Making a living as a musician can be extremely fulfilling, especially if you have a genuine love and passion for music. Life as a professional musician is not just about mastering your instrument and honing your performance skills, it’s also about managing your business aptly. Among the crucial steps, you must know about is forming an LLC to protect your personal assets from potential business liabilities. Thus, understanding the llc services available to you can be immensely beneficial in smoothly sailing this legal process while you continue creating your music.
However, it’s also a job that comes with a lot of pressure. Few people are aware of how tough it can be to work in a field where nothing is guaranteed. Not two days are the same in this business, and you have to be ready to adapt to all sorts of different situations. Things become much simpler when you have a plan, however. Here’s a beginner’s guide on how to manage your life as a pro musician.
Build the Right Team Around You
The first thing you have to do is build a good team around you. It all starts with the right manager. You can always choose to manage your career, and many successful artists were their own managers when they got started, but you’ll need to learn about the business side of music and you won’t be as efficient as someone who has spent their whole life doing this.
Another thing you’ll need to find is a good producer and a sound engineer. You should also have a backup engineer in case you can’t get in touch with the first one. You won’t be able to record without an engineer and it’s always better to work with someone you know. So, make sure that you pick someone reliable and know their schedule.
Managing Your Image
One of the most important things for an artist is managing their image. As a new artist, you may not have the means to hire a publicist, so this is something you may have to handle yourself. As a publicist, your goal will be to manage PR and gain media attention. You’ll need to get familiar with how to create an eye-catching press release and how to release them through the right channels. You will also have to put out fires from time to time.
Another thing you’ll have to master is how to write an artist bio. This is what will introduce you to the world and it may be the first thing people see when they look up your name. That bio needs to tell your story and what you stand for. This could be enough to hook people and push them to listen to your music.
If you want to learn how to write an artist bio, you can check out the blogs by Pirate. They run down all the steps needed to write the perfect artist bio and you’ll be able to create a decent one in minutes after reading their advice. They teach you how to create bios of different sizes for different platforms and explain mistakes you should avoid when crafting one.
Managing Social Media
Social media plays a very important role in the life of a musician, and you need to know how to manage your social media posts and channels correctly. You have to pay attention to activity on new posts and old posts. You also need to have a clear posting schedule.
We suggest that you handle social media on your own at the beginning. You don’t want someone you hire to make mistakes that could hurt your brand. You also never know what could happen to your relationship either and you don’t want to have issues with someone who has access to all your social media accounts. If you want to manage your social media properly, we suggest that you pick up a tool like Hootsuite. This will allow you to keep tabs on all your social media activity through one interface.
Every day should start with checking your social media. If there is some sort of scandal you’re associated with, you want to be the first to know and be able to prepare a plan of action as soon as possible. If everything is okay, you can use this time to engage with your fans. Starting the day with social media allows you to concentrate on things related to music during the day.
Preparing for Interviews
Interviews are a very important part of the life of a musician. A bad interview can be very destructive to your image. The worst thing you want to do is to come off as smug or disinterested. This is why you need to prepare for interviews well in advance and make sure that you are well-rested. Interviews often look worse than they should because the artist was tired, so make sure that you get your eight hours of sleep and have a clear head.
You should do your research on the person that will be interviewing you and know their style. Some interviewers will be more formal than others, while others will intentionally try to throw curveballs at you. So, check out any recent interviews they have had with artists like yours and see what type of questions they asked.
Live Performances
Touring is a major part of an artist’s career. Knowing how to manage your time will be extremely important there, especially if you have to do back-to-back shows. If you want to live the rockstar life, go ahead, but touring is much easier when you treat it professionally. You will need to stick to a strict schedule and make enough time for rest. You also have to be very careful with what you put in your body.
Nutrition is something many artists overlook, but it should be a priority. Performances can be exhausting and having the right kind of fuel in your body will make things much easier and will allow you to give much better shows. You should also consider working with a personal trainer. Being in shape will help you in many ways and will affect your mood. Try to take care of yourself and try to live as healthy as possible.
Life as a musician can get hectic, but everything becomes easier when you’re well organised. Follow our few tips and always try to find ways to improve the way you manage your life.
