DIY Music Guide

Online Promotion Options for the Starving Artists

in DIY Music Guide,Promotion

- This post is part of the DIY Musicians Guide -

The internet is a massive black hole of information, advertisements, and trolls…that’s right..trolls.

While trolls are a topic for another day, I am going to tell you about some easy online promotional things you can and should do as an artists, for the low cost of ZERO.

This is not the be all end all of online promotion for bands and artists, just a starting point. Get creative and try things out.

Website

If you did not already see it, our post on What Every Artists Should Know Before They Make A Website, check it out now.

You’ll learn that your website is the main hub of your internet activity. It’s here that we want to have all the necessary and relevant information about our bands.

Once that is set up, it’s time to start sending traffic to the website and collecting fans.

The best way to do this is by adding new content, and sending links to that content out to the internet.

Having a blog on your site is a great way to post new content, and keep it organized for future reference. Much like these DIY Musicians Guide posts that we do.

We recommend the following simple outline:

  • Website is main hub, drive traffic here.
  • Use blog to add new content, send links out to the internet.
  • Use your website sidebar to promote events or other important information.
  • Collect email addresses

This works for any business, including yours as a band.

Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization or SEO is not as important for artists, but something I feel we should at least touch on.

In order to make sure people find you when they search for you, it’s good to make sure there is a good amount of text with your band or artist name on at least one page.

I recommend using your About page for this. Just focus on one page, make sure your name is used several times throughout, and you should be good.

Most of you will have your band or artist name in your domain name, which will also be helpful.

Click here to learn more about search engine optimization.

Social Media

If you are not already aware of the main social media sites to be using, you must have been sleeping under a rock.

As of the time this article is written, Facebook and Twitter are dominating the internet.

There are a slew of other social networks that pop up daily, but the only ones you really need to pay attention to at this time are Facebook and Twitter.

For Facebook, you’ll want to create a PAGE for your group. For Twitter, there are no options other than just getting a regular account. Use your artists name as your username so people can find you easily.

Once you have these two set up, this is where you will begin to send out links back to your website.  Remember those blog posts we mentioned? Copy/Paste the URL of your newest blog posts to Facebook and Twitter, and watch the traffic come back to your site!

As for Google +, keep an eye on it, many people are having great success with it but only a small fraction of social media users are using it now.

Go to where the market it, and move when the market moves.

You may have also heard of other websites like the now defunct Myspace(seriously if you are still trying to use this site something is wrong in your brain), reverbnation, sonicbids, etc.

I’ll just say this. You ‘could’ sign up for every social media site ever, and spend 1% of your time on each, and see 1% success.

Or you could focus on just 2 or 3 social networks, and CRUSH IT.

Keep your focus, branch out after you are winning.

Press / Blogs

It’s so easy now to set up a blog and start writing about anything in the world. Due to this there are now music and art bloggers the world over, who CRAVE new material.

Do them a favor and send it to them in a nice package. The easier it is for them to digest, the faster they’ll probably post something online and get you some buzz.

Start with finding the local bloggers in your town. Don’t be obnoxious and spam them over and over, be professional and to the point.

Make it so easy for them that they have to take action.

After you’ve logged the locals, start branching out and seeking popular blogs in your genre regardless of their location.  Many music bloggers write about anything they hear from anywhere in the world. These sites will help spread your message to the world.

If you do get some press, take an excerpt from that, post it on your blog, and link back to the writer.

This will look good for you on your site, and also show the writer some love….and you have one more new piece of content you can send links out to social media about.

Music Hosting Sites

The only two I want to mention now are Soundcloud and Bandcamp.

Again, there are tons of them out there and new ones popping up daily, but we recommend focusing on less, and seeing more results.

These two sites are different but we feel it’s important to have your music on both.

I am always hearing about someone finding a new band on Bandcamp. Promoters rave about it, booking agents use it, you should have your music there.

Soundcloud is my personal favorite player to embed on websites. They also have a community of users that search for, find, and comment on new music.

Consider maintaining both of those and keep them up to date, you never know who is looking for yo.

