Creativity Excitement Emotion

Many activities can help you GROW your music career in 2024 and beyond. But you need to identify what those things are. Otherwise, you’re bound to get lost in a goulash of tactics, techniques, and trends that will waste your time and cause you to miss out on real OPPORTUNITIES. In this first episode of Creativity Excitement Emotion, David addresses three things that aren’t going to grow your music career in 2023, 2024, 2025, and beyond. Sponsors: Clean Slate: The most exciting and inspirational New Year live music and multi-media event you’ve ever been to. Get your tickets now, before they’re gone! Highlights: 00:17 – Avoid these distractions in 2023 01:20 – #1: Building sales funnels 02:45 – #2: Getting better at music production 04:43 – #3: Chasing social media trends Transcript: What's up, Elite Players? Today I'm going to cover something that I think really does need to be addressed, and I want to say upfront that while I do believe in casting stones at my competition here and there, I'm not necessarily outing anyone in this episode. I'm not trying to tear anyone down. That's not the intention. I just want to be clear that some things are going to help you get towards the goals that you're trying to create and have the life that you want to live through your creativity and music… And other things are going to prove pretty massive distractions. So, here are three things that are not going to grow your music career in 2023, 2024, 2025, and probably even 2026, and this is not to say don't do any of these things. But an inordinate focus on them, like focusing too much on them or only doing them probably is not going to elevate your music career. And I'll explain how and why that is the case. So, number one, building sales funnels. You can build sales funnels. I do think it's a good idea to build sales funnels. The only problem with it is, that they take a lot of time. They take a lot of work. They take a lot of effort. I've built probably six, seven, or eight of these suckers already. And what I've noticed is, you get better every time. The problem is people don't stick with it. So, the first funnel they build sucks, and the second funnel is not that much better. And the third one gets them a couple of sales but doesn't go beyond that. And so, it's not something that you're going to be good at overnight. I've dedicated myself to studying and learning digital marketing and social media and advertising and YouTube and all this stuff, email marketing, and much, much more. So, what chance do you have? And I'm not saying that to say you have no skill and you're no good at what you do, but even with help from AI, I'm highly skeptical that building a sales funnel is going to save your career. Even with help from AI, I'm highly skeptical that building a sales funnel is going to save your career.Share on X It can support your career. And I believe in using it as a tool and everything is a tool when it comes right down to it. But is it going to save your music career? I don't think so. So, if all of your time and energy are going towards building a sales funnel right now, consider that there probably are higher priorities to tackle. That could be one of your priorities. Absolutely. Probably shouldn't be your only priority. Number two, getting better at music production. This is a funny one. We see YouTube ads all the time and it’s, you know, “MIDI chord packs, and here's the latest guitar plugin, and here's the plugin that makes all the synthesizers sound like juice” or whatever it might be. And this stuff's good. Like I said, everything's a tool and it's in how you use it, but music production in and of itself, like just becoming better at that may not have quite the effect that you think it will on your music career. What I want you to do, just as a test, is ask your audience, right? You're making your music for them. Think about that. You're making your music for them. So, ask them, “Do you like listening to our music? Do you think our production could be better? Does it grate on your ears?” And if the answer is predominantly no, then there's a very good chance there's nothing wrong with your current level of music production. Now, I do recommend that just about every musician learn how to record themselves at a minimum and hopefully learn how to edit and mix themselves. That's a much longer-term prospect to be fair, but you are going to save a lot of time and a lot of money if you learn how to do that stuff for yourself. And I think there's tremendous value in that and all this other stuff could improve your efficiency, could improve your workflow. You are going to save a lot of time and a lot of money if you learn how to produce music yourself.Share on X But it may not necessarily propel your music career to the next level. It probably won't. Un

It’s been too long! How’ve you been? It’s about time for an update, isn’t it? Well, you’ll be glad to know, that in this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, David finally catches us up with the events of the last month as well as what has been happening with the podcast. Download the PDF Transcription Podcast Highlights: 00:17 – It’s time for a state of affairs update 00:36 – The end? 03:09 – The insanity that has been the last few weeks 12:49 – Having grace for yourself 14:54 – Finishing things 16:48 – Switching things up 18:09 – Things change 19:27 – What changes are coming with Music Entrepreneur HQ? 21:15 – Learning from your mistakes 24:18 – Identity and perception 25:24 – Moving forward Sponsors: Productivity, Performance & Profits Blackbook: The first of its kind – David’s new premium book covering productivity for artists, featuring content from Music Entrepreneur HQ, his personal blog, his many books, and even Start Your Year the Right Way, which is included in its entirety. Be fully unleashed in accomplishing your musical dreams and desires! Episode Summary: David begins this episode by acknowledging that he has been absent from podcasting since August and briefly shares his intention to wind down his involvement with the podcast as well as Music Entrepreneur HQ. His world was turned upside down Everything in David’s world was quite hunky-dory until about four weeks ago. On September 14, he began the long journey back to Calgary to play a gig with Adrenalize. Things were fine until the day of the gig on September 16, when David noticed eye floaters that weren’t there before (not to worry, though, the eye floaters have been improving). He suspects this may have been due to altitude sensitivity – Calgary