Want to quickly grow your music career? Stay away from these music business myths:

Music Career Myth #1: You have to be around 21 years old to have a chance in music.

Reality: In the music business, few successful companies care that much about your age. In reality, there are tons of pro musicians in their 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s. Your age won’t matter unless you really want it to.

The music industry functions just the same as any other business. You can become successful at any age as long as you have a strong work ethic, dedication and a lot of value to offer.

Learn what the music industry seeks in music curator musicians and begin strengthening these skills (more mentioned on this in a moment). This is what attracts people in the music industry to you.

Music Career Myth #2: People don’t actually buy music anymore.

Reality: A lot of people buy music, but if you want people to buy yours, you shouldn’t use outdated music business models. To become successful at selling music to your fans, here’s what you need to do:

1. Know how the music industry works right now (rather than how it worked decades ago).
2. Think creatively and outside the box. This will help you find new ways to sell your music to fans.

Learn how to get your fans to buy your music.

Music Career Myth #3: You have to develop your musical skills to an advanced level before you can be successful in music.

Reality: There are tons of factors for becoming successful in music besides having “excellent musical skills”. In fact, a lot of pro musicians are not advanced at their instruments ….and even more highly talented musicians don’t ever see success in their careers.

The following video shows over twenty things the music business looks for:

Key thing to learn: develop your musical skills at the same time that you work on other areas on your music career.

Note: Becoming a pro musician does not require going to university. Going to college for music only helps you build your musical skills. Doing this will not help you grow a career in music. There are tons of people who get music degrees and never make good money in music.

You can also find many other effective ways to become a better musician other than going to university. Taking lessons with a virtuoso guitar teacher will help you master the instrument much faster.

Question: “But Tom Hess, can I just get a degree in music business?”

Answer: Professors who teach music business usually are not successful in the music industry. They are simply educators. They teach you about the music industry, but not how to grow a career in the music industry. For instance, in classes for music business you might learn how contracts are made, how tours get promoted and how royalties work.