To most people's ears, the words "practical" and "musician" don't quite belong in the same sentence together, unless of course they're uttered tongue-in-cheek.
A career as a professional music-maker just doesn't conjure up the same images of prestige, stability and financial security as, say, a doctor, lawyer or some other respectable variety of wage slave.
Music should be kept as a hobby, we're told.
At least, that's the refrain we've heard for a long time in our society.
But if you're an artist living in today's world, a career in your field is not only your golden ticket to a happy existence, but is also your best bet for achieving sustained, sustainable, and substantial success in terms of financial freedom, freedom of location and freedom of time.
Let's see how this is possible...
Financial Freedom You see, the old paradigm tells us that creating art and music is all well and good, but gosh darn it, it just doesn't pay the bills.
Hence, the cliche of the "starving" artist, who, for his or her art, gives up earthly pleasures such as nutritious food, untattered clothing, and humane living conditions, for a mere shot at "making it.
" "Making it", in this case, means supporting oneself solely through one's art, and while a select few musicians do indeed "make it", many more fail and live the best years of their lives in varying degrees of poverty.
So, what's an artist to do? The answer, as best-selling author Neil Gaiman so succinctly puts it in his fantastic commencement speech, is "make great art.
" My own twist on this is "make great art...
and make a lot of money in the process!" "Do what you love and get paid handsomely for it? Say whaaa?" Yes indeed my friend, because you see, you are living through one of the most exciting periods ever in all of human history.
There's a word that describes the spirit of this era - renaissance.
"Renaissance" means rebirth and describes a time of blossoming and renewal.
During the Italian renaissance (that is, THE renaissance), art, painting, literature, music all flowered because of one thing: money.
Many Italians had become wealthy thanks to expanding trade with Asia and Europe, through lucrative silver mining and through the spoils of war brought back to Italy by Christian Crusaders.
These rich men - patrons, they were called, would "sponsor" artists whose works they admired, and the artists, in turn, would be free to create art night and day, and make a living from it.
Luckily for you and for your ever-concerned loved ones, this patronage paradigm is shifting at warp speed.
While it is true that as an artist, you still depend on the people who purchase your art to make ends meet, thanks to a secret weapon invented rather recently by one Mr.
Al Gore, YOU have the power to promote and sell your art to interested fans all over the world.
Yes, you guessed it, the secret weapon of today's artists and musicians is The Internet.
By the millions, people hop online and search for the type of music and art they want to consume, every single day.
Your job, then, becomes: finding these people, enticing them with your unique brand of soul food, and converting them into fans; that is - customers.
These folks are already searching for what they like, and if you more or less fit into that category, then they are much more likely to give your art a chance than somebody whose interests lie in another genre.
In marketing terms, these pre-qualified individuals are considered to be "warm leads".
Ironically, most musicians still go out and play gigs galore in an effort to interest a random group of people in their music.
But if you play reggae, for example, and I don't particularly like reggae, then I'm not going to become a fan of yours, no matter how awesome your particular flavor of reggae happens to be.
But if you market and sell your music online, only people who like reggae will purchase your music.
Everyone else will purchase something else, and you don't have to waste your time trying to interest them, when they're not interested in the first place! Yet THAT is how most musicians approach selling their music, and that's why we have an epidemic of starving artists.
It's time for musicians to learn some marketing chops! The particulars of marketing your music or art online are beyond the scope of this article but there are some great resources online if you take some time to search for them.
Freedom of Location (aka "Location Independence") Most musicians leave their humble beginnings in a small town and set out for a big city with a strong music scene.
Meccas of music like Los Angeles and New York come to mind.
But what if you didn't have to go anywhere to sell your art? What if, in fact, you could be ANYWHERE? Well, that's exactly the privilege that the internet has made available to just about anybody.
Once you learn to promote and sell your music online, and automate the process as much as possible, you'll be able to achieve not only financial independence, but location independence as well.
That means you can conceivably travel the world and still earn a paycheck.
How cool is that? Freedom of Time Since the internet is buzzing with activity 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, that means your customers are able to buy from you whenever they want.
Your fans in Korea can purchase your albums in the middle of the night, and you can wake up to see how much money you've earned while you were asleep.
You can be reading an email from a fan in Denmark thanking you because your music inspired her to not commit suicide and live life after all.
Your website will be working on auto-pilot creating fans in Germany, Brazil and Thailand - an almost impossible feat just 20 years ago.
What this all means is that your income won't be a function of hours worked.
Earning a paycheck won't require you to put in 40 hours a week at a stupid office, and you'll have more free time than ever to do what you love, love what you do, and change the whole freaking world for the better through your art.
Conclusion This all sounds pretty awesome, doesn't it? But like anything, you'll have to earn this lifestyle by stepping outside of your comfort zone, learning some new things and thinking outside the box.
For those who do put in the hustle and pour their hearts and souls into their art and learn to promote it through this new and exciting avenue, they will be rewarded with a rockstar lifestyle without the rockstar problems and trappings, dealing with faceless record companies and other "patrons".
If creating music and art is the only thing that you can see yourself doing and being happy from as a result, consider online music marketing; your biggest fan is waiting to discover your stuff halfway across the world!
