5 Simple things you should do when you start your music journey
If everyone knew how to become a successful artist, everyone would be start. Well, it is a long road to the final destination, but it all starts with one step.
There are so many ways to find success, and every path is different, especially when it comes to release and marketing strategies to gain that edge and get ahead. One thing is certain though, nobody makes it on their own. When you start out with music, there are 5 things you should do in the beginning, to make sure you are covered.
1. You got to register with a Performing RightsOrganization (PRO).
Performing Rights means getting paid when your music is performed public, might be live ina venue, TV or radio. PROs are agencies collect these royalties and payout either directly to creators or to Publishing companies if you are signed. If you are songwriter to your released songs, you should definitely register if you haven’talready done so. Check out which one is your local PRO.
2. If you are in the US, register with SoundExchange.
Why? Because Spotify, iTunes and many other streaming services where you control what song you want to listen to already pays Publishing royalties to PROs, it is called interactive services. But when your music is played on Pandora or SiriusXM, songwriters claim digital performance royalty. SoundExchange is anon-profit PRO that make sure these royalties are collected and paid out for sound recording owners. Today, many artists are both artists and rights owner (Songwriter,Composer, Arranger etc).
3. Claim your account on AppleMusic for Artists and Spotify for Artists.
Claiming your profile on Apple and Spotify enables you to track how your music is doing and find out more about who are listening to you.
To claim your profile on Apple, follow the instructions here.
To claim your profile on Spotify, follow the instructions here.
4. Make sure you funnel all social platforms to your bio and your music.
Yes, it is tiresome, but all social platforms needs to lead to you. On those platforms,that is where your future fans are and your next collab partner that could take you to the next checkpoint, get you to find the next sound or beat that will take your journey a few more steps towards your goal. Most popular sites formusic are:
- Youtube
- Soundcloud
- Facebook (Yes, even Facebook)
- Get all those messaging services like Messenger, Wechat and other channels.
5. Network, Network and Network…
Yes, like we mentioned before. No one makes it on their own. Start finding other artistsand fans in your niche. Cheer and support others and they will support you. Everyone is in the same boat and everybody needs to help each other.