Ways To Make Money As A Musician In 2023

1. Sell Music and Merch Online
2. Streaming (Spotify, Apple Music, etc) and Social Media (when others use your music in their videos)
3. Concerts
4. Patreon
5. Crowdfunding (Kickstarter, IndieGogo, GoFundMe)
6. Live Streaming
7. YouTube Monetization
8. Twitch Monetization
9. TikTok Monetization
10. Facebook Monetization
11. Influencer Marketing
12. Playlist Curating
13. Write a Music Blog
14. Run Ads On Your Website
15. Affiliate Programs
16. Podcasting
17. ASCAP and BMI
18. Sync Placements
19. Music Production
20. Music Lessons
21. Performing Covers
22. Making Beats
23. Be a Session Musician
24. Host An Open Mic
25. Be A Trivia Host

I don’t think about monetizing music while I’m making it.  Actually creating is a completely separate action, and is not influenced in any way by how commercially viable I think a song could be.  I make music because I love it.  I have experienced things I could never have experienced otherwise.  I have learned an incredible amount about myself.  Music has saved my life, made the bad times easier, and the good times better.  Music is who I am, not what I do.

When I’m not creating music, though, I am thinking about how to make a living from it, and acting on it as much as possible, because making a living from my music is a huge goal of mine.  While I’m not there yet, putting everything together in one place about ways to make money from music, once it is made, will be helpful to me, and I hope it’s helpful to you as well.  

1. Sell Music and Merch Online

TLDR: Bandzoogle and Bandcamp both let you sell music and merch directly to fans.  Both also require you to have the merch and to upload your music in order to sell it.  CustomInk is a great option for physical inventory, as is HelloMerch.com (which also sets up a store for you, and allows you to sell on Spotify through Shopify, which they set up for you).  Integrating Teelaunch to sell merch online with Shopify to reach a larger audience takes some effort, but is worth it in order to reach a larger audience, as Shopify allows you to sell directly on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Spotify, and any website using a widget.

There are several options for selling music and merch online.  I will start with Bandcamp and Bandzoogle, as both allow you to do both, and then talk about where to get physical merch.  Then, I’ll get into print-on-demand services, including Teelaunch and Teespring, and how to integrate them with Shopify in order to sell on social media and Spotify.

Bandcamp

Primarily known for allowing independent musicians to sell music using a name your own price model, you can sell merch there as well, and now, you can also live stream there, which I will discuss later in this blog post. I won’t go into the details of how to create a Bandcamp account, but I’ll mention a little bit of the album and merch creation process.

Adding an album is a pretty easy process.  It can take an hour or so, depending on how many songs you have, how organized you are, and how fast your internet is, since you’ll be uploading wav files.

You set the price to whatever you want, and can allow fans to pay more.  Most pay what I ask, if they buy, but I’ve had a few pay more because they wanted to support my music career. Bandcamp keeps 15% of digital sales, and 10% on physical goods.  You can see more details on their fee structure here.

Adding merch is slightly more complicated because of the number of options you can have with your shirts, including sizes, colors, and inventory quantity.  It’s also very easy to lose track of actual inventory numbers because you could sell the same physical merch at a concert, and forget to update the quantity on Bandcamp, so find whatever works for you to prevent that.  It could be as simple as setting an appointment on your phone’s calendar for the day after a concert, or a tour, to update Bandcamp inventory, or something more comprehensive. You’ll also have to set shipping costs, which gets complicated as well.  If you haven’t sold any merch yet, an easy way to get estimates on shipping costs is to stop by a post office with the actual t-shirt and a padded envelope that you’ll ship the shirt in, and ask how much it would be to ship it to various places within your country, and set the shipping price to cover the most expensive option (shipping to Seattle vs shipping to Kentucky from Ohio, for example), including the cost of the envelope.  Or, you can use the USPS shipping calculator to get domestic costs, if you know the size of the envelope, and the weight of the merch.

I haven’t sold a ton of merch online through Bandcamp, but overall the system is nice.  It even lets you add a free download of an album if someone buys a shirt.

Once you’ve created the merch, you’ll see a page like this one, and if you ever need to edit the merch, you can do so from the product page.  

Bandcamp also does Bandcamp Fridays periodically, where they waive their fees, so the musician keeps all of sale price, minus payment processing fees. The next Bandcamp Friday is August 4th, 2023, and you can see more upcoming dates at https://daily.bandcamp.com/features/bandcamp-fridays-update

Bandzoogle

To add music or merch on Bandzoogle, simply edit the page you’re working on, and click “add feature.”  You get a wide variety of features, including album, single, and store.

Then you just upload the song, and optionally the album artwork, and set a few options, including whether or not the song is a free download, a fixed price, or a fan based price (with a minimum price) like Bandcamp.  

The fan can pay more if they want.

Since Bandzoogle is a complete website solution for musicians, and you’re already paying $9.95 per month for the basic package (you can sell up to 10 songs), or up to $19.95 for the pro package (you can sell unlimited songs), they do not keep any fees from the sale.  You just have PayPal’s payment processing fees (or Stripe if you use them as your payment processor).  

Bandcamp’s fees are higher, but you might get a boost in sales just from being on Bandcamp, due to their name being more familiar to music fans, and you can sell directly on Bandcamp even if you don’t have your own website.  I am currently selling only on Bandcamp, but after going through the process to set up a single on Bandzoogle, in order to show how to do so on this blog, I’ll probably sell directly through Bandzoogle as well, especially for songs that I run ads for because it will give an option to buy directly on that landing page, instead of having someone click over to Bandcamp.  I’ll probably include the Bandcamp link as well, though, since Bandcamp already has my entire catalog, and some merch, so there’s a decent chance people will buy more than just the single there.

CDs are now in a gray area. Are they a way to sell music, or are they merch? I'd say they're merch at this point because even if someone buys a CD, they're likely to stream your song. Vinyl records are in a similar gray area, though I think more people listen to records than listen to CDs now because vinyl records have a different sound quality to them, and many audiophiles prefer that sound.

For CDs, I always use duplication.cdbaby.com. Discmakers bought CDBaby years ago, so you're actually using Discmakers to press the CDs when you use CDBaby, and Discmakers provided the best quality for the cost when there were countless CD manufacturers, so they're still the best now, in my opinion. 

I have not pressed vinyl, but I have friends who have. I'll try to find some good sources and put them here. The only time I looked into pressing vinyl, there was an 8 month backorder because there are very few vinyl manufacturers, and they were busy pressing millions of copies of Adele and Taylor Swift's albums.

I've also had a few friends in bands that have sold cassettes of their music. It's a niche merch item that I know nothing about in modern day context, so I have no recommendations, but wanted to mention it.

Sources for physical merch

I use CustomInk, but there are multiple options for getting shirts and other merch made.

CustomInk has a nice online designer. I did all of this in just a few minutes on my phone. The price includes shipping.

My first design is full color and very detailed, which brought the cost up to $13.85 per shirt with a quantity of 50 t-shirts. Switching to a 1 color image brought it down to $8.18 per shirt. Standard shipping is 2 weeks, but you can pay extra to get it sooner.

They have designed multiple shirts for me, including the Music Arcade shirt you see in the Bandcamp screenshot above. The price on that one was initially higher, but they brought it down to a 2 or 3 color print without a significant decrease in quality or detail. The design is also based on arcade gaming from the 1980s and 1990s, so it doesn't need to be high def. 

They mainly do silk screening, but can also do digital printing for smaller orders or designs with a high amount of details. 

CustomInk also has physical locations in various places, including one about 25 minutes from where I live, so if I need to go in with questions, I can. 

When I lived in Oxford, Ohio, I used Moonshine Screen Printing. It was nice having a local screen printer, as it reduced turnaround time and shipping costs by eliminating shipping. If you have a local screen printer already that you trust, that's a great option. If you don't, I wanted to let you know about my experience with CustomInk. There are other online options for physical merch as well, but I'm happy with CustomInk, so I've stuck with them.

Also, for stickers, stickerguy.com does a great job and usually has specials going on.

Also also, you can get very creative with your merch. This is probably the coolest piece of merch I've ever seen from a musician:

Mega Ran put his entire discography on a USB cartridge inside a Nintendo case! I think he was selling it for $50 when I saw him on tour in Cincinnati in 2018. He sold out of that special edition USB drive, but his current one (https://www.hellomerch.com/products/mega-ran-discography-4gb-usb) looks pretty cool too!

After checking out Mega Ran’s store, I emailed Hello Merch about what they do.  They do silk screening, and they offer other physical merch.  They will also set up an online store for you to sell that physical merch.  They do not print on demand.  It is a Shopify store, so if you want to sell that merch on Spotify, you’ll be able to do that.  They just ask for permission to edit your Spotify For Artists in order to set that up the first time, and then you can customize which products you display on your Spotify pages.  Speaking of Spotify, they just added the ability for fans to search your entire store directly from Spotify.  I just got the email from them about it an hour ago.

That's a perfect segue into discussing…

Custom Merch On Demand

I sell my merch on Spotify, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and MissionMan.net, all thanks to Teelaunch, who prints merch on demand, and then ships it to the customer, and Shopify, which allows for the integration with social media and Spotify. Teelaunch is free to set up, and Spotify has a $5 monthly starter plan. Once the order comes through on Teelaunch, I get notified via email, and I then have to pay the wholesale cost of the product and the shipping before Teelaunch sends the order off. Once the order is fulfilled, they then send me the entire amount that the customer paid. That detail is my least favorite part of the process, as there are times when paying that cost myself upfront, even with a later reimbursement, would theoretically be a financial hardship. However, I have not run into a situation with that level of unfortunate timing yet. It is that detail, though, that will make me also take about Teespring (now known as just Spring). 

Teespring vs Teelaunch

Teespring (on the seller's end or just Spring on the buyer's end) does not integrate with Shopify. It does integrate directly with social media, though. Just not Spotify. So, if you don't care about selling merch on Spotify, Teespring might be a better option for you. 

There are other differences between the two as well. With Teespring, you don't pay upfront. You simply get the profit, and Teespring handles everything. Teespring doesn't notify me when I get a sale either, so I have to just remember to periodically check it. I always assume I have zero sales there, so that when I do check it, it's like finding a $5, or maybe $50, bill in the pocket of a jacket that I haven't worn in months. 

I had a customer contact me once directly through Instagram about a Teespring order that was missing an item. Since I only had one order from Teespring in the timeframe that he contacted me about, I was 100% confident that the order details I was seeing were for his order. The order didn't have the item in it that he thought he ordered, so he wasn't charged for it. I then set up a 25% off coupon code just for him so that he could order the item if he wanted to, and not be burdened with the extra shipping cost involved with 2 separate orders. If there had been several orders in that time frame, it could have been a bit more complicated and/or awkward to handle. Teespring also doesn't automatically pay out. I need to manually check my balance and request a payout.

Teelaunch gives me the customer's name and email address, so whenever I get an order through them, I email the customer to thank them for their purchase and let them know what to expect as far as turnaround times go. I also mention the turnaround times on my website, so they know what to expect before ordering, but it helps in case they ordered through social media, or if they didn't see the turnaround time information on my website.

Summary of differences

Selling through direct contact (email, Instagram, etc).

I've had fans contact me directly through Instagram and email, asking about merch. I then tell them about the options, including what physical inventory I have, and they might order online through my Teelaunch store, but more often they just tell me what they want, and they pay me via Venmo or PayPal, and I ship it to them directly. When they do, I usually throw in a few stickers, and sign the CD or merch item. 

Occasionally they ask me to send a custom video for someone's birthday or anniversary, and I always happily do so because I really do feel honored when my music has made enough of an impact on someone to get such a request.

2. Streaming and Social Media

It's really easy to forget that there's more than one way to make a living from music, and focus solely on Spotify. I'm absolutely guilty of doing this myself. I have devoted a ton of time, and a few thousand dollars, in the last 15 months trying to hit Discover Weekly, and just trying to get more Spotify streams in general. I've watched countless videos, created countless Snapchat Ads, and pitched my music to probably close to 1,000 playlist curators. 

And it worked, to some extent. I went from 1,200 streams in 2021 to almost 20,000 streams in 2022. At an average earnings of 0.035 cents per stream, though, that resulted in about $70 in earnings. 1,000,000 streams would earn me about $3,500, which is a comfortably living monthly wage in most parts of the USA. That means, I would need about 30,000 daily streams (about a 5,000% increase) to make a living solely from Spotify streams, which is not a reality for most independent musicians. It's definitely possible, even as an independent artist, if you hit the algorithm correctly, so I will absolutely still try to do so, but it won't be my only focus.

