Over the years I’ve collected a lot of tools and equipment that help me to write and produce music. I realize that may seem like an unfair advantage but I’d beg you to pay close attention to me prefacing that sentence with “over the YEARS”…. Because anything worth doing takes time. The first step to starting a music career from scratch is starting. But how?!?
The key to starting a music career with no help and money, is the starting. the doing the action. That coupled together with a sense of resolve, stick-to-itiveness, mixed with a bit of moxy are exactly the ingredients you’ll need.
The technology to do what you you are wanting to do is available at varying degrees but the real catalyst for doing this task comes down to the characteristics previously mentioned… With out them the rest of this article is irrelevant.
So assuming you are filled with go-get’em…. and ready to start your music career from scratch, let’s start. We’ll begin with breaking the idea of being a paid musical artist down into its various facets.
Creative Capture.
This is where you conceptualize your ideas for songs and develop and produce the song on some sort of technology that allows for the capturing of your music.
Creative
This would suggest the songwriting portion of this work. In order to be an artist you’ll have to produce music. So you’ll need to work towards developing your talent and skill as a songwriter. If you haven’t any money then the only solution is to do it yourself. In my opinion doing this yourself should be a prerequisite anyway so don’t fret about it. Youtube and other video sites are excellent resources for suggestions to helping develop and refine those skills. But after having checked yourself for “relentlessness” This would be the seemingly most obvious next characteristic that someone longing to be a music artist should possess. Without it or the patience to develop it, it would seem that one’s boat is already dead in the water.
Capture
This would be referring to an artists ability or access to a capacity for recording songs. For an artist attempting to begin without a budget or support. This area could be seen as the trickiest. Recording an album professionally with professional people who record albums every day for a living can be very very expensive. But if you haven’t any money than there is no good sense spent worrying about that…
So you put on your big kid pants and start from whatever starting point you divined because accessing your starting point on a scale of fairness is irrelevant. YOU must do what YOU must.
Prior to the very age we are living in now the ability and access to record was exclusive, the fortunate thing is that this is no longer true. So if you are willing to learn something about recording, you can develop and acquire the skills you need as you progress forward.
I find the most important thing in doing this is turning off the idea that you are in a race. You are not or rather you mustn’t be. You must be patience and take each step as necessary.
We’ll discuss what you need by means of recording equipment and how you may go about collecting the basics a bit later.
Just keep in mind that in the long run the cheapest way to do this is learning how to do it for one’s self.
Publishing Promotion
The next major category would be Publishing and Promotion and in many ways these two things at some moments can be symbiotic. So I’ve adjoined them together.
Publishing
This is the action with which you introduce your song or video to the public. For artists on major labels it refers to something more complicated having to do with a secondary business relation that deals with the collection of monies earned for the usage of a song or the rights to license that usage. But for we today in it simplest form it means “uploading something”.
You can use all of your social media accounts to help you in doing this. Each has their own attributes. and benefits. Two of the most obivous online sites for publishing would be Spotify and Youtube. When you have a new song you can put it on your social media site as they allow, and on to your Spotify account for certain.
You can and should Upload the song to Youtube music and you should make some sort of Music Video regardless how modest to promote the video. When you are read to get started we have published a great article to help you get up to speed on making videos for yourself. Here is the link!
Promotion
This is the action of pushing someone to the awareness of whatever it is you have published. Or pushing whatever it is you have published to someone’s awareness. This is the best use for social media. If you are on it just for mindless amusement you’re certainly missing the opportunity to promote something. The benefit of development your music overtime is that it gives you an excuse to promote yourself online.
Promotion might also include playing shows which will go a long way to making people aware of what you are doing. It can also be a great opportunity to capture some video content to post on your social media accounts.
After you have established yourself online as a music created and after you have begun building a following of people who do support you and your creative offerings you can explore methods for monetizing over time.
With both Publishing and Promotion there are a lot of steps and systems to familiarize oneself with and while it is beyond the scope of this article to describe them all comprehensively we will discuss the most crucial points at a greater length further ahead.
We have a great article about how you can use Youtube to promote your music, and to earn. For an in-depth guide of actionable steps to getting your Youtube promotion/earning strategy in place; Read This!
Sales and Merchandising
The next and last of the primary undertakings of an artist starting a music career from scratch would have to be managing Sales and Merchandising. This step is where you begin to monetize your efforts.
