There’s only a few days left in 2015, which means it’s time to recap your favorite articles from this year.
Getting your music onto playlists, professionalizing your rights, preparing for a new album launch, and much more.
Here’s our top 10 articles from 2015…
“Musicians — get a REAL job!”
“I’ve been blessed with working with independent artists from all over the world for the past couple of years, helping them hone their live performance skills and producing their live shows.
I’ve also found myself, from time to time, serving as a pseudo-therapist for artists struggling emotionally after somebody close to them suggests their music is nothing more than a hobby and they should consider more traditional employment. You know: a ‘real job.’”
How monetization works on YouTube
One of the questions we get asked most frequently by artists who are enrolled in our YouTube Monetization program is “how much money will I earn per view?”
There are a ton of factors that determine whether an ad will be shown on your videos and how much money you’ll earn from that ad impression, so let’s walk through the various steps and factors that affect your YouTube revenue.
It’s simpler than it seems.
YOU are a music publisher! Do you know what your rights are?
If you’re a songwriter, lyricist, composer, or a member of a group that creates music collaboratively, YOU become the publisher of your music the minute it’s written.
As such, you are granted certain exclusive rights regarding that musical composition.
Do you know what your publishing rights are? Do you know which publishing royalties you’re owed for your music’s use, and do you know how to collect that money?
13 things every DIY musician should know how to do
If you’re one of those artists who think it’s enough just to be a good musician, have we got a list for you!
It’s a kick-in-the-pants for anyone clinging to the very 20th-Century fiction (because it wasn’t true then either) that musicians can get by on talent alone.
Work ethic and attitude have always been important for success in the music industry. They just might look a little different today than they did 15 years ago.
25 ways to optimize your YouTube channel
What do all successful YouTubers have in common? They create great videos! That’s Step #1, at least.
Beyond that, you’ve probably noticed how smart video creators are using some of YouTube’s tools and features to harness the power of those videos and their intended viewers.
Is your channel optimized? Here’s a simple checklist you can reference to make sure you’re doing everything you can to boost views.
The best advice for today’s music industry was written 80 years ago
Just a few months ago the inimitable Martin Atkins dropped an expletive-fueled motivational bomb on our DIY Musician Conference.
In his closing keynote presentation called “How to Make an Extra $100,000 from Your Music Next Year,” Martin ran down a long list of creative cost-saving and money-making suggestions.
At the heart of Martin’s talk, though, was a quote that we think are words to live by.
It all starts with a song: 10 different kinds of singles that can help you reach more fans
We’ve talked a lot about singles before on our DIY Musician Blog, from the reasons why artists should be releasing new music more often, to building an effective promotional campaign around the launch of your single.
What we haven’t talked about too much are all different kinds of singles you could be recording and releasing in order to build your music career. So we came up with a list!
What every musician should do before releasing an album
Your album is mixed and mastered, finally! You’ve got cover art and maybe even replication lined up. Now what? Promotion, right?
Not so fast. You’ll get there, but in order to make that part of your mission a success, you’ll need to get some other things in line, and wouldn’t you know it? We’ve got a checklist for you.
Keep in mind that all this stuff comes before the actual promotion. We’re simply laying the groundwork here.
Your band bio is SOOOOO boring!
Are most musician bios really “a mine of useless information,” the term arts critic David Lister used to describe the biography of virtuoso violinist Julia Fischer that was printed in a concert program?
That’s the conclusion of Anastasia Tsioulcas in her piece for NPR called Why Can’t Artist Bios be Better?
Though the article is primarily concerned with the world of classical music, many of the lessons apply no matter what genre you perform.
How to get your music in a playlist on Spotify or Apple Music
Playlisting has become a huge part of how music fans find their new favorite artists on Apple Music, Deezer, and more.
The songs on a curated playlist are grouped together to appeal to a very specific audience — and that means more listens, more shares, more revenue for rights holders, and the chance of getting your music into the ears of music supervisors.
So how can you get in on these opportunities?
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Chris Robley is an acclaimed singer-songwriter and award-winning poet from Maine.
His Beatlesque indie-pop and milltown Americana songs have been praised by The Associated Press, No Depression, KCRW, The LA Times, Boston Globe, NPR, American Songwriter, and others.
His poems have appeared in Poetry Magazine, Prairie Schooner, The Poetry Review, and more.
Robley has received a Maine Literary Award in Poetry, Boulevard’s Emerging Writers Prize for Poetry, and in 2016 was selected by former US-poet laureate Robert Pinsky as a finalist for the Dorset Prize.