Tom Hess, music career success coach to musicians around the world and guitar player in the 1.5+ million record selling epic metal band Rhapsody Of Fire offers his insights on reaching a high level of success in the music business.
What is it that gives some musicians the ability to develop highly successful music careers while other musicians have a hard time earning any money with music? In several of my previous articles on music career success, I explained how a great deal of success as a musician comes from building your value while reducing your risk. This applies to every single person you come into contact with (if you have not read about this concept yet, take this quick musician success test before you continue reading this article). Becoming familiar with this concept may be the difference between great success and little success in your music career. However, simply being familiar with it will not bring you what you want; you must do more than just ‘understand' an idea before you can use it to achieve success in your music career
When mentoring musicians to become successful in the music business, the above concept is one of the core elements of music career success that I train them to possess. I found that musicians have no trouble comprehending the need to reduce their music industry risks in traditional, self-evident ways. At the same time, most people do not see how even their ‘assets' (positive things they bring to the table as musicians) also contain elements of risk for the music industry. This lack of awareness makes it much more difficult (if not impossible) to reach lasting success in one's career as a professional musician.
To end up as one of the few highly successful musicians, you MUST find out how to reduce the inherent weak points that lie on the opposite extreme of your music career strengths. As you read the rest of this article, I will demonstrate how to do this and explain how this analysis will bring you closer to the music career success that you want.
The Introspective Character Of A Professional Musician
In the process of working towards a music career, you have no doubt spent a lot of time to acquire skill sets with intention of using them in your musical projects. These can be described as your ‘music industry assets'. However, like most people and musicians, you likely developed these assets without a strategic understanding of how each element will lead you to your ultimate long term goal (this is typical of musicians who come to me without any prior music career training). This makes it even more likely that the musical skills and the music business experience you acquired all contain contrasting weaknesses that can in many cases overpower your positive sides if you let them go unnoticed. I observe this unfortunate scenario very often in musicians in all areas of the music business, and the most frustrating part is that this frequently happens without them being aware of it.
To accelerate the advancement of your career as a pro musician, learn to get the most from your positive attributes while minimizing the negative/opposing weaknesses that they create in your music career strategy. All musicians with a thriving career do/have done this at one point or another, while those who fail to become successful continue to wonder why some musicians can ‘make it' in the business and they can't. The good news is that it is possible for anyone to get on the right track with their approach and I will explain how to get started as you keep reading.
To help you perform this analysis on your own, consider the list below. I will list for you several common music career credentials (written in the left column of the table) that many musicians have. Next to it, I will describe how each of these assets can also become a very serious weakness (element of music career risk). The items listed below are some of the most common problems I have to correct when I work with musicians in my music career development program to help them become a successful professional musician (even though the list below is certainly not complete). There are many more elements of music career values and risks that I could list, but to keep this article on point I have narrowed it down to the points described below.
Note: Of course as a general rule, the items you will read about in the left column of the table are good/positive (at least when taken in isolation). However as you will see, when taken in context of your specific goals they also often contain unexpected weaknesses that can hurt you unless you take proper actions to prevent this from happening.
Your List Of Music Career Values And Assets
Your Assets' Matching Element Of Risk
You very self-reliant and dependable.
While self-reliance is an excellent personal attribute, musicians who are not used to working (effectively) with others will have a much harder time getting ahead in the music industry which REQUIRES one to be an experienced team player. Moreover, relying only upon yourself for everything can make it difficult for you to request help at times when your music career can truly benefit from it.
You have played, performed and toured with many different bands.
This ‘credential' can very often be perceived as showing a big lack of loyalty and commitment on your end to any one project. Even though your ‘actual' loyalty and commitment may both be at a high level, you must be careful about controlling the perceptions that are created (in the minds of others) when you mention your past experience in the process of trying to advance your career.
You are very accommodating and are able to resolve conflicts to collaborate with others.
Musicians who go out of their way to be too accommodating often get taken advantage of when negotiating contracts and business deals (that happen all the time in the music industry).
You have a high level of work ethic and persistence.
Much too often, the positive qualities of persistence can go to the opposite extreme of making one ‘pigheaded'. This will be likely to keep you moving down the same incorrect path that you have been on for years without realizing it in your music career.
You are a jack of all trades player on many instruments.
Outside of the narrow realm of session work and writing music for others, you will be perceived as a better musician if you are considered a true MASTER of a single instrument. Before you invest years of your life trying to become a jack of all trades, consider how you would rather be perceived in the industry. Note: That being said, for your general music knowledge it is certainly helpful to study multiple instruments, but there is a big difference between doing that and trying to ‘market' yourself as a jack of all trades type of musician.
You are a musician who plays multiple different styles of music.
Unless you want to make a living mainly as a songwriter for hire, it will be better for you to establish your musical reputation as a specialist in a single genre of music. Most bands and record companies prefer to work with someone who is an expert in the specific music they do. Think hard about where you want to see yourself in the music industry and take actions appropriately.
You easily come up with new plans and ideas.
