The Savvy Musician Show

By Leah McHenry

What's The Savvy Musician Show about?

The leading online music marketing podcast just for musicians!

Expert interviews, strategies, the latest changes in social media and Facebook advertising, album launches, crowdfunding, student success stories, and MORE! We equip musicians with the knowledge and tools to live their dreams in the new music industry.

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153153 ratings

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The Savvy Musician Show episodes:

09.21.2020
The Last SMA Podcast? - SMS115
Leah’s back! Where has she been? What’s she been doing? Where to from here for music marketing and the Savvy Musician Academy? In this episode, Leah joins C. J. for an in-depth discussion of her new business, Mythologie Candles, and...
09.07.2020
How To Make Money With Spotify - SMS114
Are you trying to figure out how to get more streams on Spotify? Did you know we offer a course on this? This week C.J. welcomes Dave Powers, the co-founder of the course, and Kirk Smith, one of its top...
08.31.2020
Getting Fans to Buy Your Music - SMS113
This week is a paragon case study of a band who has been at it for awhile, doing pretty well, but looking for what they can do to take it to the next level. Insert C.J. sitting down with Elliot...
08.24.2020
Making Your Home a Music Factory (Interview with Steven Wood) - SMS112
Whether it’s a top of the line music studio, just your phone and instrument, or somewhere in between, you should be using what you have to be making more music, reaching more people, and building the relationships between you and...
08.17.2020
Fulfilling Your Creative Mission - SMS111
Are you having writers block? You just can’t figure out what the song is supposed to be about or what goes with that great riff you’ve had forever? It’d be great if the answer just magically fell out of the...
08.10.2020
An Interview with Jason Stallworth (Elite Student) - SMS110
This week C.J. is joined by Jason Stallworth, one of our first Elite students. There is so much experience and advice shared that it’s hard to pinpoint any in particular. Really what you get this week is a look into...
08.03.2020
Copywriting for Social Media & Email - SMS109
So you’ve got a social media post to make or an email to send out, but what exactly do you say? Are you seeing the results you want from your posts and emails? Whatever your situation is with your copywriting,...
07.27.2020
The Power of Personal Branding for Your Music Business - SMS108
When people think of you and your music, what do they think of? Well, whatever that is, that’s your brand! What we want, is to design and utilize this idea to build your music business. This idea should be personal,...
07.20.2020
Music Marketing Without Paid Advertising - SMS107
Would you keep betting on a horse that never won a race? Seems ridiculous, but people keep throwing money at advertising for posts that never did well in the first place. In this episode, C.J. sums it up perfectly when...
07.13.2020
Starting Over: A Coaching Session with an Artist Who Once Sold Millions of Records - SMS106
Imagine selling millions of records only to end up starting from scratch in an entirely new music industry. This is the story of J.R. Richards and our SMA student guest joining C.J. this week. J.R. was the vocalist for the...
07.06.2020
Facebook or YouTube? Which is the Best Platform for the Online Musician? - SMS105
If you are building a music business, should you focus on YouTube of Facebook? Well, both honestly! But as C.J. explains the pro’s and con’s of both, you’ll find that Facebook by far has the advantage. Would you rather have...
06.29.2020
Behind-The-Scenes at SMA, Part 2 with Steve Harnett (Chief Operating Officer) - SMS104
Continuing our look behind the scenes here at SMA, this week C.J. is joined by our very own Steve Harnett, Leah’s wonderful husband, and our Chief Operating Officer. This is Steve’s first time on the Savvy Musician Show, but he...
06.22.2020
Behind-The-Scenes at SMA, Part 1 with Amy Roy (Customer Service Director) - SMS103
If you haven’t already, you get to meet our very own Customer Service Director, Amy Roy. This is a treat not only personally but also professionally. You name it, she’s seen it and is now giving you priceless insight into...
06.15.2020
7 Reasons Why Musicians Fail in Building an Online Business - SMS102
C. J. has spent countless hours coaching musicians one-on-one on their marketing and out of it he shares seven reasons why musicians fail in building an online business. What might be surprising to discover is that the main reasons for...
06.08.2020
Leah Life Update - SMS101
Leah’s been devoted to so many things it’s wonderful to have her back on this week’s podcast and to hear what she’s been up to and her plans for the Summer. As we all know, you can work yourself so...
06.01.2020
Interview with Anna Brzozowska - SMS100
This week C.J. interviews another successful SMA student, Anna Brzozowska, an ethereal pop artist originally from Poland but is currently living in Spain. Anna shares her story of how she almost gave up on her music after the expenses of...
