We were lucky to catch up with Shane Anderson recently and have shared our conversation below.

Shane, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

We earn a full time living from playing music. This is what we do full time and a question we get asked all the time is… “is this enough to pay for your bills?” The answer is a resounding yes. I feel like if you turn what you love into a job, making money from it only comes naturally to you. I feel you can make more money doing what you love rather than doing what you don’t because you are willing to take more opportunities. More willing to get creative. More willing to put everything you have into it. Because not only is it fulfilling, but you are getting paid for it. It’s still crazy to me that I make money.. and a good amount of it.. doing what I would do for free.

I have to say that from the beginning, we didn’t make as much as we did then as we do now. HOWEVER I was still making more than I did with previous jobs. So it still felt unreal back then. When we first started out, we said yes to performing no matter what they paid. We were not picky. I know that there is a truth behind earning your keep before you can expect more financially but we said yes to anything mainly because we couldn’t believe we could make money playing music. It was such a strange thought.

I think If I knew then what I know now, I would have started playing the kind of shows we do now a lot sooner but I truly think the path we took (playing cover songs for 4 hours a night) was good for us. It taught us how to play together more professionally. It taught us how to play in front of a crowd. It’s very rewarding to look at where we started into where we are now.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

We are an indie folk band who travel and live full time in a school bus that we converted into an RV. We travel with our 3 kids and a tiny home that we pull behind that we converted for our traveling babysitters.

We got into playing music full time by playing cover music at bars, theme parks and beach restaurants in the Tampa Bay, Florida area. We did this every night… maybe taking 20 days off a year. We were young back then, not married and didn’t have kids. It was easier to be a workaholic back then. We started getting somewhat known in our area by performing cover songs you wouldn’t expect us to play and we would arrange our songs in a way that was super different then the original song. We started introducing our own music but we were mainly background music in those days.

We now play more intimate shows where we play our own music (and maybe a cover or two) in front of a listening environment where usually half the crown knows our songs while the other half are being introduced to our songs. It’s amazing to travel all over North America and see people singing your songs. People you don’t know. It’s a strange and amazing thing.

We recently bought property in Arkansas, near Branson Missouri, where we park our bus and play 7 months a year at a theme park called Silver Dollar City. Here we play little stages where people sit and listen to us share our travel stories and original music. Again… still in awe that we get to do this.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

There are many ways people can support and pour into creatives that they admire. I think it’s easy to see creatives these days as simply something they enjoy once in a while and it’s easy to forget that this is how they make a living.

I think if people wanted to truly support the artists that bring more to their life, each creative has specific ways that work best for them. Listening on Spotify, commenting and following on social media and going to shows are great ways. However I think a monthly support of some kind is the best way because it assures these creatives that they have something monthly they can always count on. Like a paycheck.

For US, we love Patreon because not only is it a way where people can support monthly but creatives are able to give extra content to these supporters. For example, we share exclusive stories on instagram with these patreons. We share also voice recordings of songs we’re working on. We share blogs with pictures on what we’re up to. Things like that. So even though you came to support, you’re still getting something a little extra that others don’t get.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I feel like social media is a great tool to get you known. To continually produce content that drives people to the space you REALLY want them to go. I think if you’re posting on social media just to gain followers but don’t have a final goal for those followers, you end up simply working for free for Instagram, Facebook, Youtube or Tiktok. There are times when these media outlets will pay you money for streams or something but it will never come close to the potential you could make in other areas.

All that to say… I love Instagram and YouTube. I feel that it helps drive people to our patreon which is our main goal. I love Spotify but that monthly support on Patreon is more reliable than any of these streaming sites.

This is just my personal perspective and honestly, not one that I have fully realized yet. while pursuing to get more streams or likes or follows, I forget often two main goals.

1. To drive people to something like Patreon that will help support financially the real main goal… which is…

2. To produce music that makes peoples day better. I know that sounds simple and there are lots of ways and reason people create music. But our personal goal is to bring peace and joy into the lives of those who listen to us. I want people to walk away and feel like listening to our music make them think about life in a more uplifting and joyful way. Life is hard. I want to provide something that makes it feel less hard.

OH… but I see the question really was… “how to build your audience on social media’. I feel that the reason behind is will help drive your success. Secondly, I think making your social media consistent and simple is really effective. If your page is full of random things, people don’t know what they are following. thirdly, making a reel that beautifully describes who you are and what you do, and then putting at least $5 a day behind boosting that post, has been helpful for us. I have a friend who puts $1000 a month behind their post. That created amazing results for them and they use that growth to promote booking shows across the country. And it works. They charge $2500 for their shows and ONE show a month brings in way more than what they spent on an Instgram add.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.arbourseason.com
• Instagram: @arbourseason
• Facebook: @arbourseason
• Youtube: @arbourseason
• Other: https://patreon.com/arbourseason