and run their own business. And, once they've done that, they reach out to other players in their field for partnership and alliances.
This takes a good deal of planning, learning, strategizing, accounting, market research, networking, marketing, etc. It's not all fun and games, it takes courage and determination to start a business, in music and otherwise.
3. They take no risks
How many classical musicians do you know that decide to mix a violin with an electronic beat? How many jazz pianists who partner up with a rapper? How many heavy metal guitarists who write and produce an EDM tune? Many musicians find it very difficult to leave their confort zone. After all, it's so cozy in there! Many musicians claim that they stick to what they know and like because it is what drove them to be a musician in the first place. It would just feel wrong to "betray" their roots. But how do they know it? Did they try and fail? How are they so sure that it wouldn't bring them an incredible amount of satisfaction to create something completely new?
It's incredible how many musicians are very far to what it would be considered a "creative type". And succeding in business and in music is all about creativity. I'm not saying that extreme experimental music is the key to success. I'm saying that being closed minded about other genres, musicians and business practices is a prerequisite to be a relevant artist on this day and age.
4. They Don't Have a Strategy
Having a strategy is fundamental to succeed in any sort of business. You must know exactly what you want, what steps need to be taken in order to get it and allocate time and resources to work on those steps. A solid strategy is the foundation on which you build your career because if it's not there, everything you do is just hit and miss. Without strategy you're like a dog chasing cars on the road without knowing what you would do if you actually catched it...
A lot of musicians do take action with the intention of getting things that they consider that would be beneficial to them. They send their CDs to radio stations, they book gigs, they start a Facebook page, etc. But this isolated actions are just not enough to provide you with the sense of purpose you need in order to stay motivated and that a strong strategy will give you. Find out what is it that you want and develop a detailed strategy to get it.
5. They Produce Sub Par Music
This point will probably be the most controversial. No one likes to be told that their job is not good enough. But the truth is that not everything that's being put out there by musicians is good enough no impress an extremely sofisticated audienced that is constantly being bombarded with new music.
Nowadays production costs are lower than ever, which makes it easy for artists to produce and release material fairly easily. A few decades back this was not the case. Recording was an expensive process that mostly could only be afforded by major record labels. If one of the musicians made a mistake during the recording it wasn't as simple as it is today to just edit that mistake out. An error would mean that the song needed to be recorded again, and magnetic tape could get expensive.
All of this factors made it necessary for musicians to be extremely proficient at playing their instruments and for bands to be extremely well rehearsed and prepared for recording sessions. Nowadays this is no longer a necessity and sadly a lot of the musicians out there are just not good enough.
Is inportant that musicians consider all the available music out there -past and present- before they decide to release new material. What's the point of releasing an album if is not going to at least compete with the best available releases in terms of songwriting, production and execution?
6. They Don't Invest In Marketing
Musicians have a hard time investing in something other than gear. A lot of musicians fetishise instruments and care more about their guitar collection than they do about investing in their careers. Many of them just don't like the idea of spending money on marketing because it feels too much like a business to them. It distracts them from their romanticized image of themselves, so to speak.
There are many cost effective ways of reaching out to potential fans to turn them into paying costumers. And you do need people buying your products (ticket sales, CDs, digital downloads, merchandising, etc.) in order to sustain your business. Facebook advertising is only one of the mirriad of options available for musicians to reach out to people. There's also Instagram, YouTube and many others (including Steemit). There are dozens of resources out there that teach you how to master this ads platforms or even done-for-you marketing services that you can invest in if you don't wanna do it yourself. Invest in your business!
7. They don't offer value to the people who are most likely to help them
We all need help to get to places. Nobody can make it alone in this world and the music business is no exeption. You will need to reach out to people in the industry and convince them that, among all the other acts sending them demos every week, you are their smart choice.
There's two things that you need to do in order to get their favor. The first one is to treat them like people. The truth is that industry people receive a lot music from aspiring artists and a lot of it is pretty good. So, how do they choose which to reject and which one to endorse? They go with the people they like. It's only natural. If you can provide people with opportunities, wouldn't you choose your friends and family first? Off course you would! You care about them and you want to see them succeed. If you treat these industry people like they're your enemy they're not going to promote your work. Befriend them on social media, find their emails and just engage them. Be nice to them, tell them how much you like their work. And when you've established a sort of relation with them you can "mention" that you have a demo, mix tape or album that you would like them to hear.
The second thing you must do is to provide value to them. You need to show them that you're a professional and that you're willing to invest your work, your time and your talent to establish a mutually profitable relationship in the long term. The best way to do this is to do as much of the work yourself prior to reaching out to them. They wanna see that you already have an audience and that you've been working hard for your project. This will show them that you mean business and will increase the chance of them investing in you.