Mailing List

Your mailing list is probably the single most effective online marketing tool that you have.  If you are not collecting email addresses, you are missing out on a huge opportunity for big conversion rates.

We use Topspin Media to handle all of our email list, merchandise ecommerce, ticket sales, and more. They have an amazing platform that is designed for musical artists.

To note, they have a really fantastic article about Creating a Marketing Strategy That Works, HIGHLY recommended that you read this.

How do you collect email address?

Stick an email signup form in your website sidebar. Remember that you are sending links out to bring traffic back in to your website. Once those people are there, you need to capture their contact information so you can hit them up later.

Offer a download of your single in exchange for an email address. Maybe a video. You can constantly come up with new incentives to trade for an email address.

Once your list is big enough, even a small percentage of conversions from an email blast is going to be worthwhile.

OK That’s Information Overload, Can I Get Started Now?

We understand that this could all be too much all at once, don’t freak out and don’t worry. You got this.

Instead of trying to do everything at once, just do one thing at a time.

Set goals and by the end of this year, I bet you’ll be more knowledgeable about the entire scope, as well as seeing successes from those things you tried.

The worst thing you can do is to do nothing, so get started!

We’ll cover more online promotional options in more depth later in this series, so stay tuned.

- This post is part of the DIY Musicians Guide -

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How To Book A Show

in Booking,DIY Music Guide

How To Book A Show

- This post is part of the DIY Musicians Guide -

Now that you’ve taken the time to hone your skills and take it to the stage, it’s time to book a show.

If you are brand new to the music scene in your area, you’ll have to start by doing some research.

For this article, we are going to give you some ideas to help move you right along.

Find Local Venues

Let’s start by finding venues that are local to you. If you live out in the burbs, consider traveling to the closest ‘big city’ which will most likely have more options.

You’ll want to take note of venues that other bands are already playing at. This is a good sign of an established venue that may have a built in crowd as well.

Check flyers that you see online or around town for the names of venues, promoters, bands, etc and take note.

Find Other Bands

We started seeing more people at our shows once we began working together with each other. Finding like minded artists is something we consider to be extremely important in the growth of our individual bands as well as HJM as a whole.

How do you do it?

  • Use this fancy internet that everyone is raving about to search
  • Look on flyers for upcoming shows
  • GO TO SHOWS <– can not stress this enough

When you start going out to shows, you’ll begin to meet many people. Not only will you have access to the bands on the line up, but there is a good chance that other people at the show are also artists…who might be there for the same reason you are, networking.

Find Local Promoters

Once upon a time, the ‘label’ had control of the music scene. In this day and age, the Promoter has all the power.

The promoter works harder than any of the bands at getting people to shows.

The promoter focuses all their enter on setting up good line ups, fun events, and most importantly, getting people to shows.

It’s their JOB to spread the word and advocate for the artists they support.

Finding and working with a good promoter can make all the difference between playing a show to no one, and packing out a venue.

Using the same tools you’ve used to find local bands, find local promoters.

Ask the venues, sound guys, other artists, look on flyers to see who is ‘presenting’ the shows, and definitely scour the internet.

Seems that everyone is becoming a promoter, so there should be no shortage of them in your area.

Networking ++

Of all the ways to contact and meet people, the most powerful is face to face. Networking is a must if you plan on building any kind of business, your band included in that.

By stepping out into the world to meet and mingle with fellow artists and like minded people, you will be opening up your options for the future.

You never know who you are going to meet and shake hands with.

Be prepared with a business card, a cd, or some kind of tangible information to transfer to these people that you meet and you’ll be a step ahead of most others.

If there is someone you have in mind that you would really like to meet, think about starting a conversation with them online first. This can make it easier to meet up in real life, and especially help to remember you in the future.  If you do this, be sure to follow up online as well to really seal your name in their memory.

The Wrap

Starting your foray into playing out is one of the most fun times you’ll have as a band.

If you follow these simple ideas, you’ll find yourself playing in front of good crowds quickly, instead of playing shows to nobody with a line up of other bands that suck.

We are going to dive deeper into each one of these sections as well as a few others in the booking realm, so stay tuned.

