A strong marketing strategy can help you succeed as a musician. In this article, we’ll discuss seven steps to achieving your music marketing goals and show you how to put them all together into a cohesive plan that will take your career to the next level.
You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know that setting goals are an effective way to achieve your aims. But did you also know that if you don’t set specific, measurable, and achievable goals, your chances of success are reduced dramatically?
You can use the SMART method when setting your music marketing goals: S stands for Specific; M means Measurable; A is Achievable; R signifies Relevant; T represents Time-bound (specific).
For example, “I want to get 100 plays on SoundCloud” is not a good goal because it’s neither specific nor measurable. “I will work out 5 times every week over the next month” would be much better as it’s both specific and measurable (and also achievable).
Now that you have a clear goal in mind, it’s time to determine who your audience is. Who do you want to reach? What kind of music do they listen to? Are they likely to be on Facebook or Twitter? How old are they? What genre of music are they interested in hearing?
What makes this step so important is that if you don’t know who your potential customers are, then how can you market yourself effectively? In order to find out who these people are and where they hang out online (and offline), I recommend doing some research with Google Analytics. This information will help guide you through the rest of this process.
The next step is to research what others are doing, which includes your competition but also other musicians in your genre and bands in your area or scene. Look at their websites, social media accounts, and videos. If they have a YouTube channel or any online presence, check that out too! Not only will you learn from their successes (and failures), it will give you ideas for ways to promote yourself as well.
The tone of voice is the personality of your brand. It’s how you speak and what you say, but it’s also about how you present yourself in text and images on social media.
You want to be authentic, consistent, and unique so that people can identify who you are. Your tone should be relatable too; if someone hears an artist they like when they listen to yours, that’s a huge win!
After you’ve done your research and tested your niche, the next step is to choose which marketing strategy will work best for you and your music. This may mean choosing one or all of these options: social media, blogs, email marketing campaigns, and more. You’ll need to keep in mind that not all of these channels are going to be right for every artist or project—you’ll have to decide what’s best for you! Choosing an appropriate channel means taking into consideration factors like whether or not it suits the type of music you’re creating (for example: if you’re releasing an acoustic album with heart-felt lyrics about love lost, Instagram probably isn’t going to be an effective choice). You should also consider how much money is available for marketing efforts as well as who your target audience is since this will influence which channels might work better than others. Finally, don’t overlook personal preferences either; even if another person thinks something “should” be done differently/better/more often than they do doesn’t mean it’ll actually work out well when applied within their own context so make sure whatever works best fits within both criteria before moving forward with any decision-making process here!
As in any business, you have to know how much money you can spend. You can’t just throw it out there without a plan. You will need to figure out your budget and determine how much of that budget should be allocated for marketing purposes. If possible, I recommend putting aside at least 20% of any revenues generated from your music sales or performances for marketing and promotion purposes.
Once this is done, devise an action plan and create a marketing plan, content calendar, and social media calendar that includes specific strategies and tactics for reaching all audiences (including fans, promoters, bloggers/media outlets). This will ensure that no stone goes unturned when it comes to spreading the word about what you do!
Monitoring and adapting your plan is the most important step in this process. It is also the step that many musicians skip, which leads to many problems later on.
You need to constantly monitor your progress so that you can adapt your plan as necessary. You may find that one of your goals will take longer or shorter than anticipated, or that there are unforeseen roadblocks in front of you that make it impossible to achieve the goals on time.
If you don’t monitor your progress, these problems can cause a domino effect and derail everything else in your plan. For example: if one goal isn’t working out because of unforeseen circumstances (e.g., there’s bad weather), then other parts of your strategy might not work either because they depend on achieving that first goal (e.g., booking gigs). If monitoring and adapting fail at any point along the way, chances are high that everything else will fail too—and all for nothing!
No matter what level you’re at in your music journey, you can use these seven steps to create a plan for marketing your music. If you’re just starting out and need help getting started, this is the right place for you!
If you’ve been working on building an audience and have some traction, but want to take things up a notch, this is also the right place. In fact, it may be even more important if you already have an audience because otherwise how will they know what kind of content they should be sharing with their friends? They won’t! This is where step one comes in: Ask yourself: What’s my goal?
