Navigating the Challenge of Being an Indie Artist

Navigating the challenge of being an indie artist is more difficult than ever, with new hurdles emerging at every turn. Learn about the key factors making it harder to succeed independently and how to navigate them.

Navigating the Challenge of Being an Indie Artist

by Bobby Owsinski of Music 3.0

It’s always been hard to make it as an indie artist, but many feel that it’s become harder than ever. While anyone who’s tried to collect a fan base and book gigs probably already feels this, the opinion is becoming more universal in nature among the indie artist community. Now, thanks to the Musician’s Census via Right Chord Music and Muso Soup, we know the extent of the problem and more.

It turns out that 68% of indie artists feel that it’s getting even harder to make it than before. Artists in the 26 to 35 age group are the most likely to agree with this statement, which is no surprise since that’s about the time when the realization sets in that this is a real job that requires a great amount of effort to succeed.

Surprisingly, 12% of indie artists disagreed that it was getting harder, which we can only surmise as the group that was actually breaking through the clutter thanks to a turn of good luck or connections.

But Why?

That’s all well and good to make a statement about everything about being an indie artist being harder, but the more important question is why? It turns out that there are three major opinions.

The first is an oversaturated market. The sheer volume of new music that is uploaded every single day makes it so much harder to break through. Fans (or potential fans) only have the same 24 hours each day for listening, yet they’re bombarded with more music than they could possibly listen to in a lifetime.

Next is the introduction of AI-generated music. Respondents felt that even though much of the AI-generated music is low quality, it still muddies the waters for listeners, adding another barrier to discovery of human-made music that they might like. The other part of the equation is that a lot of AI-generated music is created by people with very low music creation skills, but again, it’s even more dreck that a listener must wade through.

Last was building a fan base. Many respondents felt that it was harder than ever to build a fan base through social media, which was so successful for the last 10 years or so. One of the reasons brought out in the Census is that potential fans are now on so many social networks that it’s much more time intensive to reach them than in the past.

As stated above, it’s never been easy to be an indie artist, but under the right circumstances it may be a better time than ever to become a successful DIY artist. That said, it appears that the opportunity is fading fast.

Bobby Owsinski is a producer/engineer, author, blogger, podcaster, and coach. He has authored 24 books on music production, music, the music business, music AI, and social media.