What To Do After Your Band Breaks Up

Being in a band is just like being in any other relationship: the beginning is exciting and full of possibility, but at some point, you might realize that you and your bandmates just aren’t on the same page anymore.

Whether it’s a build-up of small annoyances or big creative differences, it can be extremely difficult to come to the decision that it’s best for your band to break up. This is especially true if you’ve been playing together for a long time and have deep personal connections with your bandmates.

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How Do Professional Bands Get Ready To Go On Tour?

It’s such an exciting experience for professional bands to get to a place where they’re able to go on tour. This means that it’s no longer a local garage band that only friends and family come to hear. Now, there are people in other states who want to hear the live version of the music. Not only is it a huge compliment, it’s also a huge accomplishment. Now, in order to adequately prepare for a multi-city tour, there are a few components to consider.

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Support Your Scene: The Benefits Of Participating In Your Local Music Scene

“Support your local music scene!”  

Whether you’re in a band, work for or own a venue, are in the business of promoting, or are content with simply supporting your favorite artists and musicians, you’ve probably heard the above admonition at least once in your life.  

And yes, supporting your local music scene is important. Even still, in 2018! Actually, it’s not just important—it’s essential. For bands, fans, and the community as a whole. 

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Financial Lifehacks For Musicians

To dedicate a good amount of your time, energy, and resources on music is to accept that the financial reward rarely even doubles the sacrifice you put in. If you want to take your music seriously — even as a serious hobby — this makes some of your personal expenses a little bit harder to come by.

Whether it’s food, travel, or healthcare and insurance, the musician life is not always an easy one. However, hard is not the same thing as impossible. Here are some basic life hacks for saving money as a musician.

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3 Things To Do If Your Job Doesn’t Match Your Music Career

What if your job isn’t flexible enough for you to take the next step in your music career? You’re going to have to find a way to make the band your priority. Only bands who truly want to bring their music to a wide audience will get there.

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10 Types Of Songwriter Jobs

This guest post by Evan Zwisler originally appeared on the Bandzoogle Blog

Songwriters have a special place in our culture. If you’re a songwriter, you’re not simply playing music, you’re imbuing our lives with a soundtrack that is evocative, thought provoking, and deeply meaningful.  

Most bands have a songwriter, or several, and most songwriters have been in a band before. But being a songwriter can be a more feasible career choice in the long run.

Here’s a look at some of the different types of job opportunities that are available to songwriters.

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How Much Do Top Musicians Make Compared To Average Jobs?

How much more do top musicians make compared to ordinary jobs? We mapped the incomes of the world’s 25 top paid musicians against average incomes. We discovered that a star like Diddy can make the average annual minimum wage in just over an hour!

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Fame Hurts - 5 Reasons Why

In the last couple of years, I’ve asked myself frequently the question if it’s possible that fame hurts. Usually when I’ve heard of another musician who died on an overdose of painkillers, like Tom Petty, Prince and Michael Jackson. This week I read that Lady Gaga is cancelling at least 10 dates if her worldwide tour because of severe pain, just like she did last year September.

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A Bunch Of Ways Musicians Are Actually Making Money (& One Way They’re Not!)

As a music producer, artist or musician (especially if you’re starting out) you’re probably wondering how it’s possible to take your passion and push it so you’re able to do it full-time, without having to worry about how you’re going to pay rent. How to make money from music?!

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15 Best Part-Time Jobs For Musicians

This post was written by Lisa Occhino and originally appeared on the Bandzoogle Blog

You were probably well aware when you decided to pursue music as a career that money wasn’t exactly going to start pouring in on day one. It’s no secret that until you’re able to earn a full-time living as a musician, you’ll need to supplement your income in some way.

The key is finding jobs that provide some financial stability, but also flexibility so you can still play gigs, rehearse, write, and go out on tour.

While having a side job that’s related to music is awesome for obvious reasons, many of the best jobs for musicians are actually in completely different fields, allowing you to dedicate all of your creative energy to your craft. The 15 jobs for musicians below are far from an exhaustive list, but use this as a starting place to see what jumps out at you or sparks an idea.

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The Proven Formula For Achieving Music Business Success

You are likely to struggle in your music career when you don’t follow a proven formula for success. Musicians who reach their goals faster than everyone else follow one formula in particular.

The formula successful musicians follow to achieve the highest levels of success is this:

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3 Reasons Why Your Music Career Fails Even When You Have A Lot Of Musical Talent

3 Reasons Why Your Music Career Fails Even When You Have A Lot Of Musical Talent

By Tom Hess

You must build your music career in many areas besides musical talent if you want to succeed. Here are the main reasons why musical talent isn’t enough:

1. You Don’t Know How The Music Industry Really Works

People call the music business a business for a reason. You become successful in your music career when you learn how to make yourself valuable as a potential business partner for others in this industry. This involves learning how to earn a great living from music alone so you don’t need to work full time at a non-music day job just to get by.

2. You Don’t Have A Way To Leave Your Day Job And Earn Money From Music

One of the most common music career traps you need to avoid is getting stuck working 40 hours per week at your day job while your music career slowly fades over time. To avoid the frustration and regret that comes with this, you need to learn how to create multiple sources of music-related income.

You don’t have to rely on a single paycheck to pay your bills when you earn money from many sources at once. When you understand how to make money from many sources in a passive manner, you gain both time AND money. This way you have more time to pursue musical projects and grow your music career.

3. You Take Advice From People Who Are Not Professional Musicians

You’ve no doubt received tons of music career advice from people who never made it in this business. Although these people mean well, it’s a very bad idea to follow the advice they give you. For instance, a lot of people say that working in the music business is a very unstable way to make a living. They tell you that you must go to college to get a degree as a backup plan. Following this advice only leads to you spending less time with music and more time in some other field (with added student loan debt).

Want to reach your music career goals faster? Read the concepts of this music industry article to learn how to stay away from the most common pitfalls that prevent musicians from succeeding.

About The Author:

Tom Hess is an online guitar teacher, recording artist and music career coach. As a music career coach, he helps musicians from many countries break into the music industry. On his music instruction website you can find out how to become a pro musician and learn how the music industry works.

3 Reasons Why Your Music Career Fails Even When You Have A Lot Of Musical Talent

Songwriting And Building A Sustainable Career

1. As a songwriter, what type of environment do you find you write the best in? What sorts of things or tools do you need around to be in the right headspace to write?

I have a home studio I work from, which can be both convenient and distracting. You basically never have to change out of your pj’s, although extremely comfortable, it can slow the process down. I actually love to write in new locations, i.e other people’s studios, writing spaces, in nature, etc. As far as tools go, another person is usually preferred  in the process for me. I thrive off of collaboration and other artists’ energy. Having a piano and guitars laying around is great too, as I write differently depending which instrument I have in hand. I used to rely on being inspired to write, but when you are trying to make it your path, you really have to become consistent and productive.

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3 Power Steps To Success In The Music Industry

Any aspiring musician is looking to get the most out of their career. A lot of the times, however, approaching the music industry is daunting to say the least. There is a quote by Hunter S. Thompson – “The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There’s also a negative side.” How exactly do we go about achieving success in such a doubtful industry?

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