[SLICE] End of the Year To Do List for an Independent Artist

Ok - it’s OCTOBER (how). It’s time to get your shit straight! There’s still 2.5 months left in the year, so you better make sure your ducks are in a row! If not, then find your ducks, tell them it’s time to get serious, and to get in their appropriate row. Ducks are IMPOSSIBLE to keep in line.

Here’s your to-do list:

1. VOTE.

   • So, that’s not music related, but it’s your civic duty and NOVEMBER 6 IS THE DAY.

2. RELEASES:

   • Make sure your releases are ready to go for holiday deadlines. iTunes/Apple Music sent their dates out last week and since I’m nice, I’m going to post them below! Please note that your distributor may have separate, earlier deadlines! Check with them.

   • If you are not currently planning on releasing music, DO NOT MAKE A PLAN TO RELEASE MUSIC NOW. 4Q is still inundated with big releases and if you don’t have yours strategically planned out, it’s just not worth it at this point.

   • If you have early 1Q release plans, there are deadlines for those too! Get your artwork, press & marketing plans ready to go.

3. PRESS:

   • Pitch to press early. Everyone goes on holiday - even cynical music writers! They want to get their work wrapped up and out the door. Plus, those “best of the year” lists are getting put together right now, so get to work! For January releases, premieres and features get locked in in November or early December

4. TOURING:

   • Make sure your 1Q tour or show plans are already in place. If you’re still deciding whether or not you’re going to tour in January, you might as well wait until April.

5. MONEY:

   • Do your best to start to gather financial info together for taxes. If you have a CPA they will want some info before the end of the year. Did you pay people this year? You’ll have to send 1099s in January. Might want to start thinking about that.

6. WRAP UP:

   • Make a list of what you need to get done before the end of the year and start checking things off.

7. PLAN:

   • Draft out your goals for next year and (if you haven’t already) start an outline of what you want the top of the year to look like for your project.

I knowwwww, you just wanted to float on into the new year full of Turkey and champagne. Me too! I want that too! Just a few things left to do and then we can make that happen.

And now for those deadlines:

[SLICE] How to get an opening slot

photo credit: Randolph Infinger

Every young band or artist wants to grab a great slot opening for a bigger band. It’s perfect - you get exposure to a bunch of potential new fans, there isn’t a ton of risk involved, and you can probably play in a bunch of venues or cities that you wouldn't be able to play in yet since you’re still a growing project. It’s a fabulous plan! It’s not an easy plan, though.

Actually landing that opening slot is a tough sell. Multiple artists are vying for the same spot and you need to check off a whole bunch of items to even be considered.

Here’s your cheat sheet of what you need and what you need to be able to do:

1. Have tour history. Even if it’s not in every market, some basis of touring is very helpful. If you’ve opened for another band, include that as well. If you have never played shows before, do that first. I won’t even entertain an artist that says the tour will be their first real shows.

2. Be able to put on a great show. Self explanatory.

3. Have shit going on. Having new music released during or right before the tour is key.

4. Show your promo muscle. Will you have a publicist during the tour? Include that in your pitch. For the love of God, be active on your socials so it looks like you’ll be active if you’re asked to go on tour.

5. Flex your press. Send 1-2 links of the very best press you’ve gotten.

6. Make sure the music matches. Your music should line up with what the headliner plays (without being a direct duplication). Don’t pitch for a slot just because it’s a big band. It has to make sense sonically.

7. As with anything in the music industry, having a team behind you helps

Now, who do you reach out to?

Do you have any sort of in with the band? In most cases, the artist/band has a ton of say in who they bring on the road. If not, start with management. Agents generally work best with other agents.

Finally.

Keep your pitch SHORT. Do not write a book about how you love whatever band is touring and how you’d just DIE to open for them. Be professional and get to the point - a little tour history, some links to music & press, and 1-2 sentences on why you’d be the best fit. For example: “I plan on releasing 2 new singles leading up to the tour and will have my publicist on board for the entire run.”

Best of luck out there! Happy pitching!

Vote for us! SXSW 2019

Hey guys - HUGE favor to ask! We put together a panel for SXSW & we need your help getting selected! Below is our panel blurb & here's the full link to vote: https://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/88286

DIY(UYC): Do it yourself (until you can't). Indie torchbearer Ron Pope & the team from Brooklyn Basement Records break down the DIY philosophy that has driven Pope's unprecedented success & explain how artists can take a hands on approach to their careers & find meaningful growth without intervention from the conventional music business. One of the first artists to explode on the internet, Pope has sold millions of singles, amassed over a billion streams, toured the globe & generally crushed every metric for what seemed possible for an independent artist all while carefully growing the BBR staff and roster. This panel will break down strategies for indie artists, labels & managers regarding release & branding plans, social media promotional tactics, how to attack streaming sites & more.

