Why you NEED community as a musician

   One of the most important parts of being a musician is having a community. Without a community we are working and creating with no real concept of reality. As a musician we are the sum of all of our influences and this is an ongoing process. A true community incapsulates all of the people we work with and the people who love our music. 

  With the internet it has never been easier to build a community. The ultimate goal is to find people who actually love what we do, not just another random follower. But how do you do that? Where do we find our true tribe?

  I wanted to walk through 4 important aspects of having a community and throughout it how we can actually find these people. With community anything is possible, so knowing the "why" behind it, is crucial. 

Community develops us

  As we are learning and growing in our craft our community is with us. The biggest artists have huge communities but that was not always the case. Everyone starts off with their mom as their biggest fan. As we grow, our true community is there to support and cheer us on. The further we go, the larger our community gets, but the support and encouragement is still the same. 

Community inspires us

  We are always able to learn and grow and a lot of that comes from the influence of others. Our community can influence us as we probably have similar tastes and interests in common. Our artist friends are doing things that are interesting and inspiring, so letting that influence us is key to growing. And just as our community influences us, we influence them as well. 

Community keeps us going

  It is so much easier to quit doing something if we believe the lie that no one cares. Community is a constant reminder that people are there to encourage and push us to keep going.  We get to celebrate the wins and get picked up in the defeats by our community along the way. 

Community supports us

  As our community develops we find our true fans along the way. These true fans are the ones who support us and make it possible to have a career. The 1000 true fans is a powerful principle about how having 1000 people pay $100 per year results in $100,000. Not only does community support financially, but also emotionally, because they need us to keep creating and want to support us in that process.

  I hope seeing the ways community is key helps bring clarity to how vital it is. As we grow our community should grow along side us. I love the quote from the book "The Go-Giver" that says. "The Law of Compensation. Your income depends on how many people you serve and how well you serve them." This particular quote is speaking towards financial success, but I believe it directly applies to community as well. The more people we serve, the further we can go, and the more people our music can impact. 

 I want to know, what are some things you've done to build your community on your music journey?