Are you also a musician as well as being an engineer?

Do you approach your role differently as a musician?

Do you struggle to make money off your music and get gigs?

If you do read on (and don't worry, I'm not selling you anything).

I'm asking because in the last year I've spent a considerable amount of time dedicating myself to being a professional musician.

Professional is a loose term but I'd like to define it like this:

A musician who plays regularly and gets paid for their efforts, whether it's by the venue directly or through merchandise and other means.

By that definition I'm fairly professional. I've played over 30 gigs in the last year, which means more than every other week and I've made my band and myself thousands of dollars in the process.

I wouldn't call myself a massive success and I certainly don't make a living off gigging alone but it's a nice side income that's allowed me to, among other things:

• Have extra money for weekend trips with my wife
• Buy more comic books
• Have an extra buffer so my bank accounts are left alone while I use my cash as play money
• Buy instruments and gear
• Buy books and education to help me with my songwriting

But...this is the big thing, most of the revenue we earn goes straight back into the band.

• For buying merchandise like t-shirts and stickers
• For duplicating CDs (people buy CDs at shows, that's the only place they're still relevant)
• For promoting our events on Facebook (with great success!)
• For renting a cabin to host a band retreat when we "toured" to Flagstaff, Arizona to play a show

I'm telling you all this because I was wondering if you were interested in knowing more about how to do this?

Do you want to know more about how to contact venues, book shows, get cheap merchandise, structure set lists, know when to hire and fire band members (it's not fun to fire people...) and everything that goes into getting your name out there and start playing an active role in your city's music scene?

I would love to know more about your struggles to get started, what you've done to get gigs and how you've gone about increasing your presence, online and off.

I also have a free guide that might help, "Enhancing Your Music Marketing - Your Guide to Creating an Online Presence" which tackles some of the most important aspects of getting your online presence going.

I cover:

• The most important part of any press kit
• What to focus on in your bio to get more gigs
• How to get promoters interested in you
• One of the most dangerous ways of promoting your music online (and you're probably doing it...)
• All you need on your website
• A simple email marketing guide for your mailing list (you do have a mailing list for your music right?)

I would like to give it to you for free in exchange for answering just a few questions about your struggles in music and what you want to get out of your music career.

Not your audio career. Being a professional audio engineer is a completely different beast. 

I'm talking about the musician's life here.

I'd LOVE to know how your music career is going and if there's anything I can do to help.

So click here to grab your free music marketing guide and tell me what you've been doing in your music career lately.