Strategy

In this category, I discuss all career strategy related topics.

Read more about the article Lead Like A Jazz Artist

Lead Like A Jazz Artist

Great leadership comes from within. This blog post explores what a life devoted to being a jazz artist teaches you. Personally, the older I get, the more I see what lessons I learned from Jazz and how I use these in different contexts. People always say “jazz is a way of life”. That means it is a mindset; a perspective on the world that serves as a compass for your actions and decisions. This sparked my interest and prompted the question: what does it mean to lead as a jazz artist?

What lessons did you learn on the bandstand?

What did recording a big band album teach you about leadership?

What systems, habits and routines did you develop to thrive during an international tour? How do you keep the band together?

How do you create magic night after night?

And, when you have contemplated your answers, how does this shape your leadership style? Do you lead as a jazz artist?

Leadership: Two Short Notes

Let’s start with the basic question: what is leadership? A definition I quite like is: “The process of influencing people by providing purpose, direction, and motivation to accomplish the mission and improve the organization.” It feels both modern and reflects the culture of the organization; the US Army. Our question today is, instead of the Army culture, how the ‘jazz culture’ influences our way of leading.

My own definition of leadership that fuels my way of leading is linked to my core values of freedom and empowerment. It is: “Leadership is to empower others.” Another definition that inspires me – both in my coaching and in my work as a director – comes from author Stephen R. Covey: “Leadership is communicating people’s worth and potential so clearly that they come to see it themselves.” What a beautiful way of looking at it and highly personal. It truly reflects his life-work. That’s my true aim with this article, empowering you to find your own take on leadership.

Secondly, it’s time to debunk the myth of natural-born leaders. Nobody is born a great leader. Just like nobody is born as a great jazz musician. It takes effort. However, more fundamentally, becoming a leader is a choice. It starts with choosing to lead both yourself and others. Leadership is about taking responsibility for your own life and of those you’re trying to serve.

 

Jazz & Leadership

Music has so much to teach us about leadership. Yet, few people make the connections and expand these lessons learned to other contexts. Below, I made a first attempt at distilling several key principles from jazz music and translated them into leadership principles. As I found during this thought experiment: jazz artists have much to offer as leaders.

Leadership Is Improvisation

Let’s start with the most obvious aspect of jazz music: improvisation. Improvisation in a musical context is to make whatever happens work. It’s about exploring possibilities alone (solo) or together (with a band). It’s the musical equivalent of a spontaneous conversation. The reality of improvising together means overcoming challenges and dealing with the unexpected. It’s all about innovation and adaptability. For this to work, the musicians develop a basic skill set which consists of: being really present in the now, trusting others, openness (to other’s ideas), and deep listening. In short, they need a ‘jazz mindset’. I love a quote by leadership guru Tanveer Naseer on this: “In our attempts to navigate today’s workplaces with its ever-increasing levels of distractions and attention-getters, we need to be more mindful that it’s only when we’re present to understand today that we can learn about what’s needed for tomorrow.“

To lead like a jazz artist means in this case to a) have a strategic plan (song), but b) be open and flexible enough to go for better opportunities when they arise (musical input from others).

 

In business, this improvisational approach is called an ‘emergent strategy‘. A quote from the linked article: “As a general rule of thumb, an emergent strategy may be the right choice for your business if the future is uncertain, and it isn’t clear what the right long-term strategy should be. By embracing an emergent strategy, you remain nimble enough to make adjustments as more data becomes available, while still knowing that you’re working toward a goal that makes sense.“

 

A Jazz band Is An Organisation

Why do we play with others? Why do we organize ourselves as a group or orchestra? Because we can’t do it alone. A solo performance, however captivating, only goes so far. What you want to create, can’t be created alone.

If you would describe a jazz band as an organization, what characteristics would you describe as integral parts for making improvisation work? In my view, there is minimal hierarchy (democracy), and musicians take turns leading by rotating solos, or the opposite; silence – ‘giving space’ for others to take it into new directions. Furthermore, it offers high levels of personal freedom (autonomy), there should be trust for people to work together (interdependence), and the band is designed to maximize flexibility and innovation A jazz band is a bottom-up organization where members share the spotlight.

Just like a band improvises, so is there ‘organizational improvisation’. How would you lead an organization on- and offstage as a jazz artist?

