Ryan's Reedin' Again

Trying to read again!

It has been a little while since I posted about a book, or a blog in general. I have gone to work on some other things, most noticeably my YouTube page. Head over here to see what I have been doing on there.

Also in that time was the end of marching band season and PASIC. The marching band season was overall a successful one. I felt like I was more creative in my writing and definitely in my sound design work. I finding that I enjoy that more and more with each project I do. I set out when I started writing for marching band to be more creative and it is nice to hit that goal.

PASIC was amazing as usual. It was the 50th year of PASIC, so it was all out. The high school concerts (which are my favorite part any more) were ridiciously good. Texas is a different planet when it comes to band. The college and evening concerts were incredible. PASIC is also were I picked up the book I am going to talk about today.

I was standing in line to check out with a few small ensemble collections and at the checkout table was a book called "Freelance: 10 Commonsense Keys to Making YOUR Music YOUR Business" by Josh Gottry. Now this book has existed for a few years (since 2021) and I see at PASIC every year, but never give it a second look. Mainly because I do read more now than I use to, but it still doesn't feel like a lot, and I felt pretty good on the business side of things. I don't feel bad about my business side, but I do feel like I am leaving some on the table. This is why I have started to up my YouTube "presence."

Anyway, the real reason your still reading this..."Freelance" is a very short read at 71 pages. You could read it one sitting, but I spread it out over a couple of days, The book is 10 chapters with each chapter being roughly 5-7 pages. Each chapter focuses on one aspect of freelance music business, has a few questions for you to consider (with space to write in the book), and a real world example (called "Field Notes" in the book) from someone the author knows.

Each chapter is easily digestable, and mostly commonsense, as it says in the title. The real gold of this books is hearing the stories that people used/experienced them in. A couple that stuck out to me are as follows - Every Gig is Your Next Audition, Be Visible and Vulnerable, Invest, and Know Your Worth.

Those are just a few of the chapters. The biggest ones for me were "Be Visible and Vulnerable," "Invest," and "Know Your Worth." Mainly because that is were my focus has been on my business side of things.

This book was the jolt I needed in order to keep the direction I have started to head. I would 10/10 recommend this book to anyone going into music, looking at making a change in their musical life, or looking for a jolt of energy in their musical life. This is also a book I would share with my students that are thinking about going into music because you never know where your life will end up.