05.25.2020
An Interview with Ty Richards - SMS099
If you were to ask someone for $20, who would be more likely to give it to you, a good friend or a complete stranger? Obviously a good friend. Have you ever met someone and had so much in common...
05.18.2020
The Key to Success is Mastering Fundamentals - SMS098
If you were to ask someone for $20, who would be more likely to give it to you, a good friend or a complete stranger? Obviously a good friend. Have you ever met someone and had so much in common...
05.11.2020
Find Your Niche: The Difference Between Failure & Success - SMS097
Before we go any further, do you know what your micro-niche is? It cannot be overstated how important it is to be rock solid in defining, understanding, and utilizing your micro-niche, because it is the foundation of building your fanbase...
05.04.2020
How Social Media Is Changing The Music Industry - SMS096
This may be the most concise, yet comprehensive, description of where we are in the music industry and what may be the greatest opportunity for artists in the last 25 years. At the end of the 90s, Napster changed the...
04.27.2020
Making Good Use of Your Isolation, Pt. 2 - SMS095
Part 2 of “Making Good Use of Your Isolation” gives you more pro tips on what you can be doing right now at home to expand your music business. With so many people at home and online, this is such...
04.20.2020
Making Good Use of Your Isolation, Pt. 1 - SMS094
Whether your work has been affected by the pandemic or not, now is the time to seize this opportunity to improve your online music business! People are still online shopping and with Amazon limiting it’s service, there’s a greater opportunity...
04.13.2020
How To Reap The Benefits Of A Millionaire Mindset, Pt. 3 - SMS093
Concluding the three part series on “The Top 10 Distinctions Between Millionaires and the Middle Class” by Keith Cameron Smith, Leah and C.J. discuss taking calculated risks. How long did you dream about being a musician before you decided to...
04.06.2020
How To Reap The Benefits Of A Millionaire Mindset, Pt. 2 - SMS092
Continuing last weeks case study of “The Top 10 Distinctions Between Millionaires and the Middle Class” by Keith Cameron Smith, Leah and C.J. focus on the distinction of how one handles change. Musicians of all people, with the recent digitalization...
03.30.2020
How To Reap The Benefits Of A Millionaire Mindset, Pt.1 - SMS091
This episode begins a case study into the book, “Top 10 Distinctions Between Millionaires and the Middle Class” by Keith Cameron Smith, and you might be asking yourself, “What does this have to do with music?” SMA’s focus is to...
03.23.2020
Interview with Noe Venable (TOM & Elite Student) - SMS090
In this episode C.J. interviews elite student Noe Venable, a mother of two living in the San Francisco area, who has experienced great results by faithfully following the course work in the Savvy Musician Academy (SMA). This is more than...
03.16.2020
Interview with Jeff Pearce (TOM & Elite Student) - SMS089
At the Savvy Musician Academy (SMA), we have musicians and bands of all kinds and different genres. One of the interesting genres is ambient instrumental music, and our special guest in this episode is a prolific recording artist who’s released...
03.09.2020
Only Focus Online - SMS088
How many musicians have gone viral, or received mass exposure on American Idol or The Voice, and unfortunately still have nothing to show for it? This hoping to get discovered still represents the old model of the music business and...
03.02.2020
60+% Believe You Can’t Make Money Online - SMS087
One of Leah’s recent surveys showed that 60% of musicians do not believe you can make money online with your music. In this episode, Leah and C.J. discuss why musicians might think this and explain how you most definitely can...
02.24.2020
Discouragement - SMS086
Sometimes out of the multitude of compliments you receive online, it takes only one negative comment to get under your skin and ruin your day. You start to question yourself, and self-doubt begins to grow. You begin to resent people,...
02.17.2020
Sister Brand Follow-Up - SMS085
Continuing last weeks episode on Leah’s new sister brand product, Mythologie Candles, Leah and C.J. go further in depth analyzing the details of how she achieved what she called “a million dollar day.” Listen to find out what she means...
02.10.2020
Creating A Sister Brand to Your Music - SMA084
When people first encounter Leah, they struggle to wrap their minds around the fact that she earns six-figures annually from her music business. What they don’t realize at first is that she’s earning that income from more than simply physical...
02.03.2020
Top 9 Marketing Metrics You Need to Know to Grow Your Music Business - SMS083
Leah and C.J. practically give you gold in this week’s episode on metrics, where they discuss nine different metrics you will find in any successful ecommerce business. What are metrics? Metrics are a mode of measurement that you need to...
01.27.2020
2020 Annual Planning - SMS082
