Mailing lists (Aka newsletters) are one of the most under used tools by independent musicians. Using email marketing software such as Aweber, you can build up a means to effectively build relationships with your fans and market to them when appropriate. Though they’re one of the most powerful ways to making money and keep in contact with fans, very few independent musicians use them and are therefore losing out on a lot of money. Major labels have been using newsletter and mailing lists for years to effectively communicate with fans and make sales, but no one’s really told the ‘little guy’ why ‘the money’s in the list’. In this article we’ll be looking at what mailing lists are, why they’re so effective at keeping you connected with fans and making you money, the different types of email marketing services there are (And which is best for you), and finally how to build your own money making list.

Note: If you’ve already got a mailing list up and running but want to know how to increase it’s potential, check out post: “Advanced Strategies To Monetize Your Mailing List“.

You may have noticed on the right hand side of this website that we have a ebook we’re giving away. It’s completely free, so a lot of our readers have went on to download and enjoy it. So why are we giving it away for free? Is it to keep readers happy by giving them exceptional value for just being here? Is it to enhance the interactivity of this website? Well yes, it’s for both of those reasons, but also for another: It’s an exchange process. As you’ll notice, in order to get this free ebook you have to enter your name and a valid email address. It’s a win win situation, you get a free ebook, and we get your details so we can contact you and keep you informed with any music related information we feel you may find useful. So how will this help you better monetize your music? Read on and we’ll let you know…

What Are Mailing Lists, And Why Is Email Marketing So Effective

Once you enter your details and confirm your email address, you are automatically added to the Independent Music Advice mailing list and sent your ebook. But what is a mailing list? Well, a mailing list is a list of people’s contact details to which information is sent to. It can be via email, phone number, or address. In this post however, we’ll be focusing strictly on email addresses which is needed for email marketing. Email marketing is the process of marketing to the people on your mailing list direct to their email inbox.

So that’s what mailing lists are, but how can they help you? In a number of ways actually, both with making money and gaining and keeping fans. Some of you may have heard the saying “The money’s in the list”, a saying which states how your mailing list can be your central and most important earner. Here are some of the reasons why mailing lists are so important to have:

• You’ll Always Have Access To Your Fans.
  Mailing lists are one of the best way to keep in contact with your fans. While Facebook friends and twitter followers are useful now, what if one day everyone stops using these sites? You’ll have to start up all over again on the next big social networking site, which is a lot of time and effort. This is what happened with MySpace, many people have ended up with pages of thousands of ‘Friends’ which has no use to anyone. If you had a mailing list however, you could simply send a email out to all of your subscribers letting know how they carry on interacting with you. So no matter what site goes down, you’ve still got your list.
• It Acts As A Reminder.
  Some people will really like your music, visit your website a couple of times and then forget about you. It’s not that they don’t like you any more, it’s just that there’s so many things to do on the internet it’s harder to keep people’s attention then ever before. If however you have a mailing list, you could email your list say once a week (Or whenever something big happens) and remind them that you’re still around. This will cause people to revisit your site and make sure you stay on their mind.
• It Builds Up A Strong Relationship Between You And Your Fans And Increases Interactivity.
  When people first come across your website, they don’t know much about you or how trust worthy you are. They may download your free gift in exchange for their email address, but not really look to take that relationship any further. If you start sending them good content and freebies directly to their email address though, they may start paying more attention to you and gain trust in what you have to say and do. That makes it easier to convert subscribers into real fans, and have your fans promote you when something big is going on (E.G an album release).
• It’s A Good Direct Marketing Tool.
  As mailing lists give you direct interaction with your fans, it’s an ideal way to promote your latest product. If you’ve build up a good relationship with your mailing list subscribers (See the previous point for details about this) they’ll be more likely to listen to your suggestions or buy your products. Let’s say for example you’ve got a new gig coming up. You can always advertise your gig on your website, but not everyone will visit your website every day. If however your send out an email campaign, all your fans get word direct via email regardless of if they’ve checked your site in the last month or not. This of course increases the likely hood of ticket sales an in turn means more money.

