Creativity Excitement Emotion

If you’re in your 20s or 30s now, project yourself ahead 50 to 60 years. Where would you be? What would you be doing? How will your life have turned out? In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, I have a chat with musician, conductor, life coach and author Dobbs Franks, who shares about the wonderful journey of life, and the advice he wants to pass on to the younger generation. Download the PDF Cheat Sheet Podcast Highlights: 00:14 – Introductions 00:40 – Tell us about yourself 11:14 – Tell us about your book, So, You Want to be a Musician… 20:30 – As a musician, you could spend your entire life in relative anonymity 24:25 – Your personal relationships will have to write their own rules 27:23 – What’s the number one thing you see getting in the way of people living a happy and fulfilling life? 35:04 – The traditional model of success 36:27 – If there was one piece of advice you could pass onto young people, what would it be? 40:54 – There’s no instruction manual to life 42:30 – The moment you take complete responsibility for your life 43:23 – Are there any books that have helped you on your journey? 45:43 – Is there anything else I should have asked? Transcription: Coming soon. Upgrade to Members Only Audios for more exciting, exclusive training.

Many people will cross your path. Some will want to work with you. Others will offer you valuable opportunities. What do you do when you’re confronted with a new possibility? Do you jump on the chance and hope it works out? Do you weigh your options carefully before moving forward with it? In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, I share some thoughts on who to align yourself with. Download the PDF Transcription Podcast Highlights: 00:14 – Choosing who to work with 00:42 – Thinking like an entrepreneur 00:55 – Who to align yourself with 01:40 – #1: Working with people because it will make you look good 02:45 – #2: Working with people who share the same values 04:06 – #3: Working with people you’ve worked with before 05:08 – #4: Working with people you trust 06:05 – There’s no perfect way to choose who to align yourself with Transcription: As your career or business advances, you’re going to have the opportunity to partner, collaborate and work with a variety of people. What’s surprising to me is how some people make decisions. I’ve seen some artists turn down offers from well-intentioned, well-meaning people who would have fairly compensated them for their work. But because of some underlying emotional baggage or stress in their daily lives, they made the rather unlikely choice of staying put instead of moving forward with their creativity and passion. Now, I’m an entrepreneur. So, if I was in their position, I would have jumped at the opportunity. But not everyone thinks like an entrepreneur, and not everyone is comfortable taking a chance upfront and problem solving along the way. This is what got me thinking about this topic of who to align yourself with. Sometimes, no matter how influential or highly regarded someone is, associating with them can bring you down. At other times, you might be surprised by how the most unlikely people come to your aid or rescue at just the right time. Regardless, you become like those you spend time with, so as you continue to build your career or business, it’s going to become increasingly important to be more selective in who you associate with. You’re going to want to build your support group or inner circle, because you’re going to come to depend on those people, especially when the going gets tough. Who you align yourself with is critical to your success. Here are several methods people use to decide who to work with, and the upsides and downsides of each. 1. I Choose Who to Work with Based on How I’ll Look This is one of the worst criteria for choosing who to align yourself with. Now, given, there may be some people you don’t want to be associated with, such as extremists, controversial figures, criminals and so on. I’m not saying there aren’t reasons why you might associate with people like that anyway, but you must consider your reputation as well as the long-term consequences of associating with someone, no matter who you’re choosing to be involved with. So, to make all decisions based on how you’ll look is the most superficial way to decide who to work with. If this is how you make decisions, more than likely, you’ll make some poor choices and miss opportunities to work with some great people. We as people are much too concerned with appearances. Just look at all the ways people look for validation on social media. My coach, James Schramko, once described seeking validation on social media as a mental disorder, and I don’t think he’s too far off. If you’re only concerned with looking good, then you’re not making a balanced decision. And, odds are you aren’t living authentically either. 