Welcome Back!
So in part one of the Indie Artist Launch Plan we addressed what seem to be the two major problems as well as the importance of BUILDING a solid foundation.
The importance of creating the structure – built of the right habits, the right people, and the right attitude are the fundamental building blocks to the success of an Indie Artist Career today.
Again, i go so far as to say that it’s less about the talent and more about the drive. The passion and “learnable” characteristics and skills that successful people embrace and adopt account for more wins than anything else.
So in part one you learned that the Right Knowledge, Right Strategy, + Consistency = Get to Your Next Level.
And since Artist Development is OUR job, what ARE the things – that if you did and were consistent in doing would set you up for the best chance for success over a period of say two years time?
Alright let’s get to it!
Artist Development Today = Clarity, Direction, and Commitment.
This is what I would have done. It’s simple, yet profound. When you reduce the clutter and amount of wheel spinning and just increase the size and intensity of your focus onto these few things, incredible stuff starts to happen.
Let’s call it the two year path of persistence for building a foundation for your music career as a performing artist/band, given you have enough songs written and ready to go, plus a half dozen or so covers you can rock out.
The Performing Artist/Band Launch Plan
2 shows a week – Just keep honing your chops.
1-3 articles a week – Just keep writing engaging content, the best you know how to, and submit to guest blogs like Music Think Tank.
15-20 minutes of social media every day – Keep making connections, keep building your following, replying to and sharing interesting things.
100 names onto your email list every week – Focus on doing this, any way you can. Ask every one you meet if you can add them to your email list. If you work at it, and there are tons of ways, you should be able to get fifty every week offline, and fifty every week online. If you can’t get that much, keep doing all you can, and then once you’ve flatlined, do a little more research on how you can increase it.
Key Areas of Focus
Email list every week – Keep in touch with them, share your new content, the latest experiences, and keep your listeners engaged.
Write and produce at least one song every month – Get into the habit of doing this, and then promote it to your email list.
Work with a coach and consultant – This is CRITICAL to keep you on track, and have someone help you get over your inner obstacles, and everyone has them. Well, not me… But everyone else. 🙂
Find YOUR signature sound and style – Develop that thing that you do that is unique to you and YOUR style and personality, and master that. Ask your friends and your fans to be real and give you some honest insight. Focus in on those things, and the things that make people scream, and dance, or smile, or wave their hands, or listen intently. Don’t be afraid to do weird things to try and find what those things are for you.
Observe the feeling of your lifestyle now – Take inventory and see if you had what it takes to make a lifelong career out of this. Is THIS what fills you up? Do you love doing this, more than anything else?
Get known in your town – Go out and meet as many people as you can, network, get their phone numbers and email addresses. Follow up.
Systemize all the pieces that you don’t need/want/can do – Hire someone to submit your music to libraries and pitch opportunities online for example. Create documented processes that break things down into simple, easy to execute, steps.
In that time, once you have been building connections you will probably not have to work very hard to find someone who you can record and produce your tracks. If you cannot pay, barter or work something out.
Make sure you get both the instrumental and vocal versions of each song, go and submit those to as many music libraries and placement opportunities online that you can find. Get a taxi membership if you can afford the $300 and learn about the industry, get involved on the forum, and have your music reviewed on the peer to peer section.
Read everything Bob Baker ever wrote about music marketing, as well as both books by Ariel Hyatt – Music Successs in 9 Weeks, and Musicians Roadmap to Facebook and Twitter.
The thing is that, although all of this stuff sounds basic, and it is… IT is ALL that is required. The hard part, is doing it. It’s not that people cannot do this… You can do this while still going to college, or working a part time job, or even while working a full time job.
You may say to yourself… That’s easy, no problem! But I challenge you to do it, do it for just 3 months, consistently. I dare you. I’ll bet you’ll find that it’s simple, but that it’s definitely NOT easy. And I mean stick to those things… You cannot deviate from doing JUST those things.
Please drop me a line to let me know your results.
I think that if anyone, who had the ability to do these things, followed this formula, would end up sitting very pretty, and have enough momentum, insight, success, confidence built up, to propel them to any level of career success they were willing to go after.
You just have to maintain three things…
Attitude – Be humble, be a learner, don’t get mad at criticism, use it as feedback and adjust accordingly.
Passion – Always do and play what you are passionate about. Once you start to lose that passion, you will strain yourself and burn out over time… Be careful, and only make music that moves you, and that touches other people in some way.
Consistency – This is master key to success it seems in almost any area, consistency is the name of the game here. Be persistent and stay consistent.
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Cheers,
Jamie

Sounds like the tactics Eddie Vedder and Courtney Love used back in the 90’s. Guess what? They suck! I think that if a person has talent they will be found, promoted, and succeed. Justin Bieber, like it or not, is an amazing singer. His family, not him, posted a video on Youtube of him singing and it was found by a producer. Now look at him, major bucks and lotsa work. Did Bieber spend 2 nights a week gigging? Building a following? Heck no.
I think playing out is a waste of time unless it is a stadium with a massive profit. Also, forget what makes other people happy. Write YOUR songs and let the people catch up to your genius. If they don’t get it then screw ’em. I would rather be an unknown genius than a popular hack. I’ll take a Paul Westerburg song over a Phil Collins song any day.
Hi Rich, it’s really hard to compare things like this, and as with anything there are going to be exceptions back and forth… While i cannot really say that either Eddie or Courtney “suck” per-se, i can say that people know who they are, so they did something right.
The launch is about the CORE competencies that we overcomplicate and in result don’t work enough on the basics, which is understandable given the times we live in…
Justin Bieber is always going to exist in the music world. There is an iconic place for him, and he fills that role well. However, you cannot compare him to the majority of musicians and artists that are out there…. He was the right blend of talent, at the right time, that was properly developed and marketed.
For Indie Artists, now and into the future, It IS all about building your following and getting out there. Progressively and consciously growing with a creative DIY approach to marketing.
Regards,
Jamie
Great easy to read and understand article! I hear a lot of things about helping launch my career but you’ve added some info I never heard before! Thanks!
Your very welcome Scott, glad you enjoyed it!
This is a great and informative article. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Glad it helped Tim.
Awesome blog! Do you have any hints for aspiring writers?
I’m planning to start my own site soon but I’m a little lost on everything.
Would you propose starting with a free platform like WordPress or go for a paid
option? There are so many options out there that I’m completely overwhelmed .. Any ideas? Bless you!
Yes, WordPress is fantastic, and i highly recommend it. However if you are not able to do that, as you would have to pay for hosting, and buy a domain, then the next best option would be blogger.
It’s free and all setup in just a few clicks. You can also export it to wordpress in the future if you so choose.
Here’s the quick summary:
1) Select and Register your domain from your favorite registrar like namecheap or godaddy, or create a new account at blogger.com and follow the instructions.
2) Signup with Hostgator (or preferred hosting provider) and change the DNS settings within Godaddy. (If you do not know what the hell that means, then just call your hosting provider or registrar, who’ll walk you through it. Very simple. You are just copying an pasting an address like http://www.websitewelcome.223 into a box at your registrar.)
3) Use Fantastico to automatically setup a new WordPress installation on your registered domain. (If you don’t know how to do that, call hostgator, and they will walk you through it.)
4) Make sure you have google analytics installed and working on your wordpress website. (If you don’t know how to do that, search google or youtube for step by step instruction )
Thank you, this was very useful!
Very welcome Style.
Cheers