Now you know why newsletters are so important, the next step is to find what tools you’ll need to collect email addresses, send emails, and keep track of how people are interacting with your advertising campaign.

Email Marketing Services Or Self Hosted Email Marketing Software

There are two ways you can send your email newsletters, via “email marketing services”, or by using “self hosted email marketing software”. Let’s look at what these are, as well as the pros and cons of each:

Email Marketing Services.

Email marketing services are designed to make email marking easy. They’re websites that have everything you need to run a email marketing campaign in one place, so you can add your contacts (With their provided form), create and send emails to customers, and see detailed statistics of how each of your subscribers interact with your messages. Aweber is the industry standard email marketing software, as they provide everything I mentioned above and more. They also have a very high email delivery rate and have been going for years. Below are the pros and cons of using email marketing services:

Pros:
You don’t have to be technology smart to use these services, it really is email marketing made easy. You also get everything in one place for a monthly fee, so you don’t have to worry about ordering upgrades to receive statistics etc (Which is required with self hosted email marketing software). With email marking services everything is done on someone else’s server, so you can set a campaign, turn your computer off and go and do whatever you want. With self hosted email marketing software however this isn’t possible as you have to keep your computer on the whole time.

Cons:
If you’re new to list building and haven’t got anyone on your list already, the monthly fees can soon add up before you start making your money back. Having said that, of the course of it’s life time your mailing list should earn you a lot of money if you use it right.

Self Hosted Email Marketing Software

Self hosted email marketing software is email marketing software which you download onto your own computer and run from your own server (Instead from someone else’s server like email marketing services). Here are the pros and cons of that:

Pros:

Self hosted email marketing software can be cheaper to use. Where as with email marketing services you have to pay a monthly fee for as long as you want to use them, with email marketing software you only pay a one off fee and you have the software for life. Everything’s also stored on your own computer, so you have full control of your collect information.

Cons:

Self hosted software is harder to initially set up then email marketing services, as there’s a lot of things you need to do to make everything automated. While there are instructions, they can still cause a lot of headache and confusion. You’re also sending everything from your own server, which means you’ll have to keep your computer on while everything sends. This will be especially long if you’ve got slow or a limited amount of internet, so in that case self hosted email marketing software isn’t for you. The final con is the upgrades. While with email marketing services you get everything from the beginning, with email marketing software you often have to pay additional yearly fees for extras such as statistics and sending via more servers. This can end up being very expensive.

Conclusion; Which Mailing List Companies Should I Go With?

I personally prefer email marketing services. Although I was using self hosted email marketing software for a while, the programs weren’t compatible with some other software I was using and it was to fiddly to pick up quickly and use. I also thought the yearly statistics was too much to pay and added up to be too much over the year (If you don’t need statistics then self hosted software is a lot cheaper, but statistics are very important to getting the best out of your email list). While I can see it will have its uses for bigger companies with dedicated servers, for the average musician email marketing services such as Aweber work best.

How To Build Your Mailing List

Now that you know why having a mailing list is so important and you’ve hopefully signed up to Aweber, it’s time to start building your mailing list. As I’ve mentioned before, it’s important to give people an incentive to join your mailing list. A free music download or a free ebook is more likely to get you subscribers then you just putting up a form and saying “Please subscribe”.

Once you’ve got your form in place (Your email marketing software should provide you with a form to collect people’s details with) the next thing to do is get people to sign up. Now remember, not everyone that visits your website is going to sign up to your mailing list, but if you offer a good incentive (For example an exclusive track or video etc) then more people will. One thing I’ve learned is that more people sign up to your mailing list if you simply ask them to. I notice I get more people signing up when I advertise my current ebook on twitter saying “If you haven’t got our free ebook yet you can download it from this page” or “Want a quick music career boost? Then download our free ebook”.

