IOTM Blog
Posted: Jan 31, 2023
Category: Marketing
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**Guest post originally featured in the Symphonic Distribution Blog.
"Effective marketing is a fundamental part of being an artist. Without it, you, your music, and your branding can only go so far. This is where spending the money for thoughtful and dependable marketing comes into play. But how do you know how much money is the right amount to help you achieve your goals? In this part of our marketing journey series, we’ll break down everything you need to know about building a successful marketing budget..."
View Full ArticlePosted: Jan 18, 2023
Category: Promotion
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**Guest post written by Lacie Blue, director of artist relations at Musik and Film Promotions.
"Nashville used to be the land where dreams came true for musicians. Superstar makers would walk into a bar and swoop up the “next big thing”—pretty soon you had Garth Brooks. Perhaps it still happens…once in a blue moon. Once upon a time, musicians and songwriters created music to create. They performed because it was in their blood to perform. They didn’t care if they fit into a genre. They wanted to connect to people on a higher level through music. Gone are those days. (But not the musicians…)"
View Full ArticlePosted: Jan 10, 2023
Category: Social Media
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**Guest post originally featured in the Symphonic Distribution Blog.
"If you’re an active social media user, then you don’t need to be told how important accurate image sizing is on socials. Social platforms change their preferred image sizing and formatting every year, so make sure to update yours accordingly! To help you out, here are the updated requirements for 2023..."
View Full ArticlePosted: Oct 25, 2022
Category: Promotion
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**Guest post by One Submit, the ultimate music submission platform.
"Your song is now uploaded to digital distribution platforms and it’s officially online with millions of streaming stores...Once your song is on all streaming platforms, the hard work begins: Promoting and Sourcing Your Music...Sending to a playlist is the most efficient and effective way to get your music heard, undoubtedly. But how do you place your track on a playlist? Should you focus your efforts on Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer or Tidal?...If you want to know more, you've come to the right place."
Posted: Oct 4, 2022
Category: Live Performance
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**Guest post written by Matt Santry, founder of www.WellPaidMusician.com.
"The app is called Thumbtack. I think it's overlooked by musicians because it's an app for every imaginable freelancer from dog walkers, plumbers, website designers, and yes, performing musicians. So what sets this app apart from Fiverr and other freelancing marketplaces?...how does it work?...what's their business model?"
Posted: Sep 6, 2022
Category: The Musician Business
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**Guest post written by Jesse Young El.
"You're an artist who's just starting out in your career. You've been hustling, grinding, and making connections for years, and you're finally starting to see some success. Your music is starting to get attention, and you're beginning to perform at shows and venues. Or maybe that's not your story at all. Maybe you're rarely getting calls for shows. Maybe the venue you do get booked in is paying you very little. Perhaps your music isn't generating much revenue from royalties. If any of these is the case, then you're really going to have to hustle differently to make additional income. But don't worry, there are ways that you can make money as a singer or hip-hop artist beyond just shows and royalties."
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: Jul 19, 2022
Category: Marketing
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**Guest post written by Haley McCarthy of Bandzoogle.
"A landing page is the perfect combination of creativity and action, allowing you to gain more fans and build a lasting relationship...As a musician, you can cater to this part of the fan experience with well-crafted newsletters...To build your mailing list, you can create a custom landing page on your music website to capture fan emails. But what is a landing page and how do you encourage fans to sign up for your mailing list? Let’s explore how to use the email opt-in landing page to build your email list!"
View Full ArticlePosted: Jun 21, 2022
Category: Promotion
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**Guest post by One Submit, the ultimate music submission platform.
"Spotify is one of the biggest online platforms for streaming and promoting music in 2022. Spotify currently has an astonishing 406m active users and is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Spotify has created an amazing platform for indie artists to promote their music. Spotify’s success however, has led to the unfortunate establishment of Spotify playlist fraud and scams. From fake Spotify playlists to fake streams, there are many scams you should be aware of when using Spotify to promote your music."
Posted: May 24, 2022
Category: Social Media
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**Guest post by One Submit, the ultimate music submission platform.
"TikTok is one of the most popular social media platforms to date. If you are an up & coming artist and want to know the best way to expose & promote your music on TikTok, you came to the right place...A massive benefit of using TikTok is that it brings with a sense of authenticity and creativity to its platform, which allows creators to explore and use their imagination to its fullest, with only minor limitations in place...The question I'm sure you are wondering is, “how do I upload a song on TikTok?”"
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: Mar 21, 2022
Category: Selling Music
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**Guest post written by Melanie Kealey of Bandzoogle.
"Whether you’re an up and coming indie artist, or have a new album almost ready, releasing a single is a great way to create some momentum around your music. A single can not only get your fans excited, but can be pitched to press, radio, or playlists to build some buzz. Along with this, you should sell a single from your official website...Anyone who gets to your website is interested in finding out more about you - so make it a priority to pitch your single and the story behind it. Here’s how to prepare, release and sell a single from your music website."
View Full ArticlePosted: Feb 14, 2022
Category: Marketing
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**Guest post written by Anthony Pacheo, founder of ground-breaking marketing analytics platform PromoteKit.
"As a marketing consultant, I get asked the golden question on the daily: what is the best way to market your music? The answer? There is no best way! The best way is the way that works for you. And that is exactly what we will be discovering together in this blog post. Here are 3 music marketing hacks you need to know before you release your next track."
