Day: December 21, 2021

Sea Girls have just dropped the lyrics video for their recent single Hometown, featuring live footage of the band’s sold out performance at the O2 Academy Brixton. The track is taken from the band’s forthcoming new album Homesick, out March 25th. Check out the video below.

Every hometown has its own identity – all of them are exciting and rewarding to visit for different reasons. We made this video from footage of one show on the tour – it’s just one of those special stories. We want to be a part of your story, you’re already a part of ours.

Henry Camamile (frontman)

Sea Girls UK outstore gigs May 2022

With their new album Homesick out on March 25th (pushed back from January 14th), Sea Girls have announced a string of record store shows for May 2022. Kicking off at Gorilla in Manchester on 3rd May, the run includes a date at Pryzm (Banquet Records) in Kingston on 12th May and ends at Rescue Rooms (Rough Trade) on 15th May. The ticket bundles are available here here.

• 3rd May – Gorilla, Manchester
• 4th May – Artics Club (Out Of Phase Records), Liverpool
• 5th May – Blitz (Action Records), Preston
• 7th May – The Church (Assai Records), Dundee
• 8th May – Foundry (Bear Tree Records), Sheffield
• 10th May – The Fleece (Rough Trade), Bristol
• 11th May – Old Fire Station (Vinilo Records), Bournemouth
• 12th May – Pryzm (Banquet Records), Kingston
• 15th May – Rescue Room (Rough Trade), Nottingham

New Album Homesick pushed back to March 25th

Originally scheduled for release on January 14th, Sea Girls’ new album Homesick (pre-order here*) was recently pushed back to March 25th. The band announced the rescheduled release date via their Facebook page on December 2nd.

Due to circumstances beyond our control the new album Homesick will now be released on 25th March 2022. Thanks to every single one of you who has ordered copies so far

Posted on 2021-12-21

Why Should You Submit to Music Blogs?

Let’s start with the bad news: You should not submit to music blogs if your primary goal is to get new fans.

(And you should definitely not submit to organizations that try to scam you with paid placements.)

I run the site you’re reading right now. It’s a mid-level-ish music blog that’s decently respected in the industry  – we’ve been around for six-plus years, have interviewed hundreds of artists, and have gotten added to a fair number of “best blogs” lists.

In October 2021, we had about 21,353 users hit our site. 20,772 of those people had never visited twostorymelody.com before in their lives.

Only 12.2% (2,889) had ever seen our site before.

Sad stats.

Here’s the point: We’re a mid-sized music blog, and we have virtually no regular audience of our own.

Instead, our traffic comes from our artists. It works like this: We cover an act like Strawberry Guy. Strawberry Guy shares the article we write on social media. Strawberry Guy’s fans click the link, read the article, and think, “Nice!”

Then everyone goes their separate ways.

We write about other artists and Strawberry Guy’s fans never think about us again.

Most music blogs work this way.

(Shoot, the music industry as a whole works this way, but that’s a can of worms for another day.)

Yes, Two Story Melody’s traffic is only a drop in the bucket compared to traffic for some of the bigger blogs out there – but I keep up with a list of music blogs, and I can tell you that the model they’re using to bring in traffic is nearly universal.

Take Pitchfork. Pitchfork is one of the biggest music blogs in the known universe; they’re owned by Condé Nast, a massive media conglomerate that also holds GQ, The New Yorker, and Vogue, among many others.

Screenshot from condenast.com

My web crawler tells me Pitchfork gets about 6M visits to their site a month. That’s huge.

But still – the truth is that most people (i.e., average, non-musician people) have never heard of Pitchfork. (Ask your mom or the cashier at the grocery store if you don’t believe me.) And most people who have heard of Pitchfork only read it when they want to see how badly it’s slamming their favorite band’s latest release.

Virtually nobody regularly reads written music publications anymore.

People used to regularly follow music blogs because they were the best places to find new music. Now, we have Spotify’s algorithm (and plenty of other options) for that – so music blogs don’t play nearly the same role in breaking new artists that they did 10 years ago.

And the takeaway is that getting covered in a music publication won’t get you very many new fans.

Which begs the question…

Is it even worth getting covered in music blogs anymore?

Yeah, of course. It absolutely still is.