Another effective way to gain more people on your mailing list is by using a non intrusive pop up. If you’re new to this website, you may have noticed a pop up advert advertising our latest ebook when you first came on. While pop ups annoy some people, they are extremely effective. People have no choice but to look at them when they come up, and if it’s attractive and relevant (Which it should be) they’re more likely to take action. Once again, it comes down to “ask people and more will do what you want”. Since I’ve added that pop up (Other wise know as a lightbox), I’ve seen a huge increase in people signing up to my mailing list (More then a 200% increase). I use two different types of lightboxes on my websites, but the best one for people who don’t web design that want a quick and easy solution is the WordPress plugin Popup Domination. With Popup Domination you can get a lightbox up and running within a few minuets, and start getting more subscribers straight away. A word of warning though, I’ve noticed not all pop up boxes work with self hosted email marketing software. And while I’m not sure if Popup Domination does or not, it’s best to ask them first (Or worse case buy the product, and if it doesn’t get a refund). Email marketing software works fine with this plugin though.

Monetizing Your Mailing List

Today we’ve looked at how to get your mailing list up and running. All the information and advice in this guide will allow you to build a mailing list and start getting subscribers. If you want to take your mailing list to the next level and really increase the money it makes however, check out our post “Advanced Strategies To Monetize Your Mailing List“. In this guide we will show you how to increase the amount of subscribers you get from the same amount of visitors, how to identify your subscribers that will make you the most money, how to automate relationship building with your subscribers, we’ll give you advanced opt in box strategies, and much, much more. So check it out.

Welcome to the third and final part of the ‘How To Make A Mixtape’ series. This series was started because we kept receiving mixtape related questions, from how to make a mixtape, to more complex and specific ones on pricing and releaseing your mixtape. After replying to a few of those questions individually, we decided to create a series of posts where people could get all the answers they need instantly. These posts becase the “How To Make A Mixtape” series, one of which you’re reading now. So far in this series we’ve answered beginner questions like “What is a mixtape”, to more popular questions such as “Can you use other people’s beats on your mixtape” and “How do you make your mixtape stand out from the crowd”. In this final part, we’ll be look at some questions you’ll need to ask yourself when pricing your mixtape, releasing your mixtape, and promoting your mixtape.

While there’s some very useful information in this topic, our previous topics on the subject of how to make a mixtape provide info on the earlier steps on making the ultimate mixtape. So if you haven’t already done so, you may want to check our previous “how to make a mixtape” posts before reading this one:

Other How To Make A Mixtape Parts

1. How To Make A Mixtape, The Ultimate Guide Part One, and
2. How To Make A Mixtape, The Ultimate Guide Part Two.

If you’ve already read those How To Make A Mixtape guides, we can move forward…

Pricing Your Mixtape

When it comes to pricing your mixtape, it’s often good to think about what the purpose of the mixtape is. Do you want to use the mixtape as a way or promoting yourself as much as possible, or are your goals more profit related?

If mass exposure if your main aim, you may want to give out your mixtape for free, or in a no cost exchange (E.G In exchange for an email address, or for a certain amount of promotion to be done by the fan). This type of pricing strategy can help get your music quite widely spread with the right promotion, but also runs the risk of being seen as a lower quality product (As it was free to obtain).

If making profit is your main aim, you will of course want to sell your mixtape. When pricing it you could go one of two routes:

1. You can price it on par with other mixtapes within the genre. This’ll subconsciously give the impression it’s worthy of buying as it’s similarly priced as all the other CDs. You will of course need to back this up with a good product if you want people to choose your CD over the many others on display however.
2. You could under cut the market. The aim here is to make it cheaper then the other CDs available, so people with less cash flow that want a CD will be more inclined to buy your CD over others. Once again, you run the risk of being seen as cheap (In a bad way) and therefore not of a good quality, but with the right marketing you can over come this.

A good strategy I’ve found is to do a mixture of both. You can release a short promo CD for free, then release a bigger paid one soon after. The smaller CD will hopefully get your name out there, then if people like what they hear they will go on to buy your full CD.

When it comes to pricing your mixtape, you also have to think about where you’re selling them. Mixtapes often sell at similar prices to albums in high street stores, but a bit cheaper in underground record shops. If you’re selling them on the streets you can expect to sell them for a fraction of the price, sometimes as low as what you’d get from a sale or return or distribution deal.