When you’re writing songs with other songwriters, there are two documents that you should be familiar with: a collaboration agreement and a split sheet. The purpose of both is to help everyone avoid any confusion or conflict when collaborating on music. This article will look at what these are and how they can help keep your creative process happy and harmonious!
You can create an agreement or contract on your own and not get a lawyer to write it up – lawyers charge a service fee. But if you don’t have a lawyer, it’s not recommended that you create your own contracts.
You could ask another musician or producer to create the contract with you—this is called a collaboration agreement. If the two of you agree to split the profits in whatever way makes sense for both sides (50/50, 60/40), then this type of arrangement can work well without hiring a lawyer.
However, there are pitfalls when trying to draft something yourself: liability issues may arise from conflicting terminology or ambiguities in language; lack of clarity in what type of relationship exists between parties; lack of clarity regarding ownership rights; etc… So unless you’re very familiar with music law (which most people aren’t), this route isn’t necessarily recommended either – especially since there are free templates available online which will do most everything needed for standard agreements between musicians/producers that are produced by record labels.
The term “split sheet” usually refers to one of two kinds of agreements. The first is a songwriter’s collaboration agreement, which is a contract that is signed by the writers of a song before they write it. The second type of split sheet is created after the song has been written and signed by all parties involved in its creation, dividing up ownership and royalties evenly between them.
Split sheets are generally easy to understand if you know how they work: each party agrees on how much they’re going to share in terms of owning the song (for example, 50% owner), publishing rights (for example, 75% publisher), or any other part of its production or distribution that could be negotiated like this.
A songwriter’s collaboration agreement is a contract that is signed by the writers of a song before they write it. The purpose of this document is to ensure that everyone involved in the creation process understands how their work will be used, who will get paid, and when.
Collaboration agreements are created before a song is written. A writer’s collaboration agreement is a contract between two or more writers (songwriters), who agree to work together on a specific piece of music.
Split sheets are created after a song is written. Once you’ve written the song, you create what’s known as a “split sheet.” In other words, a document that states who owns what percentage of the song. split sheets usually divide the ownership evenly between co-writers, but you can agree on any percentage splits you want (though I would suggest NOT making any one writer’s ownership less than 33%).
Split sheets are created after a song is written. Once you’ve written the song, you create what’s known as a “split sheet.” In other words, a document that states who owns what percentage of the song. Split sheets usually divide the ownership evenly between co-writers, but you can agree on any percentage splits you want (though I would suggest NOT making any one writer’s ownership less than 33%).
The split sheet should be signed by all parties and filed with your PRO (if there is one in your town), so it’s best to have it completed before anything else happens with this new tune!
A split sheet should be created and signed by all co-writers of a song before any publishing deals are made. This document is essentially an agreement between co-writers that outlines how they will share revenue from the song in question. For example, if you wrote some lyrics but someone else wrote most of the music, then you would have less stake in the copyright ownership than they do, and vice versa. A split sheet is a way to ensure that everyone involved with creating this particular song gets what’s fair for their contributions to it.
As mentioned above, an even split between all participants on the creative side is often preferred because it allows each party to retain full control over his or her publishing and copyright interests; however, sometimes this isn’t possible due to pre-existing publishing deals that were entered into before this song was created (e.g., one person owns all rights when he writes something alone). In these situations as well as others there may be other considerations like whether or not we’re talking about a single person who has multiple pseudonyms (e.g., “Dr. Luke vs Kesha”) or whether or not everyone involved with creating
If you want to be successful in your music career, you need to know how to create an effective marketing plan. A marketing plan is a tool that can help you organize all of your promotional activities, set goals, and measure your progress as time goes on. It also helps keep you focused so that you don’t get overwhelmed by everything that needs doing.
Before you can create a marketing plan, you need to know who your audience is and what they like. This will help you determine how best to reach them and keep them engaged with your music. It’s also important that you understand their age group, gender, location, and more so that when it comes time for the actual execution of this plan (step 4), everything runs smoothly.
Most importantly though: don’t forget about their emotional state! The music industry is always changing so having empathy for where people are emotional helps us stay relevant as creators in today’s world of constant change.
