What’s Your Music Mission Statement?

May 26, 2021

A music mission statement should be an important aspect of any series musician. It has helped guide many careers and been a key factor in keeping many an artist focussed on their own music mission. Learn how a music mission statement can help you.

Do You Need A Mission Statement?

Before I discuss what a music mission statement is the first question I want to ask you is what do you want to get out of your music making? Is it important for you to make money? Have a career? Get your music into TV, film or games? Do you just want to get better at music, writing for fun or the enjoyment of sharing what you’ve done with others like your friends and family? Do you want to get better at making music with other musicians? Be it jamming with a group of like minded musos or collaborating online with producers sharing sessions and ideas. Answer these questions and you’re already on way to your music mission statement.

What Is A Music Mission Statement?

A mission statement is “a formal summary of the aims and values of a company or individual. A mission statement to which all employees can subscribe”. Definition from Oxford Languages.

So, if it’s important for a business to have some form of mission statement, which ultimiately leads to success and riches perhaps it should be taken seriously for us musicians and composers too. Especially if you have goals, be it improving your compositions, production skills or developing a career being paid to do what you love.

As musicians we may even need multiple short one sentence goals that we stick to the fridge, our foreheads or if you’re like me try and just remember it because I’ll forget where I wrote it down!

Multiple mission statements can be advantages because as musicians, producers, composer we have multiple goals. Get rich making music, win a Grammy, have lot’s of fans, have as many streams as Drake or Baby Shark usually comes first and second comes learn how to programme and produce beats, mix, master and last comes ‘I suppose I ought to learn some music theory’ and learn how to write music.

So if building a fan base, learning to record and distributing your own music to whoever is important to you that’s three mission statement already.

I will learn how to use my DAW, virtual instrument and plugs to produce the best quality music that will be enjoyed by my trailer music fanbase.
I will create a marketing strategy to connect my art to new fans and trailer libraries specifically with LA trailer houses.
I will learn how to use YouTube and Instagram and other social media platforms to promote my music with free music, music tips and most important of all my USP, I’m an expert Lutist who incorporates Lute solos with hybrid trailer music.

Ok , so this may all sound a bit fictional, which it is but the point I’m making is, if you are serious about your music set goals for yourself. It doesn’t whether you write them down, stick them in your phone or post it up on Facebook as a public declaration. Goals are good. I was lucky enough to attend a seminar for composers many years ago.

What's Your Jimi Hendrix?

Many years back at the start of my career I was lucky enough to attend a seminar for composers.

Christian Henson, who is a talented media and film composer was giving a masterclass. He talked about his career, dealing with clients and his method of composing, but the thing that struck me most was his purchase of an old amp owned by Jimi Hendrix. He mentioned the reason for buying the gear was (aside the cool factor of owning something by Jimi Hendrix) to impress clients when they came into the studio. Not for the purpose of showing off but as a distraction tactic. ‘Wow, that was used by Jimi Hendrix?’ Christian would play the cue and the impressed director would be receptive to his music. Me on the other “Hey, I’ve email you the cue” Client, “great thanks, yeah it’s not really working for us.” The mistake I’d been making was not putting my clients in a receptive state of mind and I needed to adapt my mission statement to include it.

Something along the lines of: Produce high quality media music and develop lasting relationships with directors and series producers through offering a unique experience beyond the music.

I did things such as taking client out to lunch, stay in touch a Christmas, made the effort to go to their offices rather than type an email. These things added value to them and fulfilled my mission statement of offering a more unique approach to the relationship.

So how does all this relate to a music mission statement? Christian built into his client relationship a way of finding common ground away from music with his Hendrix purchase. A clever and astute means of building his brand. I’m sure it also served as a talking point recommending Christian for more work? Assuming both are equally talented, which composer would you remember the one in an email or the guy with the Hendrix gear?

Be clear about your mission statement and find ways to be astute and unique.

Are Your goals Set?

Some of the things you may want to consider when setting goals for your music mission statement are:

what music do you want to write?
who is your music intended for?
what do you want to achieve from writing music?

Take each answer that you create and write down or think about your answers.

I want to write music for a Drama series like Baptiste or Ozark because I have great skills in writing music for Nordic Noir type dramas and excel at dark hybrid driven scores. It’s crucial to focus on your strengths and use them wisely. Kylie Dixon and Michael Stein wrote the music for Stranger Things based on a specific skill set that was a perfect match. Stick to your guns, there’s always a perfect match for you.
The music I write will be perfect match for film makers such Jan Mattys or Thomas Napper, directors that have both worked in noir dramas and gripping TV. These are my ‘perfect customer’. Here your are thinking about who is it that would be receptive to your style and why.
I want to first see my name roll on the credit of a crime drama series and second I want to sustain and develop relationships that will lead to more credits rolling on screen long into the future. The first goal is a short term goal the second is a longer more sustainable goal. Both are important but the second one is the key to success. The first job is easy to get, keeping them coming years into the future is the hard part.

If it seems like this it doesn’t really relate to you stop and consider if you’re missing out. A mission statement can be both personal and professional. It can help you focus music goals and professional direction as well as your own personal reasons for wanting to be in the business of music and play as a constant reminder when things are tough or if you hit on harder times, as we all do in this business.

It's A Producer's Life

Sean Giovanni is a succefull producer and engineer, working with some of the biggest artists on the planet today. When interviewed on the Producer Life Podcast (check it out it’s a great podcast!) he talked about his Purpose Statement that he made early in his career. He has used his Purpose Statement his whole career to keep focused on current work, future goals and acts as a constant reminder as to why he does what he does and why he loves working with artists and producing music.

Sean breaks his statement into two parts:

to help artists achieve their creative vision.
to stay personally resilient, making sure that high standards are constantly upheld no matter how you are feeling.

Sean Giovanni’s Purpose Statement

“Help artist achieve their creative vision and create art that outlast us”

This is a brilliant example of a mission statement that in one sentence provides a strong statement of intent that I’m sure keeps Sean focussed and has helped not just drive his career but given it purpose and direction too.

I don’t know what your goals are, that’s for you to decide but it doesn’t matter how small or big they are.

Whether it’s to:

gain a foothold in the film industry or record business
learn to play the guitar or
learn how to use that Spitfire library properly
learning how to get better at orchestrating and arranging your music so it sound full and good.

If you set yourself goals by writing a mission statement, whatever it is stick to it and you’ll reap the rewards!

If one of your goals is to learn more about music why not sign up to my mailing list and consider joining a coaching programme in the near future to help you on your musical journey. You can sign up below!