Obviously, Spotify isn't the only streaming service, but they have far and away the best algorithm, and are the most likely streaming platform to get discovered on.

For social media, you can get money from people using your songs in their videos. You do this using the same method as getting on streaming services. Send your music to streaming services and make it available as a sound on Instagram Reels, Facebook Reels, and TikTok by signing up with a music distributor. 

The Big 3 music distributors are CDBaby, which has over 1 million musicians on its platform and has been around since 1998, Distrokid and Tunecore. I started using CDBaby in 1998, and I love them, so I have stuck with them the whole time.

A note on how TikTok pays, because more musicians, and music fans should know this.  If someone uses your music in one of their videos, and that video gets viewed 1 million times, that is the same as a video that gets 100 views.  TikTok pays musicians PER VIDEO that their music is used in, not per view.  You can read the full details on TikTok earnings from CDBaby here: https://support.cdbaby.com/hc/en-us/articles/360038700071-TikTok-Resso The wording is a little ambiguous for Facebook (and Instagram by extension since Facebook owns Instagram), but it seems that is the case on there as well.  https://support.cdbaby.com/hc/en-us/articles/360002633912#h_6e8bbebf-4723-41fd-ad6f-621380a54d84

YouTube pays out based on monetized views.  For example, if a YouTube video has 100,000 views, and an ad runs on that video 25,000 times, you’ll get paid out based on the ad revenue generated from those 25,000 views.  Exactly how much a monetized view pays out depends on a number of factors, but on average, it’s definitely going to be less than a penny.  A fraction of a penny times 25,000 views could still be $20-$50, though.  The same number of views on a single TikTok video will still be just a few pennies at most.  

I will go into detail about ways to get monetized directly, on each social media platform, in detail, in separate sections.  This concludes streaming income, and income from other people using your music in their social media videos.

3. Concerts (including open mic nights and house parties)

Whether you call them shows, gigs, concerts, live performances, or anything else, performing your music in front of (old, new and potential) fans is still one of the main ways to make money from music.  They are a little different for artists who only perform original music vs those who perform covers.  For this section, I will focus on artists who perform primarily original music.  For those who perform primarily covers, scroll down to section 19.  Other sections in this blog post may apply to cover bands/artists a little bit, but most of this is for original artists.

Before you can perform your concert, obviously you need to book your concert. Here are a few good resources for finding local venues. IndieOnTheMove.com has a database of music venues that includes genres, contact info, and capacity. I'd start there, and then I'd look at BandsInTown and SongKick apps for shows in the area I want to play. If the show is someone I've never heard of at a venue I've never heard of, and the ticket price is less than $20, I'll check the venue's website for booking info. Then, I'd Google "music venues in city" and then I'd Google "local music papers in city." They'll have local show listings. Finally, I'd check Openmikes.org because if a venue has an open mic, then they might have full shows on the weekends.

I’ve always booked my own shows, and played venues with small capacities, with the exception of two Playing For a Cure events at a venue with a capacity of about 2,000, so I’ll be focused on how those small venues tend to operate.  For most small venues, that venue charges customers a certain amount to get in, ranging from free to maybe $15 or $20 for small artists, with $5 being a very common cover charge.  For illustration purposes, I will use $5 as the average example.  

Their formula is usually total cover charge minus production fees equals artist payout.  If the cover charge is $5, and the artists bring in 30 fans, including 5 who were on the guestlist and didn’t pay a cover charge, then the total cover charge would be $125. If production costs are $50, then that leaves $75 for the artists.  Some venues will split that evenly among the acts, especially if the acts didn’t put the entire night together themselves.  When I go on longer tours, I am often paired up with bands I’ve never heard of, because they’re local and bring in bigger crowds, and when that happens, the venue will typically decide how to split up those payments.  When I put together full shows myself, including openers that I’ve performed with before, the venue will pay me the full amount, and I’ll discuss with the artists how to split it up. If you’ve toured before, I’m sure you’ve had similar experiences.  If you haven’t toured before, I hope this helps.  

For those who haven’t toured, or haven’t toured often, some venues will try to pass on more of the expense to you than they should, but in my experience, most venues are upfront with how they pay.  They usually even have the information listed on their website somewhere.  Check their band booking page for frequently asked questions before asking them in email.  If the information is not on the website (or the venue doesn’t have a website), it is absolutely acceptable, and a good idea, to ask “How does payment work?”  That way, there’s no awkward conversation in person.

If the cover charge doesn’t bring in enough to pay the production costs, most venues will pay the remaining production costs out of their own pocket.  It’s always a good idea to promote as hard as you can, though, to try to avoid that happening.  Sometimes, no matter how much you promote your show as a small act, you just won’t draw people out.  Fans get sick.  Fans have family emergencies.  Fans have work.  Sometimes a big event will draw away your fans.  It’s easy to get discouraged when fans don’t show up for various reasons, but don’t get too down over a few rough nights on tour, and just because you draw 5 people for a show doesn’t mean the venue wouldn’t like to have you back.  Just give it some time, and properly promote again.

Even if you make $0 from the cover charge, you can still sell merch and CDs.  I’ve had nights where I’ve made $20 from what’s left of the door cover charge, and sold $200 worth of CDs and t-shirts.  If you read the above section about selling merch online, you’re prepared with t-shirts from CustomInk, or a local screen printer.  You’ll want to organize those shirts.  I use 2 large clear containers.  The first one has sizes small through large, and the second has sizes XL and above.  The shirts are rolled up, with a piece of tape to keep them rolled up, and that piece of tape has the size of the shirt written on it.  That way, it’s easy to find the right shirt quickly and not lose out on a sale or disappoint a fan.  You’ll also want a display.  If you have the budget, you can get a nice tri-fold display case on Amazon, or maybe on Etsy.  You could even make it yourself if you’re that mechanically inclined.  If you don’t have as much of a budget, it’s perfectly acceptable to get a tri-fold cardboard display for a few dollars, and print up a few flyers to tape to that cardboard display.  Include images of your merch, prices, and accepted payment methods.  It's also a good idea to get a portable, battery powered light to shine some light on that display board.  I picked up a couple of $5-$10 reading lights that clip onto the top of the display board, and adjusted the angle as needed.

Taking Venmo is very helpful, and super easy to set up.  I also use Square so that I can take credit card payments directly from my phone.  For those who use Venmo, that’s usually their preferred method. For those who use credit cards, Square is a super portable option that works as long as you have a decent internet connection, and now you can even take payments when your phone is offline, and they’ll process when you’re back online.  Square charges 2.6% + 10 cents per transaction, with no monthly charges.  If you want to accept chip cards, you will have to buy a chip reader, which is currently $49. The chip reader also allows you to take Apple Pay and Google Pay. If you only want to use the swipe functionality, you can get that reader for free.  It’s small enough to fit in your wallet, which is where I keep mine.

The free version uses either a headphone connector, as seen above, or a lightning connector for use with iPhones and iPads.  If you only have a USB-C input now, as I do, you can still use the headphone connector if you plug in a dongle.  I tested the mic input on my dongle, and it did not work, but plugging the connector into the headphone input on my dongle did.  It looks a little goofy, but it’s functional.

Whether you use the free reader, or opt for the $49 chip reader, is up to you, and it largely depends on how much in sales you’re expecting to do, and how concerned you are with payment liability.  Specifically, if you take a credit card payment using the swipe reader (and the credit card has a chip), and that credit card turns out to be stolen, or otherwise fraudulent, you won’t be able to keep that payment.  If you take a payment using the chip reader, and the credit card turns out to be fraudulent or stolen, you will be able to keep that payment as the bank will eat the cost. Full details here: https://squareup.com/us/en/the-bottom-line/operating-your-business/liability-shift

Open Mic Nights and House Parties

If you're looking to fill some weeknight dates on tour, and haven't managed to book full shows, open mic nights can be a great way to fill them in, and openmikes.org is a great place to start your search. Just confirm with the venue that it's happening before you go. If there's a Facebook event page, you may even be able to get in contact with the open mic host about potentially playing a longer, featured set, increasing your chances of getting tips and selling merch. Even if you don't get a featured set, you can still potentially sell CDs and merch, as some people will be understanding of how tough it can be on the road, and will support you. You can also put out a physical tip jar, with a note on it that could include your Venmo for virtual tips. It'll likely be very small tips, but it could still be some income, and you could make some new fans and musical connections for the next time you come through town. Open mic nights locally aren't really the place for a tip jar or merch sales, but they can be a great way to make new fans locally, and meet local musicians. If you have a website, or your music is on Spotify, be sure to mention it on stage.

As far as house parties go, I've played several, and it's always been because the host was a fan of mine, and they reached out to me to perform there. If you want to book more house parties, you can mention your availability for parties on your website and on social media. It may or may not lead to more. The host will either offer a certain amount of money, or they'll take donations at the door. I tend to sell more merch at house parties than regular shows because the host hypes up the event to all of their friends. They'll do all the promoting since it's a private event, and you shouldn't post their home address online.

4. Patreon

I’m not great at Patreon, so I can’t give specific advice on how to build your following there.  I currently have 3 subscribers there that each pay me $1 per month, so after Patreon’s fees I get $1.90 per month there.  I am thankful for that income, especially since my 3 subscribers are really just sending me $1 per month because they want to support me.  I’m not very active there.  Some musicians are doing very well there though, so it’s definitely a viable solution for bringing in income from music.  If you haven’t heard of Patreon, the easiest way to describe it is Netflix for musicians.  Fans pay a subscription price, and you get to keep that subscription price, minus Patreon’s fees.  You can set up as many, or as few, subscription tiers as you want.  $1 per month could just give them a monthly shoutout, or the ability to see a few YouTube videos before everyone else.  $10 per month could give them a lot more, and what that means is up to you.  Other sites, including Bandcamp and YouTube have added subscription models to their platforms, so if you don’t want to sign up specifically for Patreon, you do have other options. I just set up my memberships on YouTube, and just got approved and added memberships on YouTube as an option today, May 16th, 2023, and will discuss more in the YouTube monetization section.

Patreon's payment processing fees. 

YouTube keeps 30% of monthly membership fees, after applicable taxes, for comparison, and Bandcamp keeps 15% on digital goods. Of course, a subscription on Bandcamp is centered around music downloads, and YouTube and Patreon are centered more around videos, including exclusive videos and early access.

5. Crowdfunding 

IndieGogo and Kickstarter are platforms for raising money for projects. For musicians, that's most commonly a new album release. It can include CDs, vinyl and other merch. Just be sure to account for shipping, fees, and other fulfillment costs when setting your goal.

IndieGogo charges 5%, plus the following payment processing fees, per their website.

IndieGogo allows you to set up a campaign that does not have to hit its goal. For example, if you set your goal at $500, and you raise $350, you still get to keep your funds. With Kickstarter, you have to reach your goal. If your goal is $500, and you reach $490, then your customers don't get charged, and you don't get anything. Kickstarter has a higher average raised amount because there's more at stake. If a fan sees that you're at $400 with 2 days to go, they're more likely to pledge $10 to help you get to $500, knowing that you get nothing if you don't hit $500. Whereas, if you already have $400 pledged on IndieGogo, your fans may see that you've already raised most of what you need, but won't be as compelled to get you closer to your goal because they know you're going to get the money regardless.

In the US, Kickstarter's fees are exactly the same as IndieGogo's. 5% plus payment processing fees of 3% plus 20 cents.

So, the real question becomes, does your project require a specific amount to get funded, or are you just trying to get some help covering the costs? If you're just trying to get some help, and minimize your out of pocket, IndieGogo may be the better way to go. If you absolutely need $1,000 to make it happen, and your account balance is $31.21, you'll probably want to go with Kickstarter.

6. Live Streaming 

Some musicians have found a way to make a living solely from live streaming on social media, YouTube or Twitch.  The popularity of live streaming really peaked when people were stuck at home, and while many people prefer going out to a concert, live streaming is still a popular option.  I’m actually listening to a DJ friend of mine spin records on Twitch right now as I’m typing this.  He lives 500 miles away, and doesn’t DJ down my way, so I like keeping in touch with him through music.  I have live streamed on YouTube, Twitch, Facebook, Periscope (it became Twitter live at one point I think), and Instagram.  I don’t have enough followers on TikTok to live stream there.

