One of the tedious aspects of being an Indy artist is the seeming absence of a clear path to achieving anything. But this is wrong because not only does a clear path exists, but just looking for a map looks like betraying the notion of integrity on the artist side. You can work in law or finance and everywhere else that has a clear hierarchy in place. But as a musician you also want this sort of structure and hierarchy.
There have been a lot of great explanations of the modern model of the music business and how it applies to Indy artists but there is little information on what to do exactly, how to do it and when to do it. A lot of the Indy artists out there are motivated and highly driven to the painstaking work but they don’t know what there are supposed to be doing. There is no singular path to the show business but why should every artist have to reinvent the wheel to get anything done?
When you speak to the industry experts, you quickly learn that are certain steps you must take and you must take them in a particular sequence in order to maximize your opportunity to make any money and any imprint on the music world. These steps are built for today’s dynamic world of continually shifting trends and expectations.
How well you are seem to be going forward in the music business today is mostly centered on a perceived momentum. Anything you achieve today is an indicator of what you can do tomorrow but the headache remains how do you get started when you have no current achievements to your name. It’s a catch 22. Earned press is an area where you have the highest chance of achieving any momentum and creating your own narrative to stand out from the crowd. Music PR is typically overly expensive and very selective. You don’t want to go this route if you haven’t hit it to a certain extent.
The great news here is that the world of music yesterday has transformed into a new digital age where there are no gatekeepers of content and you have equal opportunity of putting your music out there for the public to listen to. Thousands of Indy artist have gone this route and this transfers the onus to you the artist to get your own success.
Once you have press, it is now time to target an audience. Exploit all of the available platforms to hook your listeners unto your content and get them excited about your stuff. Continue to build your audience base and find different means of leveraging them as means to your financial success. The buzz around you will land you projects, deals, features and collaborations. When you are on the upward momentum, a lot of things start to change and you suddenly start to get more access. You get more bookings, more gigs and more exposure. This all accumulates into a giant of stream of income sourced from various other smaller streams.
