The musicians and artists that are successful today in the music business have entrepreneurial minds and take a very business-like approach to their music.  They think about their music – in fact themselves – as a business and they take direct control of their careers and constantly look for new opportunities.

Ok, I have said this many times before.  Where can we learn some of these ideas and how do we make it happen?

Its no secret that the music business as we knew it prior to 2008 is dead.  Unfortunately, I’m still having to tell people this over and over.  In the old days, the music business was the record business.  Record companies went out and found artists, put up the money to make a record, promoted the hell out of it and hoped to make money.  Often they did.  Then, they gave a little to the artists.  Revenues were derived from selling records.  The record company took control of most of what the artist needed to be successful from recording to promotion to distribution to accounting.  Those days are over!

Today, if an artist wants to earn a living from music and not be forced to take a day job at McDonald’s, she must take full charge of her career and think like an entrepreneur -  every day!

The primary product an artist is selling is – The Artist.  From the artist stems an unlimited number of derivative products from the obvious CDs; downloads of tracks and albums; sales of tickets to shows; sales of merchandise to licensing music for advertising, TV shows and films, and royalties from performances of the artist’s music both in live settings and online. But, there are many more opportunities available from personal appearances to advertising to endorsements of products, and much, much more.

You are only limited by your creativity.  And your creative right!?!

The big change for the artist, and the one that most artists seem to have the biggest problem with is:

The artist must now create and manage ideas to generate revenue.

AND

This is a lot of work and I don’ know where to start.

It all starts with the right mind-set.  A business-like mind-set.

Look at artists like Jay-Z, Dr. Dre, and David Banner.  These guys are putting their creativity into creating new products and opportunities for their businesses.  They think about their business everyday. Dr. Dre has a new line of headphones.  Jay-Z just put out a book, and David Banner has found a huge opportunity in advertising.

Check out Jay-Z’s book on page 247 where he talks about forming Roc-A-Fella Records with two partners.

The difference with us was that we didn’t want to get stalled at low-level hustling. We had a plan.  We did more than talk about it.  We wrote it down.

Coming up with a business plan was the first thing the three of us did.

We made short and long-term projections, we kept it realistic, but the key is that we wrote it down, which is as important as visualization in realizing success.

Check out this great interview with David Banner

Most of all – start thinking like these guys.  Be creative, and put in the hard work that it takes.

If you do, you will be successful.

Your comments are always appreciated.  Let us all know how you are making a success of your music business today.

Good luck.

Todd Murphy is a Music and Entertainment Lawyer based in Jersey City, NJ.  He represents musical artists in all genres such as rock, dance, electronic, pop, hip-hop, punk, new wave, jazz and classical. Click here for Artist Inquiries.