Whichever way you choose to live stream, the basic model for making money is the same.  Put your Venmo information up, or a link to a virtual tip jar.  My virtual tip jar is paypal.me/missionman, which redirects to the longer from version of https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/missionman 

You can mention the tip jar throughout the live stream, and people might tip you.  For most of my live streams, I have generated $0 in tips, but I’ve had the occasional live stream where I’ve had $20-$30 in tips.  For most musicians, if you’re live streaming everyday, you probably won’t get tips everyday, since you likely have a limited amount of songs that you can perform.  Even if you have several hours worth of original material, people likely aren’t tuning in and tipping everyday, so I would generally advise people to use it selectively.  Of course, if you are getting tips everyday, or if you just love live streaming even without getting tips, absolutely do it.  This blog is about ways to make money from music, but money is not why I make music, so whether you’re making money or not, if you love it, keep doing it!

Tips are just one way to make money from live streaming, though.  You can mention your merch and CDs and potentially get people to order from your website while performing, and each platform has ways to make money beyond a virtual tip jar.  I will discuss each platform’s live stream monetization options within their own sections.

7. YouTube Monetization 

To get monetized on YouTube, you need 4,000 hours of watch time in the last 365 days, and 1,000 subscribers.  The subscribers can subscribe at any time and count toward that goal.  YouTube Shorts are only monetizable once your channel is eligible for monetization.  If you are running ads to grow your following on YouTube, the subscribers gained from ads count, but the watch hours gained from ads do not.  If someone watches your video in a YouTube ad, and then chooses to rewatch that video, or watch another video on your channel, then that extra view will count towards your watch time. It’s called an earned view in Google Ads.  Google has this policy because they don’t want people to buy their way to monetization.  If those watch hours come from off platform though, then those watch hours will count, so you can run Facebook ads to get people from Facebook to watch your YouTube videos, and increase your watch hours that way.  However, those viewers will likely be less engaged, and could hurt your analytics in the long run.  I mention all of this because I have run thousands of dollars in YouTube Ads, and in Facebook Ads.  The YouTube Ads helped me get to 1000 subscribers, and Facebook Ads helped me get to 4000 watch hours.  My channel, which I’ve had since 2006, has been monetized for almost 2 years now, and I’ve earned $31 from ads on the channel in those 2 years.  The payout threshold is $100, so I haven’t actually received my first YouTube paycheck.  

In short, I would advise against running ads with the sole intention of reaching monetization, because that’s a large part of how I got there, and I think it has actually hurt my channel in the algorithm.  I still recommend running YouTube ads if your goal is to gain new fans, but make sure your targeting is strong, so that you’re reaching the right fans.  Also, if you’re running YouTube ads for a music video, I would advise uploading a second version of the video, and having that be an unlisted video with the specific purpose of being an ad.  That way, your public video’s average watch time doesn’t get decimated. If you're going to run Facebook Ads which link to your YouTube video, in order to gain watch hours, that video will have to be public because only watch hours on public videos count towards monetization.  Again, though, I would advise against running Facebook Ads to get to 4,000 watch hours as it will likely hurt your analytics for the algorithm.

If you’re going to pursue getting monetized on YouTube, know that it is almost never a quick journey for anyone, and it is even more difficult for musicians because the platform is so saturated.  Plus, the average music video is 3 minutes long.  That’s about 80,000 full length views, or about 160,000 half length views.  If you love making music videos, and live streaming, you can get there, but be patient and be prepared to do a ton of work to get there.

Direct monetization through the YouTube Partner Program is the main way to make money on YouTube, but it’s not the only one.  You can still live stream from your computer with 0 subscribers, and put up a virtual tip jar in the comments.  Once you hit 1,000 subscribers, you can live stream from your phone, even if you have less than 4,000 hours of watch time.

You can earn money from affiliate income starting with the very first video you make.  Just mention in the video that the affiliate link is in the description.  In Section 15 Affiliate Programs, I’ll share a list of every music related affiliate program I’ve found, and how to sign up for it.  If you mention the gear you use in one of your videos, for example, you can then include a Guitar Center or Amazon affiliate link in the description, and if a fan buys that gear because they want a similar sound, then you get a commission.  

Once you are monetized on YouTube, there are several more ways you can earn money from the platform. The primary revenue stream is ad share.  For every monetized view (meaning an ad ran on your video), YouTube keeps 45% of the ad price, and gives 55% to the creator.  If you’ve used copyrighted music in the video, that 55% will be split with the creator of the music.  If the creator of that music is you, and you opted into YouTube Content ID through CDBaby or one of the other distributors, you’ll be sharing that money with yourself.  You’ll just get part of the revenue directly from YouTube, and the other part through your distributor.  Also, if your channel is not monetized, YouTube may still run ads on your channel.  If the video that the ad is on contains music that you monetized through the Content ID system through a distributor, you’ll still get your share of revenue as the copyright owner of that music.  That will come through your distributor, not YouTube.  The Content ID system allows you to make money from your music whenever anyone uses your copyrighted music in their videos.  It’s basically an audio fingerprint that YouTube recognizes.  

Other monetization options that YouTube opens up after you join the YouTube Partner Program include Memberships (simliar to Patreon subscribers), including merch directly on YouTube, Shorts Feed Ads, and Supers (which I will explain).  I just set up Memberships on YouTube today as part of creating this blog post.  I only set up one level.  For 99 cents per month, fans can now post custom emojis in my YouTube comments, and receive different colored badges based on how long they’ve had a membership.  I have only created one emoji so far.  It’s the album cover for my most recent album, “Gummy,” because it seemed relevant, and it was convenient to just resize the image to 50x50 pixels.  The emoji has to be less than 1 MB, and obviously it’s very tiny on screen, so 50x50 pixels should work just fine.  The minimum size is 32x32.  Shorts Feed Ads are simply ads that run between YouTube Shorts.  YouTube pools all of the Shorts Ads revenue into one fund, and then divides it equally based on what percentage of total YouTube Shorts views your shorts are responsible for.  Supers are essentially tips. Directly from YouTube Studio “Super Chat and Super Stickers are ways to connect fans with creators during live chat. Viewers can purchase Super Chats to highlight your message within live chat. Viewers can also purchase Super Stickers to see a digital or animated image that pops up in the live chat feed.”

If you have a popular enough channel, you can even run a paid sponsorship, where a brand pays you to talk about their product during your video.  You have to mark the video as “includes paid sponsorship.”  This is a pretty popular way for medium and high popularity YouTubers to make money.  If done right, it’s a less disruptive ad experience, and a better experience overall.  If it’s not done right, the sponsorship experience can be worse than a regular ad.

After you connect your store to your page, you can now tag products in your videos.  This is a brand new feature, and the YouTube Creators channel just published a video about it 11 hours ago.  You can watch that video for more details.

8. Twitch Monetization

I am not monetized on Twitch, as I haven't streamed enough. I have streamed some, and find it easier to stream from my phone. My computer can't handle the technical requirements as well, and it's a more complicated setup.

You can find full monetization details directly from Twitch here:

https://help.twitch.tv/s/article/joining-the-affiliate-program

Eligibility basics for Twitch affiliates:

At least 500 total minutes broadcast in the last 30 days. At least 7 unique broadcast days in the last 30 days. An average of 3 concurrent viewers or more over the last 30 days. At least 50 Followers.

Affiliates can earn revenue from Subscribers, Ads, and Bits.

Bits are basically tips using emojis during live streams. They're fun and interactive,  and once someone has a bits balance in their account, they're easy to send without leaving the live stream chatroom. For full details, here is information directly on Twitch. https://help.twitch.tv/s/article/guide-to-cheering-with-bits

I couldn't find the revenue split on ads, but the most common ad I see when watching a stream on Twitch is a pre-roll ad, before I get to watch the actual stream. 

Subscription revenue is the same as it is everywhere else.

Twitch Partner Program requirements are not specific, but they are more difficult to achieve. If you're already an affiliate, and are thinking about the Partner Program, Twitch gives details here: 

https://help.twitch.tv/s/article/tips-for-applying-to-the-partner-program

9. TikTok Monetization 

I'm terrible at TikTok and only have 160 followers as of the time of this writing, but you can make some money from the TikTik Creator Fund (once you hit 10,000 followers, and have 100,000 views in the last 30 days).

To receive tips directly through TikTok, you need 100,000 followers, but there's nothing stopping you from posting a URL in the comments, or on the screen, or in the description. Of course, links are not clickable on TikTok, so you'll need something easy for people to type into a browser, like PayPal.me/missionman, or maybe even make a landing page, like missionman.net/tip (which doesn't actually exist at the moment, but maybe I'll create it). 

You need at least 10,000 followers to receive video gifts. If you get a video gift, you can earn diamonds, which is a form of popularity that TikTok uses to give you monetary rewards, or virtual items. Yes. I've read 2 different articles from TikTok, and the details are completely non-transparent. 

You can start live streaming at 1,000 followers. While you can't monetize directly through the TikTok platform, live streaming opens up a lot of possibilities, including playing for tips (again, you'll need an easy to type URL for tipping and/or you can use your Venmo ID). You could take requests for a specific amount of money, and play those tips in order.

Before you reach 1,000 followers, I really don't know much about monetizing TikTok, though you could still be a micro-influencer, which I'll discuss in Section 11, Influencer Marketing. 

10. Facebook Monetization 

In addition to live streaming for tips, which you can do even with 0 followers, there are other monetization options. I am currently getting money just for getting engagement on my Instagram and Facebook posts. I've made maybe $15 in 4 months that way, and there's no transparency on how much each type of engagement is worth, and the program is still in beta and invite only, so it's very unclear. However, it's nice to see Facebook finally doing something for its creators. 

They have a more transparent monetization option as well, in the form of stars. To be eligible for stars, your page needs 1,000 followers for at least 60 consecutive days. Fans can send you stars, and for every star they send you, Facebook gives you a penny. More details here:

https://www.facebook.com/business/help/903272529876480?id=648321075955172

In order to send a star, a fan clicks on the stars icon when commenting on a video (including Reels) or live stream. They have various options for stars in both appearance and number. They look kind of fun, so it's a gamified experience similar to bits on Twitch, or Love on the now defunct Sessions Live.

Fans can buy packages ranging from 45 stars for 99 cents (2.2 cents per star) to 6400 stars for $99.99 (just over 1.56 cents per star). Obviously, when they buy in bulk, it's cheaper per star for them, and you keep a higher percentage of what they pay. This also allows them to carry a balance of stars, making it easier for them to send stars to multiple creators. I don't know how widely stars are used. I have never sent or received them, even though my Mission Man Facebook page is eligible for them. 

You can run ads on your Facebook videos, once you have 10,000 followers, and generate at least 10,000 watch hours in the last 60 days. This is much higher than YouTube's 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours in the last 365 days, so realistically, very few musicians are going to qualify, but I still wanted to mention it.

11. Influencer Marketing

There are multiple ways to make money from having a following on Instagram, TikTok, and other social media platforms.  One way is by using Submithub as an influencer.  I started to apply on Submithub, and their system told me I was too small.

I couldn’t find an exact amount for how much Submithub pays influencers.  They specify their payout for playlist curators, which I will cover in the next section, but for influencers, they simply say they have paid out over $2 million to influencers, and show the total amount of money that several curators have earned, including a few that have earned over $20,000 on their platform. I can’t tell if any of the curators are actually musicians, but I see no reason why you would be denied if your Instagram and TikTok videos have enough views.  Influencers can set their own prices for sharing music.  I just don’t know what percentage they keep vs how much Submithub keeps.

JoinBrands.com is another option for making money as an influencer.  I read about it in my news feed a couple of days ago, and signed up with my TikTok account.  Even with only 160 followers, I qualified to join.  As you can see from the screenshot above, you can sign up to share various products on your TikTok page, get the product for free, and get paid to share them.  I haven’t actually shared any, as I haven’t found a product that I want to share on my TikTok page that doesn’t seem like I’m just making an ad on my profile that is completely unrelated to my music in any way.  Also, JoinBrands does have an affiliate program, so if you sign up using my link above, you’ll get a $5 bonus after your first job, and I’ll get $5 as well.

I’m sure you can find several other options for making money as an influencer, which you technically are as a musician.  In general, I won’t be focused on making money this way myself, but in this blog, I am making use of affiliate programs that are related to music, which is a similar concept.  Before I talk about affiliate programs, though, I will discuss making money as a playlist curator, because you can use Submithub to make money as a playlist curator, just as you can make money on Submithub as an influencer.   

12. Playlist Curating 

You can sign up to be a Spotify playlist curator on Submithub and Groover.  

Submithub charges either 1, 2, or 3 premium credits for a musician to submit a song to a curator.  The curator gets 50 cents per premium credit to review the song.  If the curator charges 3 premium credits, that’s $1.50 to listen to and review a song, 2 credits is $1.  The curator doesn’t have to add the song to their playlist.  It would be against Spotify’s Terms of Service if the curator guaranteed placement to all submissions.  

