Hey guys, I’ve something very special for you today. After speaking to my friend Chris Rockett of the Music Marketing Classroom, I’ve managed to get you a 100% free copy of his ‘Music Career Killers’ ebook. You don’t have to opt into anything or give your email, you can simply download it for free here:

Music Career Killers free ebook.

This book comes in the form of a PDF file, and lets you know the top 20 things musicians often do which stops them from getting where they should rightfully be. Thankfully, it also lets you know what you should be doing instead.

Are you doing any of these harmful things? You’ll only know if you read the book!

Download Music Career Killers now.

This book is a real eye opener, so I suggest you give it a read. Just be sure to apply anything you learn.

Feel free to share this around with any other musicians you know, either by showing them this page or by sending them the file directly.

Giving out you music for free is a waste of time.

Yes I know, this goes against everything you’ve been taught so far. We all know how hard it is to sell your music to new fans, so the obvious step seems to be giving out loads of freebies until people are ready to buy your music right? Ummm, wrong!

The thing is, giving your music out for free can actually be doing more harm then good. By doing this, musicians are reinforcing the view that music should be free for listeners. In actual fact, musicians have as much right to make money by benefiting other people’s lives as anyone else does. Would someone makes board games just to give them out for free? Would a cleaner clean a hotel if they weren’t getting paid? Would a bus driver allow free passengers just because they enjoy driving? No, no, and NO!

In this article, I will show you exactly why giving your music out for free is a bad idea. I will also show you what you should be doing instead, and help you get your music distribution tactics back on track.

Note: If you find this article useful and want to stop other musicians making these common mistakes, please share it around as much as possible.

What I Define As ‘Free’

Before I go any further, I’d like to define what I mean when I say ‘free’.

Giving your music out for free is giving your songs out without you gaining anything tangible in return.

Yes you may get a few more people learning about you and becoming fans, but these results can be few and fan between. On top of that, a lot of these new fans will forget about you as time goes on. As they download more and more free music, your song will probably get lost somewhere on their hard drive.

What You Need To Remember

When you make your music, you need to ask yourself: Who do you really make it for? A lot of people claim they make music just for the love of it. If that’s the case, you don’t need to be reading this article. Independent Music Advice is a website aiming to help you learn the business side of the music industry, and therefore gain more fans and money. If you’re making music just for you, carry on singing in your bedroom.

If however it’s your aim to gain fans and make money, you need to remember one thing: People will only become a fan of you and your music if it benefits their lives. In other words, you’re offering them a service.

Now ask yourself this: Why are you paying to make other people happy? It costs you time and money to make music, so if you’re giving all this music out for free, you aren’t really getting anything from the deal. The people who download your music however are getting exactly what they want. Does this seem fair to you? Because it doesn’t to me…

Giving people an unlimited amount of your music for free is a big problem, and something that needs to stop.

The Problem With Giving Out Too Much Free Music

OK, so now why is giving out your music at no cost a bad thing? Well:

• It Doesn’t Make People Want To Listen To You Any More.
  Just because you give out your audio as a free download, it doesn’t mean that you will get a lot of people downloading it. Even if you hand someone out a free CD, there’s no guarantee that person will go on to listen to it. Many times people have given me free CDs at events and shows. Do I go on to listen to all of them? No. And I know a lot of people are the same.
  It takes more then just giving someone your music for them to listen, you have to give them a reason to want to listen. If you don’t do that, your CD will end up at the bottom of a pile and never get played.
  Now the interesting thing; If you can give people a reason to want to listen to your music, you won’t have to give your music out for free! You will be able to ask for something in exchange, and they will be willing as they already have it in their mind they want to hear your music. This largely makes giving your music out for free obsolete.
• People Start To Expect It.
  If you always give your music out for free, people will come to expect it. So when you start to make more of a name and you decide you want to start charging for your music, you will have a hard time selling it. After all, the majority of your fan base is made up of people who are in it for the freebies. As soon as they see they have to start paying now, many of your fans will disappear. They already have a load of your music, so what’s pushing them to get any more?
  While you may get some that stay and don’t mind paying for your music, you will look back and realise you spent a lot of time and effort making people happy who didn’t benefit your career in any way. Not a good feeling at all.
• Your Music Will Have A Lower Perceived Value.
  Perceived value is what people think your product is worth. If something is widely available for free, people will naturally feel like it’s not worth as much as it’s easy to obtain. This is how a lot of people think about music right now.
  If however something is harder to obtain or it’s a higher price, people naturally think it’s of a better quality. Because of this, it’s sometimes possible to raise the price of your product and make more sales then if you set a lower price point.
  You of course don’t want to charge so much that it’s not worth buying your music, but giving it all away for free will definitely make people perceive your music to have less value.
• You’ll Lose Money.
  Making good quality music isn’t free. You have to pay to use the recording studio, for the cost of pressing up products, for marketing and promotion expenses, and for anything else that needs to be done. If you do all of this only to give your music out for free, you are losing out on money. And where does that money come from? My guess is your own pocket.
  You shouldn’t be paying to make other people happy, it should be a two way thing. You should benefit from people hearing your music, and you shouldn’t be afraid to ask for something in exchange for your songs.
• You Will Lose Motivation.
  If you keep spending money on creating music that people don’t end up downloading, you will eventually lose motivation. If you lose motivation, what’s to keep you making music any more?
  We get into music for the love of it, but there are things along that way that have many a musician giving up on the industry. If you don’t want to become one of these people, you will need to start seeing some tangible results. Giving out your music free of charge doesn’t often give tangible results, so isn’t really worth you doing.

What You Should Be Doing Instead

So, now we know you shouldn’t be giving your music out for free, what should you be doing instead? Well:

1. You should be selling it. And,
2. You should have some songs available to download as part of an exchange process.

The selling your music part it pretty obvious. You should have your music on a shop page of your website where people can buy it in exchange for money.

The exchange process on the other hand is something quite different.

Instead of letting people download your music for nothing in return, you should only allow people to download some of your songs if they help you out in some way. This could be them giving you their contact details, or by them promoting your music in some way. This is a win win situation for everyone. They get to download your music and learn about you, and you get to keep in contact with them or have them promote you to all their friends.

