Indie Artist – Getting Help.
When you are starting out as an indie artist, the most important thing is to know what to do and when to do it. It’s typical to read a blog post, listen to a podcast or watch a free class and then get really excited about the strategies you hear and jump in and try to do them. It’s great to have that initiative, but it can cripple you. As discussed in my blog Indie Artist-Stop Asking People, 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. In this series of articles, I am writing about the most common mistakes that indie artists make in their career, that keep them away from success. And the next mistake that I am going to discuss is – Trying to do everything by yourself.
I know from experience and I have written this in a lot of my previous posts, no matter howmuch you do, you will still have more to do. Reading blog posts, keeping an eye on what others are doing, learning trends, listening to podcasts, everything takes time, and a day does not have enough hours, so if you try to do it all by yourself, it will only take you so far. You need more. You need accountability and direction from someone who has been where you are trying to go.
When you get serious about your music career, find someone to talk to. Someone who will give you encouragement, guide you when you get stuck, and keep you moving forward. This is probably going to be someone who is further along in their career than you are and is able to give you timely advice. If you start trying to figure it all out on your own, you will be wasting a lot of precious time that you could probably have utilised doing something better and more creative. Save yourself the time and frustration and keep an eye open for at least one experienced person to reach out to, at the beginning of your career. Even at a music school or while practising with your band, encourage each other, push each other and teach each other every day. Or join a mastermind group. There are music coaches. Look up for one in your area. You will wonder if it makes sense to spend money on a coach when you aren’t making much money, but there is no harm in trying. I have heard a lot of budding indie artists say that they discover, after joining, it’s worth every penny. Some even claim to have doubled their income in the first month of hiring a coach. Scaling up coaching experience is believed to have the capability to scale up a budding artist’s income. So, I’d say, hire a coach. Get a mentor. It’s vital to you reaching your goal.
If there is no one who is helping you, or holding you accountable, you need to stop and go get someone right now. To meet financial requirements, it is important for an indie artist or indie bands to look for an alternative source of income, instead of just depending on the revenue coming from selling music. If your aim in life is to produce good music and you think the rest can be managed by someone else, then it is always better to work with a publisher. Your publisher can also become that one person who can be your guide, if you can manage to find someone trustworthy. An artist has to give the rights of publication of his songs to the publisher in order to let the publisher do his work and make sure that sales are happening and profits are flowing for himself and the artist. I have discussed the role of a publisher in an indie artist’s life in detail in my blog Publishing for Indie Artists.
In my next blog I am going to write about a few more common mistakes that indie artists make in their career, that keep them away from success. So keep coming back!
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