Kyle Bylin | The 3 Most Profitable DIY Revenue Streams, And Why Many Artists Succeed at Only One of Them
Rajiv Agarwal | 10 Great Tips for Home and DIY Recording
Jesse Cannon | The 4 Places You Should Be Entering All Of Your Concert Dates To Increase Concert Attendance
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Independent artists can make more money than ever before. The walls of major label distribution have crumbled, and have been down for a decade. Social networks make promotion to fans easier and cheaper. Add in home recording, crowd-sourced artwork, and other cost cutting maneuvers and DIY musicians can be financially successful.
Or so goes the myth.
Reality is far murkier. Yes, it is possible to make money as a DIY artist and many are doing it. However, they are not making it from selling recorded music. That can certainly bring in money, but even modestly successful DIY artists generally gross $20,000 to $50,000 from sound recordings annually. These are artists who have many songs in their catalog with some momentum. After you take into account recording costs and splitting revenue amongst band members and the producer, there’s not a lot left. Even those with a big enough fan base to do deluxe packages get a decent gross, but profits can be elusive.
Yet, DIY artists living below stardom are consistently finding profitable careers. How are they achieving this if iTunes and Spotify revenues aren’t paying the bills? The ones who are making a profit mostly fall into one of these three buckets:
1) YouTube
Complain all you want about musicians making YouTube covers and goofy videos instead of being “serious”. The reality is many of them make a good living from this. Costs are minimal compared to professional studio time. Distribution costs are near zero. The casualness of the content also allows for more rapid creation than one might find for “official” recorded work.
Companies such as Maker Studios and Big Fra.me have grown to help these artists monetize their music with better-leveraged ad rates, production assistance, and channel cross-promotion. Once ramped up with a lot of content, successful artists in this area can clear mid-to-high five figures in revenue. Since they are often solo artists, they also don’t have to split it up much.
2) Live Touring
It’s a rough life trudging from city to city, especially with gas over $3 a gallon. Yet many artists have figured out a way to make this work. The rise of house concerts has allowed some to make thousands per night when a club in town might have previously paid them hundreds.
Social networking has made promotion in new cities cheaper and easier to find the dozen “super fans” that might bring friends to a show. Smart artists also tour in areas where they know a fan base exists from mailing list and social network data points.
Once at the show, with an audience primed to like the band (instead of grumpy locals), these artists sell more merchandise. Easier access to creative items like sunglasses, jewelry, and handbags also leads to increased sales. Add this up, and musicians who aggressively work these approaches take in mid-to-high five figures in profit. As tough as touring can be, artists focused on this are clearly leveraging it into a career.
3) Sync Placements
The proliferation of cable channels and niche online audiences has meant more content and advertising that needs to be created professionally. This has also led to more needs for music around the world. Creators also can’t settle for mediocre library music. They need professional, contemporary songs that fit the mood of the creative.
Artists who fit the sound requirements and have a certain buzz amongst music supervisors are often rewarded with multiple placement opportunities for their music. Rates can be as lower than $100 (on sites like Audiosocket, The Music Bed, and Cuesongs), but they can also be upwards of $100,000 for a worldwide television spot. Even after paying a placement company, an artist can still end up with a mid-to-high five figures in profit. This is also before they may get lucky with the “magic sync” that results in larger sales and popularity.
Bucket List
There are multiple examples of DIY artists who could fit into each of these buckets, but there are very few that were actually succeeding in multiple buckets.
YouTube artists don’t get enough road experience to draw well and their music lacks the “cred” music supervisors want. Touring artists mostly have “road” content to post on YouTube (which doesn’t perform as well), and they are in the studio less often to make tracks for sync placements. Meanwhile, sync artists tend to avoid YouTube for fear of diminishing their brand with covers, and don’t get much name recognition for their sync placements to draw on the road.
While success in multiple categories is elusive for most, success comes to those who focus on one revenue stream. By putting their energy in growing that one element, a musician quickly learns what works for that bucket. Then they refine their trade to fit the medium and achieve greater success. Laser-sharp vision allows them the financial resources to make a living at what they love.
The disadvantage is that this singular focus makes it difficult to get the career momentum most artists desire. Those that want to be rich and famous in music need to be succeeding on radio, the Internet, press, TV, and touring. For the DIY musician, much of that is cost prohibitive anyway, so a focus on what you can achieve makes smart business sense. However, it also explains why most major labels continue to dominate the biggest selling artists. Even when the artist comes from an indie, they usually have a partnership with a major label to generate success.