We call the songs we use in this exchange process ‘promotional songs’, and cover this strategy in a lot more detail here. In that article we look at how to give out your promotional songs (And the best way to maximise their effect), the single to promotional songs ratio, how to encourage more people to download your promotional songs, how you can use your promotional songs to encourage people to buy your paid releases, and much more.

Should You Give Your Music Away For Free Conclusion

Giving your music out for free is a huge mistake, and one that many musicians unfortunately make. When you know how however, it’s possible to let people hear a few of your songs without paying any money, but also benefit from the deal yourself. It also gives your music a higher perceived value, and makes you appear to be a cut above the rest.

Don’t give out all of your music for free and expect to get loads of fans overnight, most people will still largely overlook your music as there’s so much free songs floating around anyway. By putting a small barrier in the way of obtaining your music, you may get a few less downloads, but anyone that does download will be more of a quality fan.

If this article has been an eye opener to you (And I hope it has), please share it round on your favourite sites. Thanks as always for your support, and I hope to see your views in the comments.

Hi guys, just a quick update today. Chris Rocket from the Promote Your Music blog recently interviewed me (Shaun) for his website. Some of the things we talked about include:

• Why mastering your talent comes before anything else with your music.
• A great trick you can use to learn from the best, and ensure you know what goes into making a good song!
• Why you should work on connecting with people who can leverage the reach of your music rather that connecting with fans one by one (Hint, it’ll get you a lot further a lot faster).
• Some ideas on what to offer fans in exchange for signing up to your mailing list, and how to tell what will work in your genre.
• A neat trick you can use to learn how to produce music from Dr Dre… Well, kind of!
• How you can use the 80/20 rule to your advantage.

We also talk about my new online music business school the IMA Music Business Academy, and how it can help you get your music to where you want it to be.

Thanks again to Chris Rockett for the interview. I hope you enjoy the interview and pick up some handy tips along the way.

Today we’re going to look at the need to invest in your music career. Want to make money from your music, but don’t want to invest in making that happen? I’m sorry to break it to you my friend, but it simply doesn’t work like that.

Let’s make one thing clear: If you want to take your music career past the ‘making music in your bedroom’ stage (And start making money), you will need to invest in it. It really is as simple as that. While finding that money to invest isn’t easy for everyone, it will have to happen sooner or later.

Here are some of the costs you may, and probably will, incur:

• Getting yourself studio time.
• Pressing up your CDs professionally.
• Buying instruments (If you’re part of a band or use them for your solo performances).
• Your own music education.
• Getting your music distributed online to websites like iTunes and Amazon MP3.
• Your own .com website.
• Any promotional materials (Without promotion no one will know about your music).
• Travelling costs to and from gigs.

All of the above listed things are mandatory for your music career. No ifs, no buts, these are things that need to be invested into. As well as these necessary expenses, if you want to take things to the next level, you may also want to invest in:

• Music video creation.
• Photo shoots.
• Adverts and other promotional efforts.
• Paying people for instrumentals.
• Paying guest to appear on your songs.

You can save money on some of these expenses (I will be looking at how in a future lesson), but either way, at some point you will have to spend some money. Having said that, it doesn’t have to be all at once. If you haven’t got much money to spend on your music career, you always have time to save up for it. It may take longer to get where you want, but as long as you put the effort in sooner or later, it is still achievable.

Best Ways To Invest Money Into Your Music Career

If you only have a limited amount of money to spend on your music career, where should you spend it first? Good question…

1. Instruments.
   If you play an instrument, this is the most important place you can spend your money. You need it to practice and play your songs, so make sure you’ve got one that will last you for a good while.
2. Music Business Knowledge.
   Investing in your understanding of the music business is essential. Many independent musicians simply learn things as they go along. This can be a long process, and as they say “Time is money”. Giving yourself all the information at the beginning can cut years off the time it takes to get your music out there. This will save you both time and money along the way.
3. Building A .com Website.
   Building your online presence is essential, as is having a .com website. On here you can create a central point for your fans to get involved with you, as well as start building your mailing list. This is probably the best way to keep in contact with your fans, and build up lasting profitable relationships.
4. Recording Studio Time.
   Whether you’re planning on selling your music online or do live shows only, you will need to record some songs at one point. These songs can be sold at your live shows, or sold online. They can also be given out to fans in exchange for their email address.

Once you have invested into these parts of your music career, the rest is largely optional. Having said that, if you really want to make it as a musician, there will be other times you will need to dip into your pockets.

Making Quality Music Costs Money, But Is Essential

If you want people to start taking your music seriously, you will need to put good quality material out there. To record good quality material, you will need to spend money on studio time. While you can always go to a friends house because he has his own DIY ‘studio’, this isn’t recommended. Most likely the recording quality won’t be of the level needed, and will give a bad impression of you when you show people your recordings.

I’ve always recommended one things: If something you do is not of a good quality, don’t put it out!

Whether it’s a new song, a promotional video, a music video you’ve just spent money on, or anything else, it’s simply not worth it. If you put out a product of poor quality, people will remember it. You could record the best song ever after that, but when it comes to asking people to listen to it, a lot of people simply won’t. They’ll remember you as that person who put the rubbish song out, and won’t want to listen to anything else you have to offer.

But back to the point I’m trying to make. Don’t cut corners when it comes to making your music. There are ways to save money with some of the necessary expenses, but even then you will have to shell out some change.

But what if you don’t have money to record any material but your friend has a (Not so great) recording studio you can use for free? Simple: DON’T USE IT!! Actually, use it to practice how you’re going to record the song in a proper studio (If you trust them not to leak your material when you tell them you’re not releasing it). Make sure however, that you don’t actually release any of the songs you have recorded there. You may feel like you’re putting more material out, but in fact you could be doing more harm then good. It takes money to make money, and you’re only going to make money if people really buy into you. If you’re putting out songs with poor recording quality and grainy videos however, how many people do you think will buy into you? Only ever give the best impression of yourself, and make it easy for your music to be likeable.

Don’t Over Spend On Your Music

Even though it takes money to make money, please don’t think that just by spending more money you will make more money. You will of course need to spend on the right things, and at the right times. Buying a new great looking guitar when you already have one that works perfectly well for example, won’t do anything at all to progress your music career. In fact it’d probably slow it down, as you could have used that money to buy something more useful. Think wise.

Investing In Your Music Career Conclusion

If you’ve come into the music industry thinking you’re going to do everything for free, think again. In life it often takes money to make money, and the music industry is no different. If you haven’t got much money to invest, then start saving up now. It’s either that, or you don’t take your music as far as it can potentially go. Invest in your music careers!

