Music Promotion and Marketing tips for Indie Musicians
There are seven things that many musicians get mixed up — publishers and PROs, cover songs and Public Domain tunes, UPCs and ISRCs, etc. In this episode, Kevin and Chris clear away the confusion. What’s the…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
The European market has a rich live-music tradition, but artists often feel lost when trying to infiltrate the scene as an outsider. However, with the aid of online tools like Google Translate and Skype, booking…
Once you’ve finished recording your new album or single there is still some work to do in order to get the release over the finish line. In this episode, Kevin and Chris discuss all the…
Streaming has opened up new opportunities for artists to get creative with the way they release music. What strategies actually work? How can you ensure your album release has maximum impact? In this episode that…
The way musicians — heck, the way ANYONE uses Instagram today — is very different from how we used it years ago. Whether you’ve been marketing your music on Instagram for years or you’re brand…
Whether you were at the 2018 DIY Musician Conference in Nashville, missed out, or didn’t even know it existed, Kevin and Chris talk about 8 lessons learned at the event, and how they apply to…
Let’s get beyond the basics of Spotify playlists. How do you determine which playlists will actually make a difference for your career? How do you find them, hunt down the contact info of the curator…
Rethinking everything you know about Spotify playlists means you have to revisit your assumptions. In this first of a two-part series, Kevin and Chris talk through the foundations of a playlisting strategy, touching upon a…
There are a million ways to promote a new release. In this episode, Kevin and Chris discuss some of the things they’ve tried with their new music to reach listeners and amplify that interaction —…
The old ways and myths are strong. And many musicians are still making important decisions for their careers based on outdated practices and false assumptions. In this episode, taped in front of a live audience…
Are you use Pandora AMP? It’s a no-brainer; DIY musicians should absolutely take advantage of these powerful (free) features of Pandora’s streaming service, particularly the Artist Audio Messages and Featured Track tools. In this episode,…
Have you been wasting your time on social media? Online tools and trends are constantly changing. In this live taping of CD Baby’s DIY Musician Podcast, Kevin Breuner and Chris Robley will discuss what works,…
If you’re like most artists, you’ve been collecting fan emails to build that coveted email list. However, once you build that list, it’s hard to figure out what to send so your emails continue to…
As musicians, we work hard to get press coverage. But when the moment arrives, we sometimes squander the opportunity, or worse, let it go completely off the rails. In this episode, Kevin and Chris discuss…
Independent musicians today have LESS time and MORE responsibilities. Plus, we can waste a lot of hours just daydreaming. How do you juggle all the DIY tasks without dropping the ball or wandering off track?…
Artists that create original music will make more money from on-demand streaming over the next five years. In this episode, Kevin and Chris discuss two recent wins for songwriters in the world of music streaming:…
Show.co’s music marketing tools make it easy for you to create online campaigns that will get your fans to take specific actions. But the effectiveness of these tools is directly related to the thought and…
Getting gigs and building out a tour is always a challenge for indie musicians. In this episode, Craig Grossman talks about how to utilize three proven methods for networking, contacting venues, and closing bookings. This…