Leadership Lessons From Miles Davis: Openness

Innovation starts with openness. Embracing new ways of doing things and continuously challenging yourself to grow ever more fluent on your instrument. However, just like organizational culture, musicians also develop routines and habits. We call those habits “licks”. Interestingly, and different than in pop music or classical music, Jazz musicians who repeat their solos and flawlessly rehearsed patterns are not regarded highly in the jazz community. Jazz is about the new. It’s about exploration. “Keith Jarrett recalls Davis ‘keeping the music fresh and moving’’ by avoiding comfortable routines, forcing his musicians to play patterns they had never heard before.” (Source)

Famously, Davis’ song ‘So What‘ was presented to the band in the recording studio as a rough sketch without familiar chord changes and in two unusual modes. Davis, as a leader and innovator, consciously disrupted the creative process to include challenge, disruption, and exploration by handicapping the routines of the players involved. They couldn’t just repeat, they had to dive into the unknown and construct new pathways. They had to be open for whatever happened. But, he did that with full trust in their competence, knowing they would be able to handle the challenge. And what happened? Kind of Blue became the number one jazz album of all time. How are you fostering change, openness, and innovation as a leader off stage?

Magic Lies Beyond The Obvious

Okay, I couldn’t resist, here is one more Miles Davis lesson on leadership. According to Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis gave him the advice to ‘leave out the butter notes’ during a live concert one night when Herbie was feeling stuck and frustrated. The butter notes are the obvious notes. The familiar notes and patterns that you play all the time. Those are what can make you feel creatively stuck. According to Miles, the magic lies elsewhere. Standard harmony requires you to play the 3rd and 7th in a chord. What happens when you start leaving them out in your progressions and melodies? Exploring other combinations enables you to find your own voice. As a leader, how can you live this value of exploration in your way of leading others?

Of course, there is another lesson here as well: how can you help others during your personal path of growth, like Miles helped Herbie? Do you remember the Stephen R. Covey quote from earlier?

Improvisation Is About Interdependence

Jazz is improvisational music. Which albums are in the top 10 of all time? Bitches Brew, A Love Supreme, Maiden Voyage, … What do they have in common? Individual voices becoming more than their separate sum. This occurs when there is autonomy (freedom), purpose (in its purest form clear intent), and interdependence. Interdependence moves from dependence (like a student is dependent on his mentor), interdependence (self-mastery) to interdependence (working with others). The synergy that the five musicians on Herbies’ Maiden Voyage achieve comes from true interdependence. To achieve group transformation and musical innovation, a jazz group needs truly independent musicians to then become effectively interdependent. That’s when 1+1 equals 100, both in bands and in other organizations. How are you fostering both independence and interdependence as a jazz leader?

Interdependence is a concept made famous by Stephen R. Covey in his book ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’. Quote: “Interdependence is a choice only independent people can make.” Read more on it here.

Leadership Is Truly Listening

What is the number one skill great jazz musicians have? Is it fierce chops? No. It is the – almost forgotten – art of deep listening. “I always listen to what I can leave out…” said Miles Davis. Why do you think he sometimes faced the band instead of the audience? No, it was not to disrespect the audience as many journalists wrote at the time. Instead, he did that to listen more carefully to his band members and to communicate, much like a conductor would.

However, truly actively listening is very hard. In the words of Stephen R. Covey, who calls this ’empathic listening’: “Empathic listening is hard and it is risky:

  • It is hard to focus our attention exclusively on somebody else;
  • It is hard to be patient and resist the urge to prescribe without thinking; and
  • It is risky because to influence others, we must first allow ourselves to be influenced.

To listen empathically we must be able to take our eyes off ourselves without fearing loss of our principles, values and perspectives.”

Most people, also in our early years as jazz musicians, pretend to listen or listen selectively. For jazz artists, this is actually linked to the previous topic of interdependence. It’s difficult to listen to others as a musician when you’ve not mastered your instrument or the song. You’re still working on being independent and our listening in this phase is superficial at best. During the song we’re already thinking of our next phrase and focus on ourselves; am I playing the right note? Am I still keeping time? Matured jazz artists understand the value of listening and they, in fact, learn to listen deeply to several people all ‘talking’ simultaneously in real-time. Like to 3 other people in a quartet. Real leaders do too. 

