… MYA has 21 paid bloggers from Malawi, The Netherlands and South Africa writing about the music & event management on MasterYourAbility.com and musicians and event professionals from all over the world will be reading the blogs and interact with other members of MasterYourAbility.com
For the short term: all future blogs from MYA will be posted on MasterYourAbility.com. If you want to get a free membership, please feel in our survey on Thesistools.com/MYA
GOALS
Yesterday Jorien and I had a meeting with Mr. & Grrrl about a long-term vision. It quickly became clear that it is important to set goals. It gives direction to everything you do; what work to accept, when to say no, whom to talk to and what to say to this person, how you use social media, and what you need to do to get where you want to be.
Without clear objectives, you might keep busy and able to pay the bills, but there is no growth and chances are you get stuck at the same level for a long time. With MYA we have seen that happen with some of the artists we worked with. Three tours in The Netherlands, all good fun and interesting, but no progress made. In year 3 the bands still play the same venues and get similar pay, or in many cases even less. Every year it is the same struggle to get shows booked and to break even. Where we made profit in year one, we lost quite a lot in the third year.
The bands get a nice trip out of it, meeting new people, strengthening friendships overseas and performing in another country. No money, but a great experience. But someone is losing money; someone paid the airfare; someone has guests staying in his or her house for a couple of weeks which is not for free because water and electricity bills will go up; someone paid for visa, insurance, letters with formal stamps from the municipality to get the visa, etc. It’s not all about money, as I have invested and lost money, but I do feel rich. The experience, the new friends, the whole journey has enriched my life in a way that money never can. So I am not complaining; I feel privileged and do believe I am one of the luckiest women in the world being able to do what I like best.
But I do want more. More for MYA’s artists and I would love to be able to earn a salary with what I like best (don’t get me wrong: I love teaching and hope I can always combine MYA with part-time lecturing). MYA has been thinking about her own goals in the past year, and we decided to make some changes. We never meant to be a booking agency, but we ended up doing bookings for bands that we believed in and for people we love. We called, mailed and attended conferences to get gigs booked for our artists. We did get bookings, but there was no growth – we got stuck and saw fees decrease instead of increase. Nowadays we are more an agent: we put the right team together to reach the short and long-term goals of the artists.
That’s where it starts: we sit down with our artists and talk about the goals. What does the artist want for next year, but more important, where does (s)he want to be in 5 or 10 years? We help with developing SMART objectives as the goals need to be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound. And when the goals are set, we can start to plan. We can try to find the best booking agent in your genre, someone who knows exactly what venues and festivals you fit in. We might want to hire someone for promotion; a person who knows exaclty how to tap into your specific market. This person might get your music played on radio, get critics to review your music in (online) magazines, get free publicity in newspapers, or even arange a performance on TV. Maybe it is smart to find a distributor or record label in a certain territory. Or a manager who suits your needs and can take your career further.
There is a lot you can do yourself. MYA advocates DIY management: it is great to be able to manage your own business. If you have a big network, have a talent for organising, and know how to reach your goals, there is no need for an agent or a manager. Perhaps you can do it all in your own region, but in another territory it is good to get help. To be able to get shows, you need to be known and to get known, you need your music on the radio, your story in (online) magazines and people should be talking about you. You need to fill the venues, sell enough tickets for a venue to make it worth opening their doors and compeition is steep wherever you go. There are thousands of musicians who are happy to fill your spot. And they are local, they will bring family and friends, and the travel expenses will be much lower. So you need a team that can find your market, get your name out and know what is needed for peoplle to buy tickets for your show. For the team to do a good job, they need to know your goals.
More about this tomorrow on www.MasterYourAbility.com
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MYA|Annelies 