I rarely see the type of vitriol and negativity in other creative communities but it runs rampant in the music industry,
It's even worse within the smaller audio community because we all seem to know it better than the next know-it-all.
Why are we like this? Have we been sold some dream too many times?
My mentors may have sold me some dream back when I was starting out but it was my responsibility to be realistic about what I could achieve at that time.
It was my responsibility to follow their program and do the work necessary to succeed.
There is no magic bullet any marketer can give you that will instantly make you successful. It will always require work and sacrifice on your part to get to where you want to be.
Maybe I have a different window into the industry because I run hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of advertising and I see the worst comments from
our market on a daily basis.
Having run a successful online business in the audio industry I’ve been called every name in the book just for daring to sell my products and services online.
Here are some sweet
examples:
- "Snake oil salesman"
- "Scammer"
- "Unethical and terrible"
All just because I run ads to sell a $7
eBook - and sometimes even ads to FREE stuff - that help musicians and producers succeed with their music.
(...maybe so that they don't need to hire a curmudgeon-y engineer who thinks they're the best thing since Autotune and drum replacement...).
In my opinion, there's absolutely nothing wrong with selling your products and services if you know that you can people results.
My materials have been proven to get people results thousands of times over again so I know that they're worth every penny.
Follow my step by step mixing process and you're guaranteed to make better mixes or your money back. It's that simple.
So if you know that you can get somebody a specific results, whether that is writing killer lyrics for them, recording awesome drum tracks for their production, mastering their record, or helping them set up their business and marketing strategy, you owe it to yourself to charge for your service.
Otherwise you will never succeed because you're literally giving away your livelihood.
So I wonder...
If you're already established and making at least a side income, did you get there WITHOUT
help?
Did you pay for mentorship or did you refuse to listen to anyone and go it alone?
I would love to hear your perspective on whether or not you think our industry is “friendly” to people trying to make a living in
it.
If you'd like to chime in with your thoughts, feel free to leave your comments to this post on Facebook.
That's all for today. I hope you have a good one.
Björgvin