Many people to whom this applies are notorious for being involved with dozens of projects but not bringing any of them to completion. To add to the obvious risk of burnout and frustration, an overly high level of enthusiasm can make it difficult to think things through rationally as you decide on a course of action.
You are good at thinking things through.
People who are too analytical in everything they do have a tendency to get stuck for too long in ‘planning' and spend too little time actually ‘doing' the things that will move them forward in their music careers. Although it is good to analyze issues from all angles, it is important to keep this quality balanced with the ability to take consistent action on a regular basis.
You have great musical skills.
As important as it is to continuously work on your craft as a musician, too many musicians make the mistake of focusing all of their time ONLY on their musical skills at the expense of investing any time on their music ‘career'. Unfortunately, superior musical skills alone are NOT enough to guarantee you a thriving life in the music business. Therefore it is critical to have balance between how you invest your time.
You went to college for music.
While having a music degree is good for your musical skills, this credential is meaningless for helping you to sustain a professional music ‘career'. For proof, consider how many musicians graduate with advanced music degrees and struggle to find work and make a living despite their impressive academic achievements. You can often spend your money and time more wisely by receiving actual ‘music business' coaching from someone who has already reached the success you are after.
After having seen how and why your music career assets can also become your weaknesses, there are a few things you need to do right now to maximize your chances for success for doing music as a career.
1. Keep in mind that not all of your music career strengths are created equal. Some (or most) may also contain hidden elements of risk when analyzed from the viewpoint of your long term goals in the music business. Certain elements that may at first seem overwhelmingly positive can very often do more harm than good (as you have seen in the above analysis).
2. Make it a priority to obtain the clearest picture of your current risks and value items for your musical career. To get with this, fill out this quick musician success test.
3. Design a plan for organizing the actions you plan to take to grow your music career. This means to write out the music career value assets you must develop to reach your specific goals and also think about how you will seek to eliminate the conflicting weaknesses that come along with them. You will have a much easier time doing this step of the process if you work with a proven music career trainer who has already coached musicians just like you to reach success in the music business.
4. Get used to the fact that music career success depends on having a laser-like focus on your goals, as well as ongoing training. Most musicians (similar to entrepreneurs) lack the perseverance needed to plan their career in a strategic way and instead rely on instincts and intuition alone. Although it can be helpful to rely on your gut feeling occasionally, doing ‘only' this will make your music career results unpredictable and random.
Additionally, realize that all things that you do to grow your music career will have limited effect on your progress until you get clarity on elements of your psychological profile of strengths and weaknesses as described in this article. The good news is that after discovering the best ways to mine the maximum results out of yourself, you will find yourself moving much faster towards your goals as a professional musician.
To get more insight into your personal values and risks, take this free musician success test.
What is it that gives some musicians the ability to develop highly successful music careers while other musicians have a hard time earning any money with music? In several of my previous articles on music career success, I explained how a great deal of success as a musician comes from building your value while reducing your risk. This applies to every single person you come into contact with (if you have not read about this concept yet, take this quick musician success test before you continue reading this article). Becoming familiar with this concept may be the difference between great success and little success in your music career. However, simply being familiar with it will not bring you what you want; you must do more than just ‘understand' an idea before you can use it to achieve success in your music career
When mentoring musicians to become successful in the music business, the above concept is one of the core elements of music career success that I train them to possess. I found that musicians have no trouble comprehending the need to reduce their music industry risks in traditional, self-evident ways. At the same time, most people do not see how even their ‘assets' (positive things they bring to the table as musicians) also contain elements of risk for the music industry. This lack of awareness makes it much more difficult (if not impossible) to reach lasting success in one's career as a professional musician.
To end up as one of the few highly successful musicians, you MUST find out how to reduce the inherent weak points that lie on the opposite extreme of your music career strengths. As you read the rest of this article, I will demonstrate how to do this and explain how this analysis will bring you closer to the music career success that you want.
The Introspective Character Of A Professional Musician
In the process of working towards a music career, you have no doubt spent a lot of time to acquire skill sets with intention of using them in your musical projects. These can be described as your ‘music industry assets'. However, like most people and musicians, you likely developed these assets without a strategic understanding of how each element will lead you to your ultimate long term goal (this is typical of musicians who come to me without any prior music career training). This makes it even more likely that the musical skills and the music business experience you acquired all contain contrasting weaknesses that can in many cases overpower your positive sides if you let them go unnoticed. I observe this unfortunate scenario very often in musicians in all areas of the music business, and the most frustrating part is that this frequently happens without them being aware of it.
To accelerate the advancement of your career as a pro musician, learn to get the most from your positive attributes while minimizing the negative/opposing weaknesses that they create in your music career strategy. All musicians with a thriving career do/have done this at one point or another, while those who fail to become successful continue to wonder why some musicians can ‘make it' in the business and they can't. The good news is that it is possible for anyone to get on the right track with their approach and I will explain how to get started as you keep reading.
To help you perform this analysis on your own, consider the list below. I will list for you several common music career credentials (written in the left column of the table) that many musicians have. Next to it, I will describe how each of these assets can also become a very serious weakness (element of music career risk). The items listed below are some of the most common problems I have to correct when I work with musicians in my music career development program to help them become a successful professional musician (even though the list below is certainly not complete). There are many more elements of music career values and risks that I could list, but to keep this article on point I have narrowed it down to the points described below.
