How to Get More Disciplined with Your Music Career ~ Guest Blog by Kavit Haria

How to Get More Disciplined with Your Music Career
by Kavit Haria

One question I am asked quite a lot is “how is a musician supposed to do their own marketing when they haven’t got enough hours in the day and want to make music?” Although I give a selection of answers to this question when asked, in planning this article, I wanted to put them all out here because it leads nicely into what I want to write about today.

(1) If you haven’t got the big bucks to spend on a marketing firm, you can’t change that. You’ve got to do your own marketing. If you don’t market, no-one will hear of you.

(2) There’s not enough hours in the day? Ha! The truth is, you have as much time as you need. You just need to make it. Most don’t. They just spend most that time complaining.

(3) Marketing each day requires not more than 30-45 minutes if you’re going to get consistent results that grow each week. If you’re a full-time musician and can’t spare that time, then you’re not doing the right thing. If you’ve got a 9-5 and do music on the side, then you’ve got to be able to spare 20 minutes for a bit of daily promotion. If you can’t do that, there’s something seriously wrong with your time co-ordination and management. Wake up early or sleep late. Find some time. You need to do your marketing. More important than that, you need to get more disciplined so let’s look at that.

As good musicians, we know about discipline, probably more than anyone else. In order to be disciplined you need some rhythm. We’ve heard the talk about “you need to practice every day and changes in this schedule will disturb concentration and performance” a gazillion times and we live and breathe it. But why don’t we do this when it comes to promoting ourselves? Because we don’t like it? Well, tough, you’ve got to like it. Marketing is the core of our music sales.

Discipline is related with focus. If you play piano three hours per day every day of the week you will have less time to play football or to watch television. It is possible to reserve one hour per day and dedicated this to one activity; many people run during the morning before they go to work. This requires discipline and is relatively easy to continue, your body and rhythm are expecting this activity and it will generate a lot of energy.

The most important thing about getting disciplined is your eagerness for it. You must have your reason. You run every day because you practice for the marathon. You run every other day because you like it but there is more in life, you walk on Sundays because you’re fond of nature… You play music because it’s your life and you’d live for it. Set a schedule for your marketing. There are tons of tactics out there. Nearly all of them work. All you need to do is select the ones you like and do one a day and keep that same routine every week and month. I guarantee you will see results within 3-6 weeks.

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Kavit Haria is the Founder and Director of Inner Rhythm, a music business consultancy. He speaks, writes, and consults on the themes of independent music business strategy, music entrepreneurship, and music marketing.

Kavit himself is a musician – as a Tabla player for the last 13 years who has trained under the great Pandit Sharda Sahai of Benaras – and uses his training and passion of results psychology and Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) to fuse together marketing and music business basics to help musicians create a winning strategy.

Inner Rhythm is Kavit’s idea of a learning hub – a place where musicians can come to glean inspiration, take away ideas and create their music career in the way they desire – with exposure and fruitful results.

Since 2004, Kavit has built up an internet newsletter readership of 12,000+ musicians worldwide to his well-known weekly Musicians Development Newsletter. He has also produced a number of small reports detailing strategies on how to get more gigs, attain financial independence and promote a newly-released record. His most popular resource to date is the Musicians Mastermind – a five-month program that walks you step-by-step to promoting your own music and getting sales.

Today, Kavit speaks about 40-50 times a year and consults with musicians and resides in London.

5 Responses to “How to Get More Disciplined with Your Music Career ~ Guest Blog by Kavit Haria”

1. Carly Says:
   March 26th, 2009 at 5:42 am

   This article is RAD!!

2. Welcome to Musicians Lunch! « Musicians Lunch Says:
   April 14th, 2009 at 1:26 pm

   […] Related Link: “How to Get More Disciplined with Your Music Career” by Kavit Haria […]

3. Brian Cruickshank Says:
   April 16th, 2009 at 4:33 pm

   I nstrumentalists
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   R hythm

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4. NLP Advisor Says:
   April 23rd, 2009 at 1:40 am

   I found your blog on Google. I’ve bookmarked it and will watch out for your next NLP blog post.

5. Tammy Says:
   August 30th, 2009 at 7:43 pm

   Thanks a lot for the great blog.

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