Come on, I run a music blog – obviously I’m going to tell you submitting to music blogs is worthwhile. I’m a little biased, but I’m not blowing smoke.

Getting covered in music blogs still matters for three reasons:

1. Getting covered in music blogs strengthens your relationship to your existing audience.

In my eyes, this is the fundamental value of music blog coverage: It helps to strengthen your existing fanbase.

I like to use sports fandom to illustrate this. I’m a Steelers fan. Most mornings, I’ll spend ten minutes reading some sportswriter’s opinions on the team – and reading about the team actually makes me a bigger fan.

Same thing for musicians. I liked Lord Huron’s Strange Trails – then I googled it, found this New York Times article detailing the band’s insane creative process, and decided I actually loved the album.

Getting covered in a music blog isn’t a way to get discovered; it’s a way to add more context to your artistry so that your existing fans can fall deeper in love with it.

2. Getting covered in music blogs gives you credibility that can open other doors.

While music blogs typically won’t put you in front of significant new audiences, you can bring the coverage you get to the eyes of people that matter.

For example, let’s say, hypothetically, that Stereogum were to review Cassandra Jenkins’ An Overview on Phenomenal Nature and call it “one of 2021’s most extraordinary albums”. That’d be hypothetically cool, right?

And if Jenkins was going to book a tour, run a press campaign, or do literally anything else requiring her to pitch her music to people, she could include that line in every email she sent.

Hypothetically, that line could be the difference between a venue manager listening to the music and deleting the email. (For me, lines like that are often the difference between listening to an artist’s submission and deleting the email. Just saying.)

It’s social proof. Hearing that someone else thinks Jenkins’ music is awesome gives Jenkins’ a foot in the door that she wouldn’t otherwise have had. Music blog coverage makes you look more legit – and looking legit can lead to more opportunities.

3. Blog coverage actually impacts the Spotify algorithm (a little).

All right, the last reason that blog coverage is worthwhile is because it helps you hack Spotify’s algorithm so that you can rack up the streams.

Kind of.

The truth is actually pretty complicated, because Spotify’s algorithm is pretty complicated. The underlying principle, though, is simple: Spotify wants to show its listeners music that they will probably like. And the more Spotify knows about each track, each artist, and each listener, the more confidence they have that they can make a good match.

Natural language processing (NLP) is one tool that Spotify uses to collect data to do this.

Spotify scans the internet and looks for context on every song and artist on their platform, then uses what’s being written about them to inform where they should be placed and who they should be shown to.

Outside Insight has a fairly detailed breakdown of how this works here, but the gist is that if a blog calls your song “summery, light, and fun,” Spotify will have more confidence in adding it to an algorithmic playlist like “Totally Stress Free”. If a writer calls you “Merle Haggard reincarnated”, Spotify might take a chance on adding you to Country Coffeehouse.

Keep in mind, this is one of many factors in driving algorithmic playlist placements – it’s by no means the most important one. (For a more comprehensive look at the Spotify algorithm, check out this piece.)

If your goal is to drive Spotify streams, music blog coverage is probably not the primary route you should go. But it does make a small difference – and hey, every little bit helps.

So, that’s why you should submit to music blogs.

Music blogs are no longer a way to blow up or break an artist. But they’re far from dead. As long as people use language to communicate, music blogs will continue to add value – because everyone likes to talk about music.

Now get out there and make music blogs count.

The post Why Should You Submit to Music Blogs? appeared first on Two Story Melody.

Independent Music Promotions (IMP) was one of the first PR firms I found as I was getting into the music marketing space. And to this day, I think they have my favorite slogan / mission statement:

“Worldwide promotion and PR for music with depth.”

That “music with depth” part jumped off the page for me; it resonates really closely with how I’d thought about Two Story’s purpose (which is to help artists build meaningful community around beautiful art). Inherent in the idea of “music with depth” is the idea that music can matter – maybe even that music should matter. And that means that promoting music matters, too.

It’s a concept I’m fully onboard with (and a phrasing that I kind of wish I’d thought of first).

Anyway, fast-forward a few years, and I’ve been gratified to develop a relationship with the founder at IMP, James Moore. James is a good dude who also happens to be an expert at music marketing and PR – he’s promoted tons of artists from around the globe, he has an incredibly deep network of contacts across a wide variety of genre niches, and he’s written a critically-acclaimed book on music promotion called Your Band Is a Virus.

