Keeping Your Company
I‘d like to introduce the central point of all that I believe about failure and success in the Music Business:
You, Inc.
As I say everywhere else on this website, everything about success in the business world can be, and SHOULD be applied to your music career. The most direct way to organize and apply these principles is through the concept of You, Inc.
You, Inc. is the company that's run for and by you. Just stick with me now, okay? It will make sense.
Perhaps the biggest challenge to the pursuit of a career of this type is the fact that it is personal. Music, and all of the arts, are about expression, passion and creativity. What separates you from the rest is, well, YOU, and because of this, the line between you and your work is blurry at best, and at worst, simply non-existent. This causes musicians to be insecure, adverse to advice, paranoid and a whole list of other self-absorbed problems.
The concept of You, Inc. helps these problems in two ways. First, by separating you, the person, from you, the company, you are can effectively disengage yourself from the ups and downs of an artistic career. Face it; you will not please everyone all the time and you will not get every job you want! If you train yourself to see these setbacks as parts of a typical business experience, you'll be much better off. Second, businesses do things differently than people and for very important reasons. Reasons that you would do well to know.
You, Inc.
Businesses are entities that sell products or services to customers. They are formed around an idea and organize themselves around business plans. These plans lay out specific goals, the path to those goals, and all the resources, time, money and people necessary to reach those goals. The men and women who organize around this plan then go out and find the resources, time, money and people and get to work. They build and improve, build and improve and build and improve until they have something that meets the needs of their target customers (they also research and know who these people are). Finally they develop sales and marketing initiatives to tell the world about their products.
What would happen if you applied the same thinking to your music career?
I rest my case.
If you don't like what I've written, perhaps Your Attitude is Showing.