Note: Of course as a general rule, the items you will read about in the left column of the table are good/positive (at least when taken in isolation). However as you will see, when taken in context of your specific goals they also often contain unexpected weaknesses that can hurt you unless you take proper actions to prevent this from happening.
Your List Of Music Career Values And Assets
Your Assets' Matching Element Of Risk
You very self-reliant and dependable.
While self-reliance is an excellent personal attribute, musicians who are not used to working (effectively) with others will have a much harder time getting ahead in the music industry which REQUIRES one to be an experienced team player. Moreover, relying only upon yourself for everything can make it difficult for you to request help at times when your music career can truly benefit from it.
You have played, performed and toured with many different bands.
This ‘credential' can very often be perceived as showing a big lack of loyalty and commitment on your end to any one project. Even though your ‘actual' loyalty and commitment may both be at a high level, you must be careful about controlling the perceptions that are created (in the minds of others) when you mention your past experience in the process of trying to advance your career.
You are very accommodating and are able to resolve conflicts to collaborate with others.
Musicians who go out of their way to be too accommodating often get taken advantage of when negotiating contracts and business deals (that happen all the time in the music industry).
You have a high level of work ethic and persistence.
Much too often, the positive qualities of persistence can go to the opposite extreme of making one ‘pigheaded'. This will be likely to keep you moving down the same incorrect path that you have been on for years without realizing it in your music career.
You are a jack of all trades player on many instruments.
Outside of the narrow realm of session work and writing music for others, you will be perceived as a better musician if you are considered a true MASTER of a single instrument. Before you invest years of your life trying to become a jack of all trades, consider how you would rather be perceived in the industry. Note: That being said, for your general music knowledge it is certainly helpful to study multiple instruments, but there is a big difference between doing that and trying to ‘market' yourself as a jack of all trades type of musician.
You are a musician who plays multiple different styles of music.
Unless you want to make a living mainly as a songwriter for hire, it will be better for you to establish your musical reputation as a specialist in a single genre of music. Most bands and record companies prefer to work with someone who is an expert in the specific music they do. Think hard about where you want to see yourself in the music industry and take actions appropriately.
You easily come up with new plans and ideas.
Many people to whom this applies are notorious for being involved with dozens of projects but not bringing any of them to completion. To add to the obvious risk of burnout and frustration, an overly high level of enthusiasm can make it difficult to think things through rationally as you decide on a course of action.
You are good at thinking things through.
People who are too analytical in everything they do have a tendency to get stuck for too long in ‘planning' and spend too little time actually ‘doing' the things that will move them forward in their music careers. Although it is good to analyze issues from all angles, it is important to keep this quality balanced with the ability to take consistent action on a regular basis.
You have great musical skills.
As important as it is to continuously work on your craft as a musician, too many musicians make the mistake of focusing all of their time ONLY on their musical skills at the expense of investing any time on their music ‘career'. Unfortunately, superior musical skills alone are NOT enough to guarantee you a thriving life in the music business. Therefore it is critical to have balance between how you invest your time.
You went to college for music.
While having a music degree is good for your musical skills, this credential is meaningless for helping you to sustain a professional music ‘career'. For proof, consider how many musicians graduate with advanced music degrees and struggle to find work and make a living despite their impressive academic achievements. You can often spend your money and time more wisely by receiving actual ‘music business' coaching from someone who has already reached the success you are after.
After having seen how and why your music career assets can also become your weaknesses, there are a few things you need to do right now to maximize your chances for success for doing music as a career.
1. Keep in mind that not all of your music career strengths are created equal. Some (or most) may also contain hidden elements of risk when analyzed from the viewpoint of your long term goals in the music business. Certain elements that may at first seem overwhelmingly positive can very often do more harm than good (as you have seen in the above analysis).
2. Make it a priority to obtain the clearest picture of your current risks and value items for your musical career. To get with this, fill out this quick musician success test.
3. Design a plan for organizing the actions you plan to take to grow your music career. This means to write out the music career value assets you must develop to reach your specific goals and also think about how you will seek to eliminate the conflicting weaknesses that come along with them. You will have a much easier time doing this step of the process if you work with a proven music career trainer who has already coached musicians just like you to reach success in the music business.
4. Get used to the fact that music career success depends on having a laser-like focus on your goals, as well as ongoing training. Most musicians (similar to entrepreneurs) lack the perseverance needed to plan their career in a strategic way and instead rely on instincts and intuition alone. Although it can be helpful to rely on your gut feeling occasionally, doing ‘only' this will make your music career results unpredictable and random.
Additionally, realize that all things that you do to grow your music career will have limited effect on your progress until you get clarity on elements of your psychological profile of strengths and weaknesses as described in this article. The good news is that after discovering the best ways to mine the maximum results out of yourself, you will find yourself moving much faster towards your goals as a professional musician.
To get more insight into your personal values and risks, take this free musician success test.
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