When you’re just starting, it’s easy to overcomplicate simple things, and to oversimplify difficult things.
Mostly taken from the article by Chris Robley
Things every new sound artist should understand:
- The art is everything
You should always put the MOST emphasis on making great music, designing compelling cover artwork, and telling a good story about your songs. Copyright, publishing rights, and distribution are just the infrastructure. It’s not the MAGIC! Everything truly special about music is driven by the artist and the listener. All the services, the acronyms, your distributor, they can help bridge that gap between you and your audience, but it’s up to you to make the connection. - No one will hear your music simply because it’s available
THIS is the primary thing artists should be concerned about when releasing new songs: attracting listeners and gaining momentum. Dig into the hard work of actually BUILDING an audience. One thing that is a bummer to hear, but absolutely crucial for you to understand upfront, is that no one will care about your new music until you make them care. The availability of your music not an indicator of success. Some reports say that 60k new songs are released every day. 60k other musicians did the same thing today? Find your music marketing edge, tell a compelling story, and make people care. Only then will they interrupt their day to press play and listen to the music. - You own your copyright already
Lots of new recording artists are afraid of someone stealing their songs. They don’t want to release the track until they’ve copyrighted their music. You own the copyright to your music already! Copyright infringement is comparatively rare. Register your copyright, but don’t let that process slow you down from releasing music. - Don’t put the acronyms before the horse
Don’t worry about artist affiliation like ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, the MLC, the Recording Academy, the local union, the state songwriter society, SoundExchange,… If you use CD Baby Pro for distribution, we’ll affiliate you with a performing rights organization such as ASCAP or BMI, register your songs, and make sure you collect all your publishing royalties. They will also collect your mechanical royalties for you, so you don’t have to register with the MLC directly. And SoundExchange? Yes, they’re great. Sign up with them, which is easy. Problem solved! - Your distributor makes things manageable
Speaking of music distribution, you’ll need it. Sign up your music with a distribution service like CD Baby!, and they will deliver your tracks all over the world — to 150+ music platforms, including Spotify, TikTok, YouTube Music, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Deezer, Pandora, and so many more. CD Baby handles all the file formatting and deliveries, we collects your royalties, and we pay it all to you in one simple dashboard. For the same one-time fee, we also include sync licensing, social video monetization, and more. - You are a label
YOU are ultimately responsible for your music’s performance in the marketplace. And yes, it’s a marketplace. A label’s job is to fund, guide, and assist the artist. If you don’t have a label, you are your OWN label. And a label is a business, with a budget, a network of connections, and a strategy. As an artist, you provide the spark, the voice, the story. As a label, you provide the plan, the effort, and maybe even monetary investment. No one else is going to swoop in and make you a star until you’ve already proven to be an artist (and business) worth their time, attention, and capital. Don’t wait around hoping to get anointed by kingmakers, tastemakers, big brands, cool blogs, or hot playlists. Get started today finding your own path to success. Once you do, all those power players will suddenly be in your corner. - Chasing vanity metrics can hurt you
We think numbers are super important — especially the numbers associated with our online presence (streams, views, followers, etc.). There is such a thing as empty streams, useless views, and so forth. A number for its own sake is a “vanity metric.” A small audience that loves everything you create and wants to hear your songs again and again? Great! That’s the foundation you want to build. Quality over quantity. Or rather, first quality engagement; then that can lead to quantity as well. - You can’t build a team until you’ve build your own career
If strangers are writing you early-on and offering services, success, fame — they’re probably scammers. The most reputable booking agents, publicists, labels, and promoters don’t cold-call artists out of the blue. You will have to find them. Go to them. Pitch your music and story to them. And they’ll only say yes IF you’ve already built something impressive on your own. - Success will look different than you imagined
Be adaptable. Just because you don’t hit the target you initially aimed for doesn’t mean you aren’t successful.
- Be everywhere
The average music consumer is using Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, TikTok, YouTube Music, Pandora, Deezer, Soundcloud, Bandcamp, etc.