2. I Work with People with Whom My Values are Aligned The best way to decide who to work with is to choose people with whom you have shared values. The best way to decide who to work with is to choose people with whom you have shared values.Share on X Honestly, virtually every relationship works better when the people involved have shared values. This goes just as much for romantic relationships as it does for business relationships. In a romantic relationship, your intense feelings of attraction can subside after a few years. But if you have shared interests and values, the relationship can continue to flourish long after those emotions have started waning. This isn’t to say there aren’t ways of stoking those fires again. But generally, the relationship has a much better chance at surviving if both people involved value the same things. In a business arrangement, if the people you’re working with are convicted about the same things you are, they are less likely to make decisions that go against your conscience. So, they are more likely to make decisions that are congruent with your big picture objectives. In a business partnership, if one values money and the other values adding value to people, priorities can quickly get out of order. If they can find a way to complement each other’s strengths and weaknesses, they still have a chance at success. But if both people keep

In April, I released my first mini-book, The Essential Guide to Music Entrepreneurship. To my delight, it has been well-received by musicians and music business owners alike. In the meantime, I’ve been working on several pieces of bonus content that perfectly complement this resource and will help you get more out of it. So, in this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, I share about The Essential Guide to Music Entrepreneurship Pro Pack and what you can expect to find inside. Download the PDF Transcription Podcast Highlights: 00:14 – Bonus content for The Essential Guide to Music Entrepreneurship 00:32 – The three Pro Packs 01:07 – This offer will expire 01:50 – Special bonus 02:10 – Reading from The Essential Guide to Music Entrepreneurship Transcription: I’m excited. Would you like to know why? Well, you might recall that I shared about my new mini-book, The Essential Guide to Music Entrepreneurship in episode 87 of the podcast. So, what’s this got to do with that? Well, I recently finished working on all the bonus content. You may have heard me mention it on other podcasts or masterclasses. Regardless, here’s what you need to know: For a limited time, I’m making it all available for a nominal cost. And, I’ve prepared three different packages depending on your needs. The first package includes just the paperback and eBook version of the book. For those who already bought the book, the second package is ideal, as it includes just the bonus content and not the book. And, there’s a third package for those who want it all. It includes a signed copy of the paperback, the eBook, the audiobook, the action sheet and the video training. At any time, you can go to davidandrewwiebe.com/essential to learn about this offer. But as of January 1, 2019, this offer will no longer be available. You’ll still be able to buy the book at any time, but the additional content will be going away and finding a new home after that. If you order now, you will get instant access to everything except the hardcopy of the book, which I will be sending manually. If you happen to get the third package, then I will be signing the book and then sending it over to you. But you will get access to all the digital content the moment you purchase one of the The Essential Guide to Music Entrepreneurship pro packs. So, again, you can go to davidandrewwiebe.com/essential to learn more about this limited time offer. You’ll even see a counter there, which is counting down to the last day you’ll be able to take advantage of one of the pro packs. Now, as a bonus, I’m going to share with you a segment from the audiobook. I’ve already read you the introduction in an earlier episode, so this will be from a different section. The audiobook isn’t available anywhere else, so if you’d like to get hold of it, don’t let this offer pass you by. Now here’s me reading a segment from The Essential Guide to Music Entrepreneurship. [Audio excerpt from The Essential Guide to Music Entrepreneurship audiobook] Get The Essential Guide to Music Entrepreneurship. Upgrade to Members Only Audios for more exciting, exclusive training.

