-Secondly: If your ambitions are economical and your passion isn't driven by a creative hunger to make music, you will most likely fail. Building a career as a Musician will take dedication, persistence and stamina. Only a very few have the network and skills to launch directly into a profitable career. You need to have a fundamental musical ambition that drives you forward. I know many Artists see themselves as only creative forces and some refuse both to recognize and take part in anything that resembles business, some even make an image out of that. But look into history and you will find that all the most successful acts have either been very aware on their own or had a manager behind them. Did you know Mick Jagger went to business school before Rolling Stones took off? And does anyone doubt that Gene Simmons is a businessman?
I don't think anyone should be surprised when I say that I have not been able to make a living out of being a musician. And I've tried to, I can assure you. It just didn't work out (yet). Why this didn't work out have baffled me for some time and a few months ago I delivered my Bachelor-paper about this issue. I have been lucky to get a re-education that started at the age of 35, and now I have a diploma in Entrepreneurship, or let's call it “Economics and Business-Development”. Going into Business School was not something I did to boost my career as a Musician. Still, the three years in school have made me very much more aware about business side, and it has made me aware that as a Musician you need to be able to take care of business to get anywhere. I did some research for this last paper around the history of Borknagar and why a band with such success in music is not able to make a living out of it. And it revealed some points that I want to let you all in on here, in a short version: -First of all: As a Musician you need to realize that if you want to be professional you will have to take care of business. This might sound a bit obvious, but there is a direct conflict of interest in the artistic and the commercial thinking. As an Artist or Musician you don't want to be caught thinking about money, that will diminish your integrity. You don't want to give people the impression that you do what you do only to get rich. I mean, some Artists are not very subtle about this anyway, but I'm discussing the proper Musicians here, not performers with playback, to them there's no conflict of interest. To a “Rocker” who opposes society and is rebellious there are obvious contradictions. You need to overcome the pride and think several thoughts, don't let your success benefit only others, make sure it benefits yourself.
As I dabble with Entrepreneurship I'm often presented with new ideas and inventions that people want to make into a business. One industry that strongly needs to do this is the Music Industry. My concern about the Music Industry is that it's led by companies that are too big and with that unable to change. Without changing it's only a matter of time before they go bankrupt. Trying to make a living out of CD sales in 2012 is in my opinion a waste of time. Trying to fight the technological development with regulations and laws is the same as drugging a half dead beast. You can't prevent that eventually it dies! In this situation I believe that we will see more upcoming Artists succeed who are able to build up their careers outside the traditional Music Industry. I look forward to see those artists that build up through Social Media, control both their publishing rights and merchandise rights as well as releasing music digitally instead of going through with the old-school album format. I want to see people who are not only creative in their music, but also how they approach the industry. I believe that Music Industry has come to that point in time where the asteroid is about to hit the planet and the dinosaurs will die, giving room to the smaller, more adaptable mammals... Jens F. Ryland
Jens in action with Borknagar GHOST CULT MAGAZINE | 52