music marketing ROI Archives

Considering the amount of advice and guidance available, there is no excuse for making these common music marketing mistakes in 2021.

There are hundreds of books about the music industry available worldwide. There are also college curriculums dedicated to the music business, countless blogs covering music industry tips and tricks, and dozens of YouTube channels like music biz doing their best to educate artists about the realities of building a career in entertainment. You can learn virtually anything about being a musician with a few keystrokes, and yet, each week, countless artists make easily avoidable mistakes because they don’t start to consider whether or not their promotional tactics are positioning them for success.

Mistakes happen. Nobody that successfully does anything with their life reaches their goals without a few setbacks. But there are several common mistakes that industry experts and working professionals alike have been shouting about for four decades that still get made every day. Something as simple as knowing who you’re talking to and what it is they do seems never to cross the mind of certain artists. That oversight ultimately results in the artist not receiving the exposure or opportunities they seek.

In this Music Biz update, host James Shotwell explores half a dozen common mistakes artists make when marketing their music. These are some of the worst and most abhorrent mistakes, all of which are covered again and again by industry experts of all sizes. Suppose artists can slow down and review their efforts before reaching out to professionals and fans alike. In that case, Shotwell explains, they will likely discover easy fixes that will lead to a bigger, more meaningful impact with their outreach.

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Every artist knows that marketing is the name of the game in music today, but how many know for sure whether or not their efforts are paying off?

The music business is as much about marketing as it is performance. I take that back. Music marketing is more important than performative talent because it’s easier for someone with talent never to be heard than for someone terrible with decent marketing skills to become the next Billboard sensation. It doesn’t mean your material doesn’t matter, but it does mean that material alone won’t give you a career.

Music marketing is a game we are playing without rules or limits. Some people spend thousands of dollars to sell only a few records. Meanwhile, some kids in Kansas with a decent understanding of Adobe products can go platinum without a label. Marketing is the great decider, and while everyone is doing it, very few know how to measure success.

ROI is fancy business shorthand for “return on investment.” It’s a term used to describe what happens as a result of your action. Everyone in music is making content constantly to entertain untold millions that they believe might one day become a fan. Those efforts may include social media ads, social media posts, billboards, radio spots, ads on Spotify, and more. Every avenue of promotion is viable in today’s marketplace, but not every approach will work for your career. Knowing what works—and why it works—is the key to success.

In this Music Biz update, host James Shotwell explains ROI and why calculating the value of a music marketing campaign can be difficult. He also details the four things every artist must understand if they want to become better marketers moving forward.