What is your purpose? What were you meant to accomplish in your lifetime? Are you living life to your fullest? In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, I interview Jules Schroeder of Unconventional Life. She shares how she came to understand her purpose in this world, how she encourages others to live a life of passion, what we can do to find a platform for our message, and much more. Download the PDF Cheat Sheet Podcast Highlights: 00:14 – Introductions 00:25 – How would you describe what you do? 02:08 – Multipotentialites and the traditional model of success 04:10 – Creating a connection through passion 06:16 – Near death experience 10:24 – Spiritual experiences and living life to the fullest 15:05 – What does music entrepreneurship mean to you? 20:04 – Being unreasonable 21:46 – The unconventional life is becoming the conventional life 26:37 – What is your number one tip for building a podcast audience? 30:28 – How do you find a platform for your message? 35:43 – Are there any books you recommend? 37:11 – Closing thoughts Transcription: The following transcript was generated using Descript. David Andrew: Today I'm chatting with the founder of Unconventional Life, Jules Schroeder. How are you today, Jules? Jules: I'm doing wonderful. Good to be here. How are you doing? David Andrew: I'm doing great. Thank you for asking. So you're an entrepreneur, musician, speaker, and podcaster. I'm sure there are other things you do and other titles you have, but just so we can create a bit of a context for my listeners, how would you describe what you do? Jules: Yeah. Um, well at times, uh, people have come to my website and said, it's a little ADD. It's kind of sporadic. Like, who are you? Cause you'll see stuff like, On my Instagram, you'll see travel photos. You'll see me leading workshops. You'll see me in the recording studio performances. You'll see me snowboarding. I was a sponsored snowboarder for a while. And I think at the essence of [00:01:00] it, I'm a very multi passionate. And for so long, I used to think that was a problem that, you know, like I like doing all these different things and that I didn't have much focus. And what I actually realized is that as I've learned to own all of the different areas of self expression, Literally created my company unconventional life almost as a, a home to embody the non traditional it's allowed me to, uh, not only create more impact in the world, but also just have a lot of more fun in the process. And so, you know, for me, I'm someone that really believes that this conventional frame we've been inherited, you know, that I inherited, which was, you know, go to school. Get good grades, get into a good college, get a good job and then get a better job and then eventually die, um, is outdated and there's a million and one ways to make money in this world and to create a life that you love in this world and I love storytelling and I love giving people permission using my own self as an example so that more of us can do what we want, um, with our lives and ultimately take these gifts that we have inside of us and really create structures and, uh, ways to, to play, um, so that we have more fulfillment and more fun. David Andrew: Mm-Hmm. And by way of a couple of comments. You know, I think that movement is beginning to grow. The whole thing about Multipotentialite, I think Emily Watnick at uh, putty like.com, that was one of the first times I'd heard it's okay to be, you know, involved in whole variety of different things and. And pursue what it is that you want to do and enjoy every aspect of that, which is really cool. And then the other thing that you touched on was that traditional model of success that so many people still subscribe to. It's actually incredible to me, but my first exposure to something outside of that was network marketing. And I've talked to others who share that experience and some people have had it. you know, huge success in network marketing. I never did. I would love to say that I exceeded in every area of life. And that hasn't necessarily been the case. I felt like I felt more so that everything that I was involved in pushed me to what I'm doing today. Push me closer and closer and closer towards the music entrepreneur HQ and being engaged in that side of things. So everybody's story is unique in that regard, but it's, it's cool to hear that. I think a lot of people do need to hear that and just to wake up to that reality. Jules: Absolutely. And especially like as creatives, you know, I find that part of being the artist is one that allows emotions or forms of expression or gifts to flow through them. And often I've felt misunderstood. In my life many times, uh, just because of how I interacted with the world and how I create in the world, it's just different. Um, and being that artist