Voting ends August 30! Will we see you at SXSW next year? Here's our post on how you can make the most of it! 

[SLICE] Radio Promotion for indie labels and artists

Author: Randolph Infinger (@dolphin_finger)

[Editor's note: we're circling back around to the topic of radio. Read our last post on radio for indies HERE]

Radio is by far the most consumed source for music and it’s no secret that major labels have a huge stake in radio companies (ever hear of iheartradio in every city you visit?) But what can independent labels and musicians do to gain airplay? Luckily, there are other avenues independents can take to successfully promote their music.

Who do I submit to?

First of all: avoid iheartradio stations. It isn’t worth the time and effort as they are looking for major label music. I start with radio-locater.com to find a market’s full list of FM stations and look for  AAA (Adult Album Alternative), public radio, and college radio. AC (Adult Contemporary) is a toss-up as some can be useful while others are more geared towards pop music. When you find one you’d like to submit to, check out their contact or about page and find the music director’s info. If they don’t have a music director, try the programming director or simply reach out to the station’s general email asking who to contact for music submissions.

How do I pitch in my email?

If you’re independent you likely understand the hustle and creativity you have to put into everything. Radio is no different, so get creative and get moving! The first step to a successful pitch is knowing the different programs and shows they offer throughout the week. Most stations have a “playlist” feature that lists all of the songs played during a certain DJ’s time slot. If they have music similar to yours, make sure to mention you really enjoy the ______ program and think your music perform well on it. The added personalization can go a long way in showing you’re not just sending out a mass email with a million BCCs.   

Ok now what?

Now begins the hustle. In order to really get the music directors attention you MUST follow up consistently. Very rarely have I seen a introductory/first email get a response unless the music director already knows the artist. Follow up once a week (some people like to say 2) and continue to follow up until you reach about 4-5 emails. At that point it most likely is a no-go and you should move on. Keep the follow up simple: one sentence is more than enough and gets the point across that you are trying to reach them.

To wrap it all up:

Radio is weird. It’s a necessity and can be a burden for independents. The best way to approach radio is a numbers game; the more stations you submit to the more you’re likely to get airplay. It will take time, but the more you hustle the more you will ultimately gain.

The Music Industry Guide to Digital Organization

Author: Randolph Infinger (@dolphin_finger) Organization+ Software= Success

Organization and efficiency is something everyone is always striving to be better at. Here’s a short list of some of my favorite software/apps that have made organization easy while working in the music industry:

Slack: Organize your team

Emails can be overwhelming when working on multiple projects as sometimes threads are lost or details misplaced. Slack allows you to create seperate “channels” to communicate with team members regarding specific projects. The instant messaging that is provided in these channels is amazing for quickly asking a question without cluttering inboxes or interrupting work flow.

Dropbox: Organize your files

If you’ve ever lost data due to a computer crashing or lost hard drive, you know the feeling of losing your hard earned work. I put almost everything in Dropbox including venue contracts, financial documents, photos and videos, release/marketing plans and much much more. Dropbox also makes it incredibly easy to share your files with others how you wish. I find myself sending a dropbox link out almost everyday. If you’re not so keen on Dropbox’s price, Google Drive is a fine alternative.

Remember: one local backup, one offsite backup, and one cloud backup for safe measure. (Yes, it’s overkill but hey you don’t want to lose that awesome video you made!)

Evernote: Organize your thoughts  

I write everything down; if I don’t I know I will easily forget. Evernote takes note taking to a whole new level. This isn’t just a checklist app, but a comprehensive list that allows audio recording, links, tables, you name it. Personally I love the cloud feature because I can start a note on my laptop and finish it on my phone at a later time.

Omnidisk Sweeper/Disk Doctor: Organize your computer

If you work in photo or video editing, you probably already use a program such as these to get rid of those pesky cache files. Often people complain of “bogged down” or “slow” systems and this is the first step I take to help remedy that. With laptops/computers being the primary way we conduct business, we have to treat them with same respect we would take treating our cars. Think of using something like Disk Doctor as a quick oil change for your system!

Have any that you love? Let us know what we're missing out on! 

[SLICE] Chiseling your way to a Career in Music

author: Ron Pope (@RonPopeMusic)

Sometimes we all need a good pep talk. 

This post is more aptly named - "If You Can’t Find A Sledgehammer, Use A Chisel" as that's essentially our business model as independents in the music industry.

Think about your favorite global pop star. When that artist drops a new record, everyone on the planet knows about it; it’s inescapable. The new single by such and such pop singer is on the radio constantly, you see him on TV talking to Ellen/Kimmel/Elmo, he’s on billboards, he’s on the cover of a magazine seductively holding a large guinea pig, every online publication worth its salt has a feature that talks about his childhood/eating habits/ceramic turtle collection. They’re everywhere!

