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1. Never Stop Networking
Always seek to meet new people and develop and maintain relationships. This includes all people from all walks of life. You never know who they know or will meet. You can’t know who is going to move into a decision-making position that can influence your career. Plus, the more connections you have, the more people you can turn to if times get tough.
2. Don't take yourself too seriously
You don’t need to be perfect all of the time. Many people don’t like or wants to be around someone who can’t take a joke or laugh at himself. Know that you are going to make mistakes, and so will everyone around you. Do your best to avoid mistakes, but learn from them when it happens. Don’t let success go to your head! For the most part, keep it light.
3. Establish your Brand
Make it obvious what you want to be known for or known as. Understand that if you ignore this completely, the public will inevitably create the brand for you. Wouldn’t it be better for your reputation to be something that you designed and are proud to live with? You might want to come up with a tag line that sums up what you are all about. You may want to create your own genre of music. Once you have established your brand, work hard to dominate it. Keep in mind that your brand can be anything at all. For example, if your band plays a variety of genres and takes a wide variety of gigs, your brand might be wrapped around your versatility and adaptability.
4. Be Easy to Find
Make it easy for everyone to find you, listen to your music, buy your music and contact you. Once you’ve established your contact info, don’t change it. This is vital!. If someone wants to book you but can’t find your contact information, you will lose out. If they want to buy your music but can’t find it where they normally buy their music (iTunes, Amazon etc.), you will lose the sale. The easiest way to make it easy for people to find you is to have a good website with the name of your act as the domain name. Reserve your domain name for 10 years at a time so you don’t risk losing it. Make your email easy to remember as well by using yourname@yourwebsite.com.
5. Choose your team wisely
Your team consists of everyone from your band/group members to your booking agent, manager, attorney, business manager, sound and lighting techs or anyone else involved in your business. Remember that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Be sure that everyone on your team has your best interests at heart. Find people who are smarter than you and learn from them. Find people who are better musicians and/or singers and work to reach their levels.
6. Protect yourself legally
Never cut corners by acting as your own attorney. Have every contract reviewed before you sign them. Protect your intellectual property by registering your songs with the US Copyright office. Trademark your band name, your tag line and your logo if you have them. Have an attorney negotiate deals for/with you. Hire an experienced entertainment attorney for anything career-related. Your uncle Bob, the real estate attorney, just doesn’t know the nuances of the music industry.
7. Manage your Money wisely
There will be great times and there will be dead spells. You may be selling one song everywhere and not have the same success on your next one. Gigs can cancel. You might get sick or injured and can’t perform. Any number of things can go wrong. Develop a budget and stick with it. Put money aside for the lean times. Hire an accountant you trust. If your act is big enough, hire a respected business manager.
8. Take your music seriously
Set time aside every day to take care of business. Of course you just want to write songs and sing! But someone has to market the act, record the music, market the music, book the gigs, put together the press kits and the one page, send out the monthly newsletter, review the contracts, rehearse etc. If you can’t afford to hire others to do these for you, then it is up to you to insure that they get done.
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