The David Andrew Wiebe Show

What is the most effective but underrated online strategy for creating results in your music career? How can you use it to grow your fan base, get your gig on, and earn an income from your passion?

That’s what we’re going to be looking at in this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast.

Download the PDF Transcription

Podcast Highlights:

00:30 – An update on Spiderweb Marketing

01:07 – Creating a singular strategic focus

02:27 – Email vs. SMS / text messaging vs. personal connections

04:04 – Content syndication and distribution may not be the best use of your time

05:51 – Every social network has a pathway

07:10 – Episode summary

09:02 – Closing thoughts

Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

182 – Spiderweb Marketing for Musicians [Mini Course]

PDF Vault

Transcription:

Hey, it’s David Andrew Wiebe.

And in this episode of the podcast, I’m going to share an update on spiderweb marketing, a topic I originally covered way back in episode 182 of the podcast and offered up as a free mini course.

It’s kind of funny to me that I can even say “way back” because it doesn’t feel all that long ago. But true enough, it has been over two years since we published that episode.

The strategy is still relevant and viable today. But we have learned a few things in the last couple of years.

So, let’s talking about fine-tuning the strategy to get the best results possible.

1. Set Goals & Create a Singular Focus for Your Spiderweb Marketing Strategy

At the center of the spiderweb is the beastly creature himself, the spider.

So far as this marketing strategy is concerned, the spider represents your website. The web represents the various channels you acquire traffic from. Getting people to your website is the entire goal of the strategy.

But more than ever, we need to be clear on what we want to get people to do once they’ve landed on our website.

More than ever, we need to be clear on what we want to get people to do once they’ve landed on our website.Share on X

Do you want them to sign up for your email list? Listen to your music? Watch a video? Buy your merch?

It’s going to be tough to get people to buy your merch or sign up for your fan club upon first contact. So, I recommend getting them to take one of the other actions just mentioned, something low pressure.

Since getting email signups is key to the strategy, you could potentially combine these goals. For instance, you could have the visitor enter their email address to receive a video, and upon signing up, take them to another page on your site to view that video. Boom! Now you’ve gotten more video views and have earned the right to contact the visitor about future offers.

At Music Entrepreneur HQ, our singular focus is to get newcomers to sign up for the PDF Vault. This is reflected on our homepage, and soon, it will be reflected across the entire site.

2. Getting Your Content Seen / Your Spider Web Content Marketing Strategy

ShortStack says only 10% of your followers see your new post on Instagram.

Across the entire spectrum of social networks, that number is much closer to 3 to 6%.

Meanwhile, email campaigns are generally seen by an average of 28 to 33% of your entire list.

There’s a reason we suggest prioritizing email list growth. If all your hopes and dreams rest on social media success, you’re probably going to be disappointed with the results.

But there’s more.

RedEye says the average open rate of a text message is roughly 99%, with 97% of messages being read within 15 minutes of their delivery.

So, if you haven’t started building your SMS contact list, that might be worth a try. I’m not going to sit here and tell you that it’s superior to growing an email list, because different things work for different folks. But if you haven’t experimented with text message marketing yet, you might want to give it a try.

Beyond that, we still find that personal relationships should be valued above and beyond all else. This doesn’t mean that you’re immediately going to see immediate business results from networking and building connections, but there’s huge potential value long-term.

You may uncover gig opportunities, get referrals, or find an investor. And I’m not talking about anything I haven’t done!

So, never underestimate the value of personal connections – phone calls, video conferences, meeting in person and more.

Never underestimate the value of personal connections.Share on X

We recently found a new affiliate partner on Twitter, and that would have never happened if we weren’t dedicated to networking and outreach.

3. Content Distribution & Syndication May be Overrated

And while I stress “may” be overrated…

This is something I hate to admit, because I’ve gone deep into the topic and have invested a lot of time, energy, and income into repurposing and putting our content in more places where it had the opportunity to be seen.

But what we’ve been finding is that when we make content for YouTube, it does best on YouTube versus Facebook, Instagram, or Odysee.

When we make content that’s intended to be read, it does better on our blogs and sometimes on Medium or Tealfeed. Though, to be fair, if we do have a high performing blog piece, and we make a video based on it, it does tend to do quite well.

Again, though, doing a straight read of the blog piece wouldn’t be as valuable as creating a video centered on the topic, accompanied by appropriate visual media.

Podcast episodes do exponentially better on destinations where people are already subscribed to them – like Apple Podcasts or Stitcher – versus on Facebook, Instagram, Odysee, or anywhere else we might be inclined to send it.

Does this mean you shouldn’t distribute or syndicate at all? No. But understand that if you were to 80/20 the whole thing, you’d much better off developing content specifically aimed at the platforms you’re targeting.

Which is another great reason to determine your platform focus because you simply can’t be everywhere. I’m on Twitter, BitClout, Tealfeed, Medium, and YouTube, and besides that, I simply don’t have the bandwidth to pursue.

But note that auto-posting is not out of the equation. I still auto-post new blog posts to Facebook, various Twitter accounts, Tumblr, and LinkedIn. And our Tumblr following continues to grow without much effort on our part.

4. There’s Pathway on Every Social Network

Of course, there are always new platforms that reward you with a lot of traffic and views with less effort. Right now, that’s TikTok. But in the not-too-distant future, that’s guaranteed to change.

If you’re willing to jump from platform to platform, or to stick with a platform until it’s a sinking ship, then give this no further thought.

But if you want to build a solid following on long-standing, legacy platforms, understand that there’s a specific pathway to getting there.

If you want to build a solid following on long-standing, legacy platforms, there’s a specific pathway to getting there.Share on X

And when I say pathway, I mean a steady, reliable, consistent way to grow on that platform. Which, to be fair, is always a moving target.

But I recently published a YouTube video on this very subject, covering how I found a pathway on Twitter.

Finding your pathway on any social network could take a year or more of experimentation, learning, and seeking answers. If you’re unwilling to stick around for that, your time would be best allocated elsewhere.

I say all this with the core of the strategy in mind – your goal with spiderweb marketing is still to direct people to your own ecosystem, where you control the experience.

When you’re using social media, you want to be thinking strategically about how posting and creating a following is going to capture email subscribers, listeners, buyers, and so on.

You want to be thinking strategically about how posting and creating a following is going to capture email subscribers, listeners, buyers, and so on.Share on X

Episode Summary

In summary, here are a few things we’ve discovered about the spiderweb marketing strategy in the last couple of years:

There is far too much noise out there to compete with. So, don’t try to do everything. Create a singular focus for your website. What do you want visitors to do once they’re on your site? Guide them in the right direction.

Social media is useful, but inferior to email marketing. And while SMS / text message marketing isn’t superior to email marketing in every way, it has a ridiculously high open rate compared to email. Also, never underestimate the value of personal connections. You might even consider experimenting with putting a phone number on your site and test to see whether it helps you get more bookings, more opportunities, and so on.

Don’t put all your time into content syndication and distribution. This is something to do when you have a bit of spare time, or when you’ve exhausted your marketing to-do list. But it’s not the highest priority, because content that was created specifically for a specific platform always does better than generalized or repurposed content, whether it’s TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, or otherwise. If you’ve got the budget for it, though, content repurposing is something you could delegate to a virtual assistant.

If you have limited resources, be it income, time, personnel, or otherwise, there’s simply no way to be successful on every social media platform. I’m focused on five platforms myself, but I’ve got a solid pathway for two, a workable pathway for two others, and I’m still working on the fifth. There’s no point in me adding another network until I’ve at least determined a strategy for the fifth. Yes, with spiderweb marketing, the idea is to branch out into a variety of channels and lure traffic back to your own ecosystem. But if, for instance, you’re still trying to figure out Instagram,...

So, the ability to get your music out to dozens of destinations using music distribution services is awesome. But what if you want to sell your music and merch through other platforms and earn a greater income? What eCommerce solutions can musicians take advantage of?

That’s what we’re going to be looking at in this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast.

Download the PDF Transcription

Podcast Highlights:

00:36 – The two pathways to earning an income from your music online

01:36 – Bandcamp

03:08 – Shopify / Single

04:22 – Gumroad

05:38 – Sellfy

06:46 – Koji

07:44 – Episode summary

Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

Bandcamp

155 – How to Use Shopify to Sell Your Music

Single

Gumroad

10XPro

Sellfy

Koji

Transcription:

Hey, it’s David Andrew Wiebe.

Now, I’ve shared before about the two pathways you can take to create an income from music online. And of direct response marketing and eCommerce, eCommerce is the easier one to get started with.

And the great news is, whether it’s direct response marketing or eCommerce, you can set the price of your music. You’re not obligated to sell your albums for $9.99 and your singles for 99 cents. You can be much more intentional and strategic about pricing.

Plus, it allows you to do things like put your latest single up on Spotify, and then tell your fans, “if you’re interested in the whole album, check out my website at AtomikPenguins .com” or wherever you send people to buy your music.

Now, the big question is whether you can even make money selling music as a musician, right? Just because you can set up an online store doesn’t automatically mean people will buy. But after listening to this podcast episode, I don’t think there’s going to be a shadow of doubt in your mind.

So, keep listening to the end, and let’s get to the first of five eCommerce solutions we’ll be talking about today:

1. Bandcamp

Bandcamp is one of the most popular eCommerce solutions for musicians, focused exclusively on music. On their homepage, they advertise the fact that fans have paid artists $199 million in the last year. So, forget the idea that you can’t get paid for your music – there are plenty of artists doing it already.