Hi guys, just to let you know The IMA Music Business Academy has now opened it’s doors and is taking on new members. In the last post, I asked if it’s possible to fast track your music career. My conclusion that yes it was, you simply need to have the right knowledge and guidance available to you. Many musicians waste years doing things through trial and error, and often give up during the process.

The IMA Academy is a course that aims to tackle that, giving musicians the music business knowledge they need to succeed in a fraction of the time. If you have talent but aren’t sure how to get people to pay attention to your music, this could be the course for you!

What Is The IMA Music Business Academy

The IMA Music Business Academy is an online study course, teaching musicians the business side of the industry. New lessons are delivered on a weekly basis, and are available by logging into your private members area. Each lesson will go in-depth in an area you need to be aware of. At the end of the lesson, you will be given a task to complete that will help push your music career to the next level. You can see a full list of the weekly lessons on The IMA Music Business Academy home page.

As well as having access to weekly lessons, you also get access to a private support / community forum. Here you can get help with any of the lessons, discuss the latest music business tactics, mingle, and network with like minded people. This is great for getting different views of things, and advice from people who have done it already. Who knows, you may even make a few friends and important contacts along the way.

Why Is An Academy Like This Needed?

The IMA Music Business Academy is needed for one major reason: Music business knowledge isn’t something that we automatically have in us. Despite that, if you want to start making money from your music career you need it! It’s as simple as that.

If you want to be more then a part time (Not making any money) musician, you need to learn how to get your music out there. On top of that, you have to make yourself likeable and make people want to buy into you. These are skills that can be learnt, but only with the right guidance.

This is what we aim to teach you in the academy. We give you the skills to take your talent, and turn it into a brand people are going to be interested in. We will teach you how to sell, what you should be doing in order to make the best use out of your time, and how to get people coming back to you time and time again.

Many musicians tend to fail because they don’t know what direction to go or don’t have the right support. Don’t let this be the case with you, enrol into the IMA Music Business Academy today.

What Can You Learn From This Online Music Business Course?

The IMA Academy aims to be a complete guide for the independent musician. We walk you through what you need to be doing from start to finish. We go over the best practices in each area, so even if you’re already using the studio for example, you may still want to read that section so you can find out how to record faster and spend a lot less money.

Here are some of the things you will learn on this course:

• A strategy that will allow you to easily find out what your market want and give it to them.
• Where you should be putting your time and effort to progress in your music career.
• How to minimise your expenses when using the studio, creating artwork, and much more.
• How to turn passers by into lifelong fans.
• How to get the most out of each fan you gain.
• Online and offline marketing tactics.
• How to create your own high converting website.
• How to make money from music royalties.
• How to get gigs, and how to make money from every one of them (Even if the venue owner doesn’t pay you directly).
• How to improve your on stage presence.
• Out of the box tactics that will have you making more money from your music.
• And MUCH more!

You can see a full weekly lesson plans on the IMA MBA home page.

Why Is The IMA Academy Different From Other Courses And Books?

OK, so there are other music business courses and books out there. So why should you chose The IMA Music Business Academy over them? Simple, because only we provide you with the practical information you need as an independent musician!

There are two other types of courses and books on the market:

• The ‘record label’ type book
• The ‘social media’ type course.

The record label type book will tell you how record labels work, and what tactics they use to get out there to the masses. Unfortunately, while often a good read, they don’t leave you with much you can apply to your own music career. They’re based on big budgets, and a set of tactics that won’t work for most of us.

In the academy however, every week provides you with practical advice you can go out and start working on straight away. What’s more, they will help you now and are scalable for the future.

With the social media type courses that have sprung up, you are told that online promotion alone is largely the way to go. Apparently, networking on Facebook and Twitter all day will get your music out there, and have you earning money in no time.

Here at the IMA MBA, we don’t think that’s true. Yes Facebook and Twitter have a role to play in your marketing campaign, but probably not in the way you’re using them now. We teach you how to leverage these accounts, and how to get people coming to you rather then you sitting there and adding them all day. We also provide you with cheap and free offline marketing tactics that still work, and teach you how to leverage other people to get them doing your promotion for you.

In short? We teach you what no one else does: How to become an all round musician!!

Where Can I Enrol For The IMA Music Business Academy?

If you’re ready to enrol into the academy, you can do so here.

The IMA Music Business Academy Bonus Offer

The IMA Music Business Academy will only be open for a week, from today (18.10.2011) till 24.10.2011. After that we will be shutting out doors to any new members. This is so we can give the best support possible to any current members, and give them the attention they deserve.

When we re-open the course (Date TBC, it can be any time from a week after the 24th to a few months) we will be raising the monthly price.

If you want to lock in the early bird price for life and save big, then enrol into The IMA Music Business Academy today!

As many of us know, progressing your music career can be a long journey. It’s not uncommon for musicians to be working at things for years before they start to gain any real recognition, and even then they may not be where they want to be. Unfortunately however, many people give up on their music long before that. The lack of results and the feeling of an uphill struggle can take it’s toll, and often the best option appears to be giving up completely.

But why does it take so long to get your music to the stage where you’re seeing real results? Can you fast track music at all, or do you simply have to go through the grind before you get reap the rewards? This is what we look at today.

The Reason Independent Music Careers Move Slowly

One of the main stumbling blocks for people, is not knowing how to do certain key things. We’re not born with the knowledge of how to professionally create a CD, how to market ourselves to people, or how to successfully perform gigs, all of these things are things that need to be learned. Without the right guidance however, learning a lot of these processes are trial and error. Bare in mind, these examples I’ve mentioned are only a few of the things you will need to learn in order to get the best out of your music career.

Not knowing how do something can lead to hesitation, and mean that a person puts off doing something even when they know they shouldn’t. Performing gigs for example is a great way for people to earn extra money from their music career, but a lot of people are simply too afraid to go on stage. While this is often to do with gig nerves, gig nerves can often be formed because the person doesn’t know what to do when they’re on stage. After all, has anyone ever sat down with you and told you how to give a better stage performance?

A final reason music careers often move slowly is because it isn’t always easy to know what you should be learning about. You may be fully motivated to creating CDs and selling online, but if you didn’t know it was possible to collect royalties from your radio plays and live shows, you will be losing out on money.

In short, a lack of knowledge can slow your music career down.

But what can you do about this? Well, one place musicians often turn to gain music business knowledge, are online music business courses and books.

Do Offline And Online Music Business Courses Help?

While there are some courses and books out there that will teach you about the music industry, they’re all aimed at teaching you how record labels work, and other things that can’t really be applied to the independent musician. I mean, why know the ins and outs of how record labels work when you’re a long way from signing from one? Wouldn’t it be better to learn the skills that will be able to benefit you in the situation you’re in?

This is where we come in. For the last few months we’ve been creating a full guide of the music industry for the independent musician. We’ve mapped out a full and complete plan for getting yourself out there, saving you months (Or even years) of learning how to do everything yourself. Yes, we aim to fast track your music.

Whether you’re just starting out on your musical journey and want to learn how to sell your music online, or you’ve been around for a while and want to know how to better convert visitors into fans and buyer, WE COVER IT ALL!

More information will be released nearer the time of launch (Launch is under two weeks away). If you want to be informed on when this course is released and what else you can learn, please add your name and email address to the below form. As well as being informed when the course is released, we’ll also send you weekly tips and advice not shown here on this website.

Speeding Up Your Music Career

As I mentioned, before now the quickest way to learn what you should be doing as an independent musician was through trial and error. If you had your first ever gig for example, you would go on stage and perform how you think you should be performing. After your performance you come off stage and feel relieved you got through it in one piece. You may have a drink and hang around for a bit, then go home.

But wait, what about selling your music to those fans? What about recording your performance so you can see what you need to improve on for next time? What about connecting with fans and making sure they can find you easily when they get home?

The thing is, a lot of things you should be doing doesn’t get thought of automatially. If you don’t know you need to be doing something, how can you learn how to do it? This is why some independent musicians are earning a full time living (Even if they’ve NEVER had a commercial release before), while others are making a stone cold loss. It really is this black and white:

If you don’t know how to make and market your music correctly, your music career will never really take off.

Anyone that wants to make their music more then a hobby needs to learn proven strategies that’ll progress their career. Not that these business practices will guarantee you to be a success, you will still need a good level of talent if you want to earn from your music. Having said that, talent without knowing how to get yourself out there is pretty much useless, so you do need both pieces of the puzzle if you want to reach your goals.

Fast Track Music Career Conclusion

So is it possible to fast track your music career? Yes, it is. By doing the right things the first time around, you will greatly reduce the amount of trial and error you go through. Online music business courses can help you with this, and allow you to learn the business side of things in the comfort of your own home.

As I mentioned before, we have a new music business course for independent musicians coming up. If you have talent but don’t know how to get yourself out there, we can provide you with the business knowledge you need to get your career moving as fast as possible.

If you’re interested in learning more and being informed when this course is available, add your name and email address to the form below.

If you want to succeed in today’s music industry, you need to treat your music as a business. There’s no two ways about it; If you aren’t willing to put in the work to promote and market your music, you may as well give up now. In order to be successful, you need to do what works. And what works right now is getting off your butt and putting the work in to the right places.

In this article we will be looking at the business of music, and why you need to learn this side of things if you want to do well in your music career. Whether you do independent music or you’re signed to a record label, you need to learn what it is that makes people successful, other then their vocals.

Knowledge is power, so read on and see how much of this you can apply to your independent music career today.

Why You Need To Learn The Music Business

So, why do you need to treat music as a business? Simple, because without you carrying out proven marketing and promotion methods for your songs, people won’t even know you exist. And the people who are aware of you, may not take to you as well due to ineffective or inconsistent branding.

Learning the music business involves learning how you promote yourself, how to build connections within the industry, learning various selling tactics, learning how to get gigs, planning out all the steps you need to achieve your goals, and much more. As someone who makes independent music, you haven’t got someone who will do all these things for you. You in effect have to do all the jobs a record label team does on your own.

Why you obviously won’t be able to get the same mass reach as a wealthy record label, it is possible for you to get out there using the right music business strategies.

The bottom line is this: If you learn what business practices work in the music industry and put them into practice, you will greatly increase your chances of doing well with your music. I tell no word of a lie.

Do You Treat Music As A Business?

Ok, so enough about the general advice for everyone who does independent music. Right now, I want you to look at how your music career is going. Ask yourself:

• Are you simply recording songs and putting them out for free, or are you sticking to a set release and revenue generating plan?
• Are you doing gigs as and when they come up, or are you actively seeking out new shows to do?
• Are you sitting at home all day ‘promoting’ your music on social networking websites, or are you working on getting your music mass broadcasted on radio and TV?

If you answered yes to any of the first options, you are not taking your music as a business as much as you could be.

You need to ask yourself how far you want to take your music. If you are simply making music for the fun of it, then carry on doing what you’re doing. It’s a hobby for you, so only make music as and when you want. If however your aim is to make a career from your music, then you need to start re-evaluating how you handle things.

Prove To Record Labels You Treat Music As A Business

It used to be standard procedure for record labels to handle the business side of the music industry for you. They would pump a lot of time and money into your career, and all you had to do was turn up, look presentable and sing. Things however are changing. Due to there being a lot less money in the music industry, record labels want to see you are capable of being successful as an independent musician before they even consider signing you for a record deal. This means that whether or not you want to get signed, you have a lot of work to do.

While it is still possible to get signed to a record label just based on your talent, you are much more likely to get a record deal (Or is it called a CD deal now?) if you have a proven track record. And guess what? It’s up to you to provide that track record for all to see! That means you need to demonstrate that you can sell units, that you can get gigs to perform at, that you can draw people in to see you perform live, and that you music potentially has mass appeal. You will also need to demonstrate that you have a good core following, and that you can come out with good songs both now and in future. Sound like a lot of work? It is, so you better get started hadn’t ya!

Learn The Music Business

As with anything, in order to succeed in music, you need to put the work in. Not only that however, but you need to put the work in to the right places. It’ll be no good you sitting at home all day adding people on Facebook and Twitter for example. Yes you will have done a lot of work, but you won’t get much reward from it in the end. Instead, it’s all about putting in the time and effort in the areas where you will benefit most from it.