If you are truly DIY and don’t have a team, focusing on one area to succeed is a wise business plan. If you achieve a lot of success in that bucket, then you can evaluate how to grow on your terms. The new music business may look different, but it’s clear that a focus allows a greater chance towards DIY success.
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Jay Frank (@Repojay) is the owner and CEO of DigSin and the author of “Futurehit.DNA” and “Hack Your Hit.” He was formerly the Senior VP of Music Strategy for CMT.
]]>SongKick - With SongKick fans can enter the acts they want to see into a well designed service and be altered whenever they are playing near them. If that weren’t enough the service offers a way to easily keep your dates up-to-date on your SoundCloud, Artists.MTV and Bandcamp pages. If fans navigate to your music on HypeMachine and YouTube and you are playing near them, the dates will display under your video. If that weren’t enough if you employ the use of widgets you can display your dates on your WordPress, Tumblr and Facebook page. They also employ Spotify App, that will alert fans when the acts they listen to on Spotify are playing near them.
BandsInTown - BandsInTown service alerts those fans who have liked your Facebook page when you’re playing nearby,by flashing an alert on that little globe on Facebook—making the alert hard to ignore. They also have a great looking Facebook concert dates App that lets you show fans when you are playing. Their Spotify App will not only tell fans who’ve listened to you on Spotify, but it will also alert fans who listen to similar acts you, when you are coming by and create a playlist of acts that they may enjoy, which you will be included in.
BandPage - BandPage make some of the best looking widgets for your website in the business, that can easily display your concert dates. They also make a good looking Facebook page to list your music and concert dates. If your music is on Pandora, you can use BandPage to get your concert dates listed while your music is played.
ReverbNation - ReverbNation not only has a great Facebook App to display concert dates but they also display concert dates on their social network interface, which many local concert calendars use for their listings. You can also employ widgets which you can add to your website to shows fans your dates.
Jesse Cannon is the editor of Musformation and author of Get More Fans: The DIY Guide To The New Music Busines, which you can get a free excerpt of by going here.
]]>2. Correct recording formats: You need to decide in advance what recording formats you want to use. You can’t expect great results if you record at 8 bit, 8000 khz. The best format to use for recording is either wav or aiff. Use 44,100 Khz and 16 bit settings for best quality (this is the minimum setting. You can always go higher than this). It is always advisable NOT to record in mp3, as the format cannot capture the entire pristine spectrum of audio frequencies. But if you have to record in mp3, record at no less than 320 kpbs.
3. Mic placements: The mic has to be placed at the right distance from the mouth to capture the full sonic range of the audio. As a rule of the thumb, start with 9 inches of distance. Too near, and there are chances of capturing breaths and pops. Too far, and the vocal will sound boxy and weak. You also need to use a pop screen so that the breath and explosive “b” and “p” sounds can be filtered out. These pops and explosive sounds are very difficult to fix later on.
4. Levels and more levels: Make sure your recording levels stay in the green! This is very important, because if your audio starts clipping (the signal levels go above 0 db or in other words become red), you will get a nasty distortion in your recording, which sadly can’t be fixed later on. But, don’t keep the level too low, as that will result in more noise in the signal. A healthy -6db to -4db levels are good starting point. Keep a close eye on the levels throughout the recording session.
5. You can’t fix it later: Don’t leave your mistakes to be removed later in mixing and mastering. The later stages of post-production can polish your sound, but the results depend on the quality of the raw recordings. Good recording=good mixing and vice versa.
6. Noise-Your enemy: make sure you have switched off the fans and the air conditioner. Close all the doors and make sure your neighbor’s dog is not barking. Always record away from your computer, so that the cpu fan noise stays at the minimum. Always place the microphone on a stand. This will minimize any noise resulting from hand movements.
7. Stay in tune: always check the tuning of your instruments. Many instruments go out of tune during sessions and it’s important to re tune them. When singing, don’t have the mindset that the auto tune can fix everything. A good recording in perfect tune might take a few takes, but it is well worth it.
8. Record dry: it is best to record all vocals/ instruments without any audio effects. That way, you have more flexibility to play with during post production. Once you introduce an effect while recording, it becomes a permanent feature of the audio and can’t be removed later on. If you have to introduce some effects, try to keep them to the minimal
9. Train your mind and ears: your recording will be as a good as your ears. Listen to some great voice overs or commercial recordings. Compare your own with them. How do they sound when compared to yours? If you are not happy with how your audio sounds, then do some experiments with your gear and recording techniques, read some more great tutorials and learn. There are no short cuts to experience and knowledge.
