There has been a lot of transformation in the music business and the advancements in technology have opened up a lot of spaces for inspiring and upcoming artist to make their mark in the game. We have seen so many overnight success stories of people who have had their videos go viral or their music embraced worldwide. Granted there has been a lot of work behind the scenes before these artists get to enjoy this seemingly overnight success but the thing is none of this would have been possible without the internet that connects us all. It is important to note however that for every success story there are thousands of failures mainly due to competition and lack of skill, talent and drive on the part of the failed musicians. The good news is that you can be different and if you follow some guidelines and stick to them, you can be on your way to achieving success in the music business. One of the mistakes that people make today is spending all their time, energy and resources trying to get the attention of the music labels who they think have the codes to their future success. But this is backwards. You need to gain the recognition of the people first and see where it leads you. <strong>Things have changed</strong> In the days of old, the only way you could make any money from music was to sign to a major label. And there was a huge barrier and obstacle for independent artists to make any real money. Today that barrier has been taken off completely and there are so any unsigned and independent artists who are making a good living from music, getting radio play and making the charts and even getting the top awards. In this new model, the record labels do not hold all the answers anymore and they will even gravitate more towards an artist who has successfully built a brand for himself online and offline rather than bet on an unknown even talented artist. <strong>You need a plan</strong> When you are starting out and independent, you most likely will not understand all the rules of the business and you can easily fall into a trap. This is especially so when you try to copy the different methodologies you see successful artists already employing. What works for one person doesn’t necessarily apply to you. We have seen artist spend all their money on PR agents and radio promoters without even laying all the ground necessary for any success. Things like having a website and a social media following need to be in place so people can easily access you should they be interested in you. It is painful to see artist waste the little money they have on moves like this without getting any meaningful results. PR agents and radio promoters are definitely vital but it is all about timing. There will come a time when you have to pay them to work for you but not at the beginning stages where you don’t have enough in place to take you to that level.

One of the tedious aspects of being an Indy artist is the seeming absence of a clear path to achieving anything. But this is wrong because not only does a clear path exists, but just looking for a map looks like betraying the notion of integrity on the artist side. You can work in law or finance and everywhere else that has a clear hierarchy in place. But as a musician you also want this sort of structure and hierarchy. There have been a lot of great explanations of the modern model of the music business and how it applies to Indy artists but there is little information on what to do exactly, how to do it and when to do it. A lot of the Indy artists out there are motivated and highly driven to the painstaking work but they don’t know what there are supposed to be doing. There is no singular path to the show business but why should every artist have to reinvent the wheel to get anything done? When you speak to the industry experts, you quickly learn that are certain steps you must take and you must take them in a particular sequence in order to maximize your opportunity to make any money and any imprint on the music world. These steps are built for today’s dynamic world of continually shifting trends and expectations. How well you are seem to be going forward in the music business today is mostly centered on a perceived momentum. Anything you achieve today is an indicator of what you can do tomorrow but the headache remains how do you get started when you have no current achievements to your name. It’s a catch 22. Earned press is an area where you have the highest chance of achieving any momentum and creating your own narrative to stand out from the crowd. Music PR is typically overly expensive and very selective. You don’t want to go this route if you haven’t hit it to a certain extent. The great news here is that the world of music yesterday has transformed into a new digital age where there are no gatekeepers of content and you have equal opportunity of putting your music out there for the public to listen to. Thousands of Indy artist have gone this route and this transfers the onus to you the artist to get your own success. Once you have press, it is now time to target an audience. Exploit all of the available platforms to hook your listeners unto your content and get them excited about your stuff. Continue to build your audience base and find different means of leveraging them as means to your financial success. The buzz around you will land you projects, deals, features and collaborations. When you are on the upward momentum, a lot of things start to change and you suddenly start to get more access. You get more bookings, more gigs and more exposure. This all accumulates into a giant of stream of income sourced from various other smaller streams.

The advancements in technology have been a great help for entrepreneurs across all industries and the music business has also felt the disruptive impact immensely. The old model of the music business was that an artists would have to find a means to land a record deal before he can gain any access to the market. But today with the advent of digital technology, a lot of business savvy musical talents all around the globe are making it happen on their own. Paul Pacifico, CEO of the Association of Independent Music (AIM), says: “Artists today are pretty much by definition music entrepreneurs and owner-operated companies, building their businesses and their brands. For them, technology has been the principle driver, reducing the barriers to entry in terms of lower costs and the democratization of industry supply chain resources, such as production equipment and support services.” The thing a lot of musical entrepreneurs currently lack is mainly funding and the under capitalization of music businesses is very obvious now at all levels but that will soon be a thing of the past. “The reality for any startup, in any sector, is working smart, boxing clever, and making best use of available resources,” says Pacifico. “What’s encouraging is that in Europe we are seeing the green shoots of an independent capital market in the music industry, with strong interest from one or two of the larger European investment funds whose expertise is in IP investment. They haven’t historically done music, but want to start that conversation of ‘what if?’” Until such time when music entrepreneurs are moving clever and getting reasonable results and outputs, KOLARS is a band based in California made up of husband and wife Rob Kolar who is the writer, singer and producer. Music is transcending into a myriad of genres.

