How to set goal as a musician or indie artist?

You might be reading this post because you need to set goals as an independent musician. If you are just started out or planning to become an indie music artist. It is highly important to read this post to avoid frustrations, failure and problems from being an indie artist.

OK, so lets jot down to this FACT: There is no overnight/quick success in music. If right now you have just write a great song, cool, but do not expect to hand it over to a recording label in the hope to get a deal tomorrow, next week or even one year from now.

Why? Music business is just extremely and intensely competitive , these labels are accepting materials from “established” artists. These artists have thousands of followers ready to buy their CD with their own cash.

Aside from that, these artists have strong financial support from either their own pocket (most of these are rich anyway), or coming from somewhere else.

So what you can do? I suggest starting a five year plan and what you will need to accomplish each year. It should be realistic enough that will prove your skills and effort. For example, if you are dreaming to become a succesful artists signed to a label, you might have this 5 year plan:

1st year: Write 50 songs and perform in public once a week. I need at least one loyal fan a month liking my music, I will get his/her email for my updates.

2nd year: Record my top 5 songs in recording studios, I need to meet a recording producer that likes my music. These top 5 songs are what I considered a hit. I should be completing these songs in a year. I will send it for FREE to my friends, fans and asked them to share it to anyone interested, I will start a profile where fans can drop by a message and comment on the songs.

3rd year: I will play a lot in public for FREE but also provide my EP CD for FREE, the technique is to get more and more fans. I will perform a lot of performances, video taped it and upload it in Youtube for others to see.

4th year: I will continue playing live, and hopefully I will have a lot of fans right now, a lot of song reviews, a lot of performances, I will start releasing a self produced album, start to sell it with my fans at a very low price. I should sell a thousand CDs (or downloads like iTunes) this time from my thousand lists of fans.

5th year: Contact a reputable entertainment attorney to review my performances, just down all my achievements as a musician and create press kit to be sent to his label A&R contacts. I should be getting a record deal this time.

So what are the chances of failure? I should say low but there are still chances of getting rejections even at this level. You should really have:
a. Extremely good original songs and demo recording.
b. Extremely good performances
c. Nice long list of supporters and positive reviews.

I mean its quite challenging; could take your 5 year plan to a 10 year plan maybe. Quit? No, if you enjoy it → NO because what makes you happy makes you rich right?