Do You Have To Move To Make It In Music?
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THEM: So, you wanna be a singer.
How BADLY do you want to be a singer?
Its a competitve industry.
Are you prepared to move cities to pursue your music?
YOU: ….. um….. yes I want to be a singer but do I reallllllly have to move? I like my home. Its snuggly and nice here. All my friends are here.
Please help!
I hear you my friend. This is the exact thing I struggled with a year ago. So today I’ll share my experience of living and working abroad as a singer in London. Yep, I moved to the other side of the world for my music and I’m going to dish out the positives and negatives of the move so that hopefully, you can make an informed decision as to whether you want to move cities/ countries for your music.
Nicola x
Did you find this video helpful?
Let me know in the comments below!
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thank you! very helpful indeed!!
Hi Nicola,
It sounds like you had or are having.. a really tough time in London. Moving by yourself was difficult enough but more so as you got sick. The supports we take for granted in Australia are often in stark contrast to what we find out oseas, eh? not to mention trying to adjust to a totally new music scene, culture shock and being isolated in a city of millions. You have a really good attitude though which is a great resilient source of strength. Well done you. I get a feeling you are also feeling a bit disappointed it didn’t turn out as you hoped.. naturally… But don’t…because you are an awesome musician and nothing wrong with being an awesome singer, musician, teacher right here. Australia needs talented musicians too. Why disappear into the whirlpool of musos all beating down the same doors,trying for the same dreams willing to take almost nothing in money as a reward for a lifetime of hard work and study to get shit.. lets face it.. as well as all that really hard work and hours and hours of practice, as well being gifted and developing a great voice..you are just ONE of hundreds with the same resume in London, or New York…there is still a LOT of “who you know” in the business, and a HUGE pinch of luck. Nothing wrong with being a standout right here, right now. I know you don’t like Melbourne.. but I bet you would be welcomed and rejoiced at the jazz venues.. fly in stay a bit, do the gigs, home to Perth, perfect! We are all behind you. Hope your dreams come true for 2018. Stay strong gal!
Thanks Rose! London has actually been a good experience and everything was falling nicely into place until I got sick. That’s the main reason I’m going home.. plus I miss the sun! 🙂
Interesting insight of your experiences in London and Perth. Thank you for sharing. It’s clear that the grass is not always greener on the other side of the fence. Was it easy to get settled as a performing artist in the UK with all the new stricter immigration regulations? In your case I guess it was probably easier to get into the UK by virtue of your British parents. Finding accommodation was probably also not easy and very expensive to rent a place to stay near your work place in London. I agree with your analysis that with the latest online technologies artists have the potential to grow a global following whilst living locally in their home countries.
I have a passport so it was easy for me. Things actually fell easily into place at the start. I found a lovely flat, got a well paying part time job, made a bunch of really cool friends etc… but then I got really sick so it stuffed everything up. It was definitely a good life experience though. Looking forward to going home and hanging out at the beach!
That was really interesting Nicola, but when all said and done. you needed to find out for yourself.
All the best.x
I’m sure you would agree that your stay in London overall was well worth the sacrifice. That is something a lot of people don’t understand. It takes a lot of personal sacrifice to make it in this business, and there are no guarantees you will be successful.
Safe travels back home, and keep us posted when you start touring. My wife and I both would love to see you perform in person.
Thanks Billy! Yes, it was worthwhile for sure. I’ve learned so much this past year so I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
Love the honest approach and all the great value you are bringing to other singers by sharing your experiences.
Enjoy all of your posts
Thank you as they have been and are still helpful.
How do I get a reply from singers secret.com?
Hi MaryLouise, Thanks for your comment! Glad youre finding the vids helpful! 🙂
Hey Nicola
Nice Vid! Good insight into your experience.
What you didn’t mention is you had the guts and commitment to improve your career/ follow your dream(s), so ‘Props to You’ for doing.
You obviously worked out the game of how to get to your success, which you are doing from homebase in Oz.
This often can only be learnt by going to where the movers and shakers do business and having a crack then joining the dots of where you are and where you want to be, finally deciding how you are going to get there .
I look forward to following your journey and success.
Thanks for all your wonderful information, I am really enjoying your site! I have a question, what do you do when you quickly emerge from a rural community but get shunned by the urban music community? Our band is from Canada and our largest city in our province has only a modest population and the rest of the population is miles of tiny towns spread thin and one other much smaller city. Once our band got into some major, but still tiny festivals there was audible and visible jealousy from the bands who assumed we hadn’t “paid our dues” which left industry networking next to impossible. Now we are trying to break in after moving to the city. Our initial fans are a five hour or more drive away making it hard to prove that we have a following and as a result We are finding it hard to get into small venues now. Would it be better to go for an online reach through Vimeo, Instagram, blogging, Youtube ect… given our situation and not worry about trying to actually play locally for the time being?
We do our own house concerts and are trying to network with community organizations to do fundraisers and similar functions, is this more valuable as well?