IOTM Blog
Posted: Nov 7, 2016
Category: The Musician Business
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**Guest post written by Jonny Carroll, a touring singer-songwriter from Grand Rapids, MI, as featured in his blog.
"In my short time burning the pavement that is independent vocational musicianship I’ve come to observe the artists who, regardless of genre, possess some traits for being wildly successful at making it into a flourishing career. The common denominator between them is simple..." View Full Article
Posted: Oct 10, 2016
Category: Online Distribution
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**Guest post written by Corey Koehler, an indie singer-songwriter from Minnesota, as featured in his blog MusicGoat.com.
"Here’s the good news: These days if you want to sell music online it is pretty damn easy. You find a nice music distribution service, upload your songs and BAM… you are worldwide. Your music is blasted out all over the world in less than an hour. Here's the bummer..." View Full Article
Posted: Aug 1, 2016
Category: Marketing
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**Guest post written by Corey Koehler, an indie singer-songwriter from Minnesota, as featured in his blog MusicGoat.com.
"It is not a bad place to network with other musicians. They have a few decent tools. And its nice to have some links back to my website and other social media properties. If you are just starting out and testing the waters, you could do a lot worse. But if you want to get serious about marketing online, building your fan base, and growing your music career, you should be thinking beyond ReverbNation. Especially when it comes to your email marketing." View Full Article
Posted: May 16, 2016
Category: Marketing
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**Guest Post by Paul Loeb, founder and CEO of No Ego Records and DropTrack. Originally featured on The DIY Musician.
"It’s hard to believe it’s been over 12 years since the launch of Facebook. Love it or hate it, social media is here to stay. That’s good news for marketers, musicians, and entrepreneurs. You have this incredible platform to reach every one of those followers you painstakingly cultivated. Or do you?"
View Full ArticlePosted: Feb 22, 2016
Category: Selling Music
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**Guest post written by Corey Koehler, an indie singer-songwriter from Minnesota, as featured in his blog MusicGoat.com.
"For the past 30-40 years musicians have been releasing albums. Many times the time between those albums was a year or more. Many bands and musicians these days still model their own release schedules after this same one. This is a mistake. These days you should be learning how to release a single and doing it often. Here's why..."
View Full ArticlePosted: Dec 7, 2015
Category: Marketing
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**Guest Post written by Alan VanToai, Co-Founder of www.CrewFire.com (turn your existing fans into your Facebook and Twitter ambassadors).
When you think visionary brands, who comes to mind? Probably Apple, Red Bull, or Nike… right? Well, how about we add one more to the mix: The Grateful Dead...Long before social media or digital marketing ever came into play, they employed viral marketing, social networking, and word-of-mouth marketing...50 years later, the game has changed – but the principles are the same. And word-of-mouth remains one of the most powerful marketing strategies out there.
View Full ArticlePosted: Nov 23, 2015
Category: Social Media
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**Guest post written by Chris Robley, originally featured in the DIY Musician Blog.
"If you’ve been on the planet for more than a quarter century, you could be forgiven for not really knowing much about Snapchat...with 77% of college students using the app daily, and over 400 millions “snaps” a day (and a valuation of $16 billion) Snapchat can’t really be ignored anymore. So let’s ask the question: do you need to be on Snapchat as a musician?" View Full Article
Posted: Nov 9, 2015
Category: Live Performance
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**Guest post written by Joy Ike, creator of Grassrootsy.com and Independent Musician, as featured on Grassrootsy.com.
"For a while there, house concerts were a trendy idea for independent artists that caught on pretty quickly...But now house concerts are actually becoming the primary means for many artists to make their living...Here are 5 ways that I’ve used to generate solid house concert leads." View Full Article
Posted: Nov 2, 2015
Category: Marketing
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**Guest post written by Matt Bacon, Senior Campaign Manager at Independent Music Promotions.
You look out on the crowd after a high powered set opening up for one of your favorite bands – and then instead of playing another song off your latest release you instead pull off a killer cover of Just Like Heaven...People love artists who pay tribute to their influences.
View Full ArticlePosted: Jul 13, 2015
Category: Live Performance
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**Guest post written by Cristof Ensslin, cellist/manager of The Wilhelm Brothers, folk rock with cello infusion from Asheville, NC.
"Are you booking for an indie band? Have you ever come across a venue mentioning you ought not to play another show within a certain radius and timespan? Chances are, you have." But what if you could play multiple shows in the same town in the same week and the venue could also benefit...
View Full ArticlePosted: Jun 15, 2015
Category: Live Performance
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**Guest post written by Wade Sutton of Rocket to the Stars.
"In the third of a three-part video series, Rocket to the Stars' Wade Sutton continues examining how artists can improve their speaking skills when on stage performing at live shows!" Sentence structure is key...
View Full ArticlePosted: Jun 8, 2015
Category: Live Performance
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**Guest post written by Wade Sutton of Rocket to the Stars.
"In the second of a three-part video series, Rocket to the Stars' Wade Sutton continues examining how artists can improve their speaking skills when on stage performing at live shows!"
