Georges Elchakieh
Founder and CEO of el-live Productions
Whether you join or start a band if you intend to make money while doing it, it’s a business and the service you are offering is a product. Regardless of whether we want to admit it or not, when money is involved, it’s a financial transaction.
Sometimes as musicians, we assume and make a blanket statement that business is evil, and everyone is out to get us; bar owners, record companies, radio stations, etc.. History has shown that this can often be true, but it’s also true that many businesses are honest and provide incredible value to all customers and artists.
I love business and always have. I have no issue with small or huge companies, are some corporations evil? I’m sure that there are plenty that are, and there are plenty of tiny businesses that are evil, but this isn’t what this article is about. Without businesses, there would be no hotels to hire international bands, no nightclubs, no airlines to fly overseas, no companies to craft drum sets, guitars, microphones, sound systems, and no bands for that matter, the list is endless.
Business can be as creative and artistic as the music itself. As musicians, it’s to our benefit to embrace business, learn as much as we can about it; finance, marketing, sales, logistics, project management, etc. The hipper we get to these facts, the more we can be in control of our careers, our lives, and only those musicians that understood this, have careers that have lasted for decades.
It doesn’t have to take away from the music. It should enrich it. A great album cover enhances the experience, a great marketing campaign gets your name and the music out there, playing in a great club enhances the experience for the musicians and for the audience, the sound system, and the light rig is somebody’s business, all of these businesses have to work together so that your art can be crafted, your way. Oh, and yes, a couple more small details, and so you and I can pay our rent and send our kids to school.
Business and music are intertwined, and that’s a good thing!
Thank you for reading this article, and I hope that it’s been helpful.
This is G. signing off from Shenzhen. It’s time for me to take care of business.