is about 1,000 meters higher than Vancouver, although it could have also had something to do with bumping his head at the Airbnb he was staying at. Shortly after returning from Calgary, David was given a two-week notice by his landlord. He knew that he would eventually need to leave either way, but this news, he says, could have been delivered a little more tactfully. That weekend, he also suffered a migraine (he’s unsure whether it’s related). David’s plans to organize an event for January were also moving along quite smoothly until the preceding began unfolding. One of his team leaders temporarily went AWOL, the featured artists he wanted to book didn’t want any part of it, and a $5,000 cheque nearly got lost in the mail. David assures us, however, that things are starting to get back on track. Seeing the bigger picture Another reason there hasn’t been a lot of movement with the podcast is that David is starting to see the bigger picture of what projects are worth putting his time into, as well as the importance of managing his personal well-being. This, first and foremost, has meant prioritizing projects. David has found a lot of value in focusing on no more than one or two major to-do items per day. And he asks the question: If I can spend an hour working on my next book, or I can spend an hour working on the next podcast episode, why wouldn’t I prioritize the Big Domino, which in this case, would be the book? He references the Productivity, Performance & Profits Blackbook, his eighth book, which is well underway, though not ready to be delivered in full (you can still pre-order a physical copy of the book). Either way, Gary Keller’s The One Thing has been changing the way he looks at projects, and David has been noticing how easy it is to get drawn into the busyness of activity without finishing the things that are bound to make the greatest difference. Speaking of finishing things, that has also become one of David’s greater focuses. David recently took some time to identify the subscriptions he no longer needed and culled unnecessary expenses. This, he said, freed up a lot of psychic energy. If you want to take a deeper dive into this, also see one of David’s latest articles on productivity: How to Declutter Your Mind and Cultivate Super Focus As a result, he’s been reflecting on how loose ends tend to rob us of joy in the moment. Instead of starting new things, David is now vowing to refer to his “to be done” list so he can be present for everything he’s promised that has yet to be completed. Additionally, David has been experimenting with his weekly schedule, opting to rest on Fridays because his Monday through Thursday has been positively jacked up. He says there is tremendous value in experimenting with different schedules to find the sweet spot. Further, he suggests that it’s critical to adapt as things change in your life. If you aren’t already planning your weeks, however, you must start there. There is nothing to experiment with if you’re flying by the seat of your pants! Moving forward David says there has been incredible value in reflecting on both his failures and successes. Writing off Music Entrepreneur HQ as a “failed content business” has felt very freeing to him

Do you tend to accumulate a lot of information without ever acting on it? Content junkies do this all the time, sometimes without even realizing it. While studying without applying might be okay in grade school, in adult life, it simply doesn’t work. So, how do you get out of the rut of learning, thinking, and not acting? In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, David shares how you can overcome analysis paralysis. Download the PDF Transcription Podcast Highlights: 00:17 – Something you’ve been struggling with 00:28 – What is analysis paralysis? 01:18 – Why does analysis paralysis happen? 02:25 – Solutions to analysis paralysis 02:37 – Publishing under a pseudonym 04:02 – Setting deadlines for your tasks and projects 06:06 – Accountability 08:28 – Preparing for a difficult future Sponsors: Elite Players: All Access Pass: Our online academy for musicians featuring a forum, personalized coaching, Members Only Audios, three music biz courses, archived training, and more. Yes, it’s literally an “all-access pass,” and it’s the greatest value we offer. Productivity, Performance & Profits Blackbook: The first of its kind – David’s new premium book covering productivity for artists, featuring content from Music Entrepreneur HQ, his personal blog, his many books, and even Start Your Year the Right Way, which is included in its entirety. Be fully unleashed in accomplishing your dreams and desires! Transcription: I recently asked some of you, “What are you struggling with when it comes to getting things done?” And it sounds like what some of you are struggling with is analysis paralysis. So, let's talk about analysis paralysis. What is Analysis Paralysis? Nowadays, because there's so much information available on Google, books, and courses, on YouTube, and anywhere else you might potentially go. It becomes so easy to consume, and amass, and accumulate the information without actually doing anything with it. Now there are a few different variations on analysis paralysis, but that's usually the main one. “We've got a bunch of options. We don't know which to pick and we don't know what to do with them. And when we do finally choose them, we're not really sure how to execute them.” So, it becomes this cycle of analyzing and trying to figure out what to do, but because you're trying to get it right, you get stuck in paralysis. Why Does Analysis Paralysis Happen? Basically, for the reason I just mentioned, you're trying to get it right. In other words, you're trying to be perfect. You're trying to get it perfect, one way or another. So, getting stuck in perfectionism. This is a common trap for creatives. Analysis paralysis is really just some other form of the same thing. Perfectionism is a common trap for creatives.Share on X So, we need to look at how we can overcome that practically, so the future actually sees us producing and creating things rather than sitting on ideas or having thoughts of creating something that never ends up being created. We want to make sure that your output gets out into the world and seen and heard. Even if it's just a little bit. Hopefully, it gets seen by a lot of people. That is always the most desirable thing, but unfortunately, I don't think history is on the side of people… like not right now, maybe in the past… but I don't think history is on the side of the people who aren't