Releasing Your Mixtape

The next thing we’re going to look at is releasing your mixtape. There’s no point learning how to make a mixtape if you don’t ever release it, your mixtape will do no good in your bedroom collecting dust! Firstly let me say there is no one correct way of releasing your mixtape. The strategy of releasing a successful mixtape will vary depending on what you want to achieve for this mixtape and what music genre you make music in. There are some general tip that can be used for any type of mixtape however, so today we will look at those.

The first thing you need to think about is what format you want to release your mixtape in. Are you going to press it up and put it out as a physical product? Or are you going to keep it as a digital download only? Physical products have the benefit of making you look more like a serious musician, and give the chance for people who don’t like buying online a chance to get your product. A digital download however can save you money in the sense you don’t have to pay to press up your music to CD. It’s also cheap and easy to have your digital downloads distributed to big sites worldwide using sites like Songcast, so is worth doing even if you do press up a physical copy (Songcast is free to sign up to and will get your music on iTunes, Amazon and other online music stores).

If you’re giving away your mixtape for free I’ll advice you only release a digital download copy. While there may sometimes be reasons to press up copies of a free mixtape (If you want to give some to important industry figures to make a good impression, or you want some freebies for a show etc) you should generally make your fans go to your website and sign up to your mailing list in exchange for any freebies.

So now you know what format you’re going to release your mixtape in, now is the time to get your music to the general public. If you opted to release your mixtape as a physical product, your best bet would be to go through a distribution company. For a cut of the money you make, a distribution company can get your mixtape into shops you wouldn’t otherwise be able to get them into. This includes both physical and online music shops, and good ones can even get your music distributed worldwide. A typical distributor will take at least £ / $1 for each CD they sell for you, and while this many vary, the price is often worth the service they provide. Another benefit of using a distributor is that they can often collect your money from record shops as soon as the record shop have agreed to stock your CD. That means you won’t have to wait till your CDs are sold to customers to be paid.

While not all music distribution companies operate the same, many distributors that deal directly with independent musicians work like this:

• Once you have your product, you bring a set amount of pressed up CDs to your distributor.
• You agree a price that you want for each CD.
• The distributor then shows your music to shops and tries to get them to take them in. If the shop chooses to sell your product, the distributor receives money for the product.
• The distributor sells to as many shops as they can in a set period of time. Once the time limit is up they pay you for any CDs they sold, and give you back the ones that didn’t sell.
• If all CDs are sold they may ask you for more copies if there’s demand from the shops.

The other way to get your music into shops is via ‘sale or return’ deals. This is where you give your mixtapes to record shops, they sell however many of your CDs they can in a set period, then pay your for any CDs they sold in that time. Any CDs they didn’t sell they give back to you. Check out our previous topic What Is A Sale Or Return Deal (SOR) And How To Get One for more info on how to get SOR and distributor deals.

How To Promote Your Mixtape

So no you know how to make a mixtape and you’ve got it in shops, there next stage is to promote it. It’s no good having your mixtape in the shops if no one knows it there. Without the knowledge of it’s existence, no one’s going to buy it. It may sound obvious, but I’ve seen too many musicians put months into making a mixtape, get it into shops, cross their fingers and hope it sells. This is not an effective business strategy, and not one I’d recommend to anyone.

There are many ways to promote your mixtape, but often thinking out the box can do wonders your your marketing efforts (We already talked about making your mixtape stand out in part two of this guide). On top of that you should look into doing all the tried and tested marketing methods:

• Live or pre recorded TV or radio shows,
• Performing at live events,
• Getting your music to radio and venue Djs to play,
• Video promotion if you have the budget,
• Magazine adverts,
• Online promotion (Social media, on your own website, call in favours on other websites etc), and
• Flyers (These can be handed out at venues or left places for people to pick up) and other paper based promotion.

I’d suggest you pick a few of these to do rather then attempt all of them. Unless you’ve got a big team and / or budget behind you, it’d probably be best to focus on doing a few of these methods very well.