As an independent artist, I’m sure you’ve come to realize, that kind of global major media saturation probably isn’t going to happen for you on your own.

I’m fifteen years into my recording career and we spend a tidy sum promoting my albums and work with a bunch of incredibly hard working, ultra-talented people but I’m certainly not everywhere when my records drop. The major players in the industry use the sledgehammer approach; it’s big, it’s heavy, and it makes a great big dent. Since you don’t have access to that, you can’t make a big hole all at once, you’ll need to pick away at it a little bit at a time. We call that the chisel approach.  

When you’re starting out, you probably don’t have a big time publicist or a powerful radio promoter in your corner. Start to get press by finding someone to write about you; maybe it’s a college newspaper near where you live. Look for a small, independent radio station in your area and reach out. It should be easier to build some kind of hometown love than it is to promote your music on a global scale right out of the gate. Book yourself some shows close to home and sell them out. Get your cousins and all their friends to come out; don’t be afraid to call in favors “Stevie, I bailed you out; come see my band or next time I’m leaving you there overnight!” If you can start a little buzz in your immediate vicinity, you can then attempt to gradually spread it outward from there. The same is true for promoting your music online; you’re probably not going to get write-ups from the biggest publications in the world right away, so look for smaller outlets that seem interested in the kind of music you’re creating. Start small and build from there. You’ll probably struggle to get added to Spotify playlists with three million subscribers, but perhaps there’s a smaller independent playlist that is excited about being a driver of discovery. Find people who are in the business of helping new artists and talk to them.

I know that all of this sounds incredibly daunting. The world is very large, but that’s why it’s best to start close to home. Focus on making a dent little by little, rather than allowing yourself to get despondent because you don’t have a sledgehammer to make a giant hole all at once. It may take you longer to do it on your own, but given time and effort, you can still make a big dent.

[SLICE] If You're an Independent Musician, Don't Listen to Anybody*

Everybody and their mother will have advice for you if you’re trying to make a living with music. People will tell you how to sound, how to dress, what to do to promote your music, whether they think you’re good or not or if your music sounds commercial enough to them; it goes on and on. You’re going to be fielding advice from well meaning friends and relatives who’ve never come closer to making a record than that time the cat accidentally opened GarageBand when she walked on their laptop. Our advice on all of that advice? Ignore it. Do I think it sounds insane that my advice for you is to avoid listening to advice? Of course, but stick with me and I’ll explain. Here's where that asterisk comes in! 

You can’t listen to everyone all the time; you have to be selective with who’s advice you’re willing to take.

If you sing, at least one of your aunts is going to tell you to audition for (insert the name of whatever singing show your Aunt Diane and Uncle Maurice watch every Thursday at 8 pm). Has your aunt ever seen one of the contracts they make you sign when you audition for a singing show? Of course she hasn’t. (I have, and I’m here to tell you, they’re terrifying. I’d say they own your ass, but it’s more serious than that; they own your spleen, your scalp, your earlobes…you get the idea.) Also, Aunt Diane, who’s the last person you remember that got really popular after competing on one of those shows? It’s been a hot minute, right? Am I saying that your aunt is trying to give you bad advice? Of course not, she thinks she’s giving you great advice on how to get your big break! Unfortunately, since she doesn’t know anything about how the music industry works, her giving you advice on how to make it is just as valid as me giving you advice on how to do surgery. I’m interested in surgery, I even watch shows about it on television pretty regularly, but am I an expert in surgery? Nope. That same idea applies here.

You need to find your own way.

Seek out information that seems valuable and relevant and is delivered by someone has a good understanding of how the music industry of today works. (I’ve sat in lots of rooms with people from the old guard of the music industry who haven’t updated their notions on this business since 1995; as an indie artist just getting started, you probably don’t need their advice, either.) Next time somebody who has no business giving you advice says “What you need to do to get your career going is…” just smile and nod. When they’re finished, forget everything they said and carry on.

One exception - you can listen to us! Obviously.

[NEWS DUMP] Monday, March 26 | 2018

• Spotify is going public on April 3. I'm sure you've seen the news and wondered how the hell it will impact you? Honestly, hopefully not much. However, we know that once a tech giant goes public all eyes are on that stock price. You might want to check into these 10 key points from the investor day.
• iHeartMedia owes people some money. We know they are bankrupt, but this radio giant owes pretty much every sort of collection agency (BMI/ASCAP, SoundExchange, etc) some cash. Watching to see how this plays out.
• SoundExchange has now paid out over $5 BILLION to artists. If you haven't signed up with SX, what the HELL ARE YOU WAITING FOR. 
• Artist advocacy group, C3 submitted 3 ways that the Music Modernization Act could be improved upon. In case you missed it, one of our fearless leaders (Ron Pope) was on a panel discussing the MMA at the Nashville Entrepreneur center a couple of weeks ago. He kicked ass and stood up for independent artists. 
• Social Media use declining overall. Seems people are a little tired of their lives being broadcast all day, seeing their crazy cousin's political rants, and having FOMO. Another reason to boost your email list. 
• Don't follow your passion? Seems a little off brand for us, but we dig this general advice from billionaire, Mark Cuban. "But in order to be one of the best, you have to put in effort. So don't follow your passions, follow your effort. I am going to give you one other secret: The one thing in life that you can control is your effort." 

