In my last article, I talked about why pushing your original music is not the most effective way for new singers to build a fan base for their music.

I also talked a bit about how a better strategy would be to record covers of popular songs and in this post, I’m going to talk about 6 reasons why every new singer should be doing covers. 

1. People love covers

And they are actively searching for them.

Just check out the view count on these covers on Youtube.

That’s a LOT of views!

I’m willing to bet that the singers covering these songs would never be able to hit those numbers with their original songs in a hundred years.

However, they are able to do so with covers.

Why? Simple.

Record labels have spent millions of dollars promoting these songs and making sure that millions of people, including yourself, know and love them.

So why not use that to your advantage. Ride the wave so to speak

2. Recording covers can help you build your music brand

As a new singer, nobody knows who you are so you’re going to struggle with a lot of things, one of those being getting people to listen to your music.

So it’s important to build a brand that fans recognize and love.

Your brand is also what will differentiate you from the millions of singers out there and make fans fully support you and your music.

The best way to build a brand online is by producing high-quality content regularly.

This is where covering popular songs can come to your rescue.

It’s so much easier to cover a new song every week than to produce an original track at the same pace.

3. Recording covers can help you develop your sound

When you’re just starting out on your musical journey, you’re still developing your sound, your image, your style – all these are part of your brand.

In order to develop a brand that is truly yours, you’re going to need a lot of practice.

Doing one cover a week is a great way to get that practice.

Especially if you do a lot of experimenting with your covers. You could try out different singing styles, melodies, and techniques and develop a brand that’s unique and differentiates you from all other singers out there.

4. Recording covers can help you improve your songwriting skills

Just as covering popular songs can help you develop your sound, they can also help you improve your songwriting skills as well.

Especially if you switch your covers up and come up with new lyrics for the songs you cover.

And the better you get at songwriting, the better your original songs will be.

5. Recording covers can help you build a fanbase that you can monetize

It’s super difficult and expensive for new singers to build a fan base with their original. Reason being that nobody knows who you are and you’re going to struggle to get people to listen to anything you produce.

This is another area where doing covers can help.

By recording covers, you can leverage songs that people already know and love, and use them to build your fan base that you can monetize with Streams of your original songs, concert tickets, Merch, premium fan club and so on.

It’s so much easier to get fans of a hit song to listen to your own version of that song than to get them to listen to your original song.

6. Doing covers can help you find your go-to producer faster

Another big challenge for new singers is finding the right producer to work with.

Unfortunately, you need to go through a bunch of producers to find one that you enjoy working with and can make the type of music you want to create.

This could cost you a lot of money on the process.

By covering popular songs, you can solve this problem quicker and cheaper.

It’s so much easier to work with a producer on a song that they are familiar with than on an original song that they don’t have a reference for.

Trust me. I’m a producer, I know this.

Wrapping up

Those are 6 of the biggest reasons why I think new singers should be doing covers instead of trying to build a fan base with their original music.

If you like the idea of using covers to build your brand and grow your fan base and would like to get started at it, then you’ve got to create a proper plan first.

Having a plan is what will make this strategy work for you and I’ll be talking bout how to create a great plan in my next post.

So stay tuned.

Earlier this week, I interviewed my 30th artist for the Tunecreators Artist Spotlight podcast and I have to say, it’s been one of the most amazing things I’ve ever done.

This podcast has allowed me to discover and connect with so many talented artists, build my confidence, and learn more about them, the music industry, and myself in the process. 

As we’ve hit the 30th interview milestone, I thought this would be a good time to look back at the last 3 months, reflect on the awesome conversations I’ve had, and share what I’ve learned about artists in the process.

Here are 6 of the biggest takeaways from interviewing 30 amazing artists.

1. There are TONS of super talented artists out there

This was a pleasant surprise!

I have to say I’ve been totally blown away by the quality of the music of my guests. 

Some of the songs I’ve listened to sound as good as anything that you’d hear from major artists. 

Which is really cool. 

As a result, I’ve started a Spotify playlist to showcase the music of my guests, and if you listened to it, I’m sure you’d be pleasantly surprised as well.

2. Most Artists would love to do music full-time

This is something that I had already suspected, so no surprises here.

Whenever I asked my guests if they’d love to do music full time, the answer was always a resounding YES!

Which musician wouldn’t love to make enough money from their music business to do it full time? That’s the ultimate dream right?

Unfortunately, very few artists get to achieve this dream and that brings me to the next big takeaway.

3. Most artists don’t have a marketing plan

This one was a big surprise for me.

While all the 30 guests that I interviewed would love to do music full-time, guess how many had an actual, marketing plan that showed them how to do this?

Twenty? Fifteen?

Just two!

Yep, you heard that right – two out of thirty.

Shocking right?

While I believe it’s possible for independent musicians to make enough money from their music business to do it full-time, achieving this goal requires proper planning, and following that plan like your life depends on it.

Failure to plan is planning to fail after all.

I suspect this right here is the main reason why the majority of independent artists never realize that dream of doing music full time.

4. Most artists are using a similar strategy to push their music.

Now this one I found very interesting.

All the guys I talked to seemed to be using the same strategy to push their music.

It goes something like this:

• Step 1: Write your music
• Step 2: Produce a project
• Step 3: Promote your project with lots of trial and error
• Step 4: Build a fan base
• Step 5: Sell stuff to your fan base

This is the strategy used by major labels to push their artists and it seems that a lot of indies just copy that.

Big mistake.

Never copy what the majors do. 

A better strategy would be to start off by recording covers of popular songs and then use that to build a fan base and then push your music to those fans.

I talk more about this In this blog, so definitely check it out if you’d like to learn more.

5. Most artists understand the need to be good at the business side to be successful. 

This one was another pleasant surprise.

I’ve always had the belief that the main reason many artists fail in this industry was that they didn’t understand that they were running a business – a music business to be specific.

There’s a very popular quote that says it better “the music industry is 10% music, and 90% business”, and this is so flipping true.

I’m happy to say that I was wrong. ALL of my guests understood this, which is awesome!

However, understanding you’re running a business is one thing, acting like a business is another. 

And a lot of my guests are not acting like businesses. 

Let me explain

There are certain things that make a business a business. One example is not having a website.

Typically, businesses tend to have a website where you can learn all about what they do, how to contact them, and so on. However, very few of my guests had that or even a professional Bio.

Artists seem to be content with using their Instagram profile for this, but this comes with a host of issues which I’ll get into in another post.

6. There are 2 main types of artists

The final takeaway has to be the most interesting, and probably the most controversial takeaways from my interviews.

After speaking to so many artists, I noticed one very interesting thing – there are basically two categories of upcoming artists.

I call them the Star-gazers and the Realists.

Allow me to explain.

The Star-gazers dream big, like REALLY big.

For these guys, the benchmark for success in the music industry is superstardom, and anything short of this is considered a failure.

The Realists are more conservative about their dreams. 

For these guys, the goal is not to become famous but rather to make enough money from their music to pay their bills with – or maybe buy some new gear.  

Some even hated the idea of being famous, which I found very interesting.

Personally, I see anything wrong with being either a Star-gazer or the Realists. 

I believe whatever goal you set for yourself is totally achievable, as long as it’s realistic and you do what is needed and required of you.

Wrapping up

And that’s pretty much it.

I Just want to say a big thank you to all the artists that I’ve interviewed so far. It’s been a pleasure meeting and chatting with you and I truly appreciate you coming on the show.

I’m loving the conversations so much that, at the time of writing this blog post, I’ve reached out to another 100 artists to be guests on the show.

I’m looking forward to having more conversations and discovering more music over the next coming months.