Indie Musician Handbook
Sustainability. Any process you come up with, whether it’s for writing and recording music, promoting your music, or touring, should be sustainable.
Make music not content. If you see your music as a means to an end it will spoil everything.
Don’t be cynical. There is still room for authenticity in commercial music, so you don’t have to compromise or sell out to succeed.
Don’t focus-group your music. Don’t let fear or the need for approval drive your creative decisions.
Communication. Write thoughtful, respectful and coherent emails and DMs, especially if you are asking for a favor or forming a new professional relationship.
Relationships and Loyalty. Form professional and personal relationships with people you like and believe in, and stand by those people.
Write Songs. If you are an indie artist, your main focus should be writing good songs. This is so important and central it literally can’t be overstated. This is where most of your work and creative energy should be put.
Produce. Making records of your songs is one of the main ways you’ll find your sound, develop your craft and get your music into the world.
Collaborate. Work with a producer who has the skill set and experience to deliver something that sounds cool and is actually interested in helping you find your sonic identity as an artist.
Distribution. Absent a record label you’ll need to use a distributor to get your music to the major streaming platforms (Spotify/Apple Music etc). I recommend using www.distrokid.com.
Spotify For Artists. Whether through Distrokid or through spotify’s website https://artists.spotify.com/ you’ll want to create a Spotify for Artists profile, which allows you to pitch to playlists, update your profile picture and artwork, keep custom playlists, keep track of streaming data etc.
Website. A website is a good way to organize links to various social media platforms and streaming platforms, sell merch, list tour dates and keep your full bio.
Bio. In your artist bio, you need to say a little about 1) what your music sounds like, 2) who you are 3) and some of your musical accomplishments/successes.
Social media: Use it, don’t stress it. Use it as a tool to reach your audience, but don’t be consumed by it: you are a musician first, social media tycoon second. Plenty of high status influencers struggle to start a music career and plenty of people who suck at social media have careers in music. Both is good, but one thing at a time.
Visual stuff. You should use your artwork as an opportunity to communicate an aesthetic vibe that compliments your music. It’s really important, but that doesn’t need you need glossy shit—like everything else it’s about what feels authentic and believable.
DIY PR. Don’t look to the big blogs or publications first, look to your peers: writers and artists and vloggers and bloggers, indie playlist curators who are also starting out and growing their own followings.
Slugging it out. If you really want to give your song a shot, try pitching 1000 people, or start with 100.
Pitching. Introduce yourself, ask politely for the person to listen to your song, say specifically what you would like them to do to help get the word out about your music. Next.
Streaming: Don’t over-focus on it. You can reach out to third party playlist curators just like you can reach out to bloggers (sometimes they are one and the same) You can also hire third party services to do the reaching out for you. There are also services that have their own networks of playlists. Digital marketing is yet another tool that a lot of labels use for social media and some streaming growth— all of these tactics have to potentially to harm your career if used in the wrong way, or the potentially to be a part of your strategy if used in the right context. Mostly Spotify editorial cares about what you do outside of Spotify so focus on everything else and the play listing will come afterwards.
Simple Live shows. Don’t let your live show become such a massive undertaking it prevents you from playing gigs, even if it means starting with a solo set.
Touring. If you can get brought on an opening slot for a more established band do it, but self-funded small headlining tours are generally hard to pull off so plan carefully and be smart about it.
Management, labels, publishers etc. The cavalry is coming but the battle is now, draw your sword.
Long Term. Take the pressure off your music to do anything for you. Let it just be good and authentic and slowly work towards getting the word out about it yourself.
No guarantees, no secrets. This all requires actual courage because there are no guarantees and no secrets other than the ones you figure out on your own.
Process
Make the best music you possibly can
Tell as many people about it as you possibly can
Repeat
xo
H
@harperjamesx