A career as a professional music-maker just doesn't conjure up the same images of prestige, stability and financial security as, say, a doctor, lawyer or some other respectable variety of wage slave.
Music should be kept as a hobby, we're told.
At least, that's the refrain we've heard for a long time in our society.
But if you're an artist living in today's world, a career in your field is not only your golden ticket to a happy existence, but is also your best bet for achieving sustained, sustainable, and substantial success in terms of financial freedom, freedom of location and freedom of time.
Let's see how this is possible...
Financial Freedom You see, the old paradigm tells us that creating art and music is all well and good, but gosh darn it, it just doesn't pay the bills.
Hence, the cliche of the "starving" artist, who, for his or her art, gives up earthly pleasures such as nutritious food, untattered clothing, and humane living conditions, for a mere shot at "making it.
" "Making it", in this case, means supporting oneself solely through one's art, and while a select few musicians do indeed "make it", many more fail and live the best years of their lives in varying degrees of poverty.
So, what's an artist to do? The answer, as best-selling author Neil Gaiman so succinctly puts it in his fantastic commencement speech, is "make great art.
" My own twist on this is "make great art...
and make a lot of money in the process!" "Do what you love and get paid handsomely for it? Say whaaa?" Yes indeed my friend, because you see, you are living through one of the most exciting periods ever in all of human history.
There's a word that describes the spirit of this era - renaissance.
"Renaissance" means rebirth and describes a time of blossoming and renewal.
During the Italian renaissance (that is, THE renaissance), art, painting, literature, music all flowered because of one thing: money.
Many Italians had become wealthy thanks to expanding trade with Asia and Europe, through lucrative silver mining and through the spoils of war brought back to Italy by Christian Crusaders.
These rich men - patrons, they were called, would "sponsor" artists whose works they admired, and the artists, in turn, would be free to create art night and day, and make a living from it.
Luckily for you and for your ever-concerned loved ones, this patronage paradigm is shifting at warp speed.
While it is true that as an artist, you still depend on the people who purchase your art to make ends meet, thanks to a secret weapon invented rather recently by one Mr.
Al Gore, YOU have the power to promote and sell your art to interested fans all over the world.
Yes, you guessed it, the secret weapon of today's artists and musicians is The Internet.
By the millions, people hop online and search for the type of music and art they want to consume, every single day.
Your job, then, becomes: finding these people, enticing them with your unique brand of soul food, and converting them into fans; that is - customers.
These folks are already searching for what they like, and if you more or less fit into that category, then they are much more likely to give your art a chance than somebody whose interests lie in another genre.
In marketing terms, these pre-qualified individuals are considered to be "warm leads".
Ironically, most musicians still go out and play gigs galore in an effort to interest a random group of people in their music.
But if you play reggae, for example, and I don't particularly like reggae, then I'm not going to become a fan of yours, no matter how awesome your particular flavor of reggae happens to be.
But if you market and sell your music online, only people who like reggae will purchase your music.
Everyone else will purchase something else, and you don't have to waste your time trying to interest them, when they're not interested in the first place! Yet THAT is how most musicians approach selling their music, and that's why we have an epidemic of starving artists.
It's time for musicians to learn some marketing chops! The particulars of marketing your music or art online are beyond the scope of this article but there are some great resources online if you take some time to search for them.
Freedom of Location (aka "Location Independence") Most musicians leave their humble beginnings in a small town and set out for a big city with a strong music scene.
Meccas of music like Los Angeles and New York come to mind.
But what if you didn't have to go anywhere to sell your art? What if, in fact, you could be ANYWHERE? Well, that's exactly the privilege that the internet has made available to just about anybody.
Once you learn to promote and sell your music online, and automate the process as much as possible, you'll be able to achieve not only financial independence, but location independence as well.
That means you can conceivably travel the world and still earn a paycheck.
How cool is that? Freedom of Time Since the internet is buzzing with activity 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, that means your customers are able to buy from you whenever they want.
Your fans in Korea can purchase your albums in the middle of the night, and you can wake up to see how much money you've earned while you were asleep.
You can be reading an email from a fan in Denmark thanking you because your music inspired her to not commit suicide and live life after all.
Your website will be working on auto-pilot creating fans in Germany, Brazil and Thailand - an almost impossible feat just 20 years ago.
What this all means is that your income won't be a function of hours worked.
Earning a paycheck won't require you to put in 40 hours a week at a stupid office, and you'll have more free time than ever to do what you love, love what you do, and change the whole freaking world for the better through your art.
Conclusion This all sounds pretty awesome, doesn't it? But like anything, you'll have to earn this lifestyle by stepping outside of your comfort zone, learning some new things and thinking outside the box.
For those who do put in the hustle and pour their hearts and souls into their art and learn to promote it through this new and exciting avenue, they will be rewarded with a rockstar lifestyle without the rockstar problems and trappings, dealing with faceless record companies and other "patrons".
If creating music and art is the only thing that you can see yourself doing and being happy from as a result, consider online music marketing; your biggest fan is waiting to discover your stuff halfway across the world!
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