Rising musicians or bands: do you dream of bringing your music to the attention of a major record label? With today’s technology, anyone can record and distribute a record with relative ease and at little expense. Platforms such as Tunecore, Facebook, Twitter, iTunes and Youtube provide the ability to broadcast and sell music.

But what if you want to get the attention of indie and major labels?

by Joe Rapolla

Getting the attention of a record label

Labels are combing the Internet to find bands and artists that stand out. It’s not just a slick video or great recording that’s going to make them stop and listen.

The first thing you’ve got to do, of course, is make good music. Your talent is a gift. But it’s what you do with it that will be rewarded.

You also need to work every day at things that move you and your music forward:

• Practice, write, collaborate

• Engage and build your fan base

• Work on your live shows

• Create and work on your online and offline profile

• Work on your look

• Work on keeping your health in good shape

• Learn to communicate professionally – be confident yet humble

Find someone of influence to represent you

Most labels of any consequence won’t even look at a band that doesn’t have a manager. It goes back to the requirement of having something going on – a foundation built to some degree. If you don’t have a manager you likely don’t have enough of the other pieces in place…and the labels know that.

No bands with all the other pieces described are doing it without someone managing them to some degree. A manager with at least some knowledge of the business should be your goal before you worry about getting a record label deal.

Create great content

You have to be willing to create great content. That of course is music, but it is also video, pictures, and stories. Stories about you, but not just about you, maybe about another band, an event, or a fan. Stories that attract fans and keeps them engaged. So when you have something to drop you have people there waiting for it.

But leave a little to the imagination. Don’t over share. Leave something for your fans to find out about you. Let that discovery be part of the story. That kind of mystery creates buzz, and buzz attracts the industry insiders, the labels.

“One other thing that really stands out [with bands that attract industry attention] – they are really mysterious – maybe they put just one track online, with no names of producers or insiders. This makes people dig a little further. Check to see if they have more music to make sure they’re not just a one-off,” says Elyse Chamberlain, talent scout for Atlantic Records and a graduate of Monmouth University’s Music Industry Program.

Take an alternate route

But is a record label deal even necessary anymore? According to a growing number of industry folks, you don’t need a traditional record deal. Artists and bands have choices now.

“Ten years ago, if you were a new artist or a new band, really, the first step on the ladder was to get a record deal,” says Sam Winwood, senior vice president of Creative at Kolbalt, in “The Disrupters,” a recent Economist video series. “Now, that’s just an option that you don’t have to take.”�� Winwood adds, “You don’t need to give away your rights to earn your money. In fact, you’ll earn more money if you don’t give away your rights.”�� Kolbalt, based in the UK, is a new kind of music company that provides label-like services but lets artists keep their publishing and masters.

Kolbalt aggregates streaming usage and collects royalties on behalf of artists – they essentially sign artists into administration deals. Artists can also pay for marketing and promotional services from Kolbalt.�� But for models like Kolbalt’s to work, you need an engaged fan base or you better be a very established artist.

Jacob Whitesides, an 18-year-old singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist from Knoxville, TN built his fanbase organically through social media. He started by posting videos on YouTube when he was 13. His Twitter following is now bigger than that of Bruce Springsteen and Madonna combined. “The fans are more powerful than any label,” says Whitesides in “The Disrupters.” The labels recognize the power of the fans. And because of the fan base that he’s been able to build, Whitesides was able to sell out two recent tours and make the deal he wanted with a major record label, one where he keeps creative control and ownership of his music.

Labels invest in you

But don’t go running away from labels so fast. Record labels still provide a very valuable service and have a proven track record. They have become more service oriented than in the past. They recognize the environment has shifted, and that they need to be more adaptable.

“We invest millions trying to find the next superstar,” says Nick Raphael, president of Capitol Records in the UK, in “The Disrupters.” The labels have the infrastructure and recourse to handle all of the necessary activities to develop and “break” a band, artist or song. “We make all the investment, in terms of skill set and money…. and we take the risk,” adds Raphael. Recently Capitol UK was responsible for breaking Sam Smith and Five Seconds of Summer to worldwide success. That doesn’t come without a well-resourced team…with the right connections and relationships.

“Don’t look to get signed,” says Eric Castellazzo, artist manager and digital operations manager at Universal Music Group. “Try to make your band a fully-functioning entity. If you can cover your expenses – your publicity, recording, radio promotion – you’ve got yourself a sustained business.”�� And that’s what it takes right now to get the attention of the labels.

But that’s not an easy task these days, nor has it ever been. It takes a lot of work, a lot of time, and a lot of effort.

Labels can’t take chances anymore just because they like the music, but they will if they see something else.�� Labels want to see that you’re a sound investment – to back up their emotional response to the music.

Craig Almquist, frontman and songwriter for the Philadelphia indie rock band Cold Fronts, was thrilled when Seymour Stein, co-founder and chairman of Sire Records and vice president of Warner Bros./Records, walked into one of their shows at SXSW. Stein took the band’s CD and let them continue to work. A year later they got their deal at Sire Records. And even then, there was plenty of work ahead of them. After making their album it took them a while before the label felt they were ready for it to be released.

“We got stars in our eyes. We were going to be huge,” says Almquist, “but we had a lot to learn, and we didn’t realize how long it takes.” Almquist actually doesn’t recommend a young band sign with a record label until they get some experience on their own.

But he recognizes all that the label can provide: “The record label is able to get airplay, tour support, and there’s a cache that comes along with being signed to a label like Sire and having guys like Seymour behind you. The label has to go to bat [for you] all the time.”

Perseverance required

Still think you want sign with a record label? Then work hard, be persistent, professional, creative and entertaining. Build your base, perfect your craft, your writing, your live shows. Enlist the assistance of a manager – someone with some connections. Get yourself to a point where you don’t need a label, but where you are attractive to a label, and where a partnership with a label, whether an independent, major or otherwise will be the natural next step in your plan to help take your band, your act, your art to the next level.

Joe Rapolla is the chair of the Music Industry Program at Monmouth University. He built and led integrated marketing departments at Universal and Warner Music Group and ran marketing for the video game division of Def Jam Enterprises. He is also an active performing songwriter and producer.

Watch the Economist video .

Also see:

Today’s fast-paced and highly competitive professional music scene demands that aspiring opera singers become skilled at what I call “operapreneurship.”

by Alexandra Gilliam

It’s not enough to be amazing and engaging opera singers. Building a working knowledge of at least three different languages and parsing their dictional nuances – and delving within ourselves in order to convincingly bring characters to life onstage – is not enough.�� Although we spend countless hours developing the chops necessary to flawlessly interpret music across multiple time periods, we need a corollary skill set in order to take our dreams from the practice room to the concert hall. We must become our own managers, tax professionals, press representatives, legal advocates, and biographers.

How do you become an operapreneur?

My collegiate and graduate work in opera, along with my work in two conservatory admissions offices and as a Professional Development career advisor at my current school lead me to suggest the following:

1. Seek as many opportunities as possible to expand your knowledge base, both inside and outside the music world.

Without becoming overtaxed or compromising your practice schedule, you’ll find this to be essential, as it is the relatable nature of the characters and intricate storylines that make opera as widely-performed and beloved an art form as it is.

Take advantage of liberal arts classes at universities and conservatories. If you do not expand your horizons and occasionally venture outside of the practice room and take active strides to challenge your innate beliefs and understand the human element, it is significantly harder to become a singing actor and to grasp the emotional depth of the characters you interpret.

