TEM185: Becoming a published composer while still in middle school and resisting the expectations of others in order to blaze your own path - A conversation with composer Tyler S. Grant

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TEM185: Becoming a published composer while still in middle school and resisting the expectations of others in order to blaze your own path - A conversation with composer Tyler S. Grant

Tyler S. Grant is a composer, conductor and music educator based in Alabama.

On Today's Episode of The Entrepreneurial Musician:

  • The business reason behind adding a middle initial to his name

  • How he ended up meeting and working with his mentor, Brian Balmages

  • The many things Brian has taught him including how to balance your career with the rest of your life

  • There is something we can learn from absolutely anyone in the music business

  • The meaningful connections Tyler made with guest artists as a college student by volunteering to drive them to and from the airport

  • His first composition for band which was only 90 seconds long and took him months to write (which got performed at the Midwest Clinic!)

  • Why he felt like he had arrived when he got that first piece published and as a result didn't release anything in the following year

  • Being that driven from an early age and the lessons he learned along the way

  • Learning to resist the expectations of the industry and others so you can find your own artistic path

  • Why having a degree in something, while valuable, is not a requirement to creating art

  • His decision to self-publish his music and to form an LLC

  • The crazy schedule he kept as a college student to be an in-demand self-published composer (including enlisting the help of his fellow students to get orders out)

  • Hiring a "ghost printer" to keep up with demand and how that kept his sanity

Links:

Want to help the show? Here's a couple of ways you can do that!

1. Help me get to my next goal of $100 per episode on Patreon by pledging as little as $1 per episode to support the show: https://www.patreon.com/tempodcast.

2. My next iTunes goal is 150 ratings and 75 reviews. Take just a minute to leave a rating and review on iTunes to help me get there. Thank you!

And finally, a huge thank you to Parker Mouthpieces for providing the hosting for TEM.

Produced by Andrew Hitz

Show notes for all episodes of TEM including topics discussed, links to all books and websites referenced can be found at:

http://www.andrewhitz.com/shownotes

TEM160: Music vs. the music business and the seismic shift coming in the industry - A conversation with Matt Oestreicher

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TEM160: Music vs. the music business and the seismic shift coming in the industry - A conversation with Matt Oestreicher

Matt Oestreicher is a multi-instrumentalist who is one of the top performers, composers and arrangers in New York City.

What You'll Learn:

  • How 2018 is such an empowering time for artists

  • Why Matt doing so many musical things so well is actually a marketing challenge for him

  • Why how we deal with the human error that occurs in live music applies to being an entrepreneur

  • How the people not on the very front of the stage are frequently the best people to reach out to when trying to build your network

  • Intentional networking and why that's not just waiting to run into people

  • The value of having the audacity to think that you might make it big

  • The fantasies about the music business you have to cut through in order to succeed

  • The difference between music and the music business

  • The proper balance of short-term strategies and long-term strategies and how the proportion of the two should change according to your age and where you are in life

  • Why he decided to release his first album of songs after he turned 40

  • How the barriers to creation and distribution being drastically lowered means that much more competition

  • The seismic shift that the music business has recently experienced and why there is another one coming

  • What it's like working with the likes of Stevie Wonder, Snoop Dogg, Anita Baker and Weird Al Yankovic

Links:

Want to help the show? Here's a couple of ways you can do that!

1. Help me get to my next goal of $100 per episode on Patreon by pledging as little as $1 per episode to support the show: https://www.patreon.com/tempodcast.

2. My next iTunes goal is 150 ratings and 75 reviews. Take just a minute to leave a rating and review on iTunes to help me get there. Thank you!

And finally, a huge thank you to Parker Mouthpieces for providing the hosting for TEM.

Produced by Drake Domingue

Executive Producer is Andrew Hitz

Show notes for all episodes of TEM including topics discussed, links to all books and websites referenced can be found at:

http://www.andrewhitz.com/shownotes

TEM144: Evolving career goals and finding your personal creative rhythm - A conversation with composer Dale Trumbore

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TEM144: Evolving career goals and finding your personal creative rhythm - A conversation with composer Dale Trumbore

Dale Trumbore is a Los Angeles-based composer, author and teacher.

What You'll Learn:

  • The very narrow definition of success Dale had for herself (with a self-imposed age limit!) and why she adapted that definition over time

  • How she moved to LA but deviated from her original plan of becoming a film music composer

  • Why creating your ideal community doesn't necessarily involve where you live any more because you can create that community online if you look in the right places

  • Why the uneven income of an entrepreneur meant she had to get good with managing her money at an early age

  • The time of day Dale is most productive and why she advocates for everyone to find their own personal creative rhythm

  • How she analyzes her past career goals in order to inform her new ones

  • Tips to make a great website (which Dale feels quite strongly about!)

