Skeptic Music

Last week, we had the privelage having Danny and Brian, two St. Thomas graduates and founders of a really cool business called Skeptic Music. In essence, Skeptic Music is a recording studio, that creates and records music for television shows, commercials, and film scores. Danny and Brian write the majority of the music themselves and distribute it to major advertisers. The two most important concepts I gained from these lectures was, one it's important to just do it, and two have a fast turn around on whatever it is you're doing.

The first point of just doing something is exemplified by Danny and Brian. After graduating neither of them knew how to record, but they did it anyways, slowly perfecting their craft through trial and error. In addition, neither of them always knew exactly how to compose the music they were being asked to create, but they did it anyways, by listening and studying the foreign music. On top of all of that, they were able to learn those skills quickly and utilize them to create a professional product.

Observing the career path to Brian and Danny's success reinforced the concepts we've been learning in Creating a Life in music which is; the most important thing to do is try, and you have to be professional no matter what you do.

Tax Returns

The life of a musician is generally hectic, scheduling gigs, writing music, teaching students, rehearsing, and everything in between are all time consuming. Add on top of that the difficulty of filing your own taxes as an independent entrepreneur, it can be to much for one person to handle. Therefore, the two best things an independant musician can do to keep the money they earn from dissolving into taxes is one hire an account that specializes in filing taxes for musicians, and two keep detaied and accurate records of your financial transactions.

Hiring an accountant that specializes in filing tax returns for musicians is paramount. These people know the rules of engagment including; what types of write offs, credits, and benefits are available to musicians. In addition, keeping detailed records will save you money form paying the accountant to organize your receipts. In gist knowing about filing your own taxes is great, but hiring an accountant is so much more efficient, saving you time and money, that you can use to practice and buy reeds...if you're me anyways.