IOTM Blog
Posted: Nov 18, 2025
Category: Promotion
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**Guest post written by Cyber PR, originally featured on the Cyber PR Blog.
"I know you’re tired of being told you have to always be on: posting, promoting, chasing streams, keeping up with the endless hamster wheel. But if you want to give yourself a good shot at consistently jolting the algorithms, I suggest you release singles every five or six weeks...This post is here to provide you with a step-by-step framework for how to pull this off — without losing your mind." View Full Article
Posted: Oct 14, 2025
Category: Promotion
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**Guest post written by Cyber PR, originally featured on the Cyber PR Blog.
"I run a music publicity and marketing firm, which means I frequently discuss release plans. Many of you have recorded full albums...And I get it. Albums are sacred. They’re art forms, not content drops...If you’re releasing a full album, you need to know that long-form media coverage — those thoughtful, in-depth reviews of your entire record — are very, very hard to come by today. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t present full albums... It just means that this part of your release journey — the press part — probably won’t look like it did ten or even five years ago. This post explains why no one is reviewing your album anymore — and what to focus on instead." View Full Article
Posted: Sep 3, 2025
Category: The Musician Business
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**Guest post written by Barbara Samuelson of Music Makes You Move.
"Indie bands often focus on raw instruments, heartfelt lyrics, and live energy. DJs specialize in reading the crowd, building anticipation, and dropping tracks that shake the floor. When the two worlds collide, something powerful happens. You don’t just have a concert—you have an experience."
View Full ArticlePosted: Aug 12, 2025
Category: Marketing
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**Guest post written by Scott Helmer, a touring singer-songwriter whose music blends rock and pop with heartfelt storytelling and powerful vocals. He has opened for Heart, Eddie Money, 3 Doors Down, Jeff Bridges, and Eric Burdon & The Animals. A Guinness World Records title holder, he has performed over 1,000 shows and helped raise millions for good causes.
"I’ve removed all of my music from Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, and every other major streaming platform. I’ve also deleted my YouTube channel and all social media accounts. No more chasing algorithms. No more playing a rigged game where real artists are buried by bots and manufactured content. No more relying on tech giants to reach people who already want to hear from me. From now on, everything I create—music, videos, tour dates, photos, and merch—lives only at my website. I’ve gone 100 percent direct-to-fan."
View Full ArticlePosted: Aug 5, 2025
Category: Technology
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**Guest post written by Scott Aumann, originally featured on The Legit Musician blog.
"If you’re a band manager, publicist, or just a die-hard fan trying to keep tabs on your favorite act, staying informed about every mention online can feel overwhelming. Luckily, Google Alerts is a free and powerful tool that can do most of the legwork for you. In this post, I’ll walk you through how to use Google Alerts to monitor a band’s online presence—whether you’re trying to track press coverage, spot fan activity, or get ahead of potential PR issues."
View Full ArticlePosted: Jul 9, 2025
Category: Music Streaming
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**Guest post written by Chris of Pitchplaylists.com.
"Getting your music on Spotify playlists isn’t just a bonus it can be a game-changer. With more than 40 million artists featured on Spotify playlists every month, playlisting has become one of the top ways to grow your audience, increase streams, and build real momentum. But how do you actually get your music on those playlists and more importantly how do you stay there? Let’s break it down in simple steps, plus show you how Pitchplaylists makes the whole process easier and more effective."
View Full ArticlePosted: 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 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: 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: 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 2, 2025
Category: Social Media
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**Guest post written by Cyber PR, originally featured on the Cyber PR Blog.
"I’ve been thinking a lot about social media music promotion...when I start to reflect and take stock of the year we’ve had. This one has been complicated, to say the least. I’ve lost a lot of sleep thinking about the massive shifts in music marketing...Creatives have felt these impacts profoundly. We watched in awe as Taylor Swift changed the GNP in every city she stormed through while many of us scratched our heads, wondering how to build our own audiences in this evolving environment. Social media has transformed, and its implications for music promotion must be unpacked." View Full Article
Posted: Nov 19, 2024
Category: Fans
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**Guest post written by Scott Aumann, originally featured on The Legit Musician blog.
"Have you ever felt like you wanted to find a way to steal all the fans of that band that is doing better than you? Well, you can. The best part is that you aren’t really stealing them and you won’t get arrested. Find out which bands are similar to you. Their fans can be your fans. If they like that other band then why can’t they be your fan as well?"
View Full ArticlePosted: Oct 15, 2024
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 quick tips to help you get the most out of your submissions and increase your chances of success..."
View Full ArticlePosted: Oct 2, 2024
Category: The Musician Business
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**Guest post written by Scott Aumann, originally featured on The Legit Musician blog.
"Show posters are still one of the best ways to promote your band and a live show. I know most of the venues that I played at still used show posters for every show. Some venues even required that you send posters. These are a low-cost option for promotion and still can work great if done correctly. Don’t just write some stuff on a sheet of paper with a sharpie. Put some thought into your show posters and they will pay off with larger crowds and more engaged fans. I’m going to teach you how to make the most kick-ass show poster ever!"
