How To Make It Into The Music Industry – Part 1

Learn To Write A Song

In the digital world, it has become much more accessible for music to be made without professional studio’s and equipment, no longer do you need special skills, you don’t even need to be able to play an instrument, we live in a time where everybody and their sister can and does make music.

You made some music doesn’t mean the record companies will be rushing to take from you. You’ve probably heard record labels saying “we don’t know what we’re looking for, but will recognise it when we hear it”, which doesn’t help you like the artists. The truth of the matter is that 95% of music out there is taken initially from some other talented and gifted musician, in fact, it is recycled ideas. Challenge yourself; you need to write your material! Talent scouts in this business hear hundreds of mediocre songs every week; you need to make your songs stand out from the rest. With a well written song it will pass the test of time, you may not even sing the song yourself, but it can still be a song that is in demand for years. If someone re-sings your song, you will collect royalties on this which can’t be a bad thing, so the key is to have good original lyrics. One of the most challenging tasks in songwriting – is getting started! But it’s also one of the most important because if you start well, you’ll have less trouble down the line. If you get past this point, the song tends to dictate where it wants to go; you have to keep it on the right path. Start your song with a title that appeals to you. Make sure it’s a title that rings true to your ears.

Practising Your Instrument

One of the curious developments of the late 70’s was the increase of garage bands, punk rock bands, and do it yourself bands, who just picked up an instrument or started to sing with some friends, and 6 months later recorded a record and began playing live gigs. Some new great music and directions in music came out of that situation.

But now years down the line the novelty of making amateurish music has lost it shine. The music that is the corner stone of the music industry you will find is often played by musician with a passion and respect for the old masters of Rhythm & Blues, Jazz, Folk Legends, and Rock, along with the songwriters or whatever inspired these musicians to take this path, you don’t need to just play or sing you need to have the passion to always want to improve, you need to challenge yourself at all times to become a better and greater musician, never give up learning, fine tune your skills and then demand more from yourself.

Go to as many gigs as you can, listen with eyes open and see what other musician is doing and how they are doing it, and see if you can improve or create something new, your music can become our music, and go out to a broader audience. Think, can I do it better? Yes you can, but you must never give up learning more, take lessons in your instrument or singing to improve your chances, no matter what your development level you can still find your unique style, keep practicing to become perfect, go beyond your limitations, who knows you may discover something new about yourself. In the business of music, if we hear something new, original and available to the public we can invest in you with more security.

Play Live As Often As You Can

The problems you can get with a lot of musicians hoping to carve a career within the music industry is lack of patience, not willing to work hard enough, wanting money and fame, not tomorrow but now. You can generally tell the difference between a musician who’s in it for the money, and a musician who’s in it for the music. The musician who is dedicated to his/her musical career will play every live gig that is available to them, focusing on the fact that it’s a long-term project and not just for today. You may not get paid today for your live gig, but tomorrow it may be different, it could be the gig that makes you get noticed, thus taking you on to the next level of where you want to be. Some musicians are in the music business for years without understanding that break that gives them stardom, but they have never given up, never lost focus even after setbacks and disappointments. On the other side you have the musician who wants it now, sometimes turning down gigs because of lack of money being paid, or in some case no money being paid. You have to remember that Rome was not built in a day.