If you have questions or comments, let us know on Twitter or Facebook.

- This post is part of the DIY Musicians Guide -

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What Every Artist Should Know Before They Make a Music Website

in DIY Music Guide,Web

make a music website- This post is part of the DIY Musicians Guide -

You are a musician, not a web developer, designer, internet marketer, etc.

As a web developer, I work with people who do not have a clue about the web, and often times hardly a clue about technology.

That said, you and they have great products or services to offer, and a tiny little budget for marketing, and more often than not, are going to try and build your own website.

Instead of trying to sell you on working with me, this article is designed to give you a top level look at some of the essential things a music website needs so that you CAN do it yourself.

Key Elements of a Great Music Website

  • Music Player
  • Email Signup Form
  • Calendar Of Upcoming Shows
  • Videos and Photos
  • Contact Information
  • Press
  • Bio/About
  • Blog

Music Player

First and foremost you need to have a very prominent music player on your website. This is the number one thing people will be looking for when they come to your site, so don’t hide it from them.

To note, even on a musicians website, auto playing your music is annoying as hell and you should stop it right away if you are doing it. Let your user click the play button.

There is nothing worse than clicking through a website, musicians site or any other business, and hearing music start over and start playing on each page. Please do not do this and you will make me and 99% of the population believe you are smarter than most people.

As you can see here on Hijacking Music site, as well as many of our artists, we display the very clean, very simple, Soundcloud player.

You can embed a player from many different sources like Soundcloud, Bandcamp, ReverbNation, etc. We recommend getting your music on all of them, but just focus on using one for embedding on your website.

You can also use a tool we’ll discuss next from Topspin Media to embed your player.

Email Signup Form

Email is still, hands down, the best marketing tool you’ll have access to online. Email has been around as long as the internet, and is not going anywhere.

When the current social media sites die off and you move your entire social media presence to the next one, your fans will still be checking the same email address.

People change their phone number more often than they change their email address, marinate on that for a while.

While there are many 3rd party services available to help you handle your email marketing, we personally recommend Topspin Media.

Topspin is a service that is specifically designs for musicians and allows you to manage your email list and ecommerce for physical and digital products. If you look at the bottom of this website, or the top of the sidebar, you’ll see a Topspin widget in use.

How do you get people to sign up? Using topspin, you have the ability to offer something in exchange for the users email address…an incentive to sign up. They call this “Email for Media” and it works great.

For our Atlanta Music Festival, we offered a full download of our music sampler in exchange for an email address, and used this as a promotional tool before the festival. It worked and we gathered a ton of new email addresses during that period.

Calendar of Upcoming Shows

Since these people are interested enough in you to be on your website, there is a good chance they want to know when you are playing next.

There are many easy ways to get a calendar on your website. The easiest way we have found is by embedding a Google Calendar directly into the website.

If you visit our Atlanta Music Calendar, you’ll see it is just a Google Calendar resting right inside of our page.

Several of the musicians social networks also allow you to maintain calendars, and sometimes have embed codes for those as well. Regardless of the solution you choose, be sure to let your fans know when you are playing next and you’ll see more of those bright smiling faces at your shows.

Videos and Photos

This one is especially important, and here is why. As a promoter, when you email me and say “OMG I have the greatest band ever and we want to play your shows, BOOK US PLEASE!!!!”.

The first thing I am going to do is look for a live video of your performance. I want to see if you have good stage presence, make sure your songs don’t suck live, and what the crowd reaction is to that.

As a fan of music, I also like to watch my favorite bands videos. They can be live videos, interviews, funny skits, or whatever they are doing. Entertain me and I’ll watch all of your videos.

There is nothing special about the way I think or feel here, this is true for most people. Give them what they want.

Photos are also a great way to make your band look more awesome than you probably are.

Get a professional to take some good shots of your band and make you look good. Use these on your website and your press kit…(side note, at this point, your website should be your EPK)

Take a second and think about this as a way to full engage your fans and use this fine piece of technology we call a website.

