How indie Artists are marketing and selling music online

Music artists need to start realizing that they are entertainment networks. As fans gather to listen to your music and follow your journey, your world becomes more of a haven for trusted information. The world of each indie artist becomes a resource of industry and personal related products both physical and digital. Every thing you use becomes a transfers of information in the form of a world wide enforcement that has the possibility to span cultures and multiple demographics. 

Video and live streaming channels become personal entertainment networks each with unique voices heard by millions of different people through the life span of a music artists career. 

As soon as indie artists start to realize the power of their voice through music, they will be able to tap into a larger stream of monetization through their personal and business space. 

How do indie artists truly make money?
Profiles such as band camp and reverbnation have the least amount of layers before the artist sees money.

Youtube: offers a decent pay back per 1 million views. Many artists at higher levels use Youtube to make a better return on their music streams coupled with independent monetization deals. 

In my opinion, these earnings are too low. I would not use this as my primary monetization strategy. Getting a lot of views is hard work. And if I want viewers to be loyal to your content, annoying commercials might not be ideal to go for the click through but it's best to weigh your options.

Crowdfunding projects: offer great pre- selling funding for artists to get the word out and create a level of fan support on music projects and music videos.

But at what point does a musician become valuable? Just like anything else on the Internet, the value is in the reactivity of the artists network. Do their fans contribute real dollars to the funding campaigns? When an artist posts a Video or streams live are their immediate views and engagement? (Likes, shares and comments) what is the level of click through traffic each post link produces? Is there a large email fan base that can translate some real engagement numbers to create some kind of value to an investor? 


These are the kind of questions that you need to be mindful of as you build your own personal brand and fan base. Aside from numbers, the fans you have must genuinely care about what you have to say and offer their lives otherwise your not building a strong enough brand with real career supporting value. 


What do I focus on when I'm trying to build strength in the right direction?

1. Connection to my audience- nurture what counts.
2. Value of content - what do I have to say and who will it serve?
3. Delivery of the message, where is my voice going to be found and how am I going to connect? 
4. The collection and analysis of real statistics to determine who I'm speaking to and what they like to hear from me.

It's really important to value the insights of the people who are speaking to you even if you don't necessarily like what they have to say. There is a valuable message in ever comment that can really help your direction. Comments from avid fans can help you find balance between what your doing at this present time and what people want to see from you. It can help you stay on track so that you don't stray away from what is working. 

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