Music Entrepreneurship Talk and Q&A

Yesterday morning I gave a talk and Q&A for a Music Entrepreneurship class at DePauw University School of Music.  The topic was "How I got from where you are to where I am now" and will focus on three areas:

• How I got from DPU undergrad/underemployed DPU grad to my busy current career(s).
• Managing a "portfolio career" (roughly simultaneous income streams and projects)
• Successfully using social media and embedded media players.

The first part focused on a number of entrepreneurial topics I've blogged about while specifically concentrating on Strategic Scheduling/Gigging and Diversifying Your Performance Skills Portfolio which I've found to be crucial to maximizing your income when you don't have the luxury of being in a full-time, salaried ensemble (like an Orchestra).  For the second part a brief list of projects and music groups may be found here.  This list does not include music teaching activities which, while comprising several other simultaneous income streams for me, are a very small proportion of my overall income.

I didn't be focus much on 'best practices' as, in my opinion and experience (as well as in much of the more recent research coming to light) that is almost an outdated concept.  With a constantly changing musical and technological landscape, what has worked in the past is mostly irrelevant for having a full-time career in music.  Since musical tastes are far more heterogenous today than in the past and leisure habits and usage of discretionary funds have dramatically changed I've found that being more flexible and being open to different musical ideas is far more useful.

I wasn't able to record the whole session but will post some of my notes or a partial transcript of it (or both)--most likely at my blog.