IOTM Blog
Posted: Apr 19, 2023
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.
"When it comes to pursuing a music career, we’ve all been brought up to believe that becoming a professional artist or band is just one lucky encounter or chance meeting away – that if an artist focuses all their efforts and resources on creating great music, they just need to get it in front of the right industry professional and they’ll get signed to a record label. From there, a manager or label rep will take care of the business side of their career and the artist can go on doing what they know and love: writing and recording music, playing shows and interacting with fans. This is what we call ‘The Getting Discovered Mindset’ and it is all too pervasive among aspiring artists...I’m here to tell you this is NOT the correct way to approach your music career."
Posted: Mar 28, 2023
Category: The Musician Business
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**Guest post written by Just Rijna, a guitar player based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. In addition to teaching private students, he is also the founder of a guitar educational site, www.stringkick.com.
If you make original music, you know how difficult this question is to answer ["So what kind of music do you make?"]. You’re right in the middle of the project and familiar with all the influences, contrasting genres, and subtleties that have made their way into the music. How do you summarize all that in a couple of sentences? What’s more, as musicians we have trained ears that simply hear different things than the average listener. This makes it even more tricky to communicate what your music is about. So in this article, I’ll share a few tips that will help you nail down your pitch.
View Full ArticlePosted: Aug 16, 2022
Category: Promotion
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**Guest post by One Submit, the ultimate music submission platform.
"How to avoid this kind of fraud? 1. Use Chartmetric and SpotOnTrack 2. Curators have multiple playlists that all roughly have the same number of followers 3. Curators have large playlists but hardly any followers for themselves 4. The curators' playlist followers have very often no profile pictures and similar names 5. Curators sell playlist placements for money 6. Playlists do not appear on the ‘Discovered On’ section on the profile of an artist..."
Posted: May 17, 2022
Category: Marketing
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**Guest post written by Feature.fm, an all-in-one music marketing solution to get more fans, boost streams, and grow your sales.
"Smart links are shareable URLs that automatically route fans to your music on their preferred streaming service. You can learn more about your fans by using a smart link because it tracks engagement analytics and it allows you to customize the landing page with your own artwork or music video."
View Full ArticlePosted: May 10, 2022
Category: Marketing
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**Guest post written by Cyber PR, originally featured on the Cyber PR Blog.
"As modern technology continues to advance, more and more artists and fans become reliant on the digital realm. Social media becomes the central ground. This triggers a domino effect where one artist starts a trend and the rest follow behind as they fall into the oversaturated crowd. Due to this over-saturation, it’s nearly impossible to generate enough attention to be big. For those who wish to follow a different path, there are other ways to stand out." View Full Article
Posted: Jan 3, 2022
Category: Sponsorship
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**Guest post written by Yona Marie, originally featured in her blog.
"All types of companies sponsor musicians and creators. The trick is, not many of the companies will showcase that fact and will either reach out to you directly, or you will have to reach out to them directly. The best types of companies to sponsor your music are the companies that you genuinely enjoy and feel a connection to, and companies that are large enough to have a big budget for risks like sponsorships."
View Full ArticlePosted: Dec 20, 2021
Category: Promotion
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**Guest post written by Jessica Fender, a copywriter and blogger at Edubirdie with a background in marketing and sales. She enjoys sharing her experience with like-minded professionals who aim to provide customers with high-quality services. Previously featured on MusicGoat.com.
"If you want to get more people to attend your music event, keep reading. I'll show you how to generate more pre-show hype using an outstanding social media marketing strategy. Here are a few tips you can use to boost your event marketing efforts."
Posted: Sep 27, 2021
Category: The Musician Business
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**Guest post by Electronic Musician.
"Can you describe your music in 6 words or less? It's the first question that anyone asks you about your music: What kind of music do you make? Your answer to that question is the most important thing. It’s even more important than your story. So don’t wing it. You should prepare it ahead of time and have it at the tip of your tongue when interviewers, the media, and people you meet ask. Don't try to make a perfect and complete description: the goal is to get them curious enough to ask to want to hear your music. That's how you'll know if you've created the right description. Here are some simple ideas to help you describe your music effectively..."
