If you play an instrument or have a great singing voice, you might’ve considered a career as a musician. As appealing as this is, it’s a pipedream for many people. That’s because most people don’t know what they’re doing when it comes to actually turning their passion into a career.
If you’re in this position, you’ll need to know how to start your career as a musician and lead it the right way. That shouldn’t have to be so overwhelming, but it will take a bit of work. Using five top steps when you’re starting out are more than helpful with this. They’ll get you on the right track, and you should see yourself getting more and more successful.
How To Start Your Career As A Musician: 5 Top Steps
1. Take An Entrepreneurial Mindset
Your musical career doesn’t just focus on making music. You’ll need to see it as a business, as it often works exactly like one. By being as entrepreneurial as possible, you can more carefully make decisions that affect your future career. Consider it a way of looking at your music career to make it as successful as possible.
Having a version of a business plan that outlines your goals, vision, and other areas is helpful with this. It lets you carefully plan out what you need to do and take the steps you need to get there. With the right planning, you’ll be better able to see success in the future.
2. Invest In Yourself
Speaking of taking an entrepreneurial mindset, you’ll need to invest in yourself to succeed. That means making sure you have the right equipment to record and play gigs with. Ranging from looping pedals and microphones to the instruments you’ll actually play, there are more than a few things you should buy.
These all help your songs sound as amazing as you want them to. Even a few music lessons wouldn’t go amiss, as long as it actually benefits how you perform.
3. Develop Contacts
Even if your music is amazing, you still mightn’t be able to launch a successful music career unless you know the right people. You’ll have to go out of your way to develop contacts with other professionals in the industry. Ranging from other musicians to producers and even agents, you should network as much as possible.
While cultivating these relationships mightn’t pay off straight away, they should in the long-term. They’ll let you find potential opportunities and develop your career much more. It’s more than worth putting the effort into it, as it helps to get the word out about your music.
4. Get Selling
No matter how good your music is, you’ll need to sell yourself to make a living as a musician. There’ll be multiple people to do this with, ranging from agents to festival organizers and more. While these could be flocking to you once you’re popular enough, you’ll need to sell yourself to them at the start.
Building up your sales skills is vital to this. Show them what you can add to a gig or festival, such as how many potential customers you’ll draw in because of your music. By selling yourself often and following through on everything, you’ll build up a reputation, and people will start coming to you.
Even selling online is needed for this.
5. Use Budgeting
You’ll need to look at your musical career as a business, so you’ll need to look after its finances. You’ll have to implement a budgeting strategy to make sure you’re actually making money from your career. While that could mean making some sacrifices now, it’ll pay off dividends in the long-term.
You’ll have to understand your income and expenses when you’re doing this. When you’re playing a gig, for example, you’ll get paid a certain amount. While that could be appealing at the start, consider any agent’s fees and the costs associated with getting there. Once these are deducted, is it really as high as you’d want? If not, consider tightening your budget a little.
