This is one of those motivational articles…

Throughout the years I have come across articles about the good and bad of the music industry. Pretty much most of them sum up “don’t do this until you are ready,” i.e. don’t get a manager until you need one, don’t play out too much, don’t hire a publicist until you are ready — there certainly are a lot of “don’ts”. One article that was my favorite, showed the positive side, basically how little people need to actually be into your music for you to be actually successful.

A platinum record requires 1 million sales — actually scratch that, a platinum record requires 1 million recordings to be pressed and shipped to the stores, sales don’t even matter! To sum that up, that is far less than even 1 percent of the United States population! That number is so low, percentage wise, that really anyone with the heart and drive should be able to be a successful artist, regardless of genre!

There are so many people with different tastes in music, so regardless of what style of music you play, someone will like it, and enough people are out there that it IS possible to have a sustainable career solely off of music.

The real problem is, and has been, marketing. Musician’s have a hard time with marketing and promotion. Being creative is one thing, being a business person is another. We often find ourselves stuck in a rut, because we can’t think outside of the box in business terms. This is why record labels exist, bands have managers, and the whole reason for all the people in the industry, it requires a lot of work and time to market an artist.

But even thinking small, how many people are in your local area. How great would it be to be able to get your music heard by 1 thousand people, that really dig it? If you utilize the 10 percent rule, which may or may not be an actual rule (I may have read it or may have made it up). 10 percent of the people that check out your music will like it to some extent, 10 percent of those will like it a lot, and 10 percent of those people are going to buy it. So if you can get promotional material into the hands of 1 million people, you should expect to get 1 thousand people to your next show, buying your CD.

The whole industry is based on statistics, so if you can be successful in one location, it is likely you will be successful somewhere else. Take the 1 thousand loyal fans and multiply that by 50 states, that is 50,000 people. That is more than enough to build a very respectable tour off of for a smaller artist.

Instead of focusing on what you can’t do yet, turn the issue upside down and focus on what you can do today. The word “can’t” is very limiting, like psychological handcuffs, however “can” frees us from all the obstacles. The small difference between those two words may make a big difference in your perspective and success in the years to come.

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