Be advised: professional artists are business owners. This is a key message of our company, this blog, and everything that we seek to do through the educational side of our business. If you are an artist and you desire to or already do make a living from your art then you must recognize you are in business… you are a business owner.

I read dozens of new business books each year. Very few of them speak to the music business owner, yet most of the lessons of how to run a business apply directly to running a music business. You have fans (customers) who buy your products (music and merchandise) and in order to be successful you need to grow your fan (customer) base and keep your current base happy. True, this isn’t the sexy approach to the music business and it wasn’t the reason you got involved in being a musician. Yet it is possibly the most powerful lesson I could share with you.

This is why I am launching a new service called The Farm Team and will be open to only 20 bands/artists who do not currently have managers but are very serious about growing their business.

As many of you know I am a life/business coach – a service I provide for anyone even if they aren’t in the music business. The difference with The Farm Team is that I will be serving partly as a coach and partly as a mentor and the service is specifically for musicians. My interest is to help these 20 select artists grow their business to their definition of success through weekly one-on-one calls with me. If you feel that this would be appropriate for you or your band, you can read more about it and apply for the program here: http://thefarmteam.com

Regardless of whether you choose to apply for this group, I’d like to leave you with the simple message again. As soon as you choose to make a living performing your art, you have assumed the role of business owner. Embrace and appreciate this role – it will serve you well.