Groover’s most popular submission cost is 2 Grooviz, which averages about $2 USD.  They’re based in France, and their primary currency is the Euro, so the price slightly fluctuates if you’re in a country that doesn’t use Euros.  You can also get bulk discounts if you buy 50 Grooviz, 110 Grooviz, 300 Grooviz, or 500 Grooviz.  Their website says that curators get 1 Euro to give feedback.  I’m assuming that’s on a 2 Grooviz submission.  For 4 Grooviz, I assume that doubles to 2 Euros, etc.  If you have a Spotify playlist with a lot of followers, you can make very good money reviewing submissions, as I’ve seen some playlists that charge 8, or even 10, Grooviz per submission.  That’s 4 or 5 Euros to listen and give feedback on a 3 minute song, which you can probably do in under 5 minutes per submission when you get comfortable with the process.  At 1 Euro per 5 minutes, that’s only about 12 Euros per hour, which can still be a decent income supplement.

13. Write a Music Blog

I mean, that’s what this is.  Of course, your music blog could be a review of other people’s music, or if you’re big into production, it can be production tips, including what kind of gear you use.  You can even just maintain a blog on your website with stories about your musical experiences, like I do at https://missionman.net/stories-behind-mission-man-s-songs Right now, that blog only has one story, but I’ll add more. At the end of each blog post, you can share a link to the song on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music, Bandcamp, or sell it directly from your site using Bandzoogle.  You could even leave a link to your virtual tip jar, and say something like, “If you enjoyed the story behind the song, and want to buy me my favorite cookie, or support my musical dreams, you can leave me a tip at paypal.me/missionman or via Venmo at missionmanmusic, or stop by the store and see if any of my merch fits your style” except use your own tip jar and Venmo info.  You can have your fans tip me if you want, but they should be supporting you, not me.  

If your blog about other people’s music gets big enough, you can even sign up to be a blogger on Submithub and Groover, and earn money reviewing people’s music.  You can even run ads on your blog using Google Adsense.

14. Run Ads On Your Website

I’m going to try out ads on this blog post, and let you know what my experience is, so bookmark this page if you’re curious how much the ads on this post generate.  If you’d like to run ads on your own website, you can sign up for Google Adsense here: https://adsense.google.com/intl/en_us/start/

50,000 page views per month is the minimum number on the slider.  That’s about 1,667 daily page views, which Google AdSense estimates to generate around $9.23 per day. That's about $5.53 per 1,000 views, or about 0.553 cents per page view.  That’s actually higher than Spotify and Apple Music’s payout per stream.  1 visitor per day could add up to 17 cents monthly.  30 visitors per day would be $5 per month.  Obviously, these are all estimates.  I’ll post my first month’s results here when I have them.  I just signed up at 12:15 am on May 16th, 2023, and am awaiting approval.  I have limited my ads to only be banner ads, and to serve as few as possible, because the user experience is more important for me than the ad revenue.  If I hadn’t mentioned running ads as a possibility, I wouldn’t have signed up to run ads on this site.  The system right now is also set up to let Google optimize where the ads appear to maximize revenue and minimize how annoying the experience is for users.  

15. Affiliate Programs

Affiliate programs are similar to ads, except that you can choose which ones to sign up for, and make sure that they are relevant to what you’re talking about.  Here are the affiliate programs that I am linked to in this blog post, and the sign up pages if you think they would be relevant to your content as well, and some quick notes on signing up.

Here are the products and services I talk about in this post that don’t have an affiliate program, but that I have links to anyway: CDBaby, Tunecore, Bandcamp, CDBaby duplication, Sticker Guy, Hello Merch, Teespring, Teelaunch, Snapchat Ads, Indie On The Move, OpenMikes.org, Patreon, IndieGogo, Kickstarter, PayPal, YouTube, Twitch, social media platforms, and AdSense.

I mention those partially to show that whether or not I have an affiliate link, it won’t affect my comments on the product or service.  If something doesn’t work well for musicians, I’ll mention that even if I have an affiliate link. If I don’t have an affiliate link, I’ll also be honest in my evaluation of that product or service.  I also mention it to save you time, in case you’re thinking about joining some affiliate programs.  There’s no need to search for affiliate programs for any of those products or services in the previous paragraph because I’ve already searched for them.

Venmo doesn’t have an actual affiliate program.  You can send a code to your friends, and if they sign up, you can get $10 per new friend that signs up, up to $100.  You get that $10 once your friend sends $5 to someone using Venmo, so long as it’s within 14 days of signing up.  You may only refer friends, family and acquaintances.  You can send the link via email, social media, text, etc. but you cannot post it in a public forum where strangers could click on it, so I can’t share it here since there’s a chance I don’t know you personally.  This information is current as of May 16th, 2023, but it could change.

16. Podcasting

I have no experience running a podcast, but there are multiple ways you can make money running one for your music.  You can certainly mention your music and merch during the podcast and potentially get sales.  You can also run ads, and get sponsors.  Since I am completely unqualified to talk about the details beyond that, I won’t really say much else.  I just wanted to mention it as a possibility.  If it’s something you’re genuinely interested in, I say go for it.

17. ASCAP and BMI

Royalties are so incredibly complicated that I always have to look them up, but by signing up for ASCAP or BMI, you get more royalties.  When my music was used on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon, I made $41.57 through ASCAP for being the songwriter.  I also had my album “25” signed up for CDBaby Pro, which includes publishing royalties.  The Publishing royalty is actually the exact same amount as the songwriting royalty, except that CDBaby keeps 15% of the publishing royalty, so I got $35.33 about 6 months later, from CDBaby because there’s a delay in reporting the publishing royalties versus reporting the songwriting royalties.  

In my case, I signed up for ASCAP after my music was used on The Tonight Show, so there was some work involved in getting that royalty approved.  I had to contact the network and have them send me a cue sheet, which I then emailed to ASCAP.  It was quite cool talking to anyone working at a network.  Even in the streaming age, there’s still something magical about saying “I talked to [emailed] such and such at NBC.”  I actually expected the royalty to be much higher, given that my song was used on national television, which is why I’m sharing the exact amount I received.  Had that episode of The Tonight Show aired again, domestically or internationally, I’d be eligible to receive another royalty check.  That’s why syndication is such a major factor for some musicians.  I’m not sure how someone streaming something on Netflix works in terms of royalties, but if a show reruns on a network, the musician gets paid every time that episode is rebroadcast. 

18. Sync Placements

On the subject of getting your music used on TV, that is one form of sync placement.  Sync means that your music was synchronized to video.  That can be background music in a TV episode.  It can be that your music was used in an advertisement, etc. Most of the distributors now have an option for adding your music to their sync library.  You can choose not to, of course, but if you turn it on, CDBaby, Distrokid, or TuneCore adds your music to their sync library, and then someone can use your music in a show or ad. CDBaby does all of the price negotiating, and then pays the musician 60% of that price.  CDBaby keeping 40% may seem excessive at first glance, but if I were to try to negotiate my own price, I guarantee I’d either get less than I should, or the negotiations would fall apart, and I’d get $0. 

If you want to be more active in trying to get your music on ads, TV shows, and in video games, you can use Songtradr.com.  Their lite subscription is $19 per year, and you keep 60% of the sync placement fee.  Their pro subscription is $49 per year, and you keep 80% of the sync placement fee.  Songtradr lists sync opportunities, with descriptions, and you can submit to those opportunities.  I used it for a couple of years, off and on, usually submitting to a couple of placements every 2-3 weeks.  I was shortlisted twice, but never had my music used.  There was a free version when I used it, which is what I mostly used, but I tried a few months at about $5 per month because I was optimistic about getting a placement, and wanted to keep a higher percentage.  At the time that I used it, I also set my own prices for when music programmers found my music, which made the negotiation process a lot more straightforward.  When I submitted to listings, those listings always included what the pay was going to be.  

You can also get into some serious workshops on getting your music into TV, ads and video games.  I watched a free webinar on the process, which ended in the person running the webinar asking for $1,000 or so to join their course that would get me actual connections.  I don’t know if the course would have been legitimate.  It very well could have been, but I wasn’t interested enough in writing songs for the specific use of being used in film, TV, ads, and video games.  I simply wanted the chance to have my existing music used in various media.  

19. Music Production 

When I was 22 or 23, I charged $15 per hour for solo musicians to record music in my apartment, using my home studio equipment.  It worked for a few musicians who didn’t want to invest in the equipment for, or spend the time learning, audio production.  It was short-lived, but it was fun helping musicians record demos.  The more skilled you are, of course, the more you can charge.  There’s probably less of a market for it now as more people have access to the equipment and low prices, and YouTube has reduced the learning curve, but it’s still there if it’s something you’re interested in and want to take the time to do so.

20. Music Lessons

While technology has created many new ways to learn how to play music, some people still greatly prefer in-person instruction.  A simple “music” job search on Indeed will show you companies that are hiring musicians, including places like School of Rock and Bach to Rock.  You can also find your own clients, usually the parents of the children you’ll be teaching music to, and work out a schedule that works for you and them.

21. Performing Covers

If you want to perform covers, there are quite a few additional opportunities out there to make money.  You can join an agency that can help you get gigs.  There is a local company where I am that does all of the booking for about 10 different venues, all of which cater to cover bands and solo musicians who perform covers.  These are often at restaurants where the music is not the main attraction, the food and spirits are.  So, they’re looking for musicians who can cover family friendly songs in a fun atmosphere.  I’ve never performed a cover, unless you count karaoke, so I’m no expert here, but I have several friends who perform almost every day, and either make a living solely from those gigs, or that make a substantial income supplement.

22. Making Beats

There’s also a market for making beats for other musicians.  The form I see this in is producers making beats and selling them to rappers.  I’ve never bought or sold a beat, so I don’t understand the process, but I wanted to mention it for those who are interested.

23. Be a Session Musician 

Similar to making beats for other musicians, you can simply play whatever instruments you are best at, on other people’s songs.  I’ve never done this either, so I don’t know where or how to get started beyond a quick Google search, so I’ll leave you to it, if you’re so inclined.

24. Host an Open Mic 

Open mic hosts get paid because there’s actual work involved.  Making sure the artists start and stop on time, dealing with a multitude of setup options, promoting the event, etc.  There’s probably more information out there on simple ways to get started, but if I were to become one myself, I’d find a local bar or coffee shop that has a night free with no specific event, and suggest it to them.  Obviously, that’s easier if you already have a relationship with that bar, but I’m sure it’s something you could even just stop by several places in person until you find one that’s receptive to the idea, and then work out the details from there.  Most open mic nights I’ve been to do not have a cover charge, so you’d either need to work out a flat fee, or negotiate a percentage of bar sales.

25. Be a Trivia Host 

I host trivia one night per week now, and OpinioNation two times per week.  OpinioNation uses survey based questions, and I absolutely love hosting it!  It’s not music directly, but I do get to entertain and engage with people 3 nights per week.  I’m not exactly on stage, but I do have a microphone, and I get to bring joy to people’s evenings.  If you want to work for the same company I do, go to https://www.sporcle.com/jobs/trivia-host/ and see if they’re hiring where you are.  They are currently looking for hosts in 21 states in the US, so there’s a decent possibility.  You can also search for “trivia” on Indeed.  Hosting Sporcle is the most fun I’ve ever had working an actual job!.  

Summary 

There you have it, 24 ways to make money being a musician, plus something fun and very close to music.  I will update this blog post periodically to make sure all of the information is still relevant, and if I find new relevant information, I will add it, so be sure to bookmark this page and come back to it anytime you need ideas for making money as a musician.

TLDR: I use Cloudbounce when I'm on a budget because I get unlimited mastering for $21.90 per month and I'm very happy with the quality of the masters, and I use Discmakers when I have the extra budget and/or I know that I'm going to push the song to playlist curators and possibly run ads for it.

I have used both Cloudbounce and Discmakers Soundlab to master my music.  Ideally, I finish recording my albums in a professional studio, to let an engineer record my vocals, and mix and master the tracks.  However, I don't always have the budget to do this, and after moving to a new state in 2019, and having COVID disrupt everything, I have not found a new studio in which to finish my albums.  So I record my music and vocals at home, using a Behringer UM22 Soundcard, which I plan on upgrading to a Scarlett Focusrite 2i2 when I get the extra $200 to do so, as I've heard music recorded on it, and it is has less noise than my Behringer soundcard.