Fans have paid Bandcamp artists $199 million in the last year.Share on X

Unlike most other solutions available, Bandcamp is a marketplace. And that means they actively promote artists through discover, tag hubs, artist recommendations, fan collections, and music feed. You shouldn’t expect to receive a ton of promotion this way unless you’re already growing a following and selling your music on Bandcamp, but it’s still nice to know they care.

Bandcamp gives you control over the design and colors of your page, and it lets you add key information like a short bio, lyrics, and liner notes too.

In addition to digital music, you can also sell vinyl, cassettes, T-shirts, and other merch. Bandcamp even says in the last five years, vinyl sales have gone up by 613%, cassettes by 349%, and T-shirts by 492%, and they’ve already sold $341 million worth of merch.

Whoever said vinyl sales are a mere blip on the radar just isn’t getting the point.

Bandcamp offers other great features like analytics, a merch backend for order fulfillment, and they plan to add a vinyl pressing service too.

Bandcamp was founded on December 12, 2007, so it also has quite a bit of longevity behind it as well.

2. Shopify / Single

Based on the success of my interview with Tommy Stalknecht (Stall – Neck) of Single Music, which is now simply called Single, in episode 155 of the podcast, it’s clear to see quite a few musicians are interested in the prospect of selling their music through the top eCommerce site builder. Shopify basically is to eCommerce what WordPress is to blogs.

Single has expanded their functionality in the last few years. In addition to music, you can use it to sell live stream events, video rentals, merch, and even NFTs on Shopify.

Single has delivered and reported over five million downloads for thousands of artists to date, including the likes of Foo Fighters, Dua Lipa, Harry Styles, and Adele.

You can sell just about anything you can think of with Single – albums, singles, beats, or loops. It also allows you to set up pre-orders, instant grats, bundles, and it comes with an embedded audio player. As you probably guessed from what I said earlier about reporting, Single handles daily chart reporting to Billboard, OCC, and Aria as well.

Single is an affordable solution with four-tiers depending on your needs. But you can get started with them for free, where you only pay when you sell something.

If you’re thinking about using Shopify to sell your music, Single is certainly worth a look.

3. Gumroad

Gumroad was developed with all types of creators in mind. Whether it’s blog posts, eBooks, courses, Photoshop templates, software applications, or music, Gumroad lets you sell just about anything digital or physical. You can even set up subscriptions or memberships using their platform.

Just last week, digital entrepreneurs made over $3.5 million from Gumroad. And the greater the revenue you have as a creator, the less you end up paying to the platform.

Digital entrepreneurs made over $3.5 million on Gumroad last week.Share on X

Although Gumroad is not a marketplace – and that means you’ve got to do your own marketing – they do set you up with a customizable templated profile page where users can see all your products. Plus, you can install a script on your website that will pop up your sales pages onsite when people click on your Gumroad links.

Additionally, Gumroad lets you sell in difference currencies, offer discount codes, generate license keys for software, sell multiple versions of your work, build up an affiliate army, and more.

When I started using Gumroad, it was still quite humble in its appearance and scope. But today, they have a fresh design, new features, and a ton of content that can help you grow your sales.

If I wasn’t using 10XPro, I would probably be using Gumroad as my primary eCommerce platform, but either way I still have a small library of products on Gumroad.

4. Sellfy

Sellfy is another amazing, low-cost eCommerce platform, and years ago as I started seeking out new places, I could distribute my music to, it quickly became a go-to. Sellfy has changed a bit over the years, though. They used to have a marketplace, which was one of my favorite things about it, but they don’t have it anymore.

The great news is that Sellfy is still a very capable eCommerce solution. You can get your online store set up in minutes, and begin selling digital products, print on demand products, or subscriptions. You can connect your own domain to your store, and you can customize your store to look exactly how you want. You can add your own logo, change the colors, and even localize your store language.

Sellfy also comes with sales tools like email marketing, discounts and coupons, and upselling options.

Sellfy’s estimated annual revenue is $3 million per year, so they might be a little smaller than some of their competitors, but it’s still a very capable, easy to use, and affordable solution.

Sellfy’s estimated annual revenue is $3 million per year.Share on X

The New Music Industry Podcast is largely listener supported. We are an affiliate of Sellfy, and if you want to sign up for your 14-day free trial now, you can go to davidandrewwiebe.com/sellfy.

5. Koji

Koji came along to transform the link in bio game for musicians, NFT owners, eCommerce business owners, and artists of all kinds. This is more than just a link in bio app, though, and is more of a full-fledged creator economy platform.

Whether it’s Peter Hollens, Kenji Bandz, or Jayo, you will find that a variety of your favorite artists and creators already use Koji, including yours truly.

Obviously, you can link out to all your platforms using their link in bio feature, be it your social media destinations, music on Spotify, videos on YouTube, or otherwise. But there are also an insane number of mini apps you can use to embed content, collect donations, sell locked content and physical goods, crowdfund your next project, sell your NFTs, and more.

So, overall, it’s more than just a link in bio, and it’s more than just an eCommerce solution. It’s very forward looking, and you can do just about anything you want with it. It even tracks your analytics and it’s free to use!

Episode Summary

Bandcamp. Bandcamp specifically serves musicians looking to sell their music and merch. Plus, it’s a powerful discovery platform and marketplace.

Shopify / Single. Single was created specifically for musicians interested in selling their music on Shopify. In the last few years, their feature set has expanded.

Gumroad. Gumroad wasn’t created specifically with musicians in mind, and it’s not a marketplace or discovery platform. But it’s a very simple and affordable eCommerce tool for all types of creators selling all types of products. Gumroad integrates nicely with your website, and they also have a lot of content to help you on your journey.

Sellfy. Like Gumroad, Sellfy is also a creator-centric platform that’s home to photographers, YouTubers, filmmakers, travel bloggers, and more. But you can also find guitarist Dan Mumm or music producer PVLACE on Sellfy. Sellfy makes it very easy for you to set up your own online store.

Koji. Koji is the most powerful link in bio that I’m aware of, and it has dozens of mini apps that extend its functionality well beyond a featureless link in bio app. If you’re already using another link in bio, Koji would be worth a look, and if you are using it and aren’t selling locked content already, it’s time to give it a try.

By the way, be sure to let me know if you enjoyed this episode, because I could easily talk about five more eComm

Are you looking to grow your email list and attract your 1,000 true fans? What if you could grow your email list well beyond 1,000 subscribers?

That’s what we’re going to be looking at in this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast.

Download the PDF Transcription

Podcast Highlights:

00:26 – 1,000 true fans

01:18 – Laying the groundwork to grow your email list

02:24 – Creating an irresistible lead magnet

02:59 – The best type of lead magnet: Content upgrade

04:13 – Which pages do you create content upgrades for?

06:02 – You'll need to adjust and optimize your strategy

07:37 – Episode summary

09:05 – Setting up your OTR website

Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

086 – How to Work Less & Make More as a Music Entrepreneur

10XPro

ConvertKit

Music Money Machine

PDF Vault

Transcription:

Hey, it’s David Andrew Wiebe.

Now, the title of this episode is How We Collected Over 5,000 Emails, but in the grand scheme of things, 5,000 emails is nothing.

There are plenty of bloggers and businesses out there that have collected over 10,000, 100,000, even one million plus subscribers over the years.

But we’ve all heard about 1,000 true fans, the idea that you could have a perfectly sustainable, even thriving artistic career if you had a minimum of 1,000 people who bought everything you made.

And a small, engaged audience, is better than a huge database of subscribers who don’t open your emails.

A small, engaged audience is better than a huge database of subscribers who don’t open your emails.Share on X

Anyway, getting to the point of finding your 1,000 true fans is likely going to take collecting more than 1,000 emails, but if you could get 5,000 people on your email list, do you think you’d have a pretty good chance at living out the independent music career of your dreams?

Keep listening to find out how we did it…

Setting the Foundation

If you don’t lay the groundwork, you can’t collect emails. That’s the bottom line.

If you don’t lay the groundwork, you can’t collect emails.Share on X

There are many methodologies out there, and you can experiment with all of them to see what works best for you.

But for Music Entrepreneur HQ and practically any other site we’ve established, there’s only been one reliable way of growing our email list. We haven’t gotten results with putting up a signup form on our website and waiting for people to sign up. I guess that works for some people…

We follow a methodology created by James Schramko of SuperFastBusiness called Own the Racecourse or OTR. By the way, I had an excellent conversation with him in episode 86 of the podcast.

People often think the key to OTR is publishing great content, when really the most critical aspect of it is setting up a platform you own. It’s one of the reasons we believe so strongly in that. In the long run, though, you do want to establish a platform that’s full of content your audience will love. But you can and should start collecting emails from day one.

Once you’ve bought your domain, paid for hosting, and have established your website, that’s the time to start collecting emails. That’s your foundation.

Create Lead Magnet(s)

The next step is to create your lead magnet. That’s a fancy term to describe something free and irresistible your audience will want and will happily give you their email address to receive from you.

Many artists hold back and try to give their prospects and fans something they aren’t all that interested in, or couldn’t possibly care about, like a basement demo they recorded on a cassette player when they were 12 years old. No wonder your email list isn’t growing.

You want to give away an EP, a recording of a radio interview that went particularly well, or some high quality behind-the-scenes videos. Brainstorm and you’re sure to come up with some ideas of your own.

