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.