Do you need a mentor for your music career?

With so many people looking to improve their financial health, or simply get their music out there, it comes as no surprise that people want the most successful in the industry to teach them. But how can this be achieved? And do you really need to pay thousands of dollars in order to achieve a wealth of knowledge? That’s what we’re going to cover in this article.

We’ve all been in this scenario: Your music career isn’t going as well as you hoped, the finances aren’t brilliant as you’re unable to finally sustain yourself from your passion, and all you want is change. Success. And so after hours of scrolling through the internet, you discover that people are getting mentored/taught on exactly how to achieve a particular ambition. It’s like going to the gym: the majority of people want to get amazing abs… but nobody can be bothered to put in the required work in order to get there. Hence why most people tend to give up. Meanwhile, a portion of people may decide that they want to learn from successful people within the music industry to better their career.

The truth is that there are so many people out there willing to offer you mentorship within the music industry. This may be music production, management, business skills, or simple organization. But more often than not, they are charging thousands of dollars for simple recycled information that you can easily obtain via a few hours searching stuff on google. That said, some people find it easier to learn from others – and thus need a mentor/teacher in order to learn. But in contrast, a large majority of people are easily able to push against the norm, and self-teach an array of topics to themselves. After all, the internet now offers an abundance of knowledge with extremely easy access.

Stepping away from the entertainment industry for a second, I want to use boxing as an example of how you can self-teach yourself. Of course, you need to pay attention to what you’re bad at so those characteristics don’t become fatal flaws. However, instead you should be more focused on the techniques of your opponents & your competition. Analyze what they are doing, and figure out a strategy in order to combat it so that you’re always ahead of them. In a scenario in which you run a record label, you could look up to the likes of Ultra & Armada. If they are suddenly using influencer advertising to promote music, there’s a good chance that you should be looking into that strategy as well. Therefore, I’d suggest creating a list of 400-500 influencers that your label could potentially collaborate with in order to promote a song. In short, analyze your opponent’s strategy. By evaluating what your opponents and people you look up to are regularly doing, they essentially act as an indirect mentor to help develop your knowledge and/or content strategy for your music career. But what about a direct mentor?

If you genuinely feel that you need a mentor to specifically guide you through your career, look at people within your niche that have already achieved what you aspire to. Sticking with the label manager scenario, if you want to achieve a billion total Spotify streams, create a long list of people that have already achieved that ambition. After all, they have the direct knowledge of what it takes to fulfill that particular dream. During your outreach, you should try and provide them some value so that the agreement would be mutually beneficial for both parties. Often, this will be monetary. However, if you have resources at your disposal (such as great graphic design skills), it’s worth doing a trade. Here’s a good template of an example pitch:

“Hey (Name),
How are you? I’m currently the label manager of (insert label name). During the past few years, we’ve gained (x) amount of streams.
(Insert link of most popular song).
Anyway, over the coming months, I’m looking to further my career, and achieve (insert ambition). I’ve noticed that you have already accomplished this, and would therefore love to learn from your expertise. I know this would take some time, which is very valuable to you, which is why I’m happy to give you (insert compensation) in exchange for teaching me your strategy on how to (insert ambition).
I look forward to hearing from you. Have a good day!
(Your Name)”

In conclusion, you need to ensure that your pitch is short & sweet, but also delivers on the principles that you want to achieve. By acknowledging that they value their time, it would appear to them as if you understand their emotions and their priorities. But likewise, with the value proposition of (probably) financial compensation or bartering a skill, you want to provide them with so much upfront value that you basically guilt them into mentoring you.