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

Truth Bomb

What is the HARDEST part of the music business? #HardQuestions

I’ve been thinking a lot about how to make sharing information about the music business easier to follow, and easier to understand. And while I probably shouldn’t, because if an artist REALLY wants this, he or she will put in the necessary time and commitment to learn how to do this correctly. I mean, shit, I learned–I taught my damn self. I didn’t have a ‘me’ to make it easier.

Click to read more ...

10 Things Artists Must Have To Succeed Today In The Music Business

There are many things an artist must have to succeed, and then there are a few things that will make life easier. Today, I am focusing on the necessities. We all know the music business is currently changing, but there have always been changes in the music industry. How we adapt to those changes determines our outlook and success. Perhaps I’m used to change because I’m from the rap world, which was new to music in the 1980s and rap just began making money for the labels heavily in the 1990s–so it’s a relatively new art form. Today, independent rap artists can build successful careers that feed themselves and their families without having to sign to a major record label. Here’s what is needed for that to happen, for rappers and for all artists and musicians looking to build a successful career:

Click to read more ...

Human Music Interaction

In my now part-time day job as a professor at Birmingham City University, I wrote an article on the research centre’s blog, in which I referred to a new field of research that I’m helping develop. It bridges computer science, cultural studies, media theory, musicology, medicine, psychology, sociology and more. That probably takes a little explaining. Interdisciplinarity is not, in itself, a field of research.

Click to read more ...

How To Reach Out To Industry Execs

Every now and then, I go on an open mic binge and discover new little spots and new artists honing their craft. There was this one girl who was absolutely amazing. I told her what I did and she started asking questions. Our conversation came around to how one can get the right exposure and further their career. I shared with her a lot of things, but one of them was about reaching out to industry insiders and building a professional network that will help propel her career forward. It’s not enough to play live. You have to also work hard at building your professional network in the music industry. Finding contact info is easy. There are directories and registries out there you can buy. However, there are some realities concerning industry people that you have to understand before you reach out to them. Or else, you’ll only annoy and alienate them. Here are those realities.

Click to read more ...

Dear Rock Stars...

2010 is - rather tragically - shaping up to be the year when Rock Stars (and old-industry millionaires) complain about the state of music on behalf of ‘the little people’.

Here are three examples: Peter Waterman, in an interview with The Times, said that Spotify was a terrible thing. It, he says

“devalue[s] our artists, they damage this country economically, culturally and morally”

Why’s that then, Pete?

“The big stars are a tiny percentage; the rest are broke, including a lot of well-known faces. Who is developing new talent? Without money, new acts are strangled before they mature. We all suffer.”

This, from the man who made a multi-million pound career of writing and producing ‘hits’ for soap stars

Click to read more ...

Transformative Vs Incremental Change

OK, I’m going to try and explain why Big Music genuinely doesn’t get what’s happening with the online stuff. It’s easy to dismiss the thoughts coming out about ‘3 Strikes Laws’, and Bit Torrent being to blame for the death of musicians’ livelihoods etc. as being a bunch of really rich people want to keep their massive piece of the pie - and there is some of that, for sure. But there’s also an entire way of thinking that explains why they feel the way they do. 

The problem is to do with the difference in response required between transformative change, and incremental change. 

Sticking with the music industry, let’s have a look at some examples of both, starting with incremental change:

Click to read more ...

Keeping with a plan and when it is the right time to change plans

It takes a lot of patience, professionalism and effort to put together a good plan of action, whether it’s a business plan or an attack plan when it comes to your career. It takes tens times as much when it comes to following through with that plan. All too often artists, and even business people, will set up a great plan, but then slack on it, cut corners, change it without a solid reason or just go in an entirely different direction. Much of the time, this results in failure because a hodge podge of unorganized and erratic work leads to problems.

Click to read more ...