How To Be A Successful Independent Artist Like Nipsey Hussle, TechN9ne, Yo Gotti And More

F**CK A Record Deal

To make it as an independent artist takes non stop grind, calculated music marketing tactics and dedication, but it's well worth it in the end.

People see artist like Nipsey Hussle, E-40, and Tech N9ne living a lavish lifestyle, and making more money then artist on major labels, but nobody see's the behind the scenes work these artist put in day in and day out for years so now they can afford to live that lifestyle.

Tech N9ne is the definition of independent artist. He has been building Strange Music for almost 20 years now. The point is that music artist don't need a major label nowadays to make a living from their music.But it takes a certain type of person with dedication, non stop grind, and that attitude to keep going no matter how hard it gets.

After talking to thousands of independent artist who are making a good living from their music. Here are a few thing every independent artist should know if they wan to be successful

Marketing Plan

Marketing is raising awareness around your brand or product to the public, but in a non invasive way. I see alot of artist who just post their thinks all over peoples pages and tag hundreds of people in their post it might be annoying to people,but that is still a form of marketing it might not be that effective but its marketing.

If you want to get real results for your new release you can't just tag people and post links on their site that isn't going to grow your fanbase and sell your music.You need to come up with an effective marketing strategy that involves you connecting your target market and building a relationship with them.

Work Ethic And Hustle

Floyd Mayweather said it best “Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.” That applies to the music business to.Whether you like em are not the artist that are making money in the music game now are consistent as hell and stay on their grind. Artist like Young Dolph, Curren$y, Young Thug, Yo Gotti, and Gucci Mane all have a non stop work ethic that's how they drop so much material in one year. Gucci Mane was still dropping music consistently even when he was locked up.

If your trying to make it in the music industry you need to know from jump that it takes HARD WORK for real it's more then just making music. The same work you put into creating your mixtape or album you should put it into promoting your music, connecting with with your fans thru social media, and learing the business side of the music industry. It's non stop work 24/7

Understanding The Music Industry

This is how it works and Wedy Day the person responsible for getting Cash Money Records one of the biggerst records deal in the history of music said it best. "You have 2 choices either learn how aspect of the music business work and build your own connections are like Kevin Gates you hire a good team who already connections or experience in the business.Even if you hire a team you should still educate yourself thouroughly on how the music business works this way you understand the fundamentals of the business so nobody can pull a fast one on you.

We see it everyday an artist says they got hustled out of money from their label, but really they didn't they just didn't know what they were signing bcause they were not educated on how the business works.What they say is true Knowledge Is Power.

A Solid Team (Not a bunch of rappers)

The worse thing you can do as an independent artist is think you can do everything on your own.lol There is only 24hrs in a day so you need you a team who can handle the task that you complete.Every successful artist has a team it's mandatory.

Good people to have in your arsenal are a manager, promoter, tour manager, lawyer, and a graphic designer. Your graphic designer plays a big role on your team becasue they create all you visuals that pepople see before they hear your music, or visit your event. You need a graphic designer who specializes in creating mixtape covers and branding material for independent artist.

Release Tons Of Content

You develop a good relationship with somoene by commuunicationg with them on a regular basis right? Well, the samething applies when your trying to build your fanbase you have to commuicate with your fans if you want them to become superfans.

Unless your Eminem or Kayne West who can dissappear for 2 years and come back like they never left, your need to be creating and distributing content so you can stay intouch with your fans. Your content can be anything you recording, you with your team posted up, dice game , anything that brings them into your world.

You Need To Have Dope Music

I'm not gonna be around the bush with this one. You need have dope music point blank periord.You need something catchy, that your target market can connect with. Otherwise it won't work.
If your ready to take your career to the next level and you need professional graphics and artist branding visit www.Instagram.com/MixtapeCoverKingsMusicIndustryGraphicDesigns.com

Indie Artist Don't Work With Any Artist Or Concert Promoter Until You Read This

Learn How To Increase Your Value As An Indie Artist

As a music artist your whole goal is to build value in you and your brand. So it's mandatory that your selective on business ventures you participate in because making the wrong move can actually devalue your brand and music career.

I understand that it might be hard for you to turn down certain offers due to the fact you spent a lot of time building your brand to get to the level where promoters and other artist are presenting you with offers , but don’t giving in and taking every offer especially if it doesn’t help your brand’s image or get your music more exposure will benefit your career in the long run I know that sounds harsh, but it’s the truth at the end of the day this is a business.

Here are a couple of things you should think about so you don’t devalue your brand.

You Shouldn’t  Perform Too Much

Artist love to brag about how they’ve performed over 100 times locally and opened up for this celebrity etc an yes those are big milestones in your career but from a business prespective none of that matters if...

