12 Ways to Grow Your Audience and Build a Successful Career in Music
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Growing your audience and building a successful career in music involves how to build your audience that supports your music and how to build revenue. This list is a mix of both. I hope it helps you create a wildly successful and sustainable career in music. Use this directory to hop down to relevant places on the blog.
1. Fan Funnel
Funnels are like relationship dating. First you catch their attention. Then you go for coffee. Then if you are still interested you go on a dinner date and so on. You don’t get married on your second date :).
Funnels are a way to introduce yourself to potential new followers that can turn into fans, and then convert into true fans who support your music.
To build a Fan Funnel you’ll need:
Once you have your Fan Funnel set up, you can point people to get your free EP or LP from socials to grow your list. If you don’t have a full EP/LP then give a bundle of 2-3 songs. The more the merrier. In order for people to give their email address it has to be enticing and a few songs might not do it. But start with what you have.
Then set up your email nurture series and your monthly newsletter to promote to them. Include a short letter from you, a featured music link, a featured merch link, and a bio with a beautiful picture of you and all of your links.
Once you have an email list you can start growing the relationship and that lead to monetizing. Email lists are still KING to growing your own list and developing stronger relationships with fans. Email lists convert followers into fans. The next step is to turn fans into true fans who support your career. Social media followers don’t usually buy stuff—they just get the free music. And if and when those platforms could go down, or you lose access to a page (hackers are bountiful) – so does your connection with all of those followers. So always remember to build your own email list!
A note about – finding your target market: to be sure you are catching the right people that are interested in your music, it’s important to build out your Listener Avatar and market directly to them. For example, Facebook Ads with a wider search parameter will attract less of your specific audience. When that happens, you’ll have less engagement and will have trouble growing your audience.
2. Live performance
Live shows, Livestreams, Festivals, Group shows, songwriter nights, SoFar Sounds, Breakout Sounds etc. Live-shows are still one of the best ways to connect with your fans and build an audience. Particularly if you have a residency in a local venue. Go to a local venue and look into whether you can have a residency performance on the same day of the month date to help you build an audience. This makes it easy for people to plan ahead and easily remember when you are playing. Great to post on socials. Be sure to pick a venue that has a livestream feature so you can stream to followers who can’t attend in person.
Livestreams are a great way to grow your audience. Twitch has become a platform that many musicians are using to livestream. If you build an audience there they will even feature your livestream on their homepage. There is a tip jar and you can also host subscription content and do giveaways and sell merch. Many artists I know make anywhere from $500 – $3500 a month livestreaming on Twitch. YOu can also use other platforms like Instagram and Youtube for livestreams with monetization.
Group shows. Partnering with other artists to do shows together is a great way to share audiences and gain new followers. Again be sure to have a clear CTA (call to action) to give from the stage. Tell them to stop by the merch table to get a special one-time release they can’t get elsewhere. Collect their email address and deliver the release via email.
Festivals are an amazing way to grow your audience. Festivals have built in audiences so you don’t have to bring one. And you reach a whole new audience of folks and potential followers. Pick the festivals you want to play and look for submission dates switch are usually sometime during November – January for the upcoming summer.
Be sure to have an exciting new music demo or single (unreleased is even better) that you can shout out about from the stage. A great way to give your album, latest single or even a brand new song demo away. Have them pull out their phones to opt-in to get it right there. Have them email you directly [email protected].. Makes it feel super special.
* Remember to submit your set list to your PRO (Performing Rights Organization) who pays royalties on original music performed in reporting venues)
3. Merchandise
Making cool merch that people want is a great way to boost your revenue. People will buy from you – as long as it’s merch they want!
One of my artists makes prints of her drawings and sells hand crocheted beanies. Another sells Christmas ornaments with messages from his songs and brand. Another is developing a hat and jewelry line partnering with local shops. When your merch matches your brand it can be a really cool thing to do – and you don’t have to be a big artist to do it.
Here are some examples of recent products my artists are creating:
Every single dollar you make from merch helps make it possible to continue to make their music. Develop that merch line. Have a dedicated merch table assistant who is good at selling at all of your gigs. You’d be surprised, when you make stuff people want, how much they want to buy it!
4. Offers and Giveaways at Live Shows and Livestreams
Giveaways are a great way to get people’s attention and grow engagement (and interest in your merch.) How do Giveaways make money? They attract potential customers with the merch and you can sell additional giveaway items at a discount to those that didn’t win!
