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8:17 am
October 24, 2012
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QuoteHonestly, I'm constantly perplexed by this question so I'm going to make myself super vulnerable and throw this question out to the group.
When I came out with my first album I gave it everything I had at the time. The album didn't cost that much, about $14,000 or so but then the advertising, touring etc took it over the top financially. In addition to that, the promoting, marketing, booking shows, touring etc. took an enormous amount of time. I loved doing it but it was tough because there was so much time going out without money coming in. I minimized my work hours (private teaching) in order to spend more time promoting my music, doing shows etc but that made my income lower which made things tough financially.
Perhaps I was naive in thinking that my music would take off to the degree that I thought it would. It got a good response but eventually I couldn't handle the amount of money it took, the time etc. As a result, I increased my teaching hours (yuk) in order to make more money and I minimized my music efforts due to a lack of money for more music projects.
Now it seems I'm stuck in a rut of constantly trying to "make money" in order to pay down some debt from my first album and support my new music. Though it feels like I'm working (a job) all the time, I still can't pull in enough money to pay for music projects like recording, promo, touring plus paying for all the basics that life requires.
On the forum I read about people that are putting out singles, making albums, touring and I always wonder how they are able to do this. What amazing jobs do they have that allow them to pay for all their music projects PLUS allow them the time to promote their music, tour etc?
Honestly, where does their money and time come from? How are people paying for all of this and how do they have the time to do it all while working a regular job?
I also had a question for John. When you got dumped by your label you said that you would do anything to avoid getting a job so you built a business (or businesses) online. Why didn't you go all out with your music and use that as a means of supporting yourself?
Right now, I'm taking the route of building a business online in order to help me financially but honestly I scratch my head often wondering if I'm doing the right thing. Working a regular job plus building an online business on the side takes a ton of time. How do I fit music in to the degree that I want when all my time is taken up trying to make money?
Is it silly to think that I could give up all the practical 'money making' stuff and solely do music?
Help? Any thoughts, advice would be appreciated. Plus I would love to know what others do for money and time.
9:56 pm
June 7, 2011
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Hey Barb,
I totally hear where you are coming from. No matter how well you are promoting your music it's still a tough racket. Music has incredibly low profit margins and an extremely high competition level. It's not a business you get into because it's lucrative, as you know. That said, there are things you can do to consistently see income and growth in that income. That is where MMM comes in. I'm attempting to put this into a mathematical equation that allows for scaling. IE: Subscriber value, minus subscriber acquisition cost, multiplied by ad spend.... or something to that effect. And it really does work.
The issue you are experiencing (if I have it right) is that you are already in a slipping financial whole and the more you take your eye of the ball to focus on music the deeper your whole gets. the reason that is, is because music (even though it is often self sustaining) is not usually as lucrative as the average job. Nor are most businesses for the record, at least until you have years invested and a successful strategy.
The formula for success is pretty straight forward, You create multiple offers (low end such as albums, continuity programs such as membership sites, and high end such as house concerts or live shows) and then optimize your offers so that you are making more money each month then you are spending on advertising. But it does take time to get there. Most people I know that are full time musicians are supporting themselves with shows or house concerts, but they are fueling those sales with their list. But adding those high ticket sales to the funnel really helps. Others just have lower financial requirements.
No matter how you slice it, it's a tough road, but many pull it off. MMM is my attempt at showing you the most efficient way of doing it.
As for why I didn't just go from the major labels to using all this stuff on my music... The answer is two fold...
1. I had no idea how to do any of it when I began and I did not see a music career as being the same thing as starting an online business. My goal was to make money as fast as possible and I followed a blueprint that others had laid out for me. there were no blueprints for musicians, and there are still very few outside of MMM.
2. To be frank, there are far better ways to make money than with music. As mentioned above, music has low profit margins and a lot of competition. It also has no easily definable problem/solution component. When I first began online I tried everything under the sun. I probably bought 100 domains the first year, almost all of them were failures. I finally got some traction with one website in the health niche, scaled it up, and was finally able to see the forest through the trees. Since then it's been relatively easy. But it was very hard to figure out how to really start making money online. Once I did, I was only then able to see how this could be applied to music. But the bottom line, if you want to make money, look to other, more lucrative, markets. But if you want to be a successful artist and do all you can to get your music in front of an appreciate of artist that can partially or completely support your lifestyle, then I sincerely believe that the path outlined in MMM is the best way forward.
Hope that answers your questions.
Having trouble with your marketing? Wish you could have an experienced direct-to-fan marketing expert look over your actual campaigns, music, or content and offer feedback? Or perhaps you’re just looking for a little one-on-one assistance so you can ask questions that pertain to your specific goals and get a second, more experienced, perspective? Click here to book a session with me now.
8:38 am
October 24, 2012
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Hi John,
Thanks so much for your response. This helps a lot.