View Full ArticlePosted: Jun 1, 2015
Category: Live Performance
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**Guest post written by Wade Sutton of Rocket to the Stars.
"Finding a comfort zone while speaking to audiences between songs is something that has been problematic for MANY singers...So I spent a large portion of time over the past year and a half exploring this very issue and looking for ways artists can improve at this extremely important, yet often neglected, skill..."
View Full ArticlePosted: May 18, 2015
Category: Social Media
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**Guest post written by Melinda Lewis of ScatterRadio.
"The evolution from simply surfing the internet on a computer to consuming content on mobile phones has put a growing emphasis on social media. And, the pressure to be “good” at social media has never been stronger...Your audience may be inundated with the same messages from different people and the quest to stand out oftentimes seems like an uphill battle. Instead of focusing on the quantity, cultivate quality..."
View Full ArticlePosted: Apr 20, 2015
Category: The Musician Business
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**Guest post written by Deuce Ellis, Buffalo-born and Brooklyn-raised rap renegade. Originally posted by Cyber PR.
"Here’s My Guest Blog After Attending the #YourMusic Seminar; maybe this whole thing is easier than you think…First things first, let’s demolish whatever train of thought you may have. Demolish it. Let’s destroy and rebuild..."
View Full ArticlePosted: Apr 7, 2015
Category: Social Media
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**Guest post written by Andrew Jones of Checkered Owl Media.
"FB events [are great. They] get you all the details and can be a perfect way to get show info; HOWEVER, there is one kind of invite that becomes REALLY tiresome: Invites to shows that are nowhere near me..."
View Full ArticlePosted: Mar 9, 2015
Category: Online Presence
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**Guest post written by Wade Sutton of Rocket to the Stars.
"The problem is a vast majority of biographies on websites are written by either the artist or the individual hired to construct the website. And when you take into consideration that the best web bios are the ones that combine elements of both journalism and marketing, well, you can see why problems arise...So what can you do to make YOUR biography better should you choose to attempt to write it on your own?"
View Full ArticlePosted: Feb 23, 2015
Category: Sponsorship
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**Guest post written by Anelka Argiro, VP of Brand Partnerships for Wind Up Records.
A good song just isn't enough [to break through the clutter] these days...Enter your new best friend -- brand partnerships.
View Full ArticlePosted: Jan 20, 2015
Category: Touring
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**Guest post written by Shannon Curtis, an independent songwriter, singer, performer, recording artist, and author, as featured on Pyragraph.
"Then we discovered this awesome phenomenon of house concerts: they’re viral..."
View Full ArticlePosted: Dec 22, 2014
Category: Promotion
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**Guest post written by Wade Sutton of Rocket to the Stars.
"It is no secret that creating and adding to a list of e-mail subscribers is one of the most important marketing tools for singers and bands. It is also one of the most difficult and frustrating tasks to undertake..."
View Full ArticlePosted: Dec 1, 2014
Category: Promotion
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**Guest post written by Yannick Illunga of The Jazz Spotlight, as featured on The Jazz Spotlight.
"...it is time to promote your gigs...You have to ask yourself this first: How am I going to promote my gigs? The answer is simple: be memorable!..."
View Full ArticlePosted: Aug 11, 2014
Category: Live Performance
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**Guest post written by Wade Sutton of Rocket to the Stars.
"When you take into consideration how many singers and musicians complain about the current state of artist-venue relationships, you would think most performers would jump at the opportunity to explore alternative methods of putting on shows and generating income...I'm here to tell you that there IS an alternative live show model, house shows, that many artists ARE having a great deal of success with...So I reached out to somebody for answers..."
View Full ArticlePosted: Jul 7, 2014
Category: Live Performance
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**Guest post written by Wade Sutton of Rocket to the Stars.
"Saxophonist Dave Goldberg has been getting a lot of attention lately for an open letter he wrote to operators of venues that host live music. The letter was Goldberg's way of sounding off against venues not paying artists as much money as they feel they deserve. The text, while not hostile in nature, was extremely misguided and managed to ignite another round of firestorms by similarly misguided artists. It was missing a lot of important information concerning why the music scene is the way it is right now and really offered little in the way of how to improve it other than to say venues should simply pay bands more money..."
View Full ArticlePosted: Jun 30, 2014
Category: Promotion
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**Guest post written by Alan VanToai of SimpleCrew - the mobile app for street teams. This article originally appeared on the SimpleCrew Blog.
"Street teams are a powerful force for independent artists - they’re a win-win all around. You get to engage your fans, give them a chance to get closer to you and “in on the fun”, and you get to spread the word about your shows." Read on for ways that you can use online and offline technics to power your team...
View Full ArticlePosted: Jun 23, 2014
Category: Songwriting
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**Guest post written by Maryann Harman, founder of Music with Mar., Inc, as featured in the DIY Musician Blog.
"As with anything, you should know who you are working with. In the performance field, this is called knowing your audience...you wouldn’t sing a song that lasted more than 2 minutes to a young child. Now, I’m not saying that can’t be done. It would, however, involve a lot of props and movement. When it was over, their attention may have all been spent on that one song...Here are the basics about how children respond to music..."
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