In this article, we challenge the traditional approach to music marketing that solely focuses on the newest release (The firework - which burns bright and quickly fades) to propose musicians should also be thinking about their 'Bonfire' strategy (Their on-going, slow-burn content strategy that maintains momentum between releases). Firework marketing Traditional music promotion has focused on launches, singles, videos, EPs and albums. All of your marketing efforts are geared u

At Spotify's recent Stream On event they announced their roadmap for the improvement of the service highlighting 8 key changes, one 'Marquee' has the potential to be a real game changer, here's why.... Brilliant yet frustrating. Spotify should be an independent artists' best friend. Afterall it pays them for every stream and gives them the chance for their music to be heard by fans all over one Spotify connected world. But the dream of blowing up and being 'big in Japan' just

Top 10 ranked indie music blog, www.RightChordMusic.co.uk (RCM) are inviting independent music blogs, freelance writers, playlisters, DJs and live promoters to access their central submissions hub as part of a new initiative called The Indie Collective. Now when musicians submit music via www.rightchordmusic.com they could end up with multiple reviews or offers of promotion. “The Indie Collective allows us to collectively champion and support more incredible new music, all fr

In this article Major Labl founder Mark Knight, critically examines the AWAL offer. Asking do AWAL really offer any more than an aggregator for independent artists? How does their business model help independent artists? The illusion of the free and easy music industry Every unsigned musician wants the same thing: Someone to listen to their music, love their music and help them make a career from their music. This quest for the life changing moment is perfectly dramatised by

Last week we posted an article explaining how to build relationships with music blogs and how to increase the chances of being featured. You can consider this article it’s evil twin brother. Mark Knight, Founder of Right Chord Music outlines the quickest ways to get your emails deleted and your music ignored. Ignoring the submission policy: Most established blogs have a submissions policy. At Right Chord Music we ask you to submit music via the website contact page. This mean

Mark Knight the Founder of Right Chord Music (RCM), a top 10 ranked indie music blog explains how unsigned bands and independent artists can increase their chances of being featured on music blogs. 1. Do Your Homework Before contacting a blog spend some time visiting their site to understand exactly what they do. You should know answers to the following questions: 1. What's the focus of the blog? 2. Which genres of music do they cover? 3. Which artists have they featured that

In this article, Major Labl founder Mark Knight, identifies the three most common music marketing mistakes made by independent artists, and suggests simple ways to avoid them. 1. Don't plan to promote Musicians often take months, sometimes even years to write, record and produce new music and once they have it finished, they want to share it... immediately. While it's easy to get swept up in the excitement of a new release, releasing without a plan is almost always a mistake.

In this post we explore the phenomenon that is TikTok and why for some artists it could be a powerful new music distribution channel. TikTok for Musicians If you or your band makes music that appeals to the teen audience (Pop, hip-hop, R&B, Grime etc) then you should consider distributing to TikTok. CDBaby recently announced their are now distributing music to the app, which means the next time a creator is looking to create a dance routine, they could be using your track. Wh

Gone are the days when all you needed to succeed as a musician was music. In the new music economy, successful artists think like start-ups and need to be savvy marketers and content creators. Here are some essential tools to support the independent artist on their journey. The old music industry Go back forty years and major record labels signed artists who had potential, and invested money and time into their careers to make them a success. It famously took U2 and Bruce Spr