Sunday, March 6, 2011

Musicians wanted...

Want a career in music? Now is the time.

We all know the sound parental advice of get a steady job preferably with a reputable company doing routine work and you will do just fine. If you choose the arts you are probably headed for a life of poverty. Well I am happy to say that times are a changin' and changing fast. Now many of our most successful people are the artists. The arts have come of age and mostly due to the internet the creative artists are now in high demand.

Huge opportunity


This means a huge opportunity for the creative people such as musicians. Think of how many movies or TV shows use songs and how powerful they are at energizing an audience.  To become any kind of creative artist was a huge risk in days gone by but today there is a huge growing demand and mostly due to the fact that the Internet has suddenly brought almost every business onto a visual and audio platform. The best news of all is its only just begun. You ain't seen nothing yet. I predict there may even be a shortage of creative artists in the next decade.

Creative work is in growing demand


Almost every business now has a website and every website is now able to add a backing track or a jingle to make the website more appealing. A little more than a decade ago only those companies with a radio or TV ad budget had any need for a jingle and there was only room for a handful of jingle writers. In recent years many musicians have found work in the gaming industry but this is nothing compared to whats coming.

Recording equipment costs have plummeted

Recording equipment was once well out of the budget of the average musician. For most musicians their only real hope was to get a record deal.  In recent years with the speed of computers home recording is not only high quality but within the budget of almost anyone. What is available today was not even in my wildest dreams as a teenager. I can literally compose a whole album from start to finish with all the trimmings of a Beatles album for less than a few thousand dollars worth of recording equipment for what would have cost the Fab Four in today's money millions of dollars.


Free and easy distribution


What is probably the icing on the cake is the fact that music can now be easily distributed to anyone, anywhere. The cost and logistics of distributing one's music used to be a huge barrier for many artists. Even if you had the ability to write and record something worthy of an audience getting your music to your audience was difficult, expensive and highly risky. Not anymore. It's basically free.


Conclusion


I can confidently say that there has never been a better time to become a creative musician or any creative artist for that matter. You don't need a record deal anymore to succeed in music. Bands like Radiohead and The Eagles are just two examples of bands who no longer belong to record companies. If you want to write and play music for a living you just have to see the massive opportunity. Take the time to develop your musical skills and then begin writing music. When it develops into something of appeal go and sell it to the highest bidder. They will be waiting.

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