Building a Musical Career on Strong Financial Backbones

I have always felt envious of passionate people. People have the knowledge what they like, what they want to do. I wish I could be more like that.

Growing up, I never found a passion for anything. I was the jack of all trades. I liked painting, singing, dancing even cooking and sewing. But I was not passionate about anything.

Let me clear to you my friend Jerry. Since childhood, he has been passionate about singing. He would spend an hour in the alley behind the music class in my street.

He would spend all of his savings on buying guitars and strings. I admired his passion. I tried to be a guitarist so that I could act all cool and passionate. But not Jerry. He worshipped music and guitar.

After school, I migrated to the city, but he stayed behind in the town. He established a band and initiated the performance at local pubs. Last I heard that he worked as a janitor in our old school.

When it came to my knowledge, I felt extremely sorry for him. On my visit to town, we planned and met for a drink. He shared his problems after two drinks.

“It ain’t easy to be a musician when your pockets are empty, guitar strings don’t pay the bills. I had to get a full-time job to put food on the table.”

It was really sad, but then I realized it is difficult for musicians for so many reasons. Very few make big in the music industry. Passion alone is not enough.

Why Do Musicians End up with Empty Pockets?

You will find many musicians who are passionate and talented. Nevertheless, they fail to manage their money and end up broke.

Believe it or not, music is very much related to money matters. I am not asking people not to be passionate. All I am saying is that being good at your thing is not enough alone. If you want to succeed as a musician, you need to have a plan.

There is a fact that every musical instrument comes with huge cost. In addition, after buying, the maintenance requires money too. Music needs time and money both, simple as that.

Here at Financealoan, we care about your passion, so we have put together a list of things for aspiring musicians so they can have strong finance while following their passion.

1. Addressing and acknowledging the problems

Many musicians leave their passion because of peer pressure or family reason. Many join some college or school so they could get a “real job” and make a future.

Fear of not having enough money, overspending on musical instruments, and self-doubt, “I’m not good at this” are reasons people have to quit music and work for a living. If you are music major doing college on education loans, the worry about debts can also slow you down.

First and foremost is to realize the problem. If you acknowledge the reality of your profession, it will make things much easy. Once you acknowledge the issue, no you can focus on how to obtain money for projects?

If you want to be a musician, know and tell yourself repeatedly that the profession may take longer to succeed, and you need money to continue.

2.Educate yourself about money.

It doesn’t matter if you are a businessman, bigshot CEO, or unemployed. You must educate yourself about money. Many websites provide a free service and are very helpful for obtaining financial literacy.

Financial literacy means learning fundamental things about “how to handle your money”. Having the money help you face and look at the challenges you would have in every phase of your life; as a student, as an adult pursuing music, retirement, or during a financial crisis.

Learning about money will also help you do your taxes, make a budget, make investments, plan financially, and do many other things logically.

3.Earn from Multiple Sources

Yes! You are a musician, and yes, you want to be a successful one. Time to reality check; as a musician, you get money through performance gigs and records. If you are already in the field by now, you must know how much can you make from music alone?

If you are new, talk to people and learn about these things. Calculate if it is enough? Most of the time, it is not unless you are a regular. Therefore, it is clear, you can’t depend on gigs alone, at least at the beginning of your musical career.

So now what? Well! As a musician, you can make money in various ways. A part-time job, an investment, freelancing, teaching music to kids, by renting your place (if you have any), here are multiple things that will fetch your money.

If you are not worried about money, you can focus well on your career. You can’t ignore the possibility of rainy days.

4.No Harm in Being Spendthrift

When you look at famous musicians, they have a particular get-up, hats, shoes, etc. It seems tempting to buy expensive things to look cool, but you can’t ignore your financial situation.

If you are a struggling musician, you have to take careful steps. Begin with budgeting. Budgeting entails forecasting your income based on records of your spending needs. Make a financial plan, have a financial goal, and limit your spending to meet your expectations.

A musical career needs a lot of money, so set up a fund. Evaluate how much you need if you want to form a band or own a private studio. Make a plan, and then determine where the money will come from. Evaluate all your existing sources of funds.

5.Debt: a Tool to Stay Poor

Yes! As exciting as it may sound, taking out a loan is not wise, especially to meet your simple financial needs. Taking out loans for bad credit in Ireland is pretty standard. As a musician, if you take out a loan and don’t have money sources yet, chances are greater that you will end up in debt.

Most musicians are in debt today. It is all due to a lack of planning and budgeting. One of the advantages of creating a budget is comparing earnings to your spending needs. My suggestion is always to spend less than you make and have room for saving.

Excessive spending on so many things may add up to disaster for musicians. If you are opening a studio, it is not necessary that you have everything at first. Save money and buy things slowly.

6.Paying Taxes

Did you know an artist can get a tax exemption in Ireland?

Well, it is true. In some conditions, income made by artists like authors, music composers, visual artists, and sculptors from selling their works is tax-free in Ireland if their creation is original.

Original and inventive artistic works are generally recognized as having cultural or aesthetic qualities that will qualify for tax exemptions. And you thought learning finances would not help? Learn about the minor details to take advantage of the law and save yourself a few more bucks.

Conclusion

Being a musician is exciting and may make you famous. However, as a struggling musician, you must adjust your finances to survive the struggle. Have financial goals, learn about finance and management, save and be smart about money.

Your dream alone is not enough. You need to work on it. Look for alternative sources of money and give time to your musical career.