Do you know that 7 out of 10 musicians fail in their first year in the music industry?
Wow! That’s a staggering report right?
It’s a good thing you’re still reading this post, it shows you are more determined than ever to achieve your goals of having a successful career in the music industry and, you have the tenacity needed to become a successful musician.
The life of a successful musician is surreal.
It’s a special feeling when you look back and think to yourself “I finally made it!”, I am successful! but growing a real music business to that level of success, that level where you need to build a world class team of managers, trainers, lawyers, to manage your business, is a very intentional journey.
There are many moving parts to building a successful music career but unfortunately, many artists focus on a very tiny aspect of the business. They think that all it takes is to make a hit song, shoot a great music video, promote the music for about 3 weeks and BOOM!!! you are a star with millions of fans falling over themselves to get to you.
Wow! how nice.
I hate to break it to you “SUPER STAR” but there’s a whole lot more to running a well functioning music business than just the music.
There’s quality branding to think about, there’s marketing to think about, there’s sales and so many more nuances to consider.
The point of this post is to highlight some of the common mistakes that many artistes make so you can avoid making the same mistakes or to help you fix them if you’re already making these mistakes.
1. Not treating your music as a business
We understand that you are very passionate about your music, you want to make hit songs, you want to entertain millions of fans, you want to become famous, drive the best cars, live in mansions, travel the world; well, the truth is you must be willing to do the work it takes to get the results you seek. You need to understand that getting the results you desire takes a level of work and commitment to achieve. If you run your music like its just a hobby, a very expensive hubby, you will only get the results that hobbyists get. To truly excel, you must treat your music as a business. Put structures in place that will enable exponential growth and sustainability.
2. Not constantly developing yourself
Running a music business is a self leadership role. If you don’t take yourself seriously, how will your fans convert to paid transactions? How will you build a thriving business and the life of your dreams? The foundation of every successful career is strong self leadership. You have to get crystal clear with what you want and follow a solid roadmap to achieve your goal.
3. Not understanding your finances
Superstar, do you even understand the importance of financial education? Do you have a clear business model and the financial plan to run it successfully? Producing great music, videos and content for social media are all great moves to make but you must also get financial education to help you with building a lasting career in the music industry.
4. Not building systems
Super star, are you taking advantage of available resources to build your brand? are you studying the patterns of successful artistes and applying them to your music business? The truth is, success leaves clues and the clues usually display a pattern. your job is to look out for successful patterns and build systems around them that will ensure your own success.
5. Not building good habits
Super star, the obvious trend in the music industry is to build bad health, wealth and relationship habits and make them look cool while indulging in them but can you dare to be different? you have the potential to become a great influence but how will you use this power? will you dare to build good habits and make them look cool? remember you can only be as wealthy as your health allows… think about it