Music is art but it must also be treated like a business. Beatie Wolfe is one of the leading figures in the industry of song writing and she has set the pace for innovation and entrepreneurship and the fusion of music and technology to embody the unique album listening experience. In a recent interview with a reporter, Wolfe revealed three lessons she had to learn in the course of her own career that can be of help to fellow entrepreneurs like herself when starting their own business. Look after your own Pigs Wolfe’s father use to tell her when she was growing up: “The eye of the farmer fattens the pig.” What does this folksy phrase mean? Whatever you watch, or pay attention to, will grow. “The idea is that if it’s your pig and you’re the farmer, even just watching the pig will ensure its growth,” Wolfe said, “because you’ll see things no one else will see. And no one else will watch your pig like you.” As you start to expand your business, it is vital to have it at the back of your mind that nobody will care as much as you do about your business. Neither will they be as bothered about your bottom line, your successes r your failures. If you wish to be successful you need to pay the most attention to your own pig regardless of what it looks like. Work with people If you want to be successful in any business, you must be able to work with the right people. Who are these people and how can you find them? These are some of the best criteria to factor in when searching: Mutual respect and admiration Mutual profits and gains for both parties “Everyone I’ve worked with has been such a pleasure to work with,” Wolfe said. “And not just from a business perspective. I collaborated purely from the standpoint of I really like these guys, they inspire me and we’re on the same page.” Wolfe cited her recent partnership with Bell Labs, through their EAT Program, as an example. It is also critical to understand that working with people in the beginning stages of your business can transcend into lifelong partnerships and relationships. So do this wisely. 3. Speak Up When re you most required to say what’s on your mind? When are you expected to remain silent? Sometimes when you hire people or seek people with whom you can work with that are not in your industry, it can be very tempting to just go with whatever the expert is saying as you are not so conversant with that line but when you have a gut feeling about something that needs to be done, please speak out. “You’re going to add so much value to even the areas you’re not supremely qualified for, just if you have that vision,” Wolfe said. Even if what you have to say creates some tension, highlighting your own point of view and perspective will foster in discussions and debates that will hopefully drive you to the desired goal. Speak up and speak out for your business.

A lot of the popular rappers in the game today like Jay-Z, Dr. Dre and Nipsey Hussle are making us understand that they are a lot more than just bars and hooks.
Hip Hop has done a lot to the new outlook of our culture and from the NWA to 2Pac and Jay-Z, we have seen hip hop artists who are pushing the frontiers and reinventing the culture. What is most intriguing is that these guys aren’t sticking to only music all the time but they are now venturing into businesses and start ups and the outcome is artists now fully invested in industries such as fashion, sports, technology etc. Artists on the scale of Jay-Z, Dr. Dre, and Diddy have now entered into collaborations with major companies. Jay Z once released an album called the Magna Carta album in collaboration with Samsung. Diddy is in joint ventures with Cîroc and Dr.Dre and Jimmy Iovine’s headset company have struck a major deal with Apple. There are lessons you can take away from hip hop and its engagement of the business world. Here are a few lessons that you might want to learn.

1. Root for yourself and keep pushing (Nipsey Hussle)
Nispey Hussle is a popular rap artists and you can easily be fooled by his laid back demeanor but he is a man of many layers. Not only is he making records that are topping charts, he is also engaged in a lot of businesses that have been profitable. He is a man with a vision and this has translated in excellent business moves. He has multiple business partnerships such as that of his clothing company, The Marathon Clothing which is based in Henshaw, his record label, all money in and he has also delved into the world of cryptocurrency. One popular move he made early in his career that sticks out as someone who bets on himself was selling his mixtape at $100 a copy and this news went viral and also caught the attention of music mogul Jay-Z who went on to get 100 copies for $10,000. Hussle was able to create a buzz around himself and his product and he bet on himself to succeed.

2. Build your own brand by working with people (Jay-Z)
Jay-Z was brought up in the projects of Brooklyn and this was the time when crack cocaine flooded the streets and crime was at a zenith. If you watched Jay-Z growing up, you could never imagine him in the success that he has created for himself now. He is now a household name but it wasn’t always rosy for him. In the late 80s and early 90s he worked with a lot of people to feature as a guest rapper on their albums. When he went out looking for a record deal and he couldn’t land one, he ended up creating his own label and selling his records out of his car trunk. He used to sleep on studio floors and open for other artists and the relationships he built then on his way up are critical to the success that he has now. He used those relationships as a medium to build a name for himself and he would always try to make his mark and establish his brand when opening for other artists. He worked tirelessly with other artists within and outside of his genre.

There are countless other stories of hip hop entrepreneurs who have paved the way for a new entrepreneurial mindset among musicians and this is a great thing for the world of music.

The music industry is a lot different from what it once was. When you think about it, it wasn’t too long ago that we said our goodbyes to cassettes and welcomed in a new era of digital libraries of mp3s. With the internet making music more accessible than it has ever been, the way in which we distribute, buy and sell music has changed dramatically. What does this all translate to for the industry? The online playing platform for music has given artists a myriad of avenues with which they can self-promote on their own terms and drop the content that sits well with them. Big names like Wix music artists Karmin and Lil Dicky have totally embraced the digital landscape and they have achieved so much success and recognition just from selling their own content on their own websites, sometimes even giving it away for free. The advent of the digital world does not translate to the death of making a living as a musician but rather it has brought a new lease of life for those who are ready to exploit it. Artist no longer need big labels to put food on their table. If you asked any artists a few years ago what their main aim of being into music was, they will all tell you that they dream of one day being signed with a record label that will help them achieve the success they dream of. But today you do not really need the record labels to be known and get recognition. We have seen independent artists like Macklemore, Karmin, and Tekashi 69 all doing it on their own and all they need is a beautiful website and some creative marketing. When you have the talent and you let your music do most of the talking, you are on course to attaining the success and recognition you desire. If you have a website where you promote your content, you should include a music player visibly on the site and this app should allow users click and listen to your content without hassles. When you build a reasonable fan base, you can then decide whether or not you want to charge for content going forward or you just want to continue building the audience. There are so many ways to eventually make money from music even after giving it away for free for the longest time. Once you have a community of loyal fans, you can go on tours and you can sell merchandise in the way that Chance the Rapper has done and achieved great success. You just have to be patient and keep putting in the work and in no time you will be on the path to total domination.