Now, before we begin talking about the nitty-gritty side of marketing and the music business, you need to understand a few things about being an entrepreneur.
Becoming An Entrepreneur
Everyone claims to want to do what they love for a living. But when they have the opportunity to do it, they put it off because of their fears of failure. These are the more popular excuses I tend to come across:
“Oh, I can’t afford to invest that sort of money or time!”
Or
“Oh, I tried it, but after a month, I gave up because I didn’t make a sale!”
Whenever I see someone mouth those sorts of sentences, I have to stop my right hand from slapping them. People like that are so infuriating.
I like to help people who are trying to follow their dreams. But if that’s their excuse, I sigh. Why?
They are naïve, ignorant, and downright lazy.
If you’re one of those people and you feel you have no capacity to change, feel free to leave this page now. I want to help you but if you’re narrow minded; I can’t. If you believe (or at the very least hope) you can change, let me introduce you to the concept of taking risks.
You’re Taking A Risk Every Second
Everything has risk. When you put a pizza in the oven, there’s a risk you won’t enjoy it. There’s a risk you will let it go too crispy. There’s a risk it catches fire and burns your whole kitchen down.
Why do you expose yourself to such great risks? Are you mad!?
Of course you’re not.
You believe and trust yourself enough that the worst thing that’s going to happen is that you leave it cooking too long and it comes out a bit burnt. Big whoop! You don’t enjoy your pizza very much. Life goes on…
So why do you believe that starting a business doing what you love is such a big risk?
You make music and you want to sell it. What’s stopping you? Nothing and you’ve probably already tried. You released an album on Bandcamp at no cost to you. Maybe you were lucky and you made a sale or two… But it’s nothing you can live off.
You say to yourself excitedly, “I want to make a living from my music… What do I need to do? Expand!”
You look around. You put a few terms in to Google and you find yourself retreating like a dog with its tail in between its legs. It’s going to COST money to MAKE money. F*** CAPITALISM! Right?
But hang on a second…
Appease The Gods & Sacrifice
How much is it going to cost, say to start a website which in turn builds your fan base?
No more than a couple of nights out drinking with your friends. Or maybe, you ration that pizza a little. After all, you need to lose a few pounds. You’ll kill two birds with one stone that way.
(Eh? Get it? Stone? Weight?)
At the end of the day, how much will you lose if you fail? A few nights of your time and a bit of paper…
(Yes, $300 is a bit of paper. It shouldn’t own you.)
As long as you keep the roof over your head and pay your bills, losing that change in your pocket isn’t a big deal. It’s better investing that money in to a career you enjoy than it is being spent on booze.
What do you truly want: A successful business or a hangover?
Point Being
You shouldn’t be afraid of failure. You have to take risks to succeed. We’ve all failed before and it’s not nice. However, you shouldn’t let that stop you from following your dreams to find the path for your success.
You can sacrifice aspects of your life or you can try to balance your current life with your new business venture on top. The amount of risk you take is up to you.
Now I want to ask you a favour.
I want you to tell me what risks you take in your music career in the comment section. Also, if you’re new around here and enjoyed this post, be sure to sign up to the newsletter below. It’s FREE!
| [nsu_form] |
Thanks for reading,
Jordan
I’ve spent money on promoting my music but its always been in vain. Really its about going where your music will matter the most and being able to track the outcome of the fruits of your labor. You want to always (IF POSSIBLE) no where your money is going and know that what you created doesn’t fall on deaf ears made up by a scammer. 2.5k likes for $45? Save your money. Please. Fake promotion can only go so far. At 1st it sounds great but when you experience it you realize you’ve made a grave error. Especially when your money and time are at stake. Oh and FYI, I believe Twitter is teeming with them. Just saying.
You need to deal with established business minded formats. So reserve your cash for a three month campaign. This is what it will take to get the results that will add up in the end! You have to commit to your project and put up the money to fund your project. Something I wish I learned years ago when I realized that no established aggregating system will help you just because you have a hot product. FOR FREE. They need commitment (your money). The internet is no longer a test market. They need you to commit to yourself.
Arthur D, Progressive House/Electro House, Hip Hop Producer
“I’m a ranting, raving lunatic”.
Hey Arthur,
Thanks for the comment.
I definitely agree. You shouldn’t just take risks on things which aren’t going to work. It’s about learning how to construct a good plan. Something I will move in to in the future on this blog. It’s about utilising proven strategies which will get you the best results.
The idea of this post is that you have to spend money to make money. You must take risks, and sometimes you must sacrifice. This doesn’t take away from the fact there’s a lot of thought that needs to go in to your marketing campaigns.
You can’t just put a bunch of plants in your garden… You have to understand how they grow, in what conditions, and how you can trim them to create an appealing garden. I.e. You can’t just invest money and hope it gives you a return…
Thanks for the comment,
Jordan
I wouldn’t call it an investment because I have no expectations whatsoever. Not to be a pessimist but I don’t. I mean how can I possibly know if what I put out will be perceived well by the many? few? That’s why I say it’s a gamble at this point. Because at least then I’ll know that it can go either way. Just being a realist here lol. I have some great tunes. Truly. But again who’s to say it’ll blow up? Only time will tell because all this is a gamble.