2. Enroll in as many language and diction courses your school offers.

If the offerings are limited, look to summer festivals or local accredited colleges whose credits will transfer. Although excellent resources such as Nico Castel’s translations and John Moriarty’s diction books exist, they are intended as a reference to supplement the work you have already done through your own personal translation, character development, and research.

It is significantly easier to interpret nuanced characters when you understand the grammatical syntax of what they’re saying. Imagine a movie that takes place in the Deep South that casts lead actors with heavy German accents and little understanding of the English language –– they wouldn’t be nearly as believable as performers who studied the Southern American English language patterns.

Furthermore, new operas are constantly being composed. Many schools and Young Artist Programs offer opportunities for their students to workshop these new operas, which often have not been pre-translated.

Indeed, each and every one of my previous coaches agrees that to be successful, modern American opera singers need a thorough and comprehensive knowledge of the languages in which they will ultimately be required to sing.

3. Take advantage of the career services office at your school.

Whether you are writing a grant application, a long- or short-form artistic biography, or an administrative résumé, the career services office at your school is there to help you. Utilize these resources while you still have access to them on a regular basis.

Bring all of your materials to be proofread as many times and by as many trusted advocates as possible. By asking questions and gaining an understanding of the various forms and layouts of these critical documents early on in your education, you will set yourself up for success in the future.

4. Allow your authenticity to shine through.

Your career goals, much like your voice, are unique to you. Although it can be difficult to keep things in perspective when our Facebook feeds and YouTube homepages are full of successful peers and amazing artists baring their souls, remember that success is relative, and the biggest stars were once in your place. By living the most authentic form of yourself as possible, and by taking time to enjoy the art that you are creating, sustainable success is firmly within your reach.

Alexandra Gilliam, soprano, received her Master of Music degree at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where she worked for the Office of Admission and Professional Development and Engagement Center (PDEC).�� She received her Bachelor of Music degree in 2015, graduating with honors from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, MA.

Photo: Alexandra Gillliam performs the role of Lillas Pastia in San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s production of “La Tragédie de Carmen.”

Jazz majors: you’re more likely to find work if you pay attention to these career tips. Even if you’re not a jazz major, however, you’re likely to find a lot of this information relevant and useful.

1. Prepare well.
If you want to perform, you’ve got to be at the top of your game. All of the other career-building techniques and skills will be “meaningless when you are not prepared on your instrument,” says Javier Arau, composer, saxophonist, and founder/director of the New York Jazz Academy. “As a student, make sure you are spending more time on your instrument, actually studying music, more than anything else.”

2. Connect with other musicians.
A musician cannot work in isolation. It’s important to understand this and incorporate it into your world as a jazz major.

Peter Stoltzman, composer, jazz pianist and head of Piano at����says: “Music is social. Music careers are social. You have to connect with people.”

3. Utilize your professors and visiting artists.
Jazz professors are typically gigging musicians themselves. See if you can sit in on their gigs, suggests saxophonist Javon Jackson, director of the��.

Peter Stoltzman adds, “Once you start to make an impression on your peers and teachers, you start to get opportunities—friends invite you to jam sessions, teachers might hire you for a gig, visiting artists get to hear you perform or they play with you in a concert. Your circle expands.”

4. Take other music majors seriously.
Your peers may be the people who end up hiring you, and vice-versa. Respect them as colleagues, and offer and receive the kind of support you all need to get through school and become the musicians you want to be.

Vocalist, composer and saxophonist Amber Navran,����graduate says: “Stay positive. Be non-judgmental and kind to all musicians you meet – you never know where someone will end up or who will want to call you for a gig. Don’t hate on other kinds of music because they are less complex than jazz. Be open to playing and exploring all kinds of music.”

“A lot of my favorite jazz groups had their foundations formed in school,” says Daniel Weidlein, another saxophonist and USC Thornton alum. “Pieces and parts change, but the core of a lot of the best bands were formed by musicians who developed a bond while in school together.”

5. Practice efficiently.
“You will NEVER have this much time to practice ever again – take advantage of that and develop yourself into the best musician, composer, artist, and human being you possibly can!” urges Mike Casey, saxophonist and graduate of the Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz at The Hartt School.

“Here’s a secret: whatever you practice, discipline yourself to practice with a 3:1 ratio of success to mistakes. Most people practice with the opposite, or worse. They play things five or ten times with mistakes, and finally get it right, and they think, ‘Phew, I got it.’ No. You don’t have it. You just programmed your brain and body to play mistakes 80-90% of the time. And then you lament how frustrating it is to practice for two hours and make the same mistakes the next day! “ – Peter Stoltzman

6. Learn to be professional.
“Be on time, be prepared, be flexible. Learn as many tunes as you can, be a great reader. Meet and study with (if possible) the people who are doing what you would like to do, go out and hear live music, learn from the older generation of musicians,” says Vern Silert, associate trumpet professor and director of Jazz Studies at the��Lionel Hampton School of Music at the University of Idaho.

In his DIY book “Living the Dream: The Morning After Music School,” musician Brian Horner features a list of top ten behaviors to avoid if you want to work as a professional musician. He includes “Fail to return calls or emails” and “Waste your colleagues’ time by showing up late or missing rehearsals or gigs.” A concert saxophonist, music professor and music management company owner, Horner also urges young professionals to avoid “consistently taking the position that you are right (and that somebody else must have made the mistake).”

7. Find balance.
This isn’t an easy one and may take many years – even a lifetime – to really figure out. But now is a good time to start working on it. Mike Casey encourages jazz majors to “Try to find a balance between living life, practicing, connecting with your fellow music students, writing your own music, and studying the music business.”

8. Get experience in areas of music outside of jazz.
“There’s not a ton of work in the jazz field,” says Daniel Weidlein, who majored in Jazz Studies and minored in Recording. “Yes, you can join a working big band if you’re lucky, or maybe become a sideman with a well-known jazz artist, or even better, start your own group that has a viable touring career…but these opportunities are few and far between. Most of the work is in other areas of music. Take the time to learn the nuances of other musical styles (pop, rock, R&B). How can you cross-apply your jazz skills to these areas and use them to your advantage? At the end of the day, the most important thing is to be able to write/arrange your own music and be able to apply the same cross-genre study to writing as well.”

9. Plan ahead.
Mike Casey recommends figuring out your next step plans when you reach your senior year. That way, when you graduate, you’ll hit the ground running. Or at least walking fast.

What can you do when you first graduate?

1. Network.
Chad McCullough, who received degrees in trumpet performance from the University of Idaho and the University of Washington, performs and also teaches trumpet at��. “Find all of the people who are doing what you want to do,” he says, “and do anything you can for them. Friendships are what make careers in the music industry… friends hire friends.”

Peter Stoltzman agrees: “When you graduate, you have friends that become the core of your network/tribe/community. You can’t survive happily without a tribe. You have to start this while you’re in school. Stay connected and physically close to your tribe!”

2. Be visible.
“Find a way to be visible,” says saxophonist Greg Johnson, D.M.A., M.M., USC Thornton School of Music; B.M., University of Northern Colorado, and director of Jazz Studies at the Marin School of the Arts. “Go to shows, jam sessions, take lessons, make the hang.��No one will know to call you if they don’t know who you are, how you interact with people, and how you sound.”

