When it comes to social media marketing, there are many platforms out there in an ever-growing landscape. It’s important to diversify advertising in your marketing mix, but also understanding each of the platforms can help you allocate to those that are best suited for your needs. Here we breakdown the major platforms for marketing your music and where to best implement your social media ads.

Social media can be exhausting and overwhelming to many people, especially musicians. When you are spending most of your time writing songs, working in the studio, and trying to stay sane with a social life, updating your Instagram profile can easily be put on the back burner. But here’s the reality: social media isn’t going away any time soon. In fact, the value of having an attractive social media presence will only continue to grow as a key piece in any entertainer’s career. 

Sure, getting into a consistent routine of gathering content and staying active on social media can seem extremely time consuming, but it doesn’t actually have to be as hard as it looks. The most important thing to remember as an artist is that your audience wants to learn more about you - not your manager or marketing team.

As an independent artist, it can sound like a dream to have a team of people working on your behalf. And when it’s the right fit - it can be. But getting the right artist managers, booking agents, publishers, publicists, and others in place can be a long process -- often one that has to be tweaked as you go. It's important to keep your expectations in check, to trust your team and empower them to do their jobs. At the same time - only you can set the right expectations for your team - you can't rely on your manager, label, or anyone else to do it for you. If you’ve got your team in place and you’re feeling like something’s just not quite right, it might be time to re-evaluate.

Storytelling is a vital part of building a brand, especially when it comes to bands and musicians. Sure, the product you’re selling - music, merch, tickets, etc. - are important, but you’re not going to build a loyal and dedicated fanbase with products alone. We crave stories - and neuroscience proves as much. People can remember stories up to 22 times more than facts alone. If you want to break through the noise and stick in someone’s mind, you need to have a great story to tell.

It’s time to stop paying for playlist pitching.

To clarify, if you’re an artist, it’s in your best interest to never pay for a company to pitch your music to third party Spotify Playlists again.

Simply put, there is no longer a viable path for success when hiring these services. It can only either damage your data or your pocket book.

Venture Music has a deep history when it comes to playlisting that has led us to this conclusion. A conclusion we’ve been whispering into as many ears as possible. Well, we’re tired of whispering.

With life as we know it coming to a screeching halt this year - livestream concerts have turned out to be one of only a few ways the music industry has maintained some semblance of normalcy in 2020. It’s exciting to see light at the end of the tunnel with COVID vaccines already in production. It has also been fun to see innovative new limited capacity live show concepts.

For now though - anyone that performs for a living needs to remember: it’s unrealistic to think 2021 will be a return to business as usual. The good news is that we’ve seen from experience this year - livestreams have the potential to create up to 5 different layers of value for artists. Like with anything else it just takes some experimentation, hard work, and patience to figure out the formula for success.

As the holiday season approaches, it might be difficult for a lot of people to find the right gifts to get the musician in their life. Luckily, the Venture staff help put together a list that’ll be sure to make the music-lover in your life happy, no matter the price.

There comes a time for every artist when they make the decision to transition from viewing music as a hobby to trying to make an actual career for themselves. As with all industries, the independent artist’s success is highly dependent on the team they surround themselves with. While the size, composition and complexity of each team varies from artist to artist, the fact remains that knowing when and how to effectively build your team is one of the most important steps in ensuring a successful career in music. 

A few months ago my life’s work was finally realized. One random weekday afternoon just driving down the highway. Out of nowhere I realized… holy shit, I’m successful. Just like that. A life-changing realization as boring and meaningless as it sounds.  After more than 10 years of hard work, focus, and uncertainty. There was no big check. No contract or deal. No eureka moment I’d always envisioned. Still, the same feeling of relief was there. 

As a creative, it makes sense that you’d want to focus all of your efforts on your art. Learning the business side of the industry may not seem as important as learning to hone your craft. But if you want a career, especially a robust one, then you need to understand the flip side of the coin. Talent is the foundation of an artist’s success, but marketing, networking and branding is what not only builds careers, but empires. Just take a look at Jay-Z. That’s why we recommend you treat yourself not only as a musician, but also as a business.

I want you to take a minute to give yourself some credit. If I had to guess, you probably don’t do that very often. Probably because you’re too busy focusing on what’s ahead. Stop for a second, though, and remember something very important. You are a rare breed.

When faced with the critical decision: “What am I going to do with my life?,” you made a choice very few make. You trusted your gut and followed your passion. Maybe against the advice of people you respect. You understood pursuing a career in the entertainment business was risky. But in the end, you believe more than anything that loving what you do is important.

No one pursues a career in following their dreams because it’s a safe bet. It takes a serious degree of confidence and fearlessness to take the plunge and do what you’ve already done. Do yourself a favor, don’t forget that.