Career Development Plan

My long term career aspiration is to make ‘big money’ from my music- around £6 million a year as an R’n’B artist. This is a career development plan which will highlight my strategies for progress over the next 10 years.

Short Term Goal (1 year)

In one year I will have left full time education and taken with me the following relevant skills; a grade 4 drum certificate, a level 3 in Music BTEC (Practice) Performance and an AS in Music Technology. As well as an A level in Health and Social Care which I could use to get myself a full time job. I will have enrolled on a part time (1 day a week) Music Tech course at Barnfield College to help with the development of my recording and mixing skills- this is useful for me as knowing how to record and mix my own tracks will save me money in the long run. On one hand I could save myself a lot of money as I wouldn’t be paying out for recording sessions, however, on the other hand I would need to invest in some decent equipment in order to record myself.

As well as enrolling onto a part time Music Tech course I will have found myself a full time job to pay the bills and continue to pay for my music i.e. recording sessions, music videos, music union and PRS memberships… etc. (This won’t necessarily be related to music as either way I will urgently need a job to pay the bills.) The disadvantage of this is not having as much time to promote my music and gig as promoting my music will take up a good three hours of my day every day- if not longer. I may also be called out in the evening to do a gig or cover a band- and this could be an issue for me if I don’t have a plan and don’t manage my time well. Therefore I will have to hope that I am able to find myself a job with 9-5 hours or at least a job with flexible hours and an employer who recognises that I am also working on my music.

By the end of January next year I will have also released my first EP which is a great promotional tool. This will have led to; me gigging every weekend to promote my EP and improve my performance skills and releasing my own material should have drawn attention to my music, appearing on all of the local radio stations (including BBC introducing) to help further my music and I will have hopefully sold up to 5000 copies of my EP as well as having over 10,000 views on my music video which will have also been released at the same time as my EP. I will do this through social networking sites and by using the fans of the rapper I will be collaborating with on my EP. I will also use my other friends in the industry and have them push my EP so that more people buy it. I will sell my music through online stores such as; ITunes and Spotify which my current manager will help me to start up and I will also sell hard copies which will allow me to keep all of the profits which I can put into my music fund.

I also will have gained more knowledge on how the music industry works through experience and will have met contacts from surrounding areas through jam nights and gigs. Networking with these people will lead to me finding paid gigs in and around these areas (not just in Luton.) It wouldn’t be good if I just stayed in Luton as I wouldn’t be able to build up a very big fan base for myself without branching out to other places with new people and a fresh scenery. Gigging will also help me to get over any stage fright I have and help me to improve as a performer by learning about my audience and what they like to see and hear when I am performing. This could also help me when building up a fan base. Becoming a backing singer for another group or artist could help get me noticed through their management too and could also get me used to singing harmonies and adlibs (I will need this skill to apply to my own tracks.)

Medium Term Goal (3-5 year)

Following on from networking with various producers, musicians, talent scouts and managers- in three years’ time I hope to have found myself; a good manager who will find me well paid gigs and push my music, a set of musicians who can tour with me and accompany me as well as play the instrumental parts which will form my beats and to have found a good producer who can record and mix my music to a standard that I am pleased with as well as create my beats so that I don’t need to worry about buying the full rights to other people beats. This way I can be completely original with my music. It will also save me time, money and stress as my manager will take on all of the organisation for me, I won’t have to run around to find session musicians all of the time and I will know that I will always be content with the standard of my music.

I also hope to have released an album within three to five years’ time with at least one of the tracks on my album reaching number one in the charts. If all goes to plan I won’t have a problem writing for this album as I will have session musicians to create the music for me and a good studio engineer who can create my idea. I will have to dedicate a lot of my time to writing for this album though as the songs will be completely original and will need to be recorded from scratch. Therefore I will need to manage my time well and ensure that I am making money from my music as well as a job so that I won’t need to dedicate most of my time working to pay the bills and I can take some inspiration from my music jobs.

In this time I also hope to have signed to a decent and known label. The disadvantages of this could be that there are often clauses in contracts and it could lead me to being stuck to that label therefore, I would need to read through the contract carefully. I could do this with a lawyer who I can find for free through the Music Union providing I have paid my fees. However, the advantages of this are; I won’t have to pay to record my music or use the session musicians as the label will cover this for me and if I make it big so does the label. If I do not manage to get signed to a decent label I will make use of crowd funding on sites such as; kick starter to pay for my album. In order to be successful at this I will need to have built up a strong fan base through touring and gigging around the country. I also will have needed to take singing lessons to help strengthen my voice and improve my skills as a singer.

In five years I also hope to have achieved a few goals. One of these is to have performed one of my hits from my album on a show like the X Factor. To do this I would have had to have been spotted by talent scouts for the company and to have had enough of a musical achievement. Therefore I would also like to have won at least one major music award such as a; BRIT award or a Grammy and sold a couple million records. This is difficult to achieve so I will need to rely on my song writing, touring and releasing of music as well as networking to do this. I would like to ideally be earning £3 million a year from this by the end of the 5 years. In order to get better at my song writing I will need to continue to practice writing songs and maybe look into taking up a class in song writing. Being able to write decent songs is important when trying to attract other artists to collaborate with as they won’t want to collaborate with someone if they are having to do all of the work. I will also need to look into taking dance classes so that I am able to put on a performance and not just sing.

Long Term Goal (10 years)

Leading on from all of this- in 10 years’ time I hope to be making big money from my music- approximately £6 million a year. I hope to have released a couple of albums in this time, had several number one hits and moved on to a bigger label such as; Sony Records. To do this I will need to follow my plans for my short term and medium term goals closely.