Are you wondering how to get started as an independent musician? There are some questions you need to ask yourself to get yourself heard.
It’s never been “easier” to start a career as an independent musician…. sort of.
It’s true that indie musicians can get their music out into the world more easily today than ever before. Unfortunately, that creates a whole new set of hurdles to overcome.
DICLAIMER: I am working on answering these questions myself. I’m not an expert or a hugely successful musician or marketer.
That being said, I want to use this article as a sort of outline… a blueprint if you will. We’ll talk about the main things I think you should consider when you are getting started as an independent artist or band.
I’ll mostly be looking at this from the perspective of someone who wants to start making independent releases on streaming services like Spotify, but even if that’s not your main objective, you might find some food for thought here.
Each of these items (and more) will be more thoroughly discussed in a series of future blog posts, but we have to start somewhere!
Why Are You Doing This?
Have you thought about WHY you want to start releasing your own songs? There’s really no right or wrong reason, but it’s an important thing to understand.
Do you just want to be heard? That one is pretty easy to accomplish if you follow a few key strategies and tactics.
Do you want to get famous and/or rich? This one is WAAAAAAY harder, for all the reasons you can think of, and then some. Not my goal, but if it’s yours, go for it!
I don’t know your reasons (here are some of mine). But if YOU don’t know your reasons, it’s a good idea to take a step back and think about it. If you don’t know the WHY, it’s going to be hard to figure out the HOW.
Who IS Your Audience?
When you are just starting out, you might not know the answer to this. When it comes to my own music, I’m still figuring it out.
It’s tempting to say “My music is for everyone!”. But you know what? It isn’t.
Not everyone is going to love your music. And that’s fine! In fact, it’s great.
Maybe you are a Pop artist with great songs and mass appeal. Maybe your genre isn’t that mainstream. Maybe you are a virtuoso-level musician, but the only people who will truly appreciate your talent are other musicians.
Regardless of what genre your music falls under, understanding who your potential audience is will make it much easier to find them. And once you’ve found them, you can more effectively promote your music to them.
How Are You Going To Record Your Music?
Maybe you already know how to record, mix, and master your music. Maybe you are brand new to recording.
Assuming you are going with the home-studio/DIY approach, there are some things you’re going to need.
If you are making electronic music like EDM, or making Hip Hop “beats”, you can get up and running with basically just a laptop and some music production software.
If you are going to be recording real instruments and/or vocals, you will need an audio interface, some cables, a microphone, etc.
As with all the topics in this article, we’re going to dive deeper into this one in a future post.
How WILL You Release And Distribute Your Music?
OK, let’s say you’ve already got a song recorded, mixed, and mastered. Now it’s time to choose a Distributor to work with.
A Distributor accepts your final master, artwork, metadata, and more. They will send your song and information out to music streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music, collect streaming royalties on your behalf.
There are many options out there, so you’ll need to do some homework when choosing a distributor.
Of course, your needs may be different than mine, so be on the lookout for my comparison of a few of the most popular digital music distributors.
They all have different pricing models and features. I’m currently using DistroKid, which is a very popular and streamlined service.
You can get a 7% discount when you sign up for DistroKid with this link. And we also make a small commission, but it doesn’t cost you any extra.
How Do You Promote Your Music?
Once your music is out in the world….. how do you get the world to notice it?
If you already have a large enough following on any given social media platform, you can get some awareness there for free (and you SHOULD, but try not to be spammy or annoying).
However… even with a large social following, there’s just so much noise to cut through that many (most?) of your followers won’t see or engage with every post you make. There are lots of strategies to help with this, but I’m not good at them, and my audience is currently tiny anyway. I’ll be addressing this issue in a future article.
Aside from organic social engagements, there are paid options. For example, Facebook and Instagram Stories ads. If you have the budget, and are willing to look at this as investment that WILL NOT show an immediate return, it can be a very useful tactic. Again, more on that in a future article.
And then there’s the dark side…. paying for streams. Whether this is a paid Fiverr gig promising you X number of streams, or a pay-for-play playlisting service, this is one of the easiest way to wreck your long-term performance on streaming platforms like Spotify.
Conclusion
Obviously, I didn’t go into a ton of detail on any of the topics in this article. They are all such broad and important subjects, they deserve comprehensive articles of their own.
Regardless, I hope this post at least provided you with some things to think about as you launch your career as an independent musician.