Now What? A Practical Guide for the Arts Community When the Revenue Stream Dries Up
What can you do if you are an artist or a musician and temporarily have little money coming in and you are forced to sit it out for perhaps a few months? Whatever you do, don’t waste this time by sitting around depressed and blue. The silver lining is that you now have a precious commodity – time. Make the best of it. From a strict business approach, the answer comes down to two strategies: 1. Optimize your time and 2. Find alternative revenue streams.
How Do You “Optimize Time”?
Every day, set a goal to achieve something, to do something constructive for your career. Use the time effectively to facilitate your future. Approach every day with structured discipline and “go to work” on your future viability. Here are some things you now have time to do:
- Spend as many hours as possible in a day working the phone, emailing and generally reaching out to your network. It’s a great time to connect with others.
- Update your website, your press kit and media information.
- Set up future gigs or exhibitions. Contact old and new venues or galleries. Send out media kits and solicitations to get new bookings in places where you have not played or exhibited.
- Musicians can write new songs and work out new materials. Make demos at home and send them out to record labels, publishers and others who need songs for films, TV and commercials.
- Visual artists can take this time to be productive and to create new work.
- Practice, practice, practice. Create, create, create.
- Use this time to take care of legal business. For instance, review your contracts and agreements.
- Musicians: For long term success, take this time to pitch any original songs you have to anyone who can use them. Send out your copyrighted materials to every feasible place, from Nashville to Austin. Approach big named artists and let them hear what you can do.
- Publish an article in a print or online magazine. Get your name out in arts and music magazines.
Whatever you do to advance yourself is good. The worst thing is to do nothing.
How Do You “Find Alternative Revenue Streams?”
This is the hardest, and it is situational and dependent upon your own circumstances. One size does not fit all. Here are some ideas for those who might face real money shortages:
- Musicians: As hard as it is, cull the herd. This is often the fastest and best way to get quick cash. In the old days musicians used to pawn their instruments. Now you just offer them on Craigslist or on Facebook, and voila, easy money. If you are one of the many obsessive people who has an oversized arsenal of guitars, (you know who you are) take a good hard look at your collection. Which one do you play the least? Convince yourself that one or two must be sacrificed to allow the rest to survive. Kind of like a dog musher caught in a snowstorm in the arctic. You need to devour one. Yeah, it will be painful, but you can always buy another when good times return.
- The time proven motto of sales is “Sell what you got.” Artists often have unsold inventory. Sell the artwork now. Many musicians are sitting on boxes of their own CDs, books, instructional material and other merchandize. If you don’t have gigs or exhibitions where you can market that material, use this time to hit all the available sales channels and hustle these items into the hands of fans. Reach out to your mailing list and offer a discount. Use e-bay, Amazon, CD Baby and every other feasible sales channel to sell your own artwork, music and books. That takes time and effort, and you now have time to move that material. Do the work and post as many for sale as possible.
- Musicians: Offer guitar lesson or other courses online by Skype. Hold online meet-and-greets with fans. For example, do a one-hour presentation with questions and answers. Charge a reasonable entrance fee, offer each a signed CD and a press photo.
Whatever you do, find a way to make it through this rough time. Good luck.
Frank Matheis is an award-winning music journalist, author and radio producer with an eclectic musical taste that covers the gamut of music from Americana to Zydeco, from Jazz to World Music. He is a regular contributor to Living Blues magazine and other music publications, and the publisher of www.thecountryblues.com. His radio documentaries have been heard on three continents in three languages.
