Over the next few week’s I’ll be discussing the merits, the necessity, and the functional steps necessary to create a business plan for your music career.
One of the major challenges many musicians face is this perceived contradiction between being professional (taking an analytic, project, and execution based approach to building their music career) and the art (the creative act of writing, performing, and perfecting their craft). There is, what seems to be, an unspoken disdain for those who enact a plan that progressively grows their music career in the same way a business might grow it’s customer base and product or service distribution. As though those who approach their music this way and succeed are somehow cheating; sacrificing or compromising their art in a greedy pursuit of success.
If this is you, get over it! And quickly!
A Reasonable Plan
I want to provide insight and ideas to help you start and develop a reasonable business plan. By reasonable I mean that you won’t need to create a 50 or 100 page business plan with analytics, charts, demographics, and detailed execution list. You will need to do a little thinking and a little writing. But the mode of operation here is to start simple and build.
Starting Points
When I wrote my first business plan for music it was probably 3 or 4 pages of general ideas. Almost no paragraphs, just bulleted list with some explanations. I identified 9 initial goals. I looked at my list and determined that I could not do all of them. Time did not permit me to. So I greatly reduced my list of "right now" items. My first 3 were the following:
- Mailing List
- Merchandise
- Venues
Mailing List
This was my first for a simple reason. I had people coming to see me play. They wanted to know when I was playing again. Some quick thoughts on this.. start immediately. Make it simple to sign up. Use a professional service so you can quickly/easily manage the list, capture the email addresses on your website, and so that it adheres to spamming laws. I use Mailchimp these days. It isn’t the simplest but it is free until your list exceeds 1,000 fans/sign-ups.
Merchandise
If people connect with your music, they will want to take you home with them – figuratively (and I suppose literally in some cases). Bumper stickers, postcards, a demo CD with 4 songs, t-shirts, etc. There are some great inexpensive ways to create or get merchandise.
Venues
I wanted to keep track of the venues I played and what I thought about them. There are different types and reasons for playing certain venues. I play original music and that has its own challenges. For instance, most bars want classic rock and country covers or dance music. People come to hear what they know. You can earn some money doing these but if you are playing original music, this is not your venue.
I would classify whether a venue paid (and how much), how long the set had to be, whether I was "background atmosphere" or whether it was a "listening venue" – where people came to hear original music.
Here is why. There are times I wanted to know I was being directly paid for the time I spent – restaurants and background venues. Other times, I was more interested in playing for new listeners – even if only 5 of them.
First Steps
While I listed those items first, I already had a prior web presence due to some articles and a book I’d written. You may or may not have a website. If you DO NOT have your own domain and website, that step supersedes the 3 above.
In fact, here is a quick list of steps I recommend. Each is or will be expanded upon in future posts.
- Register and host your domain. I recommend and use BlueHost. If you sign up using our affiliate link, it cost you no more than going direct but does help support TheSongwriterOnline.com.
Why bluehost? $100 per year gets you the ability to host multiple domains and they have auto-installs for many free website publishing platforms and utilities. Including WordPress (see #2).
- Use WordPress for your website. WordPress is a free blogging/podcasting and content management system. I use it for my music site and for TheSongwriterOnline.com. It has a huge community of developers who build free and low-cost add-ons to add functionality to your site. It integrates with all social media platforms and has search engine benefits.
Once you have those two first steps in place then look at the 3 items above. Or build your own list and figure out what items you can actually get done well right away. Exclude the others until you have mastered the first few.
Important considerations
- Myspace is not a website: neither is Facebook, Reverbnation, SonicBids, etc. Own your piece of the Internet.
- Posting on Twitter/Facebook is not marketing. Don’t be a blip on a timeline.
- Even when playing just for tips, a CD of you sitting down at your PC is better than nothing and will help increase your tips. Let people take you home with them.
