We were lucky to catch up with Michele Mclaughlin recently and have shared our conversation below.

Michele, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?

I am a full time musician (solo piano) earning a very good living from my music and creative work and have been doing so since 2007. I make most of my income from streaming royalties from Pandora, Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, etc., and I earn additional royalties from various other sources for the streams and plays of my music. I sell music on my website as well as Amazon… CDs, sheet music, songbooks, digital versions of all of those, and other various merchandise. Additional income comes from touring, concerts, live-streaming, music videos, licensing, etc. I stumbled into this career sort of by accident. I released my first album of original solo piano works in 2000, with the intention of giving my music to friends and family as Christmas presents. My first album was a compilation of 20 songs I had written over the course of my childhood and early adult years. I was incredibly shy then and didn’t often play piano in front of people, so when I shared this first album of my musical works, the positive and enthusiastic feedback I received inspired me to write another album, and then another after that. I did this for several years and in 2003 I submitted my music to iTunes and MusicChoice Soundscapes, which was accepted and started gaining me exposure around the world. I submitted my music to Whisperings Solo Piano Radio in 2005 and started making friends in the solo piano community, which led me to my first official concert performance in 2007 with fellow artist, Gary Girouard in my hometown of Salt Lake City. That concert experience was a pivotal point for me and inspired me to want to do more with my music. Fortunately, at that point I was selling enough music on iTunes to be able to pay my bills, so I quit my day job as a project manager to work on music full time. That was in June of 2007, and for the next several years my music exposure and income grew steadily and consistently thanks to iTunes, YouTube, and Pandora. A lot of exposure and growth came because of Pandora Radio and all the stations and places they played my music, and still continue to play my music. And now, Spotify is another big way that people are finding my music, as well as Amazon and SiriusXM. It’s been seventeen years that I’ve been a full-time musician and I now have just shy of 2 Billion spins across all the streaming platforms, I’ve been featured in Rolling Stone Magazine, have been on the Billboard charts eleven times with five of my albums, and have millions of fans worldwide. For something that started as a hobby of making albums as Christmas presents, it’s become an integral part of who I am, and how I live my life.

Michele, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Hi! My name is Michele McLaughlin and I am a solo pianist and musical recording artist. I write and create solo piano music and have released twenty-two albums of my original solo piano works. I am currently getting ready to release my twenty-third album in a couple of months, with a twenty-fourth album coming in the spring of 2025.

My music is very much a musical diary of my life… my joys, my sorrows, my frustrations and struggles, my adventures, my love, my heartbreak, etc. Most of my music is written about and inspired by events in my life and how those experiences have shaped me. I have entire albums themed around my travels, my relationships, my experiences, etc. I think that is one of the things that makes my music so popular, because it makes people feel something, and they can relate to the stories and the inspiration behind the music. I’m very open about my life and my experiences and people really connect with that.

My genre and style is a mix of contemporary, new age, classical, pop, and whatever feels or sounds good to my ear and heart. I am self taught, I cannot read sheet music, have never taken a music class, and I play entirely by ear. I started playing piano when I was young, around 5 years old, and started writing and composing my own music when I was 8 years old after seeing George Winston in concert. I was so inspired by George Winston’s music, that I learned to play his music by ear, which in many ways helped me learn to play piano.

I released my first album in the year 2000, as a Christmas present for friends and family. Over the next several years I released an album a year, as Christmas gifts. In 2003 my music was added to iTunes, and was being played on MusicChoice Soundscapes. In 2005 my music was added to Whisperings Solo Piano radio, and in 2007 I performed in my first official concert with fellow musician, Gary Girouard, which inspired me to start thinking about my music as more than just yearly Christmas presents. Later in 2007 I was making enough money from my music to be able to quit my project management job to work on music full time. I started doing more concerts and in 2012 I went on my first official tour with fellow artist and friend, Scott D. Davis. We toured up the West coast from San Diego to Seattle, and then finished in Salt Lake City. That tour was so much fun that we decided to do another larger tour in 2013, where we played 30 shows across 27 states and were on the road for two months. I have a song called “11,000 Miles” which is about that touring adventure. I have since toured many other times with several other musical colleagues and friends, doing shows all around the United States. I stopped touring when COVID shut the world down, and haven’t quite gotten back to that, yet. I currently live in Salt Lake City, Utah, and I spend my “work time” writing music, managing my online store, selling and shipping CDs, Songbooks and Sheet Music to customers who buy and play my music, and engaging with fans and friends on social media. I am always writing music, and always working on future projects, and I “work” doing something that I absolutely love, which doesn’t feel like work.