There is so much change going on around us, whether it’s technology, search engine algorithm updates or the needs of our target customers. It isn’t necessary to keep up with everything, but there are some things that can have a major impact on our careers or businesses if we aren’t prepared for them. In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, I talk out lout about some of the recent changes that have impacted my business and what I’m thinking about doing moving forward. Download the PDF Transcription Podcast Highlights: 00:14 – A different kind of podcast episode 00:35 – The challenge I’m facing 01:22 – Mitigating risk and building more traffic sources 01:45 – How to manage my time 02:29 – Time to hire? 02:51 – A month creation and a month of curation 03:51 – Redesigning a website 04:18 – Increasing engagement 05:09 – Creating more videos 05:39 – Adapting 06:20 – Final thoughts Transcription: Whenever I record a podcast episode, I like to prepare some thoughts and ideas that will benefit you in some way. I don’t think today’s show will be any exception, but unlike previous episodes, this is going to be one where I’ll be thinking out loud a little bit because I don’t have a concrete action plan for how I’m going to move forward just yet. You might benefit from hearing me think out loud too. So, here’s the situation: Since about August 13, which was my birthday, I’ve been seeing a marked decline in traffic to the website. Up until that point, I certainly saw some fluctuation, but overall it was on an upward trend. But recently, the traffic essentially halved. I know that Google is constantly updating their algorithm, so I’m sure that plays a part in this decline. I’m also aware that my website has certain issues that could affect its rankings. So, that’s one of the things I’m beginning to think about tackling in the coming months. A decrease in traffic isn’t necessarily something to be alarmed about, and there can also be other factors, such as the fact that it’s still summer. But I want to continue to get my message out there to as many people as possible and don’t like sacrificing in that regard. Building More Traffic Sources Now, I’ve shared before that I like to mitigate risk and build more than one traffic source. This might be an opportunity to explore that idea a little further as well. I could better utilize platforms like YouTube, Instagram and Facebook to connect with my audience. My website is my home base and that’s what I care about most, but these platforms can certainly support my efforts to share my message. I could also advertise on these platforms. Dividing My Time Between Creation & Curation Something else that’s been floating around in the back of my mind is how to manage my time. As you probably know, I spend a lot of my time creating content. And, when I have a product to share with you, generally it’s a course or a book or an eBook, unless it’s an affiliate offer. I like spending my time creating content, as I think it’s more effective than sharing my ideas with one person at a time. When I publish a post, it reaches many people. But because of how I’ve structured my life, most of my time ends up being spent in the business instead of on the business. This isn’t to suggest I don’t want to create more content. The reality is that I have more ideas than I can realistically keep pace with. I have so much more to share with you. That’s a good problem to have, and I’m sure some content marketers wish they had that problem! This is where you say I should begin hiring and bringing people on to handle some of the workload, and you wouldn’t be wrong in saying that. Personally, I would like to see some of my revenue streams build a little more before I look at hiring, as I tend to be conservative with spending. But it might just be a matter of overcoming that mental hurdle. And, don’t kid yourself – we all have mental hurdles to overcome. We all have mental hurdles to overcome.Share on X But back to what I was saying about how I use my time. One thought I had recently was alternating months between creation and curation. So, I would spend one month just flat out creating content and the next month marketing, organizing and repurposing that content. I think this would be a good way to get more leverage out of the content I’m creating, and it would also allow me to spend more time on the business instead of just in it. It would allow me to work on bigger picture things like SEO as well. I’m not sure how this would affect the production of content. In some ways, it might make me more prolific. At the same time, if continually producing and publishing more content doesn’t boost numbers, then it’s not benefiting me. Slowing down and resetting might be a good idea. Do you have any thoughts on this? Would it be okay if I cut down on the amount of content I publish for a while? Would it affect your overall experience of The Music Entrepreneur HQ? Either way, I think it might be helpful for me

Are you thinking about going to a music industry conference? Have you thought about staring your own music conference? In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, I chat with Kevin Breuner of CD Baby who shares about the forthcoming DIY Musician Conference. Download the PDF Cheat Sheet Podcast Highlights: 00:14 – Introductions 00:30 – What is the DIY Musician Conference? 01:34 – Education for independent artists 03:10 – Developing focus as a musician 04:43 – Why should people attend the DIY Musician Conference? 07:35 – What are some things musicians typically walk away with after attending the conference? 10:09 – Live music production 10:42 – What are some of the most common questions musicians come to you with at the conference? 12:31 – Is there anything musicians put too much focus on? 14:52 – What are some questions you wish musicians would ask more? 19:34 – Unsolicited emails and press releases 20:09 – Is the DIY Musician Conference profitable? 22:13 – How much time and effort does it take to put on a conference? 23:51 – Do you have any tips for those looking to start their own conference? 25:07 – What the market will bear 26:37 – How a conference deepens the relationship with your customers 28:29 – The best time in history to get your music out there Transcription: Coming soon. Upgrade to Members Only Audios for more exciting, exclusive training.

