If you’re one of those people lucky enough to be given the gift of musical talent and you’re ready to share it with the world, you’ve come to the right place. Back in the day, it was an uphill battle for musicians who were trying to get their work out there and establish a fan base. Luckily, with today’s modern technology, things are much easier. So, without further ado, here are 6 steps to start your music career and head towards success.
Establish Yourself as an Artist
To kick start your music career, you must first establish yourself as a true artist. Put your entrepreneurial skills to the test by building your brand. In other words, set up your stage/band name – you’ll want something catchy, unique, original, and easy to pronounce and you’ll want to establish what genre of music you’ll be performing; your sound can include a combination of genres. Create a business plan, and record and label your music so that you can work towards your goals and ensure people within the music industry take your up-and-coming career seriously.
Work on Your Music
In order to succeed, you must make music that people want to listen to. So, spend as much time as you can learning and improving. Play for small audiences with a good ear for music that can help you produce your unique sound and give you some pointers. Look for ways to elevate your talent such as getting vocal lessons and practicing your technique, understanding what goes into music production, or learning how to play a new instrument.
Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need a lot of outside help to learn how to play an instrument. The folks from Instrumental Global explain how easy it is to work on your music from the comfort of your own home. With helpful online resources, you will receive the best tips to learn how to perfect your skills.
Put Your Music Out There
Nowadays, it’s easy to put your music out into the world with large platforms like YouTube and Soundcloud being an entrepreneurs’ dream. Set up an account solely for your music endeavors and try to upload content at least once a week to attract and keep a following. The bigger your following, the quicker your music will get noticed. Note that you want to distribute your content gradually rather than uploading everything all at once. Otherwise, your following will assume there’s no need to stay up to date with your content as you haven’t built up any anticipation. Consider learning about advertising and selling strategies to help you build an audience.
Promote Your Work
Naturally, you must consider your music to be a business and you must drive traffic to your online platform as any business would to their online presence. Generate interest and excitement over your product – in this case, your music – by leveraging the power of social media. Among the best strategies to promote your work is to utilize the word-of-mouth approach by getting friends and family to share your content on their social media accounts and tell their social circles; however, you also want to advertise your work to capture the interests of people in the music industry to get maximum exposure. If you can, set a budget for advertising to get more exposure online.
Get Paid
Today, there are various ways you can make money with your online content. You can earn streaming royalties through digital distribution. Find a distribution network such as CDBaby or TuneCore, which will send your music to streaming services such as Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, or Google Play for a fee. There are some free distribution networks to look into such as Amuse if you can’t afford to expand your budget. You can also make a living playing gig in your local area. This will not only provide you with some exposure but will also give you some live video content to upload on your platform and grow your online presence.
Invest in Your Music
Once you make a decent salary, it’s time to invest in yourself. Put money towards your career by purchasing quality sound equipment from decent speakers, mics, and recording devices to improve the video and audio quality of your content online and expand your at-home studio. You can also look into employing an agent; many agents work on commission.
Long gone are the days where excuses would hold you back. Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need hardly any money to get started on your music career. Utilize social media platforms and concentrate on producing quality work and you’ll be ready and confident to impress the world with your talent and share what music means to you.