I have had several really proud moments in my career, milestones that I’m extremely grateful for and proud of, and the one that tops all others is being featured in Rolling Stone Magazine in 2018. I was interviewed about making a living as a pianist, and not only did they publish the article online, they included a snippet of that article in their printed edition. I’m featured on the same page as Clint Eastwood, which is pretty cool. It means a great deal to me as well, because I’m not considered a mainstream artist, and I’m not in a genre that Rolling Stone typically features, so I feel really honored to be included there. I am also very proud of my Billboard Charting, eleven times, with five of my albums. Winning “Album of the Year” in 2013 at Whisperings Solo Piano Radio is another highlight, and taking second place for “Album of the Year” at SoloPiano.com, next to one of my all time musical icons, George Winston (who took first place), is a huge honor as well. I’m very proud that I have nearly 2 billion spins across all the streaming platforms and am considered one of the top artists in my genre. To me, all of those things are humbling, they’re an incredible honor, and I am deeply grateful.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

I think the most rewarding part of sharing my music with the world, is the way that my music impacts people. I write music for me, because it’s my therapy and my outlet for release, and it’s something I’m just drawn to and need to do at a visceral level. And I put that music out into the world because I’m excited for people to hear it and play it and connect with it. I love sharing my creations with others and I love hearing about how they connect with it, how it makes them feel, how it impacts them. And the way that people connect with my music is always such a profoundly heartwarming experience for me, because I could have never imagined how important this music that I create could be to other people who hear it. I have received letters in the mail, emails paragraphs long, stories of how my music has touched someone, so deeply, all sharing how their lives were changed, or how my music literally saved their life, healed them in some way, or put them on a new trajectory after hearing it. It’s mind-boggling how a song, something that just came from inside my own soul because of my own experience, can reach someone, somewhere else in the world, who is experiencing something in their own life, and that song changes them, in the same kinds of ways that it changes me when I write it. To know that my music is having an impact on people, and emotionally connecting with people, and helping people in deeply profound ways that I could never possibly imagine, is something so special and wonderful and meaningful.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I constantly have remember to not stand in my own way. I am often standing in my own way, listening to the doubt and insecurities that creep in from time to time. As a musical artist, I suffer occasionally from imposter syndrome, or comparison syndrome, and I let those negative thoughts and feelings prevent me from being productive, or being creative, or feeling like I don’t belong or have a place for my music or that I’m not good enough.

There have been so many times I’ve released an album that I’m so excited about, and then begin to feel like I’ll never be able to write any more music, or music that would be good enough, or music that would be better than what I just released. Sometimes I feel like I’ve reached the pinnacle of my creativity and it’s all just downhill from here. I have to remember that creativity happens when it happens and it can’t be forced, and when I’m in a truly creative space that feels good and free and inspired, I make music that I really connect with, which is usually music that others connect with, and beautiful things happen because of that.

There have been so many times I’ve watched my colleagues and peers have their own accomplishments and accolades, and then feel like I’m not good enough, or won’t reach those same heights, or I’m not deserving like they are, or even worse, feeling like I should be having those same experiences but I’m not, so something must be wrong with me. I have to remember that I’m on my own journey, and I’m working hard at my own career, and we are all different artists and different people with different products and different fans. I remember that my accomplishments have been something that others have looked up to, just as I’m often looking up to other colleagues accomplishments. A quote I love is “the rising tide raises all ships in the harbor”, and I believe that to be true. When we support each other, instead of comparing ourselves to each other, we rise higher and stronger together.

There have been so many times I’ve let hurtful or mean online comments from fans or listeners pull me down and make me feel bad about myself, and place doubt and insecurity in my heart. I have to remember that for every handful of wonderful comments I receive, there will always be a few comments that are hurtful and mean, and to just ignore those because they really have nothing to do with me or my music, and so much more to do with the person making those comments.

In all of these moments, I have to remember and relearn that positive thoughts will always triumph over negative ones. When I’m feeling those dark and negative thoughts, when I’m feeling fearful, or I’m filled with doubt and insecurity, the best thing I can do is pivot and I replace them with gratitude and thankfulness and kindness and love and empathy, and hope. In those moments when I work to focus on the good, I’m often re-inspired with a new outlook.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://michelemclaughlin.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/michelemclaughlin
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/michelemclaughlinmusic
• Twitter: https://x.com/michelemclaughl
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/michelemclaughlinmusic
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/michelemclaughlin
• Other: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4FtcVLw0u7qvqrJYLHkHZn?si=VPWvbWTZS5KBnx5dN0QHkg

  Official Linktree: https://linktr.ee/michelemclaughlin

Image Credits

Davi Gates Livingston at Sophia Shay Photography