I recently got the chance to catch up with James to unpack his approach to music promotion. If the idea of super-effective promotion for “music with depth” resonates with you at all, I think you’ll enjoy the interview below.

Hey James! Excited to dig into Independent Music Promotions with you. To start, can you tell me what the mission of IMP is?

And, specifically, what does it mean to promote “music with depth”?

Hi Jon! Thanks so much for having me. The mission of IMP is two-fold. We provide practical and effective, SEO-based music marketing services for independent artists aimed at raising awareness and providing extensive social proof for long-term growth. We also educate musicians, labels and marketing teams on how to promote their music effectively.

Beyond this, we champion diversity in music by working heavily with experimental and multi-genre music of all stripes. This ties into our slogan of “music with depth”. “Music with depth” was chosen as our slogan because I wanted to run I.M.P like a bold underground label, working with artists who are not afraid to challenge in their music. It’s essentially artists doing and saying exactly what they want to without considering what the mainstream may or may not want. That’s beauty to me!

You mention on the site that you once had a bad experience with PR yourself. What was that like, and how did that influence what you’ve built at IMP?

I had enlisted the services of a PR company to promote a rock/metal album I’d performed on. They were quite a well known firm, but heavier music must not have been their strong suit. We ended up with only a few write-ups. I turned around after that experience and made sure we gained 60 + more.

That was one of the catalysts that inspired me to start a music PR company based on deliverables. When I realized that most PR companies do not guarantee any coverage to their artists, that rubbed me the wrong way. I found it just takes more relationship building and cooperation with like-minded people to ensure coverage/reviews, radio adds, playlists, etc happen in each and every campaign.

You wrote a best-selling book on music promotion called Your Band Is a Virus (more relevant than ever in the days of Covid). What does it mean for a band to be a “virus”, and what are some of the most important things artists should take away from the book?

Ha! If I’d have known in 2012 we’d have a pandemic in 2020 I wouldn’t have given that spore any more publicity! For a band to be a virus, they need to be set up so they can spread with ease. Having an ethos, an origin story, custom visuals to amplify both these things, and everything else in it’s right place such as an official website, modern online store, active socials, convenient one page with all key links and destinations…and once all those things are functioning, advertise the whole package.

The book takes artists through the practical steps needed to pitch your music for potential coverage and strategize the marketing of your music in general.

What should artists know before they apply to work with IMP?

If your music is great, regardless of subgenre, we’ll likely be interested in working with you. You can reach out through our website with a link to your music and whatever else you’d like to share. I listen to every submission myself and will get back to you shortly after taking a close listen.

We’re very upfront, so our whole marketing approach as well as campaign rates are public and available on our website. I feel this helps artists and their teams research. Also, I can’t stand cryptic websites who don’t share this information.

How would you define PR, and what is its value for independent artists?

PR is expanded awareness of you and your growing brand. It has both short term and long term benefit. Even if you think you only need to break out on Spotify, this is simply not true. Spotify’s algorithm scours Google for, you guessed it, press coverage, reviews, mentions, news releases, etc. So if you don’t have any of these things, you’re not spreading any kind of story.

What do you think is the biggest misconception artists have about PR?

The biggest misconception artists have about PR is that if they hire PR, they can get away with not advertising themselves. In fact, many of my clients don’t take my advice when I tell them to advertise every month consistently, even if it’s just $100. Start a band fund. Do what you need to do. But it absolutely needs to be done.

PR is the 3rd person voice. You are the 1st person voice, and that can’t be replaced.

 What would you say is the most exciting thing about the current state of the music industry?

That great music finds a way. So many genres are thriving creatively right now even though we’re still dealing with the repercussions of a worldwide pandemic, vinyl shortages, shipping delays and so many other setbacks.

That’s not to say venues or artists are doing well financially at the moment because generally they’re not. But the fact that artists and labels are still putting out incredible, ground-breaking music is exciting.

You asked me this, so I’ve got to return the favor – who are your top five favorite artists?

It’s such a tough question but I’d say Nirvana, The Beatles, Tool, Windhand and Alice in Chains.

What does the future hold for IMP?

Continuing to work with the best underground artists in the world, partnering with new music podcasts, radio shows, magazines, music blogs and more to provide and amplify the message of great art.

