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

What You Need To Know Before You Sell Music In Online Stores Like Itunes

In order for you the artist to be able to distribute their music to online digital stores, there are a couple of things you have to take into consideration:These sites have certain requirements and your audio files, cover art design and metadata has to meet the store specs before you can post your music on these sites.

Today we’re going discuss getting your mixtape cover or single cover in the proper format so it can get your mixtape or single uploaded to mixtape websites and digital stores worldwide. 

Your Design Needs To Be In The Correct Format

If you’re about to buy a mixtape cover or single cover here are a few requirements  you need to meet to make sure your can get your project uploaded with no problems.

-The image file should be JPG or GIF

-Size should be at least 1600x1600 pixels

-It needs to be a Gif or Jpeg

-The artwork needs to be at least 300 Dbi even with black and white designs

-The artwork needs to be a perfect square

Requirements For Formatting Text On Your Artwork

There are certain guidelines these sites and digital stores have when it comes to the text  your artwork if you want to distribute your music through their site.

Here’s Is A List Of Things You Can’t Have On Your Artwork If You Want Your Music To Be Accepted By These Music Sites

-You can’t have logos or names of digital stores on your cover design

-No cutoff images or text.stickers from your artwork from a scanned copy of physical CD

-Contact info like email addresses,website urls, Facebook links etc.s

-No pricing.This just means that you can’t put a price on your cover no matter what.

-No extra text beside artist name and the title of the song.New single or exclusive track etc is not allowed

Matching Text.

When you selling your single or album through digital stores it’s mandatory that your text on your artwork matches your album title and artist name.if not they will reject your art

work.

So if your dropping a single off your upcoming mixtape or album.you need to make sure your artwork text only promotes that single

For Example :

You’re dropping your new single “Makin Moves“ off your upcoming mixtape “ I’m Everywhere”. When you get your artwork created you have to make sure you have your graphic designer only put your artist name and the song title of the song Makin Moves.You can’t put new single off I’m Everywhere mixtape.You have to make sure the cover art  text matches the release information

Also you can’t use images of artist who aren’t actually on the song you’re.So if you’re doing a cover song for an artist for example you can’t put their picture on the cover because you are performing the song not them..

Do you a need professional graphic designer who create your artwork  and provide you with the correct files so all you have to do is upload your music with no hassle. Well we got you covered.Not only will you get high quality work this company also sends your graphic  files in every format so you don’t have any problems uploading or selling your music on these sites.

So don’t get artwork that isn’t digital store ready because once you try to get your music distributed online you’re gonna run into a lot of problems.Click Here to check out who we recommend to use for all your graphic needs.

How to Sell your Music on iTunes, Amazon, Napster, Spotify and Others

Start Selling Your Music

Back in the age of Compact Disks (CDs), it was every musician’s dream to get their music on the local store racks and get as many people as possible to buy their disks because it was the best way to sell music after cassette tapes.  The times have changed and people are acquiring digital content online.  Every musician strives to get his or her music online, to get them on music retail and distribution services like iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, Napster and others.  Getting your music listed for sale in these sites is not as difficult as it used to be, and I am going to show you how you can get it done.

Step 1: Do you qualify to work with Apple directly?

Apple, and most other online music retailers today do not deal with musicians directly for the obvious reason that there are millions of musicians and other artists who would love to have their creative works listed on these sites.  However, you should check the iTunes’ application to determine if meet the requirements that could qualify you to deal with Apple directly.  These requirements are pretty hard and are meant for the very established musicians.  To get your music directly on iTunes, you would have to:

• Have a catalog with at least 20 albums.
• Have JAN, UPC and EANs for all the product you wish to distribute.
• Have ISRCs for all tracks you wish to distribute.

Step 2: Will you have to use a middleman?

If you don’t meet the requirements to deal with Apple and other music distributors directly, your next move will be to find and sign up with an aggregator who provides submission services to get your tracks on most online music retail stores.  Apple has a list of approved aggregators you can choose from (see the list here) but you don’t have to go with that as there are many companies today that act as middlemen to get your content online.  Some of the most popular services today are TuneCore, CDBaby, Song Cast, Nimbit, ReverbNation, The Orchard and Route Note.

Step 3: Choose an aggregator

There are many aggregators who act as the middlemen in getting your content to the largest music marketplace in the history of the industry – the internet.  These aggregators promise all kinds of bells and whistles but each offers different benefits.  While comparing the different aggregators, put your needs first.  Make a list of the services you expect to receive and find the aggregators that offer them.  Most musicians look for companies that submit music to over 10 distribution sites besides making hard copies of your music on CD and DVD available locally.  Pay close attention to other factors as well such as fees, after sales services and bonuses before settling on one aggregator to get your talent online.

Step 4: Get your music ready with a dazzling cover art

Before you upload your music, you want to make sure that people can actually see and listen to it and the best way to achieve this is to appeal to their visual sense.  Music lovers can tell a lot about the quality and type of music just from the mixtape cover design and same thing goes for selling singles or whatever on online sites you need to have attention grabbing graphics.  Even when you plan to sell your music digitally, it is wise to ensure your music is properly visually represented with the right artwork, logos and color schemes.  You will have to upload high quality original square images at least 1,000 x 1000 pixels images in JPEG (.jpg) format and further prepare the audio by converting your music to 16 bit WAV format at 44.1 kHz stereo sound.  You can do all this using the iTunes PC or Mac software available on Apple’s homepage.

Step 5: Understand what benefits there are to selling your music

Before you take the next step, first do some research to understand what benefits will come your way on successful upload of your content and be familiar with the intrigues and challenges of selling online.  To be an effective musician, you must be an effective entrepreneur.  iTunes and all the popular music distribution services are focused on serving you, it is imperative that you read their ToS and subscribe to their newsletters to be appraised in time of any changes that have a direct impact on you and your music.

These are the most important steps to follow to get your music online.  An aggregator is a very important entity in the whole process, you should ensure that you choose the right company to get your content found and to pay you when you make a sale.  Once you settle on one company, visit their web page and you will get more detailed information and how to register to hand over the rest of the process to the professionals.


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