You should focus most of your promotional efforts pre-launch to raise awareness of your product and build up a want for it, as well as when it’s actually released to make people go out and purchase it. This is the period you’ll get most of your sales, so make as big a noise as you can during this time. The more people talking about it before and during its launch, the more sales you will make.

Having said that, promotion for your mixtape should never stop. Even when initial sales slow down you should at least have adverts for your mixtape on your website, and be promoting it on any radio and TV shows you do. Remember, not every one will have caught your initial launch, so giving new fans a chance to discover your mixtape can mean more sales.

How To Make A Mixtape Conclusion

That’s it for our “How To Make a Mixtape” series, you should no longer be wondering how to make a mixtape, but instead be out there making one instead! I hope you’ve found it useful, please leave any comments or feedback below in the comments section. If you’re currently in the process of making a mixtape, please let us know how it’s going. Similarly if you’ve already released a mixtape and have any advice for our readers let us know. Please share this guide with friends, if any of them want to know how to make a mixtape then forward them this link.

If you haven’t read them already, you can catch our previous posts with more tips on how to make a mixtape below:

How To Make A Mixtape, The Ultimate Guide Part 1,

How To Make A Mixtape, The Ultimate Guide Part 2.

I hope we’ve answered all your how to make a mixtape related questions, good luck with making yours.

Welcome to part two of the ‘How To Make A Mixtape, The Ultimate Guide’ series. This is a three part series detailing good practices and tips on how to make a mixtape and sell it. For those that haven’t read already (Or even if you have but just want to get reacquainted with the basics), you should read:

before you read this. Also once you’ve finished reading this check out:

If you’ve already read that, let’s move on. In part two we’ll be looking at how ethical it is to use other people’s beats for your mixtape, where to get backing tracks for your mixtape, and finally how to make your mixtape stand out from the crowd. So without any further ado, let’s get into it.

Can You Use Other People’s Beats On Mixtapes?

This is still a question without any concrete answers. While everyone has their own opinions on this matter, mixtapes are generally known for musicians vocalizing already well known backing tracks. This practice is very widely accepted, especially in the more urban hip hop and grime music scenes. Many producers and vocalists don’t mind people doing versions of their material as long as they’re not used for commercial release. If you did want to commercially release your version, you’d have to contact and get permission from the original owners of the martial before you could go any further. You’d also have to pay them royalties if you’ll be selling the song.

There are some people that don’t want others to use their material without permission though, whether people are making money from it or not. As other people’s beats are copyrighted, using them without permission could lead to a law suit. However, this is very rare if you’re only using their instrumentals for mixtapes. The most I’ve seen happen from tons of mixtapes I’ve seen been released is an angry email being sent by the original producer (They wanted to cash in on the mixtape’s success, but the issue was resolved by the producers tune being taken off the mixtape instead).

While I’d say using other people’s material for mixtape songs is largely safe, you’re still using copyrighted material so do so at your own risk.

Where Can You Get Beats For Mixtapes

Once you know what type of beats you’ll be using for your mixtape (Original or already popular beats) you have to go about getting them. If you’ll be using already popular beats, most of them can be found by doing a quick Google search. You’ll want to search the name of the artist that sings the song, followed by the name of the song and then the word ‘instrumental’. So for example, you may do the search “Rihanna Rude Boy Instrumental”. This search result will turn up places you can get your chosen instrumentals on the internet. Some will have to be paid for, some will be free. I recommend you only download off trusted website though, as illegal websites may have viruses on them which can ruin your computer.

One really good website I’ve found for getting instrumentals is Karaoke Version. This website allows you to CUSTOMIZE and download popular beats for a low price (£1.50 / $1.99 EACH). Say for example you want to download a popular instrumental but didn’t like the horns in the song. No problem, you can easily edit the horns out before you download it. Or don’t like the drums? You can get rid of that too. This of course is a great customization feature and allows you to get your mixtape sounding exactly how you want it.

If you will be using original beats however, you may have to do a bit more searching. You’ll need to find producers who can make an instrumental you like and will be willing to let you use it for your mixtape. If you’re new starting out in music this can be tricky, but not impossible.

