A Living, Breathing Case Study of a DIY Artist: Part Two – 3 Things That Have Let Me Quit My Day Job

Hello again!

This is Part 2 of an ongoing, immediate experiment. Over the next 4 months, we’ll learn together as I (Secrets in Stereo) write, record, promote, and release my new album.

Last week in Part 1, we got to know each other. I introduced myself and let you in on my motivation and goals for this project. This week, I want to give you 3 things that have allowed me to quit my day job. Two of them, anyone can do. And you can start today. The third isn’t for everyone. But, it’s a game changer. Let’s dive in, shall we!

1. I SOLD MP3′S FOR THE PRICE OF AN EMAIL

That title is for all the artists that cringe at the idea of giving away music. But, whether you like it or not, MP3′s have a value of $0 in the consumer’s mind. And if there’s one thing I know, it’s that you can’t change the consumer’s mind once it’s made up. You have to adapt. Now, I’m not saying that your music has a value of $0. I’m saying that the low quality sounding, easily copied MP3 format of your music has a value of $0. Big difference. If you disagree, you might want to jump to #2.

At the level that you and I are at, our goal should be simple… Get our music in as many ears as possible. As an unknown, the most obvious way for me to do that was to give it away. I view an MP3 as my business card. And I view a potential fan’s email address as theirs. With that mindset, it makes sense to exchange business cards, with the notion of doing business together in the future. That’s the key… be confident that there will be future business. If you throw a hissy fit about giving away MP3′s, then you probably don’t have other products/experiences to sell.

There are a few great ways to facilitate this exchange of business cards. I’m a fan of Reverbnation’s Fan Collector Widget. Currently, I use this nifty little gizmo from Topspin…

This thing is supercharged. Unbelievably viral.  And I have all kinds of useful data that I can access on the backend. But, we’ll get into that further on down the road.

I’ve been giving away my music for a little over a year. I started with my 10-song debut album, and now my entire catalog to date. I’ve got close to 2,000 people on my email list, and I now average about 12 email adds a day. Without any type of active promotion on my part. These people are my “go to” people. Not only when I’ve got a new product to sell. But when I need help spreading the word about something, when I need input on a decision, or just to engage in conversation. They are indispensable. And if there’s one thing you do today… I recommend that you start passing out those business cards.

2. I IDENTIFIED AND ENGAGED LIKE-MINDED FAN-DOMS

This is easier said than done. Sorted Noise’s process of Artist Positioning gives you killer tools to the accomplishing this. And, again, we’ll get into that in more detail down the road. But before Artist Positioning even existed, I kinda fell into my first experience of a Fan-dom. It was eye opening to say the least.

Before I go on, let me define what I mean by a “Fan-dom.” This is really any group of people that are bound by a common interest. Not necessarily music. Read that last line again. But, back to my first Fan-dom experience…

It just so happened that the Fan-dom I fell into was the mother of all Fan-doms… Twilight. Very randomly (or maybe not), one of my songs was used in a fan made YouTube video about Twilight. All the video was, was a list of the songs on the soundtrack. You got it… a glorified track listing. Well, the song connected, and now that glorified track list has been viewed well over 1,700,000 times. Pretty crazy.

I could have been quite content with the exposure it garnered. But, what I did next to engage the Twilight Fan-dom was the most important tactic of this whole scenario.

I launched a campaign to write and record a song to pitch for New Moon (Twilight 2), with the help of the Twilight Fan-dom. I documented the whole writing and recording process on my blog, and asked for input all along the way. The project was covered by a ton of Twilight blogs (and there are 100′s of them), and really took my relationship with one of the largest Fan-dom’s in the world to another level.

What are your likes and loves outside of music? These could be good places to start finding Fan-doms you could relate to and engage with.

3. I LICENSED MY MUSIC TO TV, FILM, ADVERTISING, WEBISODES, DVD’s, TRAILERS, ANIMOTO, PHILANTHROPIES, … YOU GET THE PICTURE

Over the last 2 years, my 16 song catalog has generated over 50 placements in every kind of medium you can imagine. It’s the best exposure you can get… if you can get it. Sure, I’ve had songs in Grey’s Anatomy and The Hills. But, I’ve also had songs in independent internet shows like Palisades Pool Party.  I don’t discriminate.  I used a careful set of strategies and tactics to accomplish this. And there are absolutely rules you have to play by.

Like I said, this third one isn’t for everyone. It’s an animal in and of itself. (Get ready for the American Idol style cliffhanger) Which is why next Monday in Part 3, I’m going to talk exclusively on my strategies for getting your music into TV, Film, Advertising, and every other medium you can think of.

Until next week!

Josh