Why are You Creating Music?

So you have a band huh? You guys have a rehearsal space and practice three or four times a week? You’re in the studio recording the next White Album? You even did some research and found the best price to press the disks? Your band is on top of it and bound for success, right? Wrong. If you think writing, practicing, recording, playing shows and waiting for your “break” is all it takes, then you should quit your night job and stick with the day job.

There are two types of artists, those who play music for the sole purpose of creating art, and those who are trying to make a living at it. Not one of these paths is less important that the other, but they are different.

Here is the biggest difference:

Say someone sits down and happens to write the greatest song sense “Hey Jude.” In Artist 1’s case the song will be heard by friends, family, perhaps even attendances at the local coffee shop. Then one day someone else hears it, records it, copyrights it, and sells it to a publishing company for 2,000,000 dollars. Now if artists 2 had written the song, it would be recorded, copyrighted, pressed, sold online, reviewed in publications and blogs, placed in film and TV, and shared with the world.

This is a very extreme case in both scenarios but the idea remains the same. You need to decide now why you are playing music. Are you serious about making is a career, or are you making music for the sake of art. Regardless of which path you choose I’m warning you now, it is not easy. By treating your band like a business you will be working more hours and will receive less pay (at first) then just about any other job.

But here is the encouraging part. If you are diligent, resourceful, and completely relentless, you can work for yourself doing what you love. How many people do you know who are making a living doing what they love? We are artists. We have to work for ourselves. We are an eccentric, free spirited, stubborn, inspired, strange, obsessive race that must create. By working hard and taking care of the business first, it allows us to give in to our creative nature, dreams, and imagination while simultaneously building a good life for ourselves as well.

Now let’s go out and do something that matters.

-B