A Hugely Important Resource in Your Music Career

I often find myself reminding people that if you “only” sing, then your voice is your instrument.  When they think about a musical instrument, people – more so listeners than performers – seem to focus more on something that can be carried around in a case.

Musicians likely have their bad days when they cringe thinking of equipment, because it’s not just the guitar or the piano or the drums and so on, but it’s also the sound equipment.  That, then, leads to the subject of their vehicle.

People who work in an office or a restaurant or in countless other jobs will often times carpool to work together.  Or, young people will ask a parent to drive them to work.  But when you’re lugging around musical equipment, do you really think you can just rely on someone to give you a ride?  When a gig ends and you’re packed up and finally ready to leave at one or two o’clock in the morning, do you really think there are going to be lots of people available to pick up you and your gear and bring you home?  That’s certainly not a job for Uber or Lyft, either.

But here’s the part that kills me.  Performers with perfectly good automobiles pass up bookings because, in their opinion, it’s too far away.  They think of the traffic and how early they’ll have to leave.  And then, of course, they talk about how long it will take to drive back and, thus, what time they’ll be walking back in the house.

Of course, the alternative is that you just sit around and don’t play.  How does that sound?

You can’t complain that you’re not getting enough bookings if you’re turning them down because those that are being offered are too far for your taste.

One would argue that as long as you make at least as much as it’s going to cost you in gas, that at least the outing is worthwhile because you break even.  But what about the value beyond money, such as you never know who will be there?  Or, being able to get pictures and video of you playing at someplace different?  Or showing people (on your website, and even social media) how busy you are because of all the shows you are booking?  The list goes on.

Your competition is doing it.  There are people out there driving long (long) distances to gigs and – brace yourself – losing money in the process!  I’m not here to debate whether that’s a smart business decision or not.  But what I am here to say is that “you never know who’s going to be there” will never apply to you sitting on your couch surfing social media because a gig you could’ve played that night was too far.  You won’t sell any CDs while watching reruns of “Law & Order.”  Your mailing list isn’t going to get any new email addresses on it because you didn’t like the idea of getting home late on a weeknight.  And, of course, no venue is going to ask you back if you didn’t play there the first time they offered you a booking and you turned it down because Google Maps said it would take 104 minutes to get there.

I’m not saying to do a cross-country driving tour, but I am saying that if you won’t even drive cross-city, or to the outer reaches of your county, those out-of-state gigs will remain out of reach.

Save money for gas.  Keep the oil changed.  Watch the condition of your tires.  And take more gigs that require a little driving.