10. Don’t be dejected: We all learn as we go. Your first recording won’t be Grammy winning, but it’s a good starting point. We all make lots of mistakes while recording, even for experienced artists and engineers. If you can’t get it right, don’t fret, do it the next day. Don’t be satisfied with mediocre results, always strive for excellence, and who knows, you might just win the Grammy! All the best for your recordings!
Rajiv Agarwal is a mixing and mastering engineer. he is the founder of AudioShapers which provides cutting edge audio post produtuin services. you can check out his services here: http://www.audioshapers.com/audio-voice-files-editing-services.html
| <a href=”http://www.audioshapers.com/”>AudioShapers</a> |
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There has never been a better time than now to be an independent artist. More easily and efficiently than ever, you can build a digital recording studio in your home, connect directly with fans through social media, and distribute your wares around the world through artist-friendly companies like CD Baby and Tunecore. It’s a DIY world, right? Thanks to powerful, affordable technology, you can cover the bases — from creation to marketing to distribution to retail — without anyone’s permission, entirely on your own.
So who needs a record label?
The short answer is that nobody needs a record label. The days when only a record label could introduce and expose an artist to the public are gone. If you can accomplish everything a label can — produce records, design packaging and promotions, create marketing plans, build relationships with writers, convince broadcasters to air your music, track your sales, and exploit licensing opportunities — then you essentially are a record label. You are an artist who happens to own and operate a label business.
The long answer depends on your goals as an artist. Do you want to run a label business? Do you have the knowledge and experience to run one? Are you comfortable diverting a large share of your time from creative to business activities? If so, setting up and running a label could be a good fit for you.
Either way, you need a creative team.
Maybe it’s a carefully chosen group of friends and acquaintances. Maybe it’s an established record label that understands your music and career goals. Either way, you have to identify your needs and meet them.
Whether you hire freelance help, sign to a label, or handle everything internally, you need to address five areas to realize your commercial potential as an independent artist.
1) Production. Maybe you’ve built your own recording studio, maybe you book time at a commercial facility. In any case, take the time to learn how your vision translates from performance to recorded audio. The studio can be an integral part of the artistic process, as intrinsic to your sound as your voice, guitar, or piano. Work with an experienced engineer who can help you unlock the possibilities in mixing and mastering your music.
2) Manufacturing. Some disc manufacturers push quality, others price. Some have quick turnarounds, some don’t. Do your homework and make sure you get the results you need and expect. Have someone on your team monitor manufacturing at every stage of the process, and ensure quality is high. Your music is an extension of you, and you only get one chance to make a first impression.
3) Distribution. There is no reason your music shouldn’t be available for sale to anyone with an internet connection. Study your options and select a distribution partner who guarantees easy access to your music around the globe. Know what additional services they offer, too, such as song publishing administration and sync licensing. Designate a team member to track sales and pay the team on a regular basis.
4) Marketing. Marketing is the public expression of your brand and identity. If it’s engaging, it stands to reason you probably are, too. Great marketing can be as artful as the product it endorses. Don’t delegate it without your involvement — identify the right person and work closely with them. Every message that goes out about you and your music is a reflection of who you are.
5) Media. Use social media — Facebook, Twitter, Google+ — to engage and grow your existing fanbase. Use traditional media — magazines, web sites, radio — to find new fans. When you communicate in a compelling way, people pay attention. Work with your team to come up with fresh content for your audience.
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You’ve heard the adage: if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. To succeed as an independent artist, build a versatile team or partner with an established group who can guide and assist you. Don’t leave every last responsibility to yourself, or assume everything will work out on its own. Know exactly what you need to do. Have a plan. Cover the bases.
Surround yourself with talented, committed people who are emotionally invested in your art — and see where it takes you.
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Mark Doyon is principal and creative director of Wampus Multimedia, a record label, publishing imprint, and creative branding agency based in the Washington, D.C. area.
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This is the last part of the 3-part series about the Musicpreneur. A link to the complete essay with all the parts and extra resources can be found at the end of the article.
Somebody could say that we’re done. That the list is full. Almost.
The present is not all that counts; unless it points to something bigger in the future.
The past years I was working for NATO as an international military policeman. Last summer I decided to quit my job after 7 years of solid and educational experiences. All that because of my love for music.
During my transitional window to a full-time music devotee (active musician and marketing experimenter), I had a lot of time to dedicate and strong appetite to devour books that contained information outside the scope of the Music Industry, but indirectly connected with it.
And then it hit me.
There are bodies of knowledge involved in one’s music success that are not strictly affiliated with the narrow boundaries of the industry. They include knowledge of social behavior and neuromarketing, online and offline contextualization, the customer circle, virality triggers and contagion, communication skills and social objects, ethics and factors that influence decision making, the importance of branding, measurement of metrics and A/B split testing.
