Top 10 Mistakes People Make

There are many things you can do to become successful in the music industry. But even if you do all of them you still might not achieve success by making key mistakes along the way. There are many pitfalls in the path to success especially in the music industry and here are some of the top 10.

Mistake #10 - Not having a compelling image that is congruent with your music. Musicians and bands can severely underestimate the importance of their image. Music business success is about a total package that can include music; image and visual stage show among other things that need to be fully developed.

Mistake #9 - Trying to get your name out there. This is seems to be the main goal of most musicians but it's the wrong approach to start with. Before you need to be seen and heard you need to focus on converting people who hear and see you into becoming fans. This conversion is the key to your promotional success.

Mistake #8 - Believing that social media websites are the key to online music promotion. Yes they are a tool and they are one piece of an online music-marketing puzzle. But the music industry companies are far more interested in your popularity that how many friends you have on social media. If you want to impress the industry you need to build your website traffic.

Mistake #7 - Not investing enough time into building your own music career. Musicians spend their time on music but not on their business. If you are already a talented musician, you should invest at least 50% of your time to advance your music career.

Mistake #6 - Surround yourself with people who are negative, lazy and lack ambition. You must surround yourself with like-minded musicians.

Mistake #5 - Having merely mediocre live performing skills. If you are not in a good band and you put off developing your live stage presence skills it could be a big reason why. One may have good music but a live show requires more than great music. If people only wanted to hear the music, they would listen to you at home. Fans expect to see a real show so neglecting this area results in musicians and bands becoming quickly forgotten.

Mistake # 4 - Focusing on increasing the quantity of fans instead of the intensity of your fans. The number of fans should always be a secondary focus. It is not the number of fans but the number of fanatics, which will contribute to your success. This is particularly true in the beginning of a bands music career. Focus on converting your existing fans into raving fanatics. If you do this overall finance will increase through powerful word-of-mouth.

Mistake #3 - Not enough cash flow to support your music career. It takes money to build a music career. Even if other people are paying for your record, tour support merchandise you still need to have the freedom to pursue opportunities as they arise. If you don't have money you can't take advantage of them. Along with a decent income, you need the flexibility of being able to take time away to go into the studio or on tour.

Mistake #2 - Not enough depth in your music relationships. The old expression is it's not what you know it's who you know. In music this is, it's not who you know it's who knows you. The reality is it is not either. The most important aspect of connections in the music industry is how deep are the current relationships you have now and will develop in the future. You don't want to simply know people are be known you want people who know you so much that you are always on the top of their mind when opportunities present themselves. Ask yourself a question, what can I do right now to deepen my existing relationships further on an ongoing basis?

Mistake #1 - Having a fundamental misunderstanding about what record companies look for. It is useful to think of record companies like a bank that lends money. Record companies make most of their decisions with whom they work with the same way a bank will determine whom they will loan money to and what the terms alone will be. Both record companies and banks want to see three things:

1. How much value do you bring to the deal right now.
2. How much risk do you bring with you right now.
3. How much potential value and risk might you bring them in the future after they invest in you?

If you want to buy a house, the bank wants to know a lot about that house and even more about you. Record companies are the exact same, they want to know about your music, your talent and your band but they care more about you. What about you makes a record deal a good or bad investment for them?