You are on stage at your next performance, you tell everyone to raise their hands, and then you take a picture with your fancy pocket computer..err cell phone… and immediately send it to your website, that then sends it to Twitter and Facebook with a link back to your site. All in an instant, your are engaging your fans in person and those that didn’t make it to the show.

Contact Information

You NEVER know who is browsing your site. If you are actually on your hustle there is a good chance that someone that can hook you up is going to land on your site.

As a booking agent, I know when I get to a bands website that does not have easily accessible contact information, I move on.

There are far too many good artists out there who DO have their shit together that I can work with.

Make it as easy as possible for people to get in touch with you and there is a much greater chance that they will get in touch with you.

Press

Positive social proof is one of the most powerful marketing tools in your arsenal. What does this mean? It means that you need to showcase all the great things others are saying about you.

If you get a good review from a magazine or blogger, use that to let people know that other people care. The majority of people are not ones to lead, they are followers. They like to know someone else thinks you are awesome, which confirms their own thoughts that you are awesome.

Take the time to put the best press that you’ve received on display on your website.

Bio / About

Holding true for most businesses, including an artists website, the About page is the second most visited page after the home page.

When people land on your site, regardless of the page they land on, if they are interested they naturally want to know more…so they look for and click on the “About” page.

This page is a great place to do the following:

  • Let fans know they are in the right place
  • Call to action
  • Show fans that other people think you are awesome in the form of testimonials
  • Call to action
  • Talk about the bands history
  • Call to action

Sounds like a lot of asking, but it works. For a good example of a high converting about page, check out our About page.

Blog

Your blog is a great resource for bringing traffic to your website. It allows you to post new content to your website, as well as archive it.

Make a new blog post, send the link out to your social media sites, and watch the traffic come in.

Here at Hijacking Music, we use our blog to post upcoming shows, new music, new videos, these DIY Musicians Guide articles, interviews, and much more.

For some of our artists, their websites are designed so that they can post new videos or photos to specific categories, then display all of those photos/videos on one page as an archive. This gives your users easy access to all those great images and videos you’ve been posting before they found you and became a fan.

Have Any Questions?

This is just a high level look at artists websites. We will go deeper into each one of these sections later in the guide to really give you a strong understanding of which tools to use, and how to use them.

If you have any specific questions right now, let us know on Twitter or Facebook and we’ll try to help you out.

Thanks for reading, share this with your friends :)

- This post is part of the DIY Musicians Guide -

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Living in the Cloud with Google Account Mastery

in DIY Music Guide

As a DIY artists, some of the roles you’ll be playing might include booking agent, social media manager, master of the website, marketer, public relations, fulfillment..the list goes on.

So outside of just making good music, you’ll be doing a ton of things online that require management and maintenance. It’s hard to keep up with these things, but we are going to give you some tips that will make your life easier and save you time.

Thanks to our good friend Technology, we now have what some call ‘the cloud’, which is where we are going to be managing much of the day to day administrative stuff we need to do.

“Cloud computing is the delivery of computing as a service rather than a product…” – wikipedia

So instead of having to store your data and files on your own computer which can get lost, stolen, or damaged, you can storm them on ‘the cloud’ or ‘the internet’ through a 3rd party service. This allows for easy sharing of these files or data.

If you want to learn more about the technical details, google it

Enough of that, let’s get started with and see how we here at Hijacking Music are using a single Google account to manage everything.

Google Account Mastery

Google has managed to make it so easy to manage everything with one Google account, it’s almost stupid not to use them.

Just because Google says so doesn’t mean I say so, but they are some smart people doing some smart things, I just choose to take advantage of that.

Here are some of the ways we use our Google account here at Hijacking Music.

Gmail

If you send a message to the email address I give you when we meet, it says “thinkbig@hijackingmusic.com”, which is set to forward to our Gmail account where I can manage all emails.

I have access to this account from any computer anywhere in the world, as well as my phone which is with me almost always. If I need to access it, it’s not stuck at home on my computer on my desk, it’s available anywhere.

You can set up a Gmail account to ‘send as’ a different email than your @gmail.com address. For example, when I reply to you when you send me the email, you’ll receive it as ‘From: thinkbig@hijackingmusic.com”.

