Launch Your Own Song of the Month Club

Both music subscriptions and tangible goods are hot spots in the music industry and so it's not surprising to see experiments with monthly physical music-related subscription services. But for most DIY musicians putting together monthly merch boxes or curating a vinyl series is too much to take one. However creating a song of the month club is a much more doable proposition.

There are a variety of modern-day record clubs and related merch subscription services featuring new music and merch from different artists. Feedbands and Soundsupply are two great examples but, as Chris Robley notes, why not launch your own subscription service?

Launch Your Own Song of the Month Club

I've advocated for creating your own merch box, but that's a tough task for a DIY'er to do regularly.

Chris Robley points out:

"Through services like SoundCloud and Spotify (plus good old fashioned things like email attachments, DropBox, YouSendIt, etc.), it’s easy to create your own playlist and “mixtape” clubs for fellow music-fans. You can share your own music and favorite tunes by other bands."

While you could experiment with a monthly playlist, Robley goes on to suggest:

"You can also set up an Song-of-the-Month club for your own fans. For a fee (or maybe for free!), give certain mega-fans access to a special page on your website where they can download a new song every month and read behind-the-scenes details about that track."

"Every month, subscribers get an email with an access code delivered right to their inbox. Every month, they get a great new track to enjoy and share with friends. Every month, you get another chance to interact with your most loyal fans and show your appreciation. Everyone wins."

Start Simply and Build From There

The best place to start might be a free monthly release of a track or video for promotional purposes. These could be live versions of songs, studio jam sessions and the like as well as first listens to new singles and videos.

You could start with something as simple as a mailing list with a link to a download or to private tracks on YouTube or SoundCloud. This has the added advantage of being easy to pass along for free added promotion.

Or you could create a password-protected site, whether a section of your main site or a separate site altogether, using built-in features or third party options such as WordPress Membership plugins.

Whatever your approach, keep in mind that this could be a good starting point for the emergence of an official fan club. If you're just getting started you may feel uncomfortable talking about "fans" but offering those who are interested free insider content in Song of the Month Club form is a great way to start identifying your core audience.

[Thumbnail via WPMU DEV's WordPress Membership.]

More:

• Soundsupply: GroupOn For Indie Music
• Musicians: Create Your Own Box Of Goodies Like Ashton Kutcher Minus Fancy
• Merchbox Delivers A Curated Subscription Box Of "Music, Gear & Goodies"

Hypebot Senior Contributor Clyde Smith (@fluxresearch/@crowdfundingm) also blogs at Flux Research and Crowdfunding For Musicians. To suggest topics for Hypebot, contact: clyde(at)fluxresearch(dot)com.