need help with business in general

AlphaMatt

New member
New to the forum. Hello and much thanks in advance for any advice.

Ok, long story short...

In 5 years, I will be eligible for the least amount of retirement benefits from my regular job (which I never intended to hold on to for this long, but, you know...life...and I suck at business matters). I know that 5 years is a solid chunk of time for focusing on a goal. I really want to retire then, and supplement that with music production, while my kid is still a kid. For practical matters, it's mostly about fim/tv music (and I have managed to sign one music library deal through Taxi so far), but I also want to develop the artist side of things with the name Alpha State (a reference to the study of brainwaves). I have a bachelor's degree in music composition, and spent a summer on an intensive audio engineering course. I've been making my own recordings for a little over 20 years, and I have a decent amount of live experience (with voice, piano, guitar, and bass). I'm pretty good on the creative end. But with all things business, I need help starting from scratch. Where do I begin? Resources for help with marketing, promoting, branding, putting together a bio...I'm lost with all of it...
 
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New to the forum. Hello and much thanks in advance for any advice.

Ok, long story short...

In 5 years, I will be eligible for the least amount of retirement benefits from my regular job (which I never intended to hold on to for this long, but, you know...life...and I suck at business matters). I know that 5 years is a solid chunk of time for focusing on a goal. I really want to retire then, and supplement that with music production, while my kid is still a kid. For practical matters, it's mostly about fim/tv music (and I have managed to sign one music library deal through Taxi so far), but I also want to develop the artist side of things with the name Alpha State (a reference to the study of brainwaves). I have a bachelor's degree in music composition, and spent a summer on an intensive audio engineering course. I've been making my own recordings for a little over 20 years, and I have a decent amount of live experience (with voice, piano, guitar, and bass). I'm pretty good on the creative end. But with all things business, I need help starting from scratch. Where do I begin? Resources for help with marketing, promoting, branding, putting together a bio...I'm lost with all of it...

Well, I see nobody want to help you, at least not in this post. If you are technically prepared (like you can produce good music) you are already half in.
Good news for you. Everything can be learned, just like music production that you are already familiar with.

I do a living off music; basically by selling beats, but there is a looot ways to make money of music production and from this niche in general. You can create and sell drumkits, loops, melodies, tutorials - for producers. You can sell beats in whatever genre you can imagine (and make good beats in). You can license your music to TV shows etc. Like thousands of ways.

But...we all know that. Not everyone knows how to actually do the marketing side of things.

And here...well, let me help you. Once I was in the square one too and I'd do a lot to find someone to help me.
So yes. Check your private message, I leave you my e-mail adress there. You can send me an e-mail and I will tell you how to actually make money off your music.
 
Welcome, AlphaMatt!
I'm not making any money from music (yet), so you should take my suggestions with a pinch of salt.

If you're comfortable with books, there are a lot of them about the business side of music. Some months ago I read this one, and I think it's pretty decent for complete beginners: Amazon.com: How To Make It in the New Music Business: Practical Tips on Building a Loyal Following and Making a Living as a Musician (9781631491504): Ari Herstand, Derek Sivers: Books
You will find many other books among the related products, so you might want to spend some time checking them out.

If you prefer shorter chunks of text, there are also many websites that are hosting useful blogs. Soundfly's blog, for instance, has a whole section dedicated to marketing, promotion and other business-related topics: Hustle Archives – Soundfly
In general, a simple Google search will reveal many other useful websites; usually, I just type a more or less specific issue in the Google search bar (e.g. "how to get people to listen to your music") and I see what comes up.

The single most important thing you should do, however, is doing some serious networking to build solid connections with other musicians and any other person who might help you get somewhere. I'd warmly recommend reading this book, which has served me well in many situations: How to win Friends & Influence People: Dale Carnegie: 9788189297817: Amazon.com: Books
About networking, there's also this social network called Drooble which is very useful to get in touch with other musicians; you might want to check it out: The Social Network For Musicians - Drooble

Hope some of these suggestions will help you getting started; wish you the best of luck for your career!
 
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