For my most recent album, "Gummy," I ran a Kickstarter campaign to raise money for the album release, and let that dictate my budget for the album.  The more money I raised, the more songs from the album I could spend extra on mastering for.  I had 4 or 5 songs that I really wanted to send to Discmakers because they were the standout tracks for me.  I ultimately ended up with the budget to master 3 tracks that way.  At $59 per track, plus tax, it came out to about $190 for those 3 tracks.  I mastered the rest of the album using Cloudbounce, which right now costs $21.90 per month for unlimited mastering.  If I had mastered the entire album that way, it would have cost $2.19 per song to master, so it's then a question of value vs budget. eMastered is also an AI based mastering service, but I have not used it, and at $39 per month, when you pay monthly, I probably won't try it, as I'm already very happy with Cloudbounce at $21.90 per month.

To me, Cloudbounce provides the better value when budget is an issue.  When I have the extra budget, I will definitely choose Discmakers Soundlab as an experienced human engineer will still be able to improve the master upon listening multiple times.  There's also a time difference between the two services. 

Cloudbounce takes just a few minutes to master a track, and has a bunch of different genre options to choose from, so you can try out multiple versions and decide what you like best.  You just upload your finished song with 3-6 DBs of headspace, and let the program do the work.

With Discmakers, you fill out a quote, with a very detailed form, as well as the finished song with 3-6 decibels of headspace, and then a human takes the time to master the song in their studio.  Usually the turnaround time is 3-4 days.  They then upload the mastered track to the website, where you can download it.  

In the video above, I break down the process even more, showing the steps in both Cloudbounce and Discmakers, and I include the audio from the Cloudbounce versions and the Discmakers versions, for all 3 songs, so you can hear the difference.

If I know I'm going to pitch a song to playlist curators, and possibly run ads for the song on Snapchat as well, I will definitely make sure to pay the extra to have Discmakers master the track.  The difference in price also isn't as drastic when you compare mastering one track on Cloudbounce (which you can either do with the unlimited mastering for a month at $21.90 or for an individual track for $10.90) versus $49 right now for Discmakers to master the song.  My most recent single was mastered by Discmakers, and I think the extra cost resulted in a better performance on Spotify.  Even if it didn't, I'm happier with the higher quality audio. 

Whichever mastering service you use, I wish you good luck and success!

I've been marketing music since I started rapping in 1992.  I've recorded 14 studio albums, performed in 18 states, handed out countless demos, received radio play, had my music used on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon, and run thousands of dollars worth of ads to promote my music.  This post will attempt to give a very broad overview of everything I've learned about marketing music that still applies in 2023.  I will update it periodically as the realm of independent music marketing changes, so be sure to bookmark this page and come back to it if it's helpful for you.

TLDR (TOO LONG, DIDN'T READ)

My most important music marketing tools are Bandzoogle (website), Email (Mailchimp), Social Media (my focus is on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube), Ads (Snapchat, YouTube, Facebook/IG), Playlist Pitching (Groover), Distributor (CDBaby), Photo Editing (Canva, GIMP), Video Editing (InShot for Android, VSDC for Windows), Show Promotion (BandsInTown, Songkick, flyers, social media, ads, local music publications), Merch (Custom Ink, Shopify via Teelaunch, Bandcamp), Fans (where all of my success comes from, including having my music used on national TV and a popular radio appearance in Columbus Ohio), Open Mic Nights, and analytics tools (Spotify For Artists, YouTube Studio, Google Analytics).

OVERVIEW

1. Website
2. Email
3. Social Media
4. Ads
5. ChatGPT
6. Playlist Pitching 
7. Playlist Curating
8. Distributors
9. Photo and Video Editing, and local flyers
10. Show Promotion
11. Merch
12. Fans
13. Blogs and Local Media
14. Influencers
15. Open Mic Nights
16. Radio, including XM, College and Internet 
17. Gig Swapping
18. Podcast
19. PR Firms
20. Mastering Services
21. Helpful Blogs and YouTube Channels To Follow
22. Summary

1. WEBSITE

The short short version: use Bandzoogle.

TLDR: The website is still the single most important thing in music marketing for independent musicians. Bandzoogle is designed for musicians, feature rich, and easy to update.  If you don't have a website yet, they are my number 1 recommendation.

Yes, you can make a living without one, but your website is the only marketing tool, other than email, that you own.  Social media platforms change in popularity.  Myspace was replaced by Facebook.  Facebook used to give musicians a lot more organic reach.  Now, unless you have a huge following, you'll probably need to run some promoted posts or ads to reach people who already follow you, etc.  If you don't have one already, that's the first thing I would do.  I have had MissionMan.net since 1998, and plan on keeping it as long as I'm alive and websites still exist.  You can either hardcode the website yourself if you like coding, or use a wizard site like Bandzoogle, which has a lot of features, including the ability to sell music and merch directly from the site, maintain an integrated blog, a mailing list tool, social media integration, landing pages, and more.  You can also add custom HTML, and easily change the look of your page.  They are actually who I use for my web hosting.  I used to use Hostbaby, but after Hostbaby stopped hosting, I switched to Bandzoogle via recommendation from Hostbaby (they were CDBaby's webhosting service), and I've been very happy with them.

There are also other wizard based sites out there that don't require any coding, including Wix, Squarespace, WordPress, and more, but they are broader in functionality, whereas Bandzoogle is designed specifically for musicians.

If you want to hardcode the website, there are plenty of great options out there.  I've used GoDaddy in the past, but there's also BlueGator and many others.  Hardcoding has advantages if you like programming.  I've programmed a video game using JavaScript, so I'm quite comfortable with it, but at this point I prefer wizard sites as they are less work to update and the themes make design work easy.

This website is built with Hubspot. Hubspot has some incredibly powerful tools that I haven't even scratched the surface of yet, including email automation, and a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system that keeps track of all your interactions with customers, regardless of the platform (email, social media, etc.), and many other things.  For most musicians, I think the extra time to use those tools could be valuable, but being a musician myself, I also realize that there's only so much time in the day when you're writing and recording songs, promoting your music, booking and performing shows, practicing your instrument, etc. etc. etc.  

2. EMAIL

TLDR: Mailchimp is a great option and is free until you reach a certain level.

I probably underutilize email in my marketing, but as a consumer, I also tire of endless emails, so I purposely use it less often.  I have a MailChimp account, with about 85 email subscribers.  With that amount of subscribers, it's still free to use.  If you use Bandzoogle, it has a built in email list, and you can simply add a sign up form on your site with it.  I haven't maintained my list through it, as I started using MailChimp before I migrated from Hostbaby to Bandzoogle.  If you use Bandzoogle, feel free to try out their integrated email list tool first.  If it works well for you, then great, you already have a solution!  If you're looking into other options, though, I like Mailchimp.  The templates are relatively easy to use, and it lets you segment based on geographic location and other factors, and gives you stats on open rates, etc.  

I send emails whenever I have a new song or album release, or if I release a new music video that I'm especially proud of, hoping that the increased engagement will lead YouTube to push it more in its algorithm.  I also send emails about new merch when I have it, and other major announcements.  On average, I send an email every 2-3 months.  I'm not an expert on email marketing, so I can't give overly specific advice, but using it for new releases and major announcements is definitely a good idea.

3. SOCIAL MEDIA

TLDR: Be yourself, take a break when needed, use the platforms that work best for you (it doesn't have to be all of them).

At this point, people could write books about social media, its history, its effects on society and self-esteem, the ethics behind it, the privacy battle, the lawsuits, and much more.

I personally have been using social media since shortly after MySpace launched in 2003, and possibly before that depending on what you define as social media. I've been on Facebook since 2005, and launched my YouTube channel in 2006.  I've used Reddit for several years.  I'm also on Twitter and TikTok and am terrible at both of them, so I rarely use them.  Social media trends change so fast that if I were to start typing about them in this blog, they'd be onto something else by the time I published it. 

So, for this post, I will try to stay relatively simple, and give you a few examples of my most popular posts, and a brief list of possible videos to make, as well as give some general advice that you're welcome to ignore because I'm not a social media guru.  

First, the advice portion.  Just be yourself.  People connect with genuine posts, whether they're serious, funny, or anywhere else on the wheel of adjectives.  Take a break when you need it.  I've taken breaks from social media when I needed it for my mental health, and I'm very glad that I did.

A fairly brief list of the types of videos that musicians can make for social media: official music videos, lyric videos, live performances, funny nonsense, stories behind the songs, pretty pictures, personal stories, tour stories, travel videos when you're touring, behind the scenes footage, bloopers, pet pictures and videos, basically anything.  

One specific bit of information that you're probably already aware of, but short vertical videos are currently the easiest to get a lot of views from.  I got 1,900 views in the first 60 minutes of a recent YouTube video being published because my previous short video performed well.  I have recorded over 400 long form videos, and probably 200 or so short form now.  I still make longer videos when it's appropriate, such as the 26 minute video I made about my marketing efforts over the last 31 years of making music, and it's doing better than many of my longer form videos, but if I were to break it up strategically, I could probably create 20-30 short form vertical videos out of it, and get thousands of views on each, versus the 45 views I've received on the long form video.  I use the same source video, which I edit on my phone using InShot (more on photo and video editing software later in this post), and upload it separately to Instagram Reels, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts.  I do this to make sure I'm not posting a video that's branded with a TikTok logo onto YouTube.  So far, I don't think the logo hurts views when you upload to YouTube and Instagram, but Google and Meta could easily start suppressing watermarked videos in their algorithm because YouTube and Instagram are not TikTok. 

Here are a couple of my short videos that have performed pretty well, if you want some ideas: 

Recreating my Broke NBA2K Jumper:

I think they bought the wrong lightbulb:

None of my social media profiles have tremendous numbers.  As of today, May 8th, 2023, I have 2297 YouTube subscribers, 1270 Facebook followers, 625 Instagram followers, 208 Twitter followers, and 160 TikTok followers.  However, I value every connection I've made and maintained on social media.  Some of those followers have paid to see me in concert, bought my CDs and merch, and tipped me while I've live streamed, and all of them have had a positive impact on my life.  

I'm also on Reddit, but Reddit is more complicated than the others.  You can promote your music on Reddit, but you need to primarily be a Redditor, contributing to conversations there, posting things that aren't self-promotion, and less than 10% of the time, you can post on a few subreddits.  r/GetMoreYTViews for growing a small YouTube channel, r/Spotify for Spotify playlists, r/Music for music, or if you have a song about a specific topic, like "Playing a Little Basketball," you can post that song in r/basketball.  Again, though, be a Redditor first, and post self-promo sparingly.

One last point I'll make about social media.  There are quite a few social media networks now.  It is extremely rare to be great at all of them, and chances are, some social media networks fit you better than others, based on your personality.  If you write a lot of political songs, and talk about politics a lot, for example, Twitter might be a great place for you.  Since I don't talk about politics publicly, Twitter is not my favorite social media platform.  I prefer YouTube, Facebook and Instagram.  Others have found tremendous success on TikTok, while I am absolutely terrible at it.  I also just don't enjoy using TikTok as a consumer, which means I treat it as an afterthought.  I've put real energy and effort into Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. So, in short, use the ones that you enjoy using, and focus your energy on those if you like some more than others.  There are many paths to success, but you don't have to take them all.

4. ADS

I will create several posts about the specifics of running ads on social media, search engines, and websites through third party applications.  For this particular blog post, I will provide an overview of what ad platforms work, and which ones don't, for musicians.

I have run ads on all of the following platforms: YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Reddit, Twitter, Show.co, TikTok, Google Search, and Microsoft Bing.

Ads that work: YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat

Ads that kind of work: Reddit

Ads that don't work: Twitter, Show.co, TikTok, Microsoft Bing

Ads that might work: Google Search (and possibly Twitter in the future)

Ads that work

Let's start with the most important.  The ads that work, the circumstances under which they work, and a brief list of pros and cons for each.  I'll break down the differences more thoroughly in future posts.

YouTube Ads work very well for generating YouTube views and subscribers.  For my best YouTube Ads, I was averaging about $2 per subscriber, and when retargeting previous viewers, I would often get earned view ratios of 5:1.  What that means, is for every 5 views gained from an ad, I got 1 extra view, either of another video, or because someone liked the ad video so much that they intentionally watched it again.  My ads were technically Display Ads on the Google Ads platform, which means people would see a thumbnail of the video, with the title I chose for the ad (usually the name of the music video), and after people clicked on the thumbnail, the video would play on YouTube.  Most of my subscribers were gained by running these types of ads, and some of those subscribers are some of my biggest fans.  I've had fans on YouTube leave comments on over 20 videos after watching an ad for one.  

This did not translate to many streams on Apple Music, Spotify, or other streaming services, but it was very effective for gaining fans on YouTube.