Time to plan out your 2020! We’re making small steps toward big goals to push your musical career to the next level, and in this episode, Leah and C.J. discuss how to get intentional with your music business. We want...
01.20.2020
An Interview With Rob Hulford (Elite Student) - SMS081
Savvy Musician Show co-host, C.J. Ortiz, interviews Rob Hulford, another Elite student from the Savvy Musician Academy (SMA). Rob’s music style is self-described as an “Ambient downtempo chilled genre geared towards helping people to unplug.” In this interview, Rob explains...
01.10.2020
An Interview With Jacqueline & Augustus of The Galaxy Electric (Elite Students) - SMS080
We have all types of musical genres represented in our Elite students at the Savvy Musician Academy, and some of these genres are so unique that you can assume there’s no audience for them. Not true, and our special guests...
01.05.2020
Creating Boundaries with Fans: Where to Draw the Line - SMS079
In this episode Leah and C.J. discuss setting boundaries between you and your fanbase in proactive ways to create a better customer support experience for you and your fans. In other words, setting boundaries is for more than protecting you,...
12.30.2019
Leah’s Black Friday & Cyber Monday Results - SMS078
2019 was one of Leah’s busiest years yet with a crowdfunding campaign, launching a new album, and aggressive holiday sales. In this episode, Leah and C. J. discuss her results and lessons learned from her Black Friday and Cyber Monday...
12.23.2019
An Interview with Lindsay Schoolcraft (Elite Student) - SMS077
Keyboardist and vocalist for the internationally popular heavy metal band, Cradle of Filth, Lindsay Schoolcraft joins C. J. to discuss how she’s using the principles taught in the Savvy Musician Academy to launch her own album without a record label....
12.16.2019
An Interview with Karen Barrow (Elite Student) - SMS076
Her online music career began early in the days of MySpace—gaining 30,000 followers—and at one point, one of her music videos gained 12 million views, and yet Karen Barrow still had no money to show for it. Like most artists,...
12.08.2019
How to Handle Yourself on Social Media - SMS075
In the new era of the music industry, artists are taking control of their music careers through the power of the internet and social media, which means there’s more pressure on the artist to deal with their fans more personally....
12.02.2019
Record Label or Independent Artist? An Interview With Jens Hilzensauer, Pt. 2 - SMS074
In Part 2 of our interview with Jens Hilzensauer, we dive even deeper into the state of the music industry—specifically record labels and record deals. We also discuss the huge learning curve that labels have in order to get up...
11.24.2019
Record Label or Independent Artist? An Interview with Jens Hilzensauer, Pt. 1 - SMS073
In this episode, we go behind the scenes of Leah’s push for publishing and sync licensing her music by interviewing someone who is working intimately for Leah in this process. The results have been eye-opening as our special guest, Jens...
11.17.2019
Are You Planning or Hoping for Success? - SMS072
If you’re not planning and working for a specific, desired outcome, then you’re hoping or wishing for success—and it’s doubtful that you’ll ever achieve it. Just like artists would “hope” that they’d be discovered by a record label, so artists...
11.11.2019
How to Get Ready Now for Holiday Sales - SMS071
Believe it or not, now is the time to start thinking about preparing for your holiday sales whether you’re working only to build your list, preparing your special offers, or hitting your holiday marketing full on. The only time it’s...
11.04.2019
How Leah is Preparing For Her Album Launch - SMS070
After completing her highly successful crowdfunding campaign where she raised $83,000+ in in 30 days, the work was actually just beginning. Leah still had to release her album, and there were still two more phases to doing this successfully. After...
10.27.2019
Crowdfunding Q&A - SMS069
As we reach the third and final episode of this powerful 3-part, in-depth series on the success of Leah’s recent crowdfunding campaign, Leah answer’s some of her student’s questions on crowdfunding. Having done a few crowdfunding campaigns during her career,...
10.21.2019
Leah’s Recent Crowdfunding Results, Pt. 2: Mistakes & Lessons Learned - SMS068
In this episode, Leah delves deeper into her successful crowdfunding campaign for her latest album, Ancient Winter, and now she reveals the mistakes she made and the lessons she learned. Leah has tried various ways to crowdfund her albums, and...
10.12.2019
Leah’s Recent Crowdfunding Results, Pt. 1: 80k in 30 Days - SMS067
In this episode, Leah and C. J. launch in an in-depth 3-part series on crowdfunding taken directly from Leah’s recent successful crowdfunding campaign for her fifth album, Ancient Winter, in which she exceed ALL her revenue goals! And to make...
10.07.2019
How To Grow Your Music Career When You Can't Tour - SMS066
In today’s episode, we are talking about what you can do to grow your music career when you are not able to tour. Many musicians are unable to tour for various reasons, such as work, family or other commitments. This...

