Entrepreneurs in Music — and Don’t Forget about Mozart!

What is Entrepreneurship and Why Should We Care?

For the next few weeks we will be talking about entrepreneurship here on Polyphonic. I’ve noticed that the word “entrepreneur” is seen in print and heard in conversations more and more lately. I just googled it, (that word seems to be a verb now-a-days), and found nearly 39 million entries. And as I quickly scanned the first three or four pages, I observed that each entry talked mostly about starting a business. So what does the subject of entrepreneurship, being entrepreneurial or being an entrepreneur, have to do with us? We’re orchestra musicians. We’re artists. We play music because we love it. That’s true, but we also like to eat and to sleep in a bed at night.

Well, the truth is that musicians, in general, are very entrepreneurial. We have to be because very few of us can rely on just one type of activity to put bread on the table. We may play in an orchestra, but we also might teach at home or at a local school or university. We may repair, refurbish or even make instruments. Some of us play freelance gigs, or compose, arrange and publish music. And others may have “side-businesses” outside of music as accountants or realtors — you name it. As musicians we usually put together several income streams to create our careers. The good news is that by doing this we craft a career around our strengths and interests — something that is unique to us.

Adapt or become irrelevant

Ask any musician who is a generation older than you about the music business and you will probably hear something like, “The business has changed. We used to do (you fill it in) and that’s all gone now.” If that same musician would ask the same question to someone a generation older, s/he would receive a similar answer. In other words, the music business, in general, and orchestras and musicians in particular, must adapt, change and evolve. They have to in order to continue to be relevant.

Be prepared for a career that must evolve

Now that I’m in my sixties I have an advantage of being able to look back and see how my own career has made certain turns — all for the better I might add. But when I graduated from college I had no idea that someday I would be teaching at a prestigious music school like Eastman, or playing in a great orchestra like the Rochester Philharmonic. We all must evolve and adapt. Change is good. It keeps us interested and non-complacent. It’s impossible for us to know what “the next big thing” will be, but if we have a solid musical foundation and some curiosity, we will be able to take that step into something not so comfortable or familiar.

Breadth/Depth

If you have a broad knowledge of music, are comfortable playing in a wide variety of styles, and know something about music history and theory, you’ll have the breadth. Now comes the depth part. You have to be really good at some specialized skills. Those skills could be as a first-rate instrumentalist, a fantastic sight-reader, or as a sensitive chamber musician. In down-to earth terms, you have to be really good at what you do.

Musicians are already owners

Corporations spend lots of time and money trying to get their employees to feel like they are stakeholders in their company. If you’ve ever been a “leader” or the person “in charge,” you know what this feeling is. You feel responsible for the success or failure of the project. The other hired persons may not care at all — give me the check. Musicians, in general, almost always feel like stakeholders. We are part of the overall experience. Our playing and reputation is on the line. We don’t want to let down the rest of the group by screwing something up. We always want to do our best. That is when it is about the music. But in an orchestra, when it’s about non-musical things, we often adopt a different attitude. “I just play. Let management handle that other non-music stuff.” There is some justification to this attitude because we haven’t been trained as marketers or fund-raisers, but when musicians feel that they are part of a team, good things can happen. It may be as simple as smiling to the audience as we take a bow.

Musicians as a commodity

The fact is that musicians are a commodity — you know, something that is more or less the same price in a geographic area. You can drive all over your community looking for cheap gas, but it will be within a couple of cents per gallon at most places. It’s the same with milk or eggs. They are virtually the same price no matter what grocery store you go to in your town. In a musical context, if you are called to play in the backup band for a traveling musical act like Josh Groban (just to give an example), the payment will most likely be “scale.” That’s the same if you are the concertmaster of your local orchestra or a freshman music-school student. Rising above the “musician as commodity” level is a big lesson to learn. And one way to do that is to be entrepreneurial in a way that will help you achieve a competitive advantage.

You, Inc.

View yourself as a small business — a store with a line of products to sell. Build it one product at a time. Commit to quality, grow slowly, and hire the best to teach you what you don’t know. With some hard work you’ll craft a career that is fulfilling and unique to you. If you are lucky maybe one of the products in your store can be an orchestra job.

Ramon Ricker
Editor in Chief