Becoming a freelance musician
Being a freelance musician offers many exciting opportunities to gain live and studio experience across all genres in music however it has its pros and cons
PROS CONS
Allows for flexible hours – You choose the hours you work and you are your own boss.
No guaranteed work – Money will not be thrown at you, you must be at a professional standard to get work.
Ability to travel – It is possible to tour as a session musician and to work anywhere in the world.
Advertising pressures – You will have to advertise yourself to get paid for your work which can take time.
Networking – Working with musicians from all different backgrounds can build up a large list of helpful contacts.
Paperwork – To some this can be overwhelming as it is far from playing a guitar. Tax returns, invoices etc can take time.
Motivation – If you don’t get out of bed on a morning, you don’t get paid so you must motivate yourself.
Expenses – You must buy all your own equipment and pay for transport.
Financial issues
Unlike a regular job, there are many financial issues which have to be dealt with as a freelance musician. Let’s say you’ve had an amazing year, you’ve toured all year with various artists around the country.
Unfortunately, there are some barriers which must be overcome, but with consideration and this advice you’ll be fine.
The first thing you must consider are your expenses: petrol, food, required materials and office expenses should all be written and kept as tax deductions. As a freelancer although you are your own boss, you have to pay self-employment tax which is 15.3% of your income monthly. To pay this tax you need a social security number which can be obtained at https://www.ssa.gov/ssnumber/.
Although you’re a long way away from requiring a pension, the earlier you start to consider it the better off you will be in the long run. There are many different plans and it’s crucial to find one that suits your needs.
As a freelance musician, you must submit a self-assessment tax form, this means it is your legal obligation to write all expenses, money earned and many other different factors and submit it to them.
Work is not guaranteed as a freelance musician, you must take every available opportunity and sign up for every opportunity as money is an unusual commodity for many areas surrounding music. Many people are of the believe that they should not pay for music in any way, for example, there are many live opportunities in which the band has to pay the venue.
The best way to get more work is to start working. People will notice you if you are good enough and are pleasant to deal with which will attract more people to you as a freelance musician.
Taxes
This is an example of a US Individual income Tax return, in the UK this is called a “self-assessment” tax return. They can be many pages long and take a long time to complete, you could employ an accountant to advise how to fill these in correctly however you would need to spend money for this, it could be best to spend the time to learn to fill these in independently.
There are many things to consider when filling out taxes, such as how much money you’ve earned this tax year and how much is used as expenses, this must all be detailed in a tax return each year.
Organisational skills
To be the best possible musician and get the most work possible being organised is crucial. You should maintain a schedule and ensure bookings are planned in advance. Most importantly you must be punctual as being late and having a bad reputation can ruin your career.
Fortunately, it is easy enough with planning to overcome this issue. A calendar with all bookings wrote down avoids double booking and will prepare you for work on those days, Gmail has a great calendar feature which is commonly used.
You should practice your instrument as efficiently as possible, one way to do this is to practice as if you were in a working environment. For example, if you are a session guitarist you may need to site read and play without knowing the song, the more you practice this the better you will be and therefore the more work you’ll be given.
Your gear is very important to your job and isn’t cheap, getting hardcases can protect this and prevent you from missing work because your guitar is in two pieces.
Insuring your gear can save many headaches along the road as it is imperative you and your gear are always ready for any arising opportunity. It may never be needed however if it is needed and you don’t have it, you can’t work until you spend a lot of money fixing it.
It is well worth having your instrument professionally set up, for example, as a studio guitarist your guitar must be intonated correctly to stay in tune, this can cause a lot of bother and lead people to believe you are unprofessional which can lead to less future employment.
Qualifications and experience
Experience is as valuable if not more so than any qualifications within music, live performance experience and studio experience are crucial to being efficient as a freelance musician. Going through college and university studying music are very useful to understand professionalism and professional environments in music.
From my personal experience in college, I have learnt many skills surrounding professionalism, instrumental skills, realities of the field and how to use a studio. These skills are very useful in all areas of music including freelance work.
University offers development of these skills to a higher level and would also improve credibility on your cv which may make people view you as a serious candidate.
There are courses available for studying to become a freelance musician, these are available online on websites such as youtube which can offer genuine and useful advice on starting out and furthering your career.
These are not necessary however they can give a further understanding of your instrument and freelance music.
Damian Keyes, a youtube personality and musician/promoter has said “ The best way to get gigs, is to be doing gigs”. This means by performing and showing your best side people will want to see you perform again, carrying business cards is a great way to make this more likely to happen.