Often, people confuse leadership with having all the answers and telling others what to do. Instead, try listening to your fellow ‘musicians’ the next time. Ask questions, rephrase what the other said, and have a conversation. True interdependence needs people to hear and understand each other: on stage and in the boardroom.

How are you going to optimize your next business meeting? What listening skills obtained from jazz can you improve the experience for all with?

Great Leaders Share, Bad Leaders Keep

As jazz musicians, we share our ideas all the time. We don’t keep that amazing scale to ourselves, we play it for all to hear. Yes, that means others can learn and utilize it themselves too. And, as artists, nothing makes us prouder. As artists, we educate, empower, and inspire others all the time by sharing our art.

It begs the question, do you share as a leader too?

In leadership, this translates from operating from a Scarcity or Abundance Mindset. Do you see colleagues as competitors or co-creators? Do you see other artists/organizations as competition or as people serving the same Muse? Do you share your knowledge, skills, insights, and connections with others? Or do you guard them tightly, afraid to lose your position as the leader? Lead as a jazz artist and share your lessons learned to thrive together.

End-note

Jazz offers us ways for leading and managing successful projects and organizations—from creating space for others to lead to really listening to ideas of others, from creating a plan to fostering a culture of experimentation and further innovation to ultimately recognizing that we can’t do it alone. What are your lessons learned from jazz and how can you serve others with these insights more powerfully as the transformative leader that you are?

Pieter Schoonderwoerd

Your Jazz Career

Two great resources on leading with a Jazz Mindset are this academic article (or related book ‘Yes to the Mess‘) and the Harvard lectures series by Herbie Hancock. Inspiring lessons learned by a lifetime in jazz by one of its bright shining musical heroes.

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.

 

Continue ReadingLead Like A Jazz Artist
Read more about the article Separate your hobbies, jobs, career, and …

Separate your hobbies, jobs, career, and …

Are you a (young) artist and in the early phase of your creative career? Perhaps you are about to graduate from a higher music institution and ready to leave your mark on the world. Then the following question is probably on your mind: now that I’m “grown-up” what will I do to make a living? My advice is to separate your hobbies, jobs, career and vocation. This essential distinction is often overlooked but will aid you in balancing your creativity with earning an income. In addition, the best career strategy in these uncertain times is definitely a diverse portfolio career.

This blog post is for all you creatives that are trying to forge a creative path forwards. Let’s look at your creativity and your career from some different angles and figure out together what you will do next. After all, together we know more.

Am I A REAL Artist?

I want to start with a seemingly simple question that on deeper inspection has a large impact on your career but also on your overall life satisfaction: are you a real artist? And why, yes or no?

I ask this question because during those early career years your identity will most likely not be a one-word description. It might very well be an artist (eg. composer, performer, producer) and barkeeper and music teacher. Or artist and banker if that’s your cup of tea, you get my point. For the vast majority of young artists – be it illustrators, actors, poets or musicians – making a living from your art alone is impossible. Yes, I said it. Impossible. For now, let’s assume, despite all your talent, great chops, dedication, professional network and hard work, that you also belong to that group. In fact, the percentage of professional musicians in the Netherlands that make a living solely on music is 20%. So, 80% has another job or career going on to pay for their cat food. That kind of career is called a Portfolio Career. A career built from several building blocks that each can serve a different need, such as creativity, stability or social connection. I would argue that probably 90% of global creatives live this way. It’s definitely what my career looks like. Always around music but simultaneously consisting of different projects, jobs and careers.

It raises the next question: does not being able to financially live solely from your artistic music mean you’re not a real artist? I know lots of musicians that think that being a true artist means you can make a sustainable living of your art. They think in terms of being a professional artist. And in my view, that’s where a lot of trouble starts. Hence this rant of mine 🙂

Be Real About The Beginning

I think many aspiring artists get discouraged and even depressed when in their first one-to-three years they can’t make a living from music. They consider themselves not to be a professional artist. It hurts me to see very talented musicians throw their creativity away altogether and quit playing because of … What exactly? Since when does creativity have guaranteed outcomes? Since when does an arts degree guarantee an income afterwards? Surely, that was not the reason you started to study music, right? You started with a focus on art. You started it because you love music. Does love need a paycheck? No, your love doesn’t, but your house lord does. No, need to throw it all away if the word ‘professional’ is, perhaps only temporary, missing.