prolific, who aren't constantly creating, constantly publishing, and shipping and putting new things out there. History is not on the side of those who aren't prolific producers.Share on X But you might be scared to do that. And that's where analysis paralysis comes in. So, let's talk about solutions. And I think all of these are worthwhile solutions. It's just that you may not immediately feel like trying some of them, which is why I wanted to present more than just one. Publishing Under a Pseudonym The first solution is publishing under a pseudonym. This is something Derek Sivers talked about quite a bit in the early days, which was if you're scared of trying to get something perfect and putting it out there and have it be perfect, then why not just invent a pseudonym like “Crunchy Frogs 84” or whatever you want to call it. And then set up a new channel and just publish fun goofy stuff to it without worrying about trying to get it right or worrying about trying to get it perfect. We all have things in our lives that really seem to come easy. So, you want to look over there, not the stuff that's hard. If you're struggling to move forward in your music career, then look at the stuff that's easy for you. Maybe you have a daily workout routine. Amazing. So that is something that's going well, and maybe you're not even thinking about it anymore because you've been at it for a while, and you've been getting results and you're feeling better and you're looking

What if there was an easier way for your fans, friends, and family to invest in your music? What if you could diversify your revenue streams to make your music career more sustainable and profitable? In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, David passes the mic with MariNation founder & CEO and friend, Justin Longo. Tune in to discover how MariNation is evolving to meet changing demands. Download the PDF Transcription Podcast Highlights: 00:17 – Returning guest, Justin Longo of MariNation 00:33 – MariNation’s new direction 02:01 – On diversifying revenue opportunities 04:17 – The Music Entrepreneur Triangle 06:34 – Music Entrepreneur HQ’s lens 08:01 – Why do people invest in music and who does it benefit? 09:34 – The constantly changing music industry climate 11:35 – What MariNation is aiming for 13:41 – What has Justin learned from pivoting his venture? 17:13 – Sunk cost fallacy and finding your path 19:39 – Paradoxes in success 21:19 – What tools and resources did Justin rely on while pivoting? 23:41 – Know thyself 35:40 – Elite Players: All Access Pass 37:26 – Closing thoughts Sponsors: Productivity, Performance & Profits Blackbook: The first of its kind – David’s new premium book covering productivity for artists, featuring content from Music Entrepreneur HQ, his personal blog, his many books, and even Start Your Year the Right Way, which is included in its entirety. Be fully unleashed in accomplishing your dreams and desires! Transcription: David: Today I'm chatting with a return guest, the founder of MariNation, Justin Longo. You can hear our previous conversation in episode 243 of the podcast. It's great to connect with you again. Justin. How are you? Justin: I'm excellent, David. Thanks for having me. David: Good to see you again. I know that MariNation has been evolving, and to use a bit of a buzzword, you've made a bit of a pivot recently, but your concept is still centered on music investing so that part hasn't changed. So, what has changed with your app and what do you see coming next? Justin: Yeah, so basically the first direction we were managing artists' money on their behalf, investing in index funds and the general stock market. So, obviously, we didn't pursue that. It was kind of more of an intuitive decision, but we've pivoted into this next direction where we allow fans and investors to invest in music, invest in artists as people, and benefit from their future earnings and future careers. So that's kind of the different direction that we took with it now. David: So, people can invest in pretty much anyone, right? Like Justin Bieber or Rihanna or whoever their favorite popular artist is. Justin: Eventually, that's the direction, right? We want to have the big A players. Obviously, they'd come on for different reasons. Other than like an indie artist or somebody just beginning, right? They would probably want to fund, projects, and studio time, and probably the A-list celebrities and big stars would want to do it more on a fan-to-fan, a fan-to-artist, like engagement, like connection. David: I would definitely think that with mainstream artists if they see that it's a viable opportunity, they would sign up for it. It's not like a super well-known fact, but you can start looking for all the revenue streams for producers, and people assume, “Okay, they're making music, right?” And that's true, but then oftentimes they'll have their own trademark plugin for a DAW, or they'll also have sample packs, or they also have beats. So, they're pretty well diversified. And it's really the same thing for musicians in the sense that people assume they just go out and perform and they make loads of money, right? Or they just release something on Spotify and it helps them make some royalties, which is true. But then you'd be surprised to find that Beyoncé plays the same bar mitzvahs and weddings and birthday parties that you play. And there are so many other opportunities, like music lessons. You could go to ArtistWorks and find that Paul Gilbert from Mr. Big and various other supergroups still teaches guitar. And I'm sure he gets paid a pretty penny, although it's hush-hush for the effort that he puts in. So, I could definitely see this. First, the attraction for the investor to be able to invest in their favorite artist, even if they are independent, but also mainstream. And I can also see potentially that if mainstream artists begin to see it as a viable opportunity, they will totally want to leverage it. Justin: That's a great point. And to your point where artists, they all have their own different niche, right? So, Beyoncé has her own style as opposed to Tom Petty, right? And they kind of based their secondary products upon their style and their given genre, right? So, Tom Petty may come out with a line of guitars whereas Beyoncé would come out with her new sneakers. W

