3 Common Mistakes Made By Independant Musicians

CD Baby's DIY Musician blog always has a lot of good tidbits for those still struggling in the musical trenches, which I know is most of you. You can read this entire article regarding the "3 Most Common Mistakes Made By Independant Musicians," but I'll summarize the major points made in the article about the 3 mistakes here with my spin.

1. You don't monetize your live shows. If you're just starting out, you need the stage time to get tight so this point won't matter, but if you've been playing for a while and have built at least a small fanbase, it's time take advantage. Make sure that you have something to sell, either T-shirts, hats, CDs, flash drives with your music, but make it affordable. The money is cool, but the free advertising by the fans is better.

 2. Don't focus on getting signed. First of all, why would you want to in this day and age? Second of all, even if you do, your best bet is to develop as big an audience as you can. Remember the following because it's really true: Labels don't sign you for your music, they sign you for your audience. They really don't care how good you are, but if you have a line around the block, they'll come knocking at your door and you won't need to contact them. 

3. Treat your music like a business. Why do you think they call it the "music business"? You have to have fun with your music or it's not worth doing, but you have to consider the business of what you're doing as well. There are loads of places to get advice on this, but since you're reading this, check out the archives of this blog for lots of business tips. It's also a good idea to watch this Henry Rollins video over on my Big Picture Production Blog for some inspiration.

There's my take on the DIY article, but you should check out the original post as well as it looks at the 3 points from a different angle.

-----------------------------------

Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.