Choose a piece of higher-end merchandise for your Giveaways to make it more exciting. I recommend promoting a Giveaway or two with each new release and once a month at Livestreams or at a Monthly Residency (monthly local show).
Tip: When your giveaway is something sentimental of nostalgic it can be a nice touch to draw people in. One of my artists gave away the hat he wore during the marking of the record and it helped to grow his audience and get engagements on his posts. Most of those people stayed too because the giveaway is so aligned with his brand and image (and it’s a really cool hat).
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5. VIP Bundles
VIP Bundles are another way to increase revenue at shows, while building VIP fans. VIPers are most likely to become super fans because they want to come to all of your shows and buy everything you have to offer. A great way to identify those people is to offer a special VIP Bundle at your live shows. The bundle is a higher-priced ticket that can include a few pieces of merch and even a meet and greet and/or photo opp before or after the show. Some fans really love stuff like that!
6. Subscription Content
Once you have anywhere from 5000 on socials and 2500 on your email list – as long as you have good engagement from your followers and attending your Lives – you could start a subscription. I see most artists offering subscriptions from $1.99 – 9.99+ per month. Keep in mind you’ll need to create compelling content and Live events that only your subscribers get – so don’t start until you are ready and you have an audience!
7. Memberships and Crowdfunding
Memberships. Once you have a good size following who are coming to your shows and Livestreams it’s time to build a membership. Converting followers to paid memberships takes some work so you want to have a good amount of subscribers to convert them over. I would say once your email list is above 500 (and they are active) to give it a try!
Crowdfunding is also a great way to support your career albeit not easy to do. But once you have a membership it will be easier to rally your supporters who are already invested and engaged in helping you rise!
8. Publishing
Music publishers earn money through licensing fees and royalties. In terms of song ownership, a publisher usually gets a 50% stake in a track. In other words, the original copyright owner (the songwriter) assigns a portion of the copyright for a song to the publisher. A deal with a good publishing company can significantly increase a songwriter’s earning potential as they have relationships with people who can exploit (make money) from your catalog like sync agents, music solutions companies that make playlists for business among other opportunities such as writing for other artists and more.
9. Sync Licensing
Submitting your music for Film and TV can be a great way to increase your income but they are not easy deals to land. First of all, not all music is suited for sync. But if yours is, you’ll want to get connected and build your contacts in that area of the business.
Sync agents work with multiple music supervisors finding songs for Film + TV. Finding one can be a valuable asset to get places in film.
Music Supervisors are the busiest in teh business constantly looking for music at the end of a film or tv series production cycle. They have to fill those slots quickly and often at the last minute. Make sure your songs are cleared for licensing (if you have cowriters they have to sign off on the publishing rights) before you submit.
One of the best ways to submit your music for a sync deal is through a music publisher. Publishing companies have a wealth of experience pitching artists’ tracks to huge global networks and video streaming services, such as BBC, HBO and Netflix. Make a list of publishers and reach out once you have a catalog of at least a full album of 10+ songs.
10. Brand Partnerships
Partnering with brands that are local or that align with your values and brand is a cool way to grow your audience. Local brands might be more open if you are a local artist with a small following. Other brands will be interested once you are over 15k on socials. Big brands will kick in once you are over 75k or so. These numbers can fluctuate as the flow of marketing changes continuously. But these are good figures to aim for! Build a Media Kit that has your stats on it to give to potential brand partners.
11. Royalties: Streaming, Mechanical Royalties, Live Performance Royalties
Streaming is also a source of income. Music royalties from DSPs (Digital Service Providers) such as Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, Tidal, etc. Streaming doesn’t bring in much money right away but it can add up over time —especially as your followers and number of monthly listeners begin to grow. Streaming is a regular source of revenue for many artists whether newer or more established.
Mechanical Royalties. MLC is the company that collects mechanical royalties for independent musicians who own their own masters. You can find out more about the MLC here: https://www.themlc.com/
Live Performance Royalties. Don’t forget to submit your set list to your PRO (Performing Rights Organization) who pays royalties on original music performed in reporting venues). While these royalties are small amounts in the beginning they can add up!
To collect your royalties be sure your songs are registered with:
12. Music Solutions Services
A lesser-known way to improve revenue from performance royalties is to submit your music to Music Solutions Services who compile music playlists for public businesses such as restaurants, hotels, and gyms. These companies create custom playlists for businesses that are licensed and include PRO fees.
Below are some examples of music solutions services.
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