So, where are these areas? While these aren’t the only places you should put your effort, here are some of the key areas:

• Getting your music and videos played on mass promotion channels (E.G. Radio and TV). This will get your music in front of a large amount of people fairly quickly, rather then reaching each person individually. A lot of musicians attempt to get in front of new fans one by one by adding them on Facebook and Twitter. The problem with this, is not only does it take a long time to do, but you are often contacting people who don’t want to be sold to. If they don’t want to be sold to, then they won’t take notice. If you let people come to you after they have heard your song on radio however, this person is much more likely to become a fan.
• Capturing you fan’s contact details from any exposure you gain from these mass promotion channels. The best way to do this is to have a opt in box on your website, and collect people’s information for your music mailing list. This will allow you to contact them whenever you want, and if you have a good relationship with them (Or at least don’t annoy them) they may buy your music / show tickets / merchandise etc in future. Your true fans will do a lot of promotion for you, and help get other people interested in your music. Don’t under estimate how important it is to have these dedicated fans in your corner, they will make work a lot easier for you.
• Getting and performing gigs. Not only will this get your face out there more, but it will generate revenue for you. Even if you’re not getting paid for the show initially, you can still make money from selling your CDs after you have performed. You can also raise a lot of awareness at shows. I’ve written a free guide on how to get gigs, so check it out for more info.

While this is a brief explanation of what you should be doing, this is the core of things that will get you the most results. You will of course need to do other things such as recording new material and communicating with your fans, but you should put a limit on the amount of time you dedicate to these activities. You want new songs yes, but you don’t want to overload your fans with songs. Flooding the market with your music will make your brand appear cheap, and too easily available. When it comes to you putting out new audio, it will be no big deal to people as they get your new stuff all the time. Hold back and only release material every now and then though, and you will give fans time to miss you and crave your next release. This will cause a bigger buzz all round.

While communication with fans is important, you shouldn’t over do it. As a general rule of thumb, communication with a lot of your fans individually is a bad idea. Not only is it a time drain, but you also make yourself seem too available. When people see as much of you as they want, they won’t crave you in the same way anymore. Eventually, they will get bored and move on to the next big thing.

If you make it so you’re communicating with fans on a mass level now and then (Say make a Youtube video for your fans and put it on your website) then people will appreciate this and look forward to your next video or communication. You will also give yourself a bit of mystery, and make people wonder what you have been up to.

Both of these strategies are worth implementing in your music career. Here are some additional music business strategies worth learning, each building on the three areas I’ve mentioned you focus on in this article. These will help expose your music on a wider scale, an ensure you’re taking steps to getting where you want to be in the music business.

Treating Music As A Business Conclusion

As an independent musician, you haven’t got the ‘luxury’ of having a record label handle the business and promotional side of things. Luckily however, you have Independent Music Advice. We help anyone making independent music learn the music business, giving them a much better chance of doing well.

You may not have seen yourself getting into business, but you do need to take music as a business if you want to get your music out there.

As you may know, there are tons of options when it comes to educating yourself in the art of music. Methods of learning include music business books, DVDs, online lessons, private lessons, and formal higher education. Any of these resources can help, but some will suit your needs better than others. The way you choose to educate yourself on the music business will depend on how you learn best. For example, some people can get all the information they need by reading a book, while others may need a mentor near to answer any questions they may have.

Below are some of the options available for increasing your music business knowledge.

Online Music Resources (Free)

While online only resources can be very useful, I advise you to be critical of it. Not everything on the internet is true (gasp), but a lot of the information out there can be helpful. Test any new idea available for free off the internet with all of your previous knowledge, and if there appear to be gaps or conflicts, look for other sources. If you have no prior musical knowledge, I do not recommend learning the basics online unless you are pointed to a specific website by a professional.

DVDs, Books, and Online Music Lessons (Not Free)

There are a lot of good music books, music DVDs and music courses that you can get hold of, but there are also a lot of useless ones. A good one can give you all the knowledge you require for your area of music, while a poor one isn’t worth the time it takes to read it. So how you you pick out the good ones that will actually push your music career forward?

Well, it’s always a good idea to get feedback from other people who have taken these courses before, or at least make sure you have seen enough of the course provider’s work before you decide to join. This way you know you will be getting a good deal.

Private Music Lessons

While this is probably the most expensive option, I highly recommend this option for anyone starting to learn their first instrument. There are so many aspects of instrument technique and musical interpretation that are critical to your growth as a musician. Even if you have a great book, guide, or DVD, it can only help you so much. It can tell you what to work on and how to play properly, but it can’t tell you what mistakes you’re making or how to improve the subtle aspects of your musicality.

Of course, not every instructor is great or reliable, and that is why you must be picky when it comes to choosing one. You need to be clear in understanding your goals as a musician, and how you want your private instructor to help you achieve them. Also, asking instructors for good resources (online, books, etc) is always a good move. This means you can carry on learning even when you’re not with them any more.

Higher Education

In high school alone, you can learn a lot about music e.g. how to play an instrument. Even if it isn’t the instrument or style of music you would like to make a career from, learning how melodies and beats work can be carried over to the type of music you do want to make. In college however, you will have quite a few options in terms of musical courses you can take. Here are just some of them:

• Music Theory – While not a course everyone will like, music theory can change your life as a musician. Essentially, the class explains written music through patterns and formulas, somewhat similar to what you would find in a maths class. But why go through all that trouble? Well, the better you understand music and the relationship between what’s written and what’s heard, the better you can play music in any environment and on any instrument. Knowing scales is always helpful, but knowing chord progressions and the rules that bind them are vital for anyone with an interest in writing music. Also, most music theory courses emphasize listening and aural exercises, which will result in a better musical ear and intonation.
• Music Ensembles – This should go without saying, but it may be a good idea to join any musical ensemble that interests you. Even if an ensemble isn’t exactly the style of music you’d like to start a career from, you can learn valuable lessons about the rehearsal process and playing with others. This will make a huge impact with how you play and correspond with future musicians.
• Music History – While not every musician needs to know the details of baroque or classical style, understanding the history of how music has progressed can make you a better musician. Admittedly, this isn’t the most vital course for all musicians. Still, it will open your mind to different possibilities and styles of music. This in turn will make you a more versatile, clever song-writer.
• Music Appreciation – This is a course that most universities require, but it’s probably something you’ve been doing for decades if you truly are the musician you aspire to be. Essentially, courses like these will require you to attend performances and perhaps write about them for a grade. Attending and studying performances is vital for any musician of any level. Being critical of others’ performances will lead to you being critical of your own. From here, you can learn from the mistakes of both other people and yourself.