1. You didn’t make money from these events 

2. If you didn’t reach a new audience and get new fans. It’s not about bragging rights you need to be making money and growing your fan base point blank period.

I understand at the beginning of your music career when you’re trying to push your new mixtape or single you need to perform at as many venues as possible to not only get more exposure to your music, but to also get you more comfortable performing live on stage. But once you’ve done that you need to be picky about where, when, and who you perform with.

Once you have a buzz going and people start to recognize your music different artist and concert promoters will start to reach out to you on social media sites and start emailing you with different opportunities to do shows especially concert promoters they always have slots to fill especially in smaller areas where there isn’t an abundance of qualified talent,but rather than getting on every venue multiple times a week only participate in bigger shows  that will create a buzz for your fans and make them feel like they can’t miss your performance.

I’m not saying don’t do  shows if there not big because of course smaller cities don’t have big shows on a regular basis just make sure when you do perform its not a bs event with no buzz behind it.Also when you do decide to participate in a show for a promoter and they present you with a slot that has an artist with a smaller buzz and less talent then you make sure you tell the promoter where you should be on the bill or don’t do the show.

You should also make sure the promoter is promoting the event properly with an online/offline flyer with professional graphics etc. You should only perform at professional events and if you even get a little feeling it’s not going to turn out right don’t do it! Trust me you rather turn down a show then upset all of your fans at a janky ass show.

Fans want quality over quantity so don’t have to perform all the time just make sure  the times you have a show you give fans a show to remember and make sure you have promo material to give out or sell to fans after your performance you could sell merchandise,sell download cards for your music, pass out a sample of your single or mixtape cover art design for you next release, etc.

You need to remember less is more. Hell  even if Kevin Gates performed 3 times a week in my hometown I wouldn’t go see him all the time it would get old. Just make sure when you do perform you kill that shit and trust me it will build a buzz and fans will be  waiting to see next performance.

Collaborations

Creating songs with other artist on the same level as you is smart because you’re exposing yourself to a new fan base so it helps out both artist. However, there is going to be artist who just aren’t as good as you  and I know once again this sounds wrong, but you shouldn’t work with them.

You have to remember nowadays with the internet people have the ability to search for every song you’ve created the last thing you want is a fan of yours to be on Youtube and see you on a shitty song it would devalue you as an artist to them. 

So just make sure that when your working with other artist or promoters  that that they can't let someone else destroy your brand you worked so hard to build.

*If you need any hi quality graphics for any of your projects or events click here

Music Artist Learn How To Turn $1 Into 500+ Real Music Fans No B.S

Secret Way To Build Your Fan Base

Are you tired of just being a local artist, doing show after show at the same hole in the wall bar hoping you can get discovered  build your music career and get new music fans,but it just ain’t working!

You need to start using facebook ads to promote your mixtape,single,or music video straight up! The world is on Facebook and as you have probably noticed facebook videos are getting tons of views.Facebook ads can get you in front of thousands of new music fans all around the world,and the best thing is they can be targeted and they only cost pennies.

All the clients I work with I make have them apply Facebook ad marketing to their music campaign and every single artist who applied this strategy increased their fan base by at least 40%.

So I wrote this how to article to help all you independent artist to give you gives a technique that will provide you a  real way to grow your fan base and get your music heard.

Step 1.Choose The Objective Of Your Campaign:

After you login, click "ad manager" on your Facebook homepage,and then click on the "create ad tab.After that you will see a page like the screenshot above that has 10 different options for promotion.Some of these option won’t apply to musicians,but I’m gonna give you a quick rundown on the objectives that apply to you the musician.

Promote your page

This option is  the most common choice used by artist.This objective will get your Facebook Fan page in front of new potential fans at ease.You can target all you ads and promote to people who like arist similar artist that are in the same lane as you,or you can base off demographics tailored toward you market.

Raise attendance at your event

This option will give your next upcoming show, cd release party etc an extra boost.This ad will place you event in front of your whole metro area for pennies.Once again with the ad targeting option your can target people who attend rap shows or whatever your genre is and increase your events exposure guaranteed. Honestly it’s hard for most local acts to have a big turn out to their shows because nobody knows about it. Well lucky for you this problem won’t exist anymore after you read this e.

Get video views

Facebook video ads are the shit point blank period. For one their videos plays a non stop teaser of your video once you upload so it grabs people’s attention asap.So when you combine that with a targeted video ad campaign it equals more fans and more exposure.

How do you think you see music artist videos who aren’t from your local area on Facebook you were apart of their targeted ad campaign.

