Letter No. 39 [resources for releasing music]
Dear Friend,
My VERY FIRST SINGLE officially releases this Saturday!! Am I pumped? Am I a little bit in disbelief? Yes and yes. Seriously, I can’t believe this is finally happening. I’ve been trying to figure it all out as I go along—there’s so much to know and learn about recording, production, and release strategy.
You can listen to my single here!
I won’t lie—the music video is definitely what has stressed me out the most. I don’t have a big budget (let’s be honest, any budget) for a music video, but everything I’ve watched or read about releasing a single says something along the lines of, “It’s 2020, and there’s no excuse for you not to have a music video for every single you release.” Okay! So I had to wrack my brain for a creative, zero-cost music video idea. I think I arrived at something original and can’t wait to share it, but that still is only one small part of the release.
Two resources in particularly have been life-savers for me as I figure this out, so I wanted to share them to help anyone else facing this for the first time, or anyone who wants to up their release-strategy game.
1. First thing’s first: Ari Herstand’s book How To Make It in the New Music Business: Practical Tips on Building a Loyal Following and Making a Living as a Musician (Second Edition). Guys, I love this book. If you’re pursuing music as a career, you should definitely have this book in your library. I’ve found it so helpful for every aspect of music business, and it’s one of those resources that covers everything and gives you the big picture. In regards to releasing, he has some great info like:
-a detailed list of everything you should consider doing before you release
-Information about how you should register and copyright your music with all of the right societies so you can collect all the royalties you should be getting
-examples of how other artists released/marketed their music creatively
-tips for shooting music videos and working with other artists/performers
This is the front page of Adam Ivy’s website—you can click here to visit it.
2. Now to Adam Ivy. Adam Ivy gives the best music marketing advice I’ve ever heard, and delivers it in concise, practical, and interesting ways. If you’re trying to start any kind of business these days, you have to have a presence on social media, and Adam Ivy’s videos are great for learning how to do this (among many other things). He also has videos on different aspects of the music industry, but his main focus is on marketing strategies for musicians.
You can join one of his programs or work with him one-on-one, but he also offers so much great FREE content, and if you subscribe to his YouTube channel, you’ll see a new video each week. I want to sign up for one of his classes in the future—I think among the things to invest in, his material is at the top. :) Now let me get off my little soap box. :D
If you go to his YouTube channel and hit the “Playlists” tab, I’ve found these three categories the most helpful:
If you’ve been feeling overwhelmed, I hope these resources helped, and if you have any others to suggest, let me know!
All the best,
Tara