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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Last Updated: 7/15/24
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
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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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