Practise for success

A negative expectation or a half-hearted attitude is never going to gain you much of anything from life. Instead, if you take the attitude that you are going to succeed, and plan for this, you are forced to think through what would happen next and plan accordingly.

 

Define your success

 

Plan and practise for success by visualising what needs to happen for the group to get from where it is today to a point that would be considered success. The most important part of this process is defining what is meant by success. Success means different things to different people. If you would be happy with a single on national radio, a countrywide tour or an international support slot, that’s fine, as long as you understand what it is that you are after. But if you are after an international record deal, the ability to tour the world and expect to make a living from your music for the rest of your life, then you are going to have to do more planning than the next muso.

 

Focus on what you want

 

It doesn’t matter whether your peers consider your idea of success likely, or even possible. What does matter is that the focus remains on exactly what it is you want from the music business and that you plan accordingly, effectively rehearsing your role in your own success. For example, if a group does want to go international and get its music out there, it needs to make sure that its members have passports. It is the small things in life that make things happen. What if you get offered a tour slot, but can’t leave the country because you have the incorrect documentation? Wouldn’t that just be ridiculous? It is this kind of mindset that does need to be practised.

 

Make sure that everyone knows what it is that must come next – what each step is that takes you up your ladder defining success. Meet other bands, exchange information, find out how to record and how to submit songs to radio. Develop a timeline and work constructively towards these goals. Much of what happens in the music industry does indeed happen by chance: fashions come and go and trends change. But if you don’t have a plan, you are totally at the mercy of these winds of change. With a plan the changes can guide a group through the miasma of the business to its goal. 

 

 

Discover what you're up against

 

The truth is that an astonishingly high percentage of musicians will never “make it” in the music business, and will go back to day jobs never having released that album or had a song on radio. The statistics on achieving long-term musical success can be quite scary. Allegedly, even in the USA, 80% of artists with a record deal in place still hold down day jobs in order to make ends meet. In South Africa, in a city like Johannesburg, anywhere from 25 to 50 artists perform every Friday and Saturday night. That’s a lot of clutter to cut through in order to make yourself heard. Don’t let this put you off, but you would be well advised to discover what you are up against.