Posted: 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: 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."

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: Nov 7, 2023

Category: Marketing

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**Guest post originally featured in CS Discos' e-book Cover Your Way Up, a guide to leveraging music covers on YouTube.

"Copyright owners typically opt to monetize videos rather than block them, meaning they will run advertisements on them and collect any revenue generated by these ads. Although none of that revenue will go back to you as the creator of the cover, your video will remain viewable by other viewers...Additionally, in some cases, copyright owners may choose not to monetize videos by blocking them instead. Therefore, it’s wise to conduct some research and understand local regulations before posting covers online."

Posted: Oct 4, 2023

Category: Marketing

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**Guest post originally featured in CS Discos' e-book Cover Your Way Up, a guide to leveraging music covers on YouTube.

"To further your music career, it’s essential to understand YouTube monetization. This process offers benefits like revenue generation, audience engagement, and enhanced content creation. Monetizing your channel means not only earning money but also increasing your professionalism and visibility. To qualify, YouTube requires at least 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours in the past year, or you can alternatively accumulate 10 million short views in the last 90 days, as per updated information from 2023."

Posted: Sep 12, 2023

Category: Marketing

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**Guest post originally featured in CS Discos' e-book Cover Your Way Up, a guide to leveraging music covers on YouTube.

"Understanding YouTube’s algorithm can be your ticket to shining amidst so many creators. With millions of videos uploaded daily, the algorithm’s effort is directed towards tailoring content to viewers’ preferences, ensuring they get a satisfying experience. As artists, understanding this system can amplify your online presence."

Posted: May 31, 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.

"If your goal was to become a doctor, a teacher or even an athlete, there are clear paths and guidelines for pursuing those professions that you would be required to follow....In contrast, if you’re pursuing a music career, this dynamic doesn’t exist...Even if your goal is to sign a record deal, you need to first build a successful business around your music, because labels are looking for proven acts that they can exploit and not acts they need to develop...This is why you should seek guidance from someone that can explain the overall process for building a music career, as well as someone that can help you overcome the challenges and obstacles you’ll encounter as you progress through your career. This brings us to our main topic: 5 Reasons You Should have a Mentor..."

Posted: Feb 21, 2023

Category: Technology

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**Guest post written by Jack Sutherland, 20 Year Web Development & Music Marketing Lead and Founder of Band Pioneer.

"The Internet has drastically transformed the music industry over the past 20 years. The tools we record it with, the strategies we use to promote it, and even the distribution of profit has all been revamped due to the Internet. And this transformation has opened up a lot of new opportunities for bands and solo artists to control their own destinies."

Posted: 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..."

Posted: Dec 7, 2022

Category: Tips & Tricks

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

"Every year, from about mid-December on, the music industry becomes a ghost town. People start going on vacation, taking time-off, major label artist releases slow down big time, and for indie artists, it’s no man’s land. And while that, coupled with the frigid temperatures, might be enough to have you want to hunker down and avoid leaving the safety of your home for the next few months, this time of year is actually incredibly powerful for setting yourself up for success. You just have to know how to take advantage of it. Here’s how..."

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: Mar 28, 2022

Category: Tips & Tricks

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**Guest post by Sam Saideman, co-founder of artist management and consultant agency Innovo Management.

"2020 wreaked havoc on everyone’s lives, however in my opinion, artists (and freelance creatives as a whole) took the brunt of it. Reminiscing now, it’s clear which artists figured it out and which didn’t, but I want to utilize this piece to discuss ways I saw artists adapt in the hopes that it helps readers dig back into YouTube (and other resources) to learn a part of the industry they didn’t know existed! It’s worth noting, these are not the only ways to build supplemental income or adapt, but merely a few to start with."

Posted: 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."

Posted: Oct 18, 2021

Category: Marketing

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

Posted: Jul 26, 2021

Category: Promotion

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**Guest post by Vince Martellacci of ForgeCollective.

"There are three main ways musicians can go about getting their music on playlists, ranging from old school to modern...They are: email outreach, digital submissions, and social media relationship-building...all three have their place, and all three work."

Posted: May 10, 2021

Category: Promotion

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**Guest post written by Leonard Patterson of Artist Collective AKA @ac_leonardp. This is an excerpt from his new book, 365 Livestream Ideas For Musicians.

"13. Schedule a Facebook Premiere 14. Create an Event 15. Join the Club(house)..."

Posted: Feb 15, 2021

Category: Marketing

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**Guest post from #1 YouTube Consultant Derral Eves.

"I understand that a lot of musicians love to share their music in live settings, and why wouldn’t they? In the past year, unfortunately, sometimes the only option for exposure has been online. So...what better time to focus on your YouTube audience than now?...How do you build a bigger audience, foster brand loyalty, and grow revenue?"

Posted: Oct 12, 2020

Category: Technology

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**Guest post by Fang from Lords of the Trident, the most METAL band on earth!

"Multistreaming is a great way to keep multiple audiences engaged or increase your reach on different platforms. Fang reveals the ARCANE SECRETS of setting up a multistream server on a $100 Raspberry Pi!"

Posted: Jul 27, 2020

Category: The Musician Business

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**Guest post written by Gideon Waxman, a London based drummer & music educator.

"There are times in life when we are forced to adapt in order to survive. This is one of those times, and it’s why we as musicians need to become flexible in order to achieve financial security—I also want to give you some advice as to how to start becoming more self-reliant..."

Posted: Jun 29, 2020

Category: Live Performance

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**Guest post by Fang from Lords of the Trident, the most METAL band on earth!

"Want to make your music livestreams as AMAZING as possible? Don't just sit in front of your webcam with a guitar! Follow this tutorial and your streams will be INCREDIBLE!"

Posted: Mar 30, 2020

Category: Live Performance

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**Guest post written by Scott Aumann, originally featured on The Legit Musician blog.

"I wanted to come up with a few ideas for you if you are dealing with lost revenue from a gig being cancelled. I also wanted to make this post more universal than just for this latest pandemic. My hope is that you can use these ideas for a cancelled gig under any circumstances."

Posted: Feb 18, 2020

Category: The Musician Business

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**Guest post written by Carlos Castillo of Schwilly Family Musicians - music marketing strategist, web designer, live performance recordist, international road-tripper, lap steel player, and Captain of the Schwilly Family.

Posted: Nov 11, 2019

Category: Online Presence

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**Guest post by Randy Chertkow and Jason Feehan of MakingMoneyWithMusic.com. Reprinted with permission.

"What not every musician knows about or takes advantage of is there's a second way to make ad revenue off of your videos -- even if you can't become a YouTube Partner. The key is to register your entire back catalog of music with YouTube's ContentID service..."