Where Are You Going?

So ... you think you want to make a career out of music? Before you make the leap into applying for grant money, spending your (or your parent's) money making a CD, or buying a cheap van to tour in - you need to consider your career plan. During the past few years I have seen over 100 grant applications, and overall, the main thing that stood out is the lack of planning. To go anywhere, you need a plan, but before you can make a plan, you need to get clear on your goals and those goals have to be consistent with your values.

Remember, your goals have to be your goals. Just because you have musical talent doesn't mean that you need to make music your career. You need to be exceptionally talented, and very, very driven to make a success of a professional music career.

So before you leap into the music business as your supposed road to riches, you need to think about what you want. And not just as a career, but overall for your life. How do you want to live in 5 years, in 10 years? What are the things that you value? For example, if you value being home with your family because you have children, or you hate being away from your boyfriend/girlfriend for more than two weeks; then the life of a professional musician is probably not for you. If you want to make a lot of money, you need to be aware there are very, very few musicians in Canada who make their living from music. There are thousands trying to do so, but very few who actually do, or if they do, they are barely making a living. So, with that reality check in place - think about your life and set some goals.

There are any number of ways you can assess your life and see how a professional music career fits in. The Art of Managing Your Career resource that I referred to in the previous post has an excellent goal setting/value assessment tool as part of Chapter 1. Use that or another resource and decide what you want. And if pursuing a music career is part of that - then you need to make a plan for that career. Whether that career is full time right away, or you have a plan to make it your full time career in five years, or you decide that you want it to be a hobby job forever - you need to make the plan that gets your career from where you are to 'there'.

Unfortunately, no one is going to make your success for you; you have to make it for you. If your ultimate goal is to make music your full time career within five years, but you can't fathom spending 20 to 40 hours a week learning the business side of music and working your career plan; then you probably are not ready to make music your career.

So, think about it ... and assess where music as a career fits in your life. Decide where you are going. If you are in a band, then your band needs to ensure that there is clarity between the members and some common understanding of what everyone's goals are. If you are working with a manager or label - the same applies. Anyone working with you needs to understand your goals and your values. When I managed, I asked "what do you want your career to look like" or "what are your goals" at least once a month. Maybe not always that directly - but I understood the importance of ensuring that I knew what the band or artist wanted. You need to honest with yourself, your band mates and anyone else working with you in your career. The industry is difficult enough without having people work different plans because there are differing opinions on what the goals are!

So ... where are you going? Think about that, and next I'll talk about how you assess where you are. Because to get "there" you need to know where you are!!!