What does it take to be in a band and have success?
Well, that is something I am still working on myself.
I have recorded. I have released music. I have performed live. I have been paid to play. I have had people sing along to songs I helped create. I have had people tell me something we wrote meant something to them.
Have I found success?
That depends on how you rate success.
Some people will say success in the music business means finding a way to earn a living doing what you love. Others will say you have succeeded when you get signed by a record label. Ask a few one-hit wonders how that worked out. A friend of mine, Gary England, wrote recently on his blog, Behind the Curtain, Mind Games in the Music and Entertainment World, that “success here is measured in applause, followers, and fame.”
He is right, especially when it comes to local bands.
But for real, lasting success, I think it has to go deeper than that. Like any business, success is also measured in brand recognition, sales, reputation, consistency, growth, and the ability to keep going when the excitement wears off.
At the end of the day, music is art, but the music business is still a business.
It has competition. It has market share. It has advertising. It has expenses. It has customer service, whether musicians want to admit that or not. It even has its fair share of HR issues: hiring, firing, personality conflicts, payroll, scheduling, accountability, and people who say they are committed until it is time to actually commit.
Want to make it?
I wish I had all the answers.
But I can tell you what I see, what I have experienced, and what I believe separates bands that keep moving from bands that fall apart before they ever get started.
Starting a Band
The first thing you need to figure out is what type of band you want to start.
Are you starting a cover band? A tribute band? Or are you going to write and perform your own songs as an original band?
Those are three very different paths.
A cover band can be very successful if it knows its audience, plays the right songs, sounds good, and knows how to entertain a crowd. A tribute band has to go even further. It is not just about playing the songs. You are recreating an experience. The look, the sound, the performance, and the details matter.
An original band is a different animal entirely.
With an original band, you are not just asking people to enjoy songs they already know. You are asking them to care about something they have never heard before. You are asking them to give you their attention, their time, and eventually maybe their money, based on something you created from nothing.
That is not easy.
Then you have to decide what genre you want to play. Rock, punk, metal, country, blues, electronic, industrial, pop, alternative, world music — the list is almost endless. Then each genre breaks down into subgenres, and each subgenre comes with its own audience, expectations, image, and scene.
After that, you need to ask yourself some serious questions.
How much time are you willing to commit?
How much money are you willing to commit?
How much work are you willing to commit?
That last one is the big one.
If you cannot answer that with “everything I have,” then you may not want to start an original band. There is nothing wrong with playing covers or being in a tribute band. In many cases, those bands work more and make more money than original bands. But if your goal is to create original music, build a name, grow a following, and push your own songs into the world, you need to understand what you are signing up for.
Starting a band is not easy.
Starting an original band is even harder.
You Have to Be Good — And Keep Getting Better
First, you have to be able to play your instrument.
That sounds obvious, but it needs to be said.
You do not have to be the greatest player in the world. Some of the most successful musicians are not technical masters. But you do need to be good enough to serve the song, hold your own live, and keep improving.
You have to dedicate yourself to getting better every time you pick up your instrument, and you should be picking it up often. Talent matters, but discipline matters more. A musician who practices consistently will usually outperform a more talented musician who only plays when they feel inspired.
Being in a band means your personal weaknesses become everyone’s problem.
If the drummer cannot keep time, the whole band sounds bad. If the bass player cannot lock in, the groove falls apart. If the guitar player cannot control their volume, the mix becomes a mess. If the singer does not take care of their voice, the show suffers. If anyone shows up unprepared, everyone pays for it.
That is the part people do not always think about.
Being in a band is not just about your individual ability. It is about how your ability affects the group.
You Have to Create Something Real
Second, you have to have a creative mind.
Simply copying the riffs of your favorite songs and changing how they are played is not enough. People will hear those riffs and know they are not original. Influence is normal. Every musician has influences. But there is a difference between being inspired by something and trying to sneak a recycled idea past an audience.
There are only twelve notes in the musical scale. Everyone is working with the same basic tools. The challenge is finding a way to manipulate those same twelve notes into something that feels new, honest, and interesting.
Original music does not have to reinvent the wheel, but it does have to sound like it came from you.
That is where many bands struggle. They know what they like. They know what inspired them. But they have not yet found their own identity.
A band has to ask itself:
What do we sound like?
What do we stand for?
What do people feel when they hear us?
Why should anyone remember us after the set is over?
That last question may be the most important one.
Finding the Right People
Third, you have to find other musicians who share your passion and interest.
This does not just mean finding people who want to be in a band. Plenty of people want to be in a band. Fewer people want to do the work required to make a band successful.
You need people who share your creative ideas, your dedication, your commitment to hard work, and your respect for the music. You need people who are dedicated to their instrument, but also dedicated to the bigger picture.
And not just any musicians.
You need musicians who play the instruments you actually need.
That may sound simple, but anyone who has tried to put a band together knows how hard this can be. You may find a great guitar player who does not like your style. You may find a great drummer who cannot commit to rehearsals. You may find a great singer who wants to control everything. You may find someone with all the right talent but the wrong attitude.
The right people are hard to find.
The wrong people are easy to find.
And the wrong person in a band can do more damage than no person at all.
The Ego Problem
Here is the kicker.
As Gary England stated in the earlier mentioned article, “The same intensity that drives great art also drives conflict. Egos clash because the industry rewards individuality while demanding teamwork.”
