Responsible Independent Music Budget: 10 Top Notch Ways To Spend Your Money

Proper money management is one of the keys to succeeding as an independent artist. In this piece, we look at ten items that consistently make for smart investing.

Guest post by Emmanuel Ojo of Disctopia

To succeed as an indie artist, you’ll need to have a good grip on your independent music budget.

Let’s be frank, to succeed in the music industry; you need to know a thing or two about managing your finance. Of course, you can always have someone to manage your finance, but understanding it will save you a lot of pain.

You will make money from being an indie artist, but you also need to know what to spend your money on.

In this article, we’ll focus on 12 areas that should be focused on while drawing up your independent music budget.

1. Make an Official Video

While everyone will be able to identify your music, they should also put a face to it. You need to apportion a segment of your budget to shoot a video.

There’s no better way to spend your money than this. Shoot a video and upload it on Youtube, and you may be lucky to go viral.

2. Hire a Publicist

This is one area mainstream artists excel in due to the available resources at major record labels. Nevertheless, as an indie artist, you can also hire a publicist you can afford.

With a publicist, you are guaranteed that your new music will make much impact. Ensure your publicist has a track record of success.

3. Run Ads Online

Everyone you are targeting spends a good part of their day online; you need to take your music to where they are.

One way to do this is by running ads on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, and other major online outlets. Just set a budget and run the advert.

4. Email Marketing

Email marketing has one of the largest ROI, and you should be able to take advantage of it as an indie artist. Make it a priority on your independent music budget.

To leverage email marketing, you should have a mailing list. You may need to hire an expert email marketer to get good results.

5. Go For a Photoshoot

As an indie artist, you should wear the look in every of your picture that your fans will come in contact with. You cannot just take selfies and post on your social media pages.

Hire a professional photographer who takes excellent pictures of you. This will also serve as your profile picture on social media.

6. Hire a Graphic Designer

The graphic designer will not just be working on your album art but also create content to engage your followers on social media.

Of course, you may take advantage of free resources such as Canva, but a time will come when this will be grossly inadequate. To compete as an artist, you need to go beyond free resources.

7. Plan a Tour

Going on tour should form part of your independent music budget. If you aim to stamp your feet on the music scene as an indie artist, a tour is one of the best ways to get this done.

Of course, a lot of work goes into planning a tour, but you can always work out something. With a tour, you’ll secure endorsement deals, sponsorships and sell your merchandise.

8. Hire an Influencer

Theirs is rarely any successful artist out there today that does not engage the service of an influencer. 80% of the time, influencer marketing is considered successful.

The influencer is like a publicist but promotes your music on social media. The influencer leverages their followerships to spread good words about you and your music.

9. Invest in PR

To break into the limelight, be ready to devote a huge part of your budget to PR. Get the services of media personalities and writers to write about your music and brand.

It would help if you looked out for writers with affiliations with music blogs, magazines, and even podcasts. Their impact will induce word of mouth virality and help you capture your audience.

10. Get Premium Music Streaming Services

Suppose you want all of your efforts at music promotion to yield good results. In that case, you should invest in premium music streaming services. All of the music marketing efforts will yield results if your fans can easily locate you on the internet.

In addition to the music streaming service subscription, you should ensure your website is search engine optimized. As soon as your fans input your name into the search box, they should be able to find you.

Final Thoughts

The size of your independent music budget will not matter if you can squeeze this ten ways into it.

By consistently pushing with these ten ways as an indie artist, you are making the most of your budget.