Well, the short answer to this is Yes. However, the long answer is Yes, and in some aspects, No.

 

Overall, yes, you should be operating your music career like it’s a business. However, music is still an Art form, and the creation of it should not be approached with a blindly, cut and dry business view, it should be much more of a balanced approach. Otherwise you end up making music that you aren’t exactly proud of, because you thought that it “Might Sell”.

 

Most importantly though, it should be viewed as a Long-Term Business Investment. It takes time to build a career, and you need to understand that.

 

Why don’t we break it down?

 

Businesses Require Investments of Time AND Money

 

If your approach to ANY business has you penny pinching, and doing everything the “free” way, you are not giving yourself the best chance of success.

 

You don’t want to spend recklessly, but you have to be willing to put in time, money and grind to make it work for you. The same is 100% true for building a career in music, whether as artist, producer, manager, songwriter or otherwise.

 

Sure, if you are an artist, you can record all your albums at home. I mean, after all, can’t you just learn everything you need to know on YouTube?

 

Well, perhaps, but don’t you think that someone who has the right skills, experience, knowledge, and equipment, would get you a better result? You must of course choose wisely, but if your music really means that much to you, you owe it to yourself to save up the money you need and work with a real, seasoned producer, in a professional studio. I recommend that you DO record at home, but those should be your demos. It should be the way that you prepare, so you can go into the studio knowing exactly what you want, with room for improvement and guidance from the producer.

 

Since you will not have some kind of magic, instant income from your music, you are going to need funding. It is also more than likely, that you don’t have a rich uncle who is happy to hand you thousands of dollars “no questions asked”. The only answer for this is to GET A JOB, maybe 2 jobs, and start a “Music Fund” savings account, in which you place at least 15% (preferably more) of every dollar you make. Give the account some time to bulk up while you are spending all your free time practicing, writing, and learning. Then, when it is time to move forward with a plan, promote a release, or get in the right studio, with the right producer, you will have some money to spend, and you can press onward.

 

Businesses Continually Work To Improve

 

Growth and Improvement are truly the pillars of any business, and the same is true for your music career. If you are consistently working to improve your skills and abilities around the music that you create or are involved in creating, and you make that an integral part of your muscle memory, you may very well end up putting your career on a runaway freight train, heading straight for your goals and dreams.

 

You should be studying, learning, and practicing constantly. There really are no excuses, and you must find a way to hold yourself accountable. This is something that should be a part of your life forever, period.

 

Businesses Operate On A Schedule

 

Businesses run on schedules to maximize productivity. If you implement the same mentality into your workload, you will find it becomes more manageable, resulting in a sustained growth, that compounds over time.

 

Any time i take on a client that wants to grow and develop their talent, and they don’t know where to start, I always require a “One Day per week” commitment for at least 6 months. This way we lock into a routine of consistent work, that is sustainable. Always having a week in between each session, allows for reflection on what was done, and preparation for what is next. I even gravitate toward the “one day per week” schedule for any project that requires a great deal of work. Come in once a week, and we can chip away at this mountain of work. Before you know it, it will be done, and ready for the next phase.

 

You can also apply this to your promotion and social media strategy. Set aside a certain amount of time each day, or every other day, to put together content for your various social media accounts, and to be active with that account, in your community. If you are consistent with this, you will see results. If you use the idea of a schedule in regards to your social media, people will start to see that you are active at certain times, and become accustomed to interacting with you based on that schedule. Regardless of that though, keeping a schedule will help you stay active, and that is one of the most important things in regards to social media.

 

Businesses Lean On Strengths

 

Any good business, will find, cultivate, and exploit its strong points, and the strong talents and skills of everyone involved. They will find the weak points, and remove them from the equation, or at least simply not focus on them.

 

If you are constantly concerning yourself with all the things you can’t do, or the resources you don’t have, you are preventing yourself from seeing the possibilities that exist surrounding the areas of your talent, abilities and resources that you have in abundance.

 

Focus on what you CAN do well, and what you DO have, and work on improving and growing in those areas. That may even lead you to growth in all the weak areas, but getting hung up on what you don’t have, or can’t do, will only get you stuck in the mud, with your wheels turning, going absolutely nowhere.

 

Businesses Make Plans

 

Any good and successful business will take the time to prepare a plan, before implementing it. This part is crucial to your career.

 

I see too many music makers operating on a whim, without any plan. Then when no one seems to care about the music they put out, they get upset and discouraged. However, if they had taken out time to make a plan for the release in advance, they may have seen a much better result.

 

The plan for any release, should have many layers. It should involve marketing and promotional strategies, performances, both immediate and long term strategies, as well as a plan for what’s next. This plan should include a budget. Meaning yes, you should spend money on this.

 

And Yes, I am well aware that plans change. But if you have a plan in place, you can simply adjust and refine the plan as you go, rather than flailing about with no clear direction.

 

Businesses Spend Time Developing Products

 

Good, solid, long lasting companies, will always spend the time (in some cases, years) to create and test a product before putting it out to the public. This should be true for your music as well.

 

Just because you recorded a song last night, doesn’t mean that its ready to be released. The first time you record something is usually not the best, especially if you had just written it. You should revisit it in a few days and see how you can refine it. I will in some cases have people do 4 or 5 versions of a song on different days, before we find where it needs to be. You absolutely NEED to take the focus of your workflow OFF of Quantity, and put it on QUALITY. There are plenty of ways to create content for your fans in the meantime- Freestyle videos, live streaming from studio sessions, quick freestyle/short songs over free beats from YouTube, jam session videos from rehearsal. I could go on and on, but you should by now get the idea.

 

The most iconic albums were not made overnight. They were crafted over a period of time, and that was part of the driving force that made them so great. Please take the time to make your music into something special.

 

Conclusion

 

The bottom line, is that your music career really is a business. While the artistic aspects of it, must be held close to the vest, and remain true, you could greatly benefit from transitioning the way you approach your career, into that of how an entrepreneur would approach their business.

 

I would suggest revisiting and rereading this post several times. Not only because I may add points to it over time as they come to me, but because it may allow you to take a good hard look at what you have been doing, and take notes on how you could restrategize, and reformulate your approach, to overhaul, and revitalize your career.

 

Best of luck to you on your journey. Please feel free to contact me with any questions you may have.