From Passion to Assets

Following our passion has become common advice for young people today. We can argue both ways whether this advice is wise or if it is creating a generation of missed opportunities due to the lack of initial passion in exploring different career paths.

For musicians, our passion for our profession has been nurtured and grown since childhood. As we reach the point of making decisions about our future, usually toward the end of high school, this passion often compels us to choose a life in music. However, our passion and youthful optimism might cloud our evaluation and understanding of the task at hand.

I am pleased to see that today’s young musicians do enjoy the tools that the internet has provided us over the last twenty years. It seems overdue to include social media technology in our musical education syllabus. Moreover, the ability to share, interact, and reproduce our art for free has given us a tool for creating our own assets, which, with nurturing, would open up our future to a more sustainable and enjoyable career.

No matter where we are on our musical journey, we can all share our own unique journey and help others on their path. Learning to use social media platforms as a professional tool to find and increase our reach to our unique audience, rather than as a source for entertainment and unhealthy comparison, is, I believe, one of the most important steps any young musician should take in the 21st century.

Creating your brand and finding your audience is a process, but the benefits are limitless. You’ll learn to find your unique expression, connect with like-minded people who appreciate your unique art, understand what is valued by others and grow from that, have loyal followers who will support you when needed, and have assets such as videos, recordings, teaching, arrangements, and anything else that you can create and share to work for you 24/7, no matter where your audience is located.

Learning how to use social media, rather than being used by it, is a life-changing skill. To acknowledge and work toward building our own unique brand and audience is a must for securing our future prosperity as creators. The two work together as our calling card as well as our support system, and the journey to learn and create the two is the journey of personal growth.