How To Chart On Billboard in 2024
What Do I Know? As you might have already gathered from the aspirational title, this will be the second installment in my “Do As I Say, Not As I Do” collection of articles. I admit it: I haven’t charted on Billboard, in 2024 or any other year, but don’t let that dissuade you from listening […]
How To Get One Million Streams On Spotify
Clearing the Air Okay, let’s go ahead and acknowledge the elephant in the room before the vibe gets too awkward, because I’ve heard tell that unacknowledged room-elephants grow in size until they either force you out of the room or mercilessly crush you against its walls: I have not gotten one million streams on Spotify. […]
Should You Ever Pay For Spotify Playlist Placements?
Before we really dig into the delicious meat of this question (I tasted it already – it’s chicken), allow me to go ahead and drop a quick answer to its most literal interpretation: no, you should not ever pay for Spotify playlist placements. You know why not? Because it’s flat-out illegal, greenhorn. Fortunately for you, […]
How To Get Your First 1,000 Streams On Spotify
Ah, just look at you! Fresh-faced, green as they come, the world in front of you and not even a single stream under your belt yet. You’re a cowboy that just stepped off the train in a new town with nothing on your back but a guitar and nothing in your head but a song […]
Can you make money on Spotify?
I’m not going to sugarcoat it for you, and if you’re asking the question chances are you already suspect the answer may not be a favorable one, so here goes nothing: sure, you can make money on Spotify, but it ain’t easy. For most artists, payouts from Spotify – at least payouts significant enough to […]
How to Make A Full-Time Living as an Indie Artist
https://www.vulture.com/2019/04/how-indie-artists-actually-make-money-in-2019.html For the sake of continuity, let’s start this article in the same way I start so many of my articles: with some good old-fashioned negativity and a healthy serving of harsh realism. Friends, countrymen: it is hard to make a full-time living as an indie artist. It’s a glamorous idea, to be paid handsomely […]
How Often Should I Release Music?
I’ve gone on the record in another article that I’m not here to talk about myself, and I promise that remains true, but…I seem to keep coming up. Not because these articles are explicitly about me in any meaningful way – they’re not, I promise. That said, I’ve found it particularly easy to feature myself […]
Is Radio Promotion Worth It in 2024?
Man, the radio! Remember that old fossil? No? Okay, let me paint a picture for you: it’s 2005, and you’re climbing into the cloth-covered driver’s seat of your boxy SUV. You turn the key to the ignition and feel the engine roar to life beneath your nether regions, and the radio clicks on, set to […]
How to Sell Merch on Spotify
Maybe I’m late to the party, but it was recently brought to my attention that Spotify – that often dubious, occasionally delightful platform that has the music industry in its death grip and grossly underpays artists but still somehow can’t seem to chart a viable course towards profitability – has more than one trick up […]
Are Record Labels Worth It In 2023?
Oof – that’s a big question. And, as you might expect (and as seems to be the case for so many of life’s biggest questions) it’s not one that’s easily answered. It’s also one that’s understandably top of mind for a large percentage of those independent musicians working to grow their audience, gain exposure for […]
