Chris' monthly
music marketing column,
Indie 2000!
What’s So
Hard about Making it as a Musician?
August 1998
by
Christopher Knab
So, what’s so
hard about making it as a musician? My simple answer would be....fantasies are safer than
realities. How many times in your life have you seen images of success? The entertainment
media shows nothing but successes.
Whatever kind of music
you grew up listening to on the radio, seeing on TV, hearing on the soundtracks to your
favorite movies, read about in newspapers and magazines, and saw in live performance were
musicians who were either already successful, or on the major label-supported-road to fame
and fortune. (The media spend very little time informing the public about all the bands
and artists who aren’t in the charts!).
You wanted to be just
like the stars didn’t you? When you started out you were indoctrinated with a belief
system garnered from years of absorbing the music and lifestyle images of successful
artists, and a mindset took over your consciousness.
It goes something like
this: Buy some good equipment, and the instrument of your choice. Take some lessons,
practice for awhile, start playing with other like-minded musicians. Since you have
written some songs, record a demo, and get out their and play gigs, and...you will be
discovered! But the wrong thinking doesn’t end there.
You also believe that
having been discovered, the music business in all its wisdom, will support you 100% and
you need only keep writing and playing your music, and success will come your way.
Basically, when it comes to the business side of things, you believe that as an
‘artist’, you won’t have to worry about such mundane things as business
issues.
I may be over
simplifying this situation. But somewhere inside you resides a belief system not unlike
what I have spelled out. At some point in your theorizing, you land up believing that an
outside group of individuals will come along, and recognize your talents, and they will
take care of you forever...they will make you a star.
Get over it.
It most likely will
not happen that way. What can happen instead is that if you are willing to cash in your
old belief system and allow for some reality to shine in on your consciousness. It could
very well happen that you could establish your career on your own, make a respectable
living as you develop, and even decide at some point along the way, that controlling every
aspect of your career, isn’t so bad after all. Well, more and more musicians over the
last decade have come to that very conclusion.
Loreena McKinnett,
Fugasi, Ani DeFranco, Steve Vai...the list goes on.
So, beginning with
this column and over the next 10 columns I will be addressing the following issues in more
depth. But for now, sit back and find yourself in the following
10
Reasons Why Musicians Fail
This list consists of
10 things that keep musicians from making a living with their music.
- The fantasy of being a
star is easier than working to be a star.
- Discouragement over the
lack of support from the people you think you need.
- Naive concepts and
wrong beliefs regarding the reality of the music industry.
- The unwillingness to
get down in the trenches and do grunt work.
- Lack of a commitment
from fellow musicians in the group.
- Improper funding of
recording and promotion plans.
- The belief that someone
will come along and discover you.
- Poor musicianship: lack
of professional skills that make a master musician.
- Unoriginal music that
lacks inspired ideas.
- Refusing to believe
that art and commerce are inseparable.
Christopher
Knab
Christopher
Knab, Music Business Consultant
for Effective Product Development / Promotion / Publicity / Performance
FourFront Media & Music http://www.4frontmusic.com
3825 34th Ave. W. , No. 7
Seattle, WA 98199
206/282-6116
knab@knab.com
Copyright
© 1999 FourFront Media & Music
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