Content Upgrades

We’ve found the best way to get people to sign up, though, is with content upgrades. So, our lead magnets take this form. I’ll share how this works.

First, we develop a great piece of content we know our audience will love. Then, we offer an upgrade. Oftentimes, it’s a transcript, cheat sheet, checklist, or eBook – something directly connected to the content piece they were viewing.

But again, we don’t just drop a signup form in the content and expect them to use it. We get them to click a button.

Since we used to use Leadpages, back in the day, a popup would appear when they clicked on the download button. But nowadays we use 10XPro to collect our leads for us. So, when the audience clicks the button, they’re brought to a landing page we’ve built on our 10XPro installation.

Best practices and methodologies are always changing. If you’re listening to this in the future, who knows, we may have moved over to a different system, but that’s what we’re using right now.

The truth is you don’t need any fancy tools. An email service provider like ConvertKit has great landing page templates built into it, and like many ESPs, it’s free to use up to a point.

But getting people to click before signing up is a subtle “yes” in their psychology that more seamlessly leads to them giving you their email address.

Getting people to click before signing up is a subtle “yes” in their psychology that more seamlessly leads to them giving you their email address.Share on X

Determining Which Pages to Create Content Upgrades for

Now, if you’re starting from scratch, you can build your content with content upgrades in mind. You can take your time, publish at a cadence that makes sense to you, and ensure all your posts have lead magnets your audience will thirst for.

But if you already have hundreds of pages of content like we do, what do you do?

Here’s what we prioritize:

The top 10 posts and pages on our website. These are the most visited and viewed pages on our website. This is effectively the 80 / 20 of the entire strategy. This is where most of your results are going to be coming from. So, prioritize the creation of content upgrades for your most visited pages.

The podcast. We have a long-running podcast. You’re listening to episode 270 as we speak. For each episode, we continually go above and beyond the call of duty by providing media highlights or timestamps, resource links, transcripts, click to tweets, and sometimes even pictures, images, Spotify embeds, videos, and other media. We wanted to create a reason for our listeners to go to the website whenever there’s a new podcast episode, and to cater to as many learning styles as possible. We haven’t done all this perfectly. There are still episodes missing timestamps and transcripts, but we’re adding more each week.

New content. We have a lot of practice creating content that appeals to and serves our audience. So, when we create new content, it’s often with the mile high view of adding a content upgrade in mind.

Other popular content. Once you’ve finished setting up content upgrades for your top 10 pages, you can start drilling deeper into your top 20, 30, 40, 50, and so on. But always keep in mind there’s a point of diminishing returns.

Adapt & Iterate

Okay, so what I’ve just shared with you is the crux of the strategy.

But is it really that easy?

Well, as with anything worthwhile, it’s simple and not easy.

Because your content doesn’t always connect, and you need to keep creating. Sometimes you need to wait six to 12 months for SEO to kick in. Feeding the Google dragon with fresh content is kind of a necessarily evil. So, you’ve got the content to think about.

Then there’s the lead magnet. We recently found a winner in our PDF Vault offer, but the one we published before that, Music Money Machine, didn’t connect as well. Maybe it just sounds too slimy, I’m not sure. But we’re always leaning in the direction of what works rather than what doesn’t.

We’ve tried many lead magnets over the years that didn’t work, and that’s why we believe more in content upgrades, as nice as it is to think there’s some catch-all download everyone is going to want. The PDF Vault happens to be the perfect intersection of lead magnet and content upgrade because it’s where we host all our transcripts, cheat sheets, eBooks, and so on.

Additionally, setting up the system takes time and effort. It’s not a full-time job, but more than likely you will have weekly tasks to complete, unless you’re able to delegate it.

You’ve got to create content consistently, attract an audience, build traffic, offer something your audience wants, and get them to sign up for it. And just as I discovered, it can take a few years just to get to that point.

That’s not the end of the road, as the next step is to nurture and put offers in front of your audience. But that’s another topic for another time.

Episode Summary

Create your platform. If you want to use the OTR methodology, you’ll want to set up your own content and keyword rich blog on a domain you own. WordPress works great. 10XPro can also act as your content management system. But the bottom line is it needs to be a property you own and control.

Publish. An OTR installation involves setting up a news site covering the topics your audience is most interested in. If you don’t have content to attract your audience, you won’t generate any traffic. You’ve got to commit to publishing consistently to keep the engine humming.

Set up your lead magnet and / or content upgrades. Find the top 10 posts and / or pages on your site and create content upgrades your audience can’t resist signing up for.

Adjust as needed. You may need to adjust your content. You may need to adjust your lead magnets or content upgrades. This is an ongoing process and it’s not set and forget until you’ve nailed the formula. Even then, there will still be work because you’ll have new content and new upgrades to promote.

Closing Segment

In the past,...

Is it time to embrace Web3 as a musician? What steps should you take if you’re interested in making a go of it as an independent artist?

That’s what we’re going to be looking at in this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast.

Download the PDF Transcription

Podcast Highlights:

00:27 – Web3 is here

01:06 – Learning about blockchain-powered, decentralized platforms

02:13 – Discover the platforms and experiment with them

03:41 – Dig your rolodex well before you're thirsty

04:34 – Create your first NFT (if you haven't already)

05:46 – Understanding how to handle cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc.

07:01 – Episode summary

08:10 – Closing thoughts

Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

016 – 5 Things I Learned From Blockchain Revolution

180 – The IMDb of the Music Industry

192 – Looking to the Future of a Blockchain-Powered Music Industry

237 – Music Streaming, Copyright & NFTs

248 – Get Your Music Distributed & Tap into More Revenue Streams

260 – The Future of Music & Multimedia

Odysee

BitClout

Koji

PDF Vault

Transcription:

Hey, it’s David Andrew Wiebe.

Like it or not, Web3 is here. Now, nobody knows for sure how things are going to shake out with the current hype. The parallels to the dot-com bubble are practically beyond reproach, so separating hype from reality is a serious challenge.

But investor Eric Siu makes a good point – it’s called Web3 for a reason. It’s happening, and it’s here to stay. It’s the next evolution of the web.

Web3 is the next evolution of the web.Share on X

And so, we need to begin dipping our toes into the waters before jumping headlong into the unknown. But the time to get started is now. The longer you wait, the greater the chance you will miss out on incredible opportunities.

Today, we’re going to be looking at five steps to Web3 success for independent musicians.

Step #1 – Begin Learning

What is Web3? How does it work? Why does it matter?

Whether on The New Music Industry Podcast or Music Entrepreneur HQ blog, we’re no stranger to blockchain related topics:

You can go all the way back to episode 16 of the podcast to listen to my review on Blockchain Revolution and pick up the book if it interests you

In episode 180 of the podcast, I talked to Vasja Veber of Viberate

You can have a listen to episode 192 of the podcast with Stefan Schulz of Bitfury Surround

You can also listen to some discussions on NFTs with Steven Gagliano in episode 237 of the podcast, John Kohl in episode 248 of the podcast, as well as with Ori WInokur in episode 260 of the podcast

The point is that what may have been taken for granted only six years ago is now manifesting at a dizzying rate. Decentralized, blockchain-based platforms are here. And there are already many creators taking advantage of them, earning a full-time living, and more.

The time to start learning is now. And if possible, you want to make it part of your daily routine to read, listen, or watch on the topic, whichever medium suits you best.

The time to start learning is now.Share on X

Step #2 – Start Experimenting

Even on the podcast, I’ve made multiple invitations to come and join me on platforms like Odysee and BitClout. Odysee is like the blockchain-powered YouTube, and BitClout is like the blockchain-powered Twitter.

You’ve probably heard my invitation to join Koji in recent episodes as well, which is an amazing link in bio app that even allows you to create and sell NFTs.

I’ll talk more about NFTs in a moment, but what I want you to take away is that you can still be an innovator or early adopter in the technology adoption life cycle, and that can be an exciting thing.

Decentralized communities are still smaller than on most social networks, but they’re very connective, and they’re obviously forward looking.

These platforms also tend to value things like free speech and freedom of expression, and I know people kind of seesaw on that issue these days, but if that’s one of your values, that’s another reason to begin to check out Web3 platforms.

And while you might be intimidated, many of these platforms are just like the social networks you already use and are an excellent place to build a following and create connections, for reasons I’ve already shared. In many cases, there are even opportunities to earn on the content you share.

So, what else is out there? Here are just some of the many platforms people are getting excited about:

Rumble, DTube, Steemit, Mediachain, Fluz, Sapien, and Vevue are all exciting new platforms.

And when it comes to NFT marketplaces, there are many others, though some platforms already mentioned allow you to create and sell NFTs too.

Step #3 – Dig Your Well

Networking and collaboration are huge in the music industry. If you want to grow your music career, there’s nothing quite like expanding your rolodex.

I just got my first gig in Vancouver today, and it’s all because of who was in my network. It had nothing to do with my ability to sell myself, and everything to do with who I knew.

I’ve connected with influencers on Web3 platforms by showing up daily and posting valuable content. It’s far easier to get connected with a community that has something in common versus an amorphous giant like Facebook.

If you’re willing to do the legwork, you can create relationships with some of the top influencers now. It doesn’t matter whether you plan to ask them for anything. Simply being known can sometimes lead to opportunities in the future.

To generate more opportunities for yourself and your career, start connecting with more people. It will be easier now to connect with Web3 “big names” now than in the future.