“Go out to support your friends’ music,” urges Amber Navran. “People notice when you’re a supportive friend/peer. It’s inspiring to see what other people are doing, and it inspires them to support you and to call you for gigs, too.”

3. Take a day job?
Taking a non-music job to help pay the rent is a highly debatable topic. Some new graduates do everything possible to avoid this.

“Try as hard as you can to keep all (or most) of your employment music related, and as close to your dreams as possible,” says saxophonist Mike Casey. “I’ve seen too many musicians graduate and get ‘stuck’ in their careers by working 9-5 day jobs instead of embracing the hustle that being an independent musician/artist/business owner is about –– and trying to make that work first. It helps if you have some money saved initially to survive the first year after graduating. If you embrace the hustle right away, know this: it is far from easy, and you’ll likely need some financial padding if you want to avoid getting stuck in a non-musical job. A music career is a marathon, not a sprint!”

But Greg Johnson disagrees: “Day jobs are not a bad thing.��While a lot of musicians are sleeping and watching Netflix, you can be making money and preparing for your next gig.��The fewer hours that you have to practice become way more precious.”

Kevin Smith, bassist and associate director of admissions for����adds, “As is the case for most students going into any creative field, you will need to find a way to earn a living beyond just performing. This will require dedication, legitimate goals, time management. Keep a short- and long-term plan in mind. Most of all, be honest with yourself about what you need in life to be happy with yourself and with your art form.”

4. Use your business savvy.
It’s essential to take an active role in promoting yourself and your music. If you’ve missed out on��, find a way to learn them. Figuring out how to brand your music, understanding what your audiences want, and using creative ways to market your music are all important.

“Make it happen for yourself,” says Amber Navran. “Record, make videos, have a website, be on social media in a strong but humble way. You never know where YouTube and Twitter can take you, and having strong music to show people is the easiest way to get gigs.” Daniel Weidlein adds, “Refine your ability to present yourself in a professional manner that shows off your musical talents as well as your business acumen.”

5. Join professional organizations that support your professional goals.
JEN, SESAC, NAMM, College Music Society, state chapters of the American Federation of Musicians, the Musicians Union in the UK, and professional music publishing organizations like BMI and ASCAP are some of the many organizations jazz majors will find worth checking out. Learn what you can and then see if you can get an invitation to attend events to help figure out which ones are worth joining.

6. Use the alumni network.
Most schools have strong alumni networks, and new graduates are urged to utilize them. The career development and alumni centers at your school should be able to guide you there.

How important is travel for a career in jazz?

• Travel is a good way to become visible.�� Every time I go somewhere new, I sell albums, sheet music and get more traffic on my website.��Traveling can build relationships that lead to more performance and compositional opportunities.�� – Greg Johnson, saxophonist and arts school jazz director
• Travel becomes a huge part of the life. I wouldn’t give anything away for the opportunities I’ve had to see the world, and the entire continental USA playing music.�� – Brett McDonald, saxophonist and pit orchestra member
• Travel also helps define who you are and what music you are making.�� From my experience and what I’ve seen in others, travel and exploration are key to staying fresh to your listeners.�� – Kevin Smith, bassist and assoc. director of admissions
• If you don’t explore other musical communities, you run the risk of severely limiting yourself to things you are familiar with. Musicians need a bit of uncertainty to really grow, and putting yourself in foreign situations can be a great way to force the issue!�� – Paul Shinn, pianist
• The most rewarding and fulfilling experiences I’ve had have been playing music and touring in other countries.�� – Chad McCullough, trumpeter and professor
• Travel can be fun and it can be grueling. And it can make it hard to hold any steady gigs where you live. At a certain point, there are decisions to make about how much traveling you’re going to do. But I highly recommend that performers dive in and live that life for at least a few years. You don’t want to regret not doing it. Is it crucial to a successful career? No. Only if you’re trying to be a star. If you or your band want to have a national or international audience, you have to travel. A lot!�� – Peter Stoltzman, pianist and department chair

Parting Thoughts

• Study with the best people you possibly can, and try to study with a diverse array of teachers. You may learn as much or more from the piano professor even if you’re a saxophonist. – Daniel Weidlein, multi-instrumentalist and producer
• The improvisation you learn as a jazz major will impact your life whatever you do.�� – Javon Jackson, saxophonist and department chair
• Look for scholarships and grants before enrolling. There are a lot of great opportunities for musicians to help fund their career, so with 20/20 hindsight I wish I’d done a bit more research before applying. – Freddy Gonzalez, trombonist
• Compose. You can’t be a successful professional jazz musician just playing other people’s music.You need to hone that craft while you’re in school. Take composition lessons; take orchestration; study your favorite composers and take advantage of the amazing world that is a university library and their vast stacks of real scores.�� – Daniel Weidlein, multi-instrumentalist and producer
• Listen to more music, and sing way more than you think you should! – Chad McCullough, trumpeter and professor

Why is entrepreneurship training for music majors garnering so much attention?

It’s no secret that fewer traditional jobs await even the most proficient musicians when they graduate from music school. Combine that with the number of highly-trained musicians and you’ll find some serious supply and demand issues.

Thanks to innovative programs focusing on but not limited to educating students on how to self-start their careers, i.e., “entrepreneurship training,” students are discovering new ways to gear up for working as musicians and in music-related fields. “At the core of entrepreneurship is an ability to create value out of opportunity,” says Alain Barker, director of the Office of Entrepreneurship and Career Development at��. “My sense is that if you give students the tools to unlock their inner entrepreneurial spirit, there’s no limit to what they can do.”

Music schools vary markedly in what they offer along these lines: from entrepreneurship-related degrees, minors, and certificate programs, to courses, presentations, internships, summer intensives, and cross-campus programs often in collaboration with business schools. Most of what’s out there engages students at their level of interest, so students must seek out these programs to benefit.

Entrepreneurship Training for Freshmen

Some schools are integrating entrepreneurship training for music majors into the curriculum as early as freshman year. Students at����take a class called “FACE” (First-Year Arts Community Experience), where they’re introduced to entrepreneurial skills and other important tools for their careers. Each student leaves their first year with a self-created video, elevator pitch and website. This helps them develop their network, as well as their online presence and digital portfolio, says Jim Hart, Director of Arts Entrepreneurship. Students are taught “how to choose an audience they wish to serve, to play a leadership role, and create for and market to the needs of their audience,” he adds.

Freshmen at����“meet individually with the entrepreneurship team to identify their reasons for pursuing musical careers and optimize their learning experiences to meet their professional goals,” says Monique Mead, who runs the Music Entrepreneurship Program. “In the courses, students will develop business plans, create marketing portfolios, practice stage presence and professional etiquette, learn how to engage current audiences, and build audiences for the future.”

Gabe Pollack had the wisdom as well as the ability to create his own “Jazz Entrepreneurship” major at��. “Entrepreneurship programs add some practicality to a performance degree,” he says. “I loved studying jazz trumpet, but I knew that I was not going to be a professional touring musician. The entrepreneurship program at Oberlin allowed me to pursue my passion for music but also take courses that would help create the lifestyle that I wanted. Even if a student wants to become a professional musician, I think that in today’s times, he/she needs to think of him/herself as an individual business. An artist needs to be creative with marketing, booking, publicizing, and presenting music. Entrepreneurship helps people think creatively about these issues.”

