Offering your services for free can give you huge upside and advantage in developing a name or brand for yourself. It is one of the most effective tools you have as a musician or music pro. I’ve seen this first hand, where my friends end up being mentored by powerful executives and managers while getting extensive access to their network. However, the most important thing is that they get recognition of their work. Important people then start taking notice, then suddenly they become the hottest new A&R on the planet (I wish I could drop names, but I respect people’s privacy!)
There’s a tremendous upside to free. Don’t underestimate it. Below I’ve given you two hypothetical but very real life scenario’s of how working for free can give you a professional advantage in your niche.
Example #1
Let’s say you’re a publicist and is looking to get your foot in the door. One strategy you can do is reach out to popular blogs and ask if you could write articles for them for free.
Employing a strategy like this can be highly effective. Not only will you start building a portfolio of your work, but also developing relationships with market mavens and getting your material in front of hundreds, thousands, or even millions of people.
Perhaps you end up in working for a major label and is working on a publicity campaign for a billboard artist. The free blogging you did has now given you a grand opportunity-the leverage of relationship. In a case like this, you’d have established strong rapports within the blogging community, which would make it easier to get your artist on blogs and websites.
Example #2
Maybe you are a DJ and want to start building an audience for your work locally. Something that one may think about, is heading to DJ at your local club or bar on and asking to play at the venue for free. Tell them that you want to do a weekly event every Wednesday nights (maybe something like a college night for example.) You then bring your people to the bar in lieu of their weekly promotion. The first couple of events are a hit, your audience grows, the manager wants to pay you (your new gig is making them more money and if they have morals, they probably will), and you’re now the headliner for the hottest college night in town.
Furthermore, you can take this audience with you anywhere you go. Your die-hard fans who are regulars at your Wednesday night parties will probably show up to any other local party or event that you host. You can now do collaborations and get corporate sponsors because you have a following of people they can promote their brand to.
There are many ways one can execute on this. Be creative. Out of the millions of brands, artists, and businesses in the world, you can definitely find one where you can work with and build leverage of off their resources. Remember, free isn’t always a bad thing. It’s how you use it to create bigger opportunities for yourself down the road. Good luck hunting.