Facebook and Instagram Ads are probably the most effective for gaining streams on Spotify.  Meta's ad targeting is very strong and can be incredibly specific.  You can target fans of musicians that are similar to you, and their algorithm is smart enough to know who is most likely to click through and listen. 

Hypeddit has a new AI based solution that integrates with Facebook advertising to make it super easy to use, and still generate good results.  If you've used it and had success, please leave a comment and let me know how it's worked for you. Here is a quick video that walks you through the process.

If you really want to find out more about advertising on Facebook, Andrew Southworth has a ton of videos on the subject on YouTube.  Here's a playlist of those videos if you want a full breakdown: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZM8P5xQw3RZzbfibSPnceu-yYf_R4uhi

So, Pros of Facebook/Instagram Ads are that they are effective, and highly targetable.  The biggest con, to me, is the level of negative interaction you could receive.  Some of my Facebook Ads definitely had some trolls on them.  People were extremely rude just because they got an ad, and while Meta's ad algorithm is very good at getting people to comment on ads that are aimed at getting engagement, it's not so good at distinguishing negative engagement from positive.  If someone tells you that you are the worst musician on the planet, that is the same thing as someone telling you that your music is the best music that person has ever heard.  Either one is a comment, and therefore engagement. Facebook doesn't distinguish between someone listening to your music because they want to make fun of it, or because that person loves it.  If the algorithm catches enough of this type of engagement, you could have countless negative comments on your posts, and that can have a real impact on your mental health.  If it catches the right commenters, you could also have countless positive comments, which usually results in feeling pretty good.  

That brings me to Snapchat Ads.  In terms of generating Spotify streams, I'd estimate they're about 30-50% less effective than Facebook Ads.  However, since Snapchat Ads don't have a way for people to leave comments directly on the ad, you also don't have a slew of comments, positive or negative.  Some of the fans that I've gained from Snapchat Ads have searched for me on YouTube after listening on Spotify, just to leave positive comments on my newest videos, but they aren't super common. It's even less common to have people who hate my music, because they heard it in a Snapchat Ad, to find me on YouTube to leave a negative comment, though it has happened a few times.  If I run Snapchat Ads at $10 per day, I usually go days without comments on YouTube from people who found out about my music because of Snapchat Ads.

For Snapchat Ads, my single best ad got 115 streams (4 people listened to my entire album "25" which has 25 songs on it) for $5 in ads, back when traffic ads on Snapchat still generated streams on Spotify.  Traffic ads are ads that link directly to a Spotify link.  They stopped working for me in October of 2022, so in the short term I shifted my focus to playlist pitching (which I'll cover later in this post) for a little while, until I started running conversion ads on Snapchat.  Conversion ads require a landing page (see an example landing page here) and a tracking pixel, so that the ad algorithm knows when someone clicks on the "Stream on Spotify" button on my landing page, after clicking the "Listen Now" button in the Snapchat Ad.  Conversion ads haven't yet caught up to what traffic ads used to deliver in terms of streams per dollar, but they're in the same ballpark.  Interestingly, though, they're in different countries.  With traffic ads, my best countries were Finland, Greece, Portugal, and Japan.  I averaged 2-4 streams per dollar with those ads.  With conversion ads, I average 2-3 streams per dollar in the UK and Ireland.  In both cases, I average(d) about 1 stream per dollar in the US and Canada.  

Because I've had a lot more recent experience with Snapchat Ads than Facebook or YouTube, I can run Snapchat Ads for you, for the cost of the actual ads, plus a little extra (about $20 as of May 8th, 2023) for the labor involved in setting up the ads, and reporting the results back to you.  You can see more details for that service on the Underground Music Marketing homepage, if you're interested.

Ads that kind of work.

Reddit.  I spent about $10 running an ad for my Spotify playlist "Great Indie Hip Hop" on the subreddit r/spotify.  r/spotify is a subreddit for sharing Spotify playlists, so my ad looked just like an organic post, except for the small "ad" written on the post.  Because the ad blended in very well, and was completely on topic for the subreddit, it performed well in terms of the playlist gaining new followers.  I believe the playlist gained 5 followers for 10 dollars.  I don't know how active, if at all, those playlist followers became, and it is a very limited use case, but if you're looking to grow a Spotify playlist, it could work for you.

Ads that don't work.

Twitter, TikTok, Show.co, Bing.  Twitter was recently bought by Elon Musk, and the ad platform went through some changes, including conversion ads, so I gave Twitter a chance about a month ago.  I spent $5 in one day, got around 80 clicks, and got 0 conversions.  That is, 80 people clicked on the ad, yet 0 people clicked on the "Stream On Spotify" button, even though the ad said "listen now."  If I had 80 clicks on a Snapchat Ad, I would expect closer to 50 or 60 conversions.  This tells me that Twitter ads still get a lot of bot clicks.  They may figure it out  one day, and I'll keep an eye out and let you know if they do.

TikTok has a similar problem to Twitter (and Snapchat traffic ads), in that I spent around $40 in ads on the platform, and received 0 conversions, meaning that no one clicked on the "stream on Spotify" button after clicking on "listen" in the ad.  That tells me the conversions don't work.  I ran a separate $40-$50 on traffic ads, with 100 or so clicks, and 0 streams on Spotify.  That tells me that TikTok Ads don't interact properly with direct Spotify links.

Show.co gained me about 5 streams for $50.  Maybe they'll improve on that in the future, but for now, they are very ineffective.

I got a $25 ad credit to try Microsoft Bing Ads, and spent about $25 of my own money as well.  I got about 30-40 clicks, and 0 streams as a result.  This makes sense to me, as they are search based ads, so people are clicking on them without hearing any of the song as a preview, and are therefore more likely to stop listening before the 30 seconds is up.

Ads That Might Work

Google search.  This one, I just don't know, because I ran Google search ads one day, for a few dollars, and don't remember the results.  Based on my experience with Bing Ads, though, I would expect similar results, and I am unlikely to try Google Search Ads again any time soon because of this.  

5. CHATGPT

Like Grogu, ChatCPT is still in its relative infancy, and is already very powerful.

I have used ChatGPT exactly once.  I asked it for similar artists to Mission Man, so that I could potentially target ads on Facebook sometime to fans of those similar artists.  This is the result it gave me:

My "Great Indie Hip-Hop" playlist already included 5 of those artists.  I'm completely unfamiliar with 3 of those artists, and the other 2 artists I've listened to and enjoyed, but don't have on that particular playlist.  ChatGPT did this extremely well, and nearly instantaneously, without live access to the internet.  It is actually much more spot on with its assessment than Spotify's algorithm is when it comes to similar artists.  Using ChatGPT to generate a very well targeted audience is just one example of its ability to change marketing in a profound way.  Artificial Intelligence in general has already changed a tremendous amount about marketing, and will only grow in exponential, and unpredictable ways.

For now, you could ask it for similar artists to yourself like I did, and target fans of those artists on Facebook, or you could take the red pill, follow Alice down the rabbit hole and use ChatGPT for all sorts of marketing advice, and more.

6. PLAYLIST PITCHING

TLDR: Groover has given me better Spotify streams per dollar than any other marketing I've done.  I average about 10 streams on Spotify for every dollar I spend on Groover now. If you click on the Groover link, you'll save 10% on your first campaign, and I'll get 10 free Grooviz (about $10) to use to submit to playlist curators myself.

I've used Submithub, Groover, Dailyplaylists, Soundplate, IndieMono, Playlister.club and The Indie Bible for pitching my music to curators.

Poor Performers, skip to Submithub and Groover if you want

I'll start with the ones that have performed poorly for me.  Dailyplaylists lets you submit to 25 playlists per week for free.  I have about a 3 percent acceptance rate there, and of the 5 or so playlists that actually resulted in any streams for my music, 0 of those playlist curators still use the service.  The playlists are all fan gated (you have to follow the playlist as part of pitching to the curator), so the follower numbers are greatly inflated.  I used them for over a year, and have stopped using them because they never came close to returning enough streams to make it worth the time involved.

Soundplate.com allows you to pitch to playlists one at a time.  It's a very time-intensive process, the playlists are all fan-gated, and there's no guarantee your song will ever be listened to.  I've submitted to several hundred playlists that way, and got added to maybe 1 or 2 worthwhile playlists.  I won't use them in the future.

IndieMono.com allows you to submit quickly and easily.  I have never received a response from them, but it only takes a few minutes to submit a new song there, so I'll probably give them a try whenever I release a new song.

I signed up for Playlister.club for a month once at $40.  It's an interesting concept in that you don't pitch directly to curators.  You pay to have your song listed, and if the curator likes your music, they'll add it to your playlist.  The service then gives you an alert any time your music is added to a playlist.  Their service can't distinguish between whether or not you got added to a playlist directly on Playlister.club, or because of a submission somewhere else, so it's difficult to know if it really results in anything.  However, from what I saw, every playlist that the system alerted me to which added my music, was a playlist I had submitted to elsewhere.  It was neat to see my song get added to playlists in what seemed like close to real time, but I don't think being on there actually gained me any playlist placements.

The Indie Spotify Bible has contact information and playlist details for hundreds of playlists, sorted by genre first, and then alphabetically.  The information is very organized, which is helpful, and overall it seems like a good resource.  However, I'm bad at using it.  I would contact the curators without them knowing who I was, and pitch my song to them.  Most of them just ignored me.  A few of them politely declined after listening to my music, and I think I got added to 1 or 2.  I've read that the better way to approach curators from this resource is to start off by following them on social media, interacting with their posts, contributing to their social media growth, making a positive impression that way, and then, after they know who you are and have some kind of connection with you, you mention your new song.  If you have the patience to do that, it could be a great resource.  You pay a one time fee to buy the PDF file, but after that you can contact as many of the curators there as you want.  They do also update the listings based on your feedback, and you get free updates to the PDF for a year if I remember correctly.

Submithub and Groover

These are the 2 main websites that allow you to pitch your music to curators.  Their core functionality is the same.  You pay anywhere from $1-$10, with most curators being about $2, to submit to a curator.  In exchange, that curator reviews your song, and if they like the song, they'll add the song to their playlists, usually for 28 days.  Submithub was created first, and has a lot more data about how many streams you can expect per playlist.  The playlists themselves also seem to have more listeners on average than on Groover. According to their data, the average acceptance rate is 19%.  My acceptance rate there is less than 2% and I have all but given up on using them in the future, but I know other artists have had tremendous success there.  In addition to my acceptance rate there being lower, the curators there have been, on average, ruder to me than they have been on Groover.  Some of the feedback can be soul crushing, so if you're new to Submithub, start small and see how you react to their feedback.

Groover is based in France, so their default currency is Euros.  What you'll pay in US dollars, or whatever your local currency is, will depend on foreign exchange rates, so if your local currency is not Euros, the price will fluctuate day-to-day.  My acceptance rate on Groover is about 35%.  I've also organized the curators into groups based on how often they've accepted my music.  My core playlist group contains about 50 curators that accept my music 95% of the time.  Anytime I promote a song, I'll send it to either that entire group, or the 10 playlists that perform the best for me, if I have a smaller budget.  It costs me about $100 to submit to all 50 curators, and in return, I'll average 1,000 streams from those 50 playlists.  The top 10 of those playlists with get me about 500 streams for $20. From a streams per dollar standpoint, this is by far my most efficient Spotify marketing effort.

If you use my service to run Snapchat Ads for your music, I can also submit your music to playlist curators on Groover, for the actual cost that Groover charges, plus about $10 for the time I spend pitching to them.  You can definitely submit on Groover yourself, and organize those playlists yourself, in order to generate a similar list for your music, if you have the time to do so, and I absolutely recommend doing so if you have the budget and time.  You'll get rude feedback from some curators, but it's been less common on Groover for me than it has been on Submithub.  

There is no fan-gating on Groover and Submithub, though the playists may have grown because of fan-gating on another site.

7. PLAYLIST CURATING

If you already have a playlist with strong organic listenership, you can signup as a curator on Groover and/or Submithub, and earn money from that playlist by accepting submissions from artists.  You can use that money to run social media ads for your playlist, and continue growing it. Assuming at least one of your songs is on that playlist, you are also marketing your music.

8. DISTRIBUTORS

TLDR: CDBaby, Tunecore and Distrokid are the big 3 independent music distributors.  All 3 get your music on streaming services and available for use in social media, and all 3 have a ton of resources for promoting your music. I love CDBaby, but I've heard good things about the others as well.

I've been using CDBaby to distribute my music since 1998, and I love them, but there are other options out there, including Distrokid (save 7% by clicking on this link), and Tunecore.  

