6 Things You Need To Know Every Musician Hates To Do (Seriously???)

I was not impressed seeing the following article make it’s rounds today in various social media corners. As the title suggests the article outlines “6 Things You Need To Know Every Musician Hates To Do”, but I believe the title should’ve been “6 Things Musicians Tend To Continually Complain About Having To Do”

Feel free to read the article first before reading my comments below. CLICK HERE

Now, before I go off on my rant about this article, let me first point out that I spent many years playing in a band at various levels and throughout that time I had to do all 6 of things these. I don’t disagree that some of these thing aren’t the most fun or exciting things to do, but the reality is they’re part of the job. That’s right JOB!

Its frustrating hearing musicians continually complain about these tasks. For the most part, all of these tasks come with the job and are part of being a musician.

Any career you look at I guarantee there are tasks people don’t like doing. When chef’s first open their own restaurant, they often complain about having to do the accounting or managing their staff, when all they really want to do is create amazing dishes for people to eat. A police officer loves serving and protecting the people, but hates the paper work that comes along with it. A teacher enjoys inspiring the next generation of youth, but can’t stand talking to their parents during parent teacher interviews. All jobs have aspects that people don’t enjoy doing.

That being said, lets look at this list.

1.     Promoting shows. If you want a serious career as a musician, if you want to be a rockstar you will ALWAYS have to do this. When a major artist is doing an interview with local radio or TV they’re promoting the show. Even if the show is sold out, they’re still technically promoting it and themselves. Sure, at that level promoting is different but its still part of the job and remember, the people you think you’re annoying now, will be the same people annoying you for free tickets when you make it. As a new artist this is such a huge part of what you have to do. Think about any new business. How is that business supposed to get customers through the front door if they don’t promote themselves? And that business is probably open everyday and you’re complaining about promoting your next show that’s what, a month or 2 from your last one? You hate that people don’t respond to your show announcements or promotional activities? When a business runs an ad promoting an upcoming sale in the local paper do you think they tell their customers, please let us know if you’ll be coming in for the sale or not?

2.    Selling Merch. I can relate to this one. I hated doing this when I was playing out on the road, but something I noticed about selling merch and working the merch booth was that it gave me an opportunity to talk to people. Find out what our fans liked about the show, find out about the local scene other local bands and it never failed, anytime I had an engaging conversation with someone, even if they didn’t buy a shirt, they were at the next show and sometimes even brought friends. There’s more to selling merch than selling merch.

3.    Playing Cover Gigs. The interesting thing about this point was that the author basically points out that there are musicians who love playing in cover bands, but the point of the article is what musicians hate doing so he then goes on to complain about playing in a cover band. The thing about cover bands is simply this…it’s a choice. Yes, it is an opportunity for musicians to make additional cash, but it’s not something they’re required or obligated to do. I once had a friend who worked for a law firm during the week and then took a part-time job at Wal-Mart to save up some extra money to pay off some debt and take an over seas vacation. She hated working at Wal-Mart but it was a choice she made to help make that additional money. Taking a cover gig to make some money is no different.

4.    Waking Up Early. When I read this one I really started wondering if this article was meant to be funny and not serious. All I can say to this is that there are other jobs that work late shifts, roles that alternate, one week earlier the next week lates.

5.    Playing ‘exposure’ shows. This is an ongoing discussion and I’m actually working on another blog discussing my views on this, so for now I will be brief and simply say this. Rightfully so, musicians have a legitimate complaint about this topic. I’ve seen requests for musicians to do ‘exposure’ shows where it was obvious there was no ‘exposure’ to be gained. But at the same time, there are ‘exposure’ shows that are worth it. Regardless of how big the artist is, none of the artists who have ever performed during the Superbowl’s Half Time show have ever been paid. Why? That’s one of the most watched shows in the United States. Tons of exposure for any artist playing at the Superbowl. When it comes to ‘exposure’ shows musicians just need to realize it’s okay to say no. If you know you’re not going to get any exposure from the show, then chances are it’s not going to hurt your career to say no to the gig either. Lawyers are expected to put in a specified number of pro-bono hours on an annual basis, but even though it’s required the lawyer can still choose which pro-bono cases they’re going to take on.

6.    Working A Day Job. Again…this is a reality. If you need a day job to pay your bills, your boss at that job is your boss. Chances are if they’re being a dick to a musician either the musician deserves it or the boss is simply a dick. And just like most of these points, it’s not just like this for musicians. I remember working shitty jobs, with dick bosses while going to university. I also remember working great jobs, with great bosses. I even had one boss who would come to my shows even though he wasn’t into the music.

In the end, if you want to be serious about being a musician, if this is the career path you have chosen, there is stuff that comes along with it you probably won’t enjoy doing. Complaining about it isn’t going to make them go away and if anything I think it makes people, maybe even potential fans lose respect for you and what you do. You’re not going to get famous asking people to feel sorry for you.

If these things really are issues for you, if you just want to play music and love playing music, ironically you mentioned the one musician gig you could do where you wouldn’t have to worry about it. Play in a cover band.