I Ate Your Microphone

Music contests can help shape your career as far as getting to know other bands and musicians but what are the benefits of entering a talent show, showcase or songwriting contest? Let examine some of the benefits of these contests.There are cash and prizes that are very lucrative and that possibility of an industry executive checking you out for a recording contract but if longevity in the music business is your ultimate goal, then it wouldn’t hurt entering a contest or a showcase. If your career is in music, then it’s something to think about.

If you are confident in your music and what you are doing, you stand a good chance of winning in these contests. It depends on many factors, such as other bands and the opportunity that presented itself at the time.

Many of these contests offer prizes, such as cash, recording contracts, airplay, publishing opportunities, professional music consultants and special tours to showcase your music. You may not win first place but you also get exposed to fans and other industry representatives if that’s the route that you want to go.

If you want exposure, start with contests.  Even if one round doesn’t work out, you still have nothing to loose in working towards your own exposure as an Indie artist.

Most musicians are notorious as far as setting up administration for their music. They would prefer someone else to come in and do while they concentrate on making their latest hit record but as it stands these days, the musician must know something about setting up their own administrative office until that help comes along.

Every musician or band should have a business development plan for getting their music in front of the right fans. This starts with having a strong back office support system in administration which takes care of things that musicians hate, such as paperwork, accounting, correspondence and other things that don’t resound to an A Flat chord.

There are administrative software tools that musicians can use to help organize files, contacts, contracts and correspondence. Microsoft Office and Microsoft Outlook can take care of these things for you as far as personal contacts, emailing lists and keeping a recording project on schedule.

QuickBooks is a good program to handle basic accounting functions. If you are traveling artists, you should keep your receipts so that you can write things off as taxes and take advantage of every tax break possible.

As a musician, it’s your job to set up a back office operation and understand the administrative and business side of music until the Calvary arrives!

If you are an Indie artist, you have probably familiarized yourself with words such as ‘solo’, ‘isolated’, and ‘individual.’  However, this can be a detriment to you.  Indie musicians, because of the career path they have chosen can find great benefits in finding others with like minds that want to communicate and collaborate with projects.

Indie musicians should create local groups to connect with other musicians to share information and promote each others music. This includes inviting people that work in the local music scene to your group sessions. Connecting with like-minded individuals can be a benefit to your music career.

You can set up meetings in coffee shops, libraries or restaurants every three months just to discuss music, new techniques, new business models and the administrative side of music. You can post notifications for these meetings on MySpace, Craigslist or other community bulletin boards that’s in your town so that people can be notified about your meeting.

You can have an informal meeting or run by a very loose agenda with music related topics. You can have a social session, have someone bring in a guitar and then get into talking about tips and tricks that will assist each other in the career of music.

The Indie brainstorming concept is about getting to the core of possibilities and initiating solutions! The group becomes deeply a part of each other and they may learn, work and grow together in many areas of the music world or complete a project and provide each other support it’s great to have a group of people that sincerely care about you and what you are doing!

In your local circle, try to establish an Indie Music Networking Group. It pays great dividends!