D
Deleted38071
Guest
Hello everyone, thank you for taking a moment to read this post. Been lurking here for a few weeks and it's really incredible to read and learn about what you all are up to.
A bit about myself:
I am a 19 year old electronic musician and have over 4 years of experience in composition. I was lucky enough at 16 to realize that the path that my peers were taking (college, job, etc) was not going to be for me. I struggled for a very long time to understand how getting a college degree was going to help me in the long run in my industry. I knew that experience will tell volumes about how valuable you are. Degrees don't. The college degree credential is superficial in this industry.
Then and there, I set off to change my life for the better. Before this realization, I was lucky enough to know someone who also was a fellow musician who wanted to take me under his wing. Where I live (Florida Panhandle) it's an interesting environment. Generally speaking the people suck and aren't driven (this includes most of my peers), but very rich people retire here. This man never went to college, and now after his stint with his band, owns 12 houses and a website development company which has been in operation for over 20 years. Not only was he an awesome musician mentor, he opened my eyes to a whole world I never even dreamed of, and that was entrepreneurship.
While I learned as much as I could from this guy, I started reading books like mad - everything I could get my hands on that I felt would help propel me forward as a musician and businessman. Sometimes it would lead me down the wrong path and into businesses that I would get into for the wrong reasons, but I am extremely happy that I was able to get this experience so I could establish a strong foundation for success.
It's ironic - I learned about The Millionaire Fastlane years ago but never picked it up - The title was clickbaity as hell to me (sorry MJ!). That was the last book I finished recently, and I feel like it should have been the FIRST I read when I was 16. It would have debunked a lot of crap I read from authors who don't have their readers best interests in mind (but it was also amusing reading the subtle references MJ made to those authors).
Where I am now:
Currently taking a class with an online school for music production. I more than likely will not be finishing this degree in the case I deem it unnecessary in the future. The class is expensive and not what I can afford without debt.
I just finished writing a 9-track album that will be released soon. This will be used to acquire more customers for other products (merch, patron subscriptions, etc). Collecting emails to keep them in the pipeline for future releases. It was a large investment in time and money, however. Not exactly stupid speculation but I wanted to use this release mainly as...
...a marketing tool for a new online record label, which I am building on the side of my current job as tech support (ironically, for my mentor's web company).
Where I'm Heading:
Vagabonding the East Coast (In essence, leaving my hometown and not coming back for a long time)
I've grown up here all of my life and it sucks. It's not an environment that will allow myself and my girlfriend of 2.5 years to thrive. It is a personal decision we have made, not because of some lofty romanticism of the idea, but that we believe there are better opportunities out there for us. The way we see it, the world is our classroom. So we're throwing ourselves to the wolves to make this work.
Our vehicles:
She is an awesome copywriter and ghost blogger. What she does as a freelancer is not fastlane yet, but I want to slowly wean her in to the CENTS concept and modeling her business that way.
I am building an online-only record label for my particular niche of electronic music. But not just any kind of music publisher. The structure of the business will address a particular problem that will allow the label itself and the musicians to be robust against losses. This will not only be profitable, but also fair and transparent for every party involved.
While we are travelling, I will be networking with people in whatever city we are in and will perform at events time to time, if deemed profitable. I currently do not perform as the music culture here sucks an the last show I played was to an empty room (before that in December, I DJed a party of around 60 people and it was insane. The crowd was mainly people from nearby college towns, so it's not a problem of me not "marketing myself" well enough. The music here just really sucks. The right people ended up here, coming home for christmas at the right time).
As far as stays, my girlfriend and I are experienced (her more than I!) at housesitting for families. In exchange for our services, we get free rent and internet to run our businesses.
My safety net is my current tech support job, which can be done remotely in case the label is not yet profitable.
Anyway, thank you all for reading! I will keep you all updated. Feel free to ask any questions or for me to elaborate on specifics!
-Mike
A bit about myself:
I am a 19 year old electronic musician and have over 4 years of experience in composition. I was lucky enough at 16 to realize that the path that my peers were taking (college, job, etc) was not going to be for me. I struggled for a very long time to understand how getting a college degree was going to help me in the long run in my industry. I knew that experience will tell volumes about how valuable you are. Degrees don't. The college degree credential is superficial in this industry.
Then and there, I set off to change my life for the better. Before this realization, I was lucky enough to know someone who also was a fellow musician who wanted to take me under his wing. Where I live (Florida Panhandle) it's an interesting environment. Generally speaking the people suck and aren't driven (this includes most of my peers), but very rich people retire here. This man never went to college, and now after his stint with his band, owns 12 houses and a website development company which has been in operation for over 20 years. Not only was he an awesome musician mentor, he opened my eyes to a whole world I never even dreamed of, and that was entrepreneurship.
While I learned as much as I could from this guy, I started reading books like mad - everything I could get my hands on that I felt would help propel me forward as a musician and businessman. Sometimes it would lead me down the wrong path and into businesses that I would get into for the wrong reasons, but I am extremely happy that I was able to get this experience so I could establish a strong foundation for success.
It's ironic - I learned about The Millionaire Fastlane years ago but never picked it up - The title was clickbaity as hell to me (sorry MJ!). That was the last book I finished recently, and I feel like it should have been the FIRST I read when I was 16. It would have debunked a lot of crap I read from authors who don't have their readers best interests in mind (but it was also amusing reading the subtle references MJ made to those authors).
Where I am now:
Currently taking a class with an online school for music production. I more than likely will not be finishing this degree in the case I deem it unnecessary in the future. The class is expensive and not what I can afford without debt.
I just finished writing a 9-track album that will be released soon. This will be used to acquire more customers for other products (merch, patron subscriptions, etc). Collecting emails to keep them in the pipeline for future releases. It was a large investment in time and money, however. Not exactly stupid speculation but I wanted to use this release mainly as...
...a marketing tool for a new online record label, which I am building on the side of my current job as tech support (ironically, for my mentor's web company).
Where I'm Heading:
Vagabonding the East Coast (In essence, leaving my hometown and not coming back for a long time)
I've grown up here all of my life and it sucks. It's not an environment that will allow myself and my girlfriend of 2.5 years to thrive. It is a personal decision we have made, not because of some lofty romanticism of the idea, but that we believe there are better opportunities out there for us. The way we see it, the world is our classroom. So we're throwing ourselves to the wolves to make this work.
Our vehicles:
She is an awesome copywriter and ghost blogger. What she does as a freelancer is not fastlane yet, but I want to slowly wean her in to the CENTS concept and modeling her business that way.
I am building an online-only record label for my particular niche of electronic music. But not just any kind of music publisher. The structure of the business will address a particular problem that will allow the label itself and the musicians to be robust against losses. This will not only be profitable, but also fair and transparent for every party involved.
While we are travelling, I will be networking with people in whatever city we are in and will perform at events time to time, if deemed profitable. I currently do not perform as the music culture here sucks an the last show I played was to an empty room (before that in December, I DJed a party of around 60 people and it was insane. The crowd was mainly people from nearby college towns, so it's not a problem of me not "marketing myself" well enough. The music here just really sucks. The right people ended up here, coming home for christmas at the right time).
As far as stays, my girlfriend and I are experienced (her more than I!) at housesitting for families. In exchange for our services, we get free rent and internet to run our businesses.
My safety net is my current tech support job, which can be done remotely in case the label is not yet profitable.
Anyway, thank you all for reading! I will keep you all updated. Feel free to ask any questions or for me to elaborate on specifics!
-Mike
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