IOTM Blog
Posted: Jul 1, 2025
Category: The Musician Business
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**Guest post written by Octavius Crouch, Founder & CEO of Red Octave.
"If you're an independent artist or label looking to hire a team for label services, the options can be overwhelming. From companies with polished pitch decks to flashy Instagram pages showing off work with major-label artists, it can be hard to tell who actually knows how to build success from the ground up and who only knows how to ride on someone else's momentum...When you’re hiring a label-services team, you need partners who understand what it means to grow something from zero."
View Full ArticlePosted: Jun 24, 2025
Category: Music Festivals
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Unfortunately you cannot. This is for a couple of reasons: 1. Most music festivals and conferences just don't use email to book. 2. We want people to be knowledgeable about a festival or conference before doing their outreach. 3. There are plenty of times that a submission fee will be required along with your submission.
Posted: Jun 17, 2025
Category: Merch
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**Guest post written by Tony van Veen, originally featured in the Disc Makers Blog.
"One of the questions our Disc Makers product specialists get asked the most is this: If I spend $1000 to press vinyl, will I make my money back? In this article, I’ll discuss the cost of vinyl records and what your profit margins will be when you sell your records directly to fans. This will allow us to calculate how many records you’ll need to sell to cover your vinyl manufacturing cost. I’ll also explain the profit margins for distributors and stores, and I’ll provide some surefire tips for making money on vinyl. Let’s get started..."
View Full ArticlePosted: Jun 10, 2025
Category: Promotion
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**Guest post written by Yona Marie, originally featured in her blog.
"In the fast-evolving music industry, some promotional tactics that were once effective have become outdated or less impactful. Here are some music promotion strategies that may no longer work as well as they used to..."
View Full ArticlePosted: Jun 3, 2025
Category: Fans
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**Guest post by Morgan Coates, Head of Music Partnerships at IYK.
"Most artists don’t know much about the fans attending their shows. That detailed demographic data is often siloed in ticketing platforms and with promoters, who aren’t incentivized to share fan data with artists. This is a massive issue for artists looking to maximize their return on the touring investment. After all, the people that show up to support you on tour are your most engaged fans. Over the life of a tour, thousands of fans could attend your shows and buy your merch, yet you don't know who they are."
Posted: May 27, 2025
Category: Show Booking
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There are a couple of reasons why a venue would be classified as "excluded" when using the IOTM QuickPitch to reach out to music venues and colleges/universities: 1. That venue does not use email to book. 2. That venue only or mostly works with local talent. 3. That venue is primarily a rental facility...With that being said though, there can be a lot of valuable options in the excluded list, so do not hesitate to go through it individually once your QuickPitch is approved.
Posted: May 20, 2025
Category: Selling Music
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**Guest post written by Scott McCormick, originally featured in the Disc Makers Blog.
"Whether you’re releasing tracks digitally or on physical formats like CDs and vinyl, ISRC codes are indispensable tools for tracking sales and revenue. These unique identifiers will ensure your music gets the credit it deserves and will enable proper revenue tracking and compensation. If you’re new to ISRC codes, don’t worry — this guide will demystify the process and show you how to obtain ISRC codes for your music."
View Full ArticlePosted: May 14, 2025
Category: The Musician Business
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**Guest post by Musician Indie Coalition, Business-Based Artist Development Experts who help DIY Musicians develop, launch and scale their music careers.
"Building a career in music requires a ton of hard work and involves a wide array of both music and business activities. Whether you're an aspiring solo artist, a band looking to break into the industry or an established musician looking to grow your music career, having the ability to form a strong team behind you can make all the difference in achieving success. That said, knowing the right time to find a great manager, an entertainment lawyer, or fill other important roles is equally as important to your career progression. So if you want to know how to build a music team, here are our recommendations..."
Posted: May 6, 2025
Category: The Musician Business
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**Guest post written by Xander Rushie of School of Sync.
"If you're an indie artist writing, recording, or producing your own music and you’re even thinking about getting into sync licensing, there’s one tool you need to know about: DISCO...[It] is the professional standard for sharing music with music supervisors, ad agencies, and sync reps. If you’re still using Dropbox or SoundCloud to send your tracks, it might be time to level up...Unlike Google Drive or WeTransfer, DISCO was built by music supervisors for music supervisors to solve common challenges in the music industry and simplify the process of sharing and managing files. It loads quickly, preserves your metadata, and presents your music in a polished, professional way."
Posted: Apr 29, 2025
Category: Show Booking
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Following up with music venues that do not respond to booking inquiries is an important part of the booking process. After all, persistence is key to landing the most gigs. Things do get a bit more complicated though when you are talking about sending a second cold pitch to a group of venues included in an Indie on the Move QuickPitch email. The first step is to remove the venues that did respond initially so those conversations can continue individually. Then once the venues list is updated, you can very easily add a relevant follow up message and new pitch name. You'll see we already took care of the proper formatting. This video will show you the rest of the process.
Posted: Apr 23, 2025
Category: Technology
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**Guest post written by TrueFans Connect, a mobile and venue-based donation tool.
"Let’s be real—when you’re busy creating, hustling gigs, and connecting with fans, the last thing you want to worry about is whether your money will show up. But here’s the thing: if your payment system isn’t smooth, you’re leaving cash on the table and adding unnecessary stress to your already-packed schedule." View Full Article
Posted: Apr 15, 2025
Category: Promotion
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**Guest post written by Tilly Simon of SubmitHub, a great tool for gaining more coverage for your music.
"The core of SubmitHub is submitting your music directly to curators. Here are some additional tips to help you get the most out of your submissions and increase your chances of success..."
View Full ArticlePosted: Apr 8, 2025
Category: Promotion
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**Guest post written by Cyber PR, originally featured on the Cyber PR Blog.
