By Mark Stoddard, author of Marketing Singers, a business and marketing guidebook written specifically for singers.
No singer ought to be singing for free. I had the chance to help a great group of singers understand that fact in New York City the night the record snow storm fell on the metropolis. I was truly amazed at how quickly they comprehended this concept and got ready to go out and put to use the idea that singers need Never Sing for Free Again.
Here are three of the paradigm shifts that must take place for a singer to Never Sing for Free Again:
- Money and Value. You have to get rid of the idea that money is the only way to get paid. It’s not a word game. It’s a paradigm shift. Seeking a small payment for a night’s work is short sighted and understanding this concept can lead, rather quickly to larger pay outs of money. More value received for your talent.When offered a job for no cash, the performer who knows this is his or her business and knows Money and Value are distinctions without a practical difference in the long run, will know how to discuss or negotiate with the producer and get far more value from the producer and at the same time bringing more value to the producer.
- Singers are their own business. Keeping that paradigm active, a singer can parlay their talent into making a living. Without an agent. Or, as some in the audience Friday concluded, they could have their agent go after the kind of work he or she is an expert in tracking down, and the singer could take their career by their own hands and significantly increase the number of non-theatrical jobs…which in turn can lead to more theatrical jobs.
- Become a Performer not a Singer. Many producers and directors of the stage of clearly declared that they no longer hire singers, but are looking for performers. Enrico Caruso began as a singer at a pizza bar in Italy. In an early performance a drunk ran into him just before he delivered his “money-note.” That threw him so far off his routine that he had to recover and restart the song. After many performances in that raucous mad house he became a performer, and knew it when another drunk bumped into him and Caruso made him part of the act without missing a beat. When he broke that barrier, he was ready to be hired for the stage. To become that kind of performer takes… many singing performances. It’s the concept of Mastery so clearly illustrated in Malcolm Gladwell’s book, Outliers. To achieve Mastery of any skill/talent he has found takes 10,000 hours of practice, and performance. He demonstrates this in violinists, Mozart, the Beatles and many other professions.
To learn all of the various ways, read Marketing Singers. Anyone who purchases the new 3rd Edition of the book will receive 3 months of one-on-one email consultations.
Mark Stoddard, author of Marketings Singers, is a business leader, professor, marketer and consultant who has been helping singers get jobs for more than 20 years. On the singing front he staged more than 100 professional shows aboard cruise ships that employed classical singers, pianists and strings. He’s also coached singers on how to sell their CDs and other products, use the social media and how to negotiate contracts. Email Mark at mark@mjstoddard.com.
