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How to Make a Living as a Full-Time Indie Musician

I’ve been listening a lot recently to this audio download titled “How to Make a Living as a Full-Time Indie Musician”.

Music marketing author Bob Baker interviewed indie successful artist John Taglieri and picked his brains on how John took control of his indie music career, what steps he took and how he has been able to give up the day job to focus on music full-time.

There are were many similarities discussed which parallel building a good business, things like

  • Determining your vision as an artist
  • Setting regular goals to achieve
  • Figuring out what success means to you
  • Working on the baby steps every day to push you forward

They discuss the pro’s and con’s of the indie music path versus the major music path. John describes a major label record deal as a bad car loan and he explains why.

They discuss plenty more insightful topics including using Myspace, publicity and building a fan base.

You can learn more about it on Bob Baker’s website.

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2 Comments

  1. Will

    I love Bob Baker. It’s all about artist empowerment. However, I prefer a purely online approach as I’m an independent guitarist and don’t want to tour. Rather than sell mp3s I’ve decided to give them away for free. Instead I try to monetize the fans through a membership site for guitar lessons. The free songs and videos hopefully lead people to want to join the site.
    I charge a monthly fee for this. Bands can do the same via an insiders club or backstage vip membership. It’s getting harder to sell digital copies so you want to sell the experience or sell access instead.

  2. Chris

    Thanks Will for your insight. I believe you’re definitely spot on with your ‘sell the experience or sell access’ concept.