A List of Websites All Independent Artists Should Know

We are in the era of the independent artist and without labels and teams, an artist is left alone to handle most of the tasks. Lucky for you, we have Google and an unlimited amount of websites to help. Whether you need a service to distribute your music, submit to blogs, create a website or everything in between, the internet is here to help. Below is a list of websites I have found over the past couple years that I think you will benefit from. If there are any I am missing, please drop a link in the comments or tweet at us. Let's help each other succeed.

Distribute Your Music

You do not need labels anymore in order to get your music on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, Apple Music, TIDAL, etc. The services below will help you do that and help you make sure you get paid for your streams. Each service has different terms so make sure to read carefully.

TuneCore www.tunecore.com

CD Baby www.cdbaby.com

DistroKid www.distrokid.com

amuse www.amuse.io

SoundCloud www.soundcloud.com

Bandcamp www.bandcamp.com

Audiomack www.audiomack.com

BitTorrent Now now.bt.co

RIV www.rivnow.com

Mixtape Distribution

DatPiff www.datpiff.com

Spinrilla www.spinrilla.com

Mixtape Monkey www.mixtapemonkey.com

Streaming & Audience Analytics

Knowing who is listening to your music and engaging with you online is one of the most important pieces of data you can have in the music industry nowadays. I'm talking about knowing their gender, age, location, and other artists they like.

NextBigSound www.nextbigsound.com

Spotify for Artists artists.spotify.com

Apple Music for Artists artists.apple.com

Shazam for Artists www.shazam.com/artists

SoundCloud Pro www.soundcloud.com/pro

Pandora AMP amp.pandora.com

Chartmetric www.chartmetric.com

Performance Rights Organizations & Music Licensing & Royalties

Once you have distributed your music and copyrighted it, every single time it is played the artist should get paid whether it's at a bar or on Spotify. Music distributors like CD Baby, TuneCore, and DistroKid do will collect the majority of money for you but there are still paychecks out there for you. The services below will help you get what you deserve.

ASCAP www.ascap.com

BMI www.bmi.com

SESAC www.sesac.com

SoundExchange www.soundexchange.com

SongTrust www.songtrust.com

Submit Your Music to Blogs

You could email your music to blogs or you could use a service that connects you directly with a journalist or radio DJ. Most of the services below also give you feedback on your songs which can be beneficial.

SubmitHub www.submithub.com

HumanHuman www.humanhuman.com/campaigns

Emusician www.emusician.com/advisor

Fluence www.fluence.io

StoryAmp www.storyamp.com

Create Promotional Graphics

All artists need covert art, flyers for events, and graphics for social media but everyone might not have money to pay a designer. Lucky for us, there are websites that help you do that. Not only are most of them free, they have templates already created so you can create something quality yourself.

Canva www.canva.com (Good for event flyers, cover art, etc.)

Promo Republic www.promorepublic.com (Good for event flyers, cover art, etc.)

Lumen5 www.lumen5.com (Create videos from images and text)

Wavve www.wavve.co (Turn songs into videos)

Create a Website

Having a website is an important asset to have as an artist in the new digital world. It is a place that you can host all of your music, sell merch, and give fans a deeper look at your brand. Websites are easier to create than ever so take advantage of as soon as you have the money to.

Squarespace www.squarespace.com

Wix www.wix.com

Weebly www.weebly.com

Social Media Management

We all know that social media is becoming more and more popular by the day and posting to many different platforms can get time-consuming and annoying. The services below will help you post to all of your accounts with the click of one button.

Hootsuite www.hootsuite.com

Buffer www.buffer.com

Crowd Speaking Campaigns

Crowd Speaking is a relatively new term for people who aren't submerged in the digital marketing world so let me explain it to you like this. It's like Kickstarter but instead of people donating money, they can donate a social media post. Ex: People can support you by sharing your message on Twitter.

HeadTalker www.headtalker.com

Thunderclap www.thunderclap.it

Project Management

As your team and to-do lists grow, you will need a program that can help you keep track of them. The services below will help you set due dates for yourself and team members, create multiple to-do lists, and so much more to keep you on track.

Freedcamp www.freedcamp.com

Basecamp www.basecamp.com

Trello www.trello.com

Google Drive drive.google.com

Email Management Software

An engaged email list can be one of the most powerful marketing tools and independent artist can have. It's the best way to get news and updates directly in the hands of your fans. The services below will help you customize your emails and send to your entire list at once.

MailChimp www.mailchimp.com

Campaign Monitor www.campaignmonitor.com

Performance Opportunities

Getting booked for shows and festivals can be a difficult task without a real booking manager. Even finding shows can be hard. SonicBids is a good site that helps you do just that.

SonicBids www.sonicbids.com