The second step to creating an effective music marketing plan is to plan for the long term.
This may seem obvious, but it’s important to remember that you shouldn’t be thinking solely about what you need to do this month or even this year. You should also consider your goals for next year, and maybe even further down the line–as far as five years from now!
For example: If you have a new album coming out in 2020 and want it to be successful enough that people still talk about it in 2025 (and beyond), then planning how best to market that album now will be crucial when those dates roll around.
In order to know whether or not your marketing efforts are working, it’s important to keep track of where you’re at. You should know how much money has been spent on each campaign and what kind of results have come from those campaigns. This will help determine if a given strategy is working or not so that future strategies can be tweaked accordingly based on what has already been tried.
Keep track of the following:
The next step is to set a goal for your music marketing plan. A goal is something you want to achieve, so it’s important that you have one in mind before beginning the process of creating your plan. For example:
Step 5: Create a list of marketing tactics to use.
You should have everything you need the order to create your own music marketing plan by this point, but if not, here’s what you should do next:
A music marketing plan is an essential part of creating a successful career in music, particularly if you are just starting out and don’t have much money to spend on ads and promotions.
It’s important to note that there is no one right way to create a plan; every artist has their own unique situation and will need to approach their marketing differently. That said, here are five steps that can help guide your strategy:
A music marketing plan is an essential part of creating a successful career in music, particularly if you are just starting out and don’t have much money to spend on ads and promotions. It may seem like a lot of work, but the payoff will be worth it in the long run!
Planning content in advance is important for musicians because it gives them the time to write and record their next album. In this article, you will get 5 tips on how to plan content in advance.
The music industry is an ever-changing landscape. With new artists coming onto the scene and established artists releasing new albums every year, it’s important for musicians to stay on top of their marketing and social media efforts. But this can be challenging when you’re busy with rehearsals, recording sessions, and live performances. In order to keep up with your fans’ expectations and stand out from the pack you’ll need to find time in your busy schedule to plan out your content ahead of time. Here are some tips on how to do just that:
Brainstorming is a great way to develop ideas before you actually create the content. This can mean everything from sketching out a plan for your new album cover on paper or creating a list of topics that you want to cover in a podcast episode. Set aside some time each week (or every day) to brainstorm new ideas and concepts that could be included in your upcoming pieces.
The first thing you need to do is compile your ideas in a document or spreadsheet. This will help you stay organized and keep track of what content you want to create and when.
In another section, we mentioned the importance of using a calendar for planning out your time, but when it comes to creating blog posts and social media content, it’s even more helpful! You can use the calendar feature on your smartphone or computer as well as third-party apps like Google Calendar or Todoist (my personal favorite).
Once you have created this document with all of your ideas listed out by topic and date, go through each one individually and decide how much time each one will take from start to finish—including writing the post itself, editing it once finished (which should be done first), proofreading it one last time before publishing on social media platforms like Facebook/Instagram/Twitter, etc., posting on those sites with hashtags if necessary so people can find them easily in search engines such as Google or Bing, etc., monitoring how many likes/comments/shares there are on each post after it goes live so that any changes needed can be made swiftly without waiting too long between updates.
Setting up social media and blog calendars is an essential step for musicians to plan content in advance and increase the consistency of their output. This can be done through a spreadsheet, or with apps like Buffer, Hootsuite, or Sprout Social. A calendar helps you to track your progress, as well as easily see when there are gaps in the schedule that need filling with new posts or tweets.
Scheduling posts in advance is an easy way to stay on top of your social media game. It also helps you avoid being late, which could make people think less of your brand—or even worse, leave a negative impression.
If you don’t have the time or patience to craft engaging content on a daily basis (which is understandable), scheduling can help fill in gaps and reduce stress. In fact, scheduling tools like Hootsuite are designed specifically with musicians in mind you can schedule tweets or Facebook posts from anywhere at any time!
Planning content in advance is key if you want to stay on top of your marketing and social media efforts. If you’re planning content in advance, you will know what to post and when and thus be able to focus on other aspects of your business.
If you’re a musician looking to plan your content in advance, these tips will help. They give you a good idea of how to brainstorm ideas, compile them into documents and spreadsheets, create a marketing calendar, schedule social media posts in advance, and more! As always when it comes to making music, remember that the only way to succeed is by practicing hard work (and maybe some luck).
