essays & reflections on crafting a creative career
Monetizing your email list isn’t just about selling a few more CD’s every month. Though more sales is certainly a welcomed addition to getting your email list in order! This is about taking your subscriber on a journey from fan to customer to repeat customer to advocate.
The truth is, there may be a different perspective to take around making money in music. The most successful independent musicians I know are ones that are wearing multiple hats with different sources of income. Each hat is something that inspires and motivates them, gets them excited to get out of bed in the morning, and something that fulfills them. When what you are doing is fulfilling, the money becomes a secondary conversation.
Originally posted on Music Think Tank. It took some effort to leave my default self in the cold streets of Harlem, prior to entering City College Of New York’s Aaron Davis Hall. The theater of 600 seats was temporarily converted into an intimate space for developing new perspectives, dropping the “music careers are hard” bullsh&t, […]
I’ve written a lot about how to get results in your career, starting with getting clear on your goals, your purpose, and your assets. I’ve also often said that there’s no such thing as writer’s block- you just need to sit down and work. I’m going to expand on that a bit, and show you […]
I get a lot of questions about writing commercial music. For example: how did I became a jingle writer? and how is it possible to have a career as a songwriter and a career as a composer? Everyone that writes for ads has a different story of how they landed into the world of writing […]
Money. At times, just the mere thought of it (managing it, finding it, and keeping it) can bring out the worst in me. As a touring musician, a singer/songwriter and a freelance composer, I have struggled with my relationship to money and all the anxiety I let it breed in my life for quite a […]
As seen in Discmaker’s Echoes Blog. Spring cleaning is not just for ridding your closet full of worn sneakers, destroying dust bunnies, and scrubbing windows. I like to take the “It’s spring, I MUST clean something” energy and put it towards something other than the grossest stuff in my apartment. This year, it was my […]
The following is an excerpt from the e-course “In The Key Of Success: The Five Week Jump-Start Strategy”. You can get the rest of the course here to jump start your career today!
The next opportunity I want to suggest to you is asking your fans to pay for your new album. From June 2010 to March 2011, I raised over $25,000 in fan donations to fund the production of my record ONE UP. It’s possible, people. But no one will give you a dime if your campaign is “I really really want to make a record- please give me money!”. What is the opportunity for the participating fans?
While the corporate world and almost everyone else are out of the office for the holidays, I often struggle with this forced “downtime”; as a full-time musician, I’m never not working. I’m either plugging my next show, looking for the next film placement, writing a song, scheduling a band rehearsal, calling booking companies, or, at […]
Bodies, Butts, Ears