If you want to keep your business over the long haul, you can’t leave it all to chance. Legal troubles can ensue, and it may have nothing to do with anything you’ve done wrong. In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, I interview Scott Smith of Royal Legal Solutions who shares not only about how to protect your business but also the steps we need to take to scale our businesses. Download the PDF Transcription Podcast Highlights: 00:14 – Introductions 00:26 – How can we legally protect our companies? 02:09 – Do online businesses get sued too? 03:47 – What steps do people need to take to fully protect their company? 06:27 – GDPR and compliance 10:53 – How can you invest tax free to increase returns by 20% automatically? 13:21 – Are there any advantages to being set up as a self-employed or entrepreneur from a tax perspective? 15:09 – How do attorneys think about startups? 16:50 – What sort of missteps do people make when scaling their business, and how do we avoid them? 18:53 – Why jumping on the latest technology might not be helping you grow your business 22:29 – Selling your personality as a product? 26:10 – What social media is for 28:56 – The basics of music copyright and analysis paralysis 37:45 – The downside of attaching meaning to every event 39:43 – Burnout and the benefits of meditation 41:16 – Working excessively 43:57 – The high costs of burnout 46:07 – What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve experienced on your journey? 48:30 – What are some of the biggest victories you’ve experienced on your journey? 52:39 – Balance and sustainability 56:03 – Are there any books that have helped you on your journey? 57:59 – Is there anything else I should have asked? Transcription: David Andrew Wiebe: Today I’m joined by Royal Legal Solutions’ Scott Smith. How are you today, Scott? Scott Smith: I’m having a great day today man. How’s it been going with you? David Andrew: Not bad at all. It's been a crazy day but I’m looking forward to this conversation. So, today we're going to be looking at something that has yet to be discussed in the podcast but could be one of the most important aspects of running and growing a rock-solid business, which is the legality of running a business. Now, some of you might be starting to tune out already but maybe when you hear this stat you'll begin to pay more attention. “Over 90% of corporations will be sued in the US.” So, Scott, please elaborate on this. How can we protect our companies fully? Scott: Yeah. Well, you just got to know that if you're in an active business that you should anticipate a lawsuit. The reason why is not because most people are shystey or anything like that. If you're in an active business, you should anticipate a lawsuit.Share on X It really has to do with its people having disagreements about what they think they agreed to and then whatever's on the piece of paper. Right? And then now you have a lawsuit because people get angry. So, to really think that you're never going to be sued is really to say like everybody I do business with for forever is always going to love me no matter what. I'm never going to be angry with them. That’s silly. We, at Royal Legal Solutions, we principally are working with a lot with real estate investors because those have huge amounts of capital tied up into assets and what they need to be doing with their portfolios of assets in combination with litigation protection. But for everybody in your audience, you really got to think about what are the really simple things that you could be doing immediately to just take you from having zero protection into having some protection. The best way to do that would just be like… I don’t know. Just like a simple even one to two LLCs would take you from having nothing into having a very high level of protection if you use them correctly. David Andrew: Now, this is something I’m sure people are wondering a bit but does this is applied to online business just as much as a brick and mortar business? Scott: Oh yeah, for sure. Right? Websites get sued just like anything else. Right? You can get sued for all types of compliance issues like the people's credit cards, note that you put up, like music that will have copyrights attached to it and now people want to sue you over it. We live in the most litigious lawsuit happy country in the world. Really, the right way to do it no matter if it’s with a brick and mortar or whether it's online – Royal Legal Solutions is online. It's a huge online law firm. We help people all across the country no matter where they live. That was one of the things that we looked at initially too was our own asset protection, which was we compartmentalize everything that we have that's worth anything – all the IP, domains, graphics. Everything all belongs to a separate asset holding company. Royal Legal Solutions is really an operating company. It doesn't own anything but it conducts al