Music Courses Conclusion

Learning is an essential part of your music career. While some people will naturally pick up good business habits by watching other musician, this isn’t true easy for everyone. In this case, it’s a good idea to get additional help to make yourself a more all round musician. So have a look above again, and see if any of the mentioned types of music courses are for you.

Alvina Lopez is a freelance writer and blog junkie, who blogs about accredited online schools. She welcomes your comments at her email alvina.lopez @gmail.com.

This article aims to inform musicians how to succeed in the music business. A lot of bad and outdated advice is shared on the web, much of which leads to musicians wasting valuable time, money and effort. Many people have fallen into the trap of following bad advice, only to reflect a number of months down the line and realise their music career hasn’t progressed very much at all. Due of this, it’s become a widely accepted theory that you can’t make money from your music. This however couldn’t be further from the truth, as we hope to show you today.

Today we aim to debunk this myth, and show you what is really needed to get where you want in the music industry. If you aren’t willing to adjust your thinking and invest both time and money in your independent music career, I suggest you stop reading now. If you’re ready to turn your music into a business however, read on, and make sure you don’t miss a single word.

Below are four key things you need to do in order to be successful, so take them on board and start doing what is necessary.

1. Realise The Music Business Is A Job

The first thing we need to do is get our mentality right. If we fail to do this, we’re already limiting ourself to being one of those people that never quite make it at anything. Too many people want to do well in music and in their other life aspirations, but never really put in the effort to make it happen. In other words, they fail to take action!

So this is the first thing I want to encourage you to do, take action in your music career. Don’t just sit around in your house listening to other people’s CDs and wishing that was you, use that time to write lyrics or promote your music in some way. Don’t complain about other people succeeding and you’re not really getting anywhere, work out what’s getting them to the top and apply the same to your music career. It’s no good simply ‘wanting’ to do well in music, you got to put the work in to succeed!

2. Focus On The Things That Make Musicians Money

Too often I see musicians wanting to succeed, but not knowing how to go about it. They put long hours into their music career, only to find they’re still haven’t progressed in the next six or so months. They may have released a new CD or got a few extra spins by a DJ, but most likely they aren’t really any closer to fulfilling their dream of earning a living from their music career.

The thing is, if you want to make money in the independent music business, you need to focus on the right things. Too many people spend all day adding people on social networks thinking this will help them. While social media is a useful tool for any musician, it should only play a bit part of your promotional efforts. You should focus on the 80/20 rule, a rule that states your should spend the majority of your time on the 20% of things that give you 80% of the results.

So instead of sitting at your computer all day adding people one by one, wouldn’t you rather do something that will mean that a bunch of targeted fans come to your page and add you? The people on your Facebook and Twitter pages will be a lot more genuine and interactive for starters, and you will gain a lot more exposure in the long run.

So what are these things that will make you the most money from your music career? Well, in this article I’ve identified three main ways to earn money from your music career. Doing these things will be the best use of your time, and help your music progress a lot faster. So check out these music strategies and start focusing on the things that will push your music career the most.

3. Invest In Your Music Career

One of the biggest ways to fail as a musician is to not invest in your music career. While it may be hard when you’re of a young age, you will soon realise that it takes time or money to make money. When doing a job, you’re investing time in exchange for a pay packet. When investing in stocks and shares, you’re investing money to make even more money back. In music however, you need to invest both time and money to be a success.

So what sort of things do you need to invest in to make your music successful? Well, in no particular order:

• Studio Time.
  If you want to have some recorded songs to show off, you need to invest in studio time. I’d advise you not to use a low quality studio, as while you may initially save some money, your recordings will come out a poor quality and not give off an accurate representation of your potential. I also wouldn’t recommend using a high end studio if you make independent music, as you can get good mid range studios for a decent price.
  Always make sure you use a good quality studio, but don’t over spend. If you need help finding a local studio, ask fellow musicians what studio they use and the price. You should be able to get some good suggestions like this.
• Your Own Website.
  Having your own website is essential if you want to differentiate yourself from the thousands upon thousands of ‘wanna be’ musicians out there. Not only that, but if gives your fans a good place to keep up with your music and connect with you. If you haven’t got a website yet, check our guide on how to build your own music website. Just make sure you add a mailing list on your website as this will turn out to be one of the biggest assets in your independent music career.
• Music Distribution.
  If you want to get your music out there, it’s important to get good music distribution. Going to a few local shops yourself and asking for a sale or return deal is not enough if you want people too see and recognise your brand, you need to get your music on iTunes and other popular music websites. This can be done via distributors such as SongCast, who while are free to sign up to, charge a small amount to get your songs on iTunes, Napster, Amazon MP3 and more. You also need to get them in shops worldwide if you press up a physical copy of your music, and ‘real world’ distributors also charge for their service. Some charge a price up front, while others take a percentage of what they get into shops for you. This is often a lot more then what digital distributors such as SongCast would charge, so choose wisely when deciding on how to distribute your music. Some people choose to use both avenues available to them, a good strategy if you ask me.
• Music Promotion.
  It surprises me at the amount of people who release a CD or digital download, but fail to invest money into promoting it. Your promotional efforts can make or break your release, and if you don’t partake in any promotion your release is as good as a dud.
  I can understand that you want to keep costs down when releasing your first CD or digital download, but if you want people to buy it they need to know about it. And if you don’t run a promotional campaign then no one will know about it.
  Once again it’s all about investing money to make money. You need to advertise your releases if you want to make it past giving out free downloads forever, so get rid of the ‘no spending’ mentality and instead spend wisely. We talk about this more in our free ebook ‘Why Your New Release Is Destined To Flop (And How To Change That)’, so check our free music ebooks page to download that now.
• And more.
  There are other things you should invest in to progress in your music career, but these are the basics. I’m not encouraging your to spend all willy nilly, but if you don’t invest into at least the basics, don’t expect to make much (If any) money back at all.

4. How To Succeed In The Music Business: Increase Your Confidence

The final thing I want to talk about is increasing your confidence. At times, there may be things in your music career you may not want to do. You may be too shy to do them, or you may not have done them before so you’re unsure on how to go about it. So what should you do? Simple, learn how to do it and get on with it!

