Indie Artist-Defining Success.
Defining what success means to you is the first requirement for being successful. This is one of the biggest challenges that indie musicians face today. What needs to be understood, however, is that there is no standard procedure to follow in order to be successful. Most commercial ventures get swallowed up by major players with strong market presence. This makes it imperative for you to make your presence known, if you do not plan to join a major. While joining a major takes away the hassle of marketing, because they are well-known and have considerable power and finances, it also increases the chances of success. However, working independently offers more freedom of thought and action. Keeping this in mind, strategizing your association with major labels or listing out marketing procedures to be followed is as important as creating good music.
The pathway to a career in indie music isn’t as clear and sure-shot as it is in going to college, for example, where there is a defined set of measurable parameters that you follow to earn your degree. You attend classes, you write papers, you pass exams, and after completing the requisite steps, you succeed in earning your degree. That’s an ideal scenario where you can demonstrate that you are making progress and, therefore retain the ever so important support of your friends and family.
There are certain basic characteristics that will enable a student to go to college, write the papers and pass the exams to come out with a degree. A career in indie music however is far less arbitrary. Here is no predetermined pathway to become a professional musician. Even earning a degree from a good college of music won’t necessarily make you a musician. Because of that lack of definitive stepping-stones, indie musicians often find that the people that are supposed to be their cheerleaders, their friends and family, start to celebrate their failures more than their successes. What’s more important is that they really do want what’s best for you. Since a career in music is not a sure thing, they think that it’s better to get you on track for something more substantial; something with more defined goals and measurements.
Let’s first examine some characteristics that are universal in successful people:
- Authentic Interest: A genuine state of curiosity, concern, or attention
- Goals: The objects of a person’s ambition or effort; an aim or desired result
- Consistency: Steadfast adherence to the same principles and procedures
- Persistence: Firm or obstinate continuance in a course of action in spite of difficulty or oppression.
Being an indie artist has never been easy! More so now when every out-of-college kid wants to take up music and tour around the country. It can get overwhelming at times. Today’s post and a few to follow, are about knowing success and making it possible in the music industry as an independent artist. It is not going to be easy and will require a lot of hard work, but in the end, it’s going to be worth the trouble. Remember that this is a full-time job and it is your own business. You have embarked on a business journey that needs to be handled correctly in order to become rewarding. How you avoid fatal errors that indie artists and bands commonly make remains to be learnt. The fact that the people that are supposed to be your biggest fans are pressuring you to follow a well-worn path, and treat your music as a hobby can be very discouraging. And it is real easy to start believing that what they think really is what is best for you. And I know how heart breaking it is when you tell people that you are a musician and they ask, “what’s your day job?” As discussed in my blog It’s Difficult to be Indie, even if you have made it to the point of being successful, an indie artist’s career has no security. There is no guarantee that your next album will earn as much as the one that made you successful. In this case, unless you have a bond with a famous label, your career as an indie artist is never secure.
So how do you turn music into a legitimate career choice and convince your friends and family, and more importantly yourself, that you can and are succeeding? In my next blog, I am going to share a few traits that you need to embody if you are going to go against the grain and make music your full-time income.
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