We actually have several email addresses that filter into a single Gmail account which makes managing them easier.

Google Calendar

You might have seen it already, but we host an Atlanta Music Calendar right here on this website. Several people, through their own personal Google accounts, have shared access to this calendar. They can make updates from that Google account, which will be reflected right there on that page instantly.

You could use this to manage your tour schedule, band practices, meet and greets, etc.

Don’t forget, this is also available from any computer or smart phone anywhere anytime because it’s ‘in the cloud’.

Google Documents

Google Docs is one of my favorite cloud applications. I’ve been using it for many years to manage all kinds of data.

As Hijacking Music we use it to share important documents and files. We have things like

  • Booking spreadsheet
  • Account login document
  • Expense spreadsheet
  • Out of state touring bands list
  • Meeting notes document
  • Marketing strategy outline document

You get the idea. Any kind of similar document you would save on your own hard drive, you can store, organize, and manage at Gdocs. To boot, you can also access it from anywhere in the … alright I’ll stop but you get the idea.

Youtube

Guess you have probably already heard of this site no? If you are not putting videos on the internet, you are missing out on a valuable marketing tool.

Using your same Google account, you can access and manage everything at Youtube seamlessly.

Some videos you could be putting up include

  • Music Videos
  • Show Preview Videos
  • Live Performance Videos
  • In Studio / In Rehearsal Videos
  • Skits and Shorts
  • Interviews

Don’t be scared to get on camera, the people want to see you and know what you are all about. Give it to them…you ARE entertainer right?

Analytics

Google Analytics allows you to install some script to your website, then receive MEGA AMOUNTS of data in regard to who’s visiting your site, where they come from, what they did when they got there, and more.

If you are not tracking and measuring your stats, how will you know if you are doing better or worse online? The data Google Analytics gives you in extremely valuable and should not be overlooked.

The same goes for any analytics or metrics you can receive from social media sites, email campaigns, or anything else you are doing online.

If you do not have analytics already install on your website, get cracking!

Google +

The newest addition to the social arena from Google is Google Plus.

I know what you are thinking…”great, ANOTHER social network to join”

Here’s the thing, Google dominates and is not going anywhere. While, at the time of writing this, they might not have the largest membership of the social networks, they’ve already pass 40 million users, which is no small change.

Using your same Google account, you can utilize Google + to your advantage. Here are some ideas

  • Create Circles to manage fans in different states
  • Live webcam shows to any of your circles
  • Post pictures and videos straight from your phone
  • Advertise upcoming events

Google + is not going away any time soon, and is going to continue to gain traction in the social media world. If you are not already at least looking in to it, now is the time.

“My Brain Hurts Can You Stop Now?”

We almost decided to go into websites, ecommerce, and mailing lists on this article, but we’ll save it for another day :)

I hope you were able to take something away from this article. I challenge you now to go  get yourself organized.

There are many other tools out there that do the sames things mentioned here, the beauty of the Google account is single user account access to ALL of these things and the instant access you get from any device with an internet connection.

Share some of the ways you are using your Google account with us on Twitter or Facebook, would love to hear from you!

Did you see lasts weeks article about The Business Side Of An Aspiring Artist?

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The Business Side Of An Aspiring Artist

in DIY Music Guide,General

Here we are at part two of our upcoming DIY Musicians Guide. Last week we discussed some of the basic things you as a band needed to know before going from the basement to the stage.

This week we are going to take a brief look at something that has been the bane of many bands in the past. None other than our good friend Money!

Money is the driving force behind every industry on the planet, including this gem of a industry you are trying to break into. Behind the money are all kinds of business adventures just waiting to happen.

If you are unprepared, you could find yourself out of a band, or even worse, stuck in a band that is getting screwed.

Talk Money

For whatever reason, people do not like to talk about money. It’s on everyone’s mind day in and day out, it’s what gets most of us up out of bed every day, and is the #1 tool used by the most people the world over. So why not talk about it?

If you are ready to take your non-hobby band out of the basement, then it’s definitely time to talk about money.

Don’t be scared to bring it up, someone has to do it. The sooner you talk about it, the sooner everyone will be on the same page, and you can get back to making that awesome music.