More website features and a new book are also in the planning stages.

The post An Interview with James Moore of Independent Music Promotions appeared first on Two Story Melody.

Near the end of 2021, I ran a survey asking indie musicians two basic things:

1. How much money they expected to make this year, and…
2. How they expected to make it.

(For the rationale behind why this information matters – and why it’s surprisingly hard to find – check out this article introducing the concept of the survey.)

Well, the results are in, and they’re pretty darn interesting – but not all that unexpected.

But before I dig into the data, I want to offer some context.

These numbers should absolutely not be taken as set-in-stone representations of the state of the indie music economy in 2021 as a whole. And the reason for that is simple: The sample size for this survey sucks.

I’m working off of 25 responses.

I’m no statistician, but I can tell you that 25 respondents can’t possibly be representative of the ~700K people who qualify themselves as indie musicians in the US census (much less the who-knows-how-many musicians around the world).

To be honest, I was pretty disappointed to only get 25 responses; I was optimistically (naively) hoping for more like 200.

And I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but as I was putting this article together, I actually thought about glazing over the sample size and just sharing the stats without disclosing the number of respondents. Fortunately for my soul and your sake, I quickly realized that’d be a morally awful thing to do. If you’re going to look at this data, you should know what it represents.

So, here’s what it represents: income estimates from 25 artists who are on my email list and are awesome for sharing their info.

Most artists on my email list are not at the top-income-tier of the indie music game; they’re people who are trying to grow their careers (and are often in the early stages of doing so). As a result, the segment is almost certainly skewed toward the lower end of the income spectrum.

Every one of the respondents was unsigned, and they represented a wide array of genres that covers pretty much every nook in the industry (as seen in the image below):

Nine respondents are international artists (from Canada, Norway, Belgium, Sweden, Malaysia, and the UK); the other 16 are based in the US.

So, this data is almost certainly not representative of the population as a whole – but it is a collection of 25 passionate indie musicians sharing their real-life-income information. In other words…

I think this data is the basis for some pretty interesting anecdotal insights.

Okay – with all of that said, let’s dive into the numbers. Based on this survey:

The average indie musician makes $5,750 per year.

That’s not much at all. But, sadly enough, it probably overstates the reality for most musicians.

If you take the median from the responses, you’re looking at ~$2,500. That’s because the average is heavily offset by the few artists who earn more $30K from their music (only three out of the 25).

The following graph offers a fuller representation of the numbers:

Is all of this a little bit sad? You bet. But it kind of underscores what I’ve been telling people for a while: If your primary goal is to make money, you should not be an indie musician. There are like a million other things that have far more earning potential.

It’s only worth being an indie musician if your primary goal is to make music.

Okay, let’s break things down a little further and look at how musicians are earning an income.

This is where things get even more interesting.

In my survey, I asked “How are you creating income?” and listed seven potential income streams, plus an open-ended “Other” option:

• Streaming royalties
• Merch sales
• Touring
• Live performances
• Teaching
• Fan fundraising / membership (Kickstarter, Patreon, etc.)
• Compositions (includes sync licensing)
• Other

As it turns out, virtually everyone (77% of respondents) is generating revenue from streaming:

But the people who report “Streaming Royalties” as their top income stream are making pennies. Check this out:

In other words, if you’re considering how you can drive more revenue from your art, the answer is almost definitely not to drive more streams.

Streams are clearly a piece of the revenue puzzle for almost everyone – but if you rely on them as your main source of revenue, it seems likely that you’ll have a hard time making any meaningful amount of money.

Instead, if you want to make money from your music, you should almost certainly focus on one of these income streams:

1. Live performances / touring
2. Compositions (i.e. sync licensing)
3. Teaching

Here’s why:

For that graph above, I looked at only respondents who expect to make more than $1K per year from their music. Out of those eight people (such a small number!), four are driving the most income with live performances / touring. One of the eight is making the most from compositions, and the final three record teaching as their primary income stream.

Interesting note here: My two highest-earning respondents each expect to make $40,000 in 2021.

One of those artists expects teaching to be their top income stream – and expects it to account for nearly all of their income. The other artist expects compositions to be their top income stream, and expects that stream to make up about half of their overall income.

