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I BELIEVE YOU’RE NEVER TOO OLD to create a niche for yourself as an artist. This exiting new information and Internet revolution is changing all the rules. An aging musical hipster historically has had no place in the music business other than perhaps tooting a flute on a freeway off ramp in LA wearing a sign that says, “will compose for food”. These days, with an inkling of motivation, and a vision for a target audience, The Hipster can create and market a CD and flute tooting booklet offering information to other hip, aging flute tooters on how to succeed marketing flute tooting music on the Internet. Sound far-fetched? I have a composer friend who is marketing sheet music of his brilliant compositions for flute choir to music professors at colleges all over the world. Now, I had never even heard of a flute choir, but it’s apparently a pretty big business with worldwide markets and fierce student competitions. He has created a new and younger market in addition to the aging hipster market with the flute tooting college students. In addition, his work has achieved such popularity that he is negotiating endorsements with a world famous flute manufacturer and distributor and is now selling CDs of flute tangos and gypsy music to accompany his sheet music sales. It goes on and on.
The point is, there are so many opportunities to market yourself as an artist and/or songwriter that the key is to find a place to market yourself to like minded individuals, create a sound business plan and dive in!
Here’s another example. Sally’s a spirited, gifted 35 year young singer/songwriter who believes in her talent. She nurtures two beautiful children but has a husband who doesn’t understand her need to nurture artistic expression. It may be a little late to pursue the elusive “record deal” and go on tour, soooo…. she stops sitting around on her duff bemoaning her fate, gets busy, makes a plan and starts living her dream. She takes a marketing course and develops a sense of how to handle the business aspects her career. She directs a lot of questions to people in the industry via the Internet, (which is where I met her!) reads books, educates herself… Now I believe there are LOTS of 30 to 50 year young women out there who could use a personal connection with someone like her. She could write her meaningful, personal songs, record a CD and hook up with organizations that embrace her age demographic and personal sentiment through the Internet. I’ll bet she could find a zillion friends who face the same problems and share the same joys and fears. She could probably sell a lot of CDs and make friends for life… her own personal community of like-minded individuals… and I bet she’ll do all of the above!
Again, the point is that there are no set rules in this new information and Internet age. You can make your own success in ways no one has ever even thought of before. There has never been a better time in history for artists of any age with an entrepreneurial spirit to create wealth by virtue of their art.
P.S. I thought it might be fun to keep tabs on our two characters above and post their latest progress in future articles.