In difference to being a Signed Artist to a record label, this option indeed gives you less control over your music, but it doesn’t mean it isn’t the superior choice for many musicians. The decision is entirely up to you, depending on your needs and preferences. They can accelerate your growth far more quickly than working on your own. As an independent artist, you’ll have access to dos and don’ts that you wouldn’t otherwise. Learning from others who have been there multiple times before is fantastic.

Let’s examine in depth the difference, benefits and drawbacks of being a signed artist or an independent artist.

1. Budget and resources

For signed artists, the mastering, distribution, and development of album artwork, marketing, merchandise, touring, music videos, and other costs can be supported by established record labels thanks to their financing and resources. The label will, however, determine the budget and resources available.

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For independent artists, It costs money to cover expenses like mastering, distribution, promotion, merchandise and touring. Many independent artists lack the tools and funding that a record label can offer.

2. Connections and a network

For signed artists, signing with a label has several advantages, including access to their network. Significant opportunities may arise for you and your music as a result. Your network and ability to reach wider audiences may be restricted without a label. Larger fan bases will be found for established labels. Additionally, they might be connected to other members of the music industry, including booking agents, music venues, publishing houses, public relations firms, and PR firms.

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For independent artists,  just starting to have a small fanbase and professional network. Record labels, on the other hand, will have a larger fan following and relationships with key players in the music business, including promoters, booking agencies, the media, etc.

3. Influence and standing

For signed artists, Numerous record labels, particularly large labels, have acquired ties and influence in the music business. They have a stronger chance of landing publishing and licensing agreements, performances at bigger venues and festivals, press attention, radio roles, and other opportunities.

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For independent artists, It’s hard to get started in the music industry. The music industry is complex, and learning every facet of it requires time and experience. There are many elements to manage, including shifting fashion trends, musical rules, and many more. The world is complicated! Learning what works and what doesn’t can also be a costly lesson.

4. Music Promotions Strategy

For signed artists, your music sales will rise when you sign up with a record company that has a strong marketing plan, and you’ll gain access to new listeners and advance your musical career. Additionally, a label might promote music media, have a sizable email list, be active on social media, and more. A record label will also have previous music industry knowledge.

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For independent artists, the independent artist option takes time to pursue. Putting your music out on your own can seem like a full-time job. Setting up distribution, making all the release materials, coming up with a marketing plan, keeping track of sales, scheduling shows, and all the other tasks involved with releasing music take a lot of time. Additionally, all of this additional labour consumes crucial studio time.

Check out how to promote your music on a budget here: https://kevineze.com/how-to-promote-your-music-with-zero-budget/

5. Creative authority

For signed artists, A record label gains authority over your song when you sign with them. Without your consent, the label may make arrangements and decisions involving your song. They also have total authority over everything, including messaging, artwork, marketing, and distribution. However, the contract’s provisions determine how much power you have over your music and brand.

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For independent artists, The direction of an independent artist’s music is entirely under their control. Additionally, they are in complete control of the distribution, marketing, artwork, messaging, and other factors. A self-employed artist also has the freedom to choose how to carry out their artistic idea. For many artists, it’s the ideal situation.\

6. Formula for profit-sharing

For signed artists, Record labels receive a portion of the money made from music sales, streaming, licensing agreements, and other sources of income. Additionally, some labels use the royalties received from music purchases to cover costs such as mastering, promotional mailers, and other release-related fees.

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For independent artists, 100% of the money made from music sales, streaming, licensing partnerships, item sales, and other revenue sources goes to them.

7. Copyright Ownership

For signed artists, When you sign a deal with a record label, the master rights to your music are theirs. Without your consent, they are allowed to negotiate publishing and music licensing agreements. They can retain more of the earnings from these transactions as a result.

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For independent artists, the master rights of an artist’s music belong to them. They are free to discuss publishing and music license agreements as well. They also won’t have to stress about signing over their music rights or dealing with confusing contracts or pricy attorneys.

Additionally:

Music services offered to Independent Musicians online: Independent musicians now have access to a wide range of music services and resources thanks to the digital age. Musicians can use services for streaming, marketing, distribution, creating goods, and other things. Additionally, musicians may easily reach new listeners thanks to the internet. They no longer need a recording agreement to distribute their music via streaming services, digital music stores, and music platforms.

