My workdays as a full-time singer/songwriter consist of booking gigs, maintaining social media platforms, creating and distributing my music throughout various forms of media, conversing with fans, working with my team, maintaining my website and calendars, practicing, and promotions. Somedays, I work on creating new artwork or new merchandise. Other days I’m busy writing new material or blog posts. The daily task load of a singer/songwriter is full and diverse. I enjoy my work and my only regret is not pursuing this career path sooner.
Pursuing a career as a singer/songwriter is hard work. Working on your craft and polishing it for the world to consume is a lot more than just making tunes. Being a professional singer/songwriter requires you to wear many hats. You also need to be able to work well with others because a big part of the job is working with other people whether it be booking agents or fellow musicians.
When I first started my career as a singer/songwriter, there are some things I wish I had known like how to write and achieve realistic goals, how to market myself as an artist, what’s the best way to build a fanbase, and more. So in this post, I’m sharing the 5 to-do’s I wish I had known when I first started out. These 5 things will give you a headstart in getting your singer/songwriter career off the ground.
By the way, if you’d like to chat about your singer/songwriter career or need to bounce some ideas off, or you simply need someone to guide you through it, schedule a free coaching call with me here.
Establish Achievable Goals
When starting any creative career, I recommend putting together a set of career goals. These goals would clearly define what you ultimately intend to achieve with your career in the long run. For example, as a singer/songwriter, your ultimate goal may be to do music full-time. Or your goal may be to do a world tour. Or maybe you’d like to establish a profitable touring circuit for yourself and your band and ultimately grow your fanbase to 1000 superfans. Each person is different and would have different goals. Your goals are unique. It’s important to clearly understand what you’re looking for out of a music career. That way, you will avoid wasting time and money chasing things that don’t really matter.
Define Your Unique Brand
After establishing a set of long-term goals, another thing you’ll need to do is define your look and feel. What type of music do you sing? What is the overall message you’d like to impart to your fans and to the world? Will you have a stage name? As a creative entrepreneur, it’s important to create a unique identity that sets you apart from other artists. To compete in the new music business, it is imperative that you have a unique artist story that makes you stand out among fellow musicians. The internet has made it possible for anyone to establish a profitable career doing music by directly accessing their fans over the web. But there is a disadvantage to this. Because there is so much access and opportunity available, other musicians are doing the same thing which creates an overly saturated market. Therefore, if you want to gain traction in your singer/songwriter career, you’ll need to make yourself stand out. If you’d like to learn more about creating a unique music brand identity, check out this free Artist Development Checklist.
Identify Your Audience
After establishing your goals and defining who you will be as a singer/songwriter, another thing you’ll need to know is who your fans are. What type of people will be most interested in your music? These are the people who will make up your fanbase. Getting to know who they are will help you decide where and how to spend your time and money promoting your music. Instead of casting a wide net and hoping for attention, you’ll be targeting very specific audiences with specific messages catering to their interests. Doing it this way increases your chances of resonating with the people who will be the most receptive to your music. This will make it easier to attract people and convert them into supportive fans. For help with identifying your ideal fans, check out our free fan profiling worksheet here.
Related: 8 Steps to Becoming a Full-Time Singer/Songwriter
Write and Publish Material
Without any music available, you don’t really have a product to sell. Many new artists try to start a career with no music available for people to listen to. They think that as long as they have a release coming, then that’s a start. Having an upcoming release is a great start. However, if you’re pursuing an actual career, people need to be able to listen to your music. Before you start pursuing a career, I recommend having a ‘product’ (your music) in place. It doesn’t have to be a complete album. It could be a Single. Even if you had only one song available, at least you have something tangible for people to interact with. Without having something for curious ears, you’ll lose your prospective fans’ attention before you’ve had a chance to grab them, and they’ll move on to something else. You should have at least one song streaming on your website along with some artwork in place.
If you’re interested in creating your own home studio, check out The Bare Essentials of A Decent Home Studio or our kit list.
Create an Online Presence
Speaking of which, your song needs to be available on a professional website – whether you make it available for full streaming or for purchase or both. A website on a domain you own gives you instant credibility. It gives you a professional look and transitions you from an amateur to a professional. Even if you are still an amateur, having a website creates a certain perception with potential fans, professionals, and whatever team you need to recruit. While other platforms such as social media, Reverbnation, and GigSalad offer a profile page that you can make your own, having a dedicated website gives you complete control over your look and how you present your music. Your website will act as the hub where you will house and disseminate all of your content in the way that you want to.
There are professional website designers that you can use, or you can go the DIY route and build one on your own. While a professional designer can offer convenience and guarantee quality, you can also build a quality website on your own if you have the time. It will save you some money. If you’d like to test out your DIY chops, see our post about creating a music website for less than $4 a month.
Pursuing a career as a singer/songwriter is a big undertaking. It’s not for the faint of heart. There will be a lot of ups and downs. You will encounter a lot of rejection. You will have to create your own path and you’ll need a positive mindset to do it. One of the things I struggled with in the beginning was not feeling adequate. I just didn’t feel like my music was good enough. I needed validation from others. As I grew in my craft, I realized that my mission and purpose as a musician was validation enough. I do music for a purpose and I’ve realized that it really doesn’t matter if someone doesn’t like my music. There will always be detractors even in your own family. But, your goal is not to convince a non-believer. Your goal is to impact your fans. Working on the 5 tasks I outlined in this post will give you the confidence and opportunity to do just that.
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Anitra, this is great and really breaks down what could be a daunting and overwhelming obstacle into 5 simple and manageable tasks. Thank you for sharing what you’ve learned and for being honest about what you’d do differently
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It’s my pleasure really. I wish I had this information when I was first starting out. There wasn’t really a lot of practical steps on what to do to start a music career back then. And even today, there’s a lot of noise, but still not a lot of useful guides on what needs to be done. This leaves us spinning our wheels and not really knowing what to do. In all honesty, most of us simply need a good plan and the gumption to stick to it.