We’ve seen this happen over and over again and nobody is talking about it. How come artists who were just about to make it in their small hometowns, moved to the big cities and not long after, quit music entirely? Because moving to a famous, metropolitan city will, as a matter of fact, work AGAINST your music career. Here are 7 reasons why places like New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Nashville can kill your dreams faster than you realize what hit you.
7. The Living Cost Is Insane
If you’re still struggling to make it, the worst you can do is shoot yourself in the foot by increasing your survival expenses. Unless you got family who can host you for little to nothing, don’t move to a big city or you’ll end up working 3 jobs with no energy or time left for your music career. Trust us, networking can be efficiently done from the comfort of your home wherever that is in the world. To give you an more exact idea, to rent a ROOM in NYC goes from $1,100 to $1,500 a month. In Los Angeles – $900 to $1,800. In Miami – $750 to $1,400 according to https://www.spareroom.com/
6. Your Mental Health Will Suffer
Say what you will but if you were blessed enough to have a caring family or relative, it is priceless to know you can reach out to them in case of an emergency. You won’t be able to rely on pretty much anyone in close vicinity to you should something happen. You will feel isolated for a long time before you find people that are kind enough to rely on. In the big cities, everyone’s out for themselves.
5. You Will Have To Pay A Lot More For Studio Time
For the very fact that now you’re living in a world-known city, you’ll be literally paying for the privilege of being there at every corner. Besides your own rent, you will have to cough up a lot more dollars for studio time, equipment rental, video shoots. Unless you got a fat budget set aside just to cover production costs, don’t move relying on your potential future income.
4. You Will Have To Play A Lot Of Catch-Up
Your first year will be wasted on learning the new city, the streets, the official buildings, the transportation infrastructure, the grocery stores, transferring your paperwork and filing your taxes, getting a new doctor, getting a new internet provider, fixing your utility bills etc. Moving to a big city is in itself – a trauma of all sorts that requires time and money to overcome. Do you have both?
3. You Will Have To Network Like Crazy
Your personal and professional survival will depend on how fast you move up within the new place. You will be the intruder who now wants to be part of the age-old hierarchy of the city. To find good studio rates, professional videographers, high-quality producers, other artists on the same level or higher, you will have to make chit-chat, asking questions, and supporting local talent part of your personality. If you’re an introvert, you’re better off at home.
2. The Competition Is Through The Roof
If you lived and worked in LA or NY even just for a week, you will soon discover that everybody is trying to be somebody. What does that do to you? Muffles your goals, brand image, and personality. Now it’s not just you being the avant-garde pop artist. Now even the janitor of the building you’re living in is performing at the Open Mic after hours at the pub down the street. And worst of all? He’s phenomenal at it. Now you don’t have people recognizing you anywhere anymore. Because even if they did, they couldn’t care less. You are all there for the exact same reason: to make it, and make it big at that. Being surrounded by stupidly talented people is awesome. For a while! If that’s all you surround yourself with, soon you’ll discover you can’t make any fans in this new place because you’re not that different from everyone else.
1. You Will Lose The Momentum You Created Back Home
This is probably the most disheartening reason of all that you should consider before moving to a big city. Here’s the deal: convincing people your music is worth listening to is harder than probably anything else in this world. So when you managed to move that needle even slightly in your favor in your hometown, push it until you’re a legit celebrity in your city. It will be much easier to take over the surrounding cities, then the states, then the country, when you’re a mini celebrity than when you have to convince people from SCRATCH that you’re a good musician. While you’ll be adapting to the new location and all else discussed above, you’ll be out of sight, and soon out of mind for your own folks. So zero momentum in the new place plus diminishing clout back home. Where does that leave you? Back at the very beginning of it all. Might as well get a new stage name and play another genre at this point because the impact will be the same.
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