Keane Southard agrees. He received his MM in composition from the����and his BM in Composition and Theory from��Baldwin Wallace University Conservatory, agrees. “Students should take advantage of entrepreneurship programs because mastering your craft is only half the equation of making a career in music,” he says. “Musicians are by nature creative people, and they should also apply that creativity to the business side of their profession and not just the artistic side. Doing so can lead to more opportunities to fulfill yourself as a musician and connect your music with more people, and I believe every musician wants that.” Using his entrepreneurship training, Southard is in the process of planning to hike the New England portion of the Appalachian Trail, compose a large orchestral work inspired by his hiking experiences, and bring several orchestras on board to perform his work.

What Do Students Gain?

Entrepreneurship programs help students learn how to find and create opportunities for their music to be performed. They also learn how to think about creating opportunities where they can apply their musical training and the transferable skills they’ve gained in music school.

Other skills and capabilities students and recent music school alumni report as a result of music entrepreneurship classes and programs:

• writing grant applications
• filling out tax forms
• creating websites and bios
• budgeting
• confidence and increased comfort in public speaking
• creating viable business pitches
• creating business plans
• collaboration
• balancing business savvy with creativity and artistic skills

Why Take Advantage of Entrepreneurship Programs for Music Majors?

Daniel Hickey’s senior year internship at DePauw University School of Music continues to influence his career plans. By managing performances and concert series (including his own) on and off campus, he came away convinced that, “The skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur – organization, communication, creativity, some technology know-how, dedication, outreach, and more – are not only useful to musicians, but are transferable to almost any career. A person who excels in these areas is marketable, reliable, and attractive in every field.”
Beth Rosbach, a professional cellist who was involved with an earlier incarnation of the University of Colorado Boulder College of Music’s Entrepreneurship Center for Music while she was a graduate student, urges students to dive into entrepreneurship programs at their schools. “The nature of the music business has changed drastically over the past 20 years,” she says. “You have to be able to promote yourself and create your own opportunities, because there are simply fewer companies and organizations that will just hand you a job upon graduation.”

Outcomes…

Projects emerging from entrepreneurship programs for music majors include successful student and professional concert series; collaborations with restaurants, clubs and galleries; websites for selling scores and parts for bands and orchestras; private teaching studios; K-12 music programs; and much more.
Specific programs that have emerged include:

Project Opera Camp
Tuition-free camps and programs founded by Kate McKinney and Brenton O’Hara, graduates of the����For underserved, marginalized students who learn how to put together and perform an opera while taking classes that teach tangible skills for everyday life: leadership, financial literacy, resisting drugs, healthy communication.

Bridge the Gap
A chamber music initiative founded by current and former SMU Meadows School of the Arts students to make chamber music more accessible by bringing it into unexpected settings such as parks and nightclubs.

Bop Stop
Cleveland-based jazz club featuring public performances as well as music and arts instruction, music therapy, and early childhood arts education. Directed by Gabe Pollack, an Oberlin Conservatory graduate.

New Voices Opera
An opera company run by Indiana University Jacobs School of Music students, featuring next generation operatic composers with the intention of creating relevant opera for modern audiences.

Cezanne String Quartet
Dallas-based chamber music ensemble composed of four SMU Meadows music students and alumni. In residence at SMU from August 2015 – May 2017.

Kenari Quartet
An award-winning saxophone quartet formed by students and alumni of Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, featuring music of various genres.

Sphere Ensemble
Colorado-based professional string quartet founded by Beth Rosbach, a graduate of the University of Colorado Boulder College of Music.

South Dallas Strings Program
An offshoot of Bridge the Gap (see above), bringing music to underserved schools in the Dallas area through SMU Meadows School of the Arts students and resources.

Are music majors determined to have successful careers in music deluding themselves? Here are 3 myths about careers in music with some facts to help dispel them.

by Dr. Michelle Stanley

Myth #1: Music majors are destined for a life of struggle and financial instability.

A musician’s career is one of diverse and multiple income streams. Rarely do musicians earn their income from a single source. From performance to teaching, composing to recording, a successful musician’s financial stability is the result of seeking and creating options for generating income.

Looking beyond traditional jobs gives a bigger picture of viable career options for musicians. Many businesses, for instance, are discovering that musicians make incredible employees due to their communication skills, organizational ideas, discipline, and focus. Music can also be a contributor to the success of a business. Witness, for instance, Chipotle and the DJ who puts playlists together for all 1400 of their restaurants.

The music industry simply isn’t the same as it used to be. It is now driven by technology, innovation, value, and entrepreneurship. Musicians who adapt and change easily, and who are creative and entrepreneurial, are more likely to be successful.

Myth #2: The only jobs in music are in music education

Music educators are essential for training the next generation of musicians. They also ensure that there will continue to be successful engineers, doctors, project managers, software designers, and others who learned how to work as part of a team as a result of playing in school orchestras and bands and by singing in school choirs.

But teaching is only one of many career options for music majors. From composing to performing to arts management to music therapy, the possibilities for music majors continue to expand. Though the landscape for earning a living as a musician is constantly changing, jobs for those with a musical background are not going away, especially in the technology sphere where Silicon Valley giants like Apple, with their acquisition of Beats, and Google, are trying to fundamentally change the way we consume music.

See����to get a sense of the breadth of available careers. Notice from this career list that many career options are tied to technological fields where music is a valued asset.

Myth #3: The American orchestra is dead (and so are orchestra jobs)

American orchestras are learning to shift their business models in order to survive. They’re discovering new performance venues and exploring collaborative opportunities to broaden their appeal, especially to younger audiences. For instance, the Utah Symphony is presenting concerts in the National Parks while the Metropolitan Opera is offering wildly popular, sold-out simulcasts of their productions in movie theatres across the country. Small chamber groups are growing into the symphony model (eg., Alarm Will Sound, Eighth Blackbird), with concert tours and subscription concerts. Even the New York Philharmonic is teaming with music ensembles like Bang on a Can to create a new sound for the new millennium.

Though it may be unreasonable to count on a job as principal chair in an orchestra, it is not unreasonable to consider teaming with an orchestra in a way that is fresh and unusual.

Dr. Michelle Stanley��is Assistant Professor of Music (flute) at��. She is an active recitalist nationally and abroad and is a regular performer in orchestral and chamber settings. Her teaching at CSU includes flute, chamber music and the nationally recognized LEAP Institute, an arts leadership and entrepreneurship program for CSU arts students.

Crafting and managing your personal brand as a musician can seem complex. Technology continues to play a major shaping force in the evolution of music careers. With any innovation comes the fear of change, but also the opportunity to excel in ways that were unimaginable just a few years ago.

by Daniel Leeman

Take the breakout classical crossover violinist and dancer, Lindsey Stirling, for example. In 2010, Lindsey was rejected in the quarterfinal round of America’s Got Talent and was told, “What you’re doing is not enough to fill a theater in Vegas.” To her credit, as of this writing, Lindsey has amassed over 800 million YouTube views.

I can’t imagine many parents would have responded positively to their daughter’s desire to brand herself as a “dubstep violinist,” but it’s by a combination of practice, innovation, and personal branding that more young musicians are able to utilize technology to cultivate a global audience.

Here are five tips to help guide you in the right direction.

1. Think about your target audience.

If you’re a composer, who do you want to perform your music? If you’re a conductor, what kind of musicians do you want to work with? If you are a performer, what kind of audience do you want to build? Understanding your audience (and more importantly, what your audience wants) is key to building your brand.

