With over 600 million users on Instagram every day, you need your IG game to be strong. In this session recorded at the 2019 DIY Musician Conference, Rick Barker shows you how to use IG to build your music career. Learn the tips and tricks that have helped Barker’s clients take their IG to the next level. He will cover IG Stories, IGTV and IG Live in detail, giving you the most up-to-date strategies and tactics in real time.

Distribute, monetize, and promote your music at cdbaby.com.

“Everything about my music career will get better, easier, bigger, once I’m on a label.” That’s what musicians tell themselves, and in most cases it isn’t true. In this episode, Kevin and Chris talk about nine things music labels don’t want you to know — at least not until it’s too late.

Distribute, monetize, and promote your music at cdbaby.com.

Music mastering can be the mysterious and stressful punctuation at the end of your creative recording process. Or it can bring out the best in your music, making it ready for streaming, CD, or vinyl. What should you expect in the mastering process? And what are some things you should beware? In this episode, Kevin and Chris talk about 5 things you need to know about mastering, and they use almost zero technical audio engineering terminology.

Distribute, monetize, and promote your music at cdbaby.com.

Musicians are natural storytellers, but for some reason we don’t apply that  talent to our music marketing. The best music marketing conveys a story that makes someone want to DO something with your music. In this episode, Kevin and Chris talk about how to liven up your music marketing so you’re thinking way beyond uninspiring calls-to-action like “pre-save my music now!”

The song Parked out by the Lake can be found HERE.

Distribute, monetize, and promote your music at cdbaby.com.

The world’s most successful artists, brands, and companies have one thing in common: They understand their true fans. If you want to build a sustainable, thriving music career, you’ve got to understand how to work with target audiences. This session by Simon Tam, recorded at the 2019 DIY Musician Conference, is a master class in marketing, funding, and developing your art so that it reaches your most enthusiastic fans. Mixing inspiration, information, and practical application, this session offers practical steps for you to dominate a niche market.

Distribute, monetize, and promote your music at cdbaby.com.

You can learn a thing or two (or seven) when you hang out with 1000+ DIY musicians for an entire weekend. In this episode, Kevin and Chris talk through their “takeaways” (which is an annoying word for “lessons”) after the 2019 DIY Musician Conference in Austin, TX. Plus, the hosts get stumped, criticized, and praised during the listener calls and emails segment.

Distribute, monetize, and promote your music at cdbaby.com.

Catch up on the first half of 2019’s big music stories in less than an hour! Kevin and Chris talk through a number of recent news items that relate to independent music-makers. Plus, listener calls and emails that will blow your mind!

Distribute, monetize, and promote your music at cdbaby.com.

Musicians make a lot of assumptions about what it means to “distribute” a track or album. In the wake of Spotify jumping  out of the distribution game (almost as quickly as they jumped in), what should you look for in a long-term distribution partner? In this episode, recorded live at CD Baby HQ, Kevin and Chris talk about the most important things to consider when you release music in the streaming era.

Distribute, monetize, and promote your music at cdbaby.com.

A life in music is full of high highs and low lows — but being down doesn’t mean you have to stay down. In this episode, Kevin and Chris talk about five common ways musicians get discouraged, and how to prepare your comeback every time!

3 days could change the course of your whole music career. In this episode, Kevin and Chris discuss what sets the DIY Musician Conference apart from other industry events, and they preview some of the sessions, workshops, and opportunities they think will have the biggest impact on the way you make, market, and monetize your music. Plus listener calls and emails!

Are listeners leaning in at your gigs, or are they tuning you out? There are many ways to build a solid set list, but lots of ways to lose your audience too. In this episode, Kevin and Chris talk about the different kinds of sets musicians perform, and how to put the right songs in the right order for each occasion.

A good band name is hard to com by. Before you decide what you’re going to call yourself as an artist, listen to this episode. Kevin and Chris list a number of common problems with band names, how to avoid them, and WHY your artist name can spell the difference between success and obscurity.

