Financial and Management Issues

This article is about some of the Financial and Management issues you may encounter as a freelance musician. It is important that you are aware of these issues as you will need to know how to work around them/tackle them when they cross your path. The three issues I have chosen to talk about are; Networking, Funding and Invoices. I feel that these three are the most important issues for people who are new to the industry as they are often something that people get wrong.

Networking:

Networking is an extremely important thing to consider when looking into becoming a freelance musician. Networking is the basis for your career. These days’ social networking sites are packed full of promotion and are how most musician promote their music and meet new people working within the industry. Not only is it important to get your music out there, it is equally as important to meet new people with aligning interests as they may just have that power to push your career that one step further. Social Networking is a necessity when getting your music out there as you need as many people as possible to take an interest in your talent and this is the most efficient way. Facebook and Twitter are just a few social networking sites that people use to promote their music and these are often seen to be the best as they attract billions of people to their sites every day! Here is an example of a Facebook and Twitter page used to promote music; 

My Facebook page allows me to;

·         Gain likes

·         Share my work with the people who have liked my page

·         Send messages through the page (this is useful when contacting agencies and managers.)

·         Upload a biography for people to read

When promoting your music you need to ensure that you have provided basic information stating who you are, what you do, where you’re from and how you can be contacted. By doing this people will be drawn to your page and will want to know more about you and your talents. You also need to ensure that you have some professional pictures on show as this shows the people viewing your page that you are serious about your music and are professional. This is the best way to attract producers and other possible future employers.

Another way in which you can make important contacts is through gigging and jam nights. Often musicians will meet their future manager or future band member through doing gigs and jam nights. It is important that you take up the opportunity to perform at these mini events as producers and managers will often branch out to these places in the hope of finding fresh talent and you could be the person they approach! There are many examples of this happening in the industry. The famous Adele was spotted performing with her old guitar at an open mic night and now she is a multi-millionaire and has sold millions of records. This can happen to anyone. If you don’t take up opportunities like these you won’t be spotted.

Funding:

Funding is something every musician should be looking into applying for when thinking about going freelance. It is all well and good coming up with the money yourself to pay for the occasional gig and studio time however, touring is something that is very important when building up a fan base and those things don’t come cheap! The arts council and the BBC arts trust are good places to start as they usually have schemes where they will give away £5,000-£15,000 a year to bands and artists developing their career for things like tours, gigs, equipment and studio time. You can download an application form from http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/funding/ the application is very time consuming as it entails lots of questions about you as a person and how exactly you would use the money. You need to write to impress as the funding is very competitive and they want to know that they are giving it to the right people.

Another great way of making money for tours and gigs is https://www.kickstarter.com/learn?ref=hero by signing up to this site you rely on the money from other people who may have taken an interest in your project. For example, if you signed up and proposed a tour for your band you would need to hope that other people using the site or friends and family who you have shown the site to could each put enough money in to make the tour happen. This is called crowd funding. If however, people invested their money into your tour and it didn’t take place they would be given a full refund.

The best thing about getting hold of funding to tour the country is that the more places you go and the more attention you capture, the bigger your fan base becomes and more people will be willing to invest their time and money into you.

Invoices:

An invoice is a receipt/bill that you as a freelancer would write out for your employer. This is especially handy when doing cash in hand jobs or any one off jobs where you don’t receive a payslip as it enables you to have something on record to prove how much you have been paid and can also provide the evidence you need if an employer decides not to pay you. An invoice also includes your details so that the employer can pay you or get hold of you if there is a problem. This is an example  of an invoice;

You would need to write an invoice like this for any event you are performing at such as; a wedding, a gig or a music festival. If you begin to receive regular work or are signed to a label or company whose work involves a contract you won’t have to write out as many invoices. On the other hand if you are making a lot of money from doing gigs and other paid work that involves you writing up lots of invoices you may be able to afford an accountant who can take care of this for you.