Is a Musician Career the Path for You?

The musician career path, while not an easy route to follow, offers you a way to make music and get paid for it.

You could choose to become a music performer, recording artist, composer or producer. You could perform solo, or with a band, orchestra or choir. You could also find work in theaters and churches as a musician.

Being a professional musician ...

First you need to cultivate discipline to take the steps needed to become a good musician. The better you play your instrument the more work you'll get, so learn as much as you can about music and your instrument or be prepared for the next musician to take your gig.

You get work and build a name for yourself as a musician mainly through word of mouth so you want to be nice, trustworthy, sober (at least while you work!), honest, approachable, friendly and most importantly, on time.

I suggest you have a good system in place such as the one provided by David Allen in his book "Getting Things Done" to make sure you stay on top of your commitments to yourself and others.

You can and should have a web site which allows you to sell your music and promote your services to a larger audience. You can then use social networks online and other web sites to draw attention to your web site, music and services.

Music money matters ...

You can imagine that the musician's salary can vary widely and can often be unstable.

This causes some to go down the starving musician route while others take part-time or full-time jobs, often at the expense of their music career growth.

I therefore advise you and all others who want to make their own music to follow what I call the Renegade Route as a way to create money for your music and income for your life expenses, and more time for your music in the long run.

Your support net as a musician...

Your own friends and family can play a vital role in your musician career as they will most likely support you in many different ways, be it financial, emotionally or just with a good conversation when you need one.

You may want to seek out musician communities online and various specialized music forums where you can find answers and post your own questions.

Musician friends will understand your musician career better than most so make contact and keep in touch with them. They can give you valuable feedback about the music you create.

You'll also create a tribe of supporters around your music who will spend money on your music and shows. This same tribe of supporters will often also contain talented members who'd be glad to help out with other skills and services where they can.

You also want to look at musician insurance for your health and instrument cover.

Conclusion...

The musician career path may not be the easiest of ways to earn a living though I would nominate it for one of most fulfilling.

Those moments when music works provide you with what can be called a feeling of transcendence which goes way beyond what words can describe.

Lack of money, time and support may be challenges for you to overcome should you wish to pursue a career as a musician and succeed.

Advances in music technology and the world wide web means it will however only get cheaper and easier to overcome the above challenges and create the musician career and income you want.

So, make use of what you have and...

...make good music!

All the best,
Marius van Dyk

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