Hustle Harder: 'If You Don't Invest In Yourself, Who Will?'
Published: Friday - November 16, 2007
Words by Donny Goines
Blog by Donny Goines (Photo: Don Michaels)
"If you don't invest in yourself, who will?"
Many of aspiring artists (including myself) know by now that industry has changed. The days of cutting a hot demo and getting signed are long gone and a thing of the past. So what do you do now? You invest your own money into your music.
Over the past year and a half, I've probably spent well over $30,000 of my money in order to make my dream a reality (that doesn't even include others who have invested in me). I can't really sit here and tell you exactly what I've spent all that money on, but some things I bought included: a computer and related expenses (internet, programs, etc.), travel, recording and mixing over 80 records, CD duplication, clothing for shows and events, so on and so forth. I've spent about 90% of every dime I got in the last 18 months on my career and music related expenses and now its at the point where I'm in the red. That's how much I believe in my dream tho and I'm riding till da wheels falls off. It's that simple.
Look at it from this perspective. Imagine you are loan officer at a bank (what do you think a record company is?) and someone (an aspiring artist) comes in for a loan. Now you're reviewing this potential client's collateral, track record, etc. and you see that this person hasn't no capital of his own and hasn't invested a dime into his proposal. Would you really consider this person for a loan based on a dream? If that were the case, banks all across the world would be out of business. The same logic applies to record companies. For the most part there not in the business of taking risks, there in it for safe returns. Once you start looking at things in this light, things will start to make more sense to you.
Everyone's situation is different. What works for you, might not work for me. For instance, investing in studio equipment wouldn't really help me at this point because I have nowhere to put (I'm in my mom's house) and I can't afford an engineer to work for me, but this might be something good for you. I think it all depends on your situation, income, responsibilities and long/short term goals. My advice to you is this, first calculate out how much money you can afford to spend. After you crunch the numbers figure out what would be the best investment for you at that time and then prioritize. Start by spending your money on something that can help you move further and hopefully generate more income. After that, you should reinvest and purchase things you couldn't get the first time around or step up the things you have now (better mic, better beats, whatever). One thing I feel that is very important for aspiring artists is to make progress. As long as you continue to move forward, whether it be financially, musically, etc., you can use this as your track record to show others. At that point, others will start to come in and invest and that's how you get the ball rolling.
I was very vague as to what you should invest in because there's no one thing that will make or break you. All I know is this, in today's music climate you better be prepared to spend some money if you really are considering going to a major in the future. Most likely these companies are not going to advance you any loans without some sort of stock or capital in your name and if that's the case, why not advance yourself?
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