So, you probably heard about it. But you may have asked yourself what it’s about and why you should care. At Music Entrepreneur HQ, we have the “getting it together,” “getting it done,” and “getting it out there” tracks, and this new work covers almost everything you could possibly want to know about “getting it done,” which can contribute greatly to knocking down the dominos of “getting it together” and “getting it out there.” In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, David shares candidly about the Productivity, Performance & Profits Blackbook. Download the PDF Transcription Podcast Highlights: 00:00 – Consider it a miracle… 01:11 – A 20-year-old that was struggling to organize his mail 02:04 – In the last 14 years… 02:43 – What’s the big deal about getting things done? 03:06 – Questions to ask yourself 04:00 – The magic of “the night before vacation” checklists 05:21 – Who is David to talk about productivity? 06:55 – What can you expect from the Productivity, Performance & Profits Blackbook 07:52 – Testimonials 10:10 – Closing thoughts Sponsors: Productivity, Performance & Profits Blackbook: The first of its kind – David’s new premium book covering productivity for artists, featuring content from Music Entrepreneur HQ, his personal blog, his many books, and even Start Your Year the Right Way, which is included in its entirety. Be fully unleashed in accomplishing your dreams and desires! Transcription: Record labels don't want you to hear what I have to say. Even other musician coaches don't want you to know who I am. That's because I can wake you up, help you take your power back, and help you crush your goals without taking advantage of the traditional music industry system. I am the most suppressed and discredited musician coach out there, even though I have nothing but happy clients and results to show for my work. Consider it a miracle that you are seeing this now or you're listening to this now because rest assured there are forces preventing you from being able to access this information, I don't know how long I'll be able to keep this video up, so don't click away. Now is the time to watch. The Story of the 20-Year-Old That Struggled with Organizing His Mail Let me share something with you. I knew a 20-year-old kid who was struggling to open his mail, pay his bills, file everything in a folder, and shut his drawer. He was absolutely convinced that there was no way that he could ever be as organized as the other people that he looked up to. And this reality made him unbelievably emotional. Now, if you had told him that he could open his mail, create action steps, pay his bills, file everything away into the appropriate folders, and shut his drawer in 10 to 15 minutes, he would not have believed you even for a second. Well, here's a little secret. That 20-year-old, it was me. In the last 14 years, I've consistently been the guy who people ask, “How the hell do you get it all done?” But you would've never expected that from me 10, 20 years ago. The Power of Going at Your Own Pace One of the things that changed my life was reading Steve Pavlina's article, Do It Now. When anyone asks me what the first step is in being more productive and accomplishing their goals in life is it's reading Do It Now by Steve Pavlina. That was in 2007, and I have been on a consistent personal development routine ever since. And you might ask yourself, well, what's the big deal about getting things done? And why in the world would I want to be more productive? Author Peter Drucker said: Until we can manage time, we can manage nothing else. So, managing your time is crucial to you creating the life you love through music, art, and creativity. Important Questions to Ask Yourself So, let me ask you a few questions: Do you have a long list of things to do at the end of the day, and does that stress you out? Does it seem like you never get around to the projects that matter, like making music? Do you feel like there are people around you who always seem to get more done than you do? And does that make you feel worse about yourself? Trust me when I say you're not alone and it's not your fault. But let me guess. You've tried a bunch of stuff from the past and it probably didn't work out for you, am I right? You've got to surrender your experiences and leave them in the past where they belong. We can't move forward in our lives when we're held down by a crushing weight of past traumas, failures, challenges, obstacles, and difficulties. And guaranteed, what I'm here to share with you is different. Using the “Night Before Vacation” Checklist Method to Boost Your Productivity Now, let me share a quick tip with you because you could have a breakthrough right here, right now in your personal productivity if this isn't something you're already doing consistently. One of the biggest breakthroughs in my pr

Are you a coach? Or maybe you’re an info-product creator. Even if you’re an artist, there is a pathway to growing your fan base and getting exposure to your music. And in this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, David interviews Evan Price of Artist Collective, who reveals his four-step process for scaling a creative business. Juicy! Download the PDF Transcription Podcast Highlights: 00:17 – Evan Price of Artist Collective 00:56 – 4 elements to scale a creative business 02:04 – #1: Building an irresistible offer around your existing expertise 04:53 – Sharing the logic of the product vs. the emotion of the product 08:17 – #2: Creating content that attracts your ideal audience (using emotion) 12:35 – Is content enough? 19:13 – #3: Developing a selling mindset 22:03 – Changing your relationship with money and removing your limiting beliefs 28:53 – #4: Scaling what works with marketing 36:31 – Do fewer things better 40:38 – What was the last YouTube video Evan watched? 42:21 – How is Evan’s daily routine structured? 44:34 – What is the greatest challenge Evan has overcome? 46:10 – What’s the greatest victory Evan has experienced? 47:30 – What books does Evan recommend? 48:46 – Evan’s closing thoughts Sponsors: The Music Entrepreneur Companion Guide: Get the official definitive companion guide to The Music Entrepreneur Code covering, in clarity and detail, secrets to making it in the new music business. Productivity, Performance & Profits Blackbook: The first of its kind – David’s new premium book covering productivity for artists, featuring content from Music Entrepreneur HQ, his personal blog, his many books, and even Start Your Year the Right Way, which is included in its entirety. Be fully unleashed in accomplishing your dreams and desires! Transcription: Coming soon. Leave a rating and review for the show on Apple Music. It’s how we get the podcast out there! There’s exclusive, premium audio content waiting for you inside Members Only Audios.