To generate more opportunities for yourself and your career, start connecting with more people.Share on X

Step #4 – Create an NFT

The NFT craze is starting to find new pastures as the space gradually matures, though it’s still going to take some time for it to come into its own.

And here’s the bottom line – there’s nothing easy about succeeding in NFTs, just as there’s nothing inherently easy about YouTube, crowdfunding, licensing and placements, or TikTok.

It’s like those meme video you’ve probably seen:

Step 1: exist

Step 2: create

Step 3: sell

Step 4: complain that no one cares about your NFT

If you’re serious about NFTs, make it your full-time job. That’s not a joke. You need to dedicate some serious time, effort, and energy into it. You need to stay connected to your communities and improve your digital marketing skills.

If you’re serious about NFTs, make it your full-time job.Share on X

What I’m encouraging you to do here is to create one NFT, so you know what the process looks like. You know the steps involved, and in the future, if you want to create more, you’ll know exactly what the process is.

There is a gas fee for all NFTs, which in simple terms means there’s a cost to posting your NFT in the first place. Didn’t know that? Now’s the time to go and get some practice. Make your first NFT.

Step #5 – Learn How to Handle Cryptocurrency

Decentralized social networks generally deal in cryptocurrency in some capacity. Steemit has STEEM. Odysee has LBRY credits. DTube has Datacoin.

Since this is how you’re generally paid in the Web3 landscape, you might at least want to know how to exchange your crypto for real cash.

Please understand. This is not investment advice. I’m not asking you to gamble away your life savings on SHIBA INU.

But many exchanges and wallets will give you a little bit of money to invest just for signing up, and you might want to put a little bit of your own money into it, like $50 or so, so you better understand the process.

And I’m not asking you to do anything I haven’t done here. I have a little bit of money invested in crypto, even if it’s not a lot in the grand scheme of things.

As with anything, the terminology can sometimes make things confusing. But the process, rest assured, isn’t as difficult as you might expect.

So, go through the basics of setting up a wallet, buying some crypto, moving it to another wallet of your own, and so forth, to gain a comfort level with cryptocurrency.

But again, please be careful. If you plan to invest, be conservative. Don’t give your recovery code to anyone. Don’t succumb to scammers asking you to invest with them. There are a lot of those going around right now, especially on WhatsApp.

Episode Summary

Begin learning what Web3 is all about. Start with the simplest of definitions. Read articles, listen to podcasts, watch videos. Ask friends. Check out decentralized social networks and NFT marketplaces like OpenSea, Foundation, Nifty Gateway, and so on.

Start experimenting. You can start experimenting risk free today. Many decentralized social networks are easy to sign up for, and posting content is typically the same as it would be anywhere else. You can start earning various cryptocurrencies on your activity today.

Get connected. Your network is your net worth. Take the initiative and start building new relationships. These can only benefit you in the short- and long-term.

Create an NFT. Create your content. Set up an NFT on your platform of choice. Pay the gas fee. Share your NFT with others. Go through all the motions so you know what the process looks like.

Learn how to handle cryptocurrency. Get set up with eToro, Uphold, Binance, Coinbase, Kraken, or another site. Invest a small amount of money into crypto. Sell some crypto. Move it to another wallet you own. Learn all the basics.

Closing Segment

The PDF Vault may well be one of the best free resources available for musicians. It includes multiple eBooks, blog resources, podcast resources like transcripts and cheat sheets, and more, and we’re still in the process of adding hundreds of resources to it. To sign up, go to davidandrewwiebe....

Do you know what your brand message is? Do you know what difference you’re out to make in the world with your music?

That’s what we’re going to be looking at in this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast.

Download the PDF Transcription

Podcast Highlights:

00:25 – Tara Divina's awakening

02:48 – Why Tara found the career path stifling

03:30 – What does "meaning" mean to Tara?

05:08 – Rediscovering your identity as an artist

08:17 – How to scale a successful business

11:03 – What is core message marketing?

14:40 – Exercise to discover your core message

17:44 – Examples of core brand messages

19:44 – Turning your life and business into a work of art

21:03 – Branding sounds like a lot of work...

23:00 – Tapping into creative inspiration

28:30 – Why is beauty so important?

30:45 – How do artists monetize their work effectively?

34:36 – What's the last YouTube video Tara watched?

35:03 – What is Tara's daily routine like?

35:44 – What is the greatest challenge Tara has overcome?

36:00 – What is the greatest victory Tara has experienced?

36:41 – Tara's recommended books

39:01 – Tara's final thoughts

Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

Tara Divina

Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert

Attached by Amir Levine and Rachel S. F. Heller

Healing Back Pain by Dr. John E. Sarno

257 – Living Pain-Free in Music & Life

Knockout Originals

PDF Vault

Transcription:

David Andrew Wiebe: Today I'm passing the mic with Tara Divina. How are you today, Tara?

Tara Divina: I'm doing great.

David Andrew Wiebe: I understand that you became an intern at London-Sire Records in New York City at 20 years old. Then you joined the executive team at Warner Music Group overseeing the independent music arm, specifically in digital sales and marketing. But then you realized you're made for something else. What happened?

Tara Divina: Well, what happened was that I had sort of a rocket ship to the moon type career in the music industry. And I had originally gotten into the business because at the end of my university degree in business, I thought to myself, "What am I going to do next?" And the answer, unlike most of my peers, was not become a product manager at Pepsi Cola, or an accountant at KPMG. That for the going, typical career flow was and so I thought to myself, well, I love music. I love being a musician, perhaps entering the industry will bring me closer to these things. And over time, what I discovered was that being in the industry, took me much further from these things, and from my creative impulses. And so, being a very creative spirit, I began to get progressively more and more depressed and disillusioned, even though on paper, I had everything that anyone would ever want, you know, wonderful, prestigious career, lots of abundance financially, lots of engagement with things. It just didn't add up for me. And I hit a breaking point where I was starting to decline and then went to Burning Man, I was invited to Burning Man, a little festival in the desert that at the time, not everyone had heard of. And I went out there and I met all these people who were really pursuing their creative dreams, and up to things, doing things that really meant a lot to them. And, you know, things that were overly ambitious and projects that are now defunct, but they were really caring about what they did for a living and spending their time pursuing that, which was their core purpose. And so with that, I bodly quit my career, walked out of the office no plans. And voila.

David Andrew Wiebe: So I think it's not too unusual a story that people go down the career path and then find it stifling. Of course, many people find it difficult to then make the leap to something creative. So what was it about being in a career that just wasn't working for you?

Tara Divina: The monotony, the repetition, and the lack of meaning, like, I was never sure if I was helping anyone. So you know, the disconnect between the record labels and the interests of the artists so fast, the interests of the managers and the booking agents, and it just, it felt like a big circular cash grab, and participating in that didn't fulfill me with any sense of contributing to the planet in any significant way, or even contributing to the artists. And that's what really got me>

David Andrew Wiebe: You used the word "meaning." And I do hear a lot of people say that they want to pursue some kind of meaning. But what does that mean to you?

Tara Divina: I have reflected on this question. What is meaning anyway, you know, and the conclusion that I've come to is a little off the ball, which is that we all have within us a core message. And we're practically born with this message. And throughout our lifetimes, we have different opportunities to express it, different ways of understanding what that message is. And the closer we are in our lives to living an expression of that message or doing something that connects to that message allows us to express it, the more we feel fulfilled. And so for me, meaning is that actually find that if you look at most artists, if you look at most successful brands, marketers, etc. They all have on full display this core message, whatever it is for them, and everything they do connects to that. It's how we relate to it. It's their brand, it's their essence, it's how we know it's for us. And so I believe that each of us is that has one of those messages, we are each a brand of our own, and that it's not just commercial. It's actually what is most deeply resonant with our core of our being. It's what lights us up and makes us smile and feel like we're in the flow and that we're doing something that matters. So that's my definition of meaning.

The closer we are to living an expression of our message, the more we feel fulfilled.Share on X

David Andrew Wiebe: Yeah. And the description you gave for branding lines up with how I've come to understand it as well. So that's really great. And one of the things you do is help artists to rediscover their identity as an artist. Have you found that a lot of artists are off track in some way? And have they lost sight of their true calling? It's kind of a multi part question. And what are some common issues Artists face as related to their identity?

Tara Divina: It is such a great question. So there's two types of people, there are artists who are pursuing a career related to their art, maybe they're a musician, or they're a painter, whatever they're doing, and they have lost sight of their message. And their big why there's also people who are on track with their life purpose, or they're doing things that line up with who they are, but they forgotten about their art, they are no longer making it a priority. And so I have found that everyone pretty much falls into one of these two categories, unless they are an artist who also knows their message. Or someone who knows their message, who is also an artist. So I find that first of all, most of us don't think that there's a lot of value in art. And so we're kind of told that it's, you know, oh, you're gonna go get an arts degree, oh, my gosh, I roll, you know, are you going to become a musician? And are starving artists? Oh, my gosh, what are you thinking, you know, and so there's all this stigma around pursuing a career in art, you know, like, maybe we'll one in a million chance will descend upon us, and we'll hit the big time. And so there's a real meme that, you know, being an artist means we can't make money means it's not worth it. And what I found is that it is so worth it. And it can be part of income generation for everybody. It's just that it doesn't want to exist in a vacuum. And so I think that it's very difficult to run a business without art. And it's very difficult to run, being an artist without a business, and that the magic happens, and fusing those two things together around that core message around that identity. So it's about finding out who we are, what it is, we want to transmit, what our message is, what our big, why is why we're here, what we want to leave people with, and then build around that space to express our art that relates to that message, which can become part of our marketing, which can become part of our branding, which becomes a reason why people want to tune into whatever we're saying. And then also, the art becomes part of our business, it's a way that we can also generate income and make money. And there are so many different ways to do that, that aren't necessarily the standard typical way, you know, like everyone thinks, oh, I want to become a musician, let me get signed to a label and that sail off into the sunset. It's like, oh, there's like infinite ways to make money as a musician that could leave you so much happier than that path. It's so much more fulfilled, and so much more wealthy. It's just that we tend to get pigeonholed into the idea that there's only one way to do it just like we can get pigeonholed into thinking that our business has no space for art. That's a long answer. But those were lot of really good questions.

