{"id":4780,"date":"2014-11-13T14:45:54","date_gmt":"2014-11-13T14:45:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/skylight.gr\/administrator_wordpress\/index.php\/2014\/11\/13\/improve-your-chances-for-a-successful-music-career-without-compromising-your-integrity\/"},"modified":"2014-11-13T14:45:54","modified_gmt":"2014-11-13T14:45:54","slug":"improve-your-chances-for-a-successful-music-career-without-compromising-your-integrity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/2014\/11\/13\/improve-your-chances-for-a-successful-music-career-without-compromising-your-integrity\/","title":{"rendered":"Improve your chances for a successful music career (without compromising your integrity)"},"content":{"rendered":"


Improve your chances for a successful music career (without compromising your integrity)
By Bobby Borg<\/em><\/p>\n

If you don\u2019t stand for something, you can fall for anything. What\u2019s guiding your music career? Defining your vision is step one in achieving a successful music career. <\/p>\n

In my 15 years of teaching and consulting, I couldn\u2019t tell you the number of times I’ve heard a young musician say, \u201cI just do what I do, and if anyone likes it, they\u2019ll buy it.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy reply? Congratulations, you\u2019re a true artist.\u201d<\/p>\n

But as you get a little older and your responsibilities increase with a mortgage, spouse, and kids, this attitude is dangerous unless you have another source of income or you\u2019re just a hobbyist. Make no mistake, music is an art, but having a successful music career and making money at it is a serious business. <\/p>\n

What follows are a few tips that might help improve your chances for having a successful music careerwithout compromising your integrity. <\/p>\n

Have a clear vision<\/strong>
Success starts with a vision \u2013 and a vision statement. A vision statement is a declaration of where you\u2019d like your career to be in seven to ten years down the road. With this defined and in place, it\u2019s far easier to map out the directions for how you\u2019re going to get to your desired destination. <\/p>\n

A vision statement summarizes what you are truly passionate about, and includes everything from the type of music you\u2019d like to create, the products you might release, and the overall brand image you might like to impart on your intended audience. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Long before Marilyn Manson hit the scene, he envisioned himself as being a \u201cpop star who would shock the world.\u201d He kept drawings of costumes and stage set designs along with other business and creative details in a personal notebook. This was Manson\u2019s \u201cNorth Star\u201d \u2013 his guiding light. Several platinum albums later, he truly succeeded at bringing his vision to fruition. <\/p>\n

As the saying goes, \u201cIf you don\u2019t stand for something, you can surely fall for anything.\u201d So what\u2019s guiding your music career? If you haven\u2019t thought about it before, now is a good time. <\/p>\n

Identify opportunities or needs<\/strong>
While keeping your vision at heart, it\u2019s time to examine what\u2019s going on in the world around to ensure that your vision actually fills a need and represents a true opportunity \u2013 from a creative and marketing standpoint. As previously stated, Marilyn Manson had a clear vision of being a pop star whowould shock the world. But he also identified and filled a specific void in the marketplace \u2013 and perhaps even a specific societal need \u2013 for an entertaining and horrifically dramatic \u201cnew\u201d stage personality, similar to what a now aging Alice Cooper had done decadesearlier. In other words, the commercial marketplace was ripe for an artist like Marilyn Manson, and he capitalized on the opportunity unlike any other artist.<\/p>\n

A valuable tool to help you examine the external (and internal) environments of the marketplace is called a \u201cSWOT analysis.\u201d SWOT is an acronym that stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The idea is to identify external needs and opportunities that match your internal strengths while also considering your internal weaknesses and the external risks (e.g. competition) that could impede your ability to succeed. While all this might sound like business school jargon, the most successful companies, both big and small, use the SWOT model. And with a little training, so can you!\u00a0 \u00a0

Don\u2019t worry whether Lil Dr. Dre, or anyone else, knew this stuff<\/strong>
Make no mistake \u2013 successful people in all fields apply marketing and business principles to get their desired results, whether they know it or not. From jazz guitarist Pat Metheny who advanced traditional jazz music into the future with the use of synthesizers and robotics, to Nirvana who stamped out cookie-cutter hair metal and created a whole new genre of music called grunge, new trails were forged that filled a very specific market need. The advantage of being consciously aware of certain marketing principles upfront is that you don\u2019t have to find your path by chance. Rather, you can use these helpful tools at your own discretion to help you achieve your vision. <\/p>\n

Be an innovator<\/strong>
Be clear that the marketing approach that I am discussing here is not asking you to compromise your artistic integrity and to \u201csell out,\u201d but rather to adjust with the world around you, be more unique and innovative, and to \u201cbuy in.\u201d Let\u2019s face it, creating art is a beautiful thing, but creating a sound and style that is new and fresh, having it enjoyed by a large audience, and receiving compensation so that you can quite your day job is simply awesome! Remember, creating music in a vacuum and simply hoping it is successful can be a risky proposition if you intend to be more than a hobbyist.<\/p>\n

In closing<\/strong>… Always stay true your vision, but be willing to adjust that vision to fill a specific need or void in the marketplace that matches your strengths. If you can fill that need first and do it better than anyone else, the rest just might be your amazing history. <\/p>\n

A renown drummer, teacher, consultant, and Disc Makers contributor, Bobby Borg is the author of Music Marketing For The DIY Musician: Creating and Executing a Plan of Attack On A Limited Budget (September 2014, Hal Leonard). The book is available on the Hal Leonard website, Amazon.com, or at BobbyBorg.com.
[http:\/\/www.halleonard.com\/product\/viewproduct.do?itemid=124611&lid=10&whatsnew=30&searchcategory=05&subsiteid=2&]
[http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Music-Marketing-DIY-Musician-Executing\/dp\/1480369527]
[http:\/\/www.bobbyborg.com]<\/p>\n

The contents of this post are \u00a9 2014 by Bobby Borg BobbyBorg.com. All rights reserved. Not to be posted, printed, or used in any other way without proper attribution to Bobby Borg and Disc Makers.
[http:\/\/www.bobbyborg.com]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Improve your chances for a successful music career (without compromising your integrity)By Bobby Borg If…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-biz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4780\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}