It’s one thing to talk about doing something. Quite another to be doing it. In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, I share my motivation behind adding a revenue stream to my business and how it’s been panning out so far. Download the PDF Transcription Podcast Highlights: 00:14 – Adding a revenue stream 00:47 – Why Medium? 01:14 – Leveraging content I had already created 01:38 – Writing on topics other than music 02:05 – Repurposing the articles I’m writing 02:23 – Building a following on Medium 03:03 – The results so far 03:04 – Sharing my ideas on Medium 03:18 – Being known by a difference audience 03:34 – Getting views on Medium articles daily 03:58 – Early traction 04:11 – Using the stats as a feedback mechanism 04:35 – Getting away from perfectionism 04:48 – What is the payoff? 05:43 – Conclusion Transcription: In episode 100, I shared about the upsides and downsides of adding a revenue stream to your music career or business. In that episode, I shared that I was planning to take advantage of Medium’s partner program. So, I thought it might be fun to share with you how that’s been going so far and continue to update you on my progress as it develops. I’ll be sharing about the “how” another time, because so far, my success has been limited. I’ll be more than happy to share about my process once I begin to see some tangible results. This episode will focus on the “why” and the “what”. Why Medium? There are many ways to generate income online. I could just as easily put my time into writing another book or creating another course instead of leveraging another platform. So, you might be wondering why I decided to take advantage of the Medium Partner Program, especially since I don’t own Medium and I’m essentially building on rented land. You might recall what I shared about the two dangerous mistakes us musicians and music entrepreneurs make in our marketing in episode 88 of the podcast. For one, I had a couple of posts sitting on my hard drive waiting to be published. They had very little or nothing to do with the music industry, so I was already planning to publish them elsewhere, such as on my personal blog. But for some reason, I had the inkling to publish them on Medium. And, when I went to check out Medium that day, I discovered they had launched their Partner Program. So, in a way, the stars kind of aligned. Second, I’ve often had the desire to write on topics other than music. I felt Medium could work as an outlet for my musings on business, personal development and spirituality. I already knew this type of content was pervasive on Medium, so it felt like the right platform for it as well. Incidentally, just today I came across Larry Kim’s Medium post on 5 Smart Reasons to Create Content Outside Your Niche. Reading that piece affirmed the direction I was taking. Third, I was present to the fact that I could take all the content I was publishing on Medium, package it up, and later sell it as a book. So, in a way, it’s streamlining the book writing process. And, that way, I get to capitalize on the content twice! And, I have other ideas for repurposing the content too. Fourth, I also knew that publishing regularly would allow me to build a following on Medium. This wasn’t my primary motivation for getting started, but if I do manage to build a following that’s interested in my work, I could turn them into paying customers down the line. That following could boost my income on Medium as well. To earn on a story in Medium, you need to turn it into a locked story. And, there are certain guidelines you need to follow if you want to earn money from your stories. That may sound constricting. But I recognized it would be possible to make the occasional self-promotional post, by not making it a locked story. So, I can promote my books and products on Medium too. The Results so Far First, it’s worth noting that I’ve had a lot of fun sharing my ideas on Medium. That in itself is a victory of sorts. I like writing about entrepreneurship, self-help and beliefs, so it serves as a great outlet for that type of content. Second, it gives me an opportunity to be known by another audience. I understand that there may not be a lot of musicians on Medium. But there are a lot of marketers, entrepreneurs, investors and so on. So, being known in that circle could create new opportunities for me. But right now that’s strictly hypothetical. Third, I now get some views on my Medium articles every single day. Prior to beginning this project, I already had several articles on Medium, but I was not getting many views. Since starting this project in late June, I’ve been able to boost my stats. A couple of articles in particular have gotten over 100 views. They are: The Beliefs That Hold You back Why I’ll take self-employment over employment any day When you’re engaging in a project of this nature, it’s always nice to see a bit of early traction. That gives you the motivation you need to keep going. And, as I often say,

