Income Streams (percentage of my income)
- Write music (direct and consortium commissions) ~ 50%
- Sell music (self-publish) ~ 20%
- Teach (private students, JCA and MCA, band zoom clinics) ~15%
- Perform (Dixieland band, family band) ~ 10%
- ASCAP performance royalties
- Engraving music (copywork)
- Arranging
- Leading bucket drumming groups
- Barbershop Quartet
- Authored ebook
Planting Seeds
Key Phrases
"I would be honored to write you a new piece."
"Have you ever commissioned a new work for your ensemble?"
"I would be honored to write you a new piece."
"Have you ever commissioned a new work for your ensemble?"
What Worked/Didn't Work
What Worked
What Didn't Work
- Consortium Commissions!
- Lunch dates (taking out conductors and asking them questions)
- Email campaign based off of youtube
- Attending Midwest Clinic and forming Blue Dot Collective
- Saying "yes" to everything (story time)
- Self-publishing (attention to details; paper, engraving, what directors want, PDF orders)
What Didn't Work
- Social Media
- Website
- Cold emails/CDs
Myths
1. People will find me when they are searching online for a composer to commission.
2. I shouldn't use contracts with friends as that doesn't feel right since I should trust them already.
3. If I just focus on my craft and writing the best music I can, everything else will just fall into place.
4. I should write for free or really cheap.
5. In order to support myself composing I would have to be super famous like Eric Whitacre.
2. I shouldn't use contracts with friends as that doesn't feel right since I should trust them already.
3. If I just focus on my craft and writing the best music I can, everything else will just fall into place.
4. I should write for free or really cheap.
5. In order to support myself composing I would have to be super famous like Eric Whitacre.
