5 Ways to Find Musician Jobs
These days we’re all looking for more work, right? Maybe the hours at your steady gig were cut in half, or you might be in one of the dozens and dozens of orchestras nationwide that has had your salary gutted by the recession. Or perhaps you’re a musician that’s just starting out – graduating from music school in May or moving to a new city.
As freelance musicians, we’re always looking for new opportunities. If you ask me, one of the thrills of being a freelancer is successfully finding new work. Landing good work is a really satisfying achievement.
Here are 5 ways modern musicians can find new jobs:
1.) Get To Know Your Local Music Coordinator
Every area has a music coordinator, often referred to as a “contractor.” Even my home town had a lady that worked as a contractor for weddings and theatre productions – I used to get a lot of work from her. If you don’t know of a contractor in your scene that either means you haven’t met them yet, or you yourself should fill the void!
Contractors are almost always musicians themselves – they often start off as musicians that are so good at getting work that they are even able to get work for other people. To boot they are usually very organized, consistent, professional and have a reputation of great reliability. Eventually organizations like theater companies, wedding planners, and orchestras start hiring that musician to find and hire other musicians – and voilà, a music coordinator is born.
At the highest levels music coordinators hire per-service players for symphony orchestras, contract musicians for international tours or Broadway shows. At the local level, the coordinator might be your buddy that hires all the trumpet players for the Easter service at a local church, or someone that hires pianists for the school district. Coordinators are often the gate-keepers of the best jobs.
What I’m saying here, obviously, is that you should get to know them.
Find out who the music coordinators are in your area and then see if you already have any connections with them. Maybe your good friend from music school works for that coordinator all the time? Ask your friend if you can drop their name in an introductory email. Or maybe your friend can write to the coordinator on your behalf? Or another way – maybe the coordinator contracts musicians for a steady gig that a collegue of yours often works. Can you sub for that person when they have a conflict? If you show yourself as a excellent musician in a sub situation you may find the coordinator calling you for more work in the future.
2.) Study With a Working Musician
If you are a working musician (or aspire to be a working musician), one of the things you should consider when picking a private teacher is how often that person gigs. You can learn so much valuable information from another working musician – how they get jobs, who they like to work with, where they play, how they keep getting more work, and on and on.
Teachers often pass work on to their best students – and that’s nothing knew. Think about all the musical greats that were taught by other musical greats – Haydn taught Beethoven, Rimsky-Korzakov taught Stravinsky, Louis Armstrong taught Clark Terry, Joe Satriani taught Steve Vai and Kirk Hammet, and on and on.*
When I was in high school I studied with a jazz pianist that lived about an hour north of me. He was (and still is!) a great player and worked all the time. Sometimes he’d get called for jobs that he couldn’t take (or didn’t want to take), and he’d give out my name as the next musician to call. The things that he taught me about the musician business were priceless – and the work he sent to me helped me build a career.
See also, Finding the Right Music Teacher by Matt Baldoni.
3.) Use Facebook
I’m on Twitter, but so far I’m not convinced that it’s a good way to find contract jobs for musicians. It might be a good way for bands to connect with other bands, to create some hype for an album, or to promote your upcoming performances. It might also be a good way to keep fresh in your fellow musicians minds so that when a job does arise, they remember to think of you. But as far as creating a gig out of nothing? I think Facebook is much better.
It depends on how you use Facebook, but typically the people you are friends with on Facebook already know you. They probably already know that you are a musician – maybe you’ve even worked with them before. Your friend list is a treasure trove of great contacts, and it’s worthwhile to stay active on Facebook. Start a game of Scrabble with another musician. Write on people’s walls. Send messages. How many times have you heard the phrase, “Oh yeah, I saw on Facebook that…” Facebook is a great way to keep in touch with a large number of people – and that is good for a freelancer.
Another thing that’s useful about Facebook is that it shows you mutual friends. Remember how I talked before about finding your existing connections with the contractors in your area? Look them up on Facebook and it’ll tell you who your mutual friends are.
To take that idea even further – if you are trying to connect with a new musician or contractor, you might try messaging them through Facebook instead of by email. (Although I’d be careful with this. Nobody likes a stalker. Also note that I said “message” them, not “friend” them.) When they get your message they might check out your profile and see who your mutual friends are. That can be a great ice breaker.
