IOTM Blog
Posted: Sep 10, 2024
Category: Marketing
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**Guest post written by Modern Musician.
"If you're serious about making a full-time career out of your passion for music, you've likely invested countless hours, energy, and money into honing your craft. But the big question remains—how do you build a loyal fanbase, make a sustainable income, and keep your artistic identity intact in today’s saturated industry? The good news is, it’s possible to achieve all this without relying on luck or record labels."
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: Jun 18, 2024
Category: Fans
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**Guest post written by Nick Braren, owner and operator of Upaya Sound. This was originally featured in the Upaya Sound blog.
"The ‘1000 True Fans’ concept, popularized by Kevin Kelly in 2008, suggests that an artist can make a comfortable living by cultivating a base of just 1000 dedicated supporters. These “True Fans” are individuals who are not only passionate about your music but are also willing to support you financially on an ongoing basis. They buy your music, attend your concerts, purchase merchandise, and spread the word about your work."
View Full ArticlePosted: 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.
"So aside from talking and interacting with your fans, you can also try using quantitative data from different analytical tools. You might get overwhelmed with all of it, especially if you hate numbers. But I tell you, they’re worth investing a few minutes of your time. Plus, they’re actually not that hard. In this article, we will mainly be talking about the different tools you can use to analyze your fans and how they are important. Let’s start!" View Full Article
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..."
View Full ArticlePosted: 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: Apr 9, 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.
"Having a career in music is not all sunshine and rainbows, and I’m sure you already know that, especially during the pandemic. To start a career in the music industry, you need to not only release good music but you have to be willing to learn the trade, to advertise yourself, get to know the right people, and many more. It’s too tedious! But still worth it. Let’s head on and enumerate the 25 reasons why being a musician today is awesome." View Full Article
Posted: Mar 26, 2024
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: Mar 12, 2024
Category: Music Streaming
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**Guest post written by Greg Fuhs, co-manager of indie label Dying Code Media and member of indie bands Anti-Social Club and Object X.
"As you may have heard, Spotify recently announced that it will no longer pay royalties for songs receiving less than 1,000 streams per year, instead redirecting those funds to artists with songs exceeding that threshold. The company claims this is to better support “emerging and professional artists” and estimates they will redistribute as much as $1 billion over five years. They also claim that small indie artists won’t miss this money – although I don’t think Spotify asked any of us about this..."
Posted: Dec 20, 2023
Category: The Musician Business
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**Guest post written by Baxter Brown, CEO/Founder of Muze, a platform all about connecting talented professionals in the music industry with people who need their skills.
"The music industry, like the songs it houses, is constantly evolving. With every passing year, new technologies and trends reshape the way music is created, consumed, and shared. As we step into 2024, it’s clearer than ever that independent artists have an unparalleled opportunity to make their mark on the music scene. However, this new frontier comes with its fair share of challenges and obstacles. In this guide, we’ll explore how independent musicians can not only survive but thrive in today’s digital landscape." 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: Nov 22, 2023
Category: Fans
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**Guest post written by Sammy Hakim for Bandzoogle.com.
"Whether it’s over the internet or on a stage, one of our main jobs as musicians is to engage with our audience...in the modern era, engaging with your audience means a lot more than generating powerful work: fans expect artists to be active online using various platforms, from TikTok to streaming services. Some even deem this online activity to be necessary for building a sustainable career. With that said, if you’re struggling to find ways to engage with your audience online, we’ve got your back! Here are five tips to get you started..."
View Full ArticlePosted: Sep 6, 2023
Category: Fans
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**Guest post written by Sarah Beth Perry of With the Band, originally featured in Soundfly's Flypaper blog.
"All artists want to get their music into the hands of more fans, but the real challenge lies in how to properly target potential fans with your marketing campaigns. With the rise of social media, fans are spread out all over the world, and they want to feel seen and recognized by their favorite artists. I want to help you better understand your fanbase by analyzing the demographics of fans who you interact with both online and in person...We use the following methods to help create marketing campaigns for major artists like the Jonas Brothers and Kacey Musgraves." View Full Article
Posted: Aug 23, 2023
Category: Fans
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**Guest post written by Jubran Haddad, originally posted on Chartmetric's blog.
"Discover the key stages, real-life examples, and essential tips for artists to navigate the fan journey from discovery to advocacy." View Full Article
Posted: Aug 2, 2023
Category: Live Performance
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**Guest post written by Katherine Dvoskin, Co-Founder & Piano Teacher for K&M Music School, San Diego.
"In the enthralling journey of morphing from a classroom maestro to a virtuoso on the concert stage, there's a symphony of skills that every musician ought to master. These skills are the crescendo to your performance, and like the meticulous tuning of an instrument, they prime you for the ebbs and flows of a life spent on the road. In this post, we will explore three key skills that music education helps cultivate: stage presence, repertoire selection, and audience engagement." View Full Article
Posted: May 9, 2023
Category: Online Presence
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**Guest post written by Melanie Kealey of Bandzoogle.
"As a musician, you need tools for promotion. An EPK is your online resume and musical business card, making it easy for industry professionals to discover who you are. Included in an EPK are assets to help industry easily understand and promote a band’s music. You’ve likely heard that every artist should have an EPK - let’s look at the reasons you might need one."
View Full ArticlePosted: 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: Apr 4, 2023
Category: Technology
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**Guest post written by Jeff Robbins, a long-time songwriter, producer, and musician who fronted the band Orbit and toured with Lollapalooza back in the 90’s. He started Lullabot, a web development company whose client list includes NBC, The Grammys, MTV, Sony Music, and Tesla Motors. He is also the founder of Spaceage, the company behind Visibox.
"Since the days of Pink Floyd’s animated concert visuals from “The Wall”, we’ve come to expect shows at our local arena or amphitheater to rattle our eyeballs as well as our ears...But most of us are still playing smaller theaters, clubs, and cafes. We don’t have a lighting person, much less someone to set up and run visuals while we perform. Maybe you’re a bedroom beat maker who performs with backing tracks. Maybe you’re an aspiring Taylor Swift. Or maybe you’ve got a Kiss cover band looking to add some fire-marshal-safe pyrotechnics to your show. It would take a lot of expensive production and equipment to elevate our performances, right? Wrong!"
View Full ArticlePosted: 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."
View Full ArticlePosted: Sep 27, 2022
Category: Social Media
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**Guest post written by Yona Marie, originally featured in her blog.
"It's not too late for you to get some shine and go viral on this popular platform. I say this mainly because of TikTok's current algorithm, which doesn't focus as much on follow count as you think it would. Sure, people who already have tons of talent will get a lot of views since they have probably been working hard on their content for a while now. But with great content and a great approach, you could also blow up on the platform!"
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 7, 2022
Category: Recording
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**Guest post written by Brad Johnson, a musician and producer from Southern California. When he isn’t spending time with his wife and kids at the beach, he is helping songwriters and musicians at Song Production Pros.
"Have you ever listened to a modern live recording and wondered how the performers were so dialed in?...Perhaps you've tried doing a live recording of your own band and were horrified by the results...What is it that separates your live recordings from the pros? Is it that they are that much better? Well, not exactly...Let's dive in!"
View Full ArticlePosted: 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: Apr 4, 2022
Category: Tips & Tricks
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**Guest post by Fang from Lords of the Trident, the most METAL band on earth!
"Well, the secret's out..."
View Full Article