How do you make it happen?
Thousands of artists ask me on a regular basis, “What’s the key to making it?”
I always have to ask them, what their definition is when it comes to “making it?” Some want a record label, some would like to quit their jobs and play their music full time (who wouldn’t?) Some just tell me, ‘I want to play in front of a million screaming fans, with the tour-bus and just have everyone know my name!”
Wherever they are in the “making it” scale, each of these artists live in a land of make believe. Good. That’s where we belong as artists. We write dreams and we make dreams happen. Why do you think our signature brand is “Make it Happen.” Because we’re artists, just like you. We believe in the new music industry. We believe that it does not have to be hard to make it as a musician, but our making it is more along the lines of paying the bills and having time to do what you love (yes, we know you love music, but there’s other things like traveling the world, drinking a new beer, meeting a new friend, finding a new adventure.) And personally, I believe the more we do THOSE things, the more fodder we will have as artists to truly write from our “being.” But that’s another story. This one is about you making it happen. And making it happen starts by saying YES. YES, I can do this. YES, I have a lot of obstacles in my way, but I know through hard-work and persistence I can & will make it happen. YES. I am awesome and YES so are my friends who do this with me and perhaps we can all work together and get the job done. And YES this is going to take some time. But NOT all of your time.
You see, we developed TunePort to give you TIME to do what you love to do. You should be working on that next great hit, NOT always trying to sell your music. As creators, the burden we’ve been given with the Internet is having to DO EVERYTHING. If you do everything, you will burn out and I guarantee you, you will not be as productive. You feel productive, but think about it, all of your energy split between marketing, booking, promoting, selling, playing, touring ….. will wear you out. YES, we do say “As a musician you run your own business” but you should be having fun with your business, not killing yourself every minute of the day. TunePort.com is an opportunity to give yourself some breathing room and enjoy who you are as a creator. We know how much work you do. I’m a singer/songwriter and one of my best friends and co-founders is a producer/beat-maker. We built TunePort to make things a little easier for all of us. You can’t depend on 3rd party sites to sell your music online. (CD BABY, TUNECORE, BANDCAMP, iTUNES.. the list goes on..)Why? Because those sites do not carry YOUR NAME. All of those sites are depending on their own brand name and you work too hard & too long to have someone else share your name. That’s why we developed TunePort.com.
It’s YOUR BRAND. YOUR STORE. YOUR WAY. Very simply, get your audio store. Place the code on YOUR WEBSITE and sell music directly to your fans. It’s your business and you should be the one that’s profiting. More importantly, what YOU want more than anything else is to connect and establish your fan-base. You can build your fan-base over-time, nurture these relationships and achieve a loyal customer for life. Think about it: 1,0000 Fans that are paying for your music, that’s a pretty damn good number to be at. Sure you can have more, but if you have a solid 1,0000 fans (which is NOT many fans at all!) You now have the power of word-of-mouth. These fans will tell their friends and soon…..if you’re generous and connect with these guys, you’ll be in a very good position as an Independent Music Artist.
We have an ad that says, “Make $5,000.00/mo.” THIS IS A FACT. We have artists who make $5,000.00/mo, actually a lot more and you know what? They aren’t selling ads on MTV. They just know how to connect with their fans, have developed a nice online presence and offer a product that is extremely viable and affordable to patrons. Now they make a living off their music and nothing makes us more happy than seeing great artists achieve complete freedom to do whatever the heck they want to do. They truly made it happen.
We hope wherever you are in your music career, that you continue to keep believing in your dreams. When others say NO, you say YES. When others tell you, “You will never be anything.” You say, “Just you wait!” Because the only way to achieve a dream is to know how to dream in the first place. You can achieve whatever you want, but you have to give yourself the permission to do it. Go out there and push and when you fall, get up and do it again. The only way to succeed is to fail, and with failure comes something great: A new learning experience. Each time you fall, learn, grow, adapt, evolve.
We promise you, TunePort.com will always be there for you. We support your dreams. We support you as Artists. We will always say YES and that’s how you truly MAKE IT HAPPEN.
Keep making it happen,
Deron Wade
Co-Founder TunePort.com
