What can an Artist do to become successful?

There are many blogs, articles, forums, and just overwhelming information. And it seems there is a new model that’s being tested. From what I see and how the industry is “trying” to take advantage of this new model is doing what an “Indie Artist” would do.Go pick up “How to market yourself as an Indie Artist” and that’s basically it if you think about it. It boils down to:

1. Singles sold via internet as the marketing mechanism
2. Live shows to generate income
3. Utilizing blog, video blogs, podcast, and anything with the internet to get your name out there
4. Once you got that buzz going with your 10,000 downloads, 500,000 views on youtube, and etc…find a home with a very successful Independent company or Major company to back you up further.

That’s as simple as I can put it. Now with this ever changing technology music industry, to be successful in this industry is something that nobody have down as of yet. Why? Because it comes down to having a great “product”. What do I mean by Product? I mean the “music, marketing, the team, business, image, personality, motivation, ambition, dedication, and etc (you get the picture)” makes the product successful. It’s just like any other business. Quality matters and the public want quality products before they put $1.00 into your pocket to keep you going…

The concept is pretty simple, but it’s not easy to execute. The concept is to get into video blogging, put up a myspace, your own website, write/record music, do shows, generate some capital, create merchandise, and do it for 15 hrs a day keeping the worldly fans happy and being proactive and interactive. Why is it so difficult for so many people? It boils down to love for your craft and having so much heart to work extremely hard with belief that you can be the next superstar.

Reality check: I find myself in a daze wondering what makes me so different from the many producers/artists/songwriters out there. And I believe that being in this industry for 9 years (6 years of learning my craft and going through mistakes after mistakes, 1 year break to reflect, and 2 years getting back into it) and still have such enthusiasm and passion for music, the business, and just the whole entertainment industry is what’s making me different from everyone else.  After my 9-5 technology job, I put another 10 hours dedicated to music related stuff from video blogging, recording music, writing music, producing music, building websites for music, interacting with others about music, thinking of new ideas to get myself ahead in music, and loving every step of the way are the qualities what makes me believe that I can be more competitive than many others in this industry. People struggle in their lives to find a passion in life. I found my passion and I struggle to become not just good, but the best at this doing what I can to let people hear what I create.

So back to the subject. What can an Artist/Producer/Songwriter do to become successful? I believe it’s Passion, Motivation, and Ambition. With that, it will open doors to other opportunities that will lead you to your destination. Those qualities will make you smart whether it may drive you back to school to further develop your craft, or hustle from studio to studio to learn from others, or being able to find reliable people that believes in you. At the end of the day, life is too short and you want to love what you do in life. Eventually and hopefully, things will fall into place. Just keep believing (not by thinking about it but by doing it passionately) and you will be successful.

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