Music entrepreneurship courses are beginning to pop up in more colleges and universities. But with that also comes some important questions, such as what is music entrepreneurship and why does it matter? In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, Assistant Professor of Arts Management and Entrepreneurship at Baldwin Wallace University and owner of Murphy Music Press Publishing Sean brings some much-needed insight to these important questions. Download the PDF Transcription Podcast Highlights: 00:14 – Introduction 00:28 – What is the definition of music entrepreneurship? 02:13 – What sort of qualities would you be looking for in a music entrepreneur? 03:21 – People skills 05:26 – Why is music entrepreneurship important? 08:21 – Choosing yourself 09:46 – Why are you passionate about music entrepreneurship? 12:46 – Why hasn’t music publishing adapted to the needs of composers? 16:07 – How did you end up at Baldwin Wallace University? 17:59 – What is it like to live in Ohio? 19:27 – Employment and music entrepreneurship? 24:24 – What kinds of freelancing opportunities are available today? 29:06 – How do musicians make money today? 35:29 – What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve encountered as an entrepreneur? 38:57 – What are some of the biggest victories you’ve experienced as an entrepreneur? 42:08 – Are there any books that have inspired and helped you on your journey? 43:52 – Is there anything else I should have asked? Transcription: David Andrew Wiebe: Today I’m chatting with Assistant Professor of Arts Management and Entrepreneurship at Baldwin Wallace University, and owner of Murphy Music Press Publishing, Sean Murphy. How are you today Sean? Sean Murphy: I'm doing well. Thanks so much for having me on. David Andrew: Yeah, it's a pleasure. So, it seems like people can’t agree entirely on this. I'm going to start off by asking what your definition of music entrepreneurship is. Sean: That's a great question. I think a lot of musicians are maybe averse to the term entrepreneurship in general because the idea of mixing business concepts with the idea of musical performance, I think to some people it's kind of like an unholy marriage. So, I would define entrepreneurship as kind of the intersection of creativity and innovation. For musicians, I feel like that's just what we do every single day in our product and what we do. Entrepreneurship is the intersection of creativity and innovation.Share on X So, my definition of music entrepreneurship is really just the skillset that is necessary for one to survive in the music industry itself because without any entrepreneurial abilities I think we see a lot of unfortunate cases where some musicians have to change careers or change music into more of a hobby than an income generating device. David Andrew: I can get behind everything you just said for sure, because there are so many musicians out there that go “Oh, but I just want to focus on the creative side of things.” which I totally understand but if you don't market your music, if nobody knows who you are, if you don't build your email list, or know anything about social media or building websites, pretty much you don't have a career, right? Sean: Yeah. It's difficult to be a musician but a lot of people already possess these entrepreneurial qualities they just don't think of them in that way. Part of what I do, I think it's also educating people on the fact that they already possess a lot of these qualities and then just manipulating them in such a way that would be beneficial for their long-term success in music, is really what I should go about doing. David Andrew: I think that's true too. What sort of qualities would you be looking for? Sean: Well, I think creativity is definitely at the forefront but as I kind of referenced before, all the musicians I feel like are inherently creative or they wouldn't be in this field to begin with. David Andrew: Yes. Sean: Beyond creativity, I think the next quality that a lot of musicians sometimes have to overcome is the ability to speak to other musicians and other non-musicians in kind of like the general topic of public speaking and general communication. A lot of musicians... we're insular people. We go in the practice room for eight hours a day. We don't talk to anyone but ourselves. Sometimes we're going crazy. And then oftentimes we can use our instrument as kind of like a veil to hide behind instead of articulating our thoughts with our words. So, another quality I like to look for or encourage is someone who's like well-articulate and able to speak clearly and not feel intimidated by the idea of communicating their entrepreneurial thoughts and their musical thoughts with their voice and not just their performance medium. David Andrew: Wow! That's huge. And I do talk about the fact that people skills are extremely important in my latest mini-book The Essent

Are you thinking about starting a tribute band? Are you wondering what to expect on the path ahead? In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, I share what I’ve learned from performing with a tribute band for nearly a decade. Download the PDF Transcription Podcast Highlights: 00:14 – Performing with a tribute band 00:37 – Upsides to playing in a tribute band 00:40 – #1: Commanding a High Fee 01:24 – #2: Performing for a larger audience 02:09 – #3: Growing as a musician 02:51 – The downsides to playing in a tribute band 02:54 – #1: You’ll never be as popular as the original act 03:36 – #2: Becoming a target of criticism 04:33 – #3: Limiting your merch selling opportunities 05:05 – How to succeed as a tribute band Transcription: At this point, I’ve been performing with a tribute act for several years. It’s a bit of a feast or famine situation because sometimes we have a lot of gigs, and at other times we don’t have any. This means I generally have plenty of time