Last week's motivational quote: 

"I want to grow. I want to be better. You grow. We all grow. We're made to grow. You either evolve or you disappear." - Tupac Shakur

Go get after it! 

Each Monday we post relevant news stories from the previous week that you should be paying attention to as an indie artist. We'll mainly focus on streaming platforms, artist pay rates, and what's going on in the world of social media so you can access your fans better. What you won't find here: top level executive changes at major labels, big money marketing partnerships with giant artists, and things of that nature. As always, send us comments, suggestions, or things we may have missed!

[SLICE] Creating and Maintaining Connections in the Music Industry

While we’re all creeping out of our SXSW recovery period, we wanted to touch on a topic that’s super relevant after any big industry shebang: creating and (more importantly) maintaining industry connections. It’s SO easy to meet a bunch of people, say “hey we should meet up soon” and then turn around and forget that person’s name. Unfortunately, this is a wide spread industry problem, so if you are counting on the other person to be the one to remember - DON’T. Luckily, we've got some easy, common sense tips to help ya!

Seven ways to create and maintain industry connections:

1. Exchange business cards or contact info at your first encounter! So you’re having a great conversation with someone you randomly bumped into -- don’t say, “I’ll find you on Facebook” -- GET THAT CONTACT NOW. You never know if they aren’t super accessible through social media or if their website lists an info email address that’s rarely checked. My personal facebook is under a totally different name and is private! For our business cards, we love Moo.com! (they even did a cool little write up on us)

2. Get in contact the next day via email or text. Do not wait and give them time to forget you. Keep it short and sweet. “Hey, it was great chatting with you at that show - let’s connect soon!”

3. Set up a meeting within a week. Personal connections are always more valuable than internet ones. Grab coffee or a beer - something that won’t take too long. Even if there isn’t a way to directly work together right now, it’s great to establish a face to face rapport.

4. Learn a little about them. Obviously you want to meet up to get to know them and what they do better, but it’s always great to have a starting point -- “I saw you worked on that event with Third Man. That’s so cool; what did you do for them exactly?”

5. Don’t expect them to just give you something or work with you because they met you once. A HUGE pet peeve of mine is when I meet someone one time and then they ask for my entire contact list. I’m down to help people out when I know they are legit, but just it becomes really clear really quickly when people are just using you to get to someone else. That said…

6. Be helpful and valuable. You have worth, skills, and connections! If you’re asking for something, be prepared to help out where they might need it also.

7. Just chill. Realize that not all contacts are going to turn into business deals. I honestly have a group of managers that I meet up with from time to time just to vent. There really isn’t a great way for us to work together, but we learn from each other and our separate experiences. Those are so important and can keep you sane.

Once you’ve established a good connection with someone, keep it up! Grab coffee every once in a while - just shoot the shit. This world is full of crazy twists and turns and friends always like to help friends out.

[NEWS DUMP] Monday, February 26 | 2018

We took last week off since it was good old President's day here in the U-S of A. Now we're back and ready to sling some more news at you! Once again, streaming platforms are dominating the industry news headlines. Being totally honest, this ever-changing world is a pain in the ass to keep up with, but that's why we felt the need to start these news posts! Hope you've found them helpful. Let's get into it.

• VERO. This is a new social media platform that's been buzzing. Honestly, I'm not sure if it will end up doing anything but you might want to go ahead and grab your profile. It will eventually be a paid service, but the first million members will never pay. Some users have pointed out that there may be some unpalatable things in their T&C, but ultimately, you're the one who will decide what you post, so at this point there really isn't anything to lose. Fast Company has an overview if you want to know more.
• Spotify getting into hardware? No, not nails and things. SPEAKERS! There are reputable reports that they may be getting into they speaker game (and beyond?). Honestly, it's not incredibly surprising given that subscribers on Apple Music and Amazon Music have seen a nice boost due to their "home" systems. 
• YouTube Red. Every once in a while they like to remind us that they are a thing. I think this news that they are a music service is really a launching point to start discussing Remix (which was announced in December). At this point, YT Red is expanding into more countries
• Pandora is... growing? That's the word on the street. They are showing growth in paid subscribers which has translated to a boost in revenue. Their stock is totally in flux though... 
• Amazon getting into ticketing. Amazon unveiled that they will be launching their ticketing platform via Alexa sometime in or around 2019.  

That's all I've got for today! 

FOR YOUR HATERS: