subject: Make Your Music Career A Success By Following The Advice Of Tom Hess In This Review [print this page] Make Your Music Career A Success By Following The Advice Of Tom Hess In This Review
By Ryan Buckner
One of the biggest obstacles to making it as a musician in the music business is not having good enough music skills; actually, it is understanding how to differentiate between the good and bad music career advice you receive from others. Every day we are all influenced by those around us, but for your music career - you must make sure that you only take advice from those who TRULY know what they are talking about. If you fail to do this, there is a good chance that you may end up going down the wrong path; never really reaching your musical dreams.
That said, I would like to give you the insight of a man who HAS succeeded in the music industry at a very high level so you can better understand what makes for good and bad music career advice. Recently, I contacted Tom Hess, professional musician and guitarist in metal band Rhapsody Of Fire in order to get his thoughts. The end result was a Tom Hess review of the top three most discussed music career advice amongst friends, family and other non-musicians. After the interview ended, it was obvious that the advice you get from people outside of the music industry is highly inaccurate. Check out the full Tom Hess interview / review:
Tom Hess Music Career Review Topic No. 1:
Ryan Buckner: Tom, what do you have to say to the people who tell start up musicians that they must go to university first before they can even consider a career in the music industry?
Tom Hess: Perhaps this piece of music career advice is the most common. The idea that you need to pursue a job, career or degree outside of the music industry BEFORE working on becoming a professional musician is 100% backwards. When people tell you this, it is likely because they have heard somewhere that the music industry is highly risky and it will be nearly impossible to earn a stable income. Their logic is that you should go to a university to get a real job before you try your luck with the music
In response to this, I have 2 things to say:
1. The music business is NOT hectic, unstable or risky.
Fact is, the majority of people working as professionals in the music business are neither rock stars nor starving street performers. Actually, the music business consists of a large middle class filled with musicians who earn a stable and secure living. Additionally, the music industry is more stable than other non-music industries in many ways. When you are a professional musician, you have the chance to earn not just a single paycheck (like with most jobs); but rather many different sources of income at once. For example, you could choose to sell your own recordings, create instructional products, help others record music, teach music students, and the list goes on and on. Because you can make income from so many sources at once, you do not have to rely on a single payment like with most jobs outside of music.
2. By pursuing a job in a field outside of the music business, you are only taking time away from what you truly want to do with your life (music).
Did you ever take a moment to consider what people really mean when they tell you that the music industry is too unstable and you should get a degree for something else? Although they may think they have your best interests in mind, the truth is that they are not really helping you pursue your music career dreams. In reality, they are giving you advice to help themselves cope with their own fear of the unknown; not advice to help YOU achieve your dreams! To help explain this, lets say that you wanted to become a lawyer rather than a musician. If that was the case, would people still tell you that you should skip law school for 4 years until you get a degree in something else? Definitely not. So if this logic would not apply for becoming a lawyer, why does it suddenly apply for becoming a professional in the music industry? In the end, both becoming a lawyer and becoming a musician are equal choices when it comes to deciding how you want to live your life.
With all this said, it is safe to say the following:
a) You have the desire to work as a professional in the music industry.
b) It is very possible to make a stable living as a musician.
So considering these thoughts, there really is no reason for you to stop pursuing a career in music. Always remember, whatever you do in life is your decision, do not let others decide how YOU should live your life!
Additionally, developing a backup plan until you reach your highest goals in music is actually not a bad idea. However, you must make sure while planning that you align your back up plans with your greatest goals. This will ensure that you do not get off track, and continue to work toward what you truly desire at all times.
Tom Hess Music Career Review Topic No. 2:
Ryan: Becoming a successful pro musician is all about bumping into the right person at the right time. What do you think about this Tom?
Tom: Whenever I encounter someone who believes that becoming successful merely amounts to you must bump into the right person at the right moment, I immediately know two things that this person thinks:
1. Making it in the music business is a simple as knowing someone on the inside. You just need to run into the right person.
Everyone has heard the same story about the struggling musician who one day runs into the big time record producer in a club while playing with his band, handing out his music, etc. Of course, in this story the producer instantly likes the style or attitude of the musician and signs him to a record contract right there in the club! Now, this certainly makes for a great movie idea in Hollywood; however, in the actual music industry, situations like this occur very rarely (if at all). The people of the music industry are really just businessmen and women as with any other industry. These people are ONLY looking for musicians who are not a major risk to their company, and are an obvious choice of someone who will help create a major profit.
Additionally, simply knowing someone in the music business is not enough to reap the full rewards or benefits that that person can potentially give you. This is because people in the music industry know a TON of musicians in the exact same spot. The key to really gaining leverage with these people is to develop a real relationship with them that consists of a long term mutually beneficial exchange of value. To get started doing this, you will first need to become an obvious choice as someone who has HIGH value to bring to the table. This includes both becoming a great musician as well as becoming very knowledgeable in the business side of things. By doing this you will separate yourself from the thousands of other musicians out there who are all trying to send out their music to record companies hoping that they will just get lucky and be chosen because they have good songs. As someone with knowledge in the business side of the music industry, you will become an obvious choice over other musicians.
2. Becoming a professional musician requires a good amount of luck.
When people strongly believe that they must become lucky to make it in the music business, they often expect that their musical dreams will simply fall down into their lap. As a result, they do not work as hard as they would otherwise. Plain and simple, this is not how the music industry runs, and if you want to achieve great things as a musician; you will need to take action every day to work hard and create your own luck!
Tom Hess Music Career Review Topic No. 3:
Ryan: If you want to make money as a musician, you need to write pop music so that you can get it to play on the radio.
Tom: When someone gives this advice, they are confusing a couple of fundamental concepts. Fact is, simply having music that plays on the radio is NOT how to make a lot of money as a professional musician.
Many musicians have the goal of getting their music played on the radio. This is surely a nice goal to have; however, it is crucial that you do not become confused by equating your GOALS with your ACTIONS. Let me explain what I meanTo have your music played on a major radio station is a goal. In order to reach this goal, you must take a particular course of action(s). That said, earning a good living as a professional musician is a completely different goal that requires a completely different course of action(s). In order to reach your musical goals, you must begin by developing an in depth understanding of the actions that you must take to reach those goals. You may be thinking, Yeah thats common sense Tom, but it is a fact that most musicians do NOT do this. It is for this reason that the majority of musicians do not succeed in building highly successful music careers.
In addition, you dont have to be a songwriter in the music business in order to make a living (there are many different things you can do). In the end, if you are looking to become very secure while working as a professional musician, it is essential to work on developing many different sources of income. By doing this, you will not become totally dependent on just one way of making money. In order to find out how to put together many different ways to make money in the music industry, get advice from a mentor who can direct you to all the different ways of growing your income within the music business.
Ryan: I appreciate you sitting down to talk with me about these things Tom. Its been very insightful and Im sure the people who read this will think so as well. To everyone who reads this Tom Hess music career advice review, it should be clear now that most of what you hear from people outside of the music business is worth your skepticism. To find out more on how you can build a career in music that is very sustainable and will last in the long term, have a look at Toms music career coaching program.