to work on other projects. But when we do perform, I usually have a lot of fun. Over the years, I’ve come to recognize there are both upsides and downsides to playing in a tribute band. So, I thought I would share these with you. First, let’s look at the upsides to playing in a tribute band. 1. You Can Command a High Fee It’s a good day when you get paid for your performance as an original act. I’m not saying it’s impossible to get paid for your gigs if you’re performing original material. But for the most part, the fee structure hasn’t changed in decades. These days, some bands even pay to play. This is where cover and tribute bands have certain advantages. Generally, you can command a higher fee out the gate. Since there’s a built-in audience for the music, it isn’t as challenging to attract an audience, and most music venues know this. But there is a downside here in that there is a limit to how much a cover or tribute band can earn in one go. Meanwhile, there is virtually unlimited earning potential as an original act. Getting to the point where you can earn more can take a long time, mind you. 2. You Can Perform for More People This goes hand in hand with the last point I made. Since the music you’re performing already has a built-in audience, drawing a crowd generally isn’t a problem. You might not have a huge audience every time you perform, as it’s still contingent on the marketing that goes into it, but for the most part you’ll find yourself performing for more people than a new original act. But because you’re playing someone else’s material, hardcore fans might not like how you perform the original band’s music. I’ll share more on that later. Additionally, what I said about payment also applies to audience. As a tribute act, there will always be an upper limit to the number of people you can play to. As an original act, you can keep playing to bigger and bigger audiences assuming there’s still room for growth. Again, getting to that point could take you a long time though. 3. You Get to Grow as a Musician As a singer-songwriter and rock musician, playing in a tribute band is a side gig for me. It was never meant to replace my other musical projects or even other work. But when I started learning the material for the tribute band, it took a lot of time and effort to figure out. It wasn’t the most technical music I’d ever played, but the arrangements were a lot weirder than anticipated. So, it took me a while to wrap my head around the arrangements. As I went through that process, I ended up growing a lot as a musician. I had to figure out how to sing over complex guitar parts. I had to learn both the bass lines and the guitar riffs. I had to learn and employ new techniques. When you grow as a musician in a tribute act, you can apply what you’ve learned to your original music, which is a significant benefit. As a musician, you can apply what you learn in one project and apply it to another.Share on X Now, let’s look at the downsides to playing in a tribute band. 1. You’ll Never be as Big as the Original Band or Artist More than likely, you’ll be starting a tribute band around a popular act like The Beatles, AC/DC, Def Leppard, Led Zeppelin, Van Halen, KISS and so on. This isn’t to suggest you can’t start a tribute band around a more modern artist. But then, the catalog to draw from could be limited, and so could your audience. Certainly, there are still plenty of fans of the bands already mentioned. But there’s no way you’re going to draw the kind of audience they did or still do. Some tribute bands do end up playing big theaters or even stadiums. But that’s usually only possible if your band sounds amazing and you’re able to team up with another popular tribute act or two. 2. You’ll Likely be on the Receiving End of Criticism I’ve seen all kinds of criticism lodged against the tribute band I’ve performed with. For instance: The singer got accused of not being capable of producing original material, which is why he just plays in a tri

Unless we're physicians or psychologists, we don't often engage or fully understand the monumental connected reality of genetics, matter, energy, structure and relationship that enable us to be born and simply exist. From this beginning place, we're flung into all those other connected realities that make up the total experience of living on this earth – philosophical, social, economic, technological, ecological, political, sexual and relational. As if being in relationship with our own messed up, complicated selves wasn't enough, we're flung into relationships with everyone else – navigating the same complicated life of connected realities. This occurs whether we want all those extra complications or not, escape it, simplify it or even medicated it. We are ultimately confronted with the connected realities of our complicated life. Ultimately, we reach a crossroads question about the message of this overwhelming complexity. In this episode of The Question podcast, you will hear highlights from Frederick Tamagi's presentation on "The Symmetry Within" as well as the music of Tim Gareau. Thank you for listening! What questions will you be taking with you after listening to this episode? We encourage you to connect with us via social media: Facebook Twitter