To be successful in the Music Industry, you have to try.

If you want to make enough money to sustain yourself off of your music, you have to treat it like a full-time job.

These are two major points that people have to realize before they dive head-first into the world of music.

Especially now that people have to find alternate ways to make money with their music, its going to take more effort to find those various paychecks and just like with anything else, its going to take a lot of time.

So let’s start from square one: You need good songs.

Writing is completely personal, but the best way to judge your music is to play it in front of an audience. Watch the reaction, and learn how to read them. If they aren’t moving, that song is going to need some work.

Two: Get your name heard.

Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, Reverb Nation, I could go on for hours naming all the sites you should be on, and updating at least once a day.

People are online, and looking for music. You have to be there for them to find you. And once they do find you, keep updating, you have to keep them interested.

Three: Play everywhere, all the time.

Start in your home city. Note: CITY. If you live in a town, its likely that your career will be short lived. Move to a city, get to know the venues, play at those venues. Even if its for free, or for scraps, its about getting your name, and music, heard.

Four: Networking

Meet other musicians, it always helps to have connections to help you get into that venue to play, or to find a new musician when your bassist quits.

One amazing way of meeting local musicians is to take up a job at a music shop. Yes, these places can be hell for an artist, but you’ll meet quite a few contacts, and it doesn’t hurt that they pay you either.

Five: Communication with fans

This kind of ties into point two, but I can’t stress this enough:

• People expect constant involvement from their artists today, give it to them, or give up.

Updating your Twitter account with, “Just spent $140 on a new bike with a basket, sweet ride!” is a lot easier than trying to gain back all the fans you lost being boring.

And don’t forget to talk to fans after your show. I know, everyone wants to feel like a rockstar by walking off the stage and chugging a beer (or wine, I don’t care something bad-ass), but talking to your fans while they’re still excited will make them tell their friends, and will make them happy.

If you want to be successful you need fans, lots of them, and happy too.

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The industry is not a game, and unless you’re extremely lucky, if you’re not giving you’re all, you’re probably not going to get anywhere.

Treat it like you need to, work 8+ hours a day on every aspect of your music, and career, and even more once you start getting attention.

All your favourite bands have paid [and still are paying] their dues, they’ve gotten to the point where they don’t have to work as much, but they still have to work.

Above all, have fun. It can be stressful, and it’ll take over your life, but don’t lose that passion that made you want to start in the first place.

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Technorati Tags: Art, Education, Money, Music, Music Industry, Success

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With the invention and exploitation (meant in the best way possible) of the internet, art is seeing a renaissance.

People have access to things they never would have ever found, and they’re enjoying local as well as international cultures, all from their computer.

I remember years ago, trying to find rare European imports of CDs, I’d have to either order them off the internet for a huge fee, or to find the small record shop that would order them in for me.

Someone today would have no problem finding those CDs, or in this case, MP3s or other audio files.

With iTunes carrying more and more international releases, you can find just about anything from anywhere, as long as the licensing deal allows it to be shared in other countries.

For example, an amazing band from Iceland – Sigur Rós (don’t ever ask me to pronounce it) – has seen success in North America, despite their lyrics being in Icelandic.

This is due to their outstanding music, but also the ability their music has to cross the seas so easily.

Other aspects of art are seeing this Renaissance as well.

A great example would be the French film Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain, or known in short here as Amélie.

An outstanding film, in all French, with subtitles for other languages. Not likely to be a hit.

Its recognition as a great film with award nominations did not guarantee its success, as it received a limited release in North America, its dedicated fan base helped push it to a cult success.

Or Italy’s Life Is Beautiful, in all Italian, was a success worldwide, after the movie was released to other countries over the course of two years, with demand coming from film goers.

Despite several industries suffering, the art within the industry is still very much alive.

Remember to support those artists you love, as directly as possible, because they deserve it.

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Technorati Tags: Amelie, Art, Music, Renaissance, Sigur Ros, Success

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