In our first interview with a female brass player, Kate Amrine talks about music crowdfunding and how she made music a full time career through teaching and performing.
When she started music crowdfunding, Kate Amrine was surprised by how many strangers wanted to support her campaign. It wasn’t the random people that made the difference, though. In addition to reading Ariel Hyatt’s book, Crowdstart, she found more success in cultivating and building personal relationships with people she already knew. Now she spends much of her time developing new repertoire and freelancing with groups in the NYC area. She is also the co-head of Brass Chicks, where she writes about and interviews prominent female brass players.
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Recommendations for Freelance Musicians
- Try to meet as many people as possible
- Find the people you like playing with
- Find the venues you like playing
- Go to shows to support musicians you know
- Going to shows is networking without feeling like its networking
Music Crowdfunding for her Album
- Reading Crowdstart by Ariel Hyatt was a big help
- Focused on personal relationships she already had rather than spamming strangers
- Think about the different groups of people you know that would want to support your project
- Surprised by how many random people supported her campaign
Ways for Instrumentalists Market Their Music
- Trying to be more like singer-songwriters
- Speaking to her audience at recitals about why instrumental pieces she plays are important
- Sharing the meaning of the music and why the project exists
- Instrumentalists can also share the background stories of their music
Commissioning Songs for her Album
- Commissioned 3 songs for her album
- Selecting the composers for songs for her album
- Interviewed all of the composers while she was crowdfunding
- Allowed the composers to tell their stories
Brass Chicks
- A blog where they interview prominent female brass players
- Every month has a theme
- Continuing to build a following on multiple platforms is a goal
- Non-brass players are also reading the blog
- kateamrine.com
Don’t forget to head over to Instagram and follow me at @bree.noble to get resources on music-life balance, setting goals and more things important to musicians.
Resources
Email your questions for Bree to answer on the show: Bree@FEMusician.comLeave your audio questions for Bree to play on the air and answer (you can promote yourself too): SpeakPipeSubscribe to the show on iTunesGive us a review on iTunesListen on SoundcloudShow Editing by Jen Edds at 317 Sound DesignMusic by Stella RonsonABOUT HOST BREE NOBLE
Bree Noble is an entrepreneur, musician and speaker. She founded Women of Substance Radio, an online radio station that promotes quality female artists in all genres, in 2007. She launched the Women of Substance Music Podcast in November 2014, a 5 day per week show which promotes Independent female artists. Her podcast has hit #1 in New & Noteworthy for the Music, Arts and Society & Culture categories and #4 Audio Podcast on all of iTunes. She draws on her extensive experience running her own music business, both as a solo musician and as an Industry professional, to train and mentor other female musicians. Learn more about the station, the show and the artists atwww.wosradio.com. Connect with Bree on Twitter @BreeNoble or on Facebook or on Instagram @breenoblemusic
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