For some people, their early ‘non-professional’ phase lasts 3 months, for others 10 years, and for some even a lifetime. I’m saying all of these outcomes can be fine. It all depends on how you define being an artist, what your view on having a (music) career is and on how you define success. There is for sure not one definition set in stone.

Separate your Hobbies, Jobs, Career & Vocation

Since making a career with art is almost impossible everywhere in this world. Let’s save you a lot of stress and unhappiness by sharing a simple trick. Separate four things, as beautifully put by author Elizabeth Gilbert, your hobbies, jobs, careers and vocations. By doing this you will be able to understand more deeply why you do what and the role each part plays in your creative journey.

Let’s start with the difference between having a hobby versus having a vocation. A trajectory that for most of us probably had a similar development. Starting with an initial interest in an instrument, and slowly that curiosity transformed into love and finally into a calling. But, I’m getting ahead of myself here.

When A Hobby Turns Into A Vocation

What is the difference between having a hobby versus a vocation?

A hobby is something you do purely for pleasure. The stakes are zero. You don’t have to make money from your hobby, excel at it, get famous or anything else. The action itself is the goal. Since you’re reading this article, my guess is that music is definitely not your hobby. That’s fine. As long as that is clear for you. Or, perhaps not now but some years later, you will decide music is actually better off being a hobby. That can happen too. As it did with me around my 27th.

On the other side of the creative spectrum is your vocation. Your vocation is your calling. It’s the voice of the universe gently inviting you to take your role in the story of creation. The word comes from the Latin vocare, meaning to do what we are called to do. It is the highest possible pursuit a human being can do. A vocation can of course coincide with a career: the vocation of a doctor or nurse might be to be a “healer.” Your vocation as a musician might be “bringer of Joy”. For me being a teacher and coach circles around my heartfelt vocation to empower artists. Right now, I assume that music is your vocation. When and if it will be your career is partly up to you (discipline, clarity on goals) and partly up to chance (luck, talent).

In Our Creative World Jobs Are Too Often Underrated

It’s time to sing some praises for the good ol’ job. However, before the choir starts, let’s first look at what a job actually is.

A job is something you do to pay the bills. Something you do to be a responsible and independent adult. We live in a material world and those ‘materials’ come with a price tag. You have to pay your rent, food, utilities, drum sticks, and so on. A job means you don’t need a sugar mommy or to depend on your partner or parents. And, especially important for us millennials wanting to make an impact, a job is not about life fulfilment or total creative expression. It’s practical and serves a singular purpose: earning you an income. As writer Elizabeth Gilbert points out, many many artists had jobs. Herman Melville wrote Moby Dick whilst working at a customs office. Or, to use a jazz example: Lizz Wright runs a small cafe in Chicago called Carver 47 Cafe. Most people are not able to only be an artist. They have jobs. Even more, they might actually enjoy those jobs, because it gives them something music can’t. In my view, to focus on something else 1-3 days a week can be a welcome thing. 

A career is a job you are passionate about. It is something you care about and worth taking risks for. The perfect example here is of course to have a music career. The main take-away is that you should only build a career out your artistic expression when you love it. And with ‘it’, I mean all of it. The good, the bad, the boring and the exhilarating. Or, as Mark Manson so eloquently puts it: “What shit sandwich do you want to eat? Because eventually, we all get served one.” Meaning: every career has its down-sides. A pro eats that sh*t sandwich, an amateur doesn’t. Which for the latter would mean music would be better off as a hobby.

Why Separating Your Hobbies, Jobs, Career and Vocation Matters

A job can give you time. Time to invest in your art (vocation) and music career. In this early stage of your life as a creative, I urge you to look for one. Also, understand that the difference between jobs and careers is not crystal clear. In fact, the definition is for the most part up to you. Some jobs will be music related, such as entertainment gigs or wedding gigs. Gigs that you do solely for money. So jobs can be both non-music and music-related. The difference depends on the reasons why you do them.

Furthermore, don’t confuse a job or career with being an artist. You can always be an artist and follow your vocation. You can be an artist and have a full-time job as a librarian or school teacher. Even with only six people loving what you do, you can still see an artist when you look in the mirror. Your vocation is not result-bound. It doesn’t depend on earned income, sold tickets, amount of press, Instagram followers or any external criterium. Being an artist is something internal – you feel it in your bones. It is a conviction, a mindset and matter of the heart. Let that knowledge set you free from the burden of having to establish a creative career. You can, and that career can be a beautiful part of your life, but you don’t have to. You can be an artist either way.

