Perhaps
even worse..."mom, dad, I'm skipping college because I want to go on tour
and try and get signed by a record label."
I
don't think I need to utilize too much of my imagination to figure out what
the response would be to those statements. And rightly so!
However...
Before
a young person of college age, or their parents, go off of the deep end, I
think its important that both parties truly understand what it is to actually
be a professional musician. A lot of misconceptions exist for either
argument of "for" or "against".
I
have been a full-time professional musician for 15 years now. I can say
that it is indeed possible to make a living as such. Though I must also
say that the obstacles are many, the work is hard, and the notion of
being an "artist" absolutely must go out of the window. The level of dedication and discipline needed also far exceeds any conventional career that I can think of off hand.
There
is a checklist of items that I like to make both the young people interested in
a career in today's entertainment industry and their parents aware of. And, if a single one
of the points about to be mentioned can't be followed or agreed to, then I personally say don't even bother becoming a professional musician, or a performer of any type for that
matter. The points are as follows:
- Major in business, minor in music. A solid foundation in business is crucial because you are instantly self employed as an artist. Also, some background in marketing concepts will prove extremely valuable.
- Practice your instrument like a maniac from the time you enter Junior High or High School through your first couple of years in college. Why? Because the need to network, establish yourself in the scene, and the time required to research venues and book gigs will eat up almost ALL of your free time. That's not even considering if you one day get married, buy a home, have kids, etc. I can promise you that, once those things happen, there will be NO time to do any meaningful practicing.
- Even though genres like pop, rock, r&b, etc. require that you are relatively young, and genres like classical, jazz, and folk allow for the performer to be older and still be looked upon as "viable", as a rule of thumb I would say that, if you haven't established yourself in your chosen genre by your late twenties, then cut your losses and pursue another career while you are still young enough to do so. This is because the older you get the more difficult it becomes to set aside the time needed to do all of the things needed to pursue a musical career. Life becomes more complicated as you get older, not less (a slight nod to condition number two).
- Build a volunteer team (family, friends, or dedicated fans) around you that can help with the many tasks that must be done. You will quickly find it nearly impossible to micro-manage EVERYTHING that you must take care of. Here are a few things: Research venues or performance leads, build network of musicians to play with or form a band, try to book gigs, come up with promotional material and marketing campaign game plan, come up with and modify career game plan, maintain website, maintain facebook page or other social networks you belong to, come up with repertoire or compose original music to perform, plan and put together your stage show, figure out your finances/investments both short and long term….I think you may get the picture (notice I didn't even mention practice your instrument yet!)
- Be willing to put aside having much of a social life in order to get all of the other things done that you need to.
- ALWAYS treat what you do as a business...period! If you don't think of yourself as being a business where you are the president, the worker, AND the product, then don't bother with this because you will join the ranks of "starving artists", who do it for the "love of it". I'm sorry, but I have yet to see the simple "love of it" pay my cell phone bill...just being honest.
After
doing all of that, is success guaranteed?
It depends on what YOUR definition of success is. If you are looking to make a respectable,
sustainable living, then I would say that would be very possible to
achieve. If you are looking to be the
next superstar, own a few homes, have a few million dollars in your bank
account, then no.
I
don't care to be a dream buster, but this is the reality of the situation in today's entertainment industry.
I personally have had a measure of
success. I would say my peak was
somewhere around late 2009. By then, my income
matched or exceeding that of many of my non musician friends. Then, after about 11 years of a steady
increase in my annual income, things went south...and rather quickly.
This
is partially because of the economic down turn that took place in 2008, but
also because of factors like the birth of my daughter, which was also in
2008. At the time, I had to stay home
and take care of her because my wife was a "9 to 5ver". I couldn't take care of my daughter during
the day AND do the things I needed to (I hadn't built a team that could help
with the work load...a reference to condition number 4). Since many of my performances are booked 6 - 12
months ahead of time, the effects of staying away from the telephones to book
gigs didn't really hit until around the third quarter of 2009.
Also,
I began to find it more difficult to find students that could afford my
rates. I went from a roster of about 30
private students up until about 2007, down to about 6 students by 2010. This was another example of how the economy
negatively affected what I do.
Between
my inability to make calls to book gigs while taking care of my daughter during
the day, and the economic downturn that resulted in less live performance
opportunities and students, it was only a matter of time for my income earning
ability to falter. If I didn't have to solely rely on myself to take care of every aspect of my business, I may have been able to absorb and adapt to my changing external conditions in a much more efficient manner.
Again,
only one of the conditions numbered above were not met and it ended in
financial ruin.
This
has been a longer post than I originally intended, but I hope what I have
shared proves of some value to someone out there.
By
Shenole Latimer