Bad contract deals: Many record labels have agreements that are favorable to artists. However, it is well known that large record labels have contractual arrangements that offer the artist a smaller percentage of royalties. Additionally, if you sign with a label, you will have to deal with these intricate contracts and pricey layers.

So in summary, which is the better choice of both?

Here, you get to make the call choice. Both solutions have benefits and drawbacks. In the end, everything depends on how much assistance you need as a beginning artist. You will have complete ownership over your music and the rights to it if you decide to go it alone. However, some musicians do require the additional support and communication provided by a record company. Remember that while a record label may require a larger percentage of your earnings, you’re also more likely to discover work and prospects through them. It might even out.

Consider your contract options carefully if you’re thinking about being signed by a label. Is it a temporary situation to gauge your progress? In case you decide it’s not for you, that seems like the sensible course of action. You cannot back out of contracts, thus it is crucial to be certain. Take into account what they can offer you. After all, you are giving them your music and ability, which you are aware of. It’s crucial that the agreement not turn out to be one-sided.

However, they will relieve a lot of your artistic burden because you won’t have to worry about promoting and selling your music. You may instead devote more time to honing the sound itself. There is no disputing that being an independent artist may be difficult. Even yet, it can still present fantastic chances and a sense of accomplishment that is unmatched. If you persist, you’ll realize the advantages and understand why it’s so satisfying. Both this option and picking a record label are not suitable for everyone. Both have numerous advantages and disadvantages that are comparable. Give one a try, and if you decide it’s not for you, you’ll know the other is.

There will always be resources and assistance accessible, regardless of the option you select. Don’t believe that you must be affiliated with a label to receive any kind of support. Keep in mind that you alone are responsible for your accomplishment. There is a wealth of knowledge available to support your success. Spend some time figuring out what suits your music and brand the best. Best luck!

As a musical artist, it might seem like a huge deal to get your music out there in the competitive music industry but hey, the internet has opened up limitless possibilities to promote your music with ease. And, while it may seem daunting, it really allows you to explore and let your creativity run wild! Like products or services, music also should be aggressively pushed so that its audience notices it quickly.

Remember, similar to businesses, there is tough competition in promoting your music too. There are plenty of other musicians and their songs are competing with each other for the attention of the music-loving audience.

The key to successfully promoting your music in today’s music industry is to try new things, promote strategically, and learn from the promotions you run, make changes, and then fine-tune them to your unique career.

How To Create A Successful Music Promotion Campaign

Let’s take a look at some basic strategies you could be using to promote your music right now and help you create a successful music promotion campaign.

Make Sure Your Brand Stands Out

One of the effective promotional strategies is to project your brand as an authority in your field. Uniqueness is a strong foundation to standout and indirectly helps while create an effective  music promotion campaign.

Take a look at Burna Boy’s “African Giant”. When people believe in what you are saying, they want to buy things that you make or recommend.

An easier way to convince that you do quality music is to post quality content regularly on your social media & website/blog, air your opinion on the music industry via interviews & press releases, review other musical albums, and so on.

Now you’ll be wondering why bring this up when it’s not a direct marketing strategy? Let’s assume you’re marketing a product which is been sold in a horrible-looking store, does it speak well of the product no matter how good it tastes? Same way for your music and your brand image, make sure your social media accounts are well arranged, bio set up with nice pics, hire a photographer to have good pictures of you taken which should be posted on your Instagram, your website ready with your music sold there (I’ll discuss further on this), great press releases prior to the music release date, a wiki page and knowledge panel, etc.

This ensures that the brand likeability is increased which directly links to brand worth and this is one way to milk off your brand via endorsements, ambassadorship, and co.

Ensure Your Music Gets on Major Digital Platform Playlists and DJ Mixes

The number of smartphone users in Nigeria, Africa’s biggest economy and most populous country, is forecast to grow to more than 100 million by 2020.

Currently, the exact number of users is hard to pin down – however, estimates from different sources put the number of smartphone users in Nigeria at roughly 50 and 80 million.

iPhone users steadily taking a huge chunk of these statistics stated above with Apple Music as their default music app and playlists been replaced with the traditional DJ mixes randomly downloaded off the internet and songs on blogs, with the growing emergence of local distribution platform Boomplay, international Audiomack and SoundCloud putting the android market in check as well; these are the next best places to promote your music strategically.