And it could be you - the future musicpreneur - that will need all that knowledge to move forward in the future economy of self-made entrepreneurial artists.
This section is devoted to (a small portion of) virtues and intangible assets that will differentiate you from the copycats out there.
Brick by brick.
Being good in tasks related to the music industry is not enough. You restrict yourself too much. At least this is how I see it; in order to be empowered to market your music and ensure the longevity of your brand, you need to develop skills outside the narrow spectrum of the music world.
While in the army, I started accumulating knowledge for fun, on topics that were linked with each other. And now it unfolded beautifully to me; this connectivity in the bodies of knowledge is the main reason I have this clear overview of the media world (which includes the music industry itself).
These are the bodies of knowledge I’m talking about:
Knowledge of social behavior. Professor Dan Ariely and his academic work showed me that rationality and irrationality are not so far away. That got me interested in investing more time to learn about social behavior, neuroscience and persuasion. Sociology can be quite revealing in terms of what drives people to do things and take actions, instead of speculate and stay idle. If you connect the dots, you will see patterns in the behavior of the crowd. Here are 3 resources to start with: Neuromarketing, Predictably Irrational, Influence. Also check out D. Ariely’s Coursera course called ‘A Beginner’s Guide to Irrational Behavior’.
Social skills to meet the right people. The way I grow every single project that I start: I meet and talk with people 1-on-1, one person at a time. I devote time and energy to meet people personally, and that seems to be appreciated more than anything else. I put a face on my projects. First I contaminate a group of people with my ideas, then I start executing (and I always get full support). In an era where you can reach out to many people with a click, personalization is a lost art. Although we’re talking about simple human-to-human interaction, it seems enough to make you stand out from anyone else. Tommy’s advice, my fellow musician: don’t just go out and mingle with random individuals. Instead, devote time and energy to people you imagine working/collaborating together with and build a strong team. Social domain is always stronger than money.
The best advice I can give you: be real. Whatever that means.
Knowledge of marketing basics. If you hire someone to do the marketing job for you, you can cross this out and move on. If not, I only have one thing to say: learning the basic concepts of marketing is the single most wise thing you could invest on today to help yourself and get on the right pathway. Musicians that claim that ‘marketing is evil’ and ‘I don’t like selling out my art’ are full of pure, ignorant crap. Being able to speak the same language with the marketing bloggers or book writers you might read in the future is a big issue. A good way to start is through this interview with Danny Iny from Firepole Marketing I had a while back (sorry if the quality isn’t great).
Knowledge of virality triggers. Wharton marketing Professor Jonah Berger recently authored a book called Contagious, where he analyzes the main factors that make us share a piece of content. Why is this important for a musician? Because, in the digital era, viral marketing is equivalent to billboard advertising, but more fun and inexpensive than the latter. Having a good overview of those triggers can help you tailor your visual content strategically, so you can exploit this ‘viral craze’ that seems to be an integral part of the culture of the digital natives, maintaining your image all along the way.
Have a premium mindset. As I’ve mentioned before in MTT, abundant things - such as digital content - have insignificant market value. With sufficient volume, pop artists can play with small margins and still make profit. That’s the essence of the mass marketing model. This is what independent niche bands don’t have: big volumes. Hence we don’t belong to the $.99 market. Added scarce value, though, is something that could save the day - as it changes the perception for your art from a mass product to a premium product. This might sound controversial, but I got my ideas around the concept of premiumization from the luxury food industry (!) and J-N. Kapferer & V. Bastien’s book The Luxury Strategy. This unexploited mindset can be applied in music too. And I plan to be the first to do so. Do you know anyone who understands this concept? Invite him on your team.
Show me the leader.No ‘Law of Attraction’ shit here. Whoever’s been around for a long time, they know it takes a strong stomach to succeed in the business world. And if you want to be a professional artist, you belong to this world by definition.
I’m a firm believer that not only you need to be a bright and skillful individual, but also a vibrant and original personality, in order to make things happen and not be put off by the losers who will challenge your ideas along your way for innovation and awesomeness.
The aforementioned virtues can be summarized as follows:
Abilities and courage of a leader. A successful team always owes part of the end result to the person who has the final say and directs the project towards a specific direction. Favorably, everyone will find their own expertise in the music ecosystem called ‘band’, ‘collective’ and so forth, but there is always a leader, a coordinator, an CEO taking decisions. In real life, I haven’t seen a single team deviate from such a structure. That person, though, is not just enjoying a prominent position. A leader does not affiliate with vanity. Instead, it’s the individual who gives courage and drives motivation. Such a charismatic person has weaknesses as well, but that’s part of the beauty, I reckon.
