What would you say defines a “successful music career”?

Is it notoriety and fame? Janis Joplin may not have thought so… having died of loneliness, as the story goes. Is it wealth and fortune? Perhaps not, given how frequently we hear of famous musicians being in financial ruin. Is it consistent hit singles in the music charts? Not necessarily, as artists have built entire life-long careers in underground music scenes. In fact, whether playing to sold-out stadiums or your neighborhood locale, would the definition of a successful music career need to be any more complicated than simply “making a living from music?”

Conceivably, success in the music industry can be interpreted by sustainability, financial independence, growth possibilities, healthy work environments and good relations within the industry, with your fans and your customers. If this however is the basic recipe for success in any industry then, arguably, success in the music business can be achieved by developing and applying a keen sense of entrepreneurship. In other words, though this may ring ironic to many artists, in order to be a successful musician, you need to be a shrewd business person. You need to be organized and professional. You need a game-plan based on realistic outlooks on future prospects. You need to be prepared and know what you’re getting into by having a good knowledge of the industry and its market. You need to set goals and implement strategies to meet those goals. You need to analyze your strengths and weaknesses and make decisions on which tasks to take on yourself or which to delegate. You need to keep track of your finances and be willing to do the boring stuff like bookkeeping or cold-calling. In simple terms, you need to tap into the very same skill set required for any self-employed business person.

This is not to say that talent or the “it” factor is negligible. Nonetheless, it is not only sheer luck that allows individuals with average or unremarkable music skills to thrive in the business. It’s also no coincidence that extremely talented musicians spend their lives undiscovered. David Bowie, as an example, is notorious for knowing exactly how many miles he could travel in his tour bus to the gallon, effectively making him a financially responsible tour manager. Nickelback, one of the most commercially successful Canadian rock groups of our time, had sold thousands of copies of their self-released album long before being courted by record labels. They eventually landed a major record deal based on the fact that they were already a functioning commercial entity.

Interestingly, the underground music industry, which is where Nickelback, Bowie and everyone starts, is probably one of the hardest industries to survive in without any entrepreneurial skills. Besides the fierce competition, it seems to exist within an environment that can often feel renegade and unregulated: money transactions, as an example, are commonly unrecorded and under the table, making it challenging to recover or be compensated from a deal that has gone sour. Dishonoured agreements, in fact, seem to go with the territory. As a result, musicians can often feel overworked, underpaid and quickly overwhelmed.

Despite these facts, the benefits of thinking in business terms are somehow lost on many musicians. It’s true that the very nature of artistic creativity contrasts deeply with the calculated steps and careful planning associated with operating a business. It is also not always easy to conceive art as a marketable product, especially for artists who invariably may have an emotional investment and a hard time attaching a sales price to their creations. Many artists would argue that they create music for the art-form itself and therefore are not interested in wrapping their art in the commercial cloak of a business venture of which the ultimate goal, after all, is monetary profit. However, the instant you intend to share your music, even if it’s for absolutely free or even within a context of counterculture, you will most probably have to enter in some sort of business agreement, either with the venue where you want to perform for example, or the company that will print your CD. Furthermore, one could argue that being prepared and organized, like any sensible businessperson would be, creates working relationships free of miscommunication and unpleasant surprises, which in turn, create healthy and creatively fertile environments for one to express themselves musically.

Consider the last time you watched your favourite indie band perform. Imagine all the preparations that needed to take place before the musicians stepped onto the stage to play: someone had to search out the venue, get in touch, “sell” the act and secure the performance date. Contracts (hopefully!) were drawn, reviewed, negotiated and signed. Someone had to then design, print and distribute posters and flyers. Someone had to contact the media and promote the event. Someone had to make sure the band got to the venue in time, set up all the equipment on stage and coordinated with the sound engineer to make sure the band got a sound-check. Certainly, all this production is quite the workload, especially when you consider that, more often than not, that someone… is the band itself! Indeed this is a commendable achievement when you take into account that the band also had to write and practice all their songs. In other words, the band is also acting as the booking agent, the manager, the tour coordinator, the event promoter and the publicist.

Being this “team behind the scenes” that propels your musical project forward may not be as difficult as you may think. We are fortunate to be living in times of marvelous technological and communication advancements. It is increasingly becoming commonplace for artists to represent themselves. The culture of the record label as the middleman is practically a thing of the past; artists now have the means to reach and interact with their fans directly. There is a colossal amount of information available for aspiring professional musicians; SOCAN (Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada) or local music and art associations in your community would be a good place to start, otherwise a career counsellor should be able to point you in the right direction if you are searching for specific information.

Whether your dream is to sell insurance, build cabinets or tour with Elvis Costello, coworkers, collaborators and clients expect professionals to be exactly that: professional. Musicians that wish to operate in this professional domain will not find themselves exempt from this reality… even though their products and services deal with the very language of the soul.