I have a 16 year old sister, and my sister and her friends are the only ones who seemingly have more drama going on in their lives than your average band. Band relationships by nature are very intense ones - all of your goals and dreams are wrapped up in each other, and you often have to spend a great deal of time together. So having a few epic, ultra-dramatic confrontations that seem worthy of an episode of Gossip Girls (or, well, whatever the kids watch these days) is not so uncommon. But how do you know when things have passed the point of no return? When is it time to quit the band?

Often, band relationships are worth salvaging - except when they're not. There are a few good reasons to jump ship, and despite how intensely personal and emotional bands can be, most of these good reasons are entirely pragmatic. One of the biggest red flags to look out for is that the goals of the band members are at cross purposes. If you're craving the long, hard slog of trying to "make it" in music while your band mates just like getting together and playing for kicks, then it's not going to work. On the flip side, if your band is game for going for it, but you have too many commitments to give it your all, then bowing out gracefully is the thing to do. Learn more about the signs that your band's days may be numbered.

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We've talked a lot in the past couple of weeks about applying for music business loans and looking for music industry investors - but what about arts council/creative industry endowment funding? To some people, the very notion of an arts council or other group that hands out money for music projects - in some case money that you don't even have to pay back (!!) - sounds a bit like the Tooth Ferry or Easter Bunny (let's leave Santa out of this). The reason for that is that the availability of these types of funds depends entirely on where you live. For instance, in Europe, there are tons of opportunities to receive money from government funded arts councils. In the US, not so much. But even if you don't live in a place with goverment arts funding, you may find there are charitable groups/private creative industry funding groups that fall into the non-commerical loan category with money available for you if you do a little research. Either way, it's worth knowing how to put together one of these applications. It's a different kettle of fish from, say, applying for a bank loan, but following the correct process is still the key. Learn more about writing a music industry funding application.

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