This one is for all you getting-paid or would-like-to-be-paid musicians. (Or people who freelance in another field.) The premise is, you may have quit a "day job" to do music fulltime, but I bet the music itself is still a small fraction of the work you actually do. I think that even music has its own "day job," which is the promotional and business stuff that lets you get paid for the music.

At a Clarion Folk College workshop on "Getting Gigs," the most actively-gigging participant, who was leading that workshop, said she can esasily spend 20 hours a week communicating with presenters (people who book artists), publicizing upcoming gigs, record-keeping, etc. Her perspective was, "my goal on the business side of my day is to do the tasks I know will lead to gigs.... not to worry that each task must lead to a specific gig, but to reliably do the small things that, over time, will result in gigs." She had a focus and a detachment about it I found fascinating.... In a way, you could say that she was taking a professional agent's approach to her own band-- promoting the band, not her own identity. We also discussed the pro's and con's of leaving promotion to an agent.

So, Mudcatters, tell me about the business side of your music.

How much time do you spend? What do you do? How proactive are you in promoting yourself?

~Susan