Great Music Artist Tips on How To Blend Your Career with Your Day Job
In this new age of indie artist popularity, one of the most important things is being able to generate income. Being able to generate income as an independent artist is a huge factor. Yes there are plenty of indie artist in this day and time. However, most of them don’t make as much as he or she should. They also don’t make as much as they desire. The reality is majority of music artists still have either full-time or part-time jobs. If not handled correctly, working a job while pursuing your career can really hinder you. It can cause you to not manage your time wisely. It can cause you to be restless. It can even cause you to become bitter and resentful. Although there’s no overnight trick to trading in your job for a full-time music career, there are ways to help manage and speed up the process. Here are some great tips for music artists on how to blend your day job with your music career.
Summary
Unfortunately, I can’t target or give tips for every single type of full-time or part-time job on the market. For that reason in this post I’ll be focusing on the most popular type of jobs/ 9-5’s. For instance, I’ll give tips on how to blend your job in retail, the food industry, office environment and other popular fields with your music career. If you’re whatever field but your true passion is to become a successful music artist these tips are essential to you. Whether you’re a singer, rapper, songwriter, producer, etc. As long as you’re a music artist striving to be successfully independent these tips will benefit you. It doesn’t matter what type of independent artist you are. All that matters is that you’re a music artist who desires success as an artist and need to find a way to bridge your career with your dreams until your dreams are achieved.
Retail/ Customer Service
One of the most popular field aspiring music artists tend to work in while pursuing their music is the retail/ customer service industry. This also tends to be one of the most stressful type of jobs to have. Working this job as a 9-5 or even part-time can be stressful, draining and outright depressing. Yes you may need the job to pay your bills and finance your career. However, the reality is you just may not be happy there. The good news is it’s not the end. Some of today’s top artists started out working a retail job. The key to not get discouraged while being an employee at your job is to find a way to link it to your career as a music artist. This may sound odd and impossible. But it can actually be accomplished. You just have to be creative, grateful and look on the bright side of things. If you work in the customer service industry as an aspiring artist, focus on a way to relate the two. For example, you can develop strong sale skills that can be utilized in your music career. For instance, if you’re a r&b singer and happen to currently work retail you can learn sale skills that you can convert into your music sales. You can learn the proper way to sale a product. Then you can apply those skills for when you’re ready to sell you’re debut album. Trust me there’s a science to selling. There’s a science to getting customers to buy your product. You can now learn that science on your job as a retail associate. There are plenty of other tools you can utilize as a music artist while working in retail as well. Some of them are:
- Learning the proper season to launch a product (music album, music related product, etc.)
- Learn how to connect with customers and make them want to buy your music related product.
- Learn how to create an official budget to market your product so you don’t end up losing money.
Office Skills
Another popular field many aspiring music artists work in is the office. There are a lot of office skill positions that can also be stressful. As an indie music artist while working this 9-5 it can make you feel discourage. You may feel like “my career will never take off.” You may say to yourself “I’m going to be stuck here forever.” That doesn’t have to be the case. While you’re working your position as an office associate learn some great skills you can apply to your music career. A lot of office related jobs require typing and internet connection. This can be used to advance your typing skills outside of work that you can apply to your music. You can learn how to type up your own artist press releases. You can also get a better understanding of the proper language and grammar to use when writing about yourself as an artist. This will help you develop as a mature, professional music artist. Other office skills you can contribute to your career as an indie artist are:
- Develop great marketing skills you can use to market yourself as an artist
- Learn how to write powerful, professional social media posts that will help you stand out from the average indie artist.
- Learn how to properly add structure and organization to the business side of your music
Food Industry
For music artists who may work in the food industry, you too can link your current position to your music career. It may seen hard. You may think to yourself “these two fields have nothing to do with each other.” However, to remain positive in your pursuit of your music career while working a day job you have to find a way to make the connection. While working in the food industry you can study what type of music people like to listen to while eating. This can help you in the future for when you market your music. You can also learn great marketing and advertising skills while working in the food industry. Another powerful tip you can gain from the food industry involves how different foods effects your voice. This is perfect for professional singers who may work in the food industry. You can learn:
- Which foods are the healthiest for your voice/ vocal cords.
- Which foods are the unhealthiest for your voice/ vocal cords.
Education
Working in the education field is very common for aspiring artists. Whether it’s working with elementary students, high schoolers or at a college. Either way it still falls under the category of education. If you’re a singer, songwriter, rapper, etc. and you work in education there are plenty of ways to connect that to your music. The biggest way would be to try and get a position in the music department. This will allow you to stay in tune with your talent. It will also allow you to learn things about music you may have never knew. If you can’t get into the music department you can still connect your education position with your aspirations as an artist. One of the best ways to do this is to connect with the youth. The youth is the key to keeping music alive. If you want to know what songs and artists are popular, see who they youth are taking a liking to. Below are some further tips to connect your music career to your education position:
- Find out what’s the hottest trend in music based on what appeals to the students/ youth.
- Learn how to appeal to the youth as an artist
- Learn how to make your music appeal to all ages/ groups by interacting with students, parents, colleagues, etc.
These fields aren’t the only industries where you can use your position to advance your music career. You can do this with any job category you work under. If you work as a caretaker simply taking care of others alone could inspire you to write more touching songs. If you work as a Lyft or Uber driver having conversations with various customers can inspire you as a songwriter. This list honestly goes on and on. There’s no way to list every single industry available. The key is for you as a music artist to gather ideas from the positions mentioned and utilize them to further your music career.