The 9 Steps to a Successful Musician Roadmap and Making A Living Making Music

It is such an exciting time in the world to be a musician. There are so many opportunities to bring your music to the world. But how do you do it with enough success to make a living at it so you can continue to do your music and live the dream?

The first thing to know is that it is possible. And it is possible for you, no matter where you live, what your age or genre is.

The music industry is evolving faster than ever. Each year new platforms and mediums skyrocket to prominence, minting household names and reshaping the way audiences connect with artists. Simultaneously, new technologies put creative tools into the hands of people who previously couldn’t access them. The music industry is worth $25.9 billion. This was the global recorded music industry’s annual revenue in 2021, and the largest music market within that is the U.S. In 2020, the U.S.’s recorded music industry earned $8 billion in revenue, which was an increase of 7.5% from its 2019 earnings of $7.4 billion.

We know for a fact that music makes money and by that fact alone, we know that there are many musicians that profit from their music and make a living making it. And so can you.

The first 3 on this list are prerequisites to building a successful career in music. Without even one, you won’t take off the way you could!

1. Artist Development – Continually Uplevel Your Skills Through All Stages of Your Career

Every artist needs to build strong skills as well as to uplevel their skills as a singer, songwriter and performer, no matter what level they are at. It’s the key to ensuring the growth and the success of your career.

Every time an artist makes a new album, they go into upleveling their voice and songs for the next project. It’s a continuous process of evolution for emerging and established artists.

Artist Development is the process a musician goes through to develop and uplevel their craft and the skills necessary to build a professional career in the music industry. The process involves vocal training, songwriting, A&R direction, development of sound and direction, artist persona development, image and branding, music and video production, live performance development, marketing message and career planning and strategy.

A great worksheet you can use to outline your own development is my Steps to Stardom Blueprint. This blueprint is a great way to chart your progress and career. You can find this worksheet and more inside my Step Up to the Spotlight 6-module artist development program.

Well-known artists are super focused on this, because once you have some success, the goal is to stay up there. And the best way to do that is to top their last release. So you can imagine the level of artistry and focus that takes. That’s one of the reasons why artists like Adele take so long to make albums – she wants to hold her authority and she’s smart because she doesn’t take it for granted. It’s harder the higher you go. You can see when artists don’t pay enough attention to the level of artistry and focus that got them there and their albums plateau. Too many of these and they bottom out. It’s a continual process – but it’s so worth the results!

As an artist, your creativity rotates around different seasons. It is important to understand the dynamic nature of the artistic process so you can know what energy and attention to bring to each phase. To learn about the different seasons and how to best approach each phase of your project. Read The 4 Seasons of An Artist IG post here.

2. Put out a Superior Product in the Marketplace

You can market until you are blue in the face but if you don’t have what people want you won’t get where you want to go. Numbers don’t lie – it’s not just exposure or promotional efforts that create success – it’s three things:

In order to build a successful artist career and business you need these 3 things:

1. The right product
2. The right message
3. The right audience

People follow music they like. It really is all about the music – first. You’ll know if you have something people want because they will gather wherever you are. They will sign up for whatever you offer and come to your shows. People love music. So if they are not gathering or engaging, either your music or your posts (message and visual) are not speaking directly to them.

It starts with your product. DIY in this case will often hurt most artists. If you are the writer, producer and performer and are creating your music in a vacuum, you run the risk of being too subjective and can easily fall short. Without critical eyes and ears on your music you may go all the way to the finish line and fall flat.

When Coldplay put out XYZ they used a technique that most established artists use – and I recommend this to all emerging artists as well. Once they had the record where they wanted it to be, they showed it to their inner circle of people who’s opinion they trust to tell them the truth. After collecting the responses, they went back to the grindstone to redo the record. Again, artists at the top feel this even more – but all artists should operate this way.

Emerging artists have to be even better than what’s out there in order to stand out.

It starts with your songs. Even great production can’t make up for average songs.

If you want to know where to start, read about our signature songwriting process that we use in our Signature Songwriting Circle here.

3. Build a Strong Compelling Artist Mission, Story, Message and Visuals

This 3rd step on this list is the “hook” that will build an engaged audience on socials and also growing your list (see #4 below). Without this one thing, you won’t take off the way you could!

Your message and your visuals are your music at first glance. People may never head to your Spotify or go listen to your music if your message and visuals are not compelling enough or speaking to them enough.