There are two things that many musicians have problems with:

1. Performing live shows, and
2. Selling to people.

These are two of the most important things you need to survive in the music business, so if you want to push your career as far as you can, you need to get over your fears.

The Fear Of Performing Live Shows.
A lot of people get nervous about getting on stage in front of a large audience. Their mouth goes dry, ‘butterflies’ start to enter their bellies, and they start having a nervous break down. This is understandable, as not everyone is a natural performer. But think about it, have you ever seen a big musician that doesn’t do live shows?

The good thing is, performing live shows is something that can be learned, and a fear that can be conquered over time. I’ve actually written a post about how to overcome gig nerves, so if this is something you suffer from then have a look.

Live shows are one on the best ways to make money for the modern independent musician, so make sure it’s something you tackle head on!

The Fear Of Selling To People.
Another common fear people have is selling to people. They feel bad to go up to them and ask them to buy their music, but why would you? Is you music not worth people paying money for? If it is, you shouldn’t feel bad to do this. If it isn’t, you may as well stop making music right now.

Now of course, you’re not going to want to sell to random people on the street. But if you’ve just finished performing at a showcase, there’s no reason you shouldn’t go up to the audience after and ask if they want to buy your CD. They’re heard you perform, so they’re now in a position to make an informed decision about whether or not they want it. Either they say yes and you’ve made some money, or they say no and you move on to the next person.

Doing this one extra selling technique can mean a lot of extra money every year, especially if you do a lot of shows. Doing this should mean that your show expenses are more then paid for, and often you’ll end up in nice profit.

How To Succeed In The Music Business Conclusion

A lot of people do music, but not everyone has the music business knowledge to take them as far as they wish to go. I hope the points raised in this article give you something to think about, and help get your music career heading in the right direction. If you want a new age music strategy that works, check out our book that teaches you how to make money from free music. Like the idea of letting your fans download your music for free but getting paid every time they do? Then this is a strategy you definitely need to read.

Please leave any thoughts you have in the comments below. Is this how to succeed in the music business?

Pre note: In this article we look at three main strategies to make money from your music career: How to make money from giving out free downloads (Short term), how to make money from gigging (Medium term) and how to make money from royalty collections (Long term). This is a potentially life changing post. It should change the way you think about your music career, and give you the steps to turn it from a hobby into something that actually makes you money. Please make sure you read it from start to finish then put into action what you’ve learned. You may want to bookmark it for easy reference in the future, and share it with fellow independent musicians. But anyhow, let’s get started…

I’ve seen it time and time again. Many people get into the music scene for the love of the music, but sooner or later realise they can actually make money from their hobby. So they decide to start treating their music as a career, putting more hours in and recording more songs. They work and work on making it successful, but no matter what they do they seem to struggle to make any real money for their efforts.

The reason why I feel so many musicians fail at making money is not because they don’t have enough talent, it’s just because they don’t put their time and effort into doing the right things. A lot of people focus purely on social media to promote their music. While it can get you small results in the short term, a lot of the time with social media it’s hard to target the right people. You’re also targeting these people one by one, which isn’t the best use of you time or energy.

Social media also doesn’t generally generate money (Well at least not in this situation). If you’re ‘lucky’ you’ll get a few free downloads of your song and a message saying ‘It’s good’. This is OK if all you want from your music career is a small ego boost, otherwise you need to take a different approach and fast.

The Solution

I’ve broken down what I think are three of the best ways to make money from your music. I’ve divided them into three categories: Strategies you should be focusing on short, medium and long term. As you get the hang of one and start making money from it, you should start thinking about the next stage and working on that too. By the end you should be doing all three of these things, and hopefully making a good extra income from your music (If not turning it into a full time career). So ready to get started? Then let’s go!

Important Note:
All of these strategies can make you money even if you’re not a big name musician. Independent musicians you may never have heard of have been using these strategies for years to make money from music, so as long as you have talent you can do it too. It’s about working smarter not harder, and putting your effort into 20% of the things that make you 80% of the money. Using the following strategies you can start earning more money from your music in a matter of months (If not sooner), so get started right away!

1. Short Term Music Strategies – Money From ‘Free’ Downloads

People are becoming more and more reluctant to pay for songs, and instead often tend to download them instead. One of the main ways I’ve seen musicians counteract the effect of downloading (Though I don’t agree with it) is by giving fans all their music for free. The idea is that people give out their music to build up their name, then their loyal fans buy the paid copy when it’s released. For me, this isn’t a strategy I’m particularly fond of. The thing is, where does giving out all this free music stop? After they’ve got so many of your songs for free, why are they going to start paying for any songs you do release that you charge for? While some people may have success with this strategy, it’s not something the average musician will have any luck with.

Give Out Free Downloads, Make Money From Them:

What I prefer to do instead is make money by giving out downloads that fans don’t have to pay for. I put songs up on my website in different forms, and each time someone downloads one of these different songs I get paid for it. It doesn’t cost the fans anything to download this music, but every time they do I still get money going into my account.

I then drive traffic to my site using automated social media tools as well as building myself up in the search engines for various terms. This means I get short term but easy traffic from social media sites, and then eventually long-term traffic from search engines such as Google. The more traffic I get, the more people download my songs free of charge, the more money I make from these downloads.

The good thing about this strategy is it sets up a good foundation for the rest of your music career. We’re raising awareness for our music by giving out ‘free’ downloads, but we’re getting paid for doing so at the same time. We’re also building up one of our best assets, our website. This website will be used as a communication tool between us and the fan for the rest of our career, so getting people in the habit to use it regularly means we’re killing two birds with one stone.

If you want to know how to fully implement this part of the strategy and how to make money from giving out your music to fans for free, check out our book “How To Make Money From Free Music” for the full process. In here we detail step by step how to make money from free downloads, and how you can turn each fan into regular downloaders earning you money each time.

So when do you stop working on this strategy? Well while you should keep this strategy going for much of your music career, once you get traffic from Google you’ll be automatically getting new visitors to your site every day. This means you’ll start making money on autopilot, meaning you’ll have more time to focus your efforts on the below medium term music strategy.

2. Medium Term Music Strategies – Money From Gigging

OK, so we’ve got our short term strategy up and running. We should be making money from people downloading out music free of charge, and our website should be receiving new fans daily on auto pilot (Full details of how to do this can be found in “How To Make Money From Free Music”). The next stage is to focus on making money from gigging.