I appreciate you taking the time to share this information.
Hi Barb,
It's a great question and a great topic to discuss. I'll throw my 2 cents out there along with my story and current strategies. Since there is no category for new member introductions (get on that John! 
) I'll use this time and space to also give some background info on me.
One of the most defining moments in my musical life was stealing my mother's (who worked as a court reporter) Tascam 4-Track and sitting in my room, recording the rhythm guitar to Metallica's "One" on track 1, and then overdubbing the lead guitar on track 2. Listening to that back at 15 yrd old (as shitty as it probably was) blew my fucking mind. That moment is more vivid than the first time I played the guitar, played live for the first time...anything. That moment created the goal...write, record and release an album all by myself. That goal took me in all different directions including going to Full Sail to study Recording and working as an Audio Engineer for a few years. About 15 years after that goal was created, I finally did it and put out my band, The Liberty Underground's, record "Three Feet From Gold" in Oct 2013. I wrote everything myself...I recorded everything myself...and I'm now in the midst of releasing it all myself. A long road traveled and much more to go but I got here by trying to be as self sufficient with my music career as possible. I learned what I needed to learn and did what I needed to do so that I don't have to rely on anyone but myself to get my music out there. If I fail, it's ALL on me...but I absolutely refuse to fail!
So, how do I support myself financially? Well...I'm no millionaire (yet) and sometimes it's a bitch paying all the bills. But I have gotten my income at least to the point where I don't work a normal day job and I have enough free time during the day to work "on" my business instead of "in" my business. The primary source of my income comes from teaching guitar, singing, and home recording. You mentioned that you teach. If you are teaching only private lessons, you are 1) putting a ceiling on how much you could earn 2) not leveraging your time. I have just a touch over 30 students now and I teach 12 hours/week on average. My teaching model is based on a rotating format that combines correspondence lessons (lessons sent via email), private lessons, and group classes. The beauty of this model is that it's scalable...if I add 20 new students in, I will still be teaching less than 20hrs per week. So my advice to you, is at the very least start teaching doubles and triples...get a good teaching policy and stick to it.
Having this teaching business be at a level where I don't have to work a day job and make better money than if I did have a day job allows me to fund my music career. Actually, I have to take a step back...every job I ever had directly funded my music career. Every job provided me income which I spent on recording gear and paying people like John for the knowledge of the shit that I don't know how to do. I didn't realize it at the time, but I spent the past 7-8 years using all sorts of jobs to get me to the point where I'm pretty self sufficient as a musician. Back to the teaching business...I like teaching, but I don't LOVE it as much as some of my other teacher friends do. A lot of them have schools with 100+ students and while I want to and am increasing my student counts, I really don't want to play the teaching game at that level. So I am using the teaching business to get The Liberty Underground up and running. I might hold the record for fastest sale in MMM history. I didn't watch John's marketing video or read any of his sales copy...I bought immediately because I know deep down that marketing your music like an online business is totally viable and I believe the wave of the future. John's was the first program that I have ever seen that shared that same belief and I literally bought the program 2 min after seeing the ad on Facebook. It took me awhile to get through it all but I did and my sales funnel is up and running and I'm on the 2nd week of driving traffic. This course has given me so many ideas to use outside of marketing the band that I can't wait to implement them.
So back to you and your situation and how you could support your music career with music related endeavors. The answer is pretty simple and John talked about it in his reply. You offer so much value to other people but you probably don't recognize it. You could solve a lot of problems for a lot of people...you just need to dig down deep in your mind and mine all of that gold out. Whether that's coming up with a product to sell online or doing something else...the answers are totally in your head, you just have to ask the right questions.
If you have never read these books...I highly, highly recommend them. "Think & Grow Rich" by Napolean Hill and "Multiple Streams of Income" by Robert Allen. Those 2 books totally changed my approach to making money. I'm not where I want to be but I'm totally on my way.
Apologies for rambling!
If you want to listen to something that sounds like you are getting punched in the face by Alice In Chains and Metallica, suplexed to the ground by Tool and Velvet Revolver, and then picked up and dusted off by the softer sides of Pearl Jam and Soundgarden...then you need to check out one of the most refreshing new hard rock bands in quite some time...-->The Liberty Underground<--
11:42 pm
June 7, 2011
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Thanks for sharing your story Jon. Great perspective. Just FYI, the forum for introducing everyone to your story and music can be found here: https://www.mmmanifesto.com/in.....your-music
The general introduction thread is below the welcome video. Cheers.
Having trouble with your marketing? Wish you could have an experienced direct-to-fan marketing expert look over your actual campaigns, music, or content and offer feedback? Or perhaps you’re just looking for a little one-on-one assistance so you can ask questions that pertain to your specific goals and get a second, more experienced, perspective? Click here to book a session with me now.
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