One potential takeaway is that teaching may be harder to supplement with other income streams (like touring, streaming, etc.) compared to compositions. It’s easy to rationalize why that’d be the case, but given we’re only talking about two people, it’s a mostly anecdotal insight.

And, speaking of anecdotal insights, that leads me to my last stat spotlight: fan fundraising / membership income.

Only two people recorded “fan fundraising / membership” as their top income stream, and their average expected income from fan fundraising / membership was only $1K.

I was slightly disappointed by this, because I, like most music marketers, am a proponent of the “get 1,000 fans” concept.

The idea is that, if you have 1,000 fans paying you $100 each every year, you have a sustainable career. (As I’ve argued before, I actually think that math tends to be unrealistic, but I think the underlying principle is solid.)

But the data would seem to throw a wet blanket over the idea that you can create a profitable fan community solely through fundraising or membership. While the idea is pretty appealing, it appears most artists aren’t successfully building careers on something like Patreon (a fact that checks out when you look at the top Patreon earners in the category of “Music”.)

Don’t worry, though – the “true fans” concept isn’t dead. While you probably won’t build a sustainable income solely on the basis of a fan membership community, you absolutely can build a sustainable income by creating multiple income streams – i.e., opportunities for your fans to pay for live performances, merch, other stuff, and exclusive membership.

You can’t just create a Patreon and “make it”; you have to set up other ways fans can support you, too.

And that’s really the overall takeaway here: If you want to quit your day job, you have a lot of work to do.

You won’t be doing it alone. The census reports that there are more than 700,000 working musicians, but Statista reports that only 1,560 are full-time. If you take those numbers to be even close to accurate, then for 99% of musicians, music is not a full-time gig.

That doesn’t mean it can’t be for you. But it does mean that you’ll have to be intentional if you want to create a sustainable career.

Hopefully, this anecdotal data is helpful in giving you viable directions to pursue. Whatever path you choose, here’s to making money with your music in 2022 – and, more importantly, here’s to making beautiful music.

Helpful References and Additional Research

I referenced these articles as I was working on the survey – definitely worth checking out if you want a wider view of the market / more data.

• Future of Music (for information about how indie musicians are qualified – these guys are my favorite source but the data is really outdated)
• Statista (for demographic information on the different categories of working musicians)
• MIDiA Research (for information on Spotify earnings for indie musicians)
• Music Industry How To (for helpful commentary on some of the most-cited studies)

Questions about the Artist Income Survey? Let me know here. Want to see the raw data? Here’s the Google sheet of responses.

The post How Do Musicians Make Money? And How Much Do Musicians Make? appeared first on Two Story Melody.

My call with Todd McCarty didn’t go as planned.

And not in the good, “wow-what-an-awesome-rabbit-trail-we-ended-up-on!” kind of way.

Keep reading if you want the backstory. Click here if you’d rather get to the main stuff.

Backstory:

I found Todd online a few years ago (probably by Googling some question I had about Spotify) and was immediately impressed by his detailed knowledge of the music industry. In addition to good hair, Todd has the gift of being able to explain pretty complicated concepts in pretty straightforward terms. Check it out:

When I read his bio, that ability made sense; Todd was the general manager at Fearless Records for over a decade and then a senior VP at Sony Music USA. Impressive resume, right? Basically, he’s got a ton of experience and he’s also a smart guy.

So I was pumped when he agreed to chat with me about his indie-education-focused project, Band Builder Academy.

At first, everything went swimmingly. We found a time that worked for the call with surprising ease (given that we live on opposite sides of the world). We confirmed the meeting day-of. We logged seamlessly onto Google Meet.

And then everything went wrong.

First, I realized as we got started you can’t record calls on the basic version of Google Meet – and I was planning on having the audio transcribed so that I could write this article. So, we decided to switch to Zoom. The recording button was familiarly placed there, but when we hung up after an hour-plus of good conversation, this happened:

Technology is the worst.

Todd spent like 45 minutes trying to figure out how to fix that error, but, long-story-short, he couldn’t. Moral of the story: I should’ve taken better notes.

But here we are. The good news is that I did take some notes, and Todd’s reviewed this article to make sure I’m accurately representing things. While I can’t present Todd’s content in a quoted, Q&A format (like I’d originally planned), I’m going to touch on the things he shared that resonated with me – and hopefully give you an insider’s look at Band Builder Academy and some tips to succeed as an indie musician in the process.