Getting your music on these platforms playlists is key to a healthy music promotion campaign (Hint: Hire a PR or A&R)

Utilize Social Media Properly

Everyone uses social media. If you’re not on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter these days, then you’ll be on LinkedIn, Snapchat, or WhatsApp, well if you’re not on these platforms it’s almost like you don’t exist.

However, you might have your music fully distributed on these platforms yet you may not be using them to their full potential to promote your music. Remember, Social media is NOT a straight-up marketing platform.

It’s more of a catalyst for conversation and word-of-mouth marketing. About 80% of your posts should be funny, conversational, and interesting, leaving about 20% for promotional material.

Here are some examples and checklists that you can use. That’s not to say that conversational posts can’t be promotional! You just need to learn how to frame the content in interesting ways.

For example, if you’re in the studio recording a new song, try sprinkling little updates on social media. Tell a story about your studio experience that day, share a photo of the mix, or post a short teaser video of a song, go live and interact with your fans, ask them questions, and request their feedback.

If you’re out on a show, take photos at the venues or share short videos or photos of the audience. These things aren’t obviously promotional, but they still let fans know what’s going on and clearly state you’re active in your profession.

When you release a song, spend money on paid advertisements and influencer marketing; Remember, social media isn’t the end-all-be-all when it comes to promoting your music. It can easily become a huge time suck that takes you away from your music if you don’t manage your time properly (Hint: Hire a social media manager).

Promote Your Music and Sell it on Your Website

As a music artist, I expect you to have a website; Google loves when you have original content from your website been picked up by their crawlers, and with proper SEO and schema data setup you could get a knowledge panel automatically set up for you courtesy of Google. THis aids in successfully creating effective music promotion campaigns.

If you have a website already then it shouldn’t be a static thing. It should be ever adapting and changing to reflect new events in your career. Basically, you want your fans to stop by your website as often as possible. The more often they’re on your site, the more they’re exposed to your songs, albums, merchandise, and events happening in your career.

If you’re just starting out, you probably don’t have a lot of big updates other than the occasional album release and tour. Starting a blog is a great solution. It’s fairly easy to set up a blog on the homepage of your website. Most website tools like Blogger, and WordPress, have blog capabilities. Plan out blog posts at regular intervals like once or twice a week and share anything you think your fans would find interesting.

This could be the inspirations behind certain songs, new lyrical ideas you’re working on, a funny story from the last band practice, or even a run-down of the gear you use. Another idea is to create landing pages on your website.

Landing pages can be used to collect email addresses, to raise awareness, to give your fans more information, or to make a sale.

It’s also important to understand how to drive traffic to your website as this will help you achieve your music promotion campaign goals faster. Here’s an article created with the aim of helping you through the process.

Utilize Email Marketing

Your email list is an extremely valuable tool to create an effective music promotion campaign. Unlike collaboration and blogs, your email list is marketing to your current fan base. If someone signed up for your email list, they want to hear from you, so take advantage of it!

Remember, your emails should be driving your fans to your website, so you want to include links. So what do you send to your email list? The obvious use of an email list is to let your fans know when you have a song coming out or an event.

BUT you can also use your email list to send fans to your blog when you have new content. (Remember, you want to get your fans on your website as often as possible.)

Of course, you need to get fans to actually signup for your emails before you can start using it as a music promotion tool, right? An easy option is to trade something of value for an email address. Keep in mind this doesn’t have to be a free song (in fact there are a TON of more effective ways to grow your email list)

Collect as many email addresses as you can from your town using your links with friends, neighbors, offices, and even family members.

Conclusion: How to Promote Your Music

Your music promotion strategy is going to be something that you refine over time, so don’t get frustrated if things take some time to come together. I just gave 5 tips which we know can’t cover all knowledge needed to promote properly but hey, this is just a post… stay tuned for my next articles I’ll give more hints.

Remember; The important thing is that you should be taking advantage of all the different music promotional strategies you have right at your fingertips instead of relying on just one thing.