It is true that today artists are at greater liberty than ever before to conceive, create, market and sell their music and it can be done from their own homes. However, the digital age has proved to be a challenging one for them as well.
In this article, we analyze the three greatest obstructions that contemporary musicians face in becoming successful.
Challenges Musicians are Facing Today
Technology
The first obstacle in their path is TECHNOLOGY. It is what frustrates a lot of musicians especially those belonging to a certain age, usually the older musicians. These people struggle with the technical aspects of a career in music. More so, because today musicians are expected to be competent in file sharing, web and graphic design and social media.
Let’s expand on these. At the least musicians need to be aware of how to use Dropbox. It is necessary that they need to be able to share files and folders with collaborators, bandmates, reviewers and others. This is important considering that there are numerous influencers and gatekeepers who expect the musician to go through apps like SoundCloud, Fluence or Submit Hub among others.
Again a musician does need to design their own website and graphics. And while the web tools have become much simpler to operate, one can quite imagine the pain of a new musician trying to set it up themselves.
Finally, there is the fact that most people are addicted to social media. But for musicians who are not tech-savvy, this can become a big nightmare. However, such musicians can heave a sigh of relief! As in today’s day and age, it is not difficult to find a tech-savvy person to help out with all the above three tasks. Despite this, technology remains a pain point for most older musicians.
Apathy
The second obstacle that musicians face today is APATHY. No matter where one goes, you will find musicians discussing how difficult it is to get people to attend shows, to focus their attention on a new release or to get fan interaction on their social media posts. Veterans in the sphere however believe that if a musician is doing things right, then through crowdfunding, radio and PR and marketing campaigns, one can still get plenty of attention.
But there are those who do experience the sting of apathy where musicians host or organize a series of community music events and the turnout is utterly dismal. The fact is that it is a noisy world and attracting people’s attention is difficult for musicians. Holding their attention over the long term is even harder. It is sad but to an extent, a musician starting out almost should expect apathy.
Know that you have a long way to go and it is best not to expect people to love your music from the start. Instead spend most of your time refining your skills as a songwriter or vocalist or instrumentalist or performer. However, also understand that talent and skill are not everything as your audience will want to be entertained so know how to engage a crowd as well.
Mindset
The third and final obstacle that musicians face is MINDSET. It is the biggest challenge of them all and actually the one that matters the most. Because while apathy and technology might be challenging, a musician can overcome them if he or she has a bulletproof mindset. While many musicians spend time on tactical things that usually change from one day to the other, veterans say that they are wasting their time.
The reason being, that a career in music is more about determination, tenacity, perseverance and commitment than tactics. It all about how driven a musician is! The tragedy is that if you are not a driven musician then the music industry will simply gobble you up and then spit you out.
However, the good news is that you can definitely change your mindset starting this minute and while this will take quite a lot of effort and time on your part, it will be definitely worthwhile. Know that success is 80 per cent about your psychology. If you are sincere and passionate about your music, build your resilience. Be committed to it. Believe in yourself and find the will to persevere no matter what!
