As an artist coach and music entrepreneurship educator, most of my work with musicians centers around the tension between being self-employed and being an artist. More specifically, the difference between music and the business side of music. However, I also discovered that this distinction can result in some serious side-effects that do more harm than good. By merging these two separated boxes, artists can create a Win-Win: they infuse their business with more personality, purpose, and creativity, which makes these activities more your own, and, increases their career success simultaneously. The music business is often called a people business. Doesn’t it make more sense than to humanize the business side of your music as much as your art?
Is music vs business your default mode? Do you love the one, and strongly dislike the other? Then this article could be a game-changer for you!
In The Eye Of The Beholder
As human beings, we categorize. Case in point, we put art in box A and business in box B. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. There are good reasons why we categorize. It enables us to separate and focus, to dive deeper, to define, and organize things. After all, it’s hard to make decisions in life if there is no wrong or right. However, words are powerful and their impact doesn’t always get noticed. Especially when they’re part of some default mode of being we have internalized.
However, and this is where the trouble starts, based upon our worldview some ideas or beliefs will be more favorable than others. Which in turn influences in large part our level of interest in, understanding of, and the likelihood of putting these ideas into actions. This is exactly what I encounter with certain artists that have trouble creating a successful music career. They associate business with negative values, depersonalize it, and, because of a lack of understanding, play by some other person’s rule book. The result? A vicious circle of ever less motivated artists trying to level up their music career.
I’m here to tell you to play the game by your own rules. It’s possible and more, even necessary for real and meaningful success.
Everything You Do Communicates Who You Are
Let me ask you a question: do you love the business side of music? If your answer is “no”, what would it take for you to love music and the business side of music equally? Think about it. What needs to change?
In my view, the solution is fundamental, it’s how you define ‘business’. It’s how you perceive it to be and what it is for. Remember, business concepts are not tangible, they are abstract mental frameworks that need to be infused with meaning and action by the person utilizing them. Their very definition and intention to be applied with is 100% in your hands. That is an empowering notion.
Let’s take a counterintuitive approach. What happens when you merge the two boxes? Can a business task/objective reflect your art?
It can. And, I might add, it should, because that’s who you are and that’s what will attract people to you.
Let’s Put This To The Test
When was the last time you fundamentally questioned business concepts, like marketing, sales, networking, accounting, branding, or fundraising? Reflect on this for a moment. What do you associate with the word marketing? Or with the word entrepreneurship? If these words don’t resonate positively with you, then I’ve got a challenge for you. Right now, research the 2-3 business concepts you feel most inner resistance to. Why do they bring up so much resistance? Try to pinpoint the core problem. Why do you dislike marketing so much? Why do you hate creating a business plan, or networking?
Now, let’s try a possible solution.
Making It Your Own
I suggest trying two approaches:
- Research these career building blocks. What definitions of and approaches can you find? Is there an author/thinker out there with a take on these concepts that reflects your identity?
- Think of your core values. Next, look at the business task at hand. How would you execute this task whilst fully implementing your core values? What needs to change?
I Did It My Way
To paraphrase Frank Sinatra: you do it your way. This is a powerful sentence. It reminds me of the Miles Davis quote “Man, sometimes it takes you a long time to sound like yourself.“
Maybe you never thought about the business side of music like this before. But this is the most important shift you can make when turning pro. Look at business concepts and available tools and ask yourself: how can I use these in my way to express my humanity and serve my audience better?
Let’s play around a bit with an important business concept: marketing. How can you do this your way?
What Is Marketing?
As mentioned previously, there are two approaches, that in my view you have to both implement. Understanding the concept and the different approaches to it and understanding yourself.
Let’s take a basic approach to translate marketing to the reality of being a musician. As a musician, at its core, you have to do two things: one, to create great music, and two, to spread your music. The process of spreading your music from the sender (you) to the receiver (your audience) is where marketing comes in.
If marketing is part of Box B, you might associate marketing with things like buzz, hype, spin, clicks, and likes. At first glance, your goals seem to be to attract more fans, get booked, sell more albums, increase your Spotify streams, build a larger fanbase, and so on. It seems to all be about you. It appears to be about getting instead of giving.
Seth Godin wrote a great book on this subject. It’s called This Is Marketing. In it, he declares that the old model is dead and champions a different approach to marketing. To provide you with an initial understanding, here are four quotes from his book:
“Marketing is our quest to make a change on behalf of those we serve.“
“If you can bring someone belonging, connection, peace of mind, status, or one of the other most desired emotions, you’ve done something worthwhile. The thing you sell is simply a road to achieve those emotions, and we let everyone down when we focus on the tactics, not the outcomes. Who’s it for and what’s it for are the two questions that guide all of our decisions.”
“It’s impossible to create work that both matters and pleases everyone.”
“People don’t want what you make. They want what it will do for them.”
What does this mean for your marketing?
Infuse Your Marketing With More YOU
The above quotes from marketing expert Seth Godin paint an opposite picture to the old self-centered sales-orientated approach. It puts the emphasis on serving others, on adding value to their lives, on creating specific work that matters for specific people, on understanding what people truly need when they visit your concert or buy your album.
A social media post like: “Buy my latest album. Click here!”, when using his approach, becomes about sharing a track, describing its message or what the track is for (giving hope, dancing, working through trauma, sexy time, whatever).
You humanize your marketing and infuse it with values instead of your needs. Nobody likes needy people, right? By taking this approach, you try to solve their problems. Enrich their lives. Add beauty to their existence. Your own needs become secondary, the focus is on serving others. On contribution. The question becomes: how can this insert marketing action improve the lives of the receiver?
All your ways of communicating have one thing in common … YOU.
That what makes marketing work. That’s how you build deep connections. That’s how you create lasting relationships. By being you.
Merge Box A & B
But there is more.
After having infused your business with more of you, how can you infuse it with more of your art?
For marketing, it’s simple, instead of telling people about your art, you give them the experience. You give them a real taste of your music. You share a music video, you play the lead melody for a new song, you share your new single on Spotify, you create a playlist with your main influences for your new EP, you play an acoustic version in a fitting setting, etcetera. Your music becomes your marketing. It becomes a creative outlet instead of a sales pitch. You give people the experience of your art, instead of asking them for something. You add value to people’s lives instead of asking them to add value to yours. An artist understands that their music is two things: a gift and a commodity.
Business Is What You Want It To Be
Understanding business concepts and being able to execute them in an authentic way brings your music and business together. In doing so, it is my experience that business becomes more like your music; another means to express your humanity. It becomes more fun and a more creative undertaking. You might brace yourself, even start to look forward to your next business to-do. Imagine that!
This approach is empowering and puts you in control of the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of doing things. You drop ideology – artisism – and take responsibility for understanding and implementing concepts in ways that bring you closer to your true self.
You will do it your way.
Pieter Schoonderwoerd
Your Jazz Career
Find an empowering ebook on developing your artistic vision and writing a compelling artist biography here.
I’ve been coaching and educating jazz artists for years to achieve their creative and professional ambitions. If you are a high-performing artist and interested in transformative career coaching, you can read more about it here.
Be More Of You. Be Creative!