Music is a powerful tool that can be used to inspire and connect with people. It can even help you launch your brand. But what exactly is a brand strategy? And how do you use it to promote your music? Let’s explore this in detail:
When you’re building a brand, you’re creating an identity for your music. This includes everything from the logo to the color palette, fonts, and more. Your identity is what makes people associate with your brand–it’s how they recognize it as yours in the first place.
Creating a strong sense of self will help define who you are as a musician (and business). It also helps build trust among potential fans because they know exactly what they’re getting when they buy into your music or come see one of your shows: You’re going to deliver quality content every time!
When it comes to branding, there are a few things that you need to think about:
SMART goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
SMART goals help you to stay focused on what is important. They help you to measure your progress and avoid procrastination.
Provide value to your audience and fans.
You have to give people something they want, but also something they didn’t know they wanted. The best brands do this by providing useful products or services that will help their customers achieve their goals, whether it’s selling more music or helping them achieve a certain look/style in their wardrobe.
The same goes for you: if you want to build up your brand strategy and become successful as an independent musician, then provide value through whatever means possible (e-books/ebooks/freebies, etc.). This could be by offering free downloads of songs from specific albums or even just posting videos on YouTube explaining how certain chords work together in order for beginners who don’t know much about music theory yet!
A&R representatives, or “A&Rs,” are the people who work with artists to help them record their albums, find producers and songwriters, and more. They’re also responsible for signing artists to record deals and creating a marketing plan around their music.
The A&R position can be both rewarding and extremely challenging. To succeed in this role, you’ll need to have an in-depth knowledge of the music industry, as well as an understanding of how to market your artists’ work effectively. A&R reps typically work for labels or management companies that represent artists. Their primary responsibilities include:
Managing artist development: A&R reps are responsible for developing talent from the ground up. This includes everything from finding new artists to coaching them on stage presence and performance skills. A&R reps also work with managers and agents on behalf of their clients to secure gigs, tours, and appearances on television shows or at festivals.
Managing artist contracts: A&R reps negotiate contracts on behalf of their artists with record labels, publishers, and other entities involved in creating an album or single release.
This includes negotiating royalties, advances, and other contractual terms so that they’re fair for both parties involved in an agreement
A&R reps are typically paid a percentage of the artist’s royalties and other income. The exact amount varies depending on the record label, but it’s often between 10% and 25% of the artist’s publishing royalties or revenue from sales or licensing.
For example, if an artist earns $5 million in royalties over the course of their career and the A&R rep gets 15% of that money, they’ll earn $750,000 (15% multiplied by $5 million).
What the A&R Rep Does
The A&R rep is the person who signs and develops new artists, as well as helps them to create their music. The A&R rep has many roles, including finding new talent and signing artists to record contracts with their record label. They also help develop careers for their artists by helping them find producers, songwriters, and other people who can help them make their music sound great.
How an A&R Rep Finds Talent
An A&R rep finds new talent by listening to demos sent in by artists’ managers, By social media platforms, or by going to live shows where they can meet artists and watch them perform. If they hear someone they like, they approach that artist’s manager and try to get a meeting set up with him or her. Once they meet with an artist, they’ll try out different songs on them to see how well they work together musically. If these meetings go well, the A&R rep will sign that artist to a contract with his or her record label.
After a record company signs an artist, it is the A&R rep’s job to help build the artist’s career. The A&R rep often works closely with the artist and his or her manager to develop the artist’s image and music. The rep will also work with radio stations, television shows, and other media outlets to promote the artist and his or her music. In addition, an A&R rep may book concerts for their artists or arrange for them to appear on television shows like American Idol or The Voice.
The A&R rep may also be responsible for selecting songs for an artist that they want to be included on an album. The rep listens to new songs submitted by songwriters and decides which ones are good enough for inclusion on an album. If a songwriter does not submit a song that is good enough for one artist, he may send it along to someone else at the same record label who needs new material for a different artist in their stable of artists.
The A&R rep is the person who finds new artists, develops them, and helps to get their music heard by record labels. The A&R rep will also help to manage the artist’s career once they’re signed.
