Advice For Musicians: 6 Top Tips
Here are six crucial pieces of advice for musicians to help navigate the music industry effectively. Master these essentials to elevate your career and stand out from the competition.
by Sammy Hakim of Bandzoogle
As an artist, your job is to create meaningful and lasting art. But with all the pressures of the modern world, the ‘artist’ has morphed into a multi-conglomerate business venture. With parasocial relationships demanding more from artists than ever, putting yourself out there in the world can be a scary venture. After all, meaningful and lasting art is usually art that shares vulnerable and realistic parts of your psyche, self-expression, or worldview.
Putting yourself out there like that can be daunting, even if it is rewarding. So whether you’re a seasoned artist, or somebody looking to take the plunge and start releasing your art into the world, we’re here to help out. Because all of us need a reminder sometimes.
Here are 6 tips that every artist should know.
1. Not everyone is going to be for you
First and foremost, one of the most important things to know when entering an artistic field is that not everyone is going to be ‘for you.’ To put it in simpler terms, you are going to find people who don’t like you, or ‘haters’, so to speak.
Simon Cowell, the legendary A&R, judge and creator of “X Factor” and “Got Talent” once said the ideal thing to be is ‘marmite’. Something so unique that people either absolutely love it, or hate it. The idea is to leave people with a strong opinion either way. So if you’re putting your art out there and getting a mixed response? Keep going. As long as you’re happy in what you’re creating, you’ll find the people ‘for you’ along the way.
2. Niche, Niche, Niche
Find your niche! Now, I know there are going to be people out there thinking that sticking to one artistic niche may limit your audience.
On the contrary, having a niche could fuel it instead. Think about supply and demand. If you’re a niche artist, making art that is great for your brand and hard to find anywhere else, the demand for your art will be higher than if you just make music, paint, etc, for the common audience.
Niches will get you riches!
Besides, seven loyal fans can be more fulfilling and sustaining than a hundred casual ones. Especially if you plan to build your following using fan subscriptions at some point, following your niche and appealing to those fans will sustain you longer term. So follow your niche by fuelling your creativity and things will come full circle.
3. Art is selfish, performance is selfless
You should always create art for yourself. But when you’re performing, your art and expression is for others.
Let people perceive it, enjoy it, and remember that it’s no longer just about you. It has done what you intended and reached an audience, and the time of keeping it close to your chest is over.
At this point, performance releases your art to your supporters and fans.
4. Master the basics
Make sure you’ve mastered the basics of your skills and crafts. Whether that be songwriting, performing, painting, dancing, singing, or etc. Being a master at your specific craft will help you make sure you can perform, even when you’re having an off day.
And whether it’s sickness, an injury, or something going on in your personal life, we all have off days. Having mastered the basics means you’ll be able to better carry through.
5. Jack of all trades, pro at one.
Similarly to the tip above, an artist could be a jack of all trades. But it’s more important that they be a pro at one.
In the age of digital media, it’s important for artists to have an online presence to promote themselves. This can include an artist website, Smart Links, plus social and streaming sites. On top of that, you need to be an expert at your medium.
In some sense of the word, the modern artist is a Jack of All Trades. But really, you only need to be extraordinary at one of them; your niche skill, or the one main talent within your art medium that you plan to build your career around.
You can work at self-managing and music promotion as an indie artist for some time. Later in your career you can start to look at managers, assistants, and other hires. So try not to concern yourself too much with mastering these skills, outside of building that initial audience. One day you’ll have more help.
6. Keep going
No matter what happens, don’t give up on your dreams. If the last year of changes in the music industry has taught us anything, it’s that it takes years to make an ‘overnight’ success. For example, if Chappell Roan had given up a year or two ago, she would have never seen the success she has today. She made it here, despite all the adversity she faced. And you’ll make it to wherever you’re meant to end up too. So keep going.
In conclusion, art is a purely subjective form of expression and world view. As an artist, it’s our job to share those parts of ourselves that force their way onto our pages, into our music, and canvas and art. Though there are many different ways and types of art in which to do so, never giving up, and being a master of your chosen skills will help you carry on, even in the hardest moments.
We hope these tips help you along your artistic journey. Remember, you’ve got this. There’s no right or wrong way to be an artist. Just have fun, keep going, and as always, happy creating.
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Sammy Hakim is an up-and-coming young songwriter based in Los Angeles. In May 2018 she graduated from Berklee College of Music with a Major in songwriting and a focus in music business. These days she spends most of her time in songwriting sessions with artists all over the country.
