On success
Earlier today I was in a conversation with Jeremy about what it means to be successful.
The gist of the conversation is that pretty much everyone, especially those working in music, always have such a relative, subjective idea of what it means to be “successful,” and the overarching constant seems to be that even people who are making a sustainable living at music, and who have a respectful following, and so on, still don’t see themselves as successful.
I think at this point it’s pretty clear that I am not successful as a musician; my releases do not pay for themselves, much less generating any considerable amount of income, it’s been a struggle to get even 150 subscribers on my YouTube channel, and even getting anyone to listen to my music to begin with is a struggle.
So, here are some ideas of what I think it would mean to be successful as a musician. This isn’t all-inclusive, nor does every criterion have to be met.
- The amount of income I get from my music would be sufficient as a living wage
- Any time I release something new, I have a fanbase that acquires it without prompting
- Any release pays for its own production costs within its first month of release
- I have enough fans that YouTube actively tries to retain my content rather than treating my channel as a liability
- Any release I put out gets visibility in the various streaming platforms' algorithms
- People approach me to express interest in hiring me
- Concert organizers approach me to express interest in me performing with them1
- I am approached with offers for representation, either via an agent or a record label
- I have people trying to interpret my songs on their own, whether correctly or incorrectly, and reading their own meaning into them regardless
That said, there are a few criteria by which I can judge myself successful as a musician:
- I have had people I don’t otherwise know reach out to me saying how much some of my music meant to them at some point in their life
- I have had people I don’t otherwise know cover songs of mine (shout-out especially to Matches for her lovely cover/reinterpretation of Rhymes with Lucia)
- I have had people I don’t otherwise know tell me they are fans of my work
And that isn’t nothing.