4 Habits Successful Musicians Do Differently Than You

No, I'm not saying all musicians should start jumping off of 13 story buildings on a motorcycle through a ring of fire.

But... Why are people so complacent with being 'normal'?

DOES ANYONE ELSE HATE THE WORD 'AVERAGE'?

It should bug the living hell out of you if you're trying so hard to succeed with your music, and you're not seeing progress.

I've been making music for almost a decade now. I didn't go full-time with my music business until about a year ago, and it was because I didn't have the 'all in' mindset.

I was too comfortable with the idea of being comfortable.

I used to wonder why some musicians (who I thought didn't make music as good as mine) were having more success than I was.

I guess I thought I deserved to be given a chance by someone. Someone just needed to see my talent and take me to the top...

I can say one thing looking back on that... Give me a break! The musicians who were succeeding with their businesses took the time and investment to learn the things about marketing that I knew nothing of.

I remember when I first quit my 9-5, I wasn't really sure how exactly I was going to make an income running my music career. I knew the basic stuff about marketing:

• Have a Twitter page
• Have a Facebook page
• Have a SoundCloud/ReverbNation/YouTube
• Try and tell people about it so they'll listen

Other than that though, I can't say my knowledge was too grand.

SUCCESSFUL MUSICIANS UNDERSTAND THEY HAVE A SMALL BUSINESS.

Think about any time you had a new job. What's the FIRST thing they do?

Train you. There is always new stuff you need to learn... Always.

And what does it cost to train you? Investment.

I can't tell you how sick I am of the 'everyone is out to get me' mentality I see among (aspiring) musicians, and I had to put the aspiring in parentheses because they're not going full-time with their music anytime soon with that mindset.

I think I resent that state of mind because I used to have it. I remember there were a couple guys offering music marketing courses online when I was still trying to figure out my full-time music marketing strategy.

Naturally, these courses cost money. I had always thought these dudes were just out to make a buck... but then I realized I had no business talking about them that way BECAUSE I NEVER ACTUALLY TOOK THE TIME TO LOOK AT THEIR PROGRAMS.

I never spent any money on marketing courses, and it showed by my lack of music career.

Long story short. I ended up buying two marketing courses online and they helped my music marketing strategy 100000 times more than me sitting and whining about having to pay for them.

For me, my weakness was marketing.

I knew my music was good enough because I could still rake in a few hundred bucks during the month with it, but just couldn't get over the hump to doing it full-time.

If you make good music and aren't doing it full-time, stop looking for handouts and invest in marketing knowledge. Can't put it more plainly than that.

For someone else, maybe they need to spend more time working on their sound, but one thing you've got to perfect is your analysis and honesty with yourself.

If you really want to be successful, you'll take the necessary steps to be successful. You won't just think about them. You'll do them.