Make It As An Independent

Helping musicians maximize their potential by using online marketing tools, insights and strategies to increase music exposure and attract life-long fans.

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Music Marketing Blog

MUSIC MARKETING FOR INDEPENDENT ARTISTS

With so much competition for attention out there, it’s harder for musicians to stand out of the clutter. The aim of this site is to guide you through the music marketing and business space to improve your chances of making a living off music and continue making a positive impact in people’s lives.

Jun 23
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Spotify Playlist Guide

Spotify Playlist Guide: How to Improve Discoverability for Your Music

By Music Streaming, Playlists, Spotify No Comments

In this modern digital age, streaming has become the primary way for us to discover, listen, and share new music. For musicians, this accessibility has allowed their songs to be discovered by new potential fans from all over the world.

One of the ways to reach new fans is through Spotify playlists.

Spotify playlists can potentially put you in front of the right people who are more likely to be into your music and turn into proper fans.

As an independent artist, it’s important to understand how Spotify works and how its playlist system can bridge the gap between you and potential fans.

However, the climate for streaming platforms like Spotify is competitive, so just uploading your song will not be enough. Keep in mind that 20,000 to 40,000 new songs are added to Spotify each day!

In this blog, I will go over the different types of Spotify playlists as a discovery tool to help you get more exposure for your music. Read More

Jun 23
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How to Improve Your Song’s Performance in Spotify’s Algorithmic Playlists

By Music Streaming, Playlists, Spotify No Comments

Want your music to show up more on Spotify’s Discovery Weekly and Release Radar to get discovered by new potential fans?

Discover Weekly playlists have been streamed for over 2.3 billion hours between July 2015 and June 25, 2020. It can be a powerful tool to get more exposure for your songs within the Spotify ecosystem.

Spotify’s goal is to make the best song recommendations for their users based on individual listening behaviors, habits and music preferences. They use several metrics to evaluate what songs get included in their algorithmic playlists for a particular listener. No one knows for sure what all the metrics are since Spotify doesn’t share that information publicly.

However, there’s strong reason to believe saves are a strong signal for Spotify. Generally, a lot of emphasis is on getting more streams, but that’s only part of it.

In this blog, I will break down what the save-to-listener rate is and other key factors you need to know about. Working on these metrics will improve your chances of getting on Spotify’s algorithmic playlists and get more exposure for your music.
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May 27
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Canva Cover Art Banner

How to Make FREE Cover Art for Your Upcoming Album or Single Release

By Music Business, Music Distribution One Comment

Are you an independent artist on a budget looking to create album or single cover art for your upcoming release?

In this blog, I will go over everything you’ll need to know about cover art, including requirements to upload to your music distributor, cover ideas and other free tools you might need. It’s very easy for anyone to do, even without graphic design experience.

Most importantly, I’m going to show you how you can do it yourself with free apps online, so it doesn’t cost you anything. Read More

Apr 30
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Patreon

Patreon for Musicians: My eBook Preview + Guest Blogs

By Music Business, Patreon No Comments

Instead of publishing a blog on my website for the month of April, I decided to write 2 guest contributions on other blogs. Because a lot of musicians are looking for alternative income sources right now with the COVID-19 pandemic, I decided to write the first edition of my Patreon guide for musicians.

What people may not know is that I currently manage one of the top-ranked music creator pages on Patreon. I’ve helped launch and manage Patreon campaigns for 3 separate artists so I’m quite familiar with the platform. In this eBook, I wanted to reveal everything I know on how to set up, launch and grow a membership business.

As much as I advocate and support a membership model through a platform like Patreon, I want to emphasize that Patreon is not for everyone. The concept sounds great for artists, but in reality, it’s not easy to execute. This is especially true if you’ve not an established artist with a larger following.

If you’ve thought about Patreon or just want to learn more, check out the articles I’ve written below and consider downloading the eBook. Keep in mind that I’m making the first edition free. I plan to charge for future editions when I add more content to it. Read More