One method I’ve found that works is using forums. Forums are a great place for communities to get together and discuss a specific niche, and you’ll often find producers, singers, designers and much more on the more popular ones. So, how do you go about finding these producers?

First you need to find a relevant forum. I suggest you Google search your chosen genre of music followed by the word ‘forum’ which will give a list of the top forums in that genre. Look around the top three for a while, sometimes the producers hang around and post their material in a ‘production’ area of the forum. Other times you’ll have to to a bit more digging. If there’s no select area for producers, try posting a topic saying you’re looking for producers to feature on your mixtape. Leave a sample of your work and a contact email address. This will hopefully have producers finding your post and contacting you if they like what they hear. Note though, it’s always advisable to post a few replies to other topics before you post your own to look like you’re part of the community. You’ll get a much better response if you do this as you won’t look like you’re just spamming the forum.

Another place you can find producers is MySpace. You may already have an idea of some producers in your chosen music genre, but if not, do a bit of research and MySpace message these people. When messaging someone to ask for a beat, make sure you keep the message short and straight to the point. Even if they’re a slightly well know producer they may be getting messages every day, so you’ll need to be able to make your point quickly. You also want to appear professional (No slang or short hand, message fully spell checked etc) and list the benefits of you using their material. Lastly, make sure you give a sample of your material and contact details so they can get back to you if they so choose.

These are some of the main and most effective ways for getting beats for your mixtape, but there are many others so don’t be afraid to experiment with other methods as well.

How To Make Your Mixtape Stand Out

Mixtapes in some genres of music have become pretty much a standard thing. Even if they wouldn’t define it as a mixtape, a demo with 6 or more tracks if basically what a mixtape is all about. So with everyone having or making mixtapes it’s important for you to make yours stand out. But how can you go about doing this? Here are a few ideas:

• Get Your Mixtape Everywhere
  If you want your mixtape to stand out and get noticed, you’ll need to make sure your mixtape cover is seen everywhere. Repetition is a very powerful thing, and even if someone sees (But doesn’t notice) your mixtape the first few times, if they keep seeing the cover they will eventually. Subconsciously they will have built up an interest in your mixtape, and are more likely to at least look into what it’s about. One way of getting your mixtape everywhere is by using an online distribution company such as Songcast. Songcast distribute your music into all the biggest online stores (iTunes, Amazon etc) as well as some more niche online shops. Getting an account with Songcast is currently free, so sign up and have a look round.
• Mix Your Mixtapes
  This may sound obvious, but you can mix your mixtapes to make them stand out from the crowd. Many mixtapes are structured in the same way as an album, tune after tune with a small gap in-between each one. Not many people actually make the songs blend together, so doing this will differentiate yours. This will make your CD sound like it’s flowing better, and sound like an overall experience rather then a bunch of songs put together. Be warned though, this’ll make it harder for Djs to use selected tracks easily. A solution for this however is to put all of or the most popular songs unmixed at the end of the CD. This’ll make everyone happy. You can also just send the unmixed tracks to Djs directly if there’s no more space on your CD.
• Create A Talking Point
  One great way to making your mixtape stand out it by doing something unique, but not just with your music. How about you call your mixtape something that can’t help but be noticed, or give away freebies to anyone that buys it? UK rapper Bashy is a great inspiration when it comes to making his mixtapes stand out, boosting awareness by getting everyone to talk about them. He did this by: 1: Calling one of his mixtapes “Ur Mum Volume 1”, a provocative title which had people talking about it well before it’s release, 2: Giving away a free lolly pop attached to the side of his second mix CD “The Chupa Chups mix CD”, and 3: Calling his third website “Bashy.com” to promote his new website. Ideas like this can really get people talking about your mixtape and want to give your music a listen, so think about how you can differentiate your mixtape to create a buzz around your product.
• Remix The Backing Tracks Of Already Known Songs
  Many mixtapes use well known songs with the musicians vocals, but why not remix the backing track too? A website I mentioned earlier in this post (Karaoke Version) allows you to do just that, taking out any bits of the track you don’t like. Give it a go.
• Do A Mixtape Series
  Many people release mixtapes with too many songs on them. They fill their mixtape up with thirty songs / the full 80 minutes of a CD and don’t come with any other material for a very long time (If at all). What people don’t realise is you need to build up momentum in your music career, you can’t just release one mixtape and expect you’ll make a name for yourself just from that. You need to be consistent and release regular material, if you’re constantly in people’s faces they’re more likely to take notice. Release just one CD is not doing a lot to stay in the spot light. As it takes a lot of time to record a 80 minute CD (Which is why people take so long to release their follow up if they haven’t stopped recording by then), why not make those tunes into three separate 25 minute CDs? Or two 40 minute CDs? That way you’ll have material to follow up with every say three months and stay in the public eye. And just for the fact you’re releasing regular material people will talk about you.
  Remember, even if you’re first mixtape doesn’t take off that well but your second and third one do, there’s always the chance of re-releasing the first one to make further sales. People may even order your first CD without any promotion so they can hear how you started out or just get more of your material.
  If you do decide to do a mixtape series, make sure you keep all the mixtape names the same, differentiating them by adding ‘volume 1′ and ‘volume 2′ etc at the end. This will give your brand continuity and allow people to more easily recognise your material.
• Get Established Features
  While this isn’t exactly an original idea, it is effective. If you get a musician everyone want to hear on your mixtape, everyone will have a look even if to only see that musician. If your vocals on the song are good enough, there’s a good chance you’ll convert some of the feature’s fans in to your own. And being associated with a top act also raises the way people see you.
  While it’s not always easy to get an established act on your mixtape, once you get the first one it’ll be easier from there (Providing you have enough talent). You can then name drop (This may sound ‘un-cool’ but it is a method that can work very well) and use that name to get other big names to work with you. There’ll always be people who’ll think “He worked with him, I guess that means it’ll be a good idea for me to work with him too”, and the more established musicians you work with the more that will be willing to collaborate.