  • How to craft a personal and relevant email when asking someone for something

  • The importance of developing your own creative process and how that helps you to ride out the rough patches

Links:

1. Help me get to my goal of $75 per episode on Patreon (only $11 to go!) by pledging as little as $1 per episode to support the show: https://www.patreon.com/tempodcast.

2. My next iTunes goal is 100 ratings and 75 reviews. Take just a minute to leave a rating and review on iTunes to help me get there. Thank you!

And finally, a huge thank you to Parker Mouthpieces for providing the hosting for TEM.

Produced by Andrew Hitz

Show notes for all episodes of TEM including topics discussed, links to all books and websites referenced can be found at:

http://www.andrewhitz.com/shownotes

TEM87: Peter Meechan on controlling your own career, unintentional networking and finding your niche in the music business

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Here are the show notes for Episode 87 of The Entrepreneurial Musician Podcast featuring Peter Meechan.

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Peter Meechan is a professional composer from England who now resides in Canada. He has had compositions performed by the "President's Own" Marine Band, Edmonton Symphony, Black Dyke Brass Band and many other world class ensembles.

Topics Covered:

  • 5:32 - Pete's indirect journey through music and how he came to become a professional composer

  • 10:42 - How a bar at his university led to some incredibly effective (and unintentional) networking that still pays off for him

  • 18:30 - The great story of how saying yes led to him cold-calling one of the most famous trumpet players in the world, Rex Richardson, which in turn led to a commission

  • 26:43 - How he has come to find his niche as a composer of brass music (in spite of not being a brass player himself) and why it's important to intentionally pursue things within the business that people are actually paying for

  • 37:52 - How many artists have a hangup about marketing their art and why they shouldn't (at least you shouldn't if you're genuine)

  • 45:15 - How we all know colleagues who suck at social media and it can be a turnoff about it in general (but that it shouldn't be) and how the world is still very young in the entire social media experience and how we're still figuring it all out

  • 54:48 - Why he chose to self-publish his music rather than go the traditional publisher route (Spoiler: the old business model made absolutely no sense for him as a composer) and about a traditional publisher he heard about recently that is offering much better terms for composers moving forward

  • 1:03:57 - The importance of controlling your own career and making your own destiny (and why that's a little daunting)

  • 1:09:50 - Why the resource he recommends to all aspiring entrepreneurial musicians he speaking to everyone who is doing what you're doing

Links:

Favorite Quotes:

  • "Humans, as a whole, we're very good at spotting someone who is full of it. The guy who's talking BS. We instinctively pick up on it...And equally we pick up on someone who is incredibly genuine and someone who is incredibly passionate. We don't sit there and think about it. It's just an instinct. And I think the whole making people believe in you and what you do has a whole lot to do with that as well."

Help me get to my $25 per episode goal on Patreon and get a mini-consultation with me!

And you can help me get to 50 ratings on iTunes. Thanks to everyone who has already left a rating!

Thanks for all the help spreading and supporting TEM. It means the world to me.

Produced by Joey Santillo

TEM73: Jessica Meyer on not waiting for the phone to ring, becoming a professional composer at age 40 and writing a great grant proposal

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TEM73: Jessica Meyer on not waiting for the phone to ring, becoming a professional composer at age 40 and writing a great grant proposal

Jessica Meyer is a violist, composer, entrepreneur and music business consultant based in New York City. I absolutely love her approach to the music business and to life. Quite inspiring!

Topics Covered:

  • Jessica had two degrees from Juilliard, was living in New York and yet her phone wasn't ringing because she was primarily only hanging out with her husband and not intentionally networking

  • How when missing two notes in the 6th round of the Buffalo Philharmonic audition prevented her from winning an $18,000/year job she realized there was a problem with the traditional orchestral model which inspired her and her husband to start their own ensemble

  • The incredible number of things like grant writing, budgeting, making a website, branding and many other things which they had to suddenly learn how to do (and which their top-notch Juilliard educations didn't prepare them for)

  • How running your own ensemble is like owning a house rather than renting (you get to customize anything you want but any repairs or upkeep are your problem)

  • The very large ensemble they hired (at a large expense) which lead to their first New York Times review which in turn has lead to a review every single year

  • How Jessica became a professional composer at the age of 40 (Spoiler: She relied on her pre-existing network that she had intentionally developed)

  • The importance of her being able to stand in front of people and succinctly tell them about her music

  • The key to writing a great grant proposal (It's easier than you think!)

