A career plan is a crucial part of any job since it acts as a guideline for a person's career path and keeps them focused and goal oriented. In the music industry, it is easy to get off course with so many options in music genres, record labels, and audiences, touring options and merchandising and many more aspects thereby making a career plan a crucial tool in maintaining focus. Career planning is an ongoing process which has four steps including self-discovery, research, and decision making and making an action plan. Setting long term and short term targets keeps artists focused and a career plan is therefore crucial in developing musical skills, in the definition of career goals and objectives, and in overall career growth and development.
Target setting serves three major purposes in career development (Johnson, Kompare & Santo, 2014). It helps in maintaining focus, enables coordination of daily activities towards achieving goals and act as an assessment criteria for measuring career growth (Honthaner, 2017). My big target is to win a polar music prize award which is one of the most prestigious awards in the music industry. My smaller targets are to be featured in Billboard top 100s, to have the best selling album in one year and to host the highest-grossing concert tours of all time (Moss & Walmsley, 2014). To win the polar music prize, I intend to perfect my art in music composing, singing and stage performance. To attain the target of being the longest topping musician in the Billboard top 100s, I intend to enlist the services of the best song composers to complement my songwriting skills to produce award-winning songs (Johnson et.al., 2014). To break the highest grossing concert tours record, I intend to hire a strong PR team to help me with personal branding.
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Creative control in the music business is necessary for profit maximization, but the input of other people in the music making process is essential too (Johnson et.al., 2014). I am open to accepting other people's contributions into my music, but I cannot sell out for money. That would be because integrity and credibility would be the founding principles for my career and a sellout would compromise my brand name and reputation as an artist. The prospect of failure in music is unavoidable as in any other business venture since there are high risks involved (Moss & Walmsley, 2014). The failures to be anticipated in the entertainment industry include low sales, little or no airplay, low-quality production and poor reception by fans. To survive these failures, I would establish a strong emotional support from friends and family and surround myself with positive minded people (Honthaner, 2017). I would also take up mentorship and coaching sessions from pioneers in the entertainment industry and establish connections to help market and promote my career.
Criticism is essential for personal and professional growth, and I would take it positively. In the entertainment industry, however, some very harsh critics are brutal and can easily crush a musician's spirit (Johnson et.al., 2014). I would cope with it by being open minded and positive minded and also avoiding the gutter press and taking social media critics personally. Raising capital, increasing investor's returns on investments in music and attracting and retaining investors is critical for continued success. I would make money through music sales, concerts and tours, royalties, youtube and other live music streaming platforms and song composing (Moss & Walmsley, 2014). I would be willing to give up a piece of my business to investors but just a small percentage of ten percent. That way I would have the capital to run the business but remain the majority shareholder in the firm. I would also be open to ideas and advice from other people because it would enrich my professional knowledge (Honthaner, 2017). It would also present an opportunity for me to fortify my strengths and improve on my weaknesses.
One of the key characteristics of a successful leader is their ability to motivate those working under them and increase their loyalty and job satisfaction (Moss & Walmsley, 2014). As an employer, I would motivate my employees by giving out incentives for exceeding set targets and acknowledging their great contributions publicly. I would also organize all expenses paid family vacations for the employees at the end of each year to express my appreciation for their efforts (Honthaner, 2017). In addition to employees’ contribution to the organization, personal preparedness is imperative to success in business. My current preparedness is average, but I’m working towards making more professional connections through networking (Moss & Walmsley, 2014). My convictions have not changed since joining the LA Film School, and I wanted to go into the music industry from the onset. If I had the opportunity to turn back time, I would have taken more internships and any other learning opportunities I could get sooner (Johnson et.al. 2014). I would be further than I am now if I had not turned down unpaid internships in my first years at film school.
If an unqualified relative approached me for a job, I would handle the situation professionally by walking them through the qualifications necessary for the job (Moss & Walmsley, 2014). I would make arrangements for them to get enrolled in school to get accredited or help them find another job in their area of competency. My main strengths that will further my career in the entertainment industry include my exceptional interpersonal skills, strong physical stamina, my creativity and talent, my ability to interact with people at all levels and my excellent leadership skills (Honthaner, 2017). These skills will be an asset to my career, but I also have weaknesses that I need to work on improving. These shortcomings include inflexibility, impatience, and poor negotiation skills (Johnson et.al. 2014). I am working on this by being accommodating to alternative ways of doing things, practicing patience and putting myself in situations that require bargaining to sharpen my negotiation skills.
In sum, my biggest target is winning the polar music prize while my smaller goals include topping the Billboard 100, to have the bests-elling album in one year and to break the highest-grossing concert tours of all time record in six months. The strengths that will help me attain these targets include exceptional interpersonal skills, strong physical stamina, creativity and talent in composing, ability to interact with people at all levels and great leadership skills. My weaknesses include inflexibility, impatience, and poor negotiation skills which I’m currently working on.
References
Honthaner, E. L. (2017). Hollywood drive: what it takes to break in, hang in & make it in the entertainment industry . New York: Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group.
Johnson, D., Kompare, D., & Santo, A. (2014). Making media work cultures of management in the entertainment industries . New York, NY: New York Univ. Press.
Moss, S., & Walmsley, B. (2014). Entertainment management: towards best practice . Wallingford: CABI.
