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
Advice-Driven Blogs
As an independent artist, you need to keep learning. It's that simple.
Heroic Academy www.heroic.academy/articles
The Artist Guides www.theartistguides.com
DIY Musician diymusician.cdbaby.com
Sonicbids Blog blog.sonicbids.com
Or head on over to our advice section upcominghiphop.net/advice
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