With all that said, let’s get to the main stuff. While there’s no longer any audiovisual proof of it, here’s some of what Todd and I talked about.

The main stuff:

1. The big labels aren’t all bad (because the music business is ultimately about people).

I started off by asking Todd to compare his experience at big labels with his experience working with indie musicians, and I was a little surprised by where he took the question.

The first thing he noted was that big labels aren’t all bad.

There’s a tendency in the indie community to vilify major music industry organizations like Sony, Universal, Kobalt, and the like – and it’s understandable. First, labels haven’t always treated their artists well (Todd mentioned that one of the key changes he’d like to see at labels is more equitable pay for artists). And, second, as an indie, it’s easy to be envious of the resources major labels have. The playing field doesn’t feel fair, which naturally leads to a bit of dislike.

But Todd was careful to note that any organization is ultimately made good or bad by its people. And, in his experience, there are a ton of good people working at major labels who are trying to do great work for artists, while there are also plenty of people working at indie labels who kind of suck.

Takeaway:

Ha, I’m not sure if there’s any actionable takeaway here – maybe just a general reminder to reserve judgement. But this really stuck with me, so I wanted to share it.

2. Direct-to-fan marketing is still an indie advantage.

After Todd convinced me that I needed to get off my high horse and stop hating big labels, he told me that there are pretty notable differences between working with signed and indie artists.

The crux of it is that big labels are still driven by big numbers.

This makes sense; labels need to have hits if they want to stay in business, and hits happen when you get a bazillion streams and sell a bazillion records, and you don’t get those numbers by talking to individuals one-on-one.

But the downsides of hit-seeking are two-fold:

• You get caught chasing numbers instead of making good art (very lame), and…
• You tend to focus on broad, big-data marketing instead of personalized marketing (which ultimately can build deeper fan relationships).

Todd told me that, if he were still working at a major label, he’d push to bring in “stealth” and “guerrilla” marketing tactics – stuff like retargeting ads, social media engagement, and personalized email list building. Big labels often push straight to high-level promo, like radio play or major press campaigns.

Takeaway:

It’s still an advantage for indies to market direct-to-fans.

3. It usually takes five to seven years to “make it” as an indie artist.

I asked Todd what the standard timeframe was for artists to actually make it (meaning, create a sustainable career from their music). I loved his answer:

To create a sustainable career around your music – to the point where you can quit your day job and focus on your artistry – usually takes five to seven years.

Yeah, you’ll see stars made seemingly overnight, but Todd told me that if you dig into backstories, you’ll usually find that the people who went viral were working to do so for years. Building a band is a marathon; it’s the process of pushing a snowball and getting steady growth.

Takeaway:

You should probably only pursue artistry if you really love it. If you’re looking to be famous and rich right away, a) probably reevaluate your goals and b) being an indie artist is not a shortcut. Successful artistry is a long game.

4. The path to sustainable artistry is easier with the right support.

Todd told me that the reason he left Sony was because what he loved most about the music industry was working with rising artists to build meaningful success, and he felt like he wasn’t able to do that as often as he wanted to at a big label. He realized that too many indie artists were stuck in their journey – they felt ignored by Spotify and Apple Music, they struggled to get followers to turn into fans, and they rarely felt momentum building (even after album releases).

So, he built a community to help – Band Builder Academy.

Based on my understanding (and admittedly subpar notes), there are three pretty incredible benefits that Band Builder Academy provides to indie artists:

1. Detailed information and educational resources on basically every important music business thing.

First, Todd offers a 10-stage roadmap to building a career as a band or artist. It starts with branding (positioning your artistry to resonate with your ideal audience), then moves to marketing and monetization. There are more than 60 video lessons on this stuff.

Second, the academy includes access to Todd’s Spotify Course so that you can generate real growth on the platform. (And based on our conversation, I’d say that if you want to learn Spotify promo, there’s nobody better to learn it from than Todd.)

Finally, new material’s being added all the time on the topics that are most important to Band Builder members.

2. Support from an engaged community of artists – and from Todd.

Todd mentioned that the development of a strong community is one of the most important keys to succeeding as an artist. It’s way easier to move forward in your career when you have others who can hold you accountable to your goals and offer insight and support to help you get over your obstacles.