Send people to your website

Hey, that sounds straightforward, right? Well, you can do much more than just your website. Along with your band page, you can also use this feature to send folks into your iTunes store, YouTube channel, or any other relevant outlet.

These are the main options you will use as an independent artist when you’re running a Facebook ads campaign

 How to target your ad's reach

 

After you select your objective the next page is the targeting ad section.This is the fun stuff. This is where you pick who you want to target your ad to.You can target people by age,location,and interests. You want to be as detailed as possible I will explain each section below.

Location

This is pretty much self explanatory if you’re trying to promote a local show you have coming up in Omaha, Nebraska then you only want to target that city and surrounding areas,but if you’re going on a tour you could target the cities you going to perform in,or if you have a new song you want to get to the world you can promote it worldwide.This is pretty easy just use common sense and you will be fine.,

Age and gender

Gender, you don’t have to worry about because we’re targeting guys and girls so you can select the both option. Now when it comes to selecting an age group to target with your music  I would select 18 to 35 now don’t get me wrong there might be some old school cats that like your music that are in their 40’s and 50’s,but were trying to target people we know are using the internet all the time.

Interests

This is real all the good stuff happens lol.In his section you can decide who see your ad based on the information they provided when they set up their Facebook account,pages they’ve liked ,or purchased and more. Make sure your ad is detailed the more detail the more effective the ad is.Here are a couple of word prhases you shoud use to find your target market.I would search off similar artist,genre, and keywords such like “people who like trap music.”  Just make sure detailed and creative when you select your interests.

Setting your budget

Most musicians don’t even bother with Facebook ads because they're unaware of how affordable they are and how they can help grow their music following, and increase their profits.  The fact is you can run a targeted campaign for only $5 dollars a day.I repeat only $5 dollars a day so it’s cheaper to build your music fan base using Facebook ads then it is  to buy a combo meal from Mcdonalds.

I know right now you’re thinking if that’s the case why doesn’t every artist do it? Well its because all of the social media marketers and music marketing companies want to charge you an arm and a leg to set up a campaign for you when it’s easy as hell to do.Honestly a lot of marketers are going to be pissed that I’m giving this game away,but I’m in it to help artist succeed, I’m not trying to milk artist for all the money like these companies,I understand what artist go through because I’m an artist myself .

Facebook determines how many ads your people will reach based on how much you narrowed down your audience through the age and interests section.

For example let's say you chose ages 18 to 35 who live in the Us who are interested in rap music, rap concerts, Kevin Gates,Migos, Young Jeezy, and Meek Mill.

.Here is how much you spend daily and how many people your ad will be in front of which turns io views,likes,etc:

• $5 per day: 515 to 1,280 people everyday
• $15 per day: 1,400 to 4,500 people everyday
• $25 per day: 2,600 to 6,500 people everyday

Ad copy and graphics

Don’t get intimidated when you see you have t create a graphic it’s nothing like creating a mixtape cover or anything like that. All you have to do here is use your cover photo or any high quality photo you would like to use. and dd whatever text you would like to put on your picture.

For example if you targeted people who like Jay Z with your ads ,on your ad graphic you might put if you like Jay z you have to hear this new artist  Click here. Then have your ad redirect them to an email list capture page on your website where you collect emails.

                                                                                                                                                     Just remember to always make sure your ad copy matches your graphic!

If you need help setting up a campaign email me at ArtistDevelopmentGuru@gmail.com

Smart Online Music Promotion That Works

Online Music Promotion Blueprint

Music is currently an oversaturated industry with a lot of new artists and bands popping up with each passing day. With this said, it’s needless to say that artist all around the world have a lot of problems promoting their work. One of the most popular ways of promoting work are the well-known mixtapes which are found all over the internet and in our local music stores. So what makes a good mixtape? 

There are a lot of things to consider when it comes to this. A mixtape cover is one thing to be aware of. Making good mixtape covers can be underestimated greatly and is usually the first mistake artists all around the world make. When you start making your mixtape cover design you need to have a lot of things in mind. 

For example you want your mixtape cover to reflect the music and the energy behind your music. So it’s needless to say that making good mixtape cover art can be one big step on your way to success. But there are also many other things that need to be consider, like the promotion of your mixtape for example. This is a topic that we will cover later on. But for starters let’s get back to the design of your mixtape cover. As we mentioned before the mixtape cover needs to reflect the music that you are making, what we didn’t say is the fact that a lot of people actually buy albums and mixtapes based on the appearance of their cover art. 

A fan of heavy metal music will never buy a mixtape that has flowers on its cover, no matter how good the music is, so keep that in mind when making cover art for your mixtape, also if you are not experienced when it comes to making cover design, then you should consider that you hire a professional cover designer in order to get the job done with the best possible outcome.