Live-streaming gives you as a DIY musician a consistent, low-cost way to reach listeners on huge social platforms like Facebook, YouTube, Twitch, and more. You can also format your broadcasts in a number of ways: concerts, talking about your songs, AMAs, and more. In this episode, Kevin asks Chris Robley about his bi-weekly series of live-streamed concerts called “Lunch Songs Live.” The gear, the mistakes, and tips to get your viewers more engaged.

In this listener feedback episode, Kevin and Chris answer emails and calls from DIY musicians who are wondering how to market their music in the streaming world, how to brand themselves, how to make sure every sale counts, and more. Plus, news about Amazon and Google introducing free, ad-supported streaming to Echo and Google Home users.

In this live taping of the DIY Musician Podcast, CD Baby’s Kevin Breuner and Chris Robley compare notes on how they launched and managed their “Free + Shipping & Handling” campaigns to give away their newest CDs for free — while STILL making a profit, building their email lists, and converting casual listeners into fans. Concepts in this discussion can be applied to ANY sales or marketing funnel for your music, not just a traditional “Free + Shipping” offer.

A good producer can turn your songs into masterpieces. But a bad producer can ruin more than just your recordings. They can sap your self-confidence, wreck your reputation, and exhaust your energy and bank account. In this episode, Kevin and Chris give some pointers on how to find a good producer, what to expect of them, and how you can pave the way for a fruitful collaboration.

The foundations of music marketing stay pretty solid: capture attention, offer value, lead listeners on a journey from awareness to action. But the house you build on that foundation is always shifting. What older marketing strategies still work for musicians in 2019? What are the new tools to tell your story? How do the shifting expectations of your audience alter your approach? In this LIVE taping of the DIY Musician Podcast, CD Baby’s Kevin Breuner and Chris Robley will discuss what effective music marketing looks like today — and tomorrow.

At CD Baby, we are always looking for new and innovative ways for artists to market and promote their music. That’s why we’re happy to announce  Spotify audio ads and banner ad targeting as a new additions to our Show.co marketing platform. In this episode. Kevin and Jason (Found.ee) walk through the new features that are going to change how artists promote their music to fans. If you still don’t have a a Show.co account, you can get it for free by creating a CD Baby account and clicking on the “Free Marketing Tools” link on the dashboard.

Are you standing in the way of your own success? Are you accidentally making it harder to accomplish your music goals? In this episode Kevin and Chris talk about 25 kinds of self-sabotaging artist. Are you one of them? Listen in to make sure you’re not creating obstacles in your music career.

As we close out 2018, we have another episode dedicated (mostly) to our listeners, where DIY musicians call and email with great questions and tips! “Mostly” dedicated, because the episode begins with Kevin and Chris sharing some of the successful things they’ve tried recently while releasing singles, touring, marketing music, and selling new merch!

Our listeners ask great questions, so we thought we’d do a whole episode taking calls and emails from DIY musicians, and then try our best to provide answers that aren’t bonkers. Plus, inspirational film and podcast recommendations that will help you close out 2018 on an upswing.

The holiday season is the perfect time of year to crank up your music promotion efforts and try something new and different to engage your fans. In this episode, Kevin and Chris share their holiday promotion ideas and tips that take advantage of this special time of year. Plus, they reach into the mail bag to tackle listener questions.

Time to say goodbye to a few false assumptions that have been holding you back! The music industry has stayed loyal to some really destructive myths, so it’s always great to see when independent artists find new methods for success once they’ve freed themselves of bad or outdated ideas and habits. In this episode, Kevin and Chris discuss those myths and bad habits. There are eight of them in all!

Do “real” artists do cover songs? What kind of songs should you cover? And what are the different uses of a great cover version? In this episode, Kevin and Chris talk about the controversy and opportunities of recording or performing another songwriter’s material. Plus some great listener emails!