Does it seem like everyone else is getting the gigs? Are you insecure about that drummer who’s far better than you? Do you often compare yourself unfavorably to others on the road to building the life you love through music? In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, David shares how you can be like the select few who always seem to get the call, get the gig, and get the guy or girl too. Discover how to build a magnetic reputation as a musician. Download the PDF Transcription Podcast Highlights: 00:23 – The Music Entrepreneur Companion Guide 00:43 – How David built his reputation in Calgary 01:57 – How to position yourself in the music business 02:36 – In the long run you can diversify, but in the short term, focus 03:10 – Closing thoughts Sponsors: The Music Entrepreneur Companion Guide: Get the official definitive companion guide to The Music Entrepreneur Code covering, in clarity and detail, secrets to making it in the new music business. Productivity, Performance & Profits Blackbook: The first of its kind – David’s new premium book covering productivity for artists, featuring content from Music Entrepreneur HQ, his personal blog, his many books, and even Start Your Year the Right Way, which is included in its entirety. Be fully unleashed in accomplishing your dreams and desires! Transcription: What's up, Elite Players? It's David Andrew Wiebe here, and today we get to talk about how to build a magnetic reputation as a musician. This is an exciting topic. But first, don't forget, you can still get your free copy or so I'm told of my awesome book, The Music Entrepreneur Companion Guide at davidandrewwiebe.com/FreeBook. Getting Established as a Session Guitarist in Calgary I used to be based out of Calgary, Alberta. I no longer live there, but when I was living there, a lot of my activity as a musician, live performance, producing, making music, and jamming, all took place primarily around Calgary and Airdrie. It got to the point that in Airdrie I couldn't walk the streets without someone yelling out, “Hey Dave!” And the number one thing that I became known for was my lead guitar playing skills. Now, let's keep in mind, I can do a lot of other stuff. I can play rhythm guitar, I can play bass, I can play ukulele, I can play a little bit of mandolin. I can play a little bit of keyboards. I can produce music; I can compose music. I can mix and master and engineer and edit music. But if I had spent a lot of time promoting all those other skills, the product would've become diluted, and soon people would've been confused about what it is that I offer as a musician. So, I decided the best thing that I could do, instead of telling people about all the other things that I could provide them in terms of graphics and websites and writing and blogging, that I would primarily focus on, “Hey, I'm a guitarist and I can play lead on your songs, whether it's live, or in the studio.” Which is what I ended up doing. So, before I knew it, I was an in-demand session guitarist in Calgary and the area. Setting Up Your Magnetic Reputation If you're great at writing songs and that's something that you want to become known for and you could see yourself doing long-term, then it would be best to position yourself primarily as a songwriter. You're a creative person. You probably do a lot of other things well, but the main thing that you want people to know about you is that you write songs and that makes it easy for other people to refer you. If you're a mastering engineer, same thing. I know mastering engineers that do very well, and that's the main thing. They promote themselves as that. They can do a lot of other things well, of course, but they primarily share the fact that they are mastering engineers so that they can get more mastering gigs. Now, I get it. We're creative people and we like to do a lot of different things and we might have a lot of different skills but think long term. In the long run, you can diversify once you become known for one thing. And start sharing all the other things that you can offer, and you can do for people. But until then, it's best to stay focused on becoming known in your network and beyond for just one thing. And that will help you get established faster in the specific area in which you want to excel and provide services. Dig a mile deep and an inch wide, not a mile wide and an inch deep. Closing Segment So, if you enjoyed this insight from The Music Entrepreneur Companion Guide, don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe, and as we like to say around here, do all the things. I'll see you next time. Leave a rating and review for the show on Apple Music. It’s how we get the podcast out there! There’s exclusive, premium audio content waiting for you inside Members Only Audios.