That is something I have run into more times than not over the years.
Everyone has an ego.
In fact, ego is part of what drives us to get on stage in the first place. It takes a certain kind of person to stand in front of a crowd, plug in, turn up, and say, “Watch this.” There is an adrenaline rush that comes from performing live. There is power in it. There is vulnerability in it too, even if musicians do not always want to admit that.
A good band often ends up with several Type A personalities in the same room at the same time.
That can be magic.
It can also be a disaster.
Everyone has ideas. Everyone has opinions. Everyone thinks they know what the band should sound like, what songs should be played, what image should be used, what the logo should look like, who should get paid what, how the band should be promoted, and why their way is the right way.
The funny thing is, many of these same people have all the answers for success, yet have never actually found that success themselves.
That is not meant as an insult. It is just reality.
Confidence is necessary. Arrogance is dangerous.
A band needs strong personalities, but those personalities have to serve the band. If every decision becomes a battle, the band will eventually stop being creative and start becoming exhausting.
The Band Has to Become Bigger Than the Individual
For a band to work, every member has to understand one very important thing:
The band has to become bigger than the individual.
That does not mean people should not get credit. They should. Songwriters should be credited. Contributors should be respected. Members who do more work should be acknowledged. But the moment every decision becomes about personal validation, the band starts to crack.
Sometimes the best riff does not make the song better.
Sometimes the singer needs space.
Sometimes the drummer is right about the arrangement.
Sometimes the bass line is what makes the whole thing work.
Sometimes the song needs less, not more.
That is hard for musicians, because musicians naturally want to be heard. But great bands understand that the song comes first.
Not the solo.
Not the ego.
Not the argument.
The song.
Work Ethic Beats Talent
One of the biggest lessons I have learned is that talent is not enough.
Talent may get someone noticed, but work ethic keeps them in the room.
There are musicians with incredible ability who are impossible to work with. They show up late. They do not learn the songs. They do not help promote. They complain about gigs. They disappear when work needs to be done. They want the spotlight but not the responsibility.
Then there are musicians who may not be the flashiest players in town, but they show up prepared. They learn the material. They help load gear. They promote the shows. They communicate. They improve. They care.
Give me that person every time.
A band is not built only on talent.
It is built on reliability.
Promotion Is Part of the Job
Another thing musicians need to understand is that promotion is not optional.
You can write the best songs in the world, but if nobody knows about them, it does not matter.
This is where many local bands fail. They think their job is to rehearse, play the show, and go home. That may have worked decades ago when scenes were different, but today a band has to be its own marketing department.
You need photos. You need video. You need social media. You need a website or at least a strong online presence. You need flyers. You need branding. You need consistency. You need to give people a reason to care before they ever walk into the venue.
Every show is not just a show.
It is content.
It is networking.
It is brand building.
It is an opportunity to gain one more fan, sell one more shirt, get one more person to follow your page, and make one more connection that may lead to the next opportunity.
That may not sound romantic, but it is real.
The bands that understand this have a better chance of growing. The bands that ignore it usually end up playing to the same small group of friends until those friends stop coming.
The Business Side Matters
If a band wants to be taken seriously, it has to operate seriously.
That means keeping track of money. It means deciding how the band gets paid, whether the members agree to reinvest back into the band, and how expenses are handled. It means having agreements in place before there is a problem. It means knowing who owns the songs, who owns the name, who has access to the social media accounts, and what happens if someone leaves.
Original bands also need to understand that, especially in the beginning, you may have to buy onto certain shows, sell tickets, or invest money just to get in front of the right crowd. You may also travel out of town and not get paid enough to cover gas, food, lodging, or time off work. That does not mean you should let people take advantage of you, but it does mean you need to know the difference between a bad deal and an investment in exposure, networking, and growth.
Nobody wants to talk about that stuff when everything is fun.
But when things go bad, those conversations suddenly matter.
A band may feel like a brotherhood or a family, but even families fight. A band that treats everything casually in the beginning can end up in a mess later.
If you are writing original music, releasing songs, selling merchandise, booking shows, and building a name, you are building something with value.
Protect it.
So What Is Success?
So, what does it really take to be successful in a band?
I think it takes talent, but not just talent.
It takes creativity, but not just creativity.
It takes drive, but not just drive.
It takes the ability to work with others, take criticism, handle disappointment, solve problems, keep showing up, and keep pushing when nobody seems to be paying attention.
Success may start with applause, followers, and fame, but it cannot end there.
Real success is when people know your name.
Real success is when your songs mean something to someone outside your own circle.
Real success is when venues want you back.
Real success is when fans show up because they believe in what you are doing.
Real success is when your band becomes more than a group of people playing songs. It becomes a brand, a movement, an experience, and something people want to be part of.
Have I found that level of success yet?
I am still working on it.
But I know this much: if you are going to start a band, especially an original band, you better be ready to work. You better be ready to sacrifice. You better be ready to deal with egos, conflict, money, frustration, disappointment, and long nights where you wonder if any of it is worth it.
And then you better be ready to get back up, plug in, and do it again.
Because that is what bands do.
And maybe, somewhere in all of that, success starts to find you.
Dee Stiff
“Disclosure: I play in a local band and experience this scene firsthand.”