View Full ArticlePosted: Aug 20, 2024
Category: Promotion
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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.
"As an independent artist in the modern music industry, having a direct line of communication with your fans is absolutely paramount when promoting your music...Two of the most powerful channels at your disposal for marketing music are email marketing and social media marketing. Both are fantastic tools that allow you to connect directly with your audience, share updates, tour dates, promote new releases and sell products and tickets to live shows. So let’s discuss each..."
Posted: Apr 17, 2024
Category: Fans
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**Guest post written by Downupright, a producer, composer, & DJ from Buffalo, NY. They/them have released many projects over the years under a variety of different artist names. In their “spare” time, Downupright is a serial startup entrepreneur and fractional Chief Technology Officer of between four and ten startups at once.
"Across [three projects between 2015 and 2024], the unifying theme was that I was asking more from my listeners and backers than simply “go stream my track”, “follow me on TikTok” etc… I was asking them to participate. I wanted them to have some skin in the game."
Posted: Mar 19, 2024
Category: Promotion
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**Guest post written by Cyber PR, originally featured on the Cyber PR Blog.
"Here at Cyber PR, musicians frequently call and ask me to write and blast a press release. The strongest reason to write a press release is for a particular event (like a show, a benefit, or a special occasion) OR for a very niche market (a “genre” of music is not a niche but a charity benefit or a tech related news piece like you are featured in a new app is!) I discourage blasting but I do encourage well-researched outreach. Here is how to create a press release in 8 steps." View Full Article
Posted: Dec 13, 2023
Category: Promotion
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**Guest post written by Cyber PR, originally featured on the Cyber PR Blog.
"Here are some killer Holiday Tips to help you increase your engagement with your fans! As an artist, there is no better time than the HOLIDAZE to work on building engagement and connections with your fans." View Full Article
Posted: Aug 30, 2023
Category: Marketing
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**Guest post originally featured in the Symphonic Distribution Blog.
"Publicity is arguably the most misunderstood of all the marketing efforts recording artists go through. Many creators, from musicians and influencers to songwriters and producers, have wild visions of what publicity is and how it functions to support and enhance the trajectory of their career. Typically, these visions aren’t accurate. To clarify this process, here’s a rundown of everything you need to know..."
View Full ArticlePosted: Jun 28, 2023
Category: Marketing
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**Guest post originally featured in the Symphonic Distribution Blog.
"So you’ve been added to a popular playlist on Spotify… Hell yeah! Getting your music placed on a great Spotify playlist means more exposure, a further reach and a major platform to back you up. Once you’ve been added, the work doesn’t end there. Here’s how to ride that wave and make the most of it..."
View Full ArticlePosted: Jun 20, 2023
Category: Promotion
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**Guest post written by Cyber PR, originally featured on the Cyber PR Blog.
"Capturing your fans’ email is only the first step of a successful email marketing campaign. Now that you’ve got them, and they’re eager to hear from you, how do you make sure you land in their inbox (and not the dreaded “promo” folder ?) and get them to actually open it? We explore the 9 hacks we have found to be the most useful in getting your subscribers to open your emails." View Full Article
Posted: Jun 13, 2023
Category: Tips & Tricks
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**Guest post by Fang from Lords of the Trident, the most METAL band on earth!
"We sit down with Martin Atkins - the godfather of the DIY band business, and inspiration for this whole video series - to talk about the current state of the music business, and how to make your band stand out!"
View Full ArticlePosted: May 23, 2023
Category: Social Media
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**Guest post originally featured in the Symphonic Distribution Blog.
"Instagram Reels is the perfect place to post creative video content and engage with your audience on Instagram at the same time. If you don’t have a lot of time to dedicate to Reels, there are a lot of ways you can still create them with existing content you already have or things you already love. From behind-the-scenes clips to easy memes, here are 7 ideas you have to try..."
View Full ArticlePosted: Mar 14, 2023
Category: Promotion
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**Guest post written by Musik and Film Promotions.
"You read articles that give "the truth"-- that say Indie Artist can't get airplay, Right? -- WRONG! It's a BIG world out there! Musik Radio Promotions has charted artists in the top 10 in many charts around the world...Indie Artists are playing on thousands of stations - some on TENS of thousands. How, you ask?"
View Full ArticlePosted: Feb 28, 2023
Category: Promotion
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**Guest post by One Submit, the ultimate music submission platform.
"Spotify's algorithmic playlists are an effective way to reach new listeners and get to know their music. These playlists are the Holy Grail for many artists, and can act as important milestones to get noticed on Spotify's editorial playlists. In short, Spotify's algorithmic playlists are designed to recommend music to listeners based on their individual tastes and preferences. This means that if an artist's song is included in an algorithm's playlist, it may be discovered by a large number of new listeners who have never heard of said artist....This can lead to increased exposure, more streams, and even mainstream success."