View Full ArticlePosted: Aug 23, 2021
Category: Live Performance
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**Guest post written by Kristen Ford, Nashville based indie rock act with a passion for music business and a book on DIY touring in the works.
The East Room is one of 13 Nashville venues where either "Proof of a Vaccine or Negative Covid Test" is required for entry...All of New York City has this policy, as well as all NIVA (National Independent Venue Association) venues...Music festivals such as Folk Alliance and Kerrville already have similar policies for future events. This means regardless of your local rules and regulations, or your personal views on vaccinations, touring artists need to be ready for this policy change.
View Full ArticlePosted: Jun 1, 2021
Category: Merch
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**Guest post written by Desi Thorne for Bandzoogle.
"To get started, think about the different kinds of band merch you might offer. Items that can be handmade may be difficult to reproduce, but can also be offered for a significantly higher price point. Offering a good balance of custom merch and scalable merch allows you to offer unique merch for all fans at different levels of dedication."
View Full ArticlePosted: May 17, 2021
Category: Marketing
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**Guest post by Christopher Carvalho from Unlock Your Sound.
"Think of a shop. The top of the funnel is the people walking past the shop. The first layer down is the people window browsing. The next layer down is the people who enter. And then the next and final layer is the people who purchase something."
View Full ArticlePosted: Jul 20, 2020
Category: Social Media
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**Guest post written by Eddie of The Entrepreneur Drummer, an online blog/resource dedicated to teaching business education to session musicians.
"Facebook now makes the majority of its revenue through selling advertising however it's a dangerous game to get into, especially if you're a novice. A whole array of deep-diving settings and unknown terminology means that it's very easy for you to lose a LOT of money very quickly. Don't fret though, I've found a great way to find new clients on Facebook for absolutely free, all it costs you is your time."
View Full ArticlePosted: Jul 6, 2020
Category: Marketing
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**Guest post written by Kai Marks & Lyron Haceon of Les Flair, an electro-pop project based in London.
"With not a single track released and a limited budget in tow, we sold out a string of live shows across the UK, led by word of mouth alone. Which we've now come to realise, is the most powerful tool in music marketing. Here’s our top tips for building a strong WOM foundation and translating hype into sales..."
View Full ArticlePosted: Dec 9, 2019
Category: Social Media
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**Guest post written by Wassim Awess, founder of the Music Career Guide.
"Understanding the importance of social media in this day and age is not enough to take you to the next level. It’s very much about testing, seeing what works out for you when you use the platform and how you use it. Here are 8 tips to help you maximize your efforts with social media marketing..."
View Full ArticlePosted: Jan 7, 2019
Category: Marketing
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**Guest post written by Cassie Phillips as featured on The Music Entrepreneur HQ.
"No matter how talented you are, or how much effort you put into your music, getting exposure for your art can be a challenge...To effectively promote your music, you will need to develop your marketing skills. Marketing will allow you to raise awareness for your brand and be better connected to your target market."
Posted: Jul 30, 2018
Category: Promotion
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**Guest post originally featured on Ditto.com.
"Whether it’s with a major media publication or a local music blogger, interviews offer a great avenue for publicity. Nevertheless, they can be a daunting experience for anyone new to the publicity circuit. If you’re worried about an upcoming interview, here’s some advice to help ease the jitters." View Full Article
Posted: Jul 2, 2018
Category: Online Presence
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**Guest post written by Josh Wardini, Editorial Contributor and Community Manager at websitebuilder.org, originally featured on The Music Entrepreneur HQ.
"Today we’re going to talk about increasing your music website’s conversion rates. And by this, we mean making on-site changes that will give you more results, even if the same number of people visit your site. We’ll also be looking at an example of how conversion rates work, and why increasing them could mean a much more profitable music career for you. So without dragging out the intro, let’s get to the good stuff."
