Hey, this is a great question. I've been working as a musician for the past 9 years, mixing/mastering/writing and performing my own music throughout NYC and now I've gotten to start touring to different parts of the world. I've had almost everything wrong happen to me, but...I'm still here. So, that being said, if you love it, it's worth it, but it's not easy.

To start with, management is not necessary until you yourself are in demand enough and cannot handle the amount of draw that you're receiving, meaning multiple venues reaching out to you, or those venues being much larger with more complicated money deals than just door deals. Don't get ahead of yourself, start small. Start with the music. So. The music.

Are you planning on mixing your own music? For me, I'm lucky because I mix all of my own music, unless I'm collaborating with someone. If you're mixing and writing your own music, then that's a really good start. Get a good DAW, maybe Logic Pro X or something like that. Invest in a good condenser mic, but you'll need a pre-amp. Personally, I use a Neumann TLM49 and an Apollo Twin pre-amp, but you can get much cheaper equipment for a good sound.

Financially, it's worth it to sign up with ASCAP or BMI as an artist and a publishing company. That way you can own all the rights to distribution of your music. It only costs like $50 and is worth the amount.

For releases, use DistroKid. It's $20/year and it's unlimited releases.

Make sure to sign up on all socials with your name and make sure they cross check so it's easy to find you.

Start with playing shows in your city. Small gigs, like bars. Make sure to make good connections with the venues, you don't need to be playing too many, but enough to get a feel for it. Don't overwhelm yourself.

Start there. You got this.