Music Promotion and Marketing tips for Indie Musicians
Can musicians succeed on YouTube if they’re not “YouTubers?” Yes, though there are many lessons musicians should learn from creators who use YouTube as it’s intended — managing a video channel with consistent programming. In this…
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…
What do you do when a gig or tour is cancelled? Touring musicians are facing a time of uncertainty and financial sacrifice as the Coronavirus pandemic has lead to many public gatherings being postponed or…
Whether you want a gig, playlist placement, or press opportunity, you’re going to need to sell someone on your music — and that means “pitching.” In this episode, Kevin and Chris dissect successful music pitches…
Promoting your music on social media can eat up a lot of your time. Sadly, most artists waste that precious time using social media in ways that are rote and uninspired. In this episode, Kevin…
The music business is constantly evolving. Streaming dominates. Markets are truly global. The way people promote & monetize music shifts every year. And videos are growing shorter and more important than ever before. In this…
TikTok has more than half a billion active users, it’s the most downloaded app in the world, and the entire platform runs on music! Now that CD Baby is delivering YOUR music to TikTok, Kevin…
Having your own pro website is even MORE important in an age where fan relationships are often owned by anyone but the artist. In this episode, Bandzoogle’s Dave Cool talks about creating a good experience…
First time releasing music? Returning to music after a hiatus? Where do you even start? With a plan — then you build the foundation. In this episode, Kevin and Chris outline the basic steps artists…
What kind of merch is selling in the streaming era? How do you experiment with t-shirts and other kinds of band merch without going broke? In this episode, Kevin and Chris talk through some of…
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…
“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…
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….
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…
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…
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…
Once upon a time crowd funding (or fan funding) offered artists the illusion of musical streets paved with gold, all paid for by their adoring fans. Fast forward to today, where many artist have hitchhiked…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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,…
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…
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:…
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…
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…