In the mean time prior to you excepting any expanse you can work toward having Adsense on YouTube, and an eventual payout from Spotify plays of your music. But when you are ready to sell merchandise you will have to assume some cost.
Sales and Merchandising would be when you create some type of online store to sell music some sort of merchandise like T-Shirts or Mugs or any type of suveniour item an artist might sell. The beauty about this is that in this age there are drop ship companies that you can enlist to print ship and collect payment for your products without you needing to invest anything into inventory. For more about drop shipping for artists; Here’s a Guide!
That means their service is free upfront. The drop ship company acts more of a partner. They do all of the manufacturing work and you do all of the promotional work.
The expense for you comes in having some sort of a website to home your store front. While you may be cost adverse having a website is the best thing you can do for your self eventually anyway. Depending soley on a social media website to be reliable for you for the long term is ill advised. It is quite like putting all of your eggs into one basket… only worse is it is a basket that you don’t own.
So the eventual expense of a website where you can promote yourself, collect fan contact info that can not be taken away from you or you can not be removed from and to sell your goods would be the first and most valuable expense to undertake.
A website is a must for musician entrepreneurs. If you are one, or want to be; we have a guide with actionable steps to help you. Read it here!
How to Get Started
So now that we are up to speed on the basics of starting a music career from scratch , let’s pull the whole thing together. So without any money how is this done. That is a good question and while you do not need any money you do at the very least need a cellphone and an internet connection.
The iPhone has an APP called Garage Band that can do whatever you need to do. It is entirely up to you to be talented and tenacious enough to build up a proficiency for working with in the APP.
If you haven’t any money or help it means you are going to have to do everything DIY and that means you will be responsible for navigating the learning curve of every step along the way. So settle in for the long hall, no money no shortcuts.
If you don’t have a cellphone then go to your public library to use a computer to look on craigslist or Facebook marketplace for someone who has a second hand phone.
And If you literally haven’t any money to buy a phone, send out DM’s to those who are selling the phones informing them that while you don’t have any money you would be willing to barter your time and labor if they have some work around their property in exchange for the phone. If you do this long enough you will eventually find someone who is agreeable.
Nobody said it would be easy.
The Next Step
After you have obtained your Cell Phone you are ready to go. In my opinion instead of allowing no money and no help be a negative, make it a positive. In fact why not make it the selling point.
I would lean into it. Instead of thinking only about being a musical Artist think about being a show. And what is the show exactly… The show is your progression, the story of how you, starting with nothing, set out on a journey to see how far the path will go.
If you regularly check in with a slow growing audience they may just eventually come to admire you for your perseverance and stick-to-itiveness.
Remember just posting your song will be short changing your self from the opportunity to sell what is really catchy about what your doing. The catchy thing is giving people to the chance to watch you try to to do it.
So tell the camera what you are trying to do and how you are trying to do it. Explain how you intend that whatever you are doing will help you to level up, then show your successes and failures.
Document your “music career from scratch” journey and let that be your promotion. Document from Day one… Admit to camera you know its not going to be great a first but pledge to the audience that you will work your hardest to reward them for following along with the promise and pledge that you won’t disappoint them in the long run. Then go and do!
After You Have A Youtube Channel
After sometime and when your song productions are undeniably good. You can work towards monetizing them as I mentioned before. There are some aggregate sites that you can register with to collect your royalties for you.
Here are some that are commonly known in the market place:
Before we conclude I wanted to explain, that while a lot goes into navigating a starting a music career from scratch, it isn’t the destination. As you lacuna you can know that we are here to help you from time to time with strategies and innovative approaches to building your career. To start, we’ve recently posted an article that discusses comprehensive guide to Income streams for musicians. Read it first!
Lastly
Once you have these steps behind you and when you’re ready you should consider investing in a website where in you can sell merchandise.
There are template services that charge a monthly fee to host your website. Additionally they provide you with easy and intuitive drag and drop tools for building your website.
Here are two examples:
Per month the cost for these drag and drop sites is slightly more expensive but significantly easier than buying a template and modifying a www.wordpress.com site on your own. But the choice is yours.
Either way document each step you take in the process to use a means to ingratiate yourself with your followers, and keep them invested emotionally into your ongoing progress…
There may just eventually come the tipping point where you have what you need to… monetized. You have a grasp of the technologies needed to do…. what you need to! And, you have a group of people online that have coalesced around you and they have your back. In that moment you WILL HAVE started your music career from scratch.
The only thing keeping you from doing this is the not doing it.
SO GO GET IT DONE.