For Musicians, College Is The Great Dilemma

When it comes to making music your full-time thing, it’s just as much about drive and who you know as it is anything else. If you have the drive to play every day, you play every day; if you have the drive to tirelessly promote online and book shows for your band, you do it; if you want to record until your songs are captured perfectly for the listener, you record; if you want to put together a great press package and submit to record labels — you get the point. 

If music is all about drive and passion, college seem ancillary. It’s like recommended reading. Great to get some context, but not absolutely necessary.    

I would argue that college does offer something extremely valuable for musicians: experience.

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Struggling In A Traveling Band? Try Remote Work

Touring is one of the funnest things about being in a band. But too often, bands mistake touring for an excuse to party. When my former band, The Kitchen, toured down the West Coast in an ‘87 Dodge Prospector that was ready to die, and we mostly partied and ate out a lot and put thousands of dollars on a credit card, I learned the hard way. Looking back practically hurts my brain (and my wallet). When you’re funding your own tour/party-on-wheels, and big payouts aren’t guaranteed at venues, you end up literally paying the price in the long run. 

Now there’s this thing called remote work. I wish I’d thought of it back then. About 53 million Americans are independent contractors, and nearly 40 percent of them rate flexibility as a top benefit. You could become a digital nomad: working during the day and playing shows at night. Goodbye tour debt, hello sustainable music life.

 

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How To Make A Great Website For Your Band

Look at any full-time, legitimate band. What’s the difference between them and a minor band? They have a website. Here’s how to build a great one.

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Top 4 Easy Ways For Your Band To Go Green

Nope, I’m not talking about covering Green Day, nor am I talking about terrible nausea that turns you green and—you know what happens next. I know you know what I’m talking about. It can be incredibly hard for a band to prioritize environmentally-friendly band life. You have to think about getting along with each other, actually putting out good music, booking your next gig, and staying sane. No small task. But still, if you’re in this for the long haul, you don’t want to be that band: the one showing no consideration for anything but your oh-so-basic band activities. Your band will feel a whole lot better if you do something besides care about yourselves.

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Top 7 Money Tips for Bands Touring Abroad

Whether you like it or not, when you’re touring, selling merch, and making gig money, your band is a business—a limited liability corporation (LLC), if you choose to register that way. As such, it pays to think about how you’re going to manage the business, particularly if you’re touring abroad. Granted, a manager can do this for you—but you have to pay her, don’t you? Why not handle this stuff yourself? 

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Going Mobile: 4 Great Ways Your Band Can Save Money On The Road

Three words on the first-time DIY tour experience: exhilarating, difficult, and rewarding. Sandwiched between the positives – between the thrill and the sense of accomplishment – there’s the reality of what it takes to get it done. If you don’t understand DIY is going to be difficult, you’re coming at your first tour with expectations akin to fantasy.

When my band embarked on a three-week West Coast tour three years ago, we had no idea what we were doing. We weren’t rich, but we didn’t even look at advice on inexpensive touring. And we were at each other’s throats. But we survived. I’m here now to impart some of what I learned to you, so you don’t make some of the same money mistakes we did. I can just hear you now, saying, “Thanks, Dad.” 

You’re welcome.

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How To Not (Or, How To) End Up In The 27 Club

It was very romantic. In March of 1971, infamously hard-drinking and hard-drugging frontman for The Doors, Jim Morrison, went to live with his girlfriend in her Paris apartment. He took long walks by himself in the most romantic city on Earth. He surveyed the haunts that Arthur Rimbaud, his poetic idol, had frequented, and went to see the poet’s grave. He gazed out at the Seine and thought about what it would be like to be no one. But then, three months after his arrival in the city, his girlfriend found him dead in the bathtub. She said it was a heroin overdose. The official cause of death was apparently heart failure.

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How To Sell Merch Like A Boss

Don’t get stuck with a bunch of burned disks you can’t sell. The more options you have for getting rid of merch, the more likely you are to sell stuff. Here are some easy options to help you sell merch like a boss.

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