A Pro Musician Answers Your Questions About Professional Music

[monster]

Originally Posted by smoothmoniker

Yep.

Craigslist.

I have multiple email alerts setup to comb CL for potential gigs. Whenever the words "keyboard piano organ composer arranger studio recording session" show up in an ad, I get sent an email.

so now we know how to bug you next time you're MIA from the cellar!

[smoothmoniker]

Originally Posted by monster

so now we know how to bug you next time you're MIA from the cellar!

exactly right!

[ZenGum]

Do professional musicians get laid a lot?


I mean hot groupies, not your wife.

[smoothmoniker]

Originally Posted by ZenGum

Do professional musicians get laid a lot?


I mean hot groupies, not your wife.

No, you're thinking of rock stars. I'm more like an accountant, who just happens to play keyboards instead of do taxes.

[Gravdigr]

Originally Posted by smoothmoniker

So, ask away.

Does the back of Ted Nugent's guitar smell like sweaty dick?

[smoothmoniker]

Undoubtedly.

And herpes.

[smoothmoniker]

Thanks, Flint. That's an excellent breakdown of the concept.

In time, as in pitch, perfect is not always the same thing as "right".

[ZenGum]

very well put, I thought; that tiny "imperfection" that makes it perfect, is what makes it art not science or engineering.

[Undertoad]

But this is the strange thing -- how far "micro off" you "need to be" is a matter of learned fashion, culture, trends.

Somebody told me that Neil Young, on one song, told everybody to switch instruments to something they didn't normally play.

In retaliation for all the highly auto-tuned pop, in which almost nothing is micro off, we have a new trend: jam bands, who are macro off.

[smoothmoniker]

That's why I only listen to Ornette Coleman.

[Undertoad]

10 years ago, anytime I talked to a younger artist, they all asked the same thing, "How do I get signed?"

Now, none of them ask that. They don't care. They all ask, "How can I make a living doing this"?

What do you tell them?

[smoothmoniker]

The biggest thing is to quit thinking like a tortured, pampered artist, and to start thinking like an entrepreneur. You are now a small business owner, and your music is your product. You face all of the same questions that all small business owner's face.

How do I make customers aware of my product?

How do I distribute it efficiently?

What are potential streams of revenue (merch, song licensing, albums sales, live shows, etc.)?

Where do people congregate who might be interested in my product? How do I reach them there?

How do I turn customers into evangelists, so that they sell my product for me? How do I make them feel included in the culture of my product?

I ask them if they think anybody ever launched a successful business by working at it 5 hours a week, then spending the rest of the time on the couch waiting for people to magically discover how awesome their product is? If they want to be a professional musician, I tell them to treat it like a profession. Spend 40+ hours per week on it, just like a real job. Put your money at risk, like you would with a real business.

The specifics of how to do all that are different for every artist, but the biggest thing that has to change is the mindset. Nothing is owed you, but everything is in reach for you.

[ZenGum]

So, how many of them look awfully disappointed when you explain all that to them?

What, work at it? Shrug, look away, slouch, wander off....

[smoothmoniker]

No, they all nod and agree vigorously.

But it's what they do when they get home that matters, and too many of them never bother to follow through.

[smoothmoniker]

I was part of a panel discussion yesterday on how to make a living in the music industry. The best comment of the evening came from one of the other panelists:

"There is a world of difference between what people say they want, and what they are willing to work their asses off to get."