The Band Builder community is, in Todd’s words, “A supportive and active community of smart artists at all levels and genres.”

Plus, every Band Builder member gets a one-on-one call with Todd.

Access to that kind of support is pretty cool – and definitely helpful if you’ve been struggling to go it alone.

3. Access to exclusive tools and opportunities.

And, finally, Band Builder Academy provides access to a treasure chest of awesome tools, templates, and opportunities.

That includes chances to hear from industry bigwigs (like Instagram’s Head of Strategic Partnerships, Sunil Singhvi). It also includes tactical things like lists of promo tactic ideas, contact spreadsheets, templates for pitches, bios, and even full marketing campaigns.

I think Todd actually undersells the value of all this stuff. If you’ve been struggling to run a press or ad campaign, these kinds of resources are gold.

And I didn’t mention the one I think is the coolest, because I think it deserves its own section. More on that in a second.

Takeaway:

If you want to move your career forward as an artist / band, this is a proven path to follow. It’ll give you a ton of awesome support and access to legitimately impactful resources.

5. Todd’s built a proprietary Spotify web app that lets artists see exactly where they sit in Spotify genre rankings.

Okay, I think the coolest tool Band Builder members get access to is one that Todd built himself. It’s a Spotify web app. It’s very helpful. Here’s the idea:

Spotify has 4,000+ genre niches that it uses to categorize artists.

Your music fits into this array of niches somewhere. Todd’s app lets you pinpoint that – like, you’ll see all of the sub-genres you’re being tagged in. But, better than that…

You can see all of the artists who rank at the top of your sub-genres.

This is a game-changer. Todd suggests that you go and research the artists who are ranking at the top of your genre. Once you see what kind of things they’re doing (the playlists they’re on, the press they’re getting, the social media strategies they’re using), you can incorporate similar strategies into your own marketing.

The result is that, with the right info, you’ll be able to move the needle and rise in the rankings to get more streams and followers.

Takeaway:

It’s much easier to succeed on Spotify when you know what the algorithm wants from you – and Todd’s tool helps you figure that out.

6. The democratization of music is only going to continue.

We’ve gotten into the weeds a bit; let’s take a step back to the big picture.

I asked Todd what he expected the future to hold for Band Builder Academy, and what he expected the future to hold for the music industry in general. His responses were related.

First, it’s obvious that Todd loves working directly with musicians – so, while he anticipates Band Builder Academy continuing to grow, he doesn’t expect that it’ll ever become something huge and bureaucratic. He’ll likely be personally involved with artists forever.

Second, he sees the music industry as a whole trending in some pretty interesting (and individual-empowering) directions. He mentioned NFTs and the power of blockchain as potential keys toward helping artists sell directly to fans. The tendency for consumers to buy music dipped a bit with the rise of streaming; Todd thinks that might change as blockchain technology becomes more common.

And he expects Band Builder Academy to provide a place where artists can learn and implement any new strategies that arise.

Takeaway:

The music landscape is constantly shifting. As more artists than ever get access to top-level recording and production capabilities, and as new technologies make direct-to-fan relationships easier and more profitable, the current shift might benefit indie artists.

7. Todd’s favorite band is Eastern Youth.

Yeah, I hadn’t heard of them either, but here they are. They’re a Japanese alt-rock-ish band that’s been around since 1989, and they’re a good answer to the question, “Who’s your favorite band?” because almost nobody is going to push back and say they suck.

Takeaway:

Todd has interesting taste.

Final thoughts

If you’re looking to learn more about music marketing, Todd is one of the top sources I’d recommend. Seriously, if you haven’t already, go watch one of his YouTube videos, and you’ll see why. I’m pretty sure the guy is a master at everything except properly saving a Zoom recording.

And if you’re interested in benefiting from Todd’s expertise at Band Builder Academy, go check that out here.

(It’s an affiliate link because it’s something I’m proud to be affiliated with. I’m very confident Todd can help you define your brand, market your music, grow a meaningful audience, and have a successful career.)

All right, that’s all I’ve got. I hope this interview was helpful, even without the quoted Q&A – and I hope, regardless of where you get your music marketing advice from, that you have success creating art that you love.

Good luck.

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