music as a business

[cgs]

So I've recently discovered that my passion is music, and I've been dabbling with the idea of teaching guitar lessons. Any music related entrepreneurs/businesses here?

[justin]

Hey cgs--this isn't quite the same thing, but I too have a passion for music (it was once stronger) and worked in the business for several years. I started out creating a music community website local to the town I went to college in. It allowed bands to advertise shows, post news, find venues to play, network with fans, and whatnot. It became quite successful, with almost 10,000 members (over 10% of the population of the entire town!) and landed me my "dream job" at the time, which was booking shows as a promotor at a large, independent venue in town. I had fun with it, but eventually grew tired of the business and moved on.

The website was never a big money maker--more like a labour of love. Come to think of it, I never made too much money booking shows, either - but it was a lot of fun!

[Michelle]

I am a singer/voice teacher in Switzerland. Just opened my own studio this month with a colleague:

A Singer's Life - Keller 48

[NFX]

This more of a hobby but I created a website where I can post tutorials and help people trying to make hip-hop music. It's very fulfilling as a hobby.

Since most of my users are younger and don't work I don't get many donations but the AdSense more than pays the cost of bandwidth and hosting.

[Kristoffer]

In my work as a cameraman/producer I often need music for corporate/commercial videos. For copyright reasons this can be a tricky field. I have found some good music on line like this site for example.

An idea for an internet based business would be to create custom made music for film/video. Have the client upload or link to a draft of their film and then you do the music for them.

[Gautam]

I've been publishing music online for 3 years now, I had my first EP out this summer but it bombed big. I didn't really make any money out of it, but at the end of the day I enjoy my music just too much to be worried about reaping financial advantages from it.

I'm concentrating presently on starting my career as a designer, once I nail that down, perhaps I can get back to music and maybe someday I might just do enough to actually establish that as a source of income.

I guess its the Undeniable Love for Music that justifies it all.

[songwriter]

Well, there's a thread called "Who runs their own business?", I want to be a musician. It's not a company but it's my business, I guess.
I have to go now, because I have to go to the recording studio for the first time, a day all the musicians seem to remind especially.

[GenkiRichard]

Hi cgs,

I started out teaching music. It was fun, paid for college and kept me on my toes skills wise. My current job also has a big music element.

If you go into the teaching, make sure you have a passion for that as well as the music. I currently take 3 music lessons ( singing, drums, DJ) and you can really tell the difference. The drum guy gets a kick out his students picking something up and finding stuff to challenge them. The DJ is a top DJ, but hasn't quite got into his teaching groove yet. And the singing guy sometimes feels he is just going through the motions and wishing he wasn't there!

So if you've got passion for music and passion for wanting to help students get that passion as well, then go for it!

Be genki,

Richard

PS NFX, what's your website? I'm a big fan of the todaysbeats.com site!

[TheColonel]

I was a professional/semi-professional musician for 14 years. I played, sang, produced, engineered, taught and wrote. I've had songs on the radio. Not big hits, though. I've played with people you've probably heard of.

But looking back through the eyes of my current identity as a businessman, I wish somebody would have told me early on to seek out a niche. I was all over the board, and even though I was well-respected, my lack of focus kept me from more significant achievement.

[songwriter]

Well, I'm back from my first day ever at a studio.
And it was fantastic :-D.
I didn't enjoy much my first live performance. But this has been different.
I expected some man there behind a glass saying just "Take one".
But it was a very friendly thing. And that producer works with the most famous artists here.
He did an arrangement of my song that I didn't expected.
My demo was more like a intimate version and he turned it into a "band" song.
That shows more how my writing is.
I begun singing the song like if I was singing my original demo... but subconsciously I started to do different things with my voice.
At first I thought they were mistakes.
But what happened is that I was getting into the song. Or the song was getting into me. So I sang according to the mood and arrangement.
The producer liked that so much and me too. That's when I started to enjoying it.
I said to him: "Ok, I'll do it in a crazy way, like if I was in my home or so... like listening to Queen...". And that's when I enjoyed it and I did it better.
Forgetting about melodic patters to sing, etc. just letting the music get into me.

[scottyp]

I've done some music recording and other work on the side but it is a difficult business to get into. The best way seems to be networking with other people, something I'm not particularly good at.

I did start a website Geardos where I review music gear and write some music related articles. It seems to be off to a good start although I really need to motivate myself to do some more work on it.

[ScottLee]

I'm currently involved in being a one-man three-piece. I'm working on an album where I play guitars, drums, and do vocal work. I call it, "Eternal Exhaust." A chunk of people out there like my music, another chunk doesn't - I'm working on improving all the time. If you want to do 'music as a business' the thing I can say is that make sure you love music, and you're not doing it for the business. Do what you love, it rarely fails as a good piece of advice. I've got a decent group of listeners, and hopefully that group will grow as time presses on and I release the album one day.

[DmitryDavydov]

Originally Posted by cgs

So I've recently discovered that my passion is music, and I've been dabbling with the idea of teaching guitar lessons. Any music related entrepreneurs/businesses here?

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