Personal qualities
Motivation -is key, it will spur you on to wake up in the morning and give every day your best efforts which will not go unnoticed, there will be times where work is drying up and it will be hard but being motivated will pull you through. You must be at your very best day in day out, as it is a saturated market you must always be the quickest to learn and best player you can be.
Be Nice – You must be able to turn up on time and bring all the equipment needed as well be able to read music efficiently. Being polite is key to receiving more work, you may be the best guitar player in the country but if you’re unpleasant to be around you will not get work anywhere near as much as a lesser musician who is nice. To be professional you must know your instrument inside out and be punctual as well as speak appropriately to colleagues. If you would want to tour as a freelance musician, you have to be able to get on with people all day every day for a considerable amount of time. You have to support everyone around you and always be great to be around and you’ll be remembered and recommended for the next tour.
Be professional – You have to be a great musician and there is no workaround for this. The brutal reality of being a freelance musician is that you must be at the highest standards every day. The movie “Hired Gun” which is a documentary surrounding the world of freelance musicians describes this as “If you have a bad day, you may be out of the band, if you have a few bad days, you will be out of the band”. This shows that you have to know the material and be able to play professionally every day. There is next to no job security in being a freelance musician, however there are many opportunities that you must take or you will go unnoticed.
Self Promotion
Social media- Having social media accounts with many followers can improve your credibility and therefore get you more work. Posting regularly and updating fans can improve relationships. Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn are the main social media sites which can boost your career and employers can see your past work and see you’re a legitimate musician.
Social media can also allow for networking to gain many contacts within the industry which can give you opportunities to work and see how other musicians conduct themselves online. LinkedIn is a social media more suited towards business related ventures therefore give a good opportunity for musicians to communicate surrounding work.
You may become a more attractive candidate if you have an online following, potential employers may realise that your name may attract more listeners if they are fans of your work online.
There is potential to make money online from posting content to youtube and other sites through advertising, although it is unlikely to be a large amount of money unless you have a large following, it can help and be one way to increase revenue. There is an additional opportunity to use an online following to sell you own merchandise such as t shirts and people may be more likely to listen to your music on streaming services such as spotify which can lead to more revenue streams.
Adapting to work
Work may dry up and this could lead to less income however if you can adapt and work in different ways you can get work. If you can play guitar then you can teach guitar which can give a decent wage at around £10 an hour, you can specialise in teaching children and beginners if that is more suited to you. Transposing music can also give fair pay as magazines and websites often give written versions of songs such as www.ultimateguitar.com. Learning to transpose music can help develop your ear as a musician and can make learning songs in the long run a lot easier although it is tedious at first.
If you have skills in music technology, you could do sound engineering or produce bands albums for them. There are jobs such as sound engineer, recording engineer, assistant engineer, mastering engineer and there are many jobs based online, such as reviewing submissions to audio libraries, for example, audio jungle, a large stock music company has employees who check the quality of users submissions to ensure the submissions meet the quality standards.
All of these roles are opportunities to make money which need to be taken to make a decent living in music freelance work. Having the flexibility to take on any of these roles will result in more work.
Jason Newsted, who became bassist for metallica had this to say about his experience within the freelance world. "I borrowed money from all of my friends and got an early flight: $20 from that person, $10 from that, $7 from that one… whatever they could give me. Eleven days after that we (Metallica) were touring Japan, and I was the bass player. At that time I was a hired gun for $500 a week. I would have done it for a sandwich”. – Hired Gun 2016.
This shows his passion for the industry runs much deeper than monetarily as it is almost guaranteed he earned a fraction of every other band member but had to learn the whole set very quickly with no job security. The level of dedication needed to undertake this role is apparent in Jason’s experience.
Training courses
Many colleges and universities offer courses on session musician skills, the Sage in Gateshead offers courses on session music, it allows for valuable information to be given that allows for improvements in music. Nationwide there are many courses available such as degrees which give an insight into session music.
Most importantly, have fun, playing music for a living is a gift and a fantastic way to earn money, it is in my opinion a lot better as a creative path than a regular 9-5 job. There are many online resources such as www.careerlancer.net and www.startupmusician.co . Although this industry has a high barrier for entry and requires a lot of work, it is extremely fulfilling if a life on stage or in the studio is what you desire. Money can be an issue however if you have many different streams of income it should be enough to live comfortably.
Having grades in whatever instrument you play could improve your credibility and ensure someone looking for a musician that you are qualified, this could make you more likely to get work.