Welcome to day four of the Мusic Gateway New Year’s Resolutions Checklist! Every day of the first week of the year we’re releasing a new blog to help you boost your career in 2019. Today we’re looking at the common resolution ‘learn something new’. Who hasn’t had this as a new year’s resolution at some point? Maybe you’d like to learn a new language or learn how to do something business-related. For more music skills, maybe you’ve decided to take on a new instrument or improve your music theory knowledge. If you’re an artist, what about learning some basic production skills or learning more about a certain area of the industry?
How To Increase Your Knowledge and Skills
A good path towards understanding the music business better (and it’s something you can do today if you haven’t already) would be to sign up to music industry newsletters. Music Business Worldwide (MBW) is a must-have in your inbox if you want to keep on top of music industry news and it will ultimately give you a much clearer image of how the industry works.
Another great one to sign up to that’s similar is Complete Music Update (CMU). It could also be very beneficial to you to sign up to newsletters from companies such as AIM (Association of Independent Music) or become a member of PRS, MU etc. if you aren’t already as they send out information and offer advice. Of course, Мusic Gateway also offers a lot of advice on the blog, which is also sent out in a bi-weekly newsletter. Especially this first week of 2019 where we are offering one major piece of advice for your new year’s resolutions each day of the week!
Keeping an eye on emails coming from these companies will keep you up to date with advice, industry happenings and also opportunities to attend masterclasses or networking events! Going to industry masterclasses is an excellent way to learn more about the music industry and how things work, how best to get your music out there, as well as providing opportunities for networking.
Increase Your Knowledge Of The Music Industry
A great new year’s resolution to have would be to think of one area of the music industry that you’re interested in and learn about it more in-depth. For example, if you would like to learn more about copyright and how that works or what sync is and how to improve your chances of getting a sync, do some digging online. There are plenty of great sources and articles to learn more about these subjects. Both of these subjects are reasonably complicated areas of the industry and so many normally shy away from learning about them. If you can make it your resolution to learn about it, that will surely put you ahead of the competition.
Make it your goal to be more of an expert in your chosen area of the industry and then move on to another area and do the same thing! After a while, you’ll have a great understanding of the music business and this will ultimately raise your chances of finding success.
Not Sure Where To Learn Something New Online?
If you’re sure where to start, take a look at some of our recent blogs for inspiration. Like how to make an EP and dig deeper into the best way to make an EP, and the best way to release etc. Dedicate some of your time to getting better at networking. Start with our article on networking tips and put them into practice. Learn more about elevator pitches, body language and more, then test it out at some networking events to see how much you’ve improved!
Improve Your Music Knowledge As Well As Learning About The Industry
If you struggle to get your head around the business side of things, why not spend some time improving your music theory knowledge? Whether you want to learn to read music or you’re looking for more advanced music theory. Invest in some music lessons, or if you’re looking for something easier, there are loads of websites out there that help you learn music theory. Either through online courses or exercises to help you read sheet music, sight read and even write music. There are also a bunch of apps that you should have a look through. Perhaps that way you can do some ear training for example, on the go when you get a few spare minutes.
Obviously, you can also decide to learn to play an instrument that you haven’t played before. Lots of people have ‘learn a new instrument’ as their new year’s resolutions. If you’re an artist or musician and you already play an instrument, that doesn’t stop you learning to play something else! Also if you’re a producer or you work in the music industry, this still applies to you. You’re obviously interested in music if you work in this industry so do it for a bit of fun. It will most likely also help you in your role by giving you not only a better understanding of music but improve your ability to see things from a musician’s perspective!
Where Do You Find The Time?!
You don’t have to spend hours and hours doing this. As little as 10 minutes a day could be enough to learn some music theory or do some ear training. Spend half an hour each day playing whatever instrument you’re learning. Read your emails for a few minutes in the morning to get the necessary information about what’s going on. Learn something new every day and you’ll get into a routine that will keep your motivation high. Little and often is the key!
Take a look at our blog to learn something new today. Or sign up to the site with a 14-day free trial to stay up to date with opportunities and new blogs to learn from.
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