The more you discuss it, the less painful or awkward and uncomfortable it will be, so try to make it a regular topic at your band meetings. Does not need to take up the whole meeting, but break down where you are at financially and what your goals are.

Getting Paid

Now that you are hitting the stage and promoting your shows, there is a good chance people are going to show up, and if you are lucky, pay to get in.

Standard practice at most smaller venues is the promoter and bands keep the door, the venue keeps the bar.

If you did your part in promoting and bringing folks out, you should get a cut of the door so talk to whoever put the show together. Remember when talking to your promoter, treat others as you wish to be treated.

In some cases, if not enough people show up, the ‘door’ fund is used to pay for production, aka the sound guy. If you didn’t bring anyone to the show, you will not be getting paid. Don’t get your feelings hurt, just promote better next time.

Other ways you will initially be making money is off of your merchandise. I can not stress this enough, GET MERCH, HAVE MERCH, PEOPLE WANT YOUR MERCH.

The first time I met Andre 3000 of Outkast, he walked into a small club here in Atlanta asking “where’s the merch, where’s the albums?”.

NONE..I repeat..zero percent of the bands performing that night had anything at all to offer in regard to merchandise. Fortunately, we had some stuff for other bands that were not playing that night in the car and hooked him up.

People want to take a piece of your awesomeness home with them and show it off to their friends, and you never know who that person might be.

Cash Box vs Bank Account

Let me start by saying this is NOT YOUR JOB…at least not yet. You should not expect to be paying your rent from your shows right away. Keep your day job for now.

Since you have a job, and do not need that $25 split from playing your local bar, what should happen to that money?

SAVE IT! Invest it back into the business, your band, because you are going to need it to pay for gas, merch, a van, food, hotels, recording, and a ton of other stuff..

The more you can earn with your band and not have to come out of pocket, the better off you’ll be. Consider yourselves all equal investors into this business, and every time you make some profit, you each are investing it for future growth.

Where should you save it? Two options, your cash box, or a bank account.

Not every band, nor every business, is going to make it. During your early phase of making money, it’s probably safe to have someone keeping the funds in a cash box in their closet for now. You should certainly be keeping tabs on money coming in and money going out, but it’s not necessary to jump right into a bank account.

Once you are sure about sticking it out as a group, move into a Bank Account. You can get a joint account that several members can have access to if you want. My recommendation is to have at least two persons on the account allowed to retrieve the funds when needed in case one of them flips out and runs away.

Business License

Should you get a business license for your band? The simple answer is yes you should.

When should you get it? That’s up for debate, but here is what mentors have told me.

Get started first, get the ball rolling, and get some cash flowing. Once you have established that you are still interested after that point, go ahead and legitimize the business.

Use some of the funds that you’ve been saving in your cash box, register your business, and get a Tax ID. Once you have this, you can start to write off almost everything you need to purchase for your group. The merch, gas for touring, instruments, food, etc.

Writing off purchases used to build your business is a great way to save money in the long run.

Also, having a business license is going to make it easy for you to get paid the right way once your group has a large enough fund to start paying the band members.

Let’s Recap

Talk openly with your group about money so that it’s not a stigma. Set financial goals.

Once you hit the scene, it’s time to start getting paid from shows and merchandise.

Save your money as a group and invest it back into the business that is your band. Start with a cash box, move into a bank account.

Get a business license and Tax ID so that you can write off your band purchases, as well as legitimize your business.

Thanks for reading! If you have any comments or suggestions, tell us on Facebook or Twitter.

Did you see our previous article Before Playing Outside Your Mothers Basement, Your Band Should Know This?

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Before Playing Outside Your Mothers Basement, Your Band Should Know This

in DIY Music Guide,General

This guide is going to assume that your band does not suck. You’ve already put together some killer material and are ready to take it to the people.

You are done playing to nobody in your basement because you are the next big thing. You’ve been a long time coming and if the people have to wait any longer to know and love you, they might just die.

Getting to this point is worthy of it’s own guide which we may tackle in the future. For now, you are all diamonds in the rough exploding with the potential to go global and be a rock star.

