Posts Tagged ‘successful musician’

Is Making Music For Yourself An Effective Business Strategy?

Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010

by Shaun Letang

rockin' guitar player

If you’ve been in the music game for any length of time, you may have realised one thing: Having talent doesn’t guarantee a successful music career. Talent is a necessary factor in become successful, yet two people with identical talent can end up in very different places, one playing bedroom sets, the other playing sell out tours.

There are many different reasons why this could happen, not all of which we’ll look at here. But one thing we will look at it this, whether you should be making music for your own personal enjoyment, or if you should be making it for others enjoyment. The way you approach this question will determine the path you take during your music career, so it’s important to choose wisely.

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A person who makes music for them self doesn’t listen to feedback, but instead sticks to what they prefer. A person making music for others however, listens to feedback and adapts their style accordingly. They do this without straying too far from a style they are comfortable making, so are benefiting both the listener and the maker. Which do you think sounds like the better option?

bee playing flute

DJs are a good example of this. It’s a DJ’s job to play to the audience rather then playing to their own personal taste. They don’t turn up to jobs playing what they want, they play what their audience want to hear. If they’re playing a certain type of music and they see the crowd aren’t appreciating it and look bored, they’ll play a different type until the crowd are enjoying themselves. Doing anything less will mean they don’t go down very well.

While this is less obvious in other areas of the music industry, the same thing pretty much goes on. If you don’t make music people want to hear, you won’t go very far. You can enjoy the music you make all you want, but if no one else does, you won’t make any sales.

the band

Fans are the people that will make or break your career, so you need to appeal to them first and foremost.

Now I’m not saying you should ‘sell out’ or make music you don’t like, but within the type of music you enjoy making, you need to appeal to as many people as possible. Doing any less will most certainly hinder how far you take your music, so remember to get regular feedback from the people that pay your wages: The audience!

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About the Author:

Shaun Letang is the founder of the Independent Music Advice website, a website giving music advice to anyone wanting to learn the business side of things. One of our latest topics looks at how independent an independent musician should be.

Article Courtesy of: Go Articles

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