Photo Credit:  this Flickr Stream

If the music industry as we know it is a dying horse, then why are we putting so much effort into the things we used to do?  A little ludicrous if you ask me.  So what should we do you ask?

1.         Cut out the middle man.  Why spend all your efforts in screaming look at me to a label or a promoter that probably won’t give you the time of day until you prove to yourself and your community that you deserve to be noticed.  SO, why not take that energy and actually work those fingers to the bone.  Be your own little marketing manager and sit for an evening a week and think about what you can do that no one else has done in terms of something marketing wise…. Through video, sound, creative implementation or ways to give your fans what they want.  If you can connect to people and resonate with them and their needs, you will begin to see your tribe building healthily around you.

2.         Stop being lazy.  No one is going to do that work for you.  I can say this because I bought into this mindset for a long time.  If only I can get a label to notice me or find myself a manager that does all the hard work for me, then I’ll be set.  Wrongo.  You need to look at yourself honestly and say, do I love this art and what I do enough to work many hours a day to see it take off the ground?  If not, perhaps you’d better go find yourself a different avenue to walk in.

3.         Be a musician, but don’t join the “music industry.”  I have decided this is my tagline now.  I’m a musician, but I don’t play in the games of an industry that is crumbling around me.  I am picky about the places I play, the people I choose to work with and the way my art becomes manifested.  And I’m allowed to do that- why?  Because I am my own manager and creative mastermind.  I steep myself in blogs, research new things and think about what works for me and my specific business model.  I don’t let some big wig at label control what I do and how I do it.  I am on the level of every independent farmer, business owner and artist…. You know, the way it was always meant to be.

Think on these things…. And please share your own thoughts about being a performing artist in this ever-changing landscape.

~lme