Wanna Make Money As An Independent Artist? Time To Focus On Growing A Loyal Audience.
The first thing needed is the relentless desire to achieve the goal of becoming a rap artist. That burning desire and passion within you to write rhymes and share your story with the world, is what you need to stay the course. You have to care only about becoming a rapper or you will never make it. You may as well go apply for a job at some warehouse because becoming successful rapping takes passion, perseverance and dedication.
MARKETING & BRANDING:
One of the first tasks you should take on is understanding and creating a marketing plan which provides an overview of all your marketing and promotional efforts. The ideal situation is for you to have a goal, a timeframe within which you intend to achieve your goal and a way to track your progress.
Know your target audience, once you have one, you need to make sure you talk to your fans and develop genuine relationships. Another key thing is hiring a pro graphic designer, someone who can really help you stand out from other artists by making your logos and such look top notch. There is a whole lot more to keeping your audience engaged and making purchases with you, so respect the game and DYOR. Also, remember artists with the most loyal fanbase built it over many years, this is a labor of love.
To begin making money as a rapper you need to build a fan base, start with a goal of a thousand but remember you have to get to 10 before you can get to 20. Some music marketers refer to the first 1,000 fans as your "super fans". The reason your "super fans" are so important is because they are the people who are going to be interacting with you and buying your music. The fans (or the peeps who dig your sh#@) are responsible for the income you generate through music. Respect them!
GET A WEBSITE:
You can either build a web site or have one built but you need to have a website. This will be where you sell your merch, collect emails, post updates, and display your accomplishments. Your website will be the hub from which you launch your marketing endeavors and engage with new and existing fans. It might not be a bad idea to have a video embed of your awesome live broadcast on some page of your site.
You can use analytics to track audience behavior across all your social networks and get a clear picture of how people interact with your site. Google Analytics is a great free resource you can use to get started and familiarize yourself with tracking and analyzing user data. Your main goal is to convert the traffic you generate from your promotional efforts, into email subscriptions. Your list is your audience, your audience is your cash.
NO SHORTCUTS:
Music is not going to be your easy way out, there are no shortcuts in this game, you need to understand how to grow an audience and keep them engaged. It is time for you, as a serious upcoming artist, to focus on branding, marketing and partnerships with businesses that align with what you do. Until you do that, you get no cheese, you get no love and you get no status because only your mom knows your music even exists.
COVID19 caused massive disruption in every aspect of society which brings new and unprecedented opportunities. The world is simultaneously moving toward web 3.0 and the metaverse which opens up new avenues for musicians such as digital concerts and digital merch. I never even Mentioned NFT's because no one will know about your NFT if you have no audience. We do however, know for certain, people will NEVER stop listening to great music! So go out there and be so dope they can't ignore you!
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