Be In It For The Long-run

This long-term vision will enable your creativity to flow more freely. Keep investing in your vocation and deepen your music skills and knowledge. Give yourself time. Results can illustrate your progress but they are not your end-goal. Your ability to express yourself and connect – through your music – with other people are. Let a simple job carry the financial burdens and don’t expect success to happen overnight. A creative career is a marathon, not a sprint!

Now that you know, embrace the many different projects, jobs, careers and hobbies that your creative and professional life will consist of. Who knows, they might even fuel and inspire each other 😉

Pieter Schoonderwoerd

Your Jazz Career

Two great resources on this topic are the book Big Magic by Elisabeth Gilbert and this video by her on building a creative career. I love her take on being an artist. Both reassuring and empowering. In a previous blog post, I wrote about building a portfolio career. Read it here.

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.

 

Continue ReadingSeparate your hobbies, jobs, career, and …
Read more about the article The Antidote 2: The four roles of a recording artist

The Antidote 2: The four roles of a recording artist

This fourth blog post on Your Jazz Career is part two of a series called ‘The Antidote’ which aims to strengthen your music career against sudden crises. Something unexpected will always happen. It prompts the question: how do you minimize the impact of these disruptive changes? We all need an antidote for uncertain times.

The second music career strategy in this series is about managing your four different roles as a recording artist. When dealing with copyrights you are in fact a composer, performer, publisher and record label all in one. This article highlights the importance of composing your own work vs being a studio session musician. Additionally, I sing some praises for being a DIY publisher.

Creative Assets: Recordings

As a jazz musician, the two most common assets are your performances and recordings. Managing your creative assets well will generate future and passive income. Passive income is income generated in perpetuity requiring minimal to no action from the recipient which leaves more time for other things, like making music. Hmm, sounds like a good topic for a future blog post 🙂

Over the years your albums form a body of work, or in other words, your artistic portfolio. This is who you are as an artist to the outside world. This portfolio will attract fans promoters and press, which will generate more opportunities and income.

As a coach and venue director, I’ve seen the difference it makes to the careers of jazz artists that manage their portfolio (discography) well and those that don’t. Applying a long-term approach by carving out new creative assets makes your career in the long run more sustainable and profitable. Your body of work – a so-called tangible asset – starts to speak for itself. You will have more merch to sell at performances. Copyrights – a so-called intangible asset – will start to exponentially multiply your income streams. Promoters will trust your quality of work and will book you more often. Record labels prefer signing artists that are songwriters. Finding an artist manager will be easier when you sell annually 10.000 records than when you have only one album to sell from 2011. And the list goes on.

Managing your creative assets as a jazz artist is vital. Now, from this introduction, let’s analyse being a recording artist in more depth.

A short introduction to music publishing

As a DIY professional recording artist, you have four roles to fulfil. Each of these four roles requires separate knowledge and skills and will have a major impact on your potential future earnings. As a recording artist you are in fact a:

  • Writer/Composer
  • Publisher
  • Artist/Performer (Studio session-musician)
  • Record Label

How did I come to these four roles? There is a legal basis for this in international copyright law.

The definition of a sound recording according to the U.S. Copyright Office is: “A work that results from the fixation of a series of musical, spoken or other sounds, but not including the sounds accompanying a motion picture or other audio-visual work.” This would translate concretely into the master-mix of your recording. This is your intellectual property as a musician.

A song has two important aspects:

  1. Composition (melody + chords) – the PA copyright (performing arts)
  2. Sound recording of a composition – the SR copyright (sound recording)

Both the composition and the sound recording each have two legal stakeholders:

  • Composition: the Writer/composer and the Publisher
  • Sound recording: the Artist/Performer and the Record Label

In the core, the difference between a record label and a publisher is that a publisher links song to companies and other artists. Its catalogue is songs. Music publishing is the commercial exploitation of a composition. A record label links artists to audiences. Its catalogue is artists, which is called a labels’ artist roster.