4.) Search Musician Jobs Websites
We have a long list of websites that list open positions on our Musicians Jobs page, and I highly recommend that you check it out, bookmarked it, digg it, stumble it, buzz it, clean it, cook it, eat it, whatever. We only put websites up there that we personally know have helped get musicians work in the past. As you’ll see we also aggregate open musicians positions through Google Alerts, so you can get see what kind of musician jobs are being listed online.
If you are searching the internet for musician jobs, I also highly recommend you read two articles, How to Find Gigs With Google Alerts and Find Jobs on Craigslist Using Search & RSS Feeds. In my experience, the Craigslist + RSS technique has worked out surprisingly well, and it often brings interesting jobs postings into my RSS reader. Here’s some of the postings it sent me just this week:
- Need Piano Player, $20/hr
- Seeking a musician to compose for web series
- Central Casting seeking young jazz band for for work on hit TV show
- Jazz pianist needed
- Vocal Coach/Accompanist needed for help learning music
- Sub-pianist wanted for upcoming tour
All of those jobs are interesting, quality leads, and they all come through the Craiglist + RSS technique (I’ve had the best luck through the “Gigs” section of Craigslist, if that is any help to you).
5.) Get to Know Other Musicians
I put this last because I think it is the most important, best way to get musician jobs. In fact, I’ve mentioned this a number of times already – getting work from your teachers, contractors, collegues on Facebook – these leads all involve other musicians. You will definitely get work from outside the musician community – for instance private students, holiday parties, maybe a wedding reception – but in my experience, the overwhelming majority of quality jobs come from other musicians that are either hiring me themselves or have recommended me. The truth is that this business really is all about who you know.
My best advice to young musicians is to always be easy to work with, to always play great, and to try not to get involved with any drama they might find at gigs. Maintaining good friendships with other musicians is central to establishing a good career in the business.
The good news is that maintaining good friendships is the best part of being a musician. Having friends that understand your lifestyle and priorities, and that you enjoying working with on both good and bad gigs – that is one of the great benefits of being a working musician.
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* My thanks to @ktchauvot, @cameronmizell, @chrisguitarguy & @willkriski for help researching famous students and teachers.
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I agree #5 is the most important. Regularly showing up (and paying) for local shows will definitely get you noticed by the bands and the venue’s staff. Especially if you are only one of 10 people to show up for a Tuesday night show. Support other local artists in your area. You never know who might need an opening act or new guitar player.
4/7/2009
I need to know how much to charge someone for providing music for a funeral…
4/18/2009
Hey Carl – It depends on a lot of things. Can you post some more details about it (where is it, how long the service is, etc.) in our forums? Put it in the How Much Should I Charge forum.
4/18/2009
Love the blog, David. Being out and about is definitely huge. As they say, “Out of sight, out of mind.” Just like any job in any industry, it’s generally who you know, and more importantly, who knows you.
4/21/2009
David,
All wonderful advice, especially your last point about knowing people. Yes, it’s who you know, especially other musicians. Jobs are obtained by word of mouth or the grapevine. And once you meet people, you absolutely must cultivate the friendships and build the best rapport possible. Being very well liked is most important because musicians will want to work with other musicians who are very personable and fun to be with.
Carolyn Ohlbaum
5/1/2009
I found this new website that is free for musicians and bands to upload a video. Looks like the goal is to have brides and bar owners coming to the site to look for talent.
9/24/2009
I think that your advice is extremely helpful, and your first point was one that I had never thought of before. I always knew that the most significant way to keep yourself in the business was to make connections with everyone, no matter what level of establishment, but the idea of booking agents and contractors never occurred to me until recently. I am a music student and will be graduating this May. I am currently making plans and investments towards my own desired career path as a songwriter and teaching artist rather than immediately pursue any kind of graduate studies. I have been networking as much as I can, and am investing my time into building myself a personal website, an updated and more professional resume and repertory list, and am currently working on my second album, a full-length following my recently produced EP. If it is possible, could you provide some advice? Even though social networking through the internet is an excellent tool, do you believe that some networking tools are more valuable than others? Also, how do you balance your networking? There are so many ways to connect with people in this day and age, sometimes I feel a bit overwhelmed by all of the technology. Advancements in a lot of current social networking often feels like overly personal bombardments; any suggestions? Also, how do you go about finding contractors in your area? Are there any sites that can be used as a tool to search for people who specifically work in the field of contracting? Are there any you would specifically recommend? Thank you so much, and I deeply enjoyed your blog!
10/15/2009
This blog you have going is great! it is really helpful for someone who is a starting musician and is looking for new way to find jobs
10/19/2009
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