Hi ,

 

Have you ever wondered why fame and stardom are such a big goal for so many "aspiring" musicians?  The music industry, like the acting industry, seems to be one of those professions where those who enter into, often times do so with at least the partial goal of becoming well known.  This seems to go hand in hand with the idea of "making it" in the music business for many people. Why is this?  Well, if you think about it, until recently becoming a truly succesful musician usually did entail acquiring a certain level of fame in the process of succeeding in the music industry.  A few years ago, when people were still buying CDs in brick and mortar stores, there was a limited shelf space in those stores.  These stores could only carry a few thousand titles at most, and of course to stay in business these stores had to stock titles that would sell, and keep selling.  The end result:  there was little room at the top and the ones who got there became well known.  FM Radio functioned, and still does, essentially  the same way.  Only so many tracks can be played in a day and if stations all over the country are playing basically the same songs, the result is a certain level of fame and notoriety for the artists who are being played.

 

What are your goals as a musician?  Do you want to be famous?  If you do that's great, although personally I think being famous would kind of suck.  Although I guess there would be a few upsides too!  Do you want to make a living as a musician?  Do you want to wake up every day and do what you truly love?  To me this has always been the real dream and it's a dream that has gradually become more and more of a reality for myself.  And never before has this dream become more realistic for musicians everywhere. Independent artists now represent a very big piece of the music industry pie.  This is something that author Chris Anderson refers to as the "long tail" of the music industry.  This is all thanks to the internet and if you learn how to truly leverage this technology you can claim your own sustainable piece of the music industry pie.

 

What's exciting about the the period of time we're in right now is that everything is changing rapidly.  Independent artists who are learning how to take their careers into their own hands are creating history as we speak.  There are definitely new skills to be learned in order to be successful in today's music industry.  In the near future I will be profiling a different artist every month who makes their living as an independent musician.  This will be an interview series where I will be discussing strategies and techniques that are working for other musicians and sharing them with you all.

 

In the meantime I suggest you check out my friend Ty Cohen's comprehensive product about selling music online, called "Sell Music Online Like Crazy".  Ty covers a ton of useful information in this program that you can start putting to use right away.  Ty is the owner of his own publishing company and he speaks around the world about the music business.

 

Happy Songwriting,

Aaron Davison

How To License Your Music.com