Marcus RichardsBeing a musician in 2023 is… Well, tough, to say the least. You’re dealing with a lot of immediate competition in the online space, and it can feel almost impossible to leave your mark and impress the people who matter most.
If you’re trying to progress in your music career but feel like you’re going nowhere slowly, don’t give up hope!
Dedication and patience are what is takes to make it in this game, but there’s no harm in implementing a few specific strategies to help you along the way. Here are some tips to take into consideration.
Invest in Yourself
In this industry, your tools can truly make a significant difference to the quality of your work. This is why it’s important to spend the money it takes to really invest in yourself, your brand, your skills, and your career overall.
Any musician worth their salt needs high-quality equipment – instruments, recording gear, software, etc. The tools you have in your belt will impact your music production as well as live performances, and you want your sound quality to be top notch. Not only that, but if you’ll be travelling and performing at gigs, you’ll also need a good ATA case, which you can learn more about here.
Define Your Identity
Your audience wants to connect with you as a musician and understand you and your story so they can connect better to your music, and finding your musical identity is a key part of that.
Popular musicians have a signature sound and style. Even though this can (and probably should) change and develop over time, it’s good to make yourself recognizable in this way. You’ll be more easily able to expand your audience if you hook them with a particular type of sound that they love and want to hear more of.
Master Your Craft
As a music professional, you might think that your days of learning are over – but there is always room to improve. Practicing constantly should form part of your day-to-day routine. This could mean learning new skills and techniques, experimenting with different styles, learning other artists’ music, or even taking lessons to keep improving.
Hard work is one of the most important contributing factors to a successful music career. You can spend all the time you want on marketing and networking, but at the end of the day, your skills and talents need to speak for themselves.
Get Online
That being said, marketing is still going to be an essential part of your business strategy, and your social media accounts will form a pivotal part of your overall marketing strategy as a musician.
As we already mentioned, an audience will want to connect to an artist they love, so putting yourself out there and engaging with people on social media will help build those relationships. Do live streams, play song requests, show behind-the-scenes processes of song writing and other activities, and chat openly with your audience over your Instagram stories, TikToks, DMs, etc.
