If the market decides your songs are forgettable, then guess what? Your songs are forgettable. If the market, the listeners, decides that your new album is not worth their time… they’re right. They get to decide if your songs are great. Read the post.
When you analyze the money you can earn from streaming, you’ll find it’s difficult (at best) to earn enough to support yourself as an artist. But streaming is still valuable: it can be a gateway to discovery and other means of monetizing your fan base. Read the post.
Your best social media strategy is to entertain your fans throughout the year rather than just drop an album and disappear into the studio for 12 months. Create a strategy to make your fans anticipate your every release — music, videos, merch, and more — and attract new fans in the process. Read the post.
Here are three of our most popular Indie Music Minute videos so far, tackling the topics of being your own record label, mixing vs. mastering, and getting a mechanical license for YouTube. Read the post.
As an independent musician, you own a small business — and it’s time you realized it. To stop failing at music, you need to be a smart CEO. Read the post.
People train for everything: marathons, driving tests, hotdog-eating competitions! Why on earth wouldn’t you train for something as huge, as dangerous, as awe inspiring, as being able to succeed in the music business? Read More.
While pricing merch competitively is important, it’s just one piece of the puzzle. There are a number of other factors to consider if you want merch to be really profitable. Read More.
What’s in an artist brand? How do you develop one? And how do you best integrate your brand into your music merch endeavors? Read More.
If your music career spans any length of time, there will be those inevitable periods when you find yourself in a creative rut. The challenge is knowing how to work your way out and get back to the business of making your art. These tips can help. Read More.
You’ve heard it before, “it’s called the music business for a reason,” and one good business practice that can help you meet your music career goals is holding effective band meetings. To ensure your meetings go smoothly, check out the following eight easy-to-execute tips. Read more.
Your email list is yours to keep. Social sites have come and gone or fallen out of favor over time. And social sites usually aren’t as good at getting people to take action, so if you want ticket sales and CD purchases, you should start building your list. Now that we know why you need a mailing list, let’s look at six ways you can increase your subscriber count. Read more.
If you’re an independent artist, you’re probably already functioning as your own label. Keep making music and take advantage of the resources you have. Research blogs and reach out to the ones that post music you like that also matches your sound. Follow up. Build and keep relationships with bookers, bloggers, whoever seems to care about what you’re doing. Try to build a network of support around your music. Read more.
Your artist brand is whatever approach you take to the aspects of your career that provide definition to your fans and to the market place. Once a brand has been established, even in an organic way, it is important to nurture and uphold that brand through your online presence. After all, with all of the social media clutter and chaos, why not try to make it easier for your dedicated fans to find you and engage with you? Read more.
It is easier than ever to work globally to promote your music as an indie musician, artist, or band through the use of various online music platforms. These platforms provide access to a wide audience of potential fans and industry professionals, and with so many out there, it’s worth taking a look at some of the innovative and essential online resources for indie musicians that can help boost your musical career and profile. Read more.
Today we announced that in October we broke two of our all-time disc replication records, proving that — as much as ever — physical media is a crucial part of any musician’s product offerings and the CD is not yet dead. In October 2012, Disc Makers replicated 4,380,296 CDs, an increase of over 600,000 units from October, 2011. This figure outpaces Disc Makers’ prior all-time monthly CD & DVD replication record of 4,013,000 CDs, which had held since 2008. Read more.