Parts one and three of the ultimate mixtape guide are now out, so check them out via the below links for some more great mixtape tips!

Well, that’s about it for part two of the ‘How To Make A Mixtape, The Ultimate Guide’ series, in part three we”ll be giving tips on pressing up your mixtape, releasing your mixtape and pricing your mixtape.

Make sure you sign up to email updates at the top of this page to be sent part three directly to your email inbox once it’s available. Alternatively, sign up to the RSS feed below to be notified whenever we have a new post. As always, I’m looking forward to reading your comments.

Here at Independent Music Advice, we like to listen to what you as the reader wants. We’ve had many people arriving at our site looking for advice on making mixtapes, but not really finding what they were looking for. Having a quick google search myself, I found there are no real resources showing musicians what to think about when making mixtapes. So we decided to write one!

Over the next three posts we will be looking at some of the most searched for mixtape questions we’ve had! If there’s anything else you want to add or ask, please do so in the comments section.

Once you’ve read this, one please also check out:

for more mixtape tips and advice.

What Is A Mixtape

While mixtapes were originally tapes which compiled people’s favourite songs together, the modern meaning is quite different. Mixtapes are now widely used as a tool for promoting a musician prior to a album or single release. They can also be used to raise awareness of a musician, keeping them in the public eye. While mixtapes are mostly popular in the hip hop and grime music scenes, many other music genres make demos that can typically be described as mixtapes.

To make it clear:

• A mixtape does not have to be in tape format. It is most popularly presented in CD or digital download format.
• While they can be, mixtapes don’t have to be ‘mixed’. Many are in fact a group of songs put together with a small gap in-between like a regular album.
• While you can use original production for your mixtapes, many people choose to use established instrumentals and save the original material for their album and single releases.
• Mixtapes are generally at least least six tracks long, but some can fill up a whole 80 minute CD.
• Although often sold, mixtapes are generally used as promotional products. They’re used to raise awareness of a given musician, sometimes before an album launch.
• Mixtapes aren’t expected to be at the same quality level as albums, so musicians often use them to get material to the public without worrying about using expensive studios and top quality packaging.

