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: Jan 8, 2025

Category: Online Presence

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**Guest post written by Joseph Longo for Bandzoogle.com.

"Your website is one of the most powerful tools in your artist toolbox. It’s your home base online, where fans can connect with you directly and discover everything they need to know about your music. To make your site work harder for you, here are five essential tips to help you maximize its potential..."

Posted: Sep 4, 2024

Category: Online Presence

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**Guest post originally featured in the Symphonic Distribution Blog.

"Spotify is a powerful tool for any artist interested in reaching a larger audience. One of the most effective ways to utilize the platform is to create a custom Spotify for Artists profile which will help you get verified, easily manage your profile, learn about your fanbase and more. In this post, we’ll break down some tips to help you make sure your profile is optimized and ready to go."

Posted: Jul 24, 2024

Category: Merch

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**Guest post written by James Hill, a veteran of the music industry. He has worked at Warner Reprise Records and then Interscope/ Geffen Records and now helps indie artists with branding and manufacturing through his company Unified Manufacturing, a CD/DVD, custom vinyl records and merch company in LA.

Posted: Jul 3, 2024

Category: Live Performance

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**Guest post written by Adam Percy for Bandzoogle.com.

"While they had a bit of a shaky start when they came out, QR codes have now become a popular tool for sharing content and for promoting pages or products online. The advantages of QR codes are that they’re very portable, they’re unique, and they can be used just about anywhere—they can be scanned with a smartphone camera to quickly get anyone to a specific page on the web...Here are five ways you can use QR codes to elevate your live shows..."

Posted: May 21, 2024

Category: Fans

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**Guest post written by James Hill, a veteran of the music industry. He has worked at Warner Reprise Records and then Interscope/ Geffen Records and now helps indie artists with branding and manufacturing through his company Unified Manufacturing, a CD/DVD, custom vinyl records and merch company in LA.

Posted: May 14, 2024

Category: The Musician Business

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**Guest post written by Modern Musician and featured in their blog.

"You love making music and in order to keep moving forward, you need to create a sustainable income. So how do musicians make money from their music? It’s something a lot of independent artists struggle to do… but we’ve got answers!...I’d like to introduce you to a simple system that will help you to earn a real living from your music..."

Posted: Mar 5, 2024

Category: The Musician Business

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**Guest post written by James Hill, a veteran of the music industry. He has worked at Warner Reprise Records and then Interscope/ Geffen Records and now helps indie artists with branding and manufacturing through his company Unified Manufacturing, a CD/DVD, custom vinyl records and merch company in LA.

Posted: Dec 13, 2023

Category: Promotion

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**Guest post written by Cyber PR, originally featured on the Cyber PR Blog.

Posted: Oct 25, 2023

Category: Technology

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**Guest post originally featured in the PlaylistSupply Blog.

"In the evolving music landscape, streaming platforms like Spotify have reshaped how music is consumed. For independent artists, this evolution presents both an opportunity and a challenge. While it’s easier than ever to distribute music, the challenge of getting noticed amidst a sea of tracks has intensified. So, how do indie artists stand out?"

Posted: Aug 23, 2023

Category: Fans

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**Guest post written by Jubran Haddad, originally posted on Chartmetric's blog.

Posted: Aug 15, 2023

Category: Merch

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**Guest post written by Janelle Borg, originally posted on AmplifyYou's blog.

Posted: Mar 21, 2023

Category: The Musician Business

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**Guest post by Kristen Ford, Nashville based indie rock act with a passion for music business and a book on DIY touring in the works.

1. Live Performances 2. Online Sales/Consignment/Out the trunk sales 3. Sync/Licensing placements 4. Private Events/Colleges 5. Streaming income...

Posted: Feb 14, 2023

Category: Fans

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**Guest post written by Caleb Murphy for Bandzoogle.com.

"As an indie artist, you have several ways to make money from your music. And launching a fan subscriber community is one of those ways...To succeed at this, you need an established fanbase - people who regularly listen to your music, open your emails, and engage with your social media content. The trick is, getting those fans to subscribe and effectively become super fans. There are lots of ways to encourage more fans to subscribe, but below are six of the most creative perk ideas."

Posted: Feb 7, 2023

Category: Merch

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**Guest post written by Jordan Gates, of Megaphone Agency and Indie Gigging.