View Full ArticlePosted: Nov 29, 2021
Category: The Musician Business
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**Guest post written by Yona Marie, originally featured in her blog.
"Releasing songs as an independent artist is pretty easy thanks to technology. 50 years back, you'd be out of luck for the most part, but now is the best time to thrive as a musician or artist without having to rely on a label! The main thing about being independent is that you want to make sure you're always growing and learning when it comes to music industry knowledge. You are in charge of your career and will not have any big-money company backing you or guiding you."
View Full ArticlePosted: Nov 1, 2021
Category: Marketing
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**Guest post written by Cyber PR, originally featured on the Cyber PR Blog.
"We have already outlined building a solid foundation for your music marketing plan in Part 1 – The Nuts & Bolts, and outlined strategies for a successful music release launch in Part 2. Now it is time to kick back and relax for a little while before starting to write material for the next single, album, or EP that you’ll release down the road right? Wrong… couldn’t be further from the truth." View Full Article
Posted: Oct 18, 2021
Category: Marketing
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**Guest post written by Cyber PR, originally featured on the Cyber PR Blog.
"In this ever-changing landscape, we see the same issue consistently: A vast majority of musicians don’t create long-term marketing plans. Artists skip this vital part of their music careers. Plans used to be the responsibility of the record label when artist development used to be a thing or a great management team but very few artists are lucky enough to have either (or in many cases, they don’t want a label). This leaves a void in today’s new music business...You work so hard on new music, dedicating hours practicing, writing songs, not to mention spending large sums of money recording, mixing, mastering, creating visuals, and album artwork only to rush the release with no marketing plan in place." View Full Article
Posted: Jun 21, 2021
Category: The Musician Business
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**Guest post from Marcus Welch, President & CEO of Quadio.
"There are so many talented creators out there who could benefit from the help a label provides - many, many more than you think...finding one another in the vast sea of musicians can be hard. On top of that, the right choice for an artist might be to go at it independently - which is a totally viable strategy for some, and can be leveraged in all kinds of ways with a creative enough approach."
View Full ArticlePosted: May 24, 2021
Category: Social Media
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**Guest post by Vince Martellacci of ForgeCollective.
"While there are so many active niches and interests on Clubhouse, the Clubhouse app space for music interests is an especially wonderful place. That’s because of its exclusivity, which I hope never goes away...But why is it exclusive? What is a room? Is it audio all the way? And how do you get on it?...Let’s examine the hot-button app."
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: Mar 8, 2021
Category: The Musician Business
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**Guest post from Justin Paul, music/career coach, A&R, DJ, and producer.
"The pandemic has hurt all artists, even larger acts had to cancel tours. Ultimately what we're talking about is that there has been loads of money lost for the artist, for the promoters, also for the sound engineers, light engineers, stage crew, food vendors, security, stage techs, drivers, venues, and merchandise sales in live music. Furthermore, the pandemic has created a lot of self-doubt and uncertainty for artists. Some artists are now thinking about shifting to a different career or creating side hustles. Multiple income streams are the way to go even during normal times."
View Full ArticlePosted: Feb 1, 2021
Category: The Musician Business
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**Guest post by Randy Chertkow and Jason Feehan of MakingMoneyWithMusic.com. Originally featured in the Disc Makers Blog. Reprinted with permission.
"While you hear a lot about independent musicians and how you can build a music career with a do-it-yourself mentality, doing it yourself doesn’t mean doing it alone. There isn’t a singular music industry. Instead, there are industries that serve every facet of the foundation upon which you build your career, and you have to master them all to succeed and grow as an artist...Today we’ll tackle another subset of roles to help grow your music career: those associated with merchandise and getting media exposure."
View Full ArticlePosted: Jan 25, 2021
Category: The Musician Business
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**Guest post from David Franz, a California-based music business entrepreneur, producer, engineer, multi-instrumentalist, performer, educator, and author of Producing in the Home Studio with Pro Tools.
"Fear stops progress. It is crippling. It is a disability. You must push through into uncomfortable places if you want to grow. Getting in front of the camera has brought all of my fears out to the surface and recorded them for me to watch. It has forced me to push through the discomfort and grow."
View Full ArticlePosted: Nov 9, 2020
Category: Touring
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**Guest post written by Hudson Moore, originally posted on DigitalTourBus.com.
"I’ve been a touring independent artist for 10 years. I’ve booked, advanced, produced, and promoted almost every headline show I’ve ever played. I still have a long way to go, but I’ve been fortunate to play some amazing shows to fans across the US and over the years I’ve picked up a few tried and true tips and strategies that have helped me that will hopefully add value to you as well. So without further ado..."
View Full ArticlePosted: Oct 26, 2020
Category: The Musician Business
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**Guest post written by Scott Aumann, originally featured on The Legit Musician blog.
"Have you wondered how some bands get such engaged fans? It is because their fans feel like part of that band’s world. That band did one thing that you might not be doing. They made their message about the fans and not the band. People follow and buy from people or brands they like. So let’s make sure your message is likable..."
View Full ArticlePosted: Aug 3, 2020
Category: Marketing
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**Guest post by David Figueroa of Avoid Cliche, a musical artist branding company.
"You've made your music, but you need to decide how you want to present yourself to the world. Even if you're making music just for fun, it's always good to give people an extra layer of the artistic story, so people remember you. Here I'll explain why visual branding is vital and even get into some fun psychology. Buckle up..."
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