  • Why she starts her networking seminars off by having people figuring out exactly what makes them them

  • Why it's important to practice stating within a conversation what you do in at most two sentences (and why you should have one of these soundbites for each different thing you do)

  • Why you have to be your own advocate for what you do (and why Jessica prefers the term "advocate for yourself" rather than "selling yourself")

  • How even if you have management you need to be out there "shaking the trees"

  • Why it's important that when you find yourself in a serendipitous moment (career-wise) you need to speak up and get the ball rolling

  • Why solving problems for other people or making random introductions for no reason will serve you well in the long run

  • Gary Vaynerchuck's 51/49 Rule

  • How all relationships are feeding your career (which means more than just liking Facebook posts)

Links:

Favorite Quotes:

"You have to spend money to make money. That's how it works."

"(Grant writing) is like networking. It's not about you. It's not about how great your art is. It's not about how great you play. It's not about how great this composer is. How are you making the lives better of the people you are serving."

"How can I advocate for myself and my colleagues?"

"You just keep asking. And there'll be a lot of no's. And you just keep asking anyway."

"The people who are successful...are the ones willing to do the mundane things that other people are not."

It would mean the world to me if you felt like making a small donation to support what I'm doing with TEM. You can find out more at:

https://www.patreon.com/tempodcast

Produced by Joey Santillo

TEM59: Garrett Hope of the Portfolio Composer Podcast on the skills needed in the freelance economy, thinking about art as a business and the power of outsourcing

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TEM59: Garrett Hope of the Portfolio Composer Podcast on the skills needed in the freelance economy, thinking about art as a business and the power of outsourcing

Garrett Hope is the host of The Portfolio Composer Podcast, a composer, a bass player, owns a piano tuning company and is a consultant.

Note: Since we recorded this interview, Garrett has rebranded his podcast, Composer On Fire, as The Portfolio Composer Podcast.

Topics Covered:

  • How entrepreneurial thinking led him to ultimately choose bass over guitar as his primary instrument

  • The factors that led to him getting turned off by academia which led him to becoming an entrepreneur

  • How starting a piano tuning business made him realize he needed to apply the same entrepreneurial principles to his music career

  • The skills musicians need as the world moves more and more towards a freelance economy (and they don't teach them in music school)

  • The challenge of thinking about art as a business

  • Why it's imperative to identify exactly who your audience is

  • The importance of having a rich network to utilize when trying to serve a specific niche

  • How Garrett came to have world-renowned thought leader Seth Godin as a "guest" on his podcast

  • The audacity of asking

  • The power of asking "And then what?" to get to the bottom of fear

  • The Brand Fascination Assessment Test

  • The power of outsourcing (even though it can be scary to spend money on things)

  • Understanding cash flow as a small business owner and the importance of keeping good records

  • Why we've all networked already on some level

  • How networking is the bread and butter of a musician's life

  • How to create a spreadsheet to get organized about your networking

Links:

Books:

Favorite Quote:

"In 10 years, more than 50% of the workforce will be freelancers. That's where we're heading and musicians need to be prepared for that."

You can help offset the ongoing costs of producing the show by making a small donation at http://www.pedalnotemedia.com/support-the-entrepreneurial-musician. Your support is greatly appreciated!

Produced by Austin Boyer of FredBrass

TEM11: Jim Stephenson, composer and head of Stephenson Music

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TEM11: Jim Stephenson, composer and head of Stephenson Music

Jim Stephenson is a full-time composer and arranger based out of Chicago. His story is a fascinating one.

Jim was a trumpet player in the Naples Philharmonic before he began to arrange and compose. His writing career eventually took off to the point that he quit his steady job with the orchestra to focus on it full-time. Who does that? People as driven as Jim, that's who.

His career path is reminder after reminder that you never quite know which direction you are about to head in in the music business.

Topics Include:

  • How his first ever arrangement was for a professional brass quintet and that he volunteered in spite of having no experience whatsoever

  • How he backed into becoming a composer by trying to write an intentionally bad piece to fulfill a very creative assignment and failed since it ended up being good

  • How excited he was initially about being a published composer

  • The advantages and disadvantages of self-publishing

  • The value of humility in a sustainable career

Website:

You can help offset the ongoing costs of producing the show by making a small donation at http://www.pedalnotemedia.com/support-the-entrepreneurial-musician. Your support is greatly appreciated!

Produced by Austin Boyer and Buddy Deshler of FredBrass