How are you going to find the motivation you need to get up to do what you need to do to grow your music career every morning? What resources will you be taking advantage of to ensure that you are expanding, so your music career can expand with you? In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, David shares the power of investing in yourself and your growth to have breakthroughs in your music career endeavors. Download the PDF Transcription Podcast Highlights: 00:23 – Another insight from The Music Entrepreneur Companion Guide 00:42 – Investing in yourself to grow your music career 01:22 – Will you let yourself be stopped by the same things repeatedly? 01:59 – How much did you invest in yourself last year? 02:45 – When will you begin investing in yourself? 03:32 – What will you be creating out of this? Sponsors: The Music Entrepreneur Companion Guide: Get the official definitive companion guide to The Music Entrepreneur Code covering, in clarity and detail, secrets to making it in the new music business. Productivity, Performance & Profits Blackbook: The first of its kind – David’s new premium book covering productivity, featuring content from Music Entrepreneur HQ, his personal blog, his many books, and even Start Your Year the Right Way, which is included in its entirety. Be fully unleashed in accomplishing your dreams and desires! Transcription: I have easily invested over a hundred thousand dollars into my personal growth. What's up Elite Players? It's David Andrew Wiebe. I wanted to share another insight from The Music Entrepreneur Companion Guide with you. If you don't already have it, what are you doing? I think you can still get it for free, but not for long because when it's gone, it's gone. You’ve got to act fast. Find a link in the description for the Music Entrepreneur Companion Guide. Investing in Yourself to Grow Your Music Career All right, so today we get to talk about something really cool, which is investing in yourself to grow your music career. Do you know that right now, and I mean, right now I am going through a two-year intensive leadership program? Two flipping years! 12 to 15 hours of my life are sucked up by calls and meetings in clinics and training and development opportunities [every week]. Now, why the hell would anyone do that to themselves? Right? Are the Same Things Stopping You Repeatedly? Every year I invest in Kindles, courses, coaching, into mentorship. And honestly, I sometimes have a hard time understanding why people don't do that because they just want to let life happen. And let problems happen and let the same things stop them over and repeatedly in trying to grow the music career that they love. I don't know. I think some people are just cool with sitting with their problems for months or years on end. If I'm sitting with the same problem for longer than three to six months, I'm ready for something else. I need a new course. I need a new program. I need a new mentor. I need something to guide me and lead me out of the desert and into the promised land. How did you Invest in Yourself in the Last Year? So go check your expenses. Look at what you spent on last year. How much money did you invest in yourself? Did you buy books and Kindles? Did you invest in programs? Did you get coaching and mentorship? And did you get the breakthroughs you were looking for? I come out with new books every year, not necessarily because I must. More so because you probably need a new book. You've already read some of my material perhaps, and you only got so far, am I right? That's because you need a fresh perspective. You need a new way of looking at things. I'm constantly evolving, so I want to share that with you. I want to bring that into your world. I want to bring this enthusiasm and excitement and breakthrough and change into your world so that you can accomplish the results that you're looking for in your music career. The Time is Now So, when will you start investing in yourself? Are you going to wait till tomorrow or are you going to start today? Tomorrow never comes really. Everyone says they're going to start Monday, right? I'm going to quit smoking on Monday. I'm going to start working out on Monday. When will you start investing in yourself?Share on X It doesn't work that way. You must start today and work through the pain. I recently started working out again in February. I mean, before that, I was exercising and walking every day, but I wasn't working out, and I couldn't believe how painful that first workout was. It didn't really make me want to get up and do that again. But you know what? I kept at it, and I worked my way up from one day a week to two days a week, to three days a week, to four days a week. I'm away from home right now, so I'm on break from working out, but I was up to four days a week consistently, and now if I'm not working out f

There are some critical steps to take before you even begin. Because whatever foundation you build on is the foundation that will stay with you. And if it’s a shaky foundation, you may never be able to build the music career of your dreams and create the life you love through your music. In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, David shares about the crucial importance of building your music career on solid ground. Download the PDF Transcription Podcast Highlights: 00:16 – Building a solid foundation 00:53 – Your music career blueprint 01:30 – The secret to making your dreams a reality 02:47 – Do something and adjust course 03:47 – Start with the end in mind 04:23 – Closing thoughts Sponsors: The Music Entrepreneur Companion Guide: Get the official definitive companion guide to The Music Entrepreneur Code covering, in clarity and detail, secrets to making it in the new music business. Productivity, Performance & Profits Blackbook: The first of its kind – David’s new premium book covering productivity, featuring content from Music Entrepreneur HQ, his personal blog, his many books, and even Start Your Year the Right Way, which is included in its entirety. Be fully unleashed in accomplishing your dreams and desires! Transcription: Hey, it's David Andrew Wiebe, and today I wanted to talk about building a solid foundation. Whether it's a house, a commercial building, or an industrial building of some kind, if you don't build a solid foundation, you can experience a variety of problems with the building down the line. But when you start with a solid foundation, the rest of the building can be erected with relative ease. And so, it's the same thing in our music careers. If we have a solid foundation on which to build, we're going to experience and enjoy more success. What's key is that we have a solid idea of what it is that we're building towards. If we have a solid foundation on which to build, we're going to experience and enjoy more success in our music careers.Share on X Your Music Career Blueprint So, you need to create a music career blueprint. The blueprint doesn't necessarily have to be ultra-specific, but it should give you a pretty good idea of what it is you're aiming towards. Whether that's becoming a professional songwriter in country music, or becoming a touring musician, or a session player in rock bands. Specificity helps create clarity, and when you have clarity on what it is you're moving towards, you can line up your daily actions with where it is you're going. One of my favorite quotes by William Hutchinson Murray goes like this: "Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative and creation, there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favour all manner of unforeseen events, meetings and material assistance which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic. Begin it now." Now, I could offer an entire breakdown on that quote because there's so much in there that can be missed if you don't go a little bit deeper into the meaning of the words in the exact order in which they were placed, but the key point is that we've got to commit. Commit to a specific course and a specific set of actions that are going to lead to where it is that we want to go in our music careers. Commit to a specific course and a specific set of actions that are going to lead to where you want to go in your music career.Share on X Getting on Track & Adjusting Course Now it is better to begin and to do something than to not do anything at all. Marketing guru Dan S. Kennedy's, one of his "Wealth Magnet" principles is "Do Something." It's better to start doing something and then to adjust than to wait for the perfect strategy or the perfect plan, or the perfect idea. But the key point is, we've got to adjust course just like an airplane is supposedly off course 99% of the time. I don't know whether that's true, but it has to constantly course correct to get to where it wants to go. And it's the same thing in our music careers. We're going to do things, at times, that aren't necessarily in complete alignment with our brand, with our personalities, with our character, with where it is we want to go. And what there is to do is to keep adjusting and iterating based on the information that we gain along the way, the data, the understanding of ourselves and our band, our music, and our audience. Start with The End in Mind Another po

It seems insane that the words you use would make any difference in your music career, doesn’t it? And yet, words are how we communicate. Everything that’s available, is basically available in language. So, if we’re asking for something, how we ask makes a difference. If we’re communicating our value as performers, how we communicate our value makes a difference. In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, David shares how words impact perception and how perception shapes your music career. Download the PDF Transcription Podcast Highlights: 00:16 – You are what you say you are 00:39 – Limiting past-based language 01:46 – Completing past pains and hurts 02:45 – How do you describe yourself? 03:51 – Closing thoughts Sponsors: The Music Entrepreneur Companion Guide: Get the official definitive companion guide to The Music Entrepreneur Code covering, in clarity and detail, secrets to making it in the new music business. Productivity, Performance & Profits Blackbook: The first of its kind – David’s new premium book covering productivity, featuring content from Music Entrepreneur HQ, his personal blog, his many books, and even Start Your Year the Right Way, which is included in its entirety. Be fully unleashed in accomplishing your dreams and desires! Transcription: Hey, it's David Andrew Wiebe, and today I wanted to talk about something. I think this is a breakthrough that's available in language. The concept is you are what you say you are. Now, this could easily be misconstrued as some kind of woo-woo nonsense, but it's not. It really is the power of words, and there is something to the power of words. With remarkable frequency, we tend to talk about things through the lens of the past, so we start sentences with things like, "based on my experience," "what happened last time was," "it's never gone that way before," "I'm always this way," "they're always that way," "this is always how it turns out." And so, we automatically limit what we think is going to happen based on some other experience we've already had. We impose the past onto the future. We impose the past onto the future.Share on X This could come up in a situation where, "well, we already played at that venue and last time we only 15 people came out." Maybe if you did the same things in the same way, you'd end up with the same results. But if you've only played there once and you don't have much experience with it yet, how do you know there's only going to be 15 people coming out next time? You don’t. You're trying to base it on something that already happened, but what happened is in the past, it has nothing to do with the present, and it certainly doesn't have anything to do with the future. What happened is in the past, and it has nothing to do with the present.Share on X How Past-Based Thinking Is Limiting Your Opportunities The point here is that you could arbitrarily limit your own opportunities based on the way things went. Usually, that's an indicator of... not necessarily trauma, but a little bit of hurt, a little bit of pain about something that didn't go right. Whenever we encounter things like that, there is an opportunity to create completion with them. And oftentimes we're not complete with anything, right? But if there was pain or hurt, we can acknowledge that pain or hurt. We can have conversations with the people who we feel may have offended us. Of course, we still want to take ownership of it. We don't want to show up in front of them and be like, "Hey, you know, you really made me mad." No, that doesn't work. It's more like "When you said this, it made me feel this way," and that's taking ownership of your own feelings. But there is an opportunity to complete pains and hurts and move on and to create something new out of that. So that's how we can easily limit ourselves and our opportunities by basing everything on things that have already happened. You will limit your opportunities by basing everything on things that have already happened.Share on X You’re NOT an Aspiring or Amateur Musician But another thing that we commonly see, and I don't know where I stole this from, but I do remember seeing it out there. Many people call themselves amateurs or aspiring artists, aspiring photographers, or aspiring musicians. Stop calling yourself that. Begin calling yourself a professional today. You want to live into a possibility, not be talking about what you are today. So today you could say, "I'm a professional musician and I get paid for my work." You are what you say you are. Perception is pretty much everything. That doesn’t mean that we should lie. That doesn’t mean that we should take advantage of people. But some creative liberties should be taken in sharing your stories because they're going to be far