2. You are the product.

As musicians, we ourselves are our product. If a new recording by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra is being released, people want to hear it because it is the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, not because the world has never heard Beethoven before.

The beauty of claiming yourself as the product is that no one can ever take your place, or identically replicate what it is you have to offer the world. Finding meaningful ways to incorporate your personality into your music will help you establish a more recognizable brand.

3. Promote and encourage others.

Musicians are a close-knit bunch. If you can go out of your way to constantly encourage and promote other people, positive musical karma is in store for you! Promoting others helps you position yourself as someone who gives back to the music community. Others are more likely to share and interact with you if you take interest in their work.

One great way I’ve found to build up your social media following and solidify your brand is to write a positive, meaningful review of similar musicians in your niche. A single, well-planned review can lead to new mutually beneficial relationships with other musicians, add new followers to your social media accounts, drive new traffic to your website, and positively brand you as a contributor in your musical community. ��Post the review on your website, and share a tweet tagging the musician on Twitter. Musicians love the free publicity, and many will take the time to retweet your review to their followers. A retweet by the musician you reviewed can suddenly send dozens (if not hundreds) of relevant new visitors to your Twitter profile and website.

4. Share your creative process.

We often worry that our audience only wants to see our finished product. But showing your work and creative process can help more deeply connect your audience to your musical work.

If you’re an audio engineer, compare the differences of before and after recordings with specific postproduction techniques. If you’re a composer, guide your audience through the form of your piece with the thematic material you are creating.

5. Crafting your personal brand is a journey.

It can be exciting to try to do everything all at once, but be willing to learn from your mistakes. If you haven’t considered personal branding before, don’t try to hop on every social media platform all at once. Start one one platform, or with a single goal, and gradually branch out as your schedule permits.

What do you think? Which musicians do you know who have a great handle on managing their personal brand? Do you have any tips based on your own successes?

Daniel Leeman is co-founder of sheet music startup notestem.com. Through his work as a music educator and consultant, Daniel works with musicians to build brand identities and think as entrepreneurs to grow their audiences.

Student-run record labels at college-level music schools provide real-world opportunities for students. They operate like major label companies, thanks to the high-powered music industry backgrounds of the faculty involved. The skills learned and the experiences gained are essential training for anyone interested in a career in music industry, as well as for anyone wanting to get their own music heard and distributed.

“A current day music industry program requires a perspective beyond the traditional industry functions,” says Joe Rapolla, who heads the Music Industry program at Monmouth University, home of Blue Hawk Records.��“As music, media, and technology continue to converge, training needs to go beyond preparing students for jobs in music-only environments.��It must go across media categories, and anywhere organizations are looking for creative people who understand the issues and models of current day media consumption and who know how to produce and utilize entertainment media to reach and engage.”

With music distribution changing so rapidly,��what can students learn?

“We learned first and foremost that the traditional approach to a record label’s job in the music industry is dying hard and fast,” says Ethan Bates, a 2014 Music Industry graduate of Syracuse University Setnor School of Music. Bates had originally joined Syracuse University Recordings (SUR) to record some of his own music. He found the work so interesting and relevant to his career goals of managing and promoting music that he stayed on to become general manager of SUR in his senior year.��“We found success by getting our hands dirty with jobs that a standard record label normally doesn’t involve itself with, like PR, social media marketing, show booking & promotion, etc.��It allowed me to experience working from both sides of the desk, and from the perspective of numerous other jobs within the music industry.”

Kevin Guico, a 2014 Music Management graduate of the University of the Pacific Conservatory of Music, worked with his school’s Pac Ave Records to gain experience and see whether he’d want to incorporate record label operations in his career. “Pac Ave Records is run more as a business and a job rather than as a conventional class. As a student, you get to learn academically about the record industry and its operations first-hand. As an entertainment industry worker, you gain experience and knowledge from actually working in the industry. You learn exactly what goes into getting talent, recording an album, making the album, and distributing and selling it.��Whether you are a performer or a businessman, working with a student-run record label gives you invaluable experience on both sides of the coin.”

Split Rail Records at Appalachian State University Hayes School of Music has offered Music Industry Studies senior Greg Peterson a chance to prepare for what he’ll do once he graduates. With a focus in Marketing and Management and a minor in Business, he’s taken on the role of “frontman” of Split Rail’s marketing team. “We work to promote our events, artists & bands, along with fundraising,” he says. “I speak with companies and local businesses about promoting. I also handle all graphics for Split Rail, so I make posters, logos, and other images for our events to help with brand and event recognition.”��Peterson, who plans to become a festival manager and promoter or a producer for an entertainment company, is getting plenty of experience working with local artists and bands.��“We look to sign local artists of any genre and style,” he says, “and give them the opportunity to have a professional album recorded and promoted by our team.”

Andrea Petrucelli is president of CAM Records (College of Arts and Media Records), a component of the University of Colorado Denver’s Music Entertainment Industry Studies (MEIS) program. Expecting to graduate in May, 2015 as a Music Business major, her many career goals include working in A&R, music journalism, concert promotion, management, and music education. In her major, participation in CAM is required and��“provides a real taste of what it is like to work in the industry via communicating with other colleagues, artists, press, and venues.”

At Monmouth University, Natalie Zeller heads the Outreach Department for Blue Hawk Records. A junior in Music Industry, she promotes the label both on and off campus.��“Working with Blue Hawk Records has taught me how to navigate the advances in technology that the music industry is seeing.��While creating our compilation CDs I saw the process of our music being put up on iTunes and Spotify, two huge factors in buying and streaming music that people use every day.”

Professional Support

Faculty advise and support student efforts at these record labels every step of the way. With their backgrounds in music industry as professional musicians, recording engineers, marketing directors at major record labels, entrepreneurial consultants, and managers of music groups and talent agencies, these professionals offer their students a wealth of wisdom and real-world experience. At the same time, students get to make the kinds of decisions they’ll face in their work after graduation. Phillipe Ravenas, Chair of the Arts Entertainment & Media Management Product (AEMMP) at Columbia College Chicago, works with the oldest U.S. student record label, founded in 1982. He says, “Hands-on experimentation is at the heart of what we do.��The process is the final product. This is a real training ground for students: a safe place to fail, to test the limits, to measure the consequences.”

Keith Hatschek, Music Management Program Director at the University of the Pacific Conservatory of Music, agrees. Pac Ave Records’ purpose is “to provide��a lab for students to test out what works and what doesn’t in terms of choosing, producing, releasing and promoting recorded music and events.��Purchasing, operations, marketing, artistic and creative decisions are basically all made by the students. If money or contracts are involved, those are run by the instructor to get relevant feedback.

“Ultimately, unless a question of legality or propriety comes up,” Hatschek continues, “the students make nearly all decisions relating to the label and its operation.��Mistakes and successes count equally in this type of learning.��Analyzing student decisions and their effectiveness forms the basis for much of the learning that transpires.”

Bob Halligan teaches in the Music Industry program at Syracuse University Setnor School of Music and works with its two labels. “They are meant as learning laboratories for today’s 360 music business,” he says. In addition to preparing students for jobs in industry, “we try to give people tools for inventing their own jobs if they can’t find more conventional ones.”

Opportunities for Students

Experience working at student-run record labels can be parlayed into exciting opportunities and internships, as well as jobs after graduation.

