Building a career one brick at a time; tearing it down
Building a music career is like e building a house, one brick at a time.
We can view each gig as an opportunity to find a brick:
Some bricks are bigger than others. If you play a little coffee house gig, and one new fan is made, that’s an important brick! If you get on a radio show, you might have the chance to pick up more bricks in one time.
Not all bricks are made of the same substance. Some gigs lead to fans that will follow the creative journey for the rest of our career. Other gigs lead to casual fans.
Some bricks are concrete, a fan that doesn’t miss your concert; other fans might like the music, but they’re grazing. Getting added to a Spotify playlist or being on a TV show contest might lead to a lot of these casual fans.
Usually, we talk about building an audience–we focus on growth–but what about actions that tear the bricks down?
Failing to follow through on a Kickstarter campaign is one way to lose a few bricks; a bigger way is to rip your fans off; or saying some rash, dumb stuff in an interview; being disrespectful at a concert and being two hours late to the stage…
However, being an artist is messy; art is at first criticized for challenging the themes of culture, and then later applauded for its challenge.
It’s important to remember that making art that isn’t predictable, that isn’t safe, may feel like you are losing a few bricks along the way. Dylan picked up the electric guitar in 1966 and snubbed the folk audience; now we applaud him for it. Billy Corgan challenged the alternative rock audience with electronic influences on Adore, and now electronic influences are mainstream radio.
You just never know, which is why the most important brick is the art itself.
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