Musicians with a Business Mind will Win

From the day I bought my first drum machine ( MPC 500 ) I had certain aspirations as a musician. That day is around 10+ years ago at this point.

Those aspirations are still there.

While I'm much closer to them than I was all those years ago, I'm still figuring it out.

From balancing my skills with my current resources.
Learning how to get the best sound possible on my budget.
To navigating what “independent” really means when you're not backed by a label, team, or big check.

I've learned, as much as we were raised on the image of the artist as a superstar, with a lifestyle to match. The real life of an independent musician looks more like the life of a entrepreneur who just happens to make music.

You are essentially replacing the label. So, now your entrepreneur eye starts to see.

This music life (indie or not) isn’t just about talent, it’s about structure.
It’s about thinking long-term.
It’s about building something, not just releasing something.

Replacing the label, as an independent means we are replacing not one team of people, but many teams.

• legal team

• marketing team

• admin team

• design team

  and more.

The dope part about today is that we have more tools than ever to cover the jobs of these departments ourselves.

But, that doesn't negate the workload we will take on learning all these skills. The learning curve is steep.

Well at least it has been for me.

The challenge of putting all these pieces together has actually led me to a larger understanding of the path that would serve my creativity the greatest.

I’ve been fortunate in a way, to run into the challenge of trying to figure this concept out before I actually dropped a lot of music.

As I started to see the life I wanted professionally, I was trying to make the decision between the music route or film/acting route.

But, through understanding that I should be building around the music and not just with it.

Being both a filmmaker and musician, wrapped in the mind of an entrepreneur was the path for me.

Now what you build around the music with is ultimately up to you, there are many different options.

But ultimately,

music is the foundation.

The more music I made, the more I realized all these ideas and concepts I had didn’t have to just remain songs.

Music makes people feel.

That feeling is what sells sneakers, clothes, books, ideas, tech, culture.

We are musicians.

But ultimately we are creators.

Creators who can use that same emotional power we create, to sell our other products and stories.

Not to mention we are also still selling our music.

Understanding Funnels

I’ve said this in a previous blog, but understanding funnels even to the slight depth that I do, has helped me tremendously.

It opened the scope of how I saw people getting other people interested in things they’ve created, no matter what it is.

With an understanding of what funnels are doing, you’re able to segment things for different tiers of interest, awareness, or desire to purchase.

So lets say for example,

• someone sees a short freestyle on IG ➡️

• They checkout out a docu-series im building around my TOUCH project ➡️

• That leads them to the Music/Book ➡️

• Then they join the email list for exclusives ➡️

• Eventually they might wanna buy merch, come to a show, Join a community I create, etc.

I’m actually building out many of these now. I have some of these stages active and going. Other stages I'm still figuring out as I go.

You have the flexibility to be as creative as you desire with your brand. The more you understand not just funnels but marketing in general, the better you can apply your creativity to it.

The Musician Entrepreneur

Committing to build a career in music is not a task of ease. I think some people think it’s just you in the studio with shades on cooking up classics.

But more often than not if you are doing this independently, like me you’ll realize.

Some of your most important days a a musician.. won’t be spent doing music.

They can be spent:

• Troubleshooting why your custom domain wont connect to your website

• Trying to figure out if your email opt-in is broken or just not converting

• Watching tutorials on bookkeeping, copyright, copywriting, project management, or editing a reel for instagram that leads people back to your project.

• Building workflows to actually run your creative life like a business.

And then, still finding time and energy to tap back in with the music before being weighed down with all the tech and admin stuff.

These are the demands I'm sorting through in real time. How to prioritize what needs to be learned vs what can be put on the back burner until later.

It can be overwhelming at times. But I remind myself, no one said this route wouldn't be overwhelming.

As I improve with the skills, the tools, the mental approach, I get control of how to run things my way.

Whether that's through self execution or delegation, it stems from me.

The control gives you both challenge and benefit, especially in your marketing.

We don't sell soap, dental service, or carpets, where the lead magnet is relatively simple. A free bar of soap, a free cleaning, a free estimate for install.

From continuously listening to people who have succeeded in the the space of merging creativity and business.

I've learned that,

as musicians our product is more so solving a intrinsic or existential issue, than a practical one.

So we have to be more creative in our marketing.

The product is emotional, intangible, motivational, vulnerable.

So what kind of lead magnet does that leave you with.

Cause you just don't want to give the song away for free with no other setup of ecosystem behind it.

What does it look like to give people a taste of your world that pulls them deeper without giving the whole thing away?

This is where marketing becomes more like music.

The same storytelling, rhythm ,timing, and creativity we put in our songs we can put it our campaigns, offers, or lead magnets.

I did this with my Touch Book/EP soundtrack project. I made a Lyric Ebook that not only gives the lyrics to the songs but gives some context to the point in the story of the (TOUCH) book from which the song stems from. But It also gives context to where I was thinking , from a music production and songwriting space. Then I mixed the stories it with where I was at personally in my life as well.

Doing things like this is where I'm able to apply my creativity to the marketing, and it almost becomes like music in a way.

The storytelling, the rhythm, the timing are all skills I use in creating music im now just pointing them at a different end product.

Im still in the learning curve.

Still testing different theories of execution but there is a lot of freedom here.

Freedom to grow and create not just with the music but to how I share, present, and invite people into it.

So now, i'm fully cemented in the belief that if I can get as creative in my marketing and business as I can with my music - it's game time.