Business and Music

I know a lot of people that I have grown up with that have chosen to get into the music business one way or another. Some of them have seen some success but many of them have failed to gain any traction even if they have the talent. Although a lot of people think that it simply comes down to being lucky and getting seen by the right people, successful artists are typically getting seen because of the work that they are putting in. I know a lot of talented people in music that have never made any money simply because they are scared to really put out what they are doing on a large scale. Just like every other industry we talk about nobody will know about your product even if it’s the best in the world if you do not get out and spread the word. If you have a passion for music this section will teach you some great ways to get your music out there, build collaborations and start a brand for your music so you can start making money doing what you love.

If you ae just getting into music the first obvious step is to get your butt in a studio or even better create a situation at your home where you can make music. In today’s day and age all you really need is a laptop, a microphone and a windscreen to make some quality music. Once you are in a position to start recording you should lock yourself wherever that is for about a week straight and make as much music as you possibly can. If you have watched any documentaries on some of the biggest artists in music, one thing they typically have in common is that they make A LOT of music and you just happen to hear the best music that they made. They have probably 10 times as many songs recorded as you have ever heard. Before beginning to market and network, get yourself a large selection of tracks to get your name out there with and show them to people you trust to get their honest opinions. Music is not for everybody but if you have enough people telling you that they would genuinely listen to your songs then you are probably onto something and ready to start pushing your music.

Now that you have a portfolio of tracks to spread to the masses it is time to create social media pages for your music on Tik-Tok (most important) Instagram (second most important), YouTube (equally important) and Facebook (least important). For Tik-Tok I would actually suggest making 2 accounts to post content from if you are using a normal wifi connection but if you some money to invest in yourself, you can go get some cheap smart phones on Facebook marketplace, add service to them and create 2 accounts per phone. If you are using this method, just make sure to keep Wi-Fi completely turned off so that you dot end up getting your accounts restricted. If you don’t want to invest in phones, you can also get friends and eventually fans to post content for you. Also, you should create accounts for all streaming platforms including Spotify, Apple Music, and Sound Cloud in order to post your songs. After you have your social media and streaming accounts, it is time to create some content to post on your socials. I would suggest planning out in detail some music video ideas for your best songs and spending a couple days straight of shooting videos to cut up and put on your socials. After you have your videos made and edited you should post them to your YouTube channel and take short clips from those videos to post to your other socials which will link to your YouTube or Spotify. The name of the game here is quantity, quality and persistence. You should be putting out the best possible clips from your songs and videos and posting them to multiple TikTok and Instagram accounts on reels every day. I would make 2 Tik-Tok accounts and 2 Instagram accounts to post to as well as post to shorts on YouTube and post 3 videos with music every day to each account. If you stay persistent with this type of volume in your content your likelihood of being seen and making money will go up exponentially.

Another way that you can gain a fan base for your music is by holding events or concerts in your area. You can hold a free concert or event to start off at a local park in a bigger city near you. Spend the week handing out flyers with some friends and posting signs or stickers all over the city. Blast videos about your event every day on all of those social accounts you created and get the support of your friends and family by having them show up as well. I would recommend having some food or drinks advertised as well to help bring in more people. You can even promote some type of giveaway for showing up to your event as well. Holding concerts and events can bring some really positive attention to your music brand if people have a good time and enjoy your performance so try to do this once a month on top of your social media marketing.

Once you have built up a bit of a fan base for your music you can start reaching out to some artists that you wish to collab with. If you can get a big name to hop on a remix for one of your songs or let you open for them at a show you can blow up quicker than you ever imagined. Spend some time each week once you have a fan base to direct message as many artists as you can with a well planned video asking them to collaborate. I would shoot one short clip of yourself saying hey my name is _____ I’m an up and coming local artist and I love your stuff I would love you to hop on this track I think you would sound amazing on It. Thank you in advance. Then you just click play on the hook or chorus or whatever the strongest part of your best song is. You can even try making the intro to the video shorter by just saying hey I’m a big fan give this song a listen. I think you’d sound great on it. These music artists get hundreds of messages each day so sending a video message that cuts straight to the point and gives you the best chance of them hearing your song will set you apart from everybody else. Send the short video you made to as many artists as you can each week as well as email it to as many management companies and artist managers as you can in order to increase your odds of being seen and making it big.

Hopefully you have learned a little bit about how you can get your name out there in the music industry by reading this section. I know these tips may even seem obvious but it is mostly about the quality of your music and the consistency of putting it out there. If your music is good and you follow these steps every day then you are almost sure to blow up eventually. Remember that it’s just a numbers game and this is the grinding stage of making music that you never really see.