Longing for the day ...

Having a proper go at this music career thing.

"The important thing is not being afraid to take a chance. Remember, the greatest failure is to not try. Once you find something you love to do, be the best at doing it." Debbi Fields

Things haven't been working for me on the Day Job front lately. Seems nobody wants a 48-year-old crusty academic type who's been a part-timer for a while and can't show a solid track record of recent experience, no matter how good he's been in the past. Whatever!

Of course, this is a classic "setback or opportunity" thing. Do I dwell on this and allow my soul to go sour, or do I take this as a hint from the universe that the time has come for me to get serious about what I've always wanted to do: make a career from my music. I choose the latter!!

So, dear reader, here is my pledge to you:

• Years ago I had a go at researching first-hand how to make an indie music career and turned that into a PhD. I learned a lot and loved the experience, the people I met, and the life it gave me. I wanted more of that but life got between me and my dream.
• I turned that research into a book or two and a training course aimed at helping others to learn from what I have learned. I gave these away and they earned a wonderfully positive but small response. But I did not follow my own advice and take the leap into the Great Dream.
• The reward for my limited and self-conscious efforts has been a massive group of friends and supportive associates, particularly in my local Brisbane music scene - but also scattered around the globe. You have been my solace and my compass in dark times. I have never asked anything of you before ... but now I do.
• I pledge that I will "fall into those connections" and "ask my crowd to catch me". In return, I pledge to share with you everything I learn from the experience, so that you might also benefit from it. As I have always done, I do this to show the way for others with the same dream. I trust that you will also share this with everyone you know who could learn from this experience.

Of course - I don't have Amanda Palmer's following - yet. So what will this look like? Well, it will look a lot like this blog post - and more like it. It will look like a lot of Youtube posts and Facebook posts (subscribe at those links to receive them). It will look like a lot of results of things that I tried that didn't work and a lot of questions from me about what you think you think I should try next.

This is about Radical Transparency. In this age of corporate secrets and uncertain music business practices, I promise to show you everything I try and how it works for me. In return, I hope this helps you and that you will help and guide my journey. Over the next few weeks I will lay out some assumptions, some goals, and a plan for achieving them. I will then plot my progress towards them - or not. I will take my own advice: follow the steps I set out in The Step-by-step Music Career book and workshop, and see how I go. I hope it works ... :-)

As a first act of transparency, I leave you with the below. I learned today from CDBaby that I am entitled to a free marketing tool called Show.Co. This is my first effort using it - only took an hour or so to set up. The goal is to promote what I think is my most internationally accessible video so I can qualify for Youtube Monetisation: 4000 hours of view time and 1000 subscribers. At the time of writing I have 55 subscribers and almost 100 hours of view time - there's a mountain to climb.

Please share this effort widely and let me know what you think in the comments below. Please ask questions and/or make suggestions.

Thanks in advance for your support. :-)