"Merchandise sales make up a significant chunk of revenue for many artists. Concert goers are willing to spend money on all kinds of apparel and novelties as keepsakes to support their favorite artists. Simply put, if you’re a touring artist and you’re not selling merch, you should be! And if you are already selling merch, these tips and tricks will help you stay organized and sell more!"

Posted: Sep 13, 2022

Category: Online Presence

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**Guest post written by Wes Walls of Bandzoogle.

"Once you have created a music website, you can take your online presence a step further by optimizing your band's ranking in search engines. This is called SEO for musicians, and it makes it easier for your fans to find the information about you that they want. Whether you want to discover the best SEO keywords for musicians, or just start making your songs, social profiles and events show up in Google, this checklist will help you to get started."

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."

Posted: Jun 15, 2022

Category: The Musician Business

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**Guest post written by David Andrew Wiebe, founder & CEO at The Music Entrepreneur HQ.

"Have you ever sat down to work out all the ways you could possibly make money with music? I have, and I was surprised at the sheer number of ways I came up with. If you’re new to the music business, then it’s not your fault that you don’t know all the secrets yet. So, in this guide we cover a variety of ways musicians make money."

Posted: Apr 19, 2022

Category: Merch

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**Guest post written by Atomic Disc, CD & Vinyl Manufacturing for musicians, by musicians.

"After two years of pandemic lockdowns, some of us are starting to feel a glimmer of hope that gigs and tours will soon return to their pre-pandemic stages. With that comes the biggest opportunity for independent artists to sell physical formats of their music and merch. When people are at your show, all amped up and excited to finally be out to see live music, they want the experience to last, to take a little bit of it with them home. This is where the money is for indies."

Posted: Apr 11, 2022

Category: Touring

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**Guest post originally featured in the Disc Makers Blog.

"O Canada! So close… yet sometimes so far away. Music flows freely across the border, but there are times when musicians and instruments have a little more trouble. If you’re planning a trip to play music gigs in Canada, here’s some advice and a few online resources to help make your border crossing smooth and easy."

Posted: Mar 14, 2022

Category: Merch

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**Guest post written by Atomic Disc, originally featured on their blog.

"Production times for vinyl used to be 2 to 3 months and labels and artists would plan their release campaigns around this. Now, we're looking at 10 to 14 months for vinyl runs...The total capacity of the roughly hundred vinyl pressing plants around the world is about 160 million records per year. The current demand, or orders in the cue, are between 320 and 400 million records...To make matters worse, every stage of the manufacturing process from producers of raw materials, printers of the vinyl packaging, pressing plants and transportation were hit with either shutdowns or slowdowns due to Covid restrictions."

Posted: Nov 22, 2021

Category: Marketing

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**Guest post written by Leonard Patterson of Artist Collective AKA @ac_leonardp.

"Regardless of the true meaning of the holidays, one thing is universal. People will flock to the stores, click on shiny objects, and buy. the. stuff. Whether or not you have “stuff” to sell already, here are a few easy-to-implement marketing, content, and planning ideas to help prepare you for the season."

Posted: Nov 1, 2021

Category: Marketing

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**Guest post written by Cyber PR, originally featured on the Cyber PR Blog.

Posted: Oct 4, 2021

Category: Promotion

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**Guest post written by Bruce Wawrzyniak, who runs Now Hear This, Inc. and www.InterviewTipsCourse.com.

"...this list of 20-plus ways that you can promote (your music, your podcast, your book) can overwhelmingly be done alone and with little to no cost! So, rather than sit back and say, “Okay, my new release is on Spotify or my podcast is now on iTunes or my book is on Amazon,” promote the little minnow rather than sitting back and waiting for people to find it swimming in the ocean-sized inventory of content on those platforms. Remember that as easy as it is to hire me to be your publicist and do the promotion for you, up until then, when you’re on your own, if you don’t promote, who else will?"

Posted: Jun 28, 2021

Category: Merch

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**Guest post by Michael L. Moore, a vinyl record enthusiast with a passion for R&B and soul music. He is the owner and editor of Devoted to Vinyl and recently wrote about his newfound appreciation for synthwave music on vinyl.

"Every industry was deeply affected by this crisis [in 2020], and independent artists were no exception. Unable to sell tickets, go on tour, and earn revenue through merchandise sales, 2020 turned every creative into a “struggling artist.” But 2021 is a new year, and as things slowly open back up, there remains a fairly untapped revenue stream that indie artists should strongly consider jumping into: the world of vinyl records."