What's The Savvy Musician Show about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

The Savvy Musician Show episodes:

The Last SMA Podcast? - SMS115

How To Make Money With Spotify - SMS114

Getting Fans to Buy Your Music - SMS113

Making Your Home a Music Factory (Interview with Steven Wood) - SMS112

Fulfilling Your Creative Mission - SMS111

An Interview with Jason Stallworth (Elite Student) - SMS110

Copywriting for Social Media & Email - SMS109

The Power of Personal Branding for Your Music Business - SMS108

Music Marketing Without Paid Advertising - SMS107

Starting Over: A Coaching Session with an Artist Who Once Sold Millions of Records - SMS106

Facebook or YouTube? Which is the Best Platform for the Online Musician? - SMS105

Behind-The-Scenes at SMA, Part 2 with Steve Harnett (Chief Operating Officer) - SMS104

Behind-The-Scenes at SMA, Part 1 with Amy Roy (Customer Service Director) - SMS103

7 Reasons Why Musicians Fail in Building an Online Business - SMS102

Leah Life Update - SMS101

Interview with Anna Brzozowska - SMS100

An Interview with Ty Richards - SMS099

The Key to Success is Mastering Fundamentals - SMS098

Find Your Niche: The Difference Between Failure & Success - SMS097

How Social Media Is Changing The Music Industry - SMS096

Making Good Use of Your Isolation, Pt. 2 - SMS095

Making Good Use of Your Isolation, Pt. 1 - SMS094

How To Reap The Benefits Of A Millionaire Mindset, Pt. 3 - SMS093

How To Reap The Benefits Of A Millionaire Mindset, Pt. 2 - SMS092

How To Reap The Benefits Of A Millionaire Mindset, Pt.1 - SMS091

Interview with Noe Venable (TOM & Elite Student) - SMS090

Interview with Jeff Pearce (TOM & Elite Student) - SMS089

Only Focus Online - SMS088

60+% Believe You Can’t Make Money Online - SMS087

Discouragement - SMS086

Sister Brand Follow-Up - SMS085

Creating A Sister Brand to Your Music - SMA084

Top 9 Marketing Metrics You Need to Know to Grow Your Music Business - SMS083

2020 Annual Planning - SMS082

An Interview With Rob Hulford (Elite Student) - SMS081

An Interview With Jacqueline & Augustus of The Galaxy Electric (Elite Students) - SMS080

Creating Boundaries with Fans: Where to Draw the Line - SMS079

Leah’s Black Friday & Cyber Monday Results - SMS078

An Interview with Lindsay Schoolcraft (Elite Student) - SMS077

An Interview with Karen Barrow (Elite Student) - SMS076

How to Handle Yourself on Social Media - SMS075

Record Label or Independent Artist? An Interview With Jens Hilzensauer, Pt. 2 - SMS074

Record Label or Independent Artist? An Interview with Jens Hilzensauer, Pt. 1 - SMS073

Are You Planning or Hoping for Success? - SMS072

How to Get Ready Now for Holiday Sales - SMS071

How Leah is Preparing For Her Album Launch - SMS070

Crowdfunding Q&A - SMS069

Leah’s Recent Crowdfunding Results, Pt. 2: Mistakes & Lessons Learned - SMS068

Leah’s Recent Crowdfunding Results, Pt. 1: 80k in 30 Days - SMS067

How To Grow Your Music Career When You Can't Tour - SMS066