• This past summer, Blue Hawk Records students performed and toured in Italy. “During the trip,” says Joe Rapolla, “our students rehearsed and collaborated with students from a music academy in Italy and held live performances to sold-out audiences in beautiful medieval villages throughout the Abruzzo region.”
• “One of the goals of the label and class is to give students the opportunity to interact with the artist and build relationships,” says Andy “Rok” Gurerrero, who oversees students at UC Denver’s CAM Records label. “Last semester, we worked with the Colorado-based band “You, Me & Apollo” and helped sell out the release show at the Bluebird Theater (600 cap room).”
• “The very first album released by Pac Ave,” says Keith Hatschek, “was recognized by DownBeat magazine as the best collegiate recording of the year for 2012.” Some students who’ve worked with the Pac Ave label have gone on to executive positions at companies including Clear Channel radio, Pandora, Beats Music, and Warner Music Group.
• “Many have used real-world experience gained through the label to land internships,” says Kim Wangler. She oversees Split Rail Records at Appalachian State’s Hayes School of Music, where Split Rail is a required one-semester class for Music Industry Studies majors. “One of our (Split Rail) presidents got an��internship in the legal department of MTV��because she could talk about signing contracts with artists…We also brought in two publishers from Nashville. From that event, they discovered one of our students and he is now��signed to a publishing contract��with them and regularly visits Nashville to co-write with various artists.”

Takeaways

“Create tangible goals and a schedule to complete them. The fact that we had these goals and had deadlines for them held us accountable and focused on helping the label succeed. And always record everything. This not only helped us look back at our meeting notes whenever we needed a reference, but it also served as a compelling selling point. If we were trying to pick up another artist, we had tangible data on how we helped promote our current artist’s social media and record sales.”

— Kevin Guico

“A��class that takes us out of the classroom environment and puts us right in the middle of the industry is the absolute best way to get our feet wet as college students. It is the real-life experience that is the biggest takeaway: record label operations and departments,��the legalities, the��local scene, the people to know in the local scene, networking, communication with difficult people, communication with easy people, dealing with a 5-piece band,��how to pick a band,��time management, budgeting, being punctual,��how to work with each other, all of it.”

–Andrea Petrucelli

“Working at the AEEMP record label provides entrepreneurship, leadership, collaboration, and decision-making experience.”

– Phillipe Ravenas

“(At Split Rail Records) students get to talk about working with musicians in the studio, the trials and tribulations of launching an album on time, putting on release shows, seeking sponsorships, and more. I think this is a really great experience for our students – they deal with the real world of working with artists…not just what I can teach them in the class. They also have the pride of helping artists reach the next level in their career and a much better idea of actually working in, not just talking about, the music industry.”

– Kim Wangler

“One of the other interesting outcomes that students learn by taking the class is just how hard it is to stick to deadlines and how quickly the semester flies by. It’s a taste of how fast things must move in the post-graduation music industry and alerts them that time is of the essence in any business venture.”

– Keith Hatschek

Have you thought about what it takes to find success as a freelance musician? If you’re fortunate to have gone to school in an area with a strong arts scene, you may be able to launch this aspect of your career right where you are. But often, it will mean moving to a more urban environment after college.

by Nicole Riner

Moving to a new city is difficult if you do not have personal or musical connections there. You will start out in the back of the line behind local professors and their graduate students, recent graduates who stayed in town, important people’s spouses, and those who have been a part of the local scene since you were a toddler.

But don’t lose heart! You will eventually be recognized for your reliability, talent, networking skills, and humble, hard-working attitude as long as you consistently display those qualities whenever you have the opportunity.

Whether you stay where you are or move to new surroundings, the following tips may serve you well:

Be ready to self-promote.

Get your one-page résumé looking as good as it can, and make it easily available. You can carry paper copies with you wherever you go, but paper is becoming a thing of the past. It’s better to also have all the information you want to convey on a website (résumé, bio, performance calendar, teaching philosophy, sound clips, etc.) and get some great-looking business cards made to share your information quickly and easily. Study other websites from people in your field and learn from the best.

Find a web hosting company.

Do some shopping for web hosting. New companies are constantly forming to offer affordable package deals on the domain name along with some pretty professional-looking design help.

Create your website.

Create a website that celebrates your victories while also allowing people to get to know you as a musician. A website filled with bravado and not much else is rather annoying (and ubiquitous, unfortunately). But a website that genuinely represents who you are as a unique individual will always be compelling.

If your goal is to teach through your own studio, a well-written teaching philosophy is important. It allows potential students and their parents to make a connection to you and feel comfortable choosing you as their teacher.

Share your particular interests, areas like classical-jazz crossover music or Latin American folk music, etc. Your website helps you get past the awkward “stranger” phase when people first discover you.

Stay in performance shape. ��

The imposed downtime of having no gigs in a new place allows you to be in the best shape of your life. Design an efficient and regular practice schedule for yourself so that you are always ready at a moment’s notice to fill in at a gig. These types of opportunities will most likely be your first calls.

Scales, long tones, orchestral excerpts, and sight reading practice should be priorities. Familiarize yourself with any relevant music you haven’t yet learned. Your goal is to be able to say yes to anything that comes along and to play so well that you get called again.

Make calls. ��

Contact local band directors about coming in to teach pull-out or after-school lessons. Call the personnel managers of local part-time orchestras and ask if you can audition for the sub list. If there is a good college or full-time orchestra in your area, contact the professor/principal player and take a lesson. Share your interest in subbing and other side work if you hit it off together. Learn who the contractors in your area are, and email them your press packet –– headshot, résumé, bio, and links to pertinent information on your website. In short, make sure people know where to find you.

Look for a faculty to join. ��

Community music schools are great places to meet other active freelancers. Through them, you can learn about gigs, create chamber music groups or jazz trios, and generally learn the lay of the land. And in the meantime, you’ll get paid to teach classes or individual students.

Create performance opportunities. ��

Give a recital at a local church, theater, or other music venue. Promote that recital aggressively. Contact local newspapers, classical radio stations, and arts bloggers to announce it and to offer yourself for an interview or review of the show. If it goes well, consider creating a music series.

Say yes to anything. ��

Any work even marginally-related to performing could lead to more performing. Do anything you feel capable of doing that will allow you to work with other musicians and let them see you shine. Entry-level arts administration work, sub-contracting for gigs, or just teaching or playing in situations you didn’t imagine for yourself are all fair game.

Consider working for free. ��

Performing for free is a painful concept after so many years of playing for free as a student, but you often go back to square one when you move to a new place. If an unpaid gig is likely to lead to more work, consider it an extended audition.

Once You Get the Gig

By the time you start getting calls for gigs, you may have gone through periods of frustration, mild depression, and panic at the thought of having wasted your college years practicing your instrument instead of doing something marketable. Don’t let it show! Whether you are playing beside brilliant musicians or people who seem staid in their performance chops, address everyone as a respected colleague. Show your appreciation after solos at rehearsal (good or bad). Thank the regulars in the ensemble for letting you play with them.

Make direct eye contact, smile, offer your hand and introduce yourself. Act happy to be there, even if it has been a difficult week filled with rejections. There are far more good musicians than there are jobs, so if your ego gets in the way, you won’t be called again.

Treat every rehearsal, no matter how mundane the music, as if it is the most important performance of your life. You are being judged every time you make a sound by people who decide where to put you on the sub list.

