Finding Jobs In Music
How Badly Do You Want a Job in Music as a Professional Musician?
Jobs in music are not always the easiest to find. But you can find them.
I had an interesting conversation with a friend of mine the other day who's been an AFM member for quite a while. He's been a musician for about 25 years, and has never done anything else. He told me that things were bad in his town. Jobs in music for musicians were being replaced by DJs. Clubs weren't using live music anymore. The corporate jobs in music work dried up after 9/11 last year. There just wasn't jobs in music enough going on to pay the bills as a musician.
Now don't get me wrong, this guy is a terrific talent. Other keyboard players are in awe of how great this guy can play. His last job was five weeks ago. He called me to tell me about his plight and what I thought he should do. I gave him 10 ideas:
- Move to a bigger town.
- Teach.
- Find jobs in music at a church.
- Work as a single on a cruise ship.
- Look for jingle work with some ad agencies.
- Contact local retail keyboard stores and offer your services for concerts and promotions (maybe at scale plus a percentage of instruments sold).
- Find a backer for a CD and promote it yourself, do your own PR getting airtime that could result in more visibility and better paying jobs in music.
- Find out about various charity functions within a 50-mile radius, and get a sponsor to have you play for the cocktail party or any other part of the venue where music could be played.
- Come up with a program about music through the years, and do high school assembly programs around the state.
- Find out when corporate events are coming to town, find out who the meeting planners are, and suggest how you could add to the event.
When I gave him these suggestions, he said he didn't want to move because he had roots in his small town and liked living there. He hated teaching, even though he could make $60 an hour or more, because he didn't like the regimentation of teaching kids. Playing a church gig wasn't his thing, no matter how well it paid. He thought he would get seasick on a cruise ship; jingle work didn't pay enough, and there was too much competition. He hated the thought of promoting instruments and doing concerts in a music store, and didn't want to impose on any of his "financially well off" friends to back a CD.
He didn't like the idea of finding a local sponsor for charity work, high school assembly programs are a drag, and getting any kind of corporate gig takes a lot of work. He'd rather wait for the phone to ring. And the phone just hasn't been ringing lately.
I told him it was over. Find something else to do. He truly believes there are no jobs in music out there, his attitude is in the pits, and he tells everybody how cruel the world is to musicians. He has become a prophet of his own destiny. It's sad.
On the other side of the coin, yesterday I received a phone call from a trumpet player who belongs to two locals in the northeast. He said he had read the column about "working for exposure" and wanted to comment on it. He said he gets jobs in music all the time and agreed about not "lowering himself" to get out there and play for free. He said there are a lot of jobs in music if you want to put yourself out a little.
For example, he was telling me how he came to know all the funeral directors in both locals that he belongs to. When a military veteran dies, the funeral director suggests to the family that "Taps" be played at the gravest. The funeral director acts as his agent. He gets paid the price of a four-hour gig (even though he only works a few minutes). I asked him what makes him unique at this. He said he hides in the woods or out of sight, plays taps twice-once towards the grave and then turns around and plays it again like an echo the other way. He also has a pamphlet that tells about his service. A little morbid, but he does this every week. Sometimes several times a week. He says he has no competition. No one else wants such jobs in music.
He told me he learned to play keyboard, so he can play trumpet with one hand and keyboard with the other. Corporate venues love him because they think it's unique. If it's an AFL-CIO affiliated company, he makes sure they know he's a union musician. He does a lot of their cocktail parties and gets repeat work. He sings too, and he sometimes emcees a function as well. He says it takes a lot of time staying in touch with the meeting planners, plus they change all the time. But he always asks for referrals, calls them on the phone, sends them thank you notes, keeps them on his mailing lists, and sends them a gift at Christmas. He also has a bit where he does high school assembly programs talking about how music can enrich your life. He plays two trumpets at one time and the message is, "If you want to do something bad enough, you can always find a way to do it."
Now here's the kicker: he's not one of the top players in town--yet he works all the time. He has some business sense, some marketing smarts, and a little personality. He never cuts his price (he always mentions he's a professional... an AFM member), and he never just sits around waiting for the phone to ring for his next job in music. He's always finding different ways to earn a living as a union musician.
So, if your calendar is not as full as you'd like, and the bucks aren't coming in as fast as you want, ask yourself "How badly do I want to work?" Enough to be a little creative, somewhat assertive, and willing to bend over backwards to get it? And do a little attitude check. Don't get yourself in a rut. Thinking a little outside the box could result in some interesting jobs in music without giving up your trade.
