Making music is like any other business model, it requires connection, money, knowledge and investment. The only difference between music making and any other business model is the investment part. While you for example invest in property when doing real-estate, when doing music you need to invest in yourself, your brand and marketing.
What to invest in and how:
Let’s say, you are a hip-hop artist. This directly implies that your primary instrument is your voice, so how good is it actually and how can you improve it?
- E-book – this is a good way for anybody to get the knowledge of any kind, E-books aren’t expensive and can provide you with all sorts of useful knowledge like how to promote your music online or you can get an ebook that teaches you how to just increase your overall vocabulary in general
- Online courses – there are a lot of online courses out there, some are cheap and some are expensive, but one thing they have in common is the fact that they have information that takes a lot of time to accumulate, and it is at your reach with just a few clicks
- Attend events – this is a good way for any artist to learn new things about their genre of music as well as meet people in this same business.
Another fact that you have to consider is your sound. Nowadays everyone once to get the at home in the closet studio and I’m not knocking that, but you should just use that to make rough drafts and then go to a professional studio to do the final recording of the song so you can have radio ready sound and it will make you stand out from the cheap artist with an unprofessional sound.
When it comes down to your music marketing and branding, there are a lot of things that you should consider from making sure you have professional music graphic to knowing how and where to invest your money how does a musician do It properly and where to invest.
- Web hosting – having a website of your own will make you look more professional, you can put samples of your work on the dedicated webpage and simply link the webpage to anybody that is interested in your work, another thing is the fact that you could sell your music on your webpage giving you a portion of your money back.
- Social tools – Twitter, Facebook, these are all social media that are very popular in the modern world we all live in. so it is a generally good idea to buy some followers and likes to get the word out.
I don’t want to invest!
This is a common problem for all the musicians, hip-hop artists included. It is a fact that the music industry is oversaturated and people don’t want to invest in their business, product or themselves just because they are unsure that it will be worth it. When considering this there is a term you should be aware of, it’s called ROI or simply put the return on investment. What this means that all the money you spend on yourself, marketing, Mixtape Cover Designs, and more will be worth in the long run, it’s almost impossible for a musician not to get a portion of the money back, due to online stores like iTunes, if nothing else, you will certainly acquire experience and the connections you need to go up a step or two on the ladder.
Time is money:
Consider the time aspects of it all, when you make music you spend your time, and your time is worth money, so be sure to not give your music out for free, your music is worth your time. On the other hand providing free samples with a link to your website is a pretty good idea.
It Takes Money to Make Money:
Like the title said, it takes money to make money, you all know what this means. In order for you to make money you need to invest in the places that will make your money back. Previously we discussed that having a web-site is a wise investment, what we didn’t discuss is the fact that website hosting costs around 10$ per month, so do the math, how much money do you stand to make if you have a website, which is by today’s standards cheap. As we stated before, websites are not the marketing tools at your disposal, newsletters, blog posts, SEO, mailing lists, and banner ads are things you can use to generate the fans to your website. The only drawback is the fact that you will pay for them and will have to wait for a week or so in order to make your money back.
In conclusion:
As an artist instead of wasting money on new J’s and blowing money at the club every single weekend you can invest 50 a week into your music career and build your brand like a professional. There is no free ride to get into the music game it takes money, marketing and hustle. Look at all the artist you see today that are independent their all over music sites, music blogs, internet radio and more you can advertise in those same places and you will be surprised at the results you receive trust me once I started investing money into marketing for my company Mixtape Cover King my leads and sales increased by 63% so it’s worth it. So start trying different ways of advertising and marketing because you can’t grow your fan base promoting and doing shows for the same people every month you have to expand and the internet is the perfect tool to help you.
I hope that this post has clarified and opened some up solution when it comes to music marketing and investment, just remember, never stop investing in you, it will be worth it in the long run.
