Tuesday, September 6th, 2022.
Hey, it’s TJ Miller, you want some game? Let's Tip Unda The Hat!
For the best indie music from indie artists, click, and follow Independent Artist Of The Week Unda The Hat. This week, Linny Nance. Be sure to hit the like button and follow this amazing group of indie artists. They will be major soon!
Do you have a career or a hobby? - Let’s go -
If you are hoping that one of these ol days somebody from somewhere might luck up and hear your music and contact you out of the wild blue - you have a hobby. If you are putting in the work, emailing, calling, networking, and studying your craft and the business of it - you may have a career. They say if you do something you love you’ll never work a day in your life. That’s true to a degree, I mean, if you’re a musician, you still have to put in the work, still have to woodshed, still have to stay current and relevant to your genre, new music trends, melismas (that’s a fancy word for vocal or instrumental runs) and the technology that runs this business. Now music is music and that is an art, so there’s nothing wrong with making music your hobby. Actually, some of the best musicians I’ve heard are hobbyists. And my definition of a hobbyist is one who looks at music like it’s a fun thing to do for enjoyment and from time to time will and can make some money at it. But it’s not how you eat, pay your bills or feed your family; and trust me that’s ok. But there are some of us that have to do this in one form or another. Allow me to add for those of you that do this for a living be careful of working with hobbyists. Not they are not good or talented, but if you are pressed for a deadline to get your music somewhere, or to make a certain gig, or recording, and the hobbyist is pressed at his 9-5 for the same thing, you my friend are going to have to wait until they can get to you. And yes it will probably be worth the wait, and they are not holding you up on purpose, it’s just a way of life.
At any rate, some of the bigger differences are if you are just waiting for something to happen because a few folks know you can sing or play, yeah this is a hobby. A few traits of the career musician are making plans, structure, networking, collaboration, organization (that’s sometimes hard for a creative right brain person), and constantly learning. Career artists know and treat this as the music BUSINESS, and take the business part as seriously as the music part. The hobbyist, loves the music, knows the music, but could do without all of the business stuff. They make some good music, maybe post it, and play some gigs, but don’t have the interest in making this a career move. And I can’t state enough, that there’s nothing wrong with that. But if this is your career, try and find other career artists to hang out with. You have to put in the work. If you know this is God’s plan for your life, then you have got to take the bull by the horns and understand how business works, realize that your music is now a “widget” and you are responsible for getting it into the hands of the right fans, advocates, influencers and superfans. So if this is your career, time to get to work!
This week's #IAOTW - Independent Artists Of The Week - Linny Nance. Dallas’s favorite keyboard player. Linny can be found almost every night playing somewhere. Located here in Dallas/Ft. Worth, he now has a new single out and he wants to spread the love.
Click on his name, scroll down, and click the picture to find out more about this versatile talented artist. Be sure to like and share the Spotify playlist.
For more information on this or to hire Unda The Hat as your brand or label consultant send a message via undathehat.com. See you next Tuesday.