Now some of you may have done gigs before. Gigging isn’t anything new for an independent musician to do, but often it’s not done to it’s full potential. Many musicians get booked for a gig, turn up and perform their music then go home. So, where does the money come in?

In reality, these are so many opportunities to make money from gigs that aren’t exploited by the average musician. Even if you don’t get paid for doing a show, you can still walk out of there with more money then you started with. Here are the main ways you can make money from performing shows:

Direct Payment:

This is the obvious one, but one that you won’t have the luxury of getting until you’re a more established act. The idea here is to get paid money by the event organiser for performing at their event. You get paid a set amount which you both agree to, then you turn up and play your gig. The reason you won’t get access to this gig until later on is because promoters only tend to book acts that can draw in the crowds. If your name isn’t big enough to get the event organiser new paying customers, then most likely you won’t get paid for your booking. As you do more gigs and build your rep however, you will get directly paid gigs.

Selling Of CDs And Then Merchandise:

Since most of the early shows you’ll be performing won’t be paid ones, you’ll have to make money in other ways. There are two main ways to make money from gigs which you don’t get paid directly for, the first being selling your CDs after your performance. This is a easy thing to do, you simply perform your songs then inform people you’ve got a CD to buy if they like what they heard. Let them know you’re coming round and for them to ask you if they want a copy. Once your shows done, take some copies of your CD round and ask everyone if they’ll be interested in buying a copy.

This strategy is simple but works very well. It can make you some nice money from each show you do, so if you don’t already do this then you’re missing out on a lot of extra money. Many musicians don’t do this, probably because they’re too shy to ask people to buy their CD. If this is you, you need to overcome that shyness and quickly. I know a lot of musicians aren’t sales people, but if you’re making your music independently you need to at least learn some aspects of selling. You’re only asking people if they want to buy your CD, they then have the option of saying yes or no. You’re not inconveniencing anyone’s life, and will be introducing some new people to the joy of your music. On top of that you’ll be making money from your night out.

I’ve found showcase and talent show type events the best for making money from CD sales. The people that go to these type of events are often interested in less main stream music, and are up for supporting independent musicians. As they’ve often been to a few of these sort of events they know what to expect, and usually bring some extra money in case they come across a act they like and want to buy some of their material. So make sure you always bring a tangible product with you and probe the crowd to find these people. The relaxed environment often makes for an easy few sales.

As you’re making more money from your music career you can also create merchandise and sell that as well. I wouldn’t recommend doing that until you’re headlining your own gigs or are playing at concerts however, as they’re the type of crowds that are willing to take that extra bit of money out of their pockets.

Collecting Royalties:

The other way you can make money from performing live shows is by collecting royalties from each performance of your songs. Whenever you perform one of your songs at an officially licensed venue, they should pay a set amount to the people that collect royalties in your country. You can then get paid from these royalty collectors once you earn enough money. Want to know more about making money from royalties? Well that’s part of our long term strategy, so read on…

3. Long Term Music Strategies – Money From Royalties

Royalties is one of the real ways to make money from your music. For those that don’t know, royalties is money you earn for each time your song is played in a public place. It doesn’t matter if your song is played on radio or if you perform it live at a licensed venue, you should legally get paid royalties for your efforts.

The collecting of royalties is something many musicians don’t actually bother with, mainly because they don’t know how to do it. At initial glance it seems complex and something they can’t be bothered with, but it’s not really that hard to get your head around and is essential if you want to make any real sort of money from your music.

The first thing I want to say is you don’t have to collect royalties all by yourself. There are companies that keep track of where your songs are played and will send you royalty checks every three or so months. The companies that do this for you vary from country to country, but in the US the main one is the Harry Fox Agency (HFA). In the UK PRS which is now joined with the Mechanical Copyright Protection Society (MCPS). Elsewhere in the world there are other companies that will monitor and collect your royalties for you, so have a look for who deals with it if you’re from another country.

These companies will be responsible for digitally monitoring where you music is played and collecting the money from each of those plays for you. You know that that means right? Get more radio, event, film and TV plays and you earn more money! You don’t however get paid from getting people to listen to your SoundCloud player, so stop wasting your time on social media and get your music played where it really counts!

A Good Way To Make Money From Music Royalties

The obvious strategy for making money from royalties is to get a lot of radio play. Instead of making a mass of songs and giving them out for free online, why not focus on one big song at a time and aim to get it a lot of radio play? That means building up relationships with DJs, and making the type of songs they’ll want to play again and again! You’ll also get paid when your song is played in venues such as bars, clubs and pubs, so making sure you song is appropriate for as many of these places as possible is a good idea.

Even if you haven’t got a typically commercial style of music, you can always get specialist DJs to play your songs for you. While it may not get as many plays (Remember, the more plays it gets the more money you’ll make) you can still make some decent money if your song gets played week in week out.

The aim however should be to make a classic song which will still be played for a long time to come. If you make a song about Christmas for example and it gets played a lot every year, there’s a good chance that one song could make you a full time living. Any song that will be played for years to come is a real asset as is a consistent income source even when you’re not doing anything. So you may want to make a song about a yearly event or occasion?

You can also make money from performing at venues as I mentioned in the mid term strategy about gigging. This is why I said to read the whole post through before starting out, because aspects of your long term money making efforts are going to cross over in to the medium term, and potentially some of the medium term into the short term. What is important however is you do all of them, focusing on the things that will start making you money in the short terms and work your way up. If you try and do them all full on in the beginning you’ll lack focus and not get as many results as you could have otherwise.

Conclusion

Making money from your music can be a lot easier then many people think. It’s all about doing the right things for your music career to take off, if you focus in the wrong areas it’ll be a much slow and less profitable journey for you. Remember, you should do the 20% of the things that need to be done that’ll make you 80% of your money. Things like messaging people on SoundCloud and Facebook asking them to listen to and download your music for free takes up more then 80% of a lot of people’s time, and makes them around 0% of their income. So, how much is this really helping you?

I hope this article has gone a way to changing your approach to your music career. It’s all about being smart, learning the music business and adapting to new trends. And that doesn’t mean giving all your music out for free, it means getting paid whether people consume your music via ‘free’ downloads, or by performing and having your songs played on radio and at events.

So go back to stage one, implement this strategy into your music career, and once you start profiting from it move on to the next stage. Good luck.