The music industry changes fast. Artists need to adapt quickly, and so do their managers. In the past, acts often lost money on tour, so they could promote their albums. Artists and managers alike would reap the profit generated from the hefty sales of their recorded music. First, piracy took a huge chunk of that…
Booking and playing shows is often the backbone of an artist’s career. As you may well know, the booking part can be a challenging and tedious process. When you’re an indie artist, you’re always working with promoters who are basically taking a chance on you. Like most artists, indie promoters are not making a lot…
Music managers tend to be a bit of a mystery to artists. How do you get one? What do they do? How do you know if they’re a good manager? This contract is scary – how do I know I’m getting a good deal? Hiring a manager is not a decision to be taken lightly….
It’s all well and good to delve into the business side of music – necessary, even. But does it ever seem like you have too many tasks on your hands? Do you have a tough time completing them all, and even when you do, dread the thought of having to do just as much work…
A booking agent is one of the most important team members to bring on board. Many artists actually start with an agent, even before they have management and label support. The reason for this is that there are many levels and types of agents, and you are not obligated to stay with the same one…
Sure, you’re an indie artist now, but what about in five years? 10 years? Will you still be completely independent? At some point you’ll (hopefully) have too much on your plate do it all yourself. Generally speaking, your team will be built slowly over the course of many months/years. Indie artists spend a great deal…
In 2015, I received my first offer for management. It was a very exciting development, and I was looking forward to exploring this new aspect of my career… then I saw the contract. What was in there surprised me and at times – even horrified me. I’m an independent musician, and my entire salary comes…
Welcome back to the second part of this guide on using Odesk for musicians. In the first part we looked at what Odesk is (the sister site to Elance, a similar team building website), how it can be useful for you as a musician, how much you should pay any freelancers you find and more….
Don’t have enough time to handle all aspects of your music career? Need help with the business side of the music industry? Then Odesk might be able to help you as a musician. Odesk is an online marketplace which connects people who need others to work for them and are willing to pay for that….
If you want to consistently present yourself well as a musician, you can’t do everything by yourself. You won’t have the time needed to do everything, and most likely you won’t have all the needed skills. This is why all big musicians have teams around them, whether or not the team is formed by a…
Welcome to part two of our series on building and managing a successful online stream team. If you want to build a ‘real world’ offline street team, this guide will also help you too. It’s my hope that musicians, record labels, and others in the music industry will be able to use this to form…
Being an independent musician over one who’s signed seems to be the cool thing to do these days. But while it’s become possible for independent musicians to market themselves without the help of a record label, that doesn’t mean you can make a success of your music career by yourself. The simple fact it, you’re…