We are in the best age for being an independent musician. There are more ways to make music than ever before. Recording equipment is more affordable than in the past and mixing and mastering is much more attainable with automated services like "EzMix 2" and "Neutron 3" for Mixing and "Ozone 8" And "eMastered" for Mastering. Even hiring a professional audio engineer is becoming more and more affordable as software has made it easier for beginner musicians to create music. There are numerous tutorials on YouTube that make tips and tricks easy to accomplish. But here's the problem. All the easy access to these things has now created more competition than ever before. The main reason (other than the few reasons listed above) for this is the "Internet".
Information is literally just a click away.
So what's the cure to this problem? Being a jack of all trades. In order to really thrive in the music business, you need to know as many skills as possible. There are many ways to get yourself out there, but musicians, including myself, struggle with this one very thing called, "Marketing". I don't believe that most musicians are natural salesmen. Most of us would rather spend our time making beautiful music for the world to hear, but instead, alot of our time has to be devoted to building our brand, cultivating a following, performing live shows, collaborating with other musicians, writing blogs ;], and even giving away our music for free. Honestly, music has lost alot of its value now that people don't really buy CD's all that much anymore (not even digital downloads, although sometimes you'll get a few sales here and there). Most people use "Spotify" or "Apple Music" for streaming, and every musician knows how little we get paid per stream (It's $0.00735. per play on Apple Music. Even less on Spotify at $0.00437 per play) (Click here for the source)
So what can you do about it?
So, what do you think you can do to get your music out there? Is there something that you can offer people? Think about the people that listen to your music. Maybe there is something they would like you to make for them? There are more things that you can do besides making and releasing music. Maybe you can do a livestream questionnaire to connect on a deeper level with your fans or perform a live concert from your home to make some extra revenue through tips/donations. Try setting up a Patreon page and offer legitimate rewards to those who support you. Try and create some YouTube lyric music videos. The main point is to try and find new ways to give to your fans and to create new ones.
I'm a struggling musician myself...
I too am struggling to find ways to get myself heard. Its simply hard to get people to "care" and I wonder if we all have the wrong perspective on our approach to reaching fans at times. I think we all need to keep our focus on serving others and finding ways to pour into people considering them as greater than ourselves. We live in such a self centered world, where it's easy to forget about everyone but yourself, but what if we could step out and be the one to give instead of being the one who takes. I think people would be more likely to respond to our music and anything else that we sell if we refocus on their needs instead of our own. For example, Try and write music that will help others instead of always writing about yourself. You could also volunteer to be a helping hand on set of a music video and this will help you build relationship with others.
This is why I started the blog.
Focusing and helping others is the main reason I started the blog. Yes, I want to sell my music and create a living through music, but the point is that it's not my only goal and ambition. I want to share my tips and tricks about music production, share with others the good news about my faith in Jesus Christ, and help build a community of people that love one another and care for each other. We musicians need to look out for one another. I believe our craft is highly undervalued in the world and I want to help be a change in that.