View Full ArticlePosted: Jun 11, 2018
Category: Social Media
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**Guest post written by Gavin Whitner, an F1-loving guitarist of an alt-rock band. He’s also a songwriter and composer. In his free time, Gavin blogs about musical instruments and music in general at Music Oomph.
"As a musician, whether you’re a solo artist or in a band, building your fanbase is one of the toughest jobs there is...In today’s world, if you’re looking to build your fanbase to huge numbers, you're going to have to be proactive in your marketing. While performing and selling merch at your gigs is one way of getting your name out there, there is an all-powerful tool that is renowned for being the best way to introduce yourself to new fans − social media."
View Full ArticlePosted: Apr 2, 2018
Category: Marketing
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**Guest post written by Anitra Jay of TheCraftyMusician.com.
"Writing strong email content to engage your fans is not an easy task...The first most important thing about a good email is its subject line. The majority of your fans will use the subject line to decide whether or not to read your content. So if you want to get your fans to open your email newsletter, you have to write appealing headlines."
View Full ArticlePosted: Mar 26, 2018
Category: Marketing
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**Guest post written by Lucie Watson of Platoon.
"If you’re working in the music industry as an artist, manager, label, distributor or any other field you’ve probably had or heard a conversation about the power of Spotify playlists. Some questions I frequently get asked are “how can I get on Spotify’s playlists?” or “how can I get on New Music Friday?” or “when can I start to see playlist additions?”. What I’d love to tell artists and managers is that it’s easy...but more often than not the response I give is this: there’s no way I can guarantee placement on a playlist ahead of a release."
View Full ArticlePosted: Mar 12, 2018
Category: Sponsorship
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**Guest post written by Wade Sutton of Rocket to the Stars Artist Services.
"This is the first in a new series of articles examining the various tools music artists should be using to advance and grow their careers...All music artists are looking for ways to make more money but a lot of them aren’t aware of some of the tools that exist to help them increase their income. One of the most common questions I field from artists has to do with how they can get sponsorships. They know businesses are out there sponsoring everybody from artists to athletes but many have extremely limited knowledge in how those sponsorship agreements actually come about. Simply put, they don’t know about sponsorship decks."
View Full ArticlePosted: Jan 29, 2018
Category: Marketing
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**Guest post written by Scott Aumann, originally featured on The Legit Musician blog.
"Find out what your fans want by asking them. I learned this little tip by following online guru Michael Hyatt. He does a reader survey every year, and he learns how to run his business from the results. Don’t be afraid to ask your fans what they want. Most of the time, they will be excited to share this info with you. It will make them feel more connected to you as well."
Posted: Jan 22, 2018
Category: Marketing
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**Guest post written by Cassie Steele, content editor for GuitarFella.com.
"The internet has opened up a world of opportunity for musicians, enabling you to release music to a wide audience without the gatekeepers of record labels or a distribution company. However, you need to know what you’re doing. Releasing music online without a marketing plan and expecting it to sell is like dropping your CD in Times Square and expecting a record producer to pick it up..."
View Full ArticlePosted: Jan 15, 2018
Category: Royalties
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**Guest post written by Blake Morgan, artist, musician, record producer, CEO of ECR Music Group, and founder of #IRespectMusic. Originally featured in The Huffington Post and later featured in The Trichordist and Digital Music News.
Last week, Blake Morgan published a story in the Huffington Post that discussed his heated exchange with Spotify execs in a closed-door "artists-only" meeting. Just as the article was gaining traction, it was suddenly removed...Here's Blake's original article...
View Full ArticlePosted: Jan 8, 2018
Category: Social Media
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**Guest post written by Ged Richardson of Zing Instruments as featured in the Ultimate Guide To Social Media Marketing For Musicians.
"You’re an aspiring musician and you don’t have much time to dedicate to social media...The good news is there are certain social media smarts that work regardless of which channel you're on. These tips are channel agnostic - i.e. they're perennial tips that can be used on whichever your platform of choice happens to be."