"If you read my blog regularly, you know I have been focusing a lot lately on Micro-Networking and my theory that execution is critical if you want to cause a tangible shift in your career as an artist. This leads me to a social site you may not have considered for your music career: LinkedIn. You probably already use it for your day job, freelance work, or other non-music activities. LinkedIn is a gold mine when it comes to networking, especially within industries. But if you’re new to LinkedIn, how can you set yourself up and optimize for networking there?" View Full Article
Posted: Apr 2, 2025
Category: The Musician Business
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**Guest post written by Scott Aumann, originally featured on The Legit Musician blog.
"One of the biggest things you can do for your music career is to make new connections. Do you ever wonder how those other bands are getting all the best shows? Well, they probably know somebody to get those awesome gigs. You might think it is impossible to meet amazing people in the music business, but it isn’t that hard actually. Let’s dive into how you can start making great new music industry contacts."
View Full ArticlePosted: Mar 25, 2025
Category: Show Booking
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1. Ask the talent buyers for recommendations. 2. Ask local people that you know. 3. Check out the venues' websites. 4. Post a show availability on IOTM. 5. Use YouTube. 6. Search for acts via the IOTM members directory.
Posted: Mar 18, 2025
Category: Online Presence
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**Guest post written by Melanie Kealey for Bandzoogle.com.
"As a musician you need a beautiful online presence to set yourself apart from the crowd...Updating your band website’s design, much like releasing new music, can revitalize your story and not only make your content feel fresh. It will give you something to work on and promote to your fans, keeping your music top of mind. So if you haven't thought about your website design in some time, these tips will help kickstart your creativity. Time to get updating — let’s take a look!"
View Full ArticlePosted: Mar 11, 2025
Category: The Musician Business
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**Guest post by WordPlay T. Jay, hip-hop artist and producer based in Tacoma, WA.
"Since the advent of music streaming, our careers have not been the same...Streaming services partnered with the major labels to carve out exclusive rates in exchange for vast catalogs of music and market share...It’s discouraging and that diversity is under threat. Fans want to see artists thrive and musicians are struggling to earn a living. Fortunately, you can do something to help musicians earn a living wage."
Posted: Mar 4, 2025
Category: Tips & Tricks
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**Guest post by Melissa Mulligan, Recording Industry Vocal Coach & Music Career Mentor for independent artists.
"When I sat down to make the two videos I'm sharing with you here, I did not intend to publish them. So, you're literally seeing me, in my home studio, helping a friend get ready for his tour. But the 10-minute routine I captured that day has been working so well for so many singers, I keep sharing this with more of the touring artists I coach. Even if we are working together weekly on more long term vocal goals, this routine is consistently upping the level of my vocalists' performances!"
Posted: Feb 26, 2025
Category: Show Booking
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Indie on the Move offers a couple of different account/subscription levels: free, premium, and deluxe. While you can find a point by point breakdown of those features on the site's pricing page, this video shows you how those features can be put to use as it relates to your show/tour booking through the platform.
Posted: Feb 19, 2025
Category: Merch
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**Guest post by Wes Wolfe of Tangible Formats - Custom Vinyl Records For All.
"For many independent artists, releasing vinyl isn’t a viable option. It’s impractical—the process is expensive and complex. The final product is heavy, inconvenient to transport, and takes up valuable space...Fortunately, we’re in a time when pressing plant capacity finally exceeds demand. Independent artists now have more options and leverage than they did just a few years ago...Releasing your music on vinyl is now more accessible for artists at any stage of their career."
Posted: Feb 11, 2025
Category: The Musician Business
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**Guest post by Eric Todd, Founder/CEO of iProdigy, a Grammy-winning artist development and funding platform for artists at every career stage.
"With the dominance of streaming platforms like Spotify offering unprecedented competition and dismally low payouts, independent artists are finding it nearly impossible to earn a sustainable living solely from streaming revenue...The reality is that success in the music business no longer revolves around simply getting placed on playlists or racking up streams. Instead, artists must cultivate dedicated fan bases and build direct-to-fan (D2F) communities that they can monetize outside the constraints of digital service providers (DSPs)..."
Posted: Feb 4, 2025
Category: Music Streaming
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**Guest post from Chartmetric as featured in their reports.
"Spotify has become the go-to music streaming platform for listeners across the globe. The artists that Chartmetric track had a combined total of 61.4 billion listeners and 23.4 billion followers...Of the 11 million Spotify profiles tracked on Chartmetric, only 1.58 million (14%) have more than 10 listeners from month to month - emphasizing just how much the platform is utilized by undiscovered artists."
Posted: Jan 29, 2025
Category: Show Booking
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While we do have community driven sections of the site, specifically the availabilities, the most effective method of using the platform to get shows and tours booked is via direct outreach to the venues, colleges, and festivals in our venues database.
Posted: Jan 22, 2025
Category: The Musician Business
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**Summarized from a guest post by One Submit, music promotion for independent artists.
"Are you curious about your music's performance on Spotify? Whether you're a new artist just starting out or an experienced artist looking to monitor streaming stats and grow your online presence, Spotify provides features to help you explore your music's performance and presence across different platforms."
Posted: Jan 14, 2025
Category: Licensing
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**Guest post written by Sync Songwriter. Their mission is to not only help independent artists and songwriters learn and understand the sync licensing world but to also help them build relationships with music supervisors.
"Although there are plenty of benefits to recording and releasing a cover song (especially for sync licensing), many artists never do. This is usually due to the concern regarding the legalities of releasing a cover of another person’s composition. However, covering a song legally is not as daunting as one might think. If done properly and ethically, the rewards of such a release can really benefit an artist’s career."
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