Paying Your Dues DOES Pay Off

Nobody likes clichés and, in particular, in the music business no performer likes to hear the “paying your dues” cliché.  The good news is, though, that there is a light at the end of the paying your dues tunnel.

Mind you, sometimes it’s just sheer luck, but don’t count on that.  After all, you’ll notice I didn’t say that there’s a pot of gold at the end of the paying your dues rainbow.  We’re not selling Lucky Charms here.

But I am here to say that thanks to all my years managing, promoting, and booking artists, the cliché about “you never know who might be at your show” really does carry weight.  Some will argue that if you’re in Los Angeles, New York, or Nashville you stand a better chance of someone meaningful being in the crowd at one of your shows.  While that might be true, it doesn’t mean that if you’re not in one of those three cities no one will ever notice you.

Once you accept, however, that these things take time (insert “good things come to those who wait” cliché here), you’ll always have hope and positivity and will be looking for that next big break.

Consider Now Hear This singer/songwriter client Melissa Brethauer.  She has continued to work at her music career for years, or, paid her dues, and has seen the fruits of her labor in the form of her time investment paying off.  She has quit her day job to go full-time into music because she’s seeing the results of having gotten the reps.  When she moved to the greater Los Angeles area she for all intents and purposes knew no one (music-wise).  Now, because of shows early on, wherever there was work just to get her playing, bookings these days are coming in the form of incoming calls.

Just the latest sign of the time that she has put in now paying off is getting to play the main listening room at the famous Flora-Bama two weeks from tonight during the 32nd Frank Brown International Songwriters Festival.  That doesn’t happen to a rookie or to someone who sits at home doing nothing yet waits for the phone to ring.

Another example is singer Ella Chadwell, who Now Hear This has been working with for approximately four years.  A part owner of one of the venues she has performed at regularly for two years is now opening a second establishment 30 minutes away.  The time that Ella has put in at the first location – and the results that she gets for their business – hasn’t gone unnoticed, as she has been asked to perform at the soft opening this coming weekend for the new place.

Take encouragement from these two examples.  Know that this IS “all going somewhere” (and that’s not just another cliché).  Pay your dues.  Get the reps.  Make people happy.  Be good at what you do.  And remember to have hope because, like Melissa and Ella and others like them, you will get noticed.  People are listening to and watching you.  The final cliché is one that many people really don’t like, but, do “just be patient.”