Years and years of playing the bass and working in a series of dive bars and small venues, negotiating my own fees and working for very little indeed—it’s taught me a lot. It’s taught me music, that’s for sure, and my bass playing has vastly improved (I should hope so after all these years), but it’s also taught me the music business.

Let me clue you in here: The music business? Basically, it’s business.

Now, every business has its own personality, its own culture, its own highways and byways, dos and do-nots, but the fundamental principles remain consistent across the board. Business is about money, success, negotiating, marketing, public attention, word of mouth, publicity, standing your ground, maintaining your brand, having the resources you need or knowing where to find them and, well, do I need to go on?

Yes, I think I do.

Lots of musicians struggle. Some struggle, let’s face it, because they’re not that talented, or not that committed, or simply because no one is interested in what they have to offer. If you’re a Madrigal singer, I hate to tell you, but now is not your time.  But a lot of musicians are talented and do have something that the market wants, and yet they struggle.

Understanding business and the way business works is crucial to success as a musician. Everything from marketing to budgeting is important, and negotiation, oh man, that’s crucial. Legal knowledge is vital too, because you’re going to be offered contracts, a precious few of which will be fair, and the rest of which will be efforts to screw you and make you say “Thank you sir.”

And here’s another thing: A musician is basically self-employed, and like any self-employed person, has to handle taxes and health insurance in a specific way. All of which requires a different kind of knowledge than how to change your strings, man.