Pitfalls - Full-Time Musicians in Music Business

Blurred vision weakens focus
Without a vision you will perish! It took months of digging, thinking and soul searching before we settled on a vision for TMoody.com. 

But once we clarified that vision we committed to it. Following that vision demands full attention. Our vision still guides our decisions in our music business today.

Don’t confuse your dream with a fantasy. The difference between the two is a little word we like to call WORK. We paid a high price because we made some mistakes. There is a price to pay. Everyone’s price for their dream is different, and I don’t know what yours will be.
 
Be aware of anything that diverts your attention because it is meant to break your focus. Broken focus will cause you to make excuses and inevitably you will quit trying, then end up failing.

The cemetery is filled with unfulfilled dreams that were buried with people who didn’t live toward their destiny.  Most of them probably had more excuses than a criminal going to jail about why they weren’t able to chase their dreams.
 
What’s more important to you...excuses or the calling of your life as a full-time musician?  You can make excuses or you can walk out your destiny, but you can’t do both!

"Music is not about the money"
I agree that music is ‘not about the money’ but paying your bills is. That’s why being a full-time musician is about monetizing that music so you won’t have to be a ‘bum’ just to play music.

Face it…if your music doesn’t make you money, it is officially a hobby. Please keep your job. This seems to be the hardest thing for artists to grasp.

For me, as a business person, almost everything comes down to money. For T, he had to learn this. He had played music for 10 years and made no money at it. 

Playing for free beer plus tips and giving away your crappy recorded demo CD’s is a long way off from a career in music.
 
People told him he had a “good job” (I personally think that phrase is now an oxy-moron), but deep down being the county IT Tech was not his dream. He was longing for a viable career in music.  

Money is like oxygen…you need it to live. So find a way to make immediate income with your music. T started out by giving guitar lessons during the afternoons and gigging at night. Within 6 months, he replaced his job income and was finally able to play his guitar day and night.

It will take careful planning and strategizing to build your music business up enough leave your job, but mostly it will take courage.

My wife will just have to understand

The first week T and I dated, I asked him where he saw himself five years from now. His response pertained to traveling and playing music all over the country. Nothing about his job was mentioned. I love a man with a dream! 

I also knew he had the talent because I had seen him play here and there a few times over the previous 18 months, but did he have the work ethic he would need?

I knew that his job would hinder him from accomplishing what he needed to do, but I sat by quietly for months after we were married until he came to the same conclusion. During this time I saw him work hard to produce his first professional CD. 

Afterwards, when he finally approached me to discuss his crazy notion of leaving his job to pursue his music, I was already in his corner waiting. He had proven himself enough to me, to gain my full support. 
 
There were times when T wanted to cave in to financial pressure and go get a job. I would remind him that if he did, we may as well throw in the towel because his time would evaporate and a job would absorb his focus and energy. 

He would then change his thinking to how he could get more guitar students, sell more CD’s, get more gigs, etc. By the next day he would be acting on some creative idea he came up with, forgetting about any pending job search.

You will need to gain your spouse’s full support for many reasons. They are the #1 person on your team. If you don’t have someone like that, find a friend or family member that you are close to.

The power of two minds in agreement is unstoppable. You will need their honesty over and over. Then when things get tough, schedules get hectic and finances get chaotic, they will remind you of your vision and encourage you to keep going.

I'll get a computer later
Are you kidding? Today’s full-time musician is made online. We are talking about being a pro. Most of your hours will be spent on your computer. 

You also need the ability to burn CD’s, print flyers, look up tabs, music and lyrics. You will need to upload and edit digital photos, send e-mails out to your fan list, and keep records for the
IRS (AKA : American Gestapo). 

You will need to find good gear bargains online, target your niche market through message boards, run your website and Social pages, upload your songs and enter them into contests…DAILY! 

Computers are part of our lives and I don't see operating any successful music business without one.

Do you really think you can do all this from the public library’s computer? There is much more you will do than just the things I mentioned. A computer is as important to making good money as your musical instrument is.

A Small Time Musician gives props to his computer
There is a successful full-time musician we know in Myrtle Beach, SC named Marcel. He uses the web relentlessly by sending out weekly e-mails with show dates and networks with other musicians which keeps him working every night of the week. 

He makes about $1000/plus tips per week…CASH…as a full-time musician. He has a wife and 5 small children that he supports and plays out 6 nights a week. All his equipment, some of his mileage, clothing and meals are tax deductible.

His earnings are equivalent to an employee earning $78K per year. He probably puts in 50-60 hours a week when you figure performing and set up time, prep and practice time and web communication time.

He claims he wouldn't do as well without staying in touch with his fans weekly. He uses the computer hours on end. But he loves what he does and makes his own schedule. He could never go back to a job again.

Last we saw him he told us he was planning on moving his family back to his home state of Hawaii and gigging there. He can do that as a full-time musician. That's part of the freedom you will have too, but get a computer first!

Starving artists give us a bad name

This is a good place to encourage you to drop this mentality.  Because if you really believe you are going nowhere and that you are starving you will become a parasite. 

Quite honestly this thinking reminds me of someone having a “Pity Party.”  You will repel people with this attitude. People are attracted to people who have a vision and are going somewhere. 

I get depressed just watching some bands. They seem to be in a rut and dissatisfied with their position in life. It’s as though they were defeated when the almighty recording contract didn’t swoop in and rescue them from the local band doldrums. 

T is always checking out pawn shops to buy guitars and amps. One day, a new one opened up, so they didn’t know T yet. The owner began talking about all the starving artists that had come in and out of there. 

We knew a few of the names he mentioned, and we also knew that those people had low paying,  part time employment. Some were living off the taxpayers and one was even leaching off of a current girlfriend.

I just believe that since we were lucky to be born in a land of opportunity, people should have some self respect and earn themselves a decent living. We have worked hard to create several income streams with music and we make a pretty nice living from them.

Creative dry spells
You will encounter thousands of times when money or motivation is lacking. I believe there is no such thing as a money problem, simply a lack of creative ideas. 

Money is plentiful to those who are creative. There is much credit given to “hard work,” yet I have always preferred “working smart”. I am not lazy, I just know many hard working folks who are still broke.
 
We know that as part of what we are trying to accomplish we will have to try AND fail at many things. We have tried out more bad ideas than good ones. 

Our frustrations with getting paid to play forced us to dig deeper and get creative. That is how we developed a technique called Guerrilla Gigging. It ended up making us a lot of money at the time.

It’s nothing new for a musician to show up somewhere and ask to play, but we went beyond that and perfected a new technique that no one else has accomplished to this day. That’s a whole other story that appears on the Original Artists Corner page.