David Andrew Wiebe: So personally, I have the sense that most of the time, I'm doing things that I love to do, but I still don't spring out of bed every day, and in fact, some days I'm tired. And it's just a slog, and I have a million tasks to do. So should it be the kind of thing that if we're in perfect alignment with with our true purpose, we should be springing out of bed every day, or are there still times when it's difficult?

Tara Divina: There are still times when it's difficult, however, if every day or most days are a slog... My opinion is that delegation needs to happen, right? So the reality is that in order to scale a successful business, we have to delegate and in order to have a business where we're in our zone of genius and our magic most of the time,...

Do you wish you could be a spectacular failure in the music business? Are you looking for the step-by-step process that will make you an embarrassing disgrace to yourself, your family, and the world?

That’s what we’re going to be looking at in this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast.

Download the PDF Transcription

Podcast Highlights:

00:32 – A framework for failure

00:52 – Be a jerk to everyone

01:17 – Flake out on everything

01:58 – Don’t improve as a musician

02:29 – Spend all your time on social media

03:18 – Don’t build email lists

03:55 – Make Spotify your sole source of income

04:34 – Don’t get expert coaching

05:16 – Don’t invest in your personal growth

05:56 – Don’t reinvest in your music career

06:29 – Remain a Blockbuster in the age of Netflix

07:00 – Episode summary

Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

266 – The 5 Layers of Independent Music Success

Leadpages

The New Music Industry by David Andrew Wiebe

Transcription:

Hey, it’s David Andrew Wiebe.

So, normally I talk about frameworks for success, just like in the last episode of The New Music Industry Podcast.

This episode is going to be a little different. What follows is a framework for failure.

Now, this might seem a little strange, but by the end of it, I think you will begin to see how powerful an exercise it can be.

You’ll see what I mean. Let’s get into this.

1. Be a Complete Jerk

Insult the people you meet. Make fun of your fans. Criticize and attack your bandmates. Curse the media. People are awful and they deserve to know just how much they suck and how much better you are.

Hit on men or women who are already attached to someone else. Stay at hotel rooms, throw the TV out the window, and refuse to pay for your stay. Flip off everyone. They’re horrible people for not recognizing your greatness.

2. Be a Flake

Don’t show up to band meetings or rehearsals. Don’t show up to gigs. Don’t show up to radio or podcast interviews. And if you do show up, make it an hour late, and pretend like you weren’t at fault. Make no excuses, no apologies, and put no effort into salvaging the opportunity or resolving the situation whatsoever.

Be a person who promises big and delivers small. Or deliver nothing at all. Disappoint your friends, your family, your fans, and anyone else who dares express any interest in you.

Make bad excuses. Say, “I’m washing my hair that night,” or “I’m tired,” or “I have to get up early tomorrow,” or “my dog ate my homework,” in contexts where it doesn’t make sense, and pretend like people buy your reasons for being absent.

3. Don’t Improve

Spend no time whatsoever working on your craft. Don’t try to be better.

Next time you have a show, or a new release, make no effort. Don’t practice. Don’t market. Don’t show up with new material unless it’s just as bad as your earlier works. Don’t engage the fans. Don’t engage the venue owner, event organizer, or anyone else connected to your show or project. Actively insult them instead.

Give a half-assed attempt at everything, just to make sure your performances aren’t getting better. You don’t want to improve by mistake and give the wrong impression.

4. Rely Exclusively on Social Media

Spend all your time and energy on social media. Create accounts far and wide – Bandcamp, Facebook, Fanbase, Instagram, LinkedIn, Medium, Pinterest, ReverbNation, TikTok, Twitter, Tumblr, Snapchat, SoundCloud, YouTube, and any other sites you can find. Go join all the Web3 sites while you’re at it.

Don’t post anything. Follow a bunch of people and leave useless comments on their posts, like fire emojis, and “DM us” or “promote it on” some random Instagram account no one has even heard of or cares about. It’s the classy thing to do.

Use social networks for all the wrong reasons. Don’t network. Pretend like you’re more important than everyone else. Don’t promote unless you’re promoting a scam. Violate the terms and conditions proactively.

And as much as possible, delude yourself into thinking that all your efforts on social media will one day pay off.

5. Refuse to Build an Email List

Email lists are for chimps (and yes, my use of the word “chimp” rather than “chump” is intentional here). Don’t set up an account with an email service provider. Don’t put email signup forms on your website, don’t give away anything for free in exchange for anyone’s email address. Don’t ask for anyone’s emails at your shows, either. Don’t use a tool like Leadpages to hypercharge your list building efforts.

If you do end up with a list of emails, spam them mercilessly with online gambling and erection pill ads. Don’t mention anything about your next release or next show. Don’t invite anyone to be a part of anything. Don’t share content, don’t survey, and don’t ask questions. Don’t waste time getting to know your fans.

6. Hope & Pray That You’ll Earn a Living from Spotify

Sit at home and wait for the dump truck full of money to roll into your driveway. Do nothing to earn it. You’re entitled. Actively pretend and delude yourself into thinking that one day soon Spotify streaming royalties will pay all your bills. But don’t draw attention to your music on Spotify, don’t ask to be on playlists, and don’t collaborate or work with other artists to increase your following. Don’t spend a dime on advertising.

Other experts say they earn thousands of dollars from streaming royalties. Believe them wholeheartedly. But practice selective hearing and refuse to hear the part where they talk about having multiple streams of income, many of which exceed their streaming royalties.

7. Don’t Get Coaching

Getting an outside perspective is a waste of time. There is no one that can see what you can’t see. No one can offer any tips, advice, or suggestions that could possibly help you get some wins, short- and long-term. They couldn’t possibly ask any questions that would help you see things in a new and different way.

All musician coaches are shills and charlatans, including those who’ve published over 260 podcast episodes and six books. They’ve done nothing to prove themselves and their willingness to help others.

Coaching costs too much. It’s a waste of precious resources that could go towards fried foods and alcohol. There is no discernable benefit that could possibly justify the cost, whether it’s social media growth, a bigger fan base, increased income from your passion, or otherwise.

8. Don’t Invest in Yourself

It goes hand in hand with the last point. There’s no point in investing in a coach, so it stands to reason there’s no reason to invest in yourself either. You couldn’t possibly find anything in books, podcasts, courses, live events, and any other programs that would make a difference for you in life or your career.

Don’t buy books. Don’t buy courses. Don’t join mastermind groups or go to live events. There’s nothing to learn, no one to meet, no opportunities to discover on the other end of any of it. Personal growth is a dead-end waste of time, and anyone who says otherwise is a rah-rah snake oil salesperson with a big jaw anyway. They don’t know what they’re talking about.

9. Refuse to Reinvest in Your Music Career

Why waste your hard-earned gig money on growing your career? No one pays you much of anything anyway. Damn cheapskates. Don’t save up for your next album, tour, or marketing and advertising. It doesn’t work, and it’s all a scam designed to extract every penny from your wallet and funnel it up to the political elite.

Blow all your money on entertainment. Get fried foods and alcohol. Hang out at the local pub or Denny’s and drop it like it’s hot. The idea that your health will suffer from bad food is just a conspiracy theory. Eating junk food is taking care of yourself. It tastes good and it fills you up.

10. Don’t Adapt

MySpace is still cool. LiveJournal and Blogger are the perfect places to set up a blog. Cassette tapes are the top way people listen to music right now, and everything else is a waste of time. Don’t try to keep up with the times. No one can anyway. It’s a waste of time and energy.

There’s nothing to be learned from the past, and clearly, there’s nothing to be learned from the future either. Lessons are pointless. They don’t exist. Music died in 1989. The same things that worked then work now. Don’t bother learning anything new.

Episode Summary

If you want to fail in music, be a complete jerk, flake out on everything, don’t improve, put all your time and energy into social media, don’t build your email list, use Spotify as your exclusive source of income and worship at its alter, don’t get coaching, don’t invest in yourself, don’t reinvest in your career, and don't adapt.

Failing in music is generally a combination of factors. If you did all the above, you would naturally fail. But typically, it’s the combination of two or three toxic beliefs or actions that lead to failure over the long haul.

I would love to hear what you’re discovering for yourself in this conversation. Are you starting to see anything for yourself and how you’ve been approaching your music career? Are you seeing anything you could be doing to get on the path of success and get off the slippery slope of failure? Send your comments to [email protected].

This list should not be considered comprehensive. I’m sure you could think of many other ways to fail in music, including not getting started and things like that. But I think the point has been made. If success is the opposite of failure, you want to do the opposite of what we just talked about.