Jazz & Composition rights

Jazz can be a bit tricky when it comes to ownership of the composition. In an art form based on instant composition and group interplay, how do you determine the copyrights? Sometimes a bandleader might only bring a sketch to the session, like Miles Davis famously did on Kind of Blue. The groupmembers then add their colors and choices to construct the final composition together as ‘co-composers’. Basically, you have two choices. The most used one is asking your fellow-musicians to sign a copyright agreement before entering the studio. Ideally, it not only addresses how shares of the music will be divided but also clarifies issues such as ownership of the group’s name and recordings. Another legal route is to create a ‘Joint Work’. This means: “work prepared by two or more authors with the intention that their contributions be merged into inseparable or interdependent parts of a unitary whole.” Here you judge the final result afterwards and assign copyrights to those musicians that made an important contribution to the final composition as co-composers. This will be divided in equal parts. The latter strategy can be murkier. My advice would be to always start recording with clarity on the business aspects. (Sources: JazzTimes and Lawyerdrummer.)

Writer/Composer vs Artist/Performer

Here I separate being a composer or performer in the recording context as individual careers to visualize its potential long-term financial impact.

Being a session-musician

The term ‘Artist/Performer’ means the studio-performance by the musicians needed to record the song. As a career choice, it translates to being a (fulltime) studio session-musician.

There are many jazz musicians who don’t compose their own music but work as session-musicians.  Playing standards is a beautiful jazz tradition and there is so much amazing music to choose from and reinterpretate. I get it. However, with physical record sales being low, income derived from records doesn’t justify anymore huge recording budgets.

As a musician for hire you will mostly earn a flat fee for your services. Unions organize rates for musicians, but despite their best efforts, you’ll often encounter a €25 p/hour rate. A far cry from the fees your predessors earned in the 1980’s.

Legally you are entitled to any royalties generated from the use of these recordings. That is why the producer or composer will ask you to agree to a flat session fee and sign a session musician’s release (copyright agreement). Which are common practice and the industry standard. This means zero future income from record sales despite your great solo making all the difference. The famous example in question being Van Halen’s guitar solo in Michael Jackson’s rock tune ‘Beat It’. You guessed it, Eddie literally got zero dollars after its release but, of course, eternal glory.

Want to find out more about becoming a Studio-Musician? Read this article at Careers in Music.

Writer/Composer

Being a composer who owns their own copyrights puts you in full control of your music and its commercial usage from which you will receive a 100% of all related earnings. You should aim to build your own creative assets (albums) to generate future income (royalties). That way you build a passive income stream from streaming, album sales (digital/physical), licensing your music and more.

So, be a session-musician. You will grow musically, expand your network of artists, producers and studios, and will have an additional income stream. However, don’t make it your only career choice. Also develop your composition skills and start recording your own music.

Being a DIY Publisher

Most artists only think about signing with- or starting their own record label. However, that is only half of the story and of your potential income streams. The other half is related to music publishing. And, music publishing is one of the least understood, and most important, aspects of music business.

It is about protecting your work (copyrights), affiliating with several PROs for different royalties (Performance Right Organisations), clearing your songs (so they are registered and findable online for potential users), and perhaps even starting your own publishing company when outside interests in your work grow to a significant level.

I recommend any artist to begin their music career this way and learn about self-publishing. Later on, you can decide, based upon a deeper understanding of music publishing how and with whom you will partner up.

Repeat this mantra after me: “I will diversify my income streams and will build creative assets.” Now, repeat it again.

TIP: need an easy to read guide into the complex world of music publishing? Read “The Plain & Simple Guide to Music Publishing” by Randall D. Wixen (4th Edition, 2020). It’s down to earth, up-to-date, a fun read and it has a chapter on DIY.

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 jazz artists for three years to achieve their creative and professional ambitions. If you are interested in a personal coaching session, you can read more about it here.

 

Continue ReadingThe Antidote 2: The four roles of a recording artist
Read more about the article The Antidote 1: Diversify Your Live-Music Projects

The Antidote 1: Diversify Your Live-Music Projects

Welcome to my first blog post! In this post, I explain how to diversify your music career and explore how to grow your creative assets to become more successful. It is a heartfelt plee for diversification. By diversifying your creative assets you spread your financial risks and make your career more crisis resilient. A usefull antidote for these uncertain times.