Is this a Hobby or a Profession?

If you are reading this guide, you are probably not in or working on a hobby band. You are likely a serious musician that is interested in taking your art out into the world.

Even more than that, you are interested in finding a way to turn your artistic talent into a source of income.

For the purposes of this guide, we are going to call that the ‘Pro’ mindset.

One thing that should be cleared up right away about the Pro mindset. If you are going to go down this path, you must realize that this is a business. You’ll have to learn how to separate the creative from the business end, and once mastered, you’ll be an unstoppable machine.

Alternatively we have the ‘Hobby’ mindset. This person may be the most talented artist you’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing.

This person also has no desire to play in front of a raging crowd of people or even make money from their music.

Neither mindset is a bad one, they just need to be matched up. If you are serious about taking your music to the next level, you should probably find other musicians who are also willing to put in the time and do what it takes to make that happen.

Working with someone who has the hobby mindset is only going to be frustrating and poisonous to the overall group when the time comes to really move forward as a professional musician.

Find people who share your mindset and you’ll save yourself a ton of time and headache.

Who is the Leader of the band?

I’ve met a ton of bands over time, as well as put on many shows. Doing this allowed me the opportunity to work with more bands than I can remember.

What I have found is there is a natural echelon that occurs. If and when everyone is on the same page, it helps the success of the band that much more.

Someone in your band is the real go getter. They set up all the practices, book all the shows, make sure the merch is ordered, work the website and social media accounts, and generally do all the administrative stuff that comes with being in a band.

I am going to step out on a limb and say that if you are reading this, you are that person.

That person is a leader, and is going to put everything they have into making it work.

There is no way that this leader is going to be able to handle everything required of them without delegating some of it out. This can be to other members of the band, or if they are unwilling to participate in that way, outsource it completely.

As with any business, there could be more than one leader or ‘partner’ when starting. Just be sure that everyone is on the same page with what is expected of them. Make sure to keep a system of accountability.

Separating Business and Art

As mentioned earlier, you’ll need to learn to separate the business part of this industry from the creative. At the core, you are an artist and entertainer.

The only reason you think you can make it as a professional is because you have loads of talent that, if enough people could just hear it, would set you up financially.

It is real easy to let the stress from doing all the administrative things required of a successful group bring you down and take the fun out of it. When the fun leaves, and your mind can not be free, it is much harder to reach your creative place where the magic happens.

The easiest way we have found to work through this is to set up specific times for the two different activities.

Once a week, find a day and time that works for everyone to meet up and talk shop. Even if the Leader is doing most of the work, the Followers need to be there to support and hold them accountable.

Use this time to discuss all the booking, financial, and strategy, as well as vent any frustrations with how things are going with the group, etc. Try to make this meeting happen away from the practice space. Being too close to their instruments, musicians love to ‘noodle’ and it will be harder for everyone to pay attention.

That said, when it’s time for writing or rehearsal, keep the business stuff to a minimum. Leave it at the door so that you can really get into that creative space.

Managing the Financial Stuff

From day one the financial items should be discussed and noted. This doesn’t mean you need to go out and hire an accountant(though that is never a bad idea when starting a business), but it does mean you should be keeping records, setting budgets and goals, etc.

Our suggestion is that no one in the band gets paid at first, instead keep all of the incoming cash from shows, merchandise, and other sales as a band fund.

Think about this example. You are in a band totaling 4 members. You guys play a show and make $200. Split that’s $50 each which goes about as far as a full tank of gas. That $200 however is a much larger amount that could be used for buying merchandise, printing flyers for your upcoming shows, replacing strings, picks and sticks, and more.

Money has torn many a band apart because it was not taken care of properly, not talked about enough, and generally miss used. If you are serious about being a successful musician, you need to invest in your business.

Keep a steady part time job to pay your own bills while you build, and let any income from being an artist feed that business until it’s sustainable enough to also pay your bills.

The Rap…err Wrap Up

Of course there are many other things you should probably know before playing out, but if you tackle these, the foundation for your group is going to be much strong.

Thanks for reading!

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