How to promote your mixtape?

How to promote your mixtape is the topic that we will be covering next. And it’s a tricky topic to say the least, so to put it in simpler terms we are going to go over some of the most common business strategies when it comes to the promotion of your mixtape.

• As we stated before the music market is oversaturated at this very moment, and this is due to a lot of albums and random music being released daily on to this very market, this music doesn’t have quality and good cover art, so ultimately it’s needless to say that this project that is most likely made for fun will eventually fall. This music that saturates the market without any obvious purpose or reason is generally called clutter music, and this is the first piece of advice that we have when we talk about promotion of your mixtape, don’t make clutter music.

• A good word will spread fast, with this piece of advice we want to say that most rappers that make mixtapes and music in general have no idea what they are doing, and their so called music eventually ends as clutter music which is instantly labeled by the community as something that nobody even considers buying. With this said it’s needless to say that you shouldn’t release unfinished product just for the sake of making a name for yourself, this type of marketing often has strong drawback effects, and can ruin your career before you start.

• Eyes see better than ears. By this little phrase we want to say that most people will buy your mixtape just by the look of your mixtape cover art, we said this before and we can’t stress is enough how much making a good mixtape cover design can be important.

• Free music is usually bad music, so don’t give out your mixtapes for free. When people see a mixtape cover and see the label “free” below it, it’s a clear indicator that this piece of music is something that is very low in quality and isn’t worth their time. But don’t charge full price for your mixtapes either, because the price tag can turn away a lot of potential customers when it comes to your mixtape. The best thing we can recommend is that you charge something symbolical for your mixtape I would just ask for a donation for the mixtape . People will recognize that its quality music being developed and the developer needs the financial support.

• Free music is easy to make. A lot of artists are aware of the fact that they will give out their music for free, so the correspondent mindset dictates that they will simply not try hard enough when making a mixtape, when you make music, keep in mind that people will pay for it and try to give them something that is worth their money.

Marketing

When it comes to marketing your mixtape there are a lot of things to consider, for example how to do it. This is the topic that we will be covering next. For starters, you might want to consider that you can “rub-off” somebody else’s success, what we are trying to say that you can go ahead and hire a famous musician to host in your mixtape, and appropriately include him on your mixtape cover art. 

This will almost certainly bring a lot of potential listeners to you. Another way to do this is simply making a mixtape that has the instrumental of famous songs. But this can often be quite tricky because when you attempt this kind of promotion you need to be aware that your final product must be equal or better than the original piece of music. 

Beside the previously stated, there are many other methods for you to promote your mixtapes for next to nothing money spent. Social media like Twitter and Facebook can be quite good for this. If you include a small text and a picture of your cover design when posting on Facebook or Tweeting on Twitter most people will take a look at what you have done, and at least listen to a sample of your music. Making remixes of popular songs can quite often work in your favor as well. So don’t hesitate to make remixes of popular song and put your mixtape cover on top of it all. So let’s revise what we just said.

• Invite famous DJ-s if you can afford it
• Make music over somebody else’s instrumental
• Do remixes of popular songs
• Use social media to market your mixtape

YouTube

Promoting your music over this popular free service can be quite lucrative so don’t hesitate to do so, and remember to put your mixtape cover art as the video and give a link to your album in the description. Another thing that we should add is the fact youtube offers ads now and there dirt cheap and they can get you in front of your target market and build you a solid fanbase .  This method of marketing can quite often bring your YouTube video to go viral, needless to say that this can be a game changer for you, and your career.

 Release Singles

Releasing singles before the full album has proven to be a good strategy when it comes to promoting mixtapes, a good mixtape cover art combined with a good song can go viral in a matter of days, and this will bring a lot of positive marketing and positive feedback for your album and its release date.

Finally making a name for your self

What to do after your mixtape has been downloaded more than ten thousand times? This is the breaking point in musician’s career. We have a couple of suggestions when it comes to this. Corresponding with how popular you are at the moment, try to book a couple of press releases, journalists worldwide are always looking for a good story. 

So don’t be afraid to send out mass E-mails to journalists everywhere. Another good idea can be for you to make charity shows. If you have the ability to cash in your success why not do it for a good cause, people will pay the ticket price to help the needy, and this will increase your overall popularity and give tons of positive feedback. Another good idea when it comes to putting on shows and performances in general is to offer free music. 

Not literally of course, but every big name to day has been a nobody at one point, and made a name for himself by rapping or playing music at clubs for free, if you can achieve this than you are already on your way to success, and not for long you will start charging full price tickets for your performance and that money will surely be well spent on your way to towering success.