Five Favorite Things:
5 Things I Learned From Other People On My Own Website
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My friend Dave Jolley was one of the first musicians to write an article about his career for the website. Jolley is a musician that has a real knack for writing, so we were really lucky to have him contribute early on. It helped set a great tone for the site.
I think the best advice Jolley gave in his article was something that a mentor once said to him: "Work on your person. The music will take care of itself." In and industry that is largely based on who you know and how easy you are to work with, those two sentences sum up a great deal of what it takes to be a successful musician. That's great advice.
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From the co-founder of MusicianWages.com, guitarist Cameron Mizell, I learned how to promote an album on iTunes using iMixes. From what Cam says, iMixes and the iTunes Music Store seem to be the success story that has risen from the recent record industry melt down. Music industry experts are starting to talk about the "musician middle class" as a expanding demographic - and I think it's largely due to the democratization of musical income from internet-based distribution like iMixes and iTunes.
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I've been getting paid to play music since I was just a teenager. I thought I had a pretty good idea of how to get gigs and be a good musician. But two articles from other musicians, first A Guide to Being a Good Sideman by Gary Melvin and Getting Started as a Musician by Craig Pilo taught me a great multitude of things.
Gary's article suggested learning to sing and working on your ability to memorize tunes (two skills I never spend much time on). Craig's articles suggested finding work by reading more trade newspapers and rehearsal hall bulletin boards, which I should have, but hadn't, paid more attention to. Craig also gave advice on seeking endorsements - which is something that I had never considered before.
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Did you know that, when flying overseas, you can fit two electric basses and a keyboard inside of an ATA golf case? I had no idea. One of the most overlooked articles on our site right now is from a bass player working on a cruise ship in Europe. We don't use the real names of the cruise ship musicians that write for us (to keep the cruise lines from giving them a hard time), and this musician goes by Ghostwriter. His article is called Airline Travel with Musical Instruments and it's full of useful information I never knew anything about.
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Starting this website has really opened my eyes to the all the different gigs that there are for musicians. On our site we've heard from musicians that work for cover bands at hotels in Dubai, a bassist that worked for years in a Japanese circus, a music editor/film composer for Warner Bros. films, the drummer and guitarist for Frankie Valli's touring band, a resident drummer for a dinner theater in Arizona, a musician that worked for 3 years at Verve Records, a Las Vegas guitarist, a songwriter that writes custom songs for client's birthdays, and cruise ship musicians from all over the world. I knew that there were a lot of different ways to make a living as a musician, but I'd never seen to many diverse examples. I find it so fascinating to read the stories of all these interesting musicians.
The Past/The Future:
I moved to New York City this year. Twice, actually. I took a gig in Hawaii soon after arriving the first time, but I finished that gig and eventually came back. I decided that if I was going to be a theatre musician - which I've primarily been for several years now - then I should get myself to the center of the theatre world and move to New York City. I'm not sure what 2009 will bring. It's hard to predict what will happen in a city like New York. What I want is to be subbing on Broadway within the next 12 months. Within the next 3-5 years I'd like to have my own seat on a Broadway show. That's why I came here, and that's what I'll be working toward.
About You:
I work full-time as a keyboardist, pianist and conductor. For years I wrote a blog about working as a musician on a cruise ship - a gig that I did for a short time back in 2004. As traffic to that blog increased, I realized that there was a growing number of professional musicians that were combing the internet for career advice. In November of 2008, a friend and I launched a new website called MusicianWages.com and moved the cruise ship blog to this new location. The new website is a pragmatic career resource for those working musicians that are using the internet to find more information about their work and lifestyle.
One of the most interesting things that's happened with the opening of this new site is the musician profiles that we've done. We have a section of the website called My Job where we ask professional musicians to tell us about their careers - how they got started, what worked, what didn't, what they do now, etc. We tell people that the articles aren't just for young guys starting off their careers, but for other career musicians as well. It's a forum for us all to talk to each other and trade advice back and forth. The truth is that I've ended up learning a great deal from the people that have written for us. I didn't fully expect how useful my own website would be for my own career!
For example, based on the advice I found on the site, I decided to record a Christmas album this year. Now, my particular music career is not the kind that usually records and sells albums. I work mostly as a hired gun for theatre companies and tours. But, again, based on the information I found on the website, I felt that recording a Christmas album would be a good way diversify my income streams.
