The Blame Game

I recently attended Martin Atkin’s : Band Tune Up at the Madison Media Institute in Madison, WI. As I mentioned in my previous article, Sharpening Your Music Skills, I’m a firm believer that musicians must educate themselves and take control of their career.

One of the most important lessons Martin stated was simple, “Stop blaming anyone for anything. Everything is your responsibility”.

I can’t tell you how many musicians I’ve heard complain about: The club stinks. They didn’t promote me properly. The audience was lame. My people didn’t show up. I need someone to sign me. Someday I will be discovered…

Find a better club. Promote yourself. Build your audience. Play for the 2 people who showed up as if they were the last 2 people on Earth. Record yourself. Sign you, to what? Be discovered? There are millions of bands on MySpace, Facebook and ReverbNation ‘waiting’ to be discovered. Create momentum for yourself, no one will do it for you.

Martin went on to say, “Nobody gives a f*%# about what is important to you, except you”. Read that again.

If you want to succeed in the music business or any business for that matter, learn all you can and take control of everything. It is your career on the line, and if you fail, there is always someone waiting to take your place.