Clarity to maintain a forward thinking mindset. Times are demanding, attention is a vital asset and everybody wants to influence you. Too dramatic? Things might not be so bad, but one thing’s for sure: mental clarity and confidence are evergreen virtues that every forward-thinking persona needs. Cavett Robert mentions that 95% of the people are imitators, so it’s no surprise that only a few tend to see things from an innovative standpoint. No innovation in your blood means less likelihood that you accept the rapid technological and sociopolitical changes that occur nowadays. In a nutshell, my point of view: innovation goes along with inner peace and clarity.
The Compulsion to Succeed-Cavett Robert founding father of the National Speakers Association from Primeau_Productions on Vimeo.
Follow up the state of the music industry. Along with the other group of industries that swing in a transitional window of digitization or just experience their initial upswing (movies, books, magazines, mobile and apps), music industry is in a state of fluidity that doesn’t seem to stabilize soon. By definition that creates a lot of trends that unfortunately don’t seem to last. The only way to keep up with the current state and trends, so you can judge accordingly, is to be frequently informed by music news outlets that I mention in my Darker Toolbox. A few minutes a day can be a nice investment that will keep you up-to-date and alert.
Follow technological innovation. Music and technology are inextricably interwoven all along the human history. Technology affects the progress of music (I don’t know about vice versa), so it makes sense that you follow up with the latest news and break-throughs. Here is provided a list of technology blogs to follow. It’s not random that most musicians are savvy technology geeks, and this phenomenon of interdependency will only increase in the future. Be an early adopter and try out new ideas.
Vision for something big. We all know that how far we go with our plans depends on the ceiling we put ourselves. Things are getting more and more liberated - not necessarily democratized - for independent musicians to achieve great things. We’re just in the verge of a great musical future. However, if you keep yourself in the mercy of your fears of becoming great, you won’t go far. Time to take the piss out of another cliche expression: “This is the best time to be a musician; you can achieve everything you want without a label!”. And I say, “Yes, but also the audience has shorter attention spans and there is much more competition”. Unicorns are not real. Only the strong visionaries - along with all the aforementioned things in place - will achieve something exceptional and break the clutter.
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‘There are three types of activities’, said Andrew Dubber in his recent Darker Music Talk, ‘the ones we’re good at, the ones we suck at and the ones we’re not good at, but we can see ourselves learning to do.”
Personally, I choose to do myself the first and invest time on the latter, while I delegate the work for the things that I suck at to professionals I personally trust and let them do their work without interference.
If you’re not ready to do all of the aforementioned things yet (and it makes sense that you can’t - don’t be a Superman), here’s how I’d suggest that you start with:
1. Start with great music. This is the absolute #1.
2. Build a portfolio of quality assets (recorded music, video, photos).
3. Invest in your branding (colors, vibes, logo, visuals).
4. Form your online presence (website, social media) and connect with fans.
5. Prepare an early ‘insider’ experience for your serious fans (starting with a mailing list and some exclusives).
6. Invest in a good live performance and document everything in it (video/photos, official and backstage). Avoid bars and other ripoffs.
7. Focus on getting people on board and strengthen the foundations of a real fanbase, one person at a time.
8. After you’ve built sizable assets, take a person no board to help you run and manage the business size of your art. Your assets will fuel that business.
Notice that till you reach step 7, you don’t need a manager or an enormous team behind you, and there is trivial risk involved.
As a conclusion, being a Musicpreneur may look daunting in the first glance, but it’s all a matter of organizing properly the information in your head after all. The more clear you have the overview of the modern music world in your head, the more likely you are to face the industry with confidence and fresh, innovative ideas.
This world does not only need more ‘working-class’ musicians, but also innovative Musicpreneurs who will change the shape of the music scene from within.
It might sound sonorous, but try not to laugh. Paraphrazing George Kolliopoulos, the man behind the first luxury olive oil in the world, who said “Lambda is the first olive oil in the world that is made out of books, not olive oil”, I say:
“The Musicpreneur is the first archetype of musician who will market their art utilizing bodies of knowledge outside the music industry”.
Living and breathing for that moment.
What do you think, did I miss anything from the list? Do you agree with my views?
The full article can be found here TommyDarker.com/Musicpreneur
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I’m Tommy Darker, the writing alter ego of an imaginative independent musician. I started ‘Think Beyond The Band’ because I feel proud of what I’ve accomplished so far and I like helping other fellow musicians that struggle with the same problems.
I love starting conversations, join me in The Darker Side to talk about the music business. If you share the same mindset, find me on Facebook and Twitter and let’s talk!
