I’ve been working as a voice coach for about a decade and a half now. Many of my clients are professionals who earn some or all of their income from making music. I also know many other musicians who work within the music industry.
As such, I thought it might be worth sharing a few things that have made working in the music industry achievable. If you are trying to make a living as a singer/musician, or would like to learn more, please do have a read.
1) “Musicianship” is a skill
When I first started making music in my teens, people noticed I seemed to have an aptitude for it. They would say things like:
“You’re good at music… you should do music for a living” was something I’d hear a lot.
It didn’t strike me until years later, that’s like saying:
“You’re good at maths… you should do maths for a living“.
In reality, there is no job that is just “maths“. There are jobs that employ maths as a skill, e.g. accountancy, actuary, mathematics teacher, even engineering, but being “good at maths” is only one component of the skill set needed to become valuable within a job.
Similarly, just because you love singing, this does not automatically mean you HAVE to become a solo performer or front a band. There are always a plurality of jobs that require musical ability as a skill, but it is deployed differently within each arena.
2) You are paid according to the value you bring
The economy functions on the idea of scarcity of a good or service. It’s all about the balance of supply vs demand.
Demand occurs when enough people (the section of the population with a commercial interest in your good/service = “the market“) wants a certain good /service. Supply is what rises to meet that demand.
If there is insufficient supply of a given good/service to meet demand by the market, this means people are then willing to pay more and more for the limited supply. This is the idea of scarcity.
We saw this same phenomenon at work with Taylor Swift and Oasis tickets going on sale. There is only ONE Taylor Swift/Oasis, a fixed supply of tickets, and millions of people wanting them. Higher prices result.
In contrast, when local bands play, they often can’t even give the tickets away. Even the 30 tickets they have got don’t find 30 people who want to be there. Supply exceeds demand, so the price drops.
Whatever your skill set is, whatever good/service you are looking to provide, you first have to figure out what the market really wants. Whether you’re a performer, educator, depping musician, playing bars, theatres, recording studios, etc.
If you want to do well, you then have to upskill and deliver it at a higher level than the rest of the competition. That way, people are willing to select you over your competitors because of the higher value you bring to the table.
3) Go deep, not wide
The author Cal Newport in his book So Good They Can’t Ignore You talks about the importance of going deep on your skill set. Newport is an excellent author and I would also recommend his book Deep Work.
When I first started my business, I diversified and tried different things, and varying approaches. I did band workshops, played in bands, even built music gear for people to see where my skills would take me. This is what I mean by “going wide“.
Eventually, I started recognising that the skill that was most desired by people, and the skill I was best doubling down on, was one-on-one voice coaching. Did I have other skills? Of course. Do I have other interests? Definitely. There’s many projects I do for fun.
Of course, everyone has to start somewhere and experiment. It’s OK to go wide initially, but at some point you’ve got to niche down and go deep on where you bring the most value.
It’s too easy to go excessively wide. In an effort to find customers and make business happen, we try to be “all things to all people“. You end up having average or sub-par value in many things, rather than exceptional value in one BIG thing that is in high demand.
In a world where most people struggle to stay the course in anything, you put yourself at a huge advantage by committing to a process and just not quitting.
I wrote this article a few weeks ago, about how studies are showing that being average for an above average length of time, matters more than anything else. Just being consistent, and outperforming people on this metric, will put you streets ahead of the competition.
Conclusion: Key take-aways
1) There’s more than one job out there – develop your skills, and don’t fixate on the exact form you think your skills have to be deployed.
2) It’s the market that determines the value you bring – it’s too easy to talk a good (or bad) game about yourself. And still others will bash/praise you. Instead, focus on how much value you can bring to someone else, and the work will find you.
3) Commit to the process, don’t stop – If you’re working on your voice, your music, your musicianship, keep going. Find a pattern that’s sustainable, and keep at it. The super-power behind being great at something is outperforming people on a consistency basis.
If you’d like to help hone this in your own musicianship, feel free to book in a session with me via my booking form.