The job of an A&R rep is not just about finding new music; it’s also about helping the artist grow as a performer and a musician. One of the most important functions of an A&R rep is to find new talent and allow help that artist develop into a successful performer.
In today’s world of music, there are thousands of artists looking for a big break in the business. Many people think that being signed by a major label is all it takes to make it big, but this isn’t necessarily true. Today’s music industry has changed drastically from years past, largely due to technology and social media taking over everything we do online. The internet has brought us closer together than ever before; this includes musicians who are all trying to get noticed by fans all over the world through social media sites like Facebook or Twitter. This has become one of the best ways for musicians to market themselves today because it allows them to reach out to millions of people in just minutes!
The job of an A&R rep is to scout and sign new artists, as well as develop existing artists. A&Rs are also responsible for overseeing the careers of artists they have signed. This includes things like negotiating contracts, making sure that albums are promoted properly, and helping to plan tours.
A&R reps can work for record labels or be self-employed. In either case, they may be involved with several different artists at once. A&R reps typically work with several different genres of music, although some specialize in one type of music (e.g., afro beats, hip hop, R&B, etc).
Senior A&R Executive: Senior A&R executives oversee all aspects of an artist’s career and work under the supervision of the president of the company or label they are working for. They may also have their staff and assistants who carry out various tasks related to signing new artists, developing existing artists and promoting albums and songs on radio stations, television shows, and other types of media outlets that play music videos, such as HIP TV, M TV BASE, etc.
A&R reps are responsible for scouting out new artists and developing them into stars. As you might imagine, it’s a very competitive field with lots of competition from other A&R reps who have similar goals.
So what does an A&R rep do? What do they get paid? And what are the steps to becoming one?
A&R stands for Artist & Repertoire, which means that the person in this position is responsible for finding new talent and then molding them into stars. They’re also responsible for choosing songs and overseeing album production by signing off on budgets, approving artwork, and more.
A&R reps can make a lot of money, but they don’t always. The average salary for an A&R executive is $77,000 per year. If you’re an A&R rep at a major label, your salary may be higher or lower depending on how successful you are at signing artists and getting them recording contracts. If you’re working as an independent A&R rep, like me, your payment will be much higher.
As an independent A&R rep, I charge 6 figures per artist that I sign to my label. That’s the price you’ll pay if you want me to find you a deal with one of the major labels. If I sign an artist directly to my label without going through a major label first, then I charge less. (because it’s easier for me).
Music publishers are the people who handle the songwriting credits and royalties. They act as a liaison between the artist and the record label, ensuring that the songwriter is compensated for his or her work.
The A&R rep often works with music publishers to make sure that they have all of their ducks in order before they send out tracks to labels. This means checking up on things like copyrights, publishing splits, and royalties owed. If you’re an artist who has written songs for other artists, you need to know how much money you can expect to make from them.
A&R reps can help with this by keeping track of royalty splits that were agreed upon in contracts. They also ensure that everyone involved receives their fair share of royalties when they’re due!
The A&R rep is an important member of a record label, who helps to find and develop new artists. They also have other tasks that help the label, such as creating compilations or writing liner notes for albums.
music companies are responsible for the production of albums and singles, the promotion of albums and singles, the marketing of albums and singles, the time scheduling of album recording sessions and singles recording sessions, the correct signing of new artists to contracts that are fair to both parties, and more. It is a difficult responsibility. A&R representatives are also responsible for some of these things as well, but they’re also required to be great listeners–not necessarily good musicians–to be able to tell if an artist or band will be successful on stage and record with their recently signed contract. They must be professional when meeting with the artist and his or her band members during the signing process so trust will be created between the two parties. They must be able to effectively tell when an artist needs help in getting their band’s career off of the ground again by issuing them either a letter or a phone call or by having dinner or drinks with them so that they can better assist them from thereon out toward success. And if you want your artists to not get lost in the shuffle of all of the other bands out there now competing for fame (which is more difficult than ever these days), they need an A&R rep they can trust wholeheartedly.
