IOTM Blog
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: Mar 18, 2025
Category: Online Presence
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**Guest post written by Melanie Kealey for Bandzoogle.com.
"As a musician you need a beautiful online presence to set yourself apart from the crowd...Updating your band website’s design, much like releasing new music, can revitalize your story and not only make your content feel fresh. It will give you something to work on and promote to your fans, keeping your music top of mind. So if you haven't thought about your website design in some time, these tips will help kickstart your creativity. Time to get updating — let’s take a look!"
View Full ArticlePosted: Mar 11, 2025
Category: The Musician Business
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**Guest post by WordPlay T. Jay, hip-hop artist and producer based in Tacoma, WA.
"Since the advent of music streaming, our careers have not been the same...Streaming services partnered with the major labels to carve out exclusive rates in exchange for vast catalogs of music and market share...It’s discouraging and that diversity is under threat. Fans want to see artists thrive and musicians are struggling to earn a living. Fortunately, you can do something to help musicians earn a living wage."
Posted: Mar 4, 2025
Category: Tips & Tricks
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**Guest post by Melissa Mulligan, Recording Industry Vocal Coach & Music Career Mentor for independent artists.
"When I sat down to make the two videos I'm sharing with you here, I did not intend to publish them. So, you're literally seeing me, in my home studio, helping a friend get ready for his tour. But the 10-minute routine I captured that day has been working so well for so many singers, I keep sharing this with more of the touring artists I coach. Even if we are working together weekly on more long term vocal goals, this routine is consistently upping the level of my vocalists' performances!"
Posted: Feb 26, 2025
Category: Show Booking
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Indie on the Move offers a couple of different account/subscription levels: free, premium, and deluxe. While you can find a point by point breakdown of those features on the site's pricing page, this video shows you how those features can be put to use as it relates to your show/tour booking through the platform.
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: Feb 11, 2025
Category: The Musician Business
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**Guest post by Eric Todd, Founder/CEO of iProdigy, a Grammy-winning artist development and funding platform for artists at every career stage.
"With the dominance of streaming platforms like Spotify offering unprecedented competition and dismally low payouts, independent artists are finding it nearly impossible to earn a sustainable living solely from streaming revenue...The reality is that success in the music business no longer revolves around simply getting placed on playlists or racking up streams. Instead, artists must cultivate dedicated fan bases and build direct-to-fan (D2F) communities that they can monetize outside the constraints of digital service providers (DSPs)..."
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 29, 2025
Category: Show Booking
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While we do have community driven sections of the site, specifically the availabilities, the most effective method of using the platform to get shows and tours booked is via direct outreach to the venues, colleges, and festivals in our venues database.
Posted: Jan 22, 2025
Category: The Musician Business
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**Summarized from a guest post by One Submit, music promotion for independent artists.
"Are you curious about your music's performance on Spotify? Whether you're a new artist just starting out or an experienced artist looking to monitor streaming stats and grow your online presence, Spotify provides features to help you explore your music's performance and presence across different platforms."
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."
View Full ArticlePosted: 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..."
View Full ArticlePosted: 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: Dec 18, 2024
Category: Tips & Tricks
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**Guest post originally featured in the Symphonic Distribution Blog.
"Every year from about mid-December onward, the music industry becomes a ghost town. People start going on vacation and 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 hunkering down and never 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. Here’s everything you need to know..."
View Full ArticlePosted: Dec 10, 2024
Category: Recording
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**Guest post written by Ryan Donaldson of Boombox.io.
"Audio quality is the cornerstone of music production, shaping the way listeners experience music across diverse platforms. Behind every flawless track lies the expertise of mastering engineers and mixing engineers, whose roles are critical in ensuring that music resonates perfectly, whether played on studio monitors or smartphone speakers. This article explores the meticulous steps taken to refine audio and achieve professional-grade sound, highlighting the tools and techniques used to perfect every track."
View Full ArticlePosted: Dec 3, 2024
Category: The Musician Business
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**Guest post written by Xander Rushie of School of Sync.
"1. The Best Song Wins 2. Don’t write in the first person 3. Don’t Bore Us - Get To The Chorus! 4. Treat Each Section As a New Scene 5. Don’t Be Explicit..."
Posted: Nov 27, 2024
Category: The Musician Business
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**Guest post by Kristen Ford, LA based indie rock act with a passion for music business.
"Happy Thanksgiving! A time for awkward chats around the dinner table, carbs with a side of carbs, sweater weather, and Black Friday Sales! This is that unique time of the year when all the retailers, life coaches, and memberships flex their marketing muscles and slash prices. For annual memberships, this can be the BEST time to purchase."
View Full ArticlePosted: Nov 26, 2024
Category: Indie on the Move
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Like a lot of other platforms, IOTM has ratings and reviews built into the site so that the community can benefit from other peoples' experiences. How can you contribute back to the site in the same fashion?
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: Nov 12, 2024
Category: The Musician Business
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**Guest post written by Bruce Houghton, Founder and Editor of Hypebot, a Senior Advisor at Bandsintown, President of the Skyline Artists Agency, and a Berklee College Of Music professor, originally featured on Hypebot.com.
"Overall concert attendance grew 20% last year, but smaller independent live music venues are closing at unprecedented rates. Music industry commentator’s Bob Lefsetz has the solution: “Let clubs close.""
View Full ArticlePosted: Nov 5, 2024
Category: Touring
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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.
"Embarking on a tour is something every musician dreams of. It's a chance to travel, connect with fans, showcase your talent in new cities and build momentum for your music career...the whole process of booking a tour requires careful planning, organization and strategic decision-making. A missed flight, a canceled show or simple typo on the tour schedule can cause total chaos and put you at risk of losing a ton of money. So whether you're a solo artist or part of a band, here are my step-by-step recommendations to help you navigate the process of booking your first tour and setting yourself up for success."
Posted: Oct 29, 2024
Category: Online Presence
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With a free user account, you not only get an artist profile and the ability to interact with the user generated sections of the site (members portal, show/band availabilities, and classifieds), but you can also add additional media to the official venue listings to further enhance the communities knowledge of the venues in the directory. This can be accomplished in two ways...
Posted: Oct 23, 2024
Category: Licensing
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**Guest post originally featured in the Symphonic Distribution Blog.
"You may think landing a sync placement in a show is just a matter of sending your music to a music supervisor, getting picked, and getting paid. If only it were that easy! In reality, the life cycle of a sync license can be a very lengthy and complex process. In this post, Symphonic’s own Head of Sync, Jon Mizrachi, breaks it down and gives you a behind the scenes look to help you get a better idea of how it all works. Here’s the rundown..."
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 9, 2024
Category: Music Streaming
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**Guest post written by Lisa Occhino for Bandzoogle.com.
"Although DIY artists are finally starting to earn more royalties from music streaming services, it’s still quite rare to make a living off of that income. But does that mean that distributing your music is pointless? Far from it. Major platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and Pandora offer free artist dashboards to track and analyze how your songs are performing. They also provide you with invaluable data that can help you understand who your audience is, where to tour, how to most effectively spend your marketing dollars, and much more. So how do you leverage all this data to grow your streams, and also benefit the other areas of your music career?"
View Full Article