It starts with your Artist Mission and Story. This helps you find your message and connect with the deeper reason why you do your music and what you stand for. This informs everything from your songwriting, to your message and your branding.

See the The 7 Pillars of Artist Development Every Emerging Music Artist Should Know for more information about Artist Persona and Branding – see #6 on the link here.

4. Build Your List

Your list is the most important element of supporting your music career. People who are willing to give you their email to be on your list are more likely to support your music career.

Social media platforms come and go – and with it your followers. You can’t rely upon them – remember Myspace.com? All that work gone in an instant. And while these platforms lure us all with the broadcasting of our numbers – it’s actually their ploy to keep you there working to build your audience – except it’s their audience. Be sure you use social media to direct people back to your website or your landing page offers where you can get an email address!

Once on your list, you can develop a relationship pointing them where you want them to go. You can also invite them into your livestreams (where you can collect tips) and grow your revenue there.

Your list is GOLD for your artist career. Create a really valuable offer – like give away one of your prior records or a bundle of demos or covers for new subscribers. Once they are on your list you can communicate with them in their inbox on the inside! Use an email platform like Mailchimp or on Square Space to tag and segment lists and followers and send out a newsletter once a month that offers them value and connection. Additionally send out email letters with invitations to Livestreams or events as you go. Watch the open rates and clicks. This is a way of tweaking your content to connect more to what people want from you!

5. Livestream on YouTube or Twitch where you can accept tips.

Artists support themselves with Livestreams on YouTube and / or Twitch where you can accept tips. I have several artists who are supporting themselves doing this. It’s an easy way to connect to your followers and test out your material too. You can also invite them to other ways to connect with you or invite them into a community if you have one (see #7 below).

Case study: Janel Nabong

Check out our artist Janel Nabong’s Twitch channel. She streams 4x per week and supports her music career. She’s built up her following from just 20 – 50 attendees and that’s just what she’s needed to support her music. Now we’re working on building a product line and community for her to continue to build her revenue.

And don’t forget to set up your social media to monetize your content on YouTube and IG Reels where you can bring in some extra revenue and invite people to your Livestreams ahead of time.

6. Develop Merch and Unique Products

The key to selling anything is having something people want. Besides the typical concert going merch, artists can create products that are unique to your brand – items people want.

Here is an example of content and product lines we are building with some of the artists I mentor: Original artwork, candles, handmade products – one of my music artists Janel Nabong is an also an artist and she sells prints of drawings that speak to mental health and other things she is into. One of a kind pieces that represent her brand.

Another one of my artists created a card deck around mindset. Another is developing a jewelry line – a collaboration with a local jewelry shop. The key is making it match your mission and the community you are creating for your listeners. I love building out product lines with artists – it’s so amazing to help them make something that not only means something to them – but can help support their careers.

7. Build a Community

Build a community membership that helps to support your music career. A successful community offers people an “insider” place to connect with you and other like-minds. Successful communities can bring in anywhere from $500 – $5000 per month. Your free Livestreams and music and message on socials bring them into your community. Make it special – give people a reason to come. At your community events you can offer sing-a-longs and all kinds of creative and promotional experiences including monthly giveaways of special high end merch (and then sell the item at a 50% discount etc). If you know how to stage it well and tweak your music and products it’s a great place to sell and test market as well as support yourself while giving people value and connection to you.

8. Build Opportunities

Additionally – it’s really important to work with experienced mentors and people experienced in the music industry that can help you build opportunities and grow your career and business. As a musician you are a small business owner. You can’t grow without understanding how the business works. It’s not as simple as getting your music up and promoting on social media. Smart business owners are a part of masterminds and work with mentors to grow their business. It’s exactly the same in music. Always reach out for help – especially when you are stuck or plateauing. You could be holding yourself back by trying to do it on your own. No artist ever reached success by themselves. Team work makes the dream work!

9. Touring

The biggest money in the business still comes from touring. And live music is back! Build a tour schedule that supports your lifestyle. Whether you want 35, 75 or 105 gigs a year, make it fit the kind of career that you want. And start a spreadsheet to start doing the math. Once you have a great following, touring can be a great source of revenue and support for your music. Also be sure you have your music properly registered with your PRO (Performing Rights Organization) to collect your performance royalties correctly.

Speaking directly to my emerging artist audience — I just wanted to show you a rough example of where it can come from:

It’s good to do the math to see the potential. Then follow the steps above to make it happen!

Ready for more? Get started with upleveling your craft and career plans with Step Up to the Spotlight 6 week Artist Development Program.