I’m going to cut straight to the chase.  The biggest, most glaring and obvious problem with the music industry, is that there are, simply put, too many musicians.  The supply of music far outweighs the demand.  

It’s a strange thing to hear, coming from someone who is first and foremost a musician. But, I’ve never been one to mince words or sugarcoat things.  The music business has an over supply problem.  There’s far more supply than there is actual demand. A quick, cursory glance at the statistics of musicians who are able to actually make a living from music reveals this fairly obvious conclusion.

This over supply problem is compounded by the fact that apart from licensing music and playing live, music has essentially become something that most “consumers” can get for free. Of course, there are outliers, musicians who are able to generate real revenue from streaming platforms, like Spotify and Youtube.  But these artists make up a small minority of overall musicians on these platforms.

The vast majority of musicians out there have not only not made it, they are completely unknown.

A recent study by The Next Big Sound revealed that 90.7 of all artists are completely undiscovered. Next Big Sound took a look at "key milestones" in a musician's career, such as appearing on late night talk shows, charting on the Billboard 200, releasing new material and gaining likes on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. 

In the end, it was discovered 0.2 percent of artists are "mega stars", 0.9 percent are what would be considered "mainstream", 1.4 percent are mid-sized, 6.8 percent are "developing" and a whopping 90.7 percent are essentially completely unknown artists.

They also discovered that artists who have established fan bases are more likely to grow.  Probably not a surprise there.  This is sort of like the rich get richer phenomenon. Once you have a certain amount of wealth or success, it’s much easier to both maintain it and grow it.  If you’re struggling to stay afloat and are barely paying the rent, it’s hard to build upward momentum and mobility.  But, once you start to build a little momentum it’s easier to maintain and keep going.

The Solution?
Let’s face it, the over supply problem is not going to change anytime soon and in fact it's only gotten worse over the last few years. I can recall just a few years ago being blown away by the fact that there were, on average, 40,000 new songs uploaded to Spotify daily.  Then a couple years later that number jumped to an average of 60,000 new songs being uploaded daily.  That number now stands at an average of 100,000 new songs being uploaded to Spotify every single day! That works out to over 3 million new songs being uploaded to Spotify every single month.  Mind blowing.

There have always been more artists that are trying to “make it” in the music business than there is an actual need for music.  Music is different than other industries in that the majority of aspiring professional musicians aren’t typically driven purely by logic or a desire to fill a void in the marketplace, but instead are driven by passion and a love for music. I don’t see that changing anytime in the near future.

If your goal is to make a living from music, then you should aim, at the very least to get yourself in the 6.8 percent of artists who are “developing”.  Once you start to get some momentum with your music and your career it’s much easier to make progress and move forward.  But you have to push hard in the beginning to build momentum and traction. 

How?
Well, there isn’t a one size fits all map or formula for success in the music business. No two careers are exactly alike.  But from what I can see, all the artists that I know that are succeeding have several things in common. 

Taking Action
One is simply a burning desire for success with a work ethic to match.  The artists that I know and work with who are succeeding and are actually building viable careers in the music business are committed to success.  They don’t just talk about or dream about it, they’re taking action and making things happen, every day, month after month, year after year.  They’ve developed a game plan for success that they’re executing on.  They’re trying things, some of which work, and some that don’t, but they’re learning, by trial and error, what they need to focus on in order to succeed.

Building Networks
The musicians that I see succeeding are also successfully building networks. They're not just isolating themselves in their bedrooms, hoping that somehow they are going to set the music industry on fire, in isolation.  They're attending industry events and they're connecting with people online and offline.  They're actively getting their music to the right people and they're taking the feedback they get about their tracks and making the necessary adjustments.  The music industry is a vast network of people, the more people you know in this network, the greater your chances of success.
 

Education
The artists I know who are making a full time living from music are also committed to education and knowledge.  They’re not just taking action and keeping busy to feel like they’re being productive, they’re figuring out what they actually need to do to create careers. They’re taking classes and studying at places like Berklee and M.I.T.  They’re taking my classes and are members of my website.  They’re taking classes from other reputable instructors and educators online and offline. The musicians I know that are doing well all have an obsession with knowledge and tend to soak up as much information as they can and then implement what they learn.

There are lots of aspiring musicians out there, but you’d be surprised just how small the pool of serious, committed and dedicated musicians there are.  I see many of my students names on other forums and music industry websites all the time.  There are a lot of musicians, but the ones who are serious and truly dedicated to building careers is a much smaller pool than you might realize.  That’s good news for artists like you and I, who are interested in doing music as more than just a hobby. There are a lot of musicians trying to enter the music industry, but most of them aren't that serious about their careers.

Knowledge Is Power
Our premium member site, HTLYM Premium, is filled with hundreds of hours of knowledge and education that you can use to start moving your music career forward, starting right away. There are dozens of courses you can access that dive deep into pretty much everything you need to know about music licensing and making money from your music via sync licensing. We have courses on marketing your music, pitching to music supervisors, making money with stock music libraries, composing music for television, using Logic, making money from Youtube, music production, vocal production, music mastering, internet marketing and much, much more! If there's something you want to know related to music licensing, chances are we have a course that covers it.

A $17.00 Subscription
Take advantage of all the knowledge and information we’ve accumulated for less than $17.00 a month when you sign up as an annual member.  Or get a LIFETIME membership to our site and access all of our great resources for one price, forever.

When you sign up as a member of HTLYM Premium, not only will you get access to all our in depth courses, but you’ll also get access to our live monthly webinars, daily music licensing leads, our private Facebook page, music industry ebooks, up to date industry directories and much more.

To date we’ve helped dozens of artists get their music placed in a variety of shows and networks, including VH1, Bravo, Discovery Channel, CBS, ABC, NBC, Showtime, HBO, Nickelodeon, Fuse TV, Oxygen Network and more.  Our instructors, myself included, have collectively had thousands of placements in TV and films.

An Investment In Success
I can’t promise you that you’ll have instant success if you become a premium member, but I can promise you that you will have all the tools and resources needed to succeed at your disposal and that if you implement and take action on what you learn, you’ll eventually find yourself in the small pool of musicians who are actually succeeding in this incredibly competitive industry.

Go Premium Today: https://www.htlympremium.com/

 

Talk soon!

Aaron Davison