WELCOME TO the Mountain.
*Covid-world Update Unrolling now.*

‍MIC is "Music Industry Connected" because
The Mountain connects the puzzle pieces of a music career,
bringing you peace of mind in your big picture by balancing the art, the business, and the personal.

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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Founder Emily Plazek here. I'm unrolling the 2020-Covid-World Update to The Mountain because of what's happened to live music. I'll cut to the chase: when things are out of our control, we either pivot or we get real upset. Tempting as the illusion is (I get it), I do not recommend getting upset, your individual life is too valuable for that, and there are other pieces of life to be lived through your music career. Welcome back to The Mountain - may it give you some of that mind-strength you're looking for right now.

Maybe your music career is in the palm of your hands, steadily moving. Perhaps this is your beginning, and you don't really have an idea of where to start. Is this a moment of overwhelm and discouragement? Are you flying high on a successful time right now? Wherever you are, MIC exists because because all of our lives are made better with more artists and great art out there, so we're here to tell you to follow your gut and keep going your unique way. I offer you The MIC Mountain to bring 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 (satisfaction is a serious secret). 
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Since its founding in 2013 as MIC PGH in Pittsburgh, PA, I've led MIC's research with teams of (incredible) interns, bands & artists across genres/locations/budgets, and as an active musician myself, Millaze (because I don't believe anyone should give advice they don't also follow themselves). I used our findings to create The Mountain because the world needs a simple way to visually conceptualize a music career - specifically, "front-line" careers (our handy nickname), acting as performing artist or band yourself.

What do front-line musicians want out of a "music career"? What structures do they need to make for themselves, or risk losing it all? How can they make a music career work for them, and not be a slave to it? (Spoiler alert: most musicians fail themselves in that last one.) The Mountain is the answer to these questions: re-seeing what a "music career" is. It's a game-changing, visionary mental approach to front-line music careers through mental perspectives of strength and simplicity - not the hungry ghosts of endless hype promises. Overwhelm & endless dissatisfaction can be defeated - by seeing the big picture and balancing the art, the business, and the personal. Music careers can (should!) work for you, not the other way around. They can be tools to improve your quality of life, not harm them, if wielded correctly. The Mountain gives musicians the perspective to focus on the "how" not solely the "what" - because it's easy to tell musicians "what to do to have a music career", but mere education is not enough to actually make a music career (let alone a music career that improves quality of life). Musicians start with that education, then they need energy, strategy, & means of execution that bank on their own artistic style of living (or they risk of not enjoying the process, which is the whole point of having a music career). 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 find 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. On the other hand, a music career can also easily ignore that entire last sentence and literally ruin lives if not viewed from the right angle of mind-strength. What do we mean by angles? The Mountain is sprinkled with helpful nuggets like our theory of the “First Circle Conundrum” about why the people in your life often can't be your fans - and how that is okay. Yes, the Mountain contains much more where that came from.
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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. Every artist starts as "indie" now and either (1) remains indie through a high level of self-sufficiency, or (2) prepares their music product and business pitch for label-signing. 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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So where is The Mountain? It's here on our website, in the Sanctuary blog, waiting for you to read it right now. Yes, everything you read above is a lot of jargon to promote something I decided to give out for free here on our website. Look, we don't have enough time to work with every musician individually - and it's not in my personal definition of success to hoard this information and dangle it like a juicy carrot. Plenty of musicians don't need to buy something from MIC because no one can actually sell mind-strength. If you do need help though (with Step 4 Process Manual creation, Publishing Setup, or short-term Event Coaching) I offer personal consulting sessions, so please reach out.

‍Remember: while you read The Mountain's 6 Steps, refer to the Mountain visual - you'll come to see that music careers are a simple combination of upkeeping Maintenance and throwing Events to build a Music World's 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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Thank you, all my interns, freelancers, and musician friends over the years. We did what no one else has ever done. We created a holistic approach to conceptualizing a dream that helps improve the quality of peoples' lives, instead of the pocket-digging the way most of our industry does. We are the living proof, writing/recording/performing music on the regular, living our best lives while working with the realities of our human bodies & brains. And to whoever you are, fellow musician, welcome to The Mountain, too - begin, or continue, your adventure here.

- Emily Plazek

Creator of The Mountain
Founder/Lead Strategy Expert
MIC: Music Industry Connected
October 28, 2020