Establishing Yourself

It takes time to be recognized for who you are and what you can do. And every area is different. When I lived in the Midwest (during a more robust economy), I had a full studio within three months and was getting calls to play soon after that.�� When I moved to the Rocky Mountain region, it took two years before I was really active as a musician.

Every musical community is a small one, and every action and statement you make will follow you. If you consistently present yourself as willing to work, hold yourself to a high standard, and act generously and with kindness in the face of others’ struggles, people will want to work with you.�� The longer you remain that excellent colleague, the higher your name will rise on the sub list.

Nicole Riner��is Visiting Associate Professor of Music at the University of Wyoming. She also maintains a national presence as a soloist, chamber musician, and pedagogue.�� She earned a DM from����and has recorded for Albany and Centaur Records. For more information, please visit��www.nicoleriner.info.

Photo Credit:��Ted Brummond

How does a music major shift gears and start a business? Ask John Knific, pianist-turned-entrepreneur. He’s living proof of how vision, hard work, and a commitment to turning failure around to meet customer demand have resulted in success.

Knific was a double-major in biology and music at Case Western Reserve University, with plans to go to medical school. In his junior year, he had what he calls an “Aha! moment.” The rest is history. Along with Marc Plotkin, an audio recording technology/music industry guy and Eric Neuman, a software engineer, Knific started planning a business in earnest. Their original idea didn’t pan out as hoped. But the three founders listened, corrected their course, and DecisionDesk, the company that may be ensuring your recorded prescreens and auditions are seamlessly sent to music school evaluators, was born.

Knific graduated from Case Western in 2009. Today he’s CEO of DecisionDesk. He also mentors entrepreneurial students at��, through its Creativity and Leadership Program.

Knific spoke with �ƹ�app to offer his best tips to students thinking about taking the entreprenuerial route to realizing their dreams.

Can you give us a quick overview of your journey as an entrepreneur?

I caught the entrepreneurship bug in my junior year of college. I remember the night. I was sitting at my computer, frustrated with how terrible MySpace Music was, thinking there had to be a more professional way to share performances. Then it clicked: “Why don’t I make something better?” I walked over to talk to my roommate, Marc, who was studying audio recording, to share my idea. He loved it. That was the beginning of the end of my medical school career plans.

The next few years were not quite as romantic. We founders had to forgo paying jobs and graduate school. Even my music was sacrificed, as I had less and less time at the piano. We started out trying to build a social network for music students. It failed miserably. We turned our product into an online video audition tool for music schools.

This was a turning point. We began having some traction, started rapidly growing our client roster, and eventually raised seed capital from an angel investment network. Fast forward two years, I’ve raised over $2 million in venture capital, now have 15 full-time employees, work with over 100 universities, and we’re just getting started.

What are a few of the tradeoffs of starting your own business?

A big tradeoff is the amount of time it takes to start your own business. It’s a long-term investment. Most entrepreneurs can’t pay themselves very much when the business starts, and you’ll put in many more hours than if you were working a “normal” job. The benefit is that it’s an investment in yourself and what you’re passionate about. I can’t see myself doing anything else right now.

What’s one of the most important things you learned as a music major that you can apply to being an entrepreneur?

Structuring your time in the practice room and setting goals is important. This relates to entrepreneurship. Early on, there are a million things you can work on at your startup. It’s very easy to keep busy, but it doesn’t mean you’re productive. I think it’s helpful to set achievable milestones like “I will call ten potential customers and get one to commit to trying my service.”

Describe some advice you’ve found helpful in starting your business that you’d like to pass on to others.

Be a good listener. It’s important early on to meet with people, build a network, and get advice.

You also need to identify who your customer is and understand their “pain points” inside out [i.e., difficult and urgent problems needing to be solved]. This process is called customer discovery, and it’s a crucial exercise before investing any time or money into your product or service.

Failure is OK! You will be told “no” frequently when starting a business. The founder of Pandora, one of the most popular internet music services, was rejected by over 300 investors when raising capital!

What’s the most common mistake the students you mentor face when thinking about starting a business?

The most common mistake is putting too much thought into how cool the idea is and not into the value for the customer. My biggest recommendation is to spend time with your potential customers and understand what will make them part with their hard-earned dollars. Solving this is the biggest hurdle. Unlike in the movie “Field of Dreams,” just because you build it, it does not mean they will come!

What about funding a new business?

Funding a startup is a complex issue. First and foremost, you have to decide if you want to bring on funding. Most startups are not a good fit for the strings that come attached to venture capital, which is intended for high growth technology companies.

You want to start by talking to people in your industry and make connections to prospective investors. It’s a learning exercise, and your initial meetings will be over coffee, lunch, or beers.�� Raising capital is more of a networking exercise with the occasional formal “pitch” that involves a presentation. Most young entrepreneurs don’t realize that the networking portion is the most important part,

You’re a busy guy. How do you continue to fit music into your life?

It’s tough. Startup life can be all-consuming. My wife (a vocalist) and I still perform when possible, and play for fun at home. My classical chops aren’t what they used to be, but I still love playing. Funny enough, there are a lot of musicians working at DecisionDesk. One of these days we’ll have to put a company ensemble together!

“I never would have guessed that music entrepreneurship would be my calling. I can remember walking around various college fairs when I was still in high school, waiting for a certain major or university to excite me.”

by Aidan Rush

Nothing about “generic” majors like communications and business piqued my interest – I wanted a colorful life that appealed to my artistic side, despite whatever peaks and valleys that might bring with it. You probably feel or felt the same way, otherwise you wouldn’t be visiting this website!

Music had always been a staple in my life, but I knew from a young age that a career as a professional musician wasn’t for me, primarily for two reasons: 1) I saw the hard work my talented relatives put into their musical careers without getting much in return, and 2) I simply wasn’t talented enough.

Not too long after worrying I wouldn’t find the right major or university fit for me, I stumbled across a school offering a degree in Music Industry. Working in the music industry field appealed to me. I thought such an education would allow me to somehow shed light on and empower talented DIY musicians like my relatives, and allow me to still be surrounded by music every day without having to air my mediocre talent to the masses.

Fast-forward 8 years from those 2005 fall college fairs. I’ve graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor’s of Science in Music Industry from Northeastern University, flirted with changing but reaffirmed my position on being a full-time musician (shout out to my old band, the Organic Sound Project), and am now wearing many professional hats in the music tech sector.

Music Tech

What is music tech, you ask? For me, it’s about working with online tools that help musicians more easily manage their careers. Primarily, I do business development and marketing work for a music startup, Presskit.to, a digital portfolio service that makes it easy for musicians and their team members to pitch a concise message to anyone that can advance the artist’s career. I also have my hands in several other music tech jars and have started to develop a nice little musician consulting business for myself. But trust me, getting here has not been easy.

Internships and Why They’re Essential

It is especially important to experience internships or co-ops (depending on your school) throughout the course of your undergraduate education, if you have any interest in any aspect of music industry. The entire industry is built on relationships, for both musicians and industry professionals. When your professors say that, they’re not just saying it – it’s absolutely true. Some quick words to the wise: meet as many other musicians and aspiring music industry professionals while you’re in school, and don’t make any enemies! This effort will pay big dividends down the road! Thankfully, I took advantage of all 3 co-op opportunities my school offered: one at an artist management company (Nettwerk Music Group), one at a music competition website (Ourstage.com), and the final co-op in a marketing and editorial role at Presskit.to’s parent company, Indie Ambassador.

