Some Advice for Musicians...

A Friend of mine recently sent me an Email with this question:

Yo what would be some good macro-economic trends surrounding the music industry or becoming a musician? I just can’t grasp any of this.

Here's what I would suggest, and I m not a guru (...yet)
Let me start by saying that the macro trends aren’t as important as the micro side of the industry. The best, specifically in your genre of music (not the cookie cutter pop), need to be original, do things no one else has done before. If you want people to believe that you are worth a listen, you need to look like it. That said, you have the music, the look and creativity/originality to be something. Here come the macro trends. I wrote for a lame musician, who had a crappy product but the fundamentals are the same. I used 3 broad strategies that can guide you towards devising tactics.

Be Seen, Be Heard, Be Involved.

When you set your goal, be honest but don’t be afraid to think big. Goals shouldn’t (all) be too easy to reach. While certain tactics might be small steps, you should have a range of small to huge goals. For example; playing the Green Room is a small step (considering where you are now), creating web material (blog, Myspace, Facebook, Last.fm, even Twitter) could be a small-medium goal, quantifying it, say that you want 500 FB fans, 1000 Myspace fans etc. might be a medium goal, forming a band might be a large goal and ultimately signing to a record label might be a large goal. It is really up to you to decide what you’d ultimately like to accomplish and how you want to get there. There are many ways to get to wherever you want to go, but they all require lots of work and patience. You can’t expect to become rich overnight (although it has happened to one or two people) and you definitely can’t plan for it.

1. Figure out what you’d like to accomplish through your music; your goal, vision. What is your dream, where would you want to take it? Do you want to get played on the radio? Your music video on MTV? Play at the Green Room? DJ a loft party? Get rich or just make a living from music?
2. Set tactics to reach your vision. What steps can you take to reach your goal? These tactics should refer back to a strategy (or strategies) which was designed to help you reach a goal. Try to predict the desired outcome of each tactic, so that it can be measured, and therefore controlled. Sorry for this marketing lingo, but what I’m saying is you need to know when something is working or not. If it is, do it again, make it better. If it doesn’t meet your expected results, see if you can make it work, otherwise scrap it. This can also help you allocate your time better. If you see you get a good response on Facebook but not on Myspace, figure out why Myspace isn’t working, change it, or concentrate more on Facebook. (I believe its better to have only a few well maintained web presences, than many crappy ones.)

You have the talent and there is definitely a demand for your music. It is a question of exposing the people to the music. Start with this assumption and work at creating exposure, exposure that you feel will attract the right people to your music. You just have to do your thing, and throw in some work that you won’t enjoy, but that’s the price.