They all have different pricing plans, and features.  They also have different marketing services.  For example, CDBaby has a profile on Spotify, and they could potentially put you on one of their playlists there, though they do represent more than 1 million independent artists, so there's a slim chance of that.  They do have a podcast, though, and all sorts of guides, including a release plan for new singles and albums.  They share highlights of their podcast on YouTube. I just peaked at their website to add the link in this paragraph, and saw they were on weekly episode #333.  They go in depth with their information, so if you enjoy learning through podcasts, they're a great resource.  

I can't really give an unbiased review of them here, as I've been a CDBaby artist since the year they launched, a quarter of a century ago, but I love them.  Distrokid does have a blog with news about updates to their services and ways they help promote you as well. Tunecore also has a blog aimed at helping independent musicians.  

So, the big 3 independent music distributors all give advice and do what they can to help you learn how to promote your music, and all 3 get your music onto streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Deezer, and others, as well as social media so that you can make money from your music when people share it in Reels, TikTok, YouTube and Facebook videos. 

I will likely do a post at some point with the differences between the platforms, and all of the benefits I can find using any of them.  

9. PHOTO AND VIDEO EDITING, AND LOCAL FLYERS

TLDR: GIMP, Photoshop, and Canva are 3 great photo editing options. I use InShot to edit videos on my Android phone, and all are a big part of promoting your music.

GIMP is a free, open source, pretty powerful photo editor. I've used it for over a decade, sometimes for still frames to create special effects in videos by manipulating one frame at a time.  

Photoshop is part of the Adobe Creative Cloud, and is the industry leader in photo editing.  It costs about $20 per month, but if you do a lot of editing and are looking for powerful features, it's a great way to go.

Canva is a relative newcomer compared to Photoshop and GIMP, but it has greatly increased in popularity recently, for good reason.  They have a ton of free templates for creating YouTube thumbnails, album covers, and more.  They're super easy to use, and the free version is quite powerful.  If you need more from them, they have a pro subscription, but I've used the free version on both my mobile phone and my laptop for everything I've needed to use them for.  

There are a ton of video editing options out there.  I personally use VSDC on my Windows based laptop.  I usually use the free version, though I upgraded to the professional version for one month when I was creating YouTube videos that needed considerably more editing because I was essentially cloning myself in the videos to make it look like I was a full band, playing each instrument at the same time.  

I use InShot on my Android smartphone for basic video edits.  It's convenient for editing videos that I recorded on my phone, and is my primary video editor because of it's convenience in editing videos on the same device I recorded them on.

The photo editors are useful for posting local flyers on bulletin boards when promoting local shows, in addition to editing images for sharing on social media, and occasionally for creating special effects in videos.

10. SHOW PROMOTION

TLDR: BandsInTown, Songkick, putting flyers up in local businesses and university bulletin boards (if you're performing in a college town), social media, Bit.ly, Facebook Events, local music publications, and ads are all great ways to promote your shows!

For local show promotion, I used to hand out demo CDs to get people to come out to see my live performances.  While that won't work as well anymore, with the increased ease of streaming, promoting local shows in person is still important.  Creating and printing flyers, at minimum, to hang up in the venue where you're playing will help attract local followers, and will show the venue that you're serious about your promotions.  If there are local businesses that allow you to put up flyers, it's also a good idea to keep a list of those.  Just remember to not put up flyers at a competing venue.

If you live in a college town, check with the local university to see their guidelines for posting flyers.  Most won't allow you to mention alcohol, due to the majority of students being younger than legal drinking age.  Some will require permission in the form of a stamp that they use to mark approved flyers.  Others will allow almost anyone to post.  Some bulletin boards will be reserved for specific departments.  When I promoted my music locally in my hometown of Oxford, Ohio, placing flyers on Miami University's campus was a major part of my strategy.  The flyers would often stay up all semester, allowing for multiple impressions from a single flyer.  Adding a QR code to the flyer can make it easy for someone to find your website, Spotify Profile, or anywhere else you want to send them.  

Generate a free QR code at Bitly.com. Bit.ly will also give you a short URL, so instead of open.spotify.com/reallylonguntypablestring/ you can use bit.ly/artistname.  It'll even track how many people scanned your QR code, and you can create a QR code that you only use on your physical flyers to see if people are scanning them.  You could even create a landing page with links to your best YouTube music video, your best songs or playlists on Spotify and Apple Music, a link to download on Bandcamp, some of your merch, and your show details.  

Speaking of show details, I suggest using Songkick and BandsInTown for all of your shows.  Both give you details on where your fans are, and both automatically populate showdates to other platforms. BandsInTown auto-populates to your Twitch, Shazaam, Bandzoogle, Shopify, and Linktree pages.  SongKick auto-populates your tour dates to Spotify, Bandcamp, Deezer, Soundcloud, and YouTube.

Both have widgets that you can put on your website, and both have tabs you can add to Facebook.  You can also create Facebook events and invite your friends on there, when promoting local shows.

Other methods for promoting local shows are what I've mentioned above with social media, as well as ads.  Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Google Search, and others can all be geo-targeted, so you can run ads on those platforms to bring more people out to your local shows.  You can use ads and social media for shows anywhere, of course.  And, if you can, I also suggest printing flyers and mailing them to the venues you're going to play as far in advance as possible so they venue has time to put them up and get as many people seeing them as possible.

BandsInTown Promoter even has a promotion, where you can mention your show in an email that gets sent out to a local audience.  You can choose similar artists to yourself, and BandsInTown will send an email to followers of those similar artists, in the town you're playing, with details about your show.  I have never used the service, but I've often considered it.  If I do, I'll definitely post my results here.

I have setup a draft of a campaign, aimed at similar artists to myself, and based on that draft I can see that sending an email to 1,000 fans of those artists in a nearby city costs $50, which is 5 cents per email.  $50 is the minimum order.  You can also get $50 off your first campaign by clicking on this link, and I'll get a $50 credit to use towards Promoter.bandsintown.com as well, which I will do the next time I book a show.  

11. MERCH

TLDR: I use Teelaunch to print merch on demand, which they make and ship for me. I integrate Teelaunch with Shopify to sell on Spotify, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and my website. I take Venmo and credit cards (via Square), and include that info on a merch display board at shows. I use CustomInk (or a local merch designer) for t-shirts before touring. I roll my shirts up, tape them, and mark the size on that tape, and then sort by size in clear plastic containers to make it easier to find when selling at shows. 

I will go into the details of how to setup Shopify to integrate with Teelaunch, Instagram, Spotify, and YouTube in another post, but for selling merch online, that is my current solution. Shopify recently added a $5 per month tier for musicians in order to sell your merch on Spotify. Teelaunch prints merch on demand and ships it to your fans, in North America and Europe at the very least. You do have to pay the wholesale price before they actually put the order into production, but then they send you the sale price (minus payment processing fees) so you keep the difference as a profit. 

You can then use Shopify to sell those products directly on your Spotify profile, YouTube page (once you're eligible for monetization), Instagram and Facebook. They also have a widget, which allows you to sell merch on any website, so you can run ads with links to landing pages with your music and your merch. 

When adding merch to your Spotify profile, you can specify what merch goes with which release, so you can sell a t-shirt with your album artwork on it, directly on that album's Spotify page. 

Since you can also sell your merch directly on Facebook and Instagram, you can tag posts with that merch. I highly recommend buying at least one of your own merch items, so that you can get a feel for the process and let fans know what to expect, and so you can post a photo and or video of you actually wearing the merch, because it allows people to see it on a human, instead of just as a preview image.

90% of my merch sales come from playing live, so it's also important to have physical merch. I use CustomInk for my t-shirts as they have a great online design tool that makes everything easy. If you have a local t-shirt designer, that's an even better option as you can cut out shipping times and costs. I've definitely done that as well, but I live in a different city now than I did the last time I had merch created, and CustomInk has a local store here where I can pick up the shirts in person.

You can also print shirts yourself if you're extra motivated and thoroughly enjoy the process of screen printing. 

When selling merch live, it's very helpful to have a display of some kind, even if it's just a collapsible cardboard one that you pick up from a local store, that has merch prices and payment options. Very few people use cash these days, so taking Venmo is a great option. I also have a Square reader, which allows me to swipe credit cards using my cell phone. I used to sell a decent amount of merch using Square, but Venmo is even easier for most people, and has usually been quicker. Accept both, and mention it (and the merch prices) on the display board, as sometimes you're selling merch in a loud environment (during another band's set, or even just while the venue is playing their own music after the bands are finished and people are heading out the door) so people may not be able to easily communicate without yelling.

You can also sell merch on Bandcamp, so if you have some merch leftover after touring, set up your merch there, with sizes, colors, etc and keep track of your inventory to make sure you don't accidentally sell something that you don't have.

On the subject of keeping track of inventory, I will usually roll my shirts up, and place a small piece of tape on them to keep them rolled up. I will write the size of the shirt on that piece of tape, to make it easy to sort, and then find when selling merch live. This keeps you from spending too much time looking for the right size, which could lead to a missed opportunity because the next fan didn't want to keep waiting. I also usually sort them in large clear containers, with small, medium and large in one, and XL and above in another. It gives me a quick inventory estimate, and makes it easier to find what I'm looking for.

12. FANS

Fans are the single biggest reason for any success I've had. They're also why my music has been used on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon, and why I performed on Dave and Jimmy's Morning Zoo on WNCI in Columbus, Ohio. 

13. BLOGS AND LOCAL MUSIC PUBLICATIONS 

The increase in popularity of the internet shut down a lot of local music publications, while others switched to being online only. If you have a new release coming out, and you're touring a city that one of these papers is located in, it's definitely worth sending them an email with a link to listen to the song, or to watch your newest music video, as they may do a blurb on the show, and will likely list your show on their events page. 

For blogs, you can submit to them on Groover and Submithub, just like you can with Spotify playlist curators. You can email them directly, but you're likely to go into a sea of endless emails that they can't keep up with. Submithub and Groover pays them for each submission, whether they review your music or not, so at the very least they'll take a look at it. Just like for local music papers, though, there should be a good reason to contact them. Playlist curators will accept songs regardless of how old they are, but blogs want to cover something new.

14. INFLUENCERS

You can also contact influencers through Submihub and Groover to use your music in their Instagram stories or TikTok videos. I used 2 or 3 smaller influencers at about $10 each. The videos got a few thousand views, but no one else used my sound organically as a result, and I saw no increase in Spotify streams. It did nothing for me, but I worked with a very small budget and very small sample size. 

There are other methods of contacting influencers as well. Usually they'll have some kind of contact info on their website, or you can try directly reaching out to them via Instagram, etc. The ones I contacted that way all wanted at least $1,000. I'm happy for them that they're able to make a living doing what they love to do, but that's well out of my price range. 

If you already follow an influencer that you think would work well with your music, that's probably the best place to start, if you're going the influencer route, but I'm not an expert on the subject.

15. OPEN MIC NIGHTS

TLDR: Open mic nights are great for debuting new songs, overcoming stage fright, filling in weekday tour dates, networking with other musicians, and establishing a local following.

Open mic nights have been great to me for many reasons. In 2004, I started playing at open mic night at Stadium Bar and Grille in Oxford, Ohio. After going to it regularly for a few months, I generated a large local following, and booked a full show. About 120 people came out to that show. It's a great way to network with other musicians, and make new fans locally. It's also a great way to debut new songs in front of a crowd, whether it's your first time ever performing and you're working through stage fright, or you've performed hundreds of times and want to get more comfortable with a new song.

I used to fill in weekday tour dates with open mic nights to start establishing myself in new cities. This was a decent solution when I was in my 20s, and was comfortable sleeping in my car, because I would occasionally get tips if I mentioned that I was touring and put out a tip jar. Sometimes that meant the difference between eating applesauce and raisins, or getting an actual meal, on the road. It also meant being able to afford gas to get to the next city. 

I used openmikes.org to find open mic listings. It's a great starting point, but be sure to confirm with the venue before adding in open mic tour dates. If there's a Facebook page for the event, you may even be able to talk to the host about being a featured act since you're touring, and play a longer set.

16. RADIO, INCLUDING XM, COLLEGE AND INTERNET

"97X! Bam! The future of Rock and Roll!" Words uttered often in Rain Man. That was also the first station to play my music, as WOXY was based in Oxford, Ohio for many years before the independently owned and operated station was sold to a larger company. They primarily played independent music, and I was so excited when they played my music! I still have the cassette I used to record the radio broadcast at the time.

I've performed my music on Dave and Jimmy's Morning Zoo on WNCI in Columbus, Ohio because a friend of mine at the time told the station about my music. They played "Chillin at the Papa" on their morning radio program daily for awhile, and then they brought me in to have a chat and perform the song at 7 am, back in 2007.