Crazy times

What a crazy time to be writing this first blog post. Certainties evaporated quicker than a Charlie Parker solo. Music performances in the Netherlands are cancelled until June 1st (2020) and my music industry peers are freaking out. As a jazz artist, you’re probably right now, just like me, thinking about the personal consequences and the impact of the Coronavirus on you and your loved ones. However, there is an opportunity in crisis if you choose to see it. Your empty agenda offers something of real value: time. Time to reflect. Time to be in the now and create with more focus. And, time to look forward and build a more crisis resistant tomorrow.

Unexpected things happen

Be it Corona, automation, shifts in music, consumption trends, AI, political cutbacks on culture, financial crises or falling down the stairs … Many things can happen to you as a cultural freelancer. It prompts the question:

How do you minimize the impact of these disruptive events or developments?

People differ. You. Me. We all have a distinct personality, vision and create art and businesses with different purposes in mind. Therefore, in the coming weeks, I will highlight different approaches for you to build a more sustainable and crisis resistant music career. Let’s call them antidotes for uncertain times. Maybe all of these concepts will resonate with you. Or perhaps only one. However, my advice is to pick one concept today and to use these months to take action. As Goethe said: “Whatever you think you can do or believe you can do, begin it. Action has magic, grace and power in it.”

Antidote 1: Diversify Your Live-Music Projects

Do you know those artists that only have one artistic project? That piano player with his quintet that performs his own music five times per year. Don’t follow in their footsteps. Instead. Be. Like. Brad.

Brad Mehldau has a trio. Every four to six years they release an album. Why? Besides the artistic exploration and creative fulfilment there is a solid business reason. An album is a catalyst for commercial momentum. Promoters, booking agents and venue/festival programmers all get very excited when the news hits the streets. They know that an album means new music, more media attention, an album release tour with a supportive PR campaign, and greater audience interest. In short, they prefer to book artists around their album releases. Now, if you have only one art project. How many albums are you going to release this decade? Be honest. Three? Maybe four? If it is three, that means that for three times a year for a period of 3 to 6 months you will be a booking priority for venues and festivals. Those other 8,5 years you are lower on their priority list which will result in fewer bookings and therefore, less income from live music.

Diversification increases your commercial appeal

To avoid that scenario, your aim should be to join or start several music projects which, ideally, release their albums in different periods throughout the year(s). Check the discography of Brad Mehldau. Do you see the variety of music projects? This creates the opportunity to strategically release and tour throughout the year.

Release your duo album in September 2020, your trio album in February 2021 and your neo-soul band debut in October 2021, … You get the point. This way, you always have a project with artistic- and media momentum leading to more tours and a steady performance income.

Some advice to avoid (creative) burnout, don’t be the bandleader in all of them! Be in a few where somebody else is in charge. That way you keep time to focus on your own art and career.

Diversify your niches (markets)

All venues are not alike. To generalize, a city theatre needs storytelling. A pop festival needs high energy. A jazz club needs intimacy and craftsmanship. A wedding gig needs recognition. Etcetera.

Following that same logic, neither are all music lovers alike. People love different niches and the lifestyles associated with them.

And, when you’re honest with yourself, you probably also have more than one musical interest. What happens when you mix these three realities into one career strategy?

Create contrasting projects for different markets

Picture yourself having four creative and contrasting projects. Each for different markets (venues, festivals) and audiences. To give you four examples:

  • Play jazz & pop festivals with your “The Comet Is Coming” type of project for younger “pop” orientated audiences.
  • Play city theatres to mainstream audiences with “A Tribute To Miles” to introduce jazz to new audiences.
  • Play jazz clubs with your ECM-style jazz trio for jazz lovers.
  • Play abroad by a creative collaboration with an artist from that country and mix your audience with theirs.

Diversity has many advantages. From getting more gigs, exploring different sides of your artistic personality, to building a larger music industry network. Why stick to one musical niche as an artist? Diversify your creative output by leading and joining several music projects aimed at diverse markets for different kinds of music lovers. Ask yourself:

Which artistic interests are you currently not exploring?
Which music scenes do you feel connected to?
Do you know artists in those niches?
How could you start?

Take the first step!

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 jazz artists for three years to achieve their creative and professional ambitions. If you are interested in a personal coaching session, you can read more about it here.

Continue ReadingThe Antidote 1: Diversify Your Live-Music Projects