If You're Not Investing In Your Music Career You're Falling Behind
Are you treating your music career like a hobby or a business? Your answer determines how successful you will be with your music career, but it also depends on your goals. If you have aspirations of being a successful artist, whatever that means to you, you have to think of your music career like a business.
I've been working with artists who have invested in themselves and the results have paid off because they took their music career to the next level. Growing their audience, getting more and bigger performance opportunities, building their network, making more money, and being more intentional and strategic overall with everything they do as it relates to their goals as artists.
"Investing" doesn't mean purely financial, but it is a big piece. Investing can simply mean putting in the work - investing time and effort in addition to money. Inputs lead to outputs - the more you put into your craft and your music career, the more you will get out of it.
Why Investing Matters
Treating music as a business means putting money into tools, education, and opportunities that will yield growth. Any successful business took capital to get off the ground. The same is true with your artist career.
Examples of smart investments for artists include production quality (studio time, mixing, mastering, collabs or features), marketing, advertising, branding, playlisting, video content, workshops, artist development, and so much more.
Short-Term Pain, Long-Term Gain
We have to spend money upfront to build our vision for the future. Sacrificing dollars today will pay off with increased opportunities, visibility, and income streams
I've personally been spending money on advertising campaigns to grow both my Racket House brand and my Racket Club artist brand. I'm running ads on YouTube to grow my subscribers, I'm running ads on Instagram and Facebook to spread awareness around how I help artists grow, and I'm running a Spotify playlist campaign to increase my playlist followers to spread the joy of music and eventually monetize the playlist. All of these dollars invested have resulted in growth across all areas of my business and my artist project. This has resulted in creating new opportunities for me and increased brand awareness. I've gained thousands of followers across platforms and I'm talking to and helping more artists than ever. This stuff works.
Key Areas to Invest In
Education: Coaching, online courses, workshops, books, or guides (like the ones on my website)
Production: Quality studio time, mixing/mastering engineers, vocalists, beat-makers, or even production lessons or academies to polish up your skills in making music
Marketing: Social media strategy, email marketing, SMS (text message) marketing, advertising campaigns, playlisting campaigns, press releases, articles in blogs and media outlets, etc
Brand Development: Logos, photoshoots, content creation, videos, album art, websites, merch, and crafting a unique artist persona
4 Common Misconceptions
"I need a label to succeed" - Many artists believe that only a label can provide the resources to build a career.
The reality is, in today's music landscape, independent artists have more control than ever and labels are not supporting artists like they used to. Platforms like DistroKid, Bandcamp, and SoundCloud empower artists to distribute their music, while services like mine help artists market and grow (I offer services like advertising and playlisting). Artists like LaRussell have proven that staying independent can be both financially and creatively rewarding when the right investments are made (you often keep way more royalties going independent than by signing with a label)
"Social Media growth should be organic, not paid" - Some artists assume that paying for ads or boosted posts is inauthentic and that their audience should grow "naturally".
The reality is that social media algorithms often prioritize paid content. Strategic ad spending, like the campaigns I run, allows you to target the right audience at the right time and ensures your music reaches the right people. Organic growth often comes after paid ads create the initial momentum.
"Good music will speak for itself" - Artists think that if their songs are amazing, they'll go viral or be discovered without doing any promotion.
While good music does rise to the top, you're not the only one releasing music. The industry is crowded, with over 100K songs uploaded to Spotify every day. Without investing in playlist placements, PR, or digital marketing, even great songs can remain unheard. For instance BabyJake's "Cigarettes on Patios" didn't just succeed on its own, it was supported by strategic efforts that amplified its reach.
"I can save money by doing everything myself" - Artists believe they can handle production, design, marketing, and strategy on their own to cut costs.
Sure, maybe you're a jack of all trades and CAN do everything yourself. But DIY efforts often lead to subpar results and burnout. Hiring professionals for mixing, mastering, branding, and marketing ensures quality and saves time. Time = money after all. Smart artists and smart business owners outsource tasks they aren't skilled in so they can focus more on their craft - the music itself.
Investing in promotional efforts is not new. Artists have been promoting their music and their tours for decades. It used to be billboards, flyers, newspaper, radio. These days we have the internet as a tool. The initiatives are not new, the only thing that has changed is the methods we can use to reach out target audiences. We have so many tools available at our finger tips and things like social media can be amazing free tools if done correctly.
Your future self will thank you for taking the leap today. Whether it's a new ad campaign or professional branding, every step counts.
Ready to invest in your career? Did you know I run ad campaigns for artists? How about playlisting services? Content creation, email outreach, and of course I still run weekly strategy sessions with artists to put a playbook together that we can execute on to help them reach their goals.
Still not convinced? Come to my workshop next Thursday 11/21 called "Think Like a Business for Musicians".
If you're ready to take your music career to the next level, let's chat.
YOU GOT THIS!