Closing Segment

If any part of this made sense to you, then I invite you to pick up a copy of my book, The New Music Industry. If you don’t already have it, why not? It covers all aspects of social media, video marketing, live performance, mindset, and more.

Get your copy at davidandrewwiebe.com/eBook. And yes, don’t worry,...

How do you achieve independent music success on your own terms?

What music distribution service should you choose, and what are the nuances you should be aware of in selecting a partner?

All this and more in this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast.

Download the PDF Transcription

Podcast Highlights:

01:11 – Catching up with Monica Strut

03:26 – What’s new with Monica?

06:59 – What’s new with David?

12:52 – The 5 layers of independent music success

50:18 – Navigating the music distribution minefield

1:05:23 – Get in touch

1:06:11 – Closing thoughts

Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

Sign Up for Koji – the Best Link in Bio for Musicians

Episode 125 – Getting the Most Out of Your Social Media Marketing as a Musician

Monica Strut

Episode 86 – How to Work Less & Make More as a Music Entrepreneur

Elite Players: All Access Pass

Episode 262 – “All Successful Rock Musicians Are Business Minded”

Gaki Music

The 5 Layers of Independent Music Success

The Nobody Prayer (Original Soundtrack)

Music by ItsWatR

Navigating the Music Distribution Minefield

248 – Get Your Music Distributed & Tap into More Revenue Streams

Episode Summary:

David welcomes back Monica Strut to the show – her last appearance was on episode 125 of The New Music Industry Podcast.

Monica shares what’s new in her world. Her rock-metal band, The Last Martyr recently launched a new single and rebranded their online and offline presence. Her band now has a booking agent who is keeping the band busy on tour.

Monica also put together a new course called Crush Your Next Release. Normally, she works with bands on a case-by-case basis to develop their release strategy, so this is the first time her methodology has been available as a six-week course.

David shares about his search for a new home. He also shares an update on his search for a Chief Marketing Officer for Music Entrepreneur HQ. Through an insurance agent, he was connected to CAYK Marketing in Calgary, AB. After a couple of sessions, they informed David that they did not detect any major SEO concerns and that it would not make sense for him to go on a retainer at this time. David and his team plug away at Music Entrepreneur HQ’s SEO day by day.

The 5 Layers of Independent Music Success

The five layers of independent music success are as follows:

Principles / mindset: These are the things that remain true no matter what changes around you. People change. Circumstances change. Your goals change. But the one thing that does not change, that you can always count and rely on is principles and your mindset. This is what keeps you anchored when the going gets rough. And without a strong foundation here, success in music as an independent artist is difficult if not impossible.

Experience: You become better at what you do through experience. The more experience you gain as an instrumentalist, the better you will ultimately be at playing your instrument. The same could be said for songwriters, vocalists, producers, and more. Your experience can also guide the direction of your career, steering you towards opportunities that are worthwhile, while helping you avoid pitfalls. But experience isn’t always reliable. And those are the times you need to fall back on principles.

Branding: Your external brand has to do with colors, fonts, logos, costumes, business cards, and so on. Your internal brand has to do with your purpose, your mission, your reason for existing in the world. Crafting your brand may not be easy. But it’s one of the most critical aspects of building your music career, because if you know what you're doing, you can create a magnetic brand your fans and potential fans will be attracted to. When you have your branding, strategy basically sorts itself out.

Marketing / strategy: Once you have your brand in place, developing a marketing strategy is a walk in the park. You can identify specific dates and events that are aligned with your brand. You can uncover where your fans like to hang out online. You can develop your voice and messaging. Without your brand, marketing is but a shot in the dark.

Tactics. Posting to social media. Sending email campaigns. Setting up advertising campaigns. These are all tactics. Tactics are sexy. They basically form the foundation of your daily to-do list. The only problem? Tactics are not a strategy, especially when you don’t even know what your strategy is. You must let your strategy inform your tactical approach.

Also see David’s blog post on the same topic.

And the following is David’s four-time Best Original Score winning film score:

Navigating the Music Distribution Minefield

Music distribution services get your music out to all the major destinations.

If you’re a new artist, choosing a digital music distribution service might prove a pretzel.

Which distributor should you choose? What kind of marketing do they offer you, if any? Do they even care about you as a customer?

Should you even distribute your music digitally?

Monica’s band used DistroKid for their latest release because they liked everything that was included with the service.

She also makes the point that music distributors basically all offer the same service. So, don’t be afraid to pick one and run with it. You can always switch to another service later.

David shares his top picks for music distributors:

CD Baby: David likes that you only ever pay a one-time fee with CD Baby to have your releases up forever. YouTube Content ID is included, you can create multiple artist names or pseudonyms under one account, and if you want, you can upgrade to CD Baby Pro to have them collect your music publishing royalties.

Ditto Music: Like DistroKid, Ditto Music allows you to release unlimited music for a modest yearly fee. You can even try their service for 30 days. They also submit your music to playlists, protect your music copyrights, and collect your publishing royalties if you upgrade to Ditto Music Publishing.

DistroKid: DistroKid has a very personable, human brand. They let you release as many tracks as you want for an annual fee. Their accounting dashboard is one of the most streamlined and easy to use. But a YouTube Content ID is not included with their service. These and other extras must be paid for.

TuneGo: David had the opportunity to talk to TuneGo founder John Kohl in an earlier episode. David has TuneGo on his “watch” list, because in addition to music distribution, they let you create NFTs and offer promotional services. They want to help you monetize your music in as many ways as possible. Most music distributors offer minimal promotion if any at all.

Monica adds that any promotion a music distributor can offer will depend a lot on the quality of their connections as well as how relevant those connections are to your specific style of music and audience.

Here’s one thing David says he doesn’t like about certain music distributors:

He’s not a fan of distributors that pull your release from major platforms if you can’t keep up with their yearly fee, or services that force you to renew each year if you want to keep your release up. He prefers services that keep his music up in perpetuity.

At the end of the day, Monica and David agree that you shouldn’t sweat over the music distribution service you go with. Most are affordable and offer the same basic service. If you really need to switch later, you can. There’s no downside to distributing your music!

David adds that artists should gently separate distribution from marketing, look at them as two separate entities, and plan for both.

Get in Touch

Find David on Twitter and BitClout.

Find Monica on Twitter and Instagram.

Closing Segment

So, we look forward to hearing from you on our social channels. But if you’re more of an email kind of person, I get it. You can send us an email to [email protected] and leave your questions and comments. We’re happy to feature them in a future episode. That’s [email protected].

This has been episode 266 of The New Music Industry Podcast. I’m David Andrew Wiebe, and I look forward to seeing you on the stages of the world.

Upgrade to Members Only Audios for more exciting, exclusive training.

Are you still promoting your music on Facebook? That’s not necessarily a bad thing. The challenge is that algorithms are constantly changing, and what used to work doesn’t work anymore.

Are Facebook pages dead? That’s what we’re going to be looking at in this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast.

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Podcast Highlights:

01:17 – Facebook is on a downward spiral

02:11 – Instances in which Facebook pages still work

05:48 – Alternatives to pages

08:15 – Episode summary and additional tips

Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

The New Music Industry by David Andrew Wiebe

The Indie YYC

Music by ItsWatR

The Nobody Prayer (Original Soundtrack)

Chord King Course

ConvertKit

Transcription:

Hey, it’s David Andrew Wiebe.

Over the years, I’ve warned about single source dependence, building on rented land, digital sharecropping, and the fickle nature of social media platforms in general.

As far as I can tell, Facebook, or Meta, or whatever they want to call their products these days, is on a downward spiral it may not recover from.

As of now, it’s still a viable marketing platform. It’s just that, as per usual, marketers ruin everything, and if you aren’t doing the right things, you aren’t rewarded for your behaviors.

And what I’m about to share with you here may not be news to you, but I do think it’s worth viewing through the lens of adapting. After all, the subtitle of The New Music Industry is Adapting, Growing, and Thriving in The Information Age.

And, while some say we’re now in the Experience Age, and no longer in the Information Age, I don’t think adaptation is going to prove any less important. So, let’s talk about Facebook pages.

The Death of Pages

Now, there are exceptions to everything.

If you have an established Facebook page, or if there’s a reason for people to come looking for you, pages can still work. There are, for example, personalities who only ever seem to publish on Facebook, so I miss out on their videos unless I actively seek them out. So, every Wednesday, I log in to Facebook to see what they’re up to because I know they usually go live on Wednesdays.

I co-founded a community called The Indie YYC and we use Facebook as our primary platform. There are always risks and I’ve shared my concerns with the inner community, but given everyone’s busy schedule and participation level, publishing to Facebook has worked, and continues to work for us. Just for reference, we have nearly 1,500 likes, and over 1,600 followers.

Although engagement level isn’t always consistent or predictable, we do reach about 100 to 600 people per post without boosting them.

The issue is, if you’re trying to establish a new page and a new brand now, unless you’ve got a big budget to spend or a lot of traffic you can push from your email list or another platform, a Facebook page is not going to be a good use of your time.

I’ve read articles on Facebook’s algorithm updates, and honestly, I see the same generic advice that always gets thrown around – connect with your audience, post at the right time, share inspirational stories, create quality content, make short and engaging videos.

Not only is this largely unhelpful, because it’s subjective advice, I find that the most engaged videos on Facebook are now long form, not short form. So, some of the advice is either bunk or misinformed.

