We were lucky to catch up with Nicholas Mason recently and have shared our conversation below.

Nicholas, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s start with a story that highlights an important way in which your brand diverges from the industry standard.

As a business-minded musician, I make every effort to serve my clientele in the following two ways:

Crafting an Extraordinary Visual and Sonic Experience
Aligning the client’s vision and intentions with my skills and abilities, before & during their event

I believe many musicians fail to excel, or even attempt to excel, at both of these concepts. I am always a work-in-progress myself, but I do believe I spend the majority of my time and money focusing on these two concepts, whereas many other musicians focus completely on the wrong tasks and investments that do not allow them to be successful entrepreneurs in the entertainment business.

Nicholas, 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?

I have been playing piano since I was six years old. It is my truest passion, and throughout middle and high school I was playing in my school’s jazz band, singing in their choirs, and performing locally at bars and restaurants as a soloist and with bands. Throughout college and beyond, I have continued evolving on this music journey.

Fast forward to 2022/2023, I decided I want to not only play music for fun, but to build a business around it, and start the process of turning it into my full-time income stream. In order to do this, I specifically market myself and my bands (under my company Jazz Supreme Entertainment) to perform at private and public events that are happy to pay high prices for top-tier entertainment. Examples of my typical gigs include me performing as a soloist during a wedding ceremony, my jazz combos performing at corporate cocktail events, or my larger bands performing at city-sponsored shows and festivals.

The reason why musicians can charge high prices at these events is because they are crafting a custom experience for that specific client, both visually and sonically. In this day in age, hearing music is so easily accessible to most people. It is simple for someone to go onto an app like Pandora or Spotify and hear their favorite songs at their birthday party, wedding, etc. Since this is the current world we live in, musicians need to go above and beyond, not only be talented at their specific instrument, but make their performances engage and captivate audiences in ways that recorded music or artificial intelligence could never accomplish.

My truest mission as a business-owner and musician is to make every performance the most unforgettable experience possible for the audience. I want them to hear and see something they have never seen before. I want to pull people outside of this everyday routine reality we all live in, and put them into an environment that feels truly magical and uplifting. I truly believe the more of these experiences musicians can create, the more joyous, inspired, and united our society will become.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

The most effective strategy has been building up my profiles and positive reviews on entertainment booking sites such as the Bash and Zola. Anyone hosting or planning an event can use these sites to find the exact entertainment they are looking for. Once they see everything I have to offer on those sites, it is easy to build their trust, and make them willing to pay my requested rates.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

Live performances are not treated the same way as a typical 9-5 salaried or hourly job. It is contract work where the pay ranges for each musician depending on several variables.

I have several musicians that perform with me in my bands. I try my best to pay them above average rates for the gigs I book for them, and I am always conscious of the amount of hassle and preparation each musician endures for any one specific gig. Sometimes due to budget constraints, I cannot pay these musicians the rates I would like, but during these instances I consistently remind them that certain gigs may not pay off in the moment, but because of the specific audience at the event, could lead to much better opportunities for our entire team in the future. During the building phase of a company, it is important to keep my musicians/contractors enthused about the overall vision of the company, and therefore willing to make a financial sacrifice once in awhile if there is a high ROI in alternative ways.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://jazzsupremeent.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jazzsupreme_ent/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61552744288971
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@JazzSupremeEntertainment
• Other: nickmasonpiano.com (my personal website)

Image Credits

Moises Linares
CJ Cristobal