One of the biggest things I’ve learned from interviewing 30 different singers on our Artist Spotlight podcast is that all of the guys that I interviewed are using a similar strategy to push their music.
It typically looks something like this.
- Step 1: Produce original music either as a single, EP, or Album,
- Step 2: Promote that project as hard as possible using stuff like PR, campaigns Paid Advertising, Spotify Playlisting and so on
- Step 3: Hope the song “blows up” so that you can build a fan base.
- Step 4: Monetise your fan base
This is the same strategy used by most record labels to push their artists and it seems that independent singers are simply copying doing what the labels are doing.
Personally, I believe this is a terrible strategy for new singers and in this article, I’m going to talk about 5 reasons why, and if you stick around to the end, I’ll tell you a better and more reliable way to push your music business.
Problem 1: No one knows who you are
The number one issue I’ve got with this strategy is that as a new singer, no one knows who you are, and because of this, you’re going to struggle to get people to listen to your music.
And if you can’t get people to listen to your music, it’s going to be super difficult to build a fan base that you can monetize – super important if you’re going to achieve that all-important goal of doing music fulltime.
Problem 2: You don’t have a fan base
Now, if you’ve got a fan base already, then this strategy is very likely to work for you as you have people that already know who you are and eagerly waiting for your project to drop.
So you’re very unlikely to struggle to get people to listen to it.
However, as a new singer, it’s very likely that you don’t have that kind of a following. All you might have is a few friends and family and a bunch of Instagram followers.
And when you release your project, all you get is crickets.
So what typically happens is that you go into promotion mode – doing whatever you possibly can the get as many people as possible to listen to your project.
And as you’ll quickly find out, promo cost a lot of money.
Which brings me to the next issue.
Problem 3: You don’t have the resources to make this strategy work for you
One thing that is key to building a loyal fan base is consistency.
You need to do something consistently in order to turn people that have just discovered your music into fans that actually spend money on you.
This could mean consistently making new music, at least one a week in my opinion, or consistently promoting that music, or both.
Unfortunately, most indies don’t have the resources to do either of these things and if you don’t, you’re going to struggle to build any sort of following.
Problem 4: You need a lot of luck to make this work.
The only way this strategy works without the resources of a label is if you get super lucky and your song goes viral.
And a couple of independent artists have indeed “blown up” with their original music. However, this is the exception, not the norm.
Going viral is something that is totally out of your control. It’s pretty much the same as winning the lottery.
And if you’re relying on luck to achieve your goal of doing music fulltime, then you’re in for a lot of hurts.
Problem 5: You’re trying to do what major labels sometimes fail at doing
Only record labels with huge resources can pull off this strategy.
I’m talking about labels with millions of dollars to spend on marketing and promotion, huge teams behind artists they sign, established distribution networks that they can put their artists through, and so on.
These labels sometimes fail when they use this strategy to push a new artist.
And if this strategy can fail for the major labels, what are the chances of it working for you?
Not very good.
So what should you do instead?
What’s a better way to push your music business and build your brand as a new singer?
Recording original covers of popular songs.
Record labels spend a shit ton of money making a song popular, why not use that to your advantage.
Plus, it’s so much easier to get a fan of a hit song to listen to your own version of that song than to get them to listen to your original song.
It all comes down to brand awareness at the end of the day.
Wrap up
Hopefully, this all makes sense and you found this article valuable?
The idea of leveraging hit songs is nothing new, and it can do more for your music career than build that very important fan base you need to make money with your music.
In my next post, I’m going to talk about a couple of ways leveraging hit songs can help you achieve your goal of doing music fulltime.