Why Make A Mixtape?

There are many reasons people would choose to make a mixtape instead of a single or album, but here are the main ones:

• Collecting Beats Tend To Be Easier.As many people vocal other people’s instrumentals for their mixtapes, finding backing tracks that are suitable to use can be a lot easier. You don’t have to deal with lazy producers that take ages to get anything to you, you can simply find a instrumental you like online and instantly download it. As many musicians listen to other music in their chosen genre, it can be easy to draw up a list of backing tracks you want to use due to the fact you’ve heard and enjoyed them already. This can cut a lot of time of the planning process.
• People Who Haven’t Heard You Before Are More Likely To Listen.One of the main selling points for making a mixtape is that people will be more likely to give your music a chance. It can take people a few times listening to a new song before it actually registers with them, especially if it’s a musician that’s new to them. If however you’re a musician and you’re vocals are over one of their favourite songs, you’re more or less guaranteed to have their attention immediately! This is not to say they’ll end up liking your vocal (You will of course need to make your version enjoyable), but you should get more people giving you that initial chance.
• Subject Matters Are Easier.Some people choose to base their version of a song on the original, keeping the same theme and same vocal styles (E.G. The voice or flow of the original vocalist, similar catchy bits, same subject matter as the original etc). This saves time on constantly thinking up new concept ideas, and allows you to save your original ideas for your singles or album.
• Mixtapes Are Cheaper To Produce.As mixtapes aren’t expected to be of the same quality as albums, you don’t have to put the same amount of time into it as you would producing an album. And if you’ve ever read more then one post at Independent Music Advice, you’ll know that time is money. Many people don’t use adilibs when making their mixtape, this saves on studio time and therefore money. Many musicians also don’t use top end recording studios when making mixtapes, allowing cheaper studio costs but still a good level of production.Another way some musicians save money when putting out mixtapes is the packaging. Some choose to go for slim line CD cases rather then the more expensive jewel CD cases used for albums. This means the CD is still protected against damage, but for a fraction of the cost.One thing I’ll say about making mixtapes on the cheap however is this: Don’t sacrifice the quality so much that your music becomes un-listen-able. Although you should make small cut backs so your album looks and sounds better then your mixtape (This’ll make people want your album even if they already have lots of your mixtape songs), you need to remember the mixtape is what pre sells the album so needs to sound good in its own right. If you make a poor mixtape, chances are people won’t buy your album.

How To Make Money From Mixtapes

How do you make money from mixtapes? Well, you make money from mixtapes in the same way you’d make money from a single or album; By selling them. You can get your mixtape in shops worldwide, from the smaller underground record shops, to the major high street music outlets. You should also get your mixtapes on popular websites such as iTunes and Napster. The best way of doing this is via a distribution website called Songcast (This website is free to sign up to so I suggest you sign up and have a look around). Some people also choose to sell their mixtapes in person on busy high streets, setting up base near popular shops within their music genre.

It’s also a good idea to sell your mixtapes at any live shows you do, especially if you’re the headline act. If this is the case, people will be attending the show to see you, and many will want to take home a souvenir of the occasion. And what better to give (Sell) them then your mixtape?

Depending on the content of your mixtape (And if you use other people’s instrumentals or not) you may be also able to claim royalties from your mixtape plays. If one of the songs from your mixtape gets played on legal radio for example, if the production and vocals are original you can claim royalties for it. If the production is not original and you haven’t got the owner’s permission to use the instrumental however, you won’t be able to claim money from royalties (And they may even be able to approach you and ask you for money).

Parts two and three of the ultimate mixtape guide are now out, so check them out via the below links for some more great mixtape tips!

That’s it for part one, in part two (Of three) we’ll be asking if you can use other people’s beats on your mixtape, we’ll be looking at where you can get beats for your mixtapes from, and finally looking at ways to make your mixtape stand out from the crowd.

Make sure you sign up to email updates at the top of this page to be sent parts two and three directly to your email inbox. Alternatively, sign up to the RSS feed below to be notified whenever we have a new post. As always, I’m looking forward to reading your comments.