Jake Stokes - Producer + Mixer

Something I don’t really talk about on here is the business side of my music career.

I’ve been lucky to make a full-time living from music my entire adult life, through a mix of teaching, running a 300+ student music school, studio work, and performing. Being a 'business person' has always felt a little tacky to me, and at odds with the 'starving artist'/creative side at my core, but over the years I’ve realised it’s actually the opposite. The more organised and systems-driven things are, the more freedom I have to focus on the creative work.

I constantly get asked by friends and colleagues how to actually make music financially viable: how to get students, find clients, and build something stable enough that you’re not relying on unrelated work to get by.

I thought I'd turn this into something a little more organised (go figure), more fun, and more accessible. I’ve put together a small (and free!) accountability group for musicians who are serious about building a career that uses their music skills. The focus will be on actually making progress, not just talking about ideas, with weekly homework tasks, regular workshops (on topics like business setup, getting students, client acquisition, marketing, networking etc) alongside a group of like minded people to answer to and hold yourself accountable.

Long term, I’ll probably turn this into a more structured, paid offering but for now, I want to keep it small and focused so I can work closely with everyone and make sure it’s genuinely useful.

Our first meetup will be this coming Wednesday (the 25th) at 8:30pm CET. In NZ that’s 8:30am on Thursday.

If that sounds relevant to you, send me a message and we can talk about adding you to the group :)