The robust music industry curriculum at my school was also hugely important. I took a wide range of courses, because believe it or not, I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do in the industry until I stumbled into music tech (indecision seemed to be one of my strong suits during that part of my life). Artist Management, Music Marketing and Promotion, Music Entrepreneurship, and Music Non-Profits are some of the elective classes I took in conjunction with required, more traditional music classes like Theory, Music Literature, History and Traditions of American Music, etc.

With everything I learned under my belt, I foolishly thought I’d be a shoe-in for a good old-fashioned 9-to-5 job after graduation. I could not have been more wrong.

Rude Awakenings

I graduated on Friday, May 6, 2011. The only pseudo-employment offer presented to me was to continue working part-time at Indie Ambassador, my last co-op. Without getting into details, suffice it to say that the small stipend they could offer me as a bootstrapped startup was not enough to support me in an expensive city like Boston, even with the promise of full-time employment when possible. So, though I continued to work part-time for them, I fought tooth and nail all summer long to find a better way. Aside from a series of interviews for jobs that I was either mildly interested in or that were totally irrelevant to my interests and degree, nothing came.

But at the 11th hour, just as I was running out of money and being faced with the pride-swallowing reality of possibly having to move back home with my parents, I found an online job site that had a few music-related freelance journalism opportunities. I ended up being offered one.�� Though I wasn’t too keen on the opportunity, and even though it offered the minimum viable wage I could survive on, I decided to tough it out, hoping that the startup I was working for would soon be funded, or another job would come calling. To this date, neither of those past visions has come true, though I have built out my freelance portfolio considerably and am significantly more financially comfortable than I was immediately after graduation. And I have much faith that many big things are on the way for every company and musician that I work with.

Lessons Learned

So what lessons can be learned from my short history as a music industry professional?

Most of all, I learned that you have to pay your dues. Your professors won’t tell you this because they like you to live under the impression that your tuition equates dues, but there’s really no way around the inevitable school of hard knocks you must encounter on your own.�� Sure, I know a decent number of people who did get their 9 – 5 job right out of school, but I can honestly tell you now that many of them have grown disillusioned with the career path they chose and don’t feel fulfilled at the end of the day. I may not have a budding 401k like they do, but I am thrilled to be following my muse at the end of every day, even if it meant that I barely made ends meet for 18 months.

Did my school help me get here? Absolutely. Despite the fact that I didn’t take a single class in the music tech field I currently work in during my time there (music tech wasn’t being offered back then), I learned skills that are broad enough to be applied to any industry. And I learned the ins and outs of the music industry itself like the back of my hand. This has enabled me to maintain a good balance of tech and music in my professional life. A guy working in music tech has much more credibility if he has deep knowledge of the traditional music industry.

That’s the first chapter of my professional autobiography and I’m eager to write the rest, which is all I can really ask for at this stage of the game. If I could leave readers with one last bit of advice, I would echo the words of a Sony A&R man I saw speak at SXSW 2013: “To make it in the music industry, you have to be incredibly ambitious and do it all yourself.” Onwards and upwards!

Aidan Rush��is a 2011 graduate of Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. In addition to his work in music industry, he plays tenor sax.

Photo by:��Brent Eysler

What does it take to create a sustainable career in music? �ƹ�app talked with Dr. Connie Frigo, saxophone professor at the University of Georgia and founder of Road of Creativity Music Entrepreneurship Retreat, to explore this vital subject that every music major needs to address.

MM: These days, virtually every career in music requires some aspect of entrepreneurial ability. Why?

CF: The landscape of a career in music has definitely broadened in recent years to include many self-made opportunities driven by individual musicians or groups.

Musicians have begun to realize that their dreams are possible through the discipline of entrepreneurship –– a discipline that allows for individuality and creativity. The disciplines of entrepreneurship and music have a lot in common in that each takes a huge commitment, a relentless work ethic, passion, and new ideas. Musicians will stand to benefit tremendously by entrepreneurship because it involves monetizing an idea. We all want to earn money from what we love to do, right?

MM: More and more colleges and universities, including music schools and departments, are either incorporating entrepreneurship classes, tracks, clubs, seminars, etc. into the curriculum or at least making them available on a voluntary basis. But there’s another aspect to all of this: the entrepreneurial mindset. Can you talk about this and talk about how this mindset is learned?

CF: Let’s start first by defining entrepreneurship in three simple steps:

1. ��Creating a new product

2. ��Assuming all risks and rewards for the product (willingness to be accountable for the final outcome of the product)

3. ��Making a profit for your new product or idea. When a profit is made, it means there is a demand for the product in a particular market. This means the product has value.

How does this apply to musicians?

Imagine that an individual musician is the entrepreneurial product. The product, so to speak, is the talent and unique interests of the individual. This forces the individual to think more carefully about the specific attributes they bring forward into the music world. The individual then assumes all risks and rewards for these interests, meaning they take full responsibility for launching the product.

Let’s say you are a guitarist and your favorite music is alternative rock. Thinking like an entrepreneur means that you begin to recognize that you have unique performing traits and interests –– you’ve got a new product for the market. We are, after all, different from one another. When an entrepreneur assumes all risks and rewards for a product, this means they are willing to see the product through failure and success, whichever the case may be. It’s worth noting that all entrepreneurs experience failure; it’s where they learn the most.

So, back to your being a guitarist who wants to pursue performing alternative rock music. What does it mean to fail? ��Failure could take on many poses. Here’s an example: you book a date at a venue and in order to break even, you must sell 150 tickets. You sell only 103, so you owe the venue the difference. This means you lost money on this venture.

If you broke even or walked away with a few hundred dollars, this means you sold 150 tickets or more. There was a demand for your product and a profit was made, even if it was small. You have to start somewhere, right? Your product –– meaning you and your music –– had a value.

Many musicians are comfortable with the first two steps, but stop short of step three. Musicians can learn to think like entrepreneurs by defining their unique product and zeroing in on the right audience for their product. It takes time to build an audience, too. Don’t underestimate the importance of building an audience! Entrepreneurial projects succeed because they have an audience.

MM: What can someone who is still in high school or early into their music school education do to open their thinking and start honing their entrepreneurial chops?

CF: Ask yourself these questions:

1. ��Identify your purpose: Why am I in music?

2. ��Identify who you are: What unique gifts do I bring forward as a young musician?

3. ��Identify what keeps you in music: What is the most memorable performing experience I’ve had and why?

4. ��Identify whether you want to earn money doing something you love: For example –– Do I want to be paid to perform or teach music? (If the answer is “no”, then an entrepreneurial track may not be the best route for you.)

Entrepreneurs have a passion for what they do, they lose sleep over their ideas and dream about creating new opportunities all the time. Imagine what could happen if you thought this way regularly about your own talents? Answering these questions will jumpstart your thinking towards entrepreneurship.

Dr. Connie Frigo loves to help musicians find their unique niche in music.��She is the saxophone professor at the University of Georgia and founder of Road of Creativity Music Entrepreneurship Retreat , a program designed to help musicians design sustainable careers doing what they love.��Frigo spent six years with the U.S. Navy Band, Washington, DC; seven years as the baritone saxophonist with New Century Saxophone Quartet. She studied saxophone as a Fulbright Scholar in the Netherlands. Frigo has served on the faculties of the Universities of Tennessee, Maryland, South Carolina and .