This resulted in a couple of people buying the song on iTunes, and would have resulted in more downloads, but iTunes had Chillin at the Papa mislabeled, so when those 2 people bought it, they ended up with a very obscure song of mine. The mislabeling was eventually fixed, but I missed out. Regardless, the radio station exposure obviously gained me some fans.

In terms of approaching radio stations, things get complicated. If it's a major station, they're unlikely to respond to you, unless they have a special program dedicated to local artists. Then, you can look up that radio program's information. 

College radio is much more likely to play your music, but obviously has fewer listeners. It can still be a way for new fans to find you, though, and if having your music on the radio is exciting for you, it's definitely worth contacting a few of them, especially if you're touring in a new city. Sending your music to college radio stations could bring in new fans in those cities, and you could even be interviewed on the college radio station the same day you perform in the city, which is an interesting experience. 

There are services out there which will send your music to hundreds of college radio stations at once, but I haven't submitted my music to college radio recently, so I don't have a specific service that I recommend.

For XM Radio, you can mail in your CD. Here is the link with their address:

https://www.siriusxm.com/contact-us

17. GIG SWAPPING 

Setting up gig swaps with other bands can lead to more shows for both of you. If you're a fan of an artist with a similar level of popularity in another town, consider contacting them about swapping shows. 

Indie On The Move is a great resource for this. You can setup alerts for when a band posts an available show, and if you have a show you can put them on in return, you can get a gigswap that way. Indie On The Move is also a great resource for finding venues to play while on tour, as they sort them by location, size, and genres.

18. PODCAST

Spotify For Podcasters (search for it on iOS and Google Play) used to be called Anchor, and is a pretty easy way to get started from a technical standpoint. There are other ways to get started as well, and regardless of which way you get started, there are several things you can offer your listeners. Maybe each episode could be the story behind a song, and then a live performance of it. You could also simultaneously film the podcast and put it on YouTube as well. If there are particularly interesting moments, you could make short vertical videos out of those moments to use as TikTok videos, Instagram and Facebook Reels, and YouTube shorts, and maybe even ads.

I have not run a podcast, but that's where I'd start if I did. I have been interviewed on a few podcasts, and they can definitely be fun. Sometimes they bring new fans, and often they provide a deeper connection with existing fans.

19. PR FIRMS

I know almost nothing about PR firms, but I do know they exist for musicians. I vaguely recall Macklemore finding fame through one, but I'm very fuzzy on the details. I do know that they can be very expensive. So, even if you have thousands of dollars to spend on one, research it thoroughly. Look at reviews. See if you can find any artists that had experience with that particular PR firm, and ask them about their experience. 

20. MASTERING SERVICES

Part of marketing music is the level of quality of the actual music itself. Mastering and production can play a large role in that. I record my songs myself, at home, using a Behringer UM22 soundcard, but for several albums, I went into Refraze Studios in Dayton, Ohio to have a sound engineer with decades of experience record my vocals in a soundproof environment. It makes a big difference. Ideally, I'd finish every album that way. However, I moved to North Carolina 4 years ago, and shortly thereafter COVID hit, and I have not researched local music studios. For my most recent album, "Gummy," released January 19th, 2022, I recorded everything at home, and used a combination of Discmakers Soundlab, and Cloudbounce (AI Mastering software). I paid $20 for a one month subscription to Cloudbounce to master all of the songs on the album. Then, for the songs I knew I was going to promote heavily, I sent those tracks to Discmakers to have sound engineers with decades of experience get the best possible sound out of my finished tracks. The Discmakers track still sound better than Cloudbounce, but at $20 for the entire album using Cloudbounce, vs $59 (at the time, it's now $49) per track with Discmakers, I am very happy with how the album cuts sound. I'm also very glad I spent the extra on the standout tracks with Discmakers. In the future, if I have the budget, I'll always send songs to Discmakers for mastering, or get into a professional studio to record the vocals and finish up the album. If I have a smaller budget, I'll use Cloudbounce to master my tracks.

21. HELPFUL BLOGS AND YOUTUBE CHANNELS TO FOLLOW

Follow this one, of course. Bookmark this page, as I'll update this post periodically to try to keep up with the changes in the music industry. CDBaby's podcast is great. Also, Ari's Take, and Andrew Southworth on YouTube for advice and tutorials on running ads to grow your Spotify streams.  

22. SUMMARY

There are many paths to success for independent musicians. The TLDR at the top of the page gives a quick summary of my most important tools for marketing my music. Some of them may be different for you than they are for me. I will update this blog post periodically to try to keep up with the changes in marketing for independent musicians, so bookmark this page and come back to it if you'd like. I'll also write more in-depth posts on some of the topics covered here. My next post will be about revenue streams for independent musicians. 

I wish you success, and incredible experiences!

I watched so many episodes of Behind The Music on VH1, that I never wanted to sign with a label, so I've been DIY since I started rapping in 1992.

I've been recording music since 1992, and promoting it just as long.  I sent in a cassette recording of a homemade song to a local radio station when I lived in Orlando in 1993, at the age of 14, called 102 Jamz.  I tried calling the station one day to follow up, but I didn't realize they were doing their “Bump it or dump it” segment, so when they answered and said “Bump it or dump it?” I paused for a moment because I hadn't heard the song they played, but I said “Bump it” because even then I thought that if someone put forth the effort to make a song, that it deserved to be heard.  

Around that same time, I gave a copy of that cassette to a talent agent, and she said “Rap is on its way out, and you should do something that's you.”  Since then, I have sent my music to countless blogs, booking agents at venues, potential fans, radio stations, playlist curators, friends, family, and anyone else who would potentially listen.

I recorded my first album in 1996, and released it on January 11th, 1997, 8 days before my 18th birthday.  I had a website even back then, which I launched on September 1st, 1996. In 1998 and 1999, I ran an electronic magazine called “Underground Music Monthly,” where I reviewed albums, and talked about the latest happenings in the independent music world.  I even wrote an article about CDBaby in 1998, shortly after they launched. 

In the early 2000s, I started touring, and at the time, the internet wasn't nearly as ubiquitous.  Almost all music venues required a physical demo and press kit.  The more polished, the better.  In 2003, I sent out 200 demos and booked 9 shows.  How you look at those numbers makes all the difference in the world, as it will always be harder to get a yes than a no.  That's why I choose to focus on the 4% acceptance rate for that tour, and be grateful for all 9 venues that booked me. 

Those demos included a full album, a bio, press photos, and I think I even included stickers. Each one cost about $3 to make, and $2 to ship, so I spent around $1,000 sending those demos out.  In order to book those shows, the booking agents at the venues had specific times that you could call about booking, and if you didn't get ahold of them during those hours, you just had to wait, sometimes up to a week.  Typical booking times were a short 2 hour window in the afternoon, from 3-5 pm for example, at most 3 times per week, and sometimes only on one day.  Since you only had a limited time to reach them for booking, you had to keep calling and hope you timed it right because there were several dozen other bands calling during that window as well.  You also had to hope you made a positive memorable impression, or the booking agent wasn't going to remember your music and info well enough to book you.  

After you booked the show, you then had to promote it.  At that time, that was primarily physical promotion.  For my out of town shows, the local band was by far the most important part of the show.  If it was a local band with draw that promoted the show well with flyers, word of mouth, and maybe Myspace (if it was post August 2003), that was the most consistent path to having good turnout at shows.  It wasn't the only aspect, though, so I printed flyers for every show, and mailed them via USPS, in either tube poster mailers, or hard 9"x12" envelopes to make sure they didn't bend, depending on the size of the flyers that the venue asked for.  I also sent demos to any local music magazines or newspapers, such as Folio Weekly in Jacksonville, FL and CityBeat in Cincinnati.  I even sent a compilation CD with the first 20 years' worth of my music to the Orlando Sentinel at one point later in my career.  “An exhaustive, and sometimes exhausting, collection…”  If I can find the article online, I'll add the link here.

For that 2003 tour, that was still before YouTube even existed.  I've had my YouTube channel since November 2006, and YouTube itself launched in February of 2005. In the early and mid 2000s, I performed as often as I could.  Sometimes that meant going on tour, like The 17 Days In a Minivan Tour that I went on in 2006, and other times, it meant doing local shows every 3-12 weeks.  For the local shows, I would also contact the local music magazines to have them listed in their show pages.

In 2004, I put on Playing For a Cure, with all proceeds benefitting the American Cancer Society, in honor of my mom's memory on the 10 year anniversary of when she passed away.  I spent about $1,000 marketing the show, burning CDs and handing them out on UC's campus, running ads in local music papers, printing flyers, etc.  I also contacted a local radio station, and was lucky enough to get them to run a ticket giveaway on the air, and for a follow up show, I got one of the bands involved to make an appearance on local TV show in northern Kentucky.

In the early and mid 2000s, music piracy was huge.  Napster launched in June of 1999, and completely changed everything about how music was consumed, and Spotify didn't launch until 2008. There was no solution for piracy for about 9 years, so I shifted my thinking.  I assumed that people weren't going to buy my music anyway when they could just pirate it, so I leaned into it, and burned off demo CDs.  CD-R's cost about 50 cents each when bought in bulk, and continued to drop steadily until I could buy 100 blank CDs for about $25. I could get them even cheaper, but the really cheap ones had a high fail rate, so only 50-60 of the CDs would actually work.  

The library at my alma mater had a CD duplicator that anyone affiliated with the University could use, so I did.  I'd burn 200-500 demo CDs per regional show I booked.  I made 4.25"x4.25" flyers to stuff into the CD sleeves, and handwrote my website “MissionMan.net” on the CD surfaces using a sharpie.  The flyers had the show date, and my website as well.  I went to local colleges, and handed out those demos, sometimes watching people throw them directly in the trash after I handed them out. If I handed out 300 demos, I would usually draw 20-40 people to my shows as a result, and that following grew the more I did it.  At $150 in CD pressing costs, hours spent creating and printing flyers, gas money and time spent driving to college campuses to hand out the demos, and bringing in about $100 in revenue, I was definitely still losing money.  However, I was gaining a following, and the shows were an incredible amount of fun!  I still have friends that I made during those times through my music, which is also amazing!

As the internet became more prevalent, marketing became easier in some ways, and more difficult in others.  Everyone had relatively low barriers to recording and releasing music.  In 1999, my soundcard cost $1,000 to allow me to record music at home.  Now, my USB Behringer soundcard costs about $60, or you can get a 2 channel input Behringer UMC202 for $99 on Amazon. You can get a Scarlett Focusrite 2i2, which is a very clean sounding USB audio interface, on Amazon for about $170.  Both of those links are affiliate links, so I'll get a portion of the sale if you buy them through that link.

The amount of music that is released now is staggering, and the ways to promote your music can also be overwhelming.  I spent $4,500 in ads for my music in 2022, and generated about $1,800 in revenue, so my ROI is still negative, but the music industry is difficult to make a living in, and I learn everyday what works and what doesn't.  I've run ads on all of the following platforms: YouTube, Facebook, Snapchat, Reddit, Twitter, TikTok, Show.co and Bing.  Snapchat has been my most effective ad platform for driving streams on Spotify.  Running ads for videos on YouTube has been my most effective ad platform for growing a subscriber base on YouTube.  In the minimal advertising I've done on Reddit, I've had a little bit of success promoting a Spotify playlist within the subreddit r/spotify.  TikTok ads were extremely ineffective for me, as were Twitter ads.  I will likely write a blog post with a lot more details about my experience with ads on all of those platforms, so keep an eye out for that if it's something that interests you.

In addition to social media ads, I have also heavily used Groover, Submithub, Dailyplaylists, Soundplate, and The Spotify Indie Bible to push my music to playlist curators. I've had the most success with Groover.  On Groover, my acceptance rate is close to 40% versus Submithub, where my acceptance rate is about 1%.  Other artists have had more success with Submithub, and from what I've seen, the playlist curators there have playlists with stronger engagement as well.  If you're interested in signing up for Submithub as a playlist curator, you can do so here.  

The best source of marketing has always been my fans.  They've put on great shows for me, adding local bands with draw, and excitedly telling people about the shows.  I've also had my music on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon in 2018 because a fan sent it in, and another fan told their local morning show in Columbus, Ohio about it, and they brought me in to perform my music at 7:00 am.

This is a fairly broad overview of my music marketing efforts over the last 30 years.  I plan on breaking down a lot of it in future blog posts, so if you're a musician and interested in any of it, keep an eye out for future blog posts. This particular blog is mainly for independent musicians, but if you're a fan of my music, you'll also get to see a bit behind the curtain.

See the archived version of my original Geocities website for Mission Man.