Image via Shutterstock

It’s common to hear, “There’s no blueprint in today’s music industry.” While that can be frightening for most, you should be excited by the fact that you can invent new ways to achieve your desired results. After all, you picked this industry because you like being creative, right?

Booking shows isn’t a pain point for many musicians. Booking shows at the venues they want, however, is. All too often, musicians spend their time cold-calling booking agents and venue owners hoping for a spot in their line-up, because how we're led to believe it's done. When they don’t hear back, or get that dreaded rejection, many give up and try again elsewhere.

If you’ve found yourself dealing with this all-too-common position, fear not. Just because booking a show through a booking agent is the way it's usually done doesn’t mean it’s the only way. When you’re stuck with where to look next, try reverse-engineering the situation.

Image via Shutterstock

Image via Shutterstock

"I can't wait to quit my day job and do music full time!"

How many times have you said that to yourself and everyone around you? The necessary evil of a day job that has nothing to do with music can make you feel you're never progressing fast enough to get your career off the ground.

It takes up too much of the time you could be spending practicing, writing new songs, networking, engaging with your fans, or anything else in the world that's more important than what you do.

But it doesn't have to be that way. Finding ways to leverage your current day job will not only help move things along in your future career, but also keep that frustration from spilling out and getting you fired before you’re ready to leave.