In other words, you can’t exploit a specific tactic to get more engagement right now. It used to be that if you went live, you could drive up a bunch of engagement, but again, that only seems to work for established pages at this point.

Alternative to Pages

Like I said earlier, though, Facebook is still a viable platform. It’s just that you should consider prioritizing different activity.

Groups are still more valuable properties than pages, especially groups where participants are actively posting and asking questions.

If you have a group of your own, you’re all set. Put your attention on growing it instead of your page, because chances are it’s going to prove more valuable.

But even if you don’t have a group, you can join groups and be a part of the community, so there are plenty of chances to leverage other people’s audiences.

Profiles are also great soapboxes.

I’ve talked to enough artists to know that some are going to take exception to that. They treat their profile as sacred, don’t post unless they have something to share, don’t post things they don’t support, shy away from posting marketing posts, and so on.

Look, you’ve got to be the one to decide what your tolerance is.

But some of my most engaged posts, recently, were either about my now four-time award-winning film score for The Nobody Prayer, or my beginner guitar program, Chord King Course.

For the most part, I don’t understand the aversion to posting more frequently, because at the end of the day, you can’t outsmart the algorithm.

I’m not necessarily saying you should post 17 times per day to your Facebook profile. You can certainly do that with your stories. But you shouldn’t turn gun shy just because your latest post only got 20 likes when your last one got 140. You might think it’s simple math, but it never is.

People often assume it’s the content, but it could just as easily be the time at which you posted, the use or lack of emojis, misspellings or no misspellings, whether you’re touching on controversial topics, imagery, and more.

I feel like the best thing you can do is to treat it like an experiment. Post different things. See what people respond to. Then, and only then, begin to narrow in on the type of content people seem to respond to most.

The only reason it might be awkward to post “marketing” content on your profile is because you think of it as separate from your personal life.

I don’t know about you, but my marketing efforts are my life. Whether I’m sharing my lunch or my latest podcast episode, I’m sharing what’s going on in my world. Trying to separate the two and define one as personal content and the other as marketing content is where some of that awkwardness can show up and stop you from being as forthcoming as you could be.

The funny part is that the instant “win” button for most social networks is posting more frequently…

Episode Summary

Here are the key points from today’s episode:

Starting a new Facebook page from scratch might not be the best idea, unless you have the time, energy, and resources to dedicate to growing it. This doesn’t necessarily mean you shouldn’t post to your page at all. It just means there isn’t much of an incentive to prioritizing it anymore.

Facebook groups and profiles are still great places to share your promotional posts. Obviously, you want to use some discretion here, but if you never ask for anything, you never get anything either.

It’s all well and good to build your social media following but given that it’s harder than ever to reach the people who like and follow your page or pages, you need to take them offsite and capture their email address. Take advantage of a tool like ConvertKit at davidandrewwiebe.com/ConvertKit to begin collecting email addresses so you can keep in touch with the audience you’ve worked so hard to attract.

Don’t forget to adapt. Things are constantly changing out there. New social networks are popping up at an unprecedented pace, and web 3.0 is fast emerging. Don’t get left behind.

Closing Segment

We always look forward to hearing from you. If you have any thoughts you’d like to share on today’s topic, drop us a line at [email protected]. We’re always happy to feature your email on the show if it’s relevant, on-topic, and value adding. If you have a question, someone else probably has the same question, so there are no stupid questions. Send your feedback to [email protected].

This has been episode 265 of The New Music Industry Podcast. I’m David Andrew Wiebe, and I look forward to seeing you on the stages of the world.

Upgrade to Members Only Audios for more exciting, exclusive training.

The Music Entrepreneur Code – 2022 Edition features an all-new introduction, along with plenty of new tools, resources, and up-to-date strategies and mental models to help you grow and impact a fan base and make a living from your passion.

The hardcover edition of the book just came out, so to commemorate this occasion, David reads the updated introduction in this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast.

Download the PDF Transcription

Podcast Highlights:

01:20 – The introduction to The Music Entrepreneur Code – 2022 Edition

01:55 – David’s lowest moment in music

05:39 – Digital marketing

09:36 – Personal development and mindset

10:44 – The business of music

12:00 – The three ingredients to success in music

12:59 – Closing thoughts

Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

Sign Up for Koji – the Best Link in Bio for Musicians

The Music Entrepreneur Code – 2022 Edition by David Andrew Wiebe

Music by ItsWatR

Content Marketing Musician

Transcription:

Hey, it’s David Andrew Wiebe.

Today, I’ll be sharing the introduction to my latest book, The Music Entrepreneur Code – 2022 Edition. The hardcover edition of the book just came out, and I’m really excited about that. You can always get your copy at davidandrewwiebe.com/Code2022.

So, if you’re ready to discover the critical importance of marketing, mindset, and business in building a music career, let’s get into it.

All-New Introduction to The Music Entrepreneur Code – 2022 Edition

If I had understood the value of marketing, mindset, and the business of music, I know I wouldn’t have struggled the way I did, especially in the first decade or so of my music career.

The people closest to me knew my work ethic. They knew I was serious about making music my life. They knew I was talented and had the chops to back my passion.

But like most artists, I ended up struggling in obscurity. I couldn’t sell enough music or book enough paying gigs to make a living.

Merch? Forget it! I didn’t have the financial outlay to put my logo on a shirt. I was barely keeping pace with expenses related to my home, where the fridge and furnace broke down every three years.

I figured there would always be more time to figure it all out. I believed in my heart that one day I would grow into the Rock Stars I loved and admired.

It took many years for me to discover that I would only ever grow into a better version of myself, not into someone else I looked up to.

As it turns out, comparison is almost thoroughly unhelpful, especially when comparing one’s bloopers to another’s highlight reels.

If you have any hope of being happy in this life, I can tell you from deep personal experience that it’s not going to come from comparison.

But I digress. Back to the crappy fridge, broken ass furnace, and the mountain of bills I couldn’t possibly climb my way out of.

(By the way, this is not some kind of sob story or B.S. backstory – all this really happened.)

Unfortunately, things kept turning from bad to worse for me. And it all culminated in a hellish six months beginning in January 2011.

Because my former roommates and best friends had all moved out, I had to bring in new tenants. And the roommate I ended up with was one of the messiest, loudest, and most messed up guys I’d ever met (last I heard, he ended up in jail).

He was convinced that his only two options in life were to get a job on the oil rigs or become a stripper. He complained that he didn’t want to go to the rigs, so you can see where things went from there.

As you may recall, 2011 was shortly after the global economic meltdown, so my investments had mostly tanked. I was starting to feel the crunch financially and was running out of options.

So, all I could do was sell my soul to five poorly paying jobs. I had to work mornings, days, evenings, and weekends. I endured long commutes. Sometimes I had to fight for healthy working conditions and the money I was owed.

No one cared that I was going through hell. Not their problem. All the while, I hoped and prayed these jobs would lead somewhere… Somehow, I kept the hope alive.

At the time, the only music in my life was the local singer-songwriter open mic night on Tuesdays and the occasional rehearsal or gig.

And I would happily go just to get away from my roommate and the mess he was making at my once beautiful home, knowing full well that it would not be in a better state when I got back, nor would I have the time or energy to clean up.

For a while, I soldiered on undeterred. I believed if I persevered, I’d find a way.

But I finally broke down. I was carrying a bag full of bricks, and the unbreakable back of Atlas started to falter with the addition of a single straw.

One Sunday, after church, I ended up sobbing in my blue Toyota RAV4 with two flat tires in front of an Italian restaurant. I felt exhausted, defeated, and humiliated. My spirit was crushed. In that moment, you could not have convinced me that there was anything left worth living for.

I managed to refinance my home and stay afloat for a while…

But I kept getting myself into financial trouble, to where I ended up having to sell my home, my office, my studio – my everything – in 2012.

None of that had to happen.

But you don’t know what you don’t know.

And I didn’t have a clue what I didn’t know…

This book represents an opportunity for you to discover what you don’t know. But it’s going to require some looking.

***

I get it.

You didn’t go to school (if you did go to school at all) to become a digital marketer.

You went to school to become a musician. And music is your passion.

School may well have equipped you with essential artistic and musical skills like sightreading, composition, music theory, and technique.

But did you leave school knowing how to build a website, market yourself on social media, create viral content, or use advertising to boost your reach?

If you did, it probably wasn’t because of the courses you took. It’s because you taught yourself.

I understand that marketing can be a pain point for a musician. Trying to learn the ins and outs of it can feel like a full-time job unto itself.

But to me, offloading all of it onto a marketing company – who will surely charge you an arm and a leg to stay on their difficult to cancel retainer – is unwise. To add insult to injury, they will try to convince you that developing yourself is a waste of time and to not buy video courses. Absolutely absurd.

Becoming a digital marketer is what it looks like to be a successful musician these days. It’s about the only way to protect yourself against new cultural expectations around public health and safety and who knows what else the political elite have planned for us.

I get that you want to spend most of your time on your passion. But I would posit that trying to run from responsibility and turning a blind eye to marketing is going to end up costing you more. The best person to market your music is you.

Realizing five, 10, or even 20 years down the line that you should have heeded these words is bound to be the most agonizing experience of all, even compared to what I went through in 2011.

Even Rick Barker, former manager of Taylor Swift, has musicians raise their hands at conferences and events and say:

“I am a musician, and I am a digital marketer.”

Yes, you are.

