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Music Marketing Blog

A Resource for Independent Artists
Dec 30
Love0

Can Artists Really Survive Without Their Music on Spotify?

By Discovery, Music Streaming, Spotify No Comments

Over the past few years, more and more artists have grown increasingly frustrated with Spotify. Between hosting ICE ads, the rise of ghost artists, favoritism towards major label artists and the former CEO’s investments in military AI, it’s understandable why some artists feel conflicted about allowing the company to profit off their art.

Because of this, we’ve seen artists actively pull all their music from Spotify, with many more wondering if they should do the same.

What actually happens if you remove your catalog from Spotify? Can you still sustain a career without your music on the biggest music streaming platform in the world? Read More

Dec 15
Love2

How Artists Should Spend a $1,000 Budget Promoting a Song in 2026

By Content Creation, Discovery, Music Promotion No Comments

If you only had $1,000 to promote a song as an independent artist, how should you spend it? In this blog, I’ll break down the approach I recommend based on what is most cost-effective in 2026.

Regardless of whether you’re a developing or established artist, the main goal here isn’t to rack up Spotify streams. Instead, the focus is on maximizing reach for discovery and brand awareness while building your social media following. Why? Read More

Apr 29
Love107
Single Release Checklist for Independent Artists

The Ultimate Single Release Checklist for Independent Artist in 2026

By Music Business, Music Distribution, Music Promotion 9 Comments

Last Updated on 4/20/2025

Planning to release a new single? Don’t want to miss any steps?

Putting out a new song is relatively straightforward, but there are a lot of things that go into the process of a successful release.

In this blog, I will discuss everything independent artists need to know about releasing singles. On top of that, I will share my checklist that I use for my clients. I will cover the entire process in depth so you can feel confident you’re doing all you can to reach your goals with the release. Whenever you release music, feel free to use this blog as a reference so you have all your bases covered. Read More

Mar 12
Love0

Going Viral? Here’s How Musicians Can Capitalize on the Momentum

By Content Creation, Going Viral, Social Media No Comments

You’ve been posting short-form videos regularly on social media, and you notice the views for a video start to pick up quicker than usual. You begin to get more notifications about comments and shares that continue to increase each hour. There’s a chance you may be going viral.

Even if you have a video go viral, it doesn’t stop there. There are things you want to do to capitalize on this momentum and keep it going for as long as you can.

Whether you’re still trying to build traction for yourself on social media or you find yourself on the cusp of a viral moment on social media, here are some points to do and consider. It’s always good to keep these points in the back of your mind so you’re ready when it happens. Read More

Feb 12
Love0

12 Ways Musicians Can Promote Live Shows and Tours

By Live Performance, Music Business No Comments

Live performance is often the most important revenue source for an independent artist. It is in your best interest to promote your shows and draw a crowd, no matter what stage of your career you are in or how established you are.

When working with agents, promoters, talent buyers and venues, you always want to make sure to make a good impression to build those business relationships. Not only by being professional but by doing everything you can to sell out the show. Read More

Jan 22
Love1

How to Window Your Next Music Release to Maximize Revenue

By Music Business, Music Distribution, Strategy No Comments

One of the biggest issues artists face is music streaming. While it’s great for fans to access almost every song imaginable, the payouts for artists from these platforms are too low for most to depend on.
 
Creating music professionally and marketing releases can be quite expensive. Typically, artists recoup those expenses by doing a tour and selling merch. However, to help generate money upfront, a trend we’re seeing more recently is this concept of windowing a release.
 
In this blog, I will talk about what windowing is, how you can use to maximize revenue and my top 3 platforms you should consider to window your next music release. Read More

Dec 28
Love1

Going Viral On Social Media: Campaign Breakdown For Musicians

By Discovery, Going Viral, Music Marketing, Social Media, Video No Comments

PLEASE NOTE: This blog covers only the album campaign through the end of 2024. Even after the album was released, we continued to promote the other songs on the album in 2025. We found our most viral success with the track Shades of Jade that far surpassed any of our previous videos, reaching another 10+ million views across all platforms from that song alone. This is a reminder to promote all the other songs on the album, even if they weren’t officially released as a single. Short-form video content allows you to do so with little budget.

Many independent artists struggle with social media marketing. It’s not easy to know what exactly to post to break through the noise, get your music heard and reach new potential fans.

I put together a case study based on a recent album campaign I did to show you that it’s not as complicated as it seems to gain traction on social media.

This album rollout campaign resulted in 3 videos I created to promote singles for an artist going viral. This led to Snoop Dogg reposting one of these videos to his 80 million Instagram followers and Erykah Badu sharing another video to her Instagram Stories. Read More

Jul 25
Love3

7 Reasons Why Every Independent Artist Should Promote Older Songs

By Music Marketing, Music Promotion One Comment

The generally accepted norm in the music industry is that you never promote your older songs once new music has been released. I understand that artists don’t want to live in the past and revisit older music. As an artist grows and evolves, it’s more exciting to promote what’s new and current.

Many artists, especially more established ones who have been in the industry before social media and algorithms were even a thing, are hesitant to promote older songs. Not only do they feel it’s a bad look, but they think fans only want to hear new material.

If you’re in the middle of a campaign to promote a new release, your focus should be solely on that. However, you may have down periods that present a perfect opportunity to try something like this.

In this blog, I will share my 8 reasons why we should challenge this old way of thinking and suggestions on how to go about promoting older music to reach new fans. Read More

Jun 01
Love1

How Many Fans Do Musicians Need to Be Successful on Patreon?

By Patreon No Comments

This blog was originally published on Hypebot.

This is a question musicians may be wondering about when considering launching a Patreon campaign as an additional income source.

What is the minimum number of fans or social media followers I need to have a chance of earning success on Patreon?

Since there are no discovery features on Patreon, it’s entirely up to you to funnel your fans to become paying patrons for your membership business.

As someone who has been working with artists and managing their Patreon accounts for 6 years now, this was a question I wondered about myself but never found an answer.

So in 2020, I did some research to come up with my own theory. I revisited these numbers in late 2023 while I was updating my Patreon For Musicians eBook to see if anything has changed since. Read More

May 05
Love3

13 Best Jobs For Emerging Independent Artists To Fund Music Career

By Music Business No Comments

Many developing artists dream of turning their music hobby into a full-time professional career. The problem is that this transition is challenging. Not only do you have to make generate enough income to take the leap, you need to be able to keep it going for the long haul in an ever-changing, competitive industry. Until you get to that point, you’ll need to fund your music aspirations with other sources of income.

This doesn’t only apply to new artists. It’s not uncommon for professional musicians to bounce back and forth between doing music full-time and taking up another job to supplement income. Or, even returning to a full-time day job and doing music on the side. It shows how volatile music can be for independents and why you can’t always depend on income directly from music itself, unfortunately.

As an emerging independent artist, you might be wondering what are your best job options to earn money to fund your music career. In this blog, I will cover 13 jobs you may want to consider while you develop as an artist. Read More