The road to stardom is long, filled with potholes, and burnt-out rejects hitchhiking their way towards TruTV.  Things are all fun and games when you’re practicing in a garage and doing tiny gigs… but if your career starts to take off, you need to watch out!

Detours To Avoid On The Road To Music Business Success

1 – Skipping Gigs

Want to torpedo your career in the music business?  Become known among promoters as a flaky act.  Miss more than a couple gigs without literal acts of god as an excuse, and you’re likely to get blacklisted among any decent venues in your area.

Professionalism on the business side is probably the single MOST important skill for an act to cultivate.  Whatever else happens, the show must go on.

2 – Feuds With Other Bands

Now, there are feuds and there are “feuds.”  If you wanna do the pro-wrestling thing and have some good-natured trash-talk on Twitter, that’s one thing.  However, never let it become personal, and be willing to apologize first if feelings get hurt.

By and large, you’ll get much further in the business making friends with other bands rather than making enemies.

3 – Staying At Home

Don’t think for a moment that the ease of online music distribution means that live shows are a thing of the past.  If anything, demand is only going to grow for live music specifically because pre-packaged stuff is so easily-available.  Plus, most of the most profitable bands in history are known far more for their live shows than their albums.

On the other hand, if you’re really looking ahead, perhaps you might look into splitting the difference and offering live streamed shows, even if it is just live from Wayne’s Basement.   It seems so obvious that someone’s gonna try it.  Why not you?

So, what are some of the biggest mistakes you’ve seen a hot new band make?