Those with the keys to digital marketing can open the doors to every outcome and possibility imaginable – even those that seem well beyond reach.

Inscribe that on your mind.

But if you would, I want you to pledge one more thing before you move on:

“I am a music entrepreneur.”

Because you are! And it’s empowering to create yourself that way. Let it sink in.

***

When I first started documenting and sharing my journey as a musician, and I would bring up the topic of personal development, my readers would say things like:

“I don’t need any of that rah-rah crap.”

“I’m not clear on how this is self-help stuff going to help me.”

“Mindset is B.S.”

And our skepticism as musicians is well earned. The couch to big screen dream continues to be hawked by shills and charlatans exploiting what is at the very core of our desires – to belong, to matter, to have an impact on our fans, to make a living doing what we love to do, to make a difference in the world.

But when it comes to personal development, our skepticism is misdirected.

Fortunately, the conversation is starting to change. I’m even seeing other musician coaches teaching personal development, which is validating.

Having come this far in my work with artists, though, I now understand that it’s all about how the conversation is framed.

That’s exactly why I’ve left the fluff out of this book. There is no room for confusion. I’m a straight shooter.

What I want you to see by the end of this book is simply this:

Mindset is responsible for at least 80% of your success. The other 20% is what we typically obsess over – doing, doing, and more doing.

***

The term “music business” is made up of two terms – “music,” and “business.”

So, anyone who says “business isn’t important to artists” doesn’t realize that without business, they’re only left with music. And that’s called a hobby.

From navigating 360 Deals to accessing all revenue sources available to you, if you’re not engaging in the business of music, you’re going to have some rude awakenings on your personal path. It’s like going into a dark basement full of nails sticking out from the floorboards and hoping you won’t step on any of them as you make your way from one side to the other.

But more importantly, there is great power in creating yourself as a business.

I have sometimes shared the story of booking an artist showcase at Starbucks and later being asked “how did you book a show here?”

When I approached the Starbucks manager,...

If any part of what you do in music depends on you working with clients, then it’s important to know which types of clients to pursue, as well as which types to avoid.

After all, your survival depends on your ability to bring in an income, and nothing can affect your ability to create an income faster than working with clients who endlessly negotiate, waste time, and refuse to pay.

That’s what we’re going to be looking at in this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast.

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Podcast Highlights:

01:19 – Client disaster stories

01:41 – #1: The rush job

03:20 – #2: The “why, why, why?”

04:59 – #3: The fault finder

08:33 – #4: The charlatan

10:08 – #5: The self-appointed pinnacle of virtue

11:56 – Episode summary and additional tips

Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

Sign Up for Koji – the Best Link in Bio for Musicians

Music by Coma-Media from Pixabay

Book Yourself Solid by Michael Port

Music Money Machine

Also recommended – Winning Through Intimidation by Robert Ringer

Transcription:

Hey, it’s David Andrew Wiebe.

In this episode, we’re going to be looking at five types of clients to avoid in music.

This should be a fun one, because I’ll even be sharing some of the details of my own client disaster stories.

And if you have any of your own client disaster stories you’d like to share, drop us a line at [email protected].

With that, let’s get into it.

Client Type #1: “I Needed This Done Yesterday”

There are those who will come crying to you at the last-minute, in all seriousness, saying, “I need a rush job.”

For example, it could be an artist who has all their recording done, but because they weren’t thinking ahead, or they’re already behind on timelines, they will ask you to rush their album artwork.

This is exactly the situation I found myself in many years back. My partner gave me lead on the project because it was my contact. So, I had to deliver.

We rushed the designs and got them out to the CD manufacturer as soon as we possibly could.

But this type of client has other attributes that makes them difficult. For one, they don’t care about the details. Even if there was a misprint on the liner notes, they probably wouldn’t bat an eye. They only care about their project being done, and yesterday!

While the client’s CD was being manufactured, I got a grave phone call from them, which nearly turned hostile. They asked me, “Where are the CDs? You told me they would be done today.”

I said no such thing! But after I gathered my composure, I had to explain to him how business days work, which pacified a potentially volatile situation.

I still misquoted him on the contract, though, so, I ended up eating some costs on the project. Ultimately, no money was made.

Can You Still Work with This Type of Client?

Though not ideal, there are still ways of making this type of agreement work.

You’ll probably want to charge a substantial rush fee to account for errors that stem from the pressure this type of client is going to put you under.

You’re also going to want to keep in regular communication about the project, something you’re not going to want to do, because this client takes themselves a little too seriously and they aren’t fun people to deal with.

Client Type #2: Asks Questions About Everything

Some clients want to know how everything works, as well as why you’re doing things the way you’re doing them.

“Why are you sending an email right now? What’s the strategy behind it? Is there a reason why you rewrote that lyric? Do you really think the guitars should be mixed that way?”

They don’t care about trade secrets. It’s more like they’re a 12-month-old who just learned to talk and can’t stop asking “why?” about everything.

Now, this is distinct from the type of client who wants to be involved with everything. I know people like that, and the relationship can totally work if they reward you handsomely for your work, and you set proper expectations with them.

No, this is the type of client that, no matter how many times you’ve explained the terms of the contract, or why you’re charging a fee, or why websites need to be renewed each year, always come back to you requesting explanations for every decision made.

I had a client like this who I decided to cut off after a few years. It was a small contract, and I was only breaking even on it, so there wasn’t anything in it for me. Once I started charging for time spent in correspondence, the client rapidly backed out of the contract.

Can You Still Work with This Type of Client?

Yes, you can still work with them. They’re probably one of the most benign types of clients on this list.

Constantly having to refresh them on the details of the job is exhausting, though, so you’d better have structures in place for that.

But that’s assuming they agree to your fees in the first place. This type of client is either tight with money or doesn’t feel like they have much to spend on needed services.

If your rates are low, you may attract clients like this. Otherwise, they will either complain about your fees and try to negotiate or avoid your services completely, which is not a problem.

Client Type #3: “Everything is Wrong!”

Some clients have unrealistic expectations. Or they have different expectations once you’ve entered into a new agreement.

It’s understandable that if you’re charging a higher fee, they might want more from you, right?

But what if they had negative feedback for you on a near weekly or daily basis? You’d start to feel like you suck at what you do.

And they will always find flaws in what you’re doing, instead of acknowledging you for being on time, delivering what you promised, keeping to a regular schedule of communication with them, and so forth.

They are fair weather clients. They love working with you when they can get you at a discount and know they’re under-paying you for your expertise. They hate it when the terms are more in your favor.

I’ll be honest when I say I don’t have much patience or endurance for this type of client. They end up taking up a lot of mind space and they don’t even pay rent. If it gets especially toxic, I get an assistant to mediate. The fault finding, at least for me, gets ridiculous fast.

It is entirely possible, though, that they’re going through something in their life that has them showing up this way in everything they do, including business affairs. You can potentially wait it out and see if things improve, but the downside is you never know when they’re going to get back to treating you with the respect you deserve.

Can You Still Work with This Type of Client?

It depends on your tolerance for unwarranted criticism and constant fault finding.

If the money is so good you can’t abandon them right now, then I can’t fault you for staying with them.

But I don’t suggest remaining in a toxic relationship forever, especially when you’re cognizant of the fact that you’re probably just getting the spillover from arguments with their spouses anyway.

If you insist on working with them, suggest coming up with a new agreement. Reduce your workload, restructure the fees, and see how they respond to the new arrangement. If working conditions improve, you know their expectations were probably unrealistic to begin with.

Client Type #4: Claims to be an Expert and Doesn’t Know Anything About Their So-Called Expertise

What if someone came to you and said, “I love ABC independent artist. I want you to choose 10 of their songs and cover each of them. I will pay you well for the project.”

Sounds like a sweet deal, right?

Only, they don’t know that ABC artist has only ever written, recorded, and released five songs!

Sounds absurd, but trust me this happens…

So, when you come back to them with your five covers, they will make you wrong for not having followed their instructions. They wanted 10 songs! Keep in mind, they are a self-proclaimed expert in this field. They know everything about ABC artist, and if you question them, they’re going to show you how wrong you are.

The first time I encountered a client like this, there were no initial warning signs. I worked hard and pulled late nights to get the first draft of the project out to them, because it was a big project.

After requests for revisions came, I knew what I was dealing with – someone who had somehow risen to the status of expert in their field but didn’t know anything about the topic they were supposed to know so much about. If they knew, they wouldn’t have requested the revisions they requested.

Fortunately, I was working through an intermediary. I requested payment for the work I’d done to that point, and left changes in the capable hands of the intermediary’s team.

Can You Still Work with This Type of Client?

Sure, but it’s going to take patience.

Expect them to request a lot of revisions, which you may not even be paid for.

Also, you want to avoid embarrassing them and telling them that they’re wrong. You want to come up with a suggestion that makes the project workable, and then make it sound like it was their idea all along.

Client Type #5: “Money’s Not a Problem”

This type of client will tell you that “money’s not a problem” while expecting you to work on performance. They won’t even pay you a deposit upon beginning work.

They will talk about how great and honest they are, how they are different from everyone out there, and go on about how they are the shining example of integrity and virtue… and you will be wowed and impressed.

But at the end of the day, they have no intention of paying you in full, and they don’t care about all the trouble you might go through just to accommodate them and their needs.

A few years back, I made the mistake of taking on a client like this. I started getting up at 6 AM each morning just to take on a few extra hours of work each d