With the rise of unique platforms empowering creators,
upcoming musicians find themselves overwhelmed with abundance of reading resources to choose from. Nowadays the average musician needs to master many skills that are not directly related to music creation.
From understanding online promotion to doing your own digital distribution and royalty collection there’s a lot to learn in very limited time. To make mastering of such skills easier we decided to collect our favorite knowledge bases every musician / band / beatmaker / singer / producer must know.
The sites listed below are the ultimate combo - a powerful service / product and a must read blog that has loads provide impactful knowledge.
MySphera’s team visits these blogs regularly and had learned a lot about promotion, distribution, organic growth & production from each of them.
To keep things simple we’ll add a brief description on each site, a list of few essentials from their blog and sometimes even a fresh tip from the blog’s editor.
Let’s get to it. There’s a lot to go over :)
1. Flypaper (Soundfly): The blog of Soundfly, the go to directory for musicians to learn new skills easily. Be sure to check all their “Hustle” posts.
Jeremy Young, Editor-in-Chief of Flypaper picks this article.
MySphera Essentials:
2. Work hard playlist hard: A podcast, e-book, playlist pitching site and an amazing resource for musicians in general from the mind of music veteran Mike Warner.
Mike's tip: “With Spotify’s new submission option via Spotify for Artists, there is one awesome feature that isn’t widely mentioned. If you submit through Spotify for Artists at least 7 days prior to release date, your song will be added to Release Radar for ALL of your followers. If you have 2,000 followers, that is 2,000 release radar playlists your song will be added to. Make sure you submit your music early to take advantage of this”.
MySphera tip: Don’t miss on his e-book.
MySphera Essentials:
3. LANDR: The ultimate mastering tool for musicians offers unique tools for distribution and free samples packs to streamline the creative process.
MySphera Essentials:
4. For The Love Of Bands: A powerful knowledge source for all things music.
MySphera Essentials:
5. Thedrunkencoconut: The canadian company is home to the Husk a unique promotion tool, curator spotlights and growth hacks for musicians.
MySphera Essentials:
6. iMusician: Digital distribution solution to 100s of countries, help creators monetize YouTube views.
MySphera Essentials:
7. Diymusician (cdbaby): Veteran blog of the mighty CDbaby offers vast amounts of knowledge in everything a DIY minded musician should familiar himself with.
MySphera Essentials:
8. Tunecore: Much more than a distribution tool, Tunecore offers a complete solution for musicians; licensing, promotion, vinyl pressing, fan review and much more.
MySphera Essentials:
9. Awal: Kobalt music’s Awal is a unique all-around distribution solution. It gives each creator the tools to be his own label; promotion, distribution, synch & more.
MySphera Essentials:
10. Routenote: One click Distribution solution.
MySphera Essentials:
11. Dittomusic: Cutting edge distribution solution for artists & labels.
MySphera Essentials:
12. Hypebot: Online magazine for music, technology and business.
MySphera Essentials:
13. Sonicbids: The go-to platform for booking gigs; connecting promoters and musicians in the best way possible.
MySphera Essentials:
14. Audiohype.io: Audiohype provides guides and resources designed to help artists learn to promote their music in today’s fast moving industry
MySphera Essentials:
Spotify 2020 promotion guide - A thorough guide to help you step your Spotify game.
YouTube promotion guide - Learn how to leverage YouTube to reach new audiences.
15. postermywall: Using Thousands of templates, free downloads and easy tools postermywall enables businesses and creatives to create amazing Posters, Videos & Graphics.
MySphera Essentials:
Create audio invitations - How to leverage sound & visuals to make the most out of your invitations
Poster My Wall 101 - Learn how Influencers in the Entertainment Industry use PosterMyWall to promote their events.
16. Promo.ly - Promoly helps record labels deliver better promos to their mailing lists. Track recipient engagement, drive more features and get musicians noticed. Our recommendation is How To Promote Music 10 Different Ways - Ultimate Guide "From the outside, it might seem like the music industry is all about creating music: being inspired, writing songs, recording singles, making albums. And, of course, all of this creative stuff is a huge part of it. But music industry insiders, especially record labels, know the real truth: the music industry is all about promotion."
Here are other great articles we came across that we feel might be relevant to all you musicians out there.
17. Beginner Guitar HQ - Helping you become a better guitar player with simple, easy to follow guitar tutorials and reviews.
Here are a few articles we feel are a good start for all your guitar needs :)
That's it for the list, hopefully you will use these resources and continue to grow as a musician, just like the old saying; don't forget that knowledge is power.
Good Luck!