MIC: Music Industry Connected | Home of The Mountain

A welcome from MIC's founder before you read the 6 steps of The Mountain, published on our website here.

Dear fellow musician,
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You may already have your music career in the palm of your hands, steadily moving. You may be at the very beginning with no idea where to start. You may be at a moment of overwhelm and discouragement. You may be flying high on a successful time right now. Wherever you are, we want you to keep going towards your dream music career - because all of our lives are made better with more artists and great art out there. Our way to help you forward is our Mountain - we believe it can help polish up all your efforts to bring you peace of mind in your direction, prevent future blockages by building strength ahead of time, and assure you that enjoying the journey also rewards it.
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Since our founding in 2013 as MIC PGH in Pittsburgh, PA, our research as musicians and with other musicians led our journey to create The Mountain, a simple way to visually conceptualize a music career - specifically what we refer to as "front-line" careers, being the performing artist or band yourself. We worked for many years to develop a visionary approach towards these front-line music careers that aimed for simplicity while covering all the necessary ground. The goal of our Mountain approach remains simple: to give musicians peace of mind in their music career journey by seeing the big picture of integrating the art, the business, and the personal. The Mountain gives musicians the perspective to focus on the "how" not simply the "what", because a music career is a venture, not a mere end-goal. The doing of the thing is the thing itself.

At this point in the history of the music industry, music careers can thrive in niches - with or without the help of record labels. It’s a journey not simply of being “good enough” or getting “lucky enough." Rather, it's one of creating your vision of truly great music product, seeing yourself and the music for what it is, and appropriately sharing it with the public in enough scale for it to spread to its niche potential while supporting your efforts financially.

The Mountain is especially unique because it aims to create power for the musician: growing self-realization in the art, increasing confidence and negotiation understanding in the business, and creating focus to diminish distractions and sustain energy in the personal. Specifically for the business, The Mountain simplifies and assimilates an understanding of Business Basics for a musician to achieve a high level of self-sufficiency and avoid label desperation. Working with a label can be very appropriate, but desperation to do so is one of the most common musician tragedies: forgetting that the label works best when it gets to do so as a fellow partner - not a captor nor a savior, trading too much music and brand ownership in an uneven relationship, accepting too high a level of debt agreement, or overlooking clauses that restrict artistry and lifestyles. In another way, since desperation is a negativity, it usually works against a musician by energy-leading the transaction to failure, with a label partner that otherwise may've been a good fit.

At the end of the day, there are so many pathways to a successful music career - so we're here simply to offer you some structure and valuable good energy to find yours.
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Hover your mouse over The Mountain above - it visually shows how a music career is a simple combination of upkeeping Maintenance and throwing Events to build both Fans and Money. Follow the 6 Steps chronologically, check off the necessary list items, then determine your unique path and climb towards your own Definition of Success, no one else’s.
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The Mountain is available free of charge here on our website, in the Sanctuary blog, because we believe a rising tide raises all ships and we can help the most musicians possible this way. If you want even more personalized help (especially with Step 4 Process Manual creation), we offer consulting sessions to educate you on what you specifically need help achieving. In those sessions we'll study your unique music career situation to train you how to self-sufficiently throw Events, pinpoint missed opportunities you may not know about, and empower you to tackle blockages by diving more deeply into practices and principles (for example, our theory of the “First Circle Conundrum” explains why the people in your life often can't be your fans - and how that is okay.) You will walk away with actionable Process Manuals of the actual "how" to do what you need to do - not just insistence on what you "should" be doing.

I personally thank all the teams of MIC interns and freelancers, and the many bands and artists over the years who contributed energy towards my hunt to write this type of holistic approach to conceptualizing a dream - and I thank everyone who helped me edit my drafts of the 6 Steps, because simplifying this method is what makes it truly great. And to whoever you are, fellow musician, I look forward to listening to your music, and hearing about your Mountain climb - begin, or continue, your adventure here.