The typical income streams available to your average independent artist (royalties, live performance, merch) are not the most reliable and consistent.
So when you come across a business model that pays creators monthly directly from the support of fans, it’s easy to see the allure of a platform like Patreon. It is free to start a page, but does it mean you should invest your time to do it?
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As you can imagine, this is a very popular question I get from aspiring and emerging artists. It always revolves around marketing music without a budget.
“How do I start a career with no money?”
“How do I market my music with little to no budget”
“How do I promote my songs if I’m broke?”
For so long, I’ve avoided answering this question directly because I didn’t want to support this idea that you can build a sustainable music career by depending on free or cheap options. But then I realized that I’ve indirectly answered this question throughout multiple blogs so I decided to put it all together in one resource.
In this blog, I will cover budget-friendly ways to tackle the different areas of music marketing. It’s important to understand that marketing encompasses more than just music promotion to reach new potential fans. It also involves other things like how to maintain relationships with your current fans, accessing data to make better business decisions and having products to sell them. Read More
As a musician, the last thing you want to do is leave money on the table. So what can you do to make sure you’re getting all the money you’re owed from your music?
Many musicians may not realize this, but there’s a lot of music royalties floating out there waiting to be claimed by their rightful owners. Over 424 million dollars in mechanical royalties generated from digital service providers (DSPs) were left unclaimed due to the lack of data or having the incorrect information to match and pay out the rightful copyright owners.
Thankfully for artists, the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC) officially launched in January of 2021 to help address this issue. How does the MLC help exactly? Read More
Navigating the music business can be very tricky, especially for newer musicians. It’s hard to know who to trust when there are many people looking to exploit and take advantage of impressionable artists who will try anything to make it in this business.
The music business, like other entertainment industries, is filled with scammers. It is such a lucrative career path that many have set up operations to take advantage of these artists to make money. The area you’ll most likely encounter scammers in the music industry is in music promotion. After all, one of the biggest struggles artists have is getting their music heard and gaining exposure to build a fanbase.
There are a lot of music promotion companies out there, but not all will serve your best interests. This blog will help you make better decisions when looking for ways to promote your music while avoiding potential scams. It’s already challenging for musicians not making enough money from music so the last thing you want to do is spend on something that doesn’t work. Read More
This is a preview of my new eBook “Twitch Starter Guide for Music Artists.” I’m sharing the first few introductory chapters that provide more of an overview of Twitch and how to make money on the platform as it pertains to musicians. For detailed guidance and instructions on how to start your Twitch channel, grow your audience and enhance your livestream experiences, you can purchase my full eBook here. I have a special introductory offer for the 1st edition so save time and money by getting a copy today. Read More
Update: It looks like Clubhouse has shifted their focus to expanding their user base much sooner than anticipated. There are currently over 10 million users now and it’s growing globally, which is up from 600,000 when I joined in December of 2020. They are now out of beta and available for the public to join. I added some for new users down below. Some information in this blog may become outdated as this app grows, but I’ll do my best to keep this page updated as soon as I hear anything new.
There’s a new social media startup that’s generating a lot of buzz due to the high profile celebrities currently active on it as well as some controversy. The app is called Clubhouse and it can potentially be the next big social media platform.
Clubhouse launched in early March of 2020, but I was late to the party as I heard about the app for the first time on 12/22/20 and got an invite the day after. Impressed and excited by its potential for wider adoption, I wanted to write this blog to give musicians a heads up of what may come and share my observations. Read More
The biggest challenge emerging artists face is building a loyal fan base. Nowadays, it ain’t easy to get people to listen to your music in our content-saturated digital reality.
At the same time, there are different strategies and tactics to promote yourself and get your music in front of new potential fans. One of them is pitching to independent music blogs that have their own dedicated following. These bloggers are music lovers who enjoy sharing good music with their readers.
I created a list of 40 active music blogs that, as of 2023, you can submit and pitch your songs for exposure, at little to no cost… but is it really worth your time? Read More
Being an independent artist doesn’t mean you have to do everything alone. In fact, you shouldn’t.
The best advice that Tierra Whack received came from Andre 3000 (Outkast). He told her it was very important to build a strong team to help exponentiate her career. Having this support system isn’t just about handling specific tasks for your business, it’s also to help you plan your next steps, keep you grounded and offer emotional support when needed.
If you really want to take your music career to the next level, you will eventually need a team. They don’t necessarily have to be people who you hire to work exclusively with you. At the very least, you need to form relationships and a network with skilled people who are good at what they do.
As someone who works on a number of artist teams myself, I’m going to cover what types of people you may need as an independent, how you may find them and what qualities to look for in each member of your team. Read More
Who is Allee Willis?
Chances are you have heard at least one of her songs she’s written as she has been credited for many classic cultural hits including Earth, Wind & Fire’s hit “September” and the Friend’s Theme song “I’ll Be There For You” by The Rembrandts.
I had the incredible honor of meeting Allee and attending one of her parties at her LA home when she was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. The following day, she wrote a song with Butterscotch, as I documented the songwriting session. It was definitely one of the coolest experiences in my music career so far. Read More
Last Updated on 4/27/2023
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 all my personal checklists that I use for my clients. I will literally cover the entire process in depth so you don’t have to worry about forgetting any steps. Whenever you release music, feel free to use this blog as a reference so you have all your bases covered. Read More
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D4 Music Marketing is an online resource that focuses on music marketing, artist development and business education to empower aspiring and emerging artists who want to make a living off music as an independent.
The aim of this blog is to help guide DIY musicians in a highly competitive industry with strategies and tactics to effectively promote music and attract life-long fans. By emphasizing the importance a strong foundation, you will be better equipped to navigate and adapt to the ever-changing music landscape with a clearer direction towards independent success.
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