How the Internet is helping the performing arts

Here is a hopeful message from Ben Cameron, who challenged the belief that the Internet is killing the arts, and who points the way to a democratized society for the arts, where artists are hybrid and maintain their dignity.



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How to be a savvy traveling artist

As performing artists we often have to travel to and from gigs at our own expenses. Unfortunately it often means that we loose one or two weeks salary in the process.

We all know that the price of plane tickets change on a regular basis and it's hard to know if we are getting a good deal or if we should just wait a few more days to get a better one.

Here comes a very handy tool to solve that problem: farecast. Simply put in your travel destinations and dates of travel, and on top of giving you the usual rates, the website will also give you a price predictor.

The price predictor tells you whether the tickets will most rise, drop or stay steady. Even more important, it tells you the percentage at which they believe their prediction is at. So it may say: 68% chance that the prices will drop, or 75% chance that the prices will increase. Not only that, the website will also tell you how much of an expected drop or increase the prices will go!

Unless you are buying at the last minute and have no other choice than to purchase your tickets right away, this is really a wonderful tool to help you get to your gigs as cheap as possible!

What are your tricks for traveling cheaply? Do you have to travel much for your art?

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The one thing to do when you meet new people

When you work as a freelance performer, you have to meet tons of new people all the time. You are interviewed over the phone by people you've never met, you have to collaborate with people you've never worked with before, and you are constantly making first impressions.

Here is the one thing to do to ensure a successful start for each new relationship.

Assume Rapport.

Act as if you already have a good relationship with the person. Go into each first meeting as if you were meeting a really good friend. You will avoid over-thinking which would make the conversation stiff and awkward. You will be more spontaneous and relaxed, which will make the other person that way also.

What is YOUR strategy to having a successful first meeting?

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The 3 rules to achieving anything

An article from the Harvard Business Review talks about the three conditions needed for you to succeed. One of them is not as common knowledge as the others!

1. You want to achieve it
2. You believe that you can achieve it
3. You enjoy trying to achieve it

 It is the third rule of achievement that is most often overlooked! If you are a performing artist you most certainly live for being on the stage, but do you enjoy all the other things that come before getting there?

• Audition over and over for a part
• Practice
• Do business stuff: take headshots, make business cards, build a website, make flyers, etc.
• Rehearse
• Make recordings for competitions, jobs, grants, etc.

Whatever it is that you have to spend a lot of time doing before getting to where you want to be, you have to enjoy it. Otherwise, you won't do as much of it, and you will wonder why even though you want to achieve it and you believe that you can achieve it, you're not actually achieving it.



Picture from http://smallbusiness.uprinting.com/achieve-your-goals/

Where are you on that career ladder?

There is no career ladder for freelance artists. Don't search for one. Here is why.

1. A Higher Position? As artists we work a thousand jobs at a time, some long terms, some short term. You may get to a higher position at one of your jobs (manager of the school of music you teach at), while staying at the same position at the others.
   
   Also, many jobs simply do not have anywhere higher for you to go. If you're the concertmaster at your local orchestra, or the conductor of a choir, you're pretty much already there unless you move on to a better orchestra or a better choir.
   
   
2. More respect from your peers? Most people get respect from working with the same people for years, and from their results proving their worth over time. As gigging musicians, we constantly work with different people, which means that you may be respected somewhere and not somewhere else.
   
   
3. More money? Hahaha, who are we kidding here? Fact is, it's not that we don't make money, it's just that we make very different money depending on the gig.
   
   So in one single day, you can go from teaching one hour in the morning at $40, to an afternoon three-hour orchestra call for $90, to a cocktail gig at night for $130 an hour. How much you get paid isn't connected to your value.

 Knowing that you can't count on a career ladder for your career moves means a few things for you.

1. Do not take a job that is not what you want, hoping that it will lead to the job you do want. For example, do not work front-of-house hoping it will lead you to an actor gig at the same company.
2. Do not turn down a $40 gig because the one you got yesterday paid you $70. Gigs just don't pay the same. 

How to get paid

If you work freelance and deal with individuals instead of companies, it can sometimes get awkward to ask for your money.

Turns out that there is an easy way: invoices.

The old-school invoice is on a little piece of paper that you give your customers at the end of a session, but those don't look so professional anymore.

The best way to do this nowadays is online, on free websites like Billing Boss.

1. You get to create a list of customers, so all the info stays on the database and never have to enter the info ever again. 
2. You get to send invoices straight from the website to your customer's email, or save it as a PDF, with options of professional looking styles and fonts (including your logo if you have one). 
3. The great thing then is that instead of having to keep track of a bunch of papers (or not send invoices and struggle to get paid), the website keeps track for you of who you sent invoices to, what due date you wrote down, and whether people did pay you or not. So it's a great system to keep track of people you need to contact again for payment. 
4. The website also saves all invoices sent so you can always go back and take a look if you think you've made a mistake or if you're in disagreement with someone. 
5. You can also create a tax report relating to your invoices right on there. 

It's a win-win because you even help your clients in keeping track of expenses for their budget and taxes! 

Those websites are great because they're free, they avoid you having a possibly uneasy conversation, they keep you organized and they make you look very professional.



Picture from http://www.btdtsolutions.com/brokers401k/getpaid.htm

Should you ever play for free?

Musicians should never play for free, and here's why.

1. It lowers the overall pricing of our industry: most people can't tell much of the difference between good players and great players, therefore between free players and paid players.
   
   So many people ask musicians to play for free, disguising the offer by saying that it's in exchange of exposure or food. The more of us say yes to free gigs, the more the rest of us have to lower our prices to stay competitive.
   
   By the time musicians are tired of doing free work, it's too late, the rates have already gone down, and employers don't even consider paying money for musicians anymore. Get paid when you play, period.
   
   
2. It never brings up better opportunities as we hope it would: this links again to the fact that many places try to get you to play for free by telling you that you'll have exposure, whether through allowing you to put your business card near by, distribute flyers, or play for industry professionals.
   
   Let's face it, people are not gonna grab your business card if you don't give it to them, and if important people are gonna be at the event, the event planners will want to make sure they get the best musicians, and they'll know that the best musicians come at a cost.
   
   And who would ever think that you're worth anything if you play for free? No one.
   
   
3. We get taken advantage of: sometimes we think we can say yes for a good cause, let's say a charity event with a not-for-profit event. The event is in a hall and they have food, which is served by waiters.
   
   Well now let's think for a second: is the hall for free? Is the food for free? Are the waiters for free? No they're not, and so, why should the artists be for free? They shouldn't.
   
   
4. We're already poor enough, thank you: Even when we do get paid, it's often not that much anyways. So we have to work tons of hours to make ends meet, if we even manage to make ends meet playing our instrument only.
   
   So playing for free takes away three things we deserve big time: paid music gigs, paid non-music jobs, and free time. 

When you play for free you not only screw yourself up, you also screw all the other musicians up. Fight the urge. Don't do it.



Picture from http://cashtactics.net/02/09/free-ppc-mentoring-apply-now.html