Chinko Ekun was a musical gem that was left undiscovered for way too long. With his brand new song “Feeling”, he’ll be slipping into the spotlight and quickly becoming an artist you’ll be telling all your friends about. The record is done on an acoustic beat that will get you pumped up to take on whatever challenge is in front of you, whether it’s just getting up out of bed or going for that big promotion. Chinko’s lyrics are filled with the kind of witty puns you haven’t heard since the days of Biggie Smalls, bringing a fresh sense of creativity to the hip-hop genre. With this song, Chinko is throwing down the gauntlet and challenging other rappers to step up their game. He showcases his unique style while proving that he can rap circles around any other artists out there .
Royalties are the lifeblood of music publishing. They’re what you get paid for when someone uses your song in their project—like a movie, TV show, or commercial. But there’s more than one type of royalty involved in music publishing, and each one is based on the use of your music. In this post we’ll go over three types of royalties you should know about:
Mechanical royalties are paid to songwriters and music publishers when their songs are recorded and sold on a CD, vinyl record, or digital download. Mechanical royalties are shared with the artist who performed the song (if applicable), as well as record companies who invest in producing and distributing it.
Songwriter royalties are paid when you write your own music, while publisher royalties go to whoever owns the publishing company that controls your work (often your manager).
Performance royalties are paid to songwriters and publishers when their songs are played on the radio, in restaurants, bars, or other public places.
Performance royalties are collected by ASCAP (American Society of Composers Authors and Publishers) BMI (Broadcast Music Inc.) SESAC (Society Of European Stage Authors & Composers) SoundExchange.
Synchronization (or “blanket”) licenses are a type of music publishing royalty that allows an artist to be paid for their songs being used in the film, television shows, and commercials.
A synchronization license is typically bought by a music supervisor who works for the producer of a movie or TV show. They’ll listen to several songs before deciding which ones fit best with their project’s storyline and theme. When they select one song from an artist’s catalog and decide to use it in their project, they contact that artist’s publisher requesting permission to use their song(s) under license terms agreed upon beforehand by both parties (the publisher and artist).
Understanding the different types of royalties in music publishing is key to getting paid.
Royalty is the money or percent of the amount being earned from a published work, that is allotted to the publisher once a sale is made. The percentages will vary based upon several different factors, but suffice it to say, they are a very good way of making additional income, provided that you have established rights to your music through publishing.
I hope that in reading this article you have gained a better understanding of the many different types of royalties involved with music publishing. This is just a basic explanation but they are quite complex, and many things can occur when you are talking about publishing. I urge any individual who is considering entering the world of music publishing to seek out more information before doing any deals with publishers because it could cost you thousands later on down the road. Have fun writing your songs, and remember these important points!
Since we started back in 2006, we’ve always made artists our first priority. This new feature helps artists, managers, and indie labels track measurable success on TikTok, and we’re stoked to be able to offer it before anyone else.
“How people are consuming and interacting with music is evolving at such a rapid pace. As a distributor, it’s critical that we move quickly to get this data into the hands of our clients so they can maximize their reach. Our team is laser-focused on delivering value and we’re excited to be the first distributor to offer this level of insight into TikTok data,” says Symphonic VP of Product, Ali Lieberman.
This tool makes it easier for creators to understand the TikTok metrics that really matter and helps maximize the impact of their future TikTok marketing campaigns. Importantly, Symphonic’s proprietary TikTok analytics makes the distinction between views and creations. While view counts get a lot of attention, it is creations that actually drive royalties on the platform.
The new tool delivers comprehensive and easy-to-read metrics on how many videos have been created using an artist’s music as well as how many views, likes, comments, and shares the video generated.
Navigate to this feature by clicking on Analytics -> TikTok
The landing page provides a catalog-level view of performance across the entire catalog on a given date range that you can change. The page is broken down into the following cards:
Activity counts are displayed for Videos and Views. The video count is the metric that generates royalties. Hovering over any bar will show you the detail of a specific day.
Activity counts are displayed for each time the video using your music receives a Favorite, Comment, Share, and Like during the time period selected across your entire catalog.
Each section shows the top 5 entries sorted by Videos (created) in descending order (e.g., the Territory section shows the top 5 countries where videos were created on TikTok using your songs). Click the ‘View All’ button to see more data if available.
Source symphonic distribution