A simple thing can make a big difference. Most artists aren’t thinking about saving five minutes here or 10 minutes there but think about it. Over a year, if you could cut down your daily social media time from 10 to five minutes per day, you’d save yourself 1,825 minutes or a little over 30 hours per year. In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, David shares the importance of building structures around your music career to ensure you’re empowered in getting more done, whether writing songs, booking gigs, interacting with your fans on social media, or otherwise. Download the PDF Transcription Podcast Highlights: 00:16 – Structures? What are structures?! 00:37 – Firsts in your life and your music career 00:52 – How structures work and why they matter 02:29 – Closing thoughts Sponsors: The Music Entrepreneur Companion Guide: Get the official definitive companion guide to The Music Entrepreneur Code covering, in clarity and detail, secrets to making it in the new music business. Productivity, Performance & Profits Blackbook: The first of its kind – David’s new premium book covering productivity, featuring content from Music Entrepreneur HQ, his personal blog, his many books, and even Start Your Year the Right Way, which is included in its entirety. Be fully unleashed in accomplishing your dreams and desires! Transcription: You're listening to The New Music Industry with David Andrew Wiebe. Hey, it's David Andrew Wiebe, and today I wanted to talk about structures. Now as an artist, you're probably going "Structures? What's the point of that? Like, why would I need that in my music career? That doesn't sound like 'song.' That doesn't sound like 'guitar.' Those are none of the words I know. 'Bass,' 'lyrics,' never heard of 'structures.' Are you talking about building and building?" Well, no, not necessarily. But let's start here. You know, you're going to have a lot of firsts in life, right? Just like you're going to have a lot of firsts in your music career. A first in life might be like first kiss or first time eating a mango, or first time skydiving. A first in your music career might be your first gig, or first interview. You know what I mean? And so, structures might be one of those things that you've heard for the first time. There are other words we could use to describe a structure. It could be a [00:01:00] system, a framework, a checklist, or something like that. What it is, is it's something that allows you to be more productive. It allows you to get things done smoother, faster, and with better precision. I, for example, have templates for all my books so I can just drop my content in, do all the editing and put it out into the world. I'm not saying that all the writing's done. What I'm saying is, I've got the formatting done in terms of fonts and layouts and things like that. So there are a lot of things you could create templates for, whether it's like a lyric sheet template or a project template in your DAW. The idea is to stop yourself from reinventing the wheel. You don't want to start from scratch. You want to build on things that you already have. That you're going to have to come back to all the time. There are certain motions, there are certain things you're going to be doing in your music career all the time. You're going to be sending emails, you're going to be making calls, you're going to be setting up and tearing down your gear. You're going to have sound checks; you're going to have performances. So, what structures could you build around these, including your promotional activity, of course, to streamline, to optimize, to make sure certain things get done so that you can have a much better performance or a much better marketing campaign every single time? What are the things that you need to do every single time? You can always create structures around those things. So, this insight comes from my book, The Music Entrepreneur Companion Guide. If you'd like to get yourself a free copy, you can go to davidandrewwiebe.com/FreeBook. This has been episode 293 of The New Music Industry Podcast. I'm David Andrew Wiebe, and I look forward to seeing you on the stages of the world.

Have you ever wanted to explore the possibility of performing in alternative venues? One of the advantages of showing up where no one else is performing is that you can create a market that belongs to you. Plus, price elasticity also applies – you can charge more for the performance than you might be able to in the average music venue. In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, David explains how to book a coffeehouse show. The same approach can work in an array of alternative venues, because businesses do business with other businesses. Download the PDF Transcription Podcast Highlights: 00:16 – The story of how David booked a showcase at a Starbucks 00:49 – How to approach a store manager to get your show booked 01:37 – Success is not guaranteed 01:48 – Closing thoughts Sponsors: The Music Entrepreneur Companion Guide: Get the official definitive companion guide to The Music Entrepreneur Code covering, in clarity and detail, secrets to making it in the new music business. Productivity, Performance & Profits Blackbook: The first of its kind – David’s new premium book covering productivity, featuring content from Music Entrepreneur HQ, his personal blog, his many books, and even Start Your Year the Right Way, which is included in its entirety. Be fully unleashed in accomplishing your dreams and desires! Transcription: Hey, it's David Andrew Wiebe. I've told the story that follows in several different ways on different occasions, but the essence of it is this. I'd booked a showcase for three artists at a Starbucks. Afterward, there were other musicians in attendance. They came up to me and asked, "So how did you manage to book a Starbucks?" And then I shared with them the details of how I'd handed a business card to the manager of Starbucks and asked if they were open to having us come in with a few artists to perform. And they were more than agreeable to have us in. Now, I think here's the big takeaway here. The fact that I presented a business card made a difference. It wasn't just, "Hi, I'm David Andrew Wiebe, I'm an artist, I'm a rock musician, and I want to book a gig at your venue." That's not how the conversation went. When she saw the business card, she could plainly and clearly see that it was from a business, not just a local independent musician. But the thing is, you don't have to have a business to do this. Just about anybody could take the same idea and book in alternative venues. All you really need is a collective. So, you could say, "Hey, I'm from so-and-so artist collective or music collective" or whatever you want to call it, some kind of community, and that could immediately help you create the opportunity of booking in venues that you might not otherwise be able to. Now, I'm not saying this will work out every single time, but it could certainly broaden the number of opportunities you can get locally, as well as the exposure you can get for your music. Well, the insight you just heard is also available in my book, The Music Entrepreneur Companion Guide. For a limited time, you can get it for free at davidandrewwiebe.com/FreeBook. This has been episode 292 of The New Music Industry Podcast. I'm David Andrew Wiebe, and I look forward to seeing you on the stages of the world.

There are many things that can stop you on your path to creating the life you love through music. But most things that will stop you fall under one major category – mindset. Mindset isn’t just how you think. It’s how you show up and how you deal with challenges, events, and circumstances as they arise. In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, David shares the importance of taking full responsibility and how it will transform your music career from the roll of the dice to counting cards. Download the PDF Transcription Podcast Highlights: 00:17 – Something that comes up time and again in The Music Entrepreneur Companion Guide 00:51 – The magic to taking full responsibility for your music career 01:53 – Think in terms of actions you took what you could have done better 02:05 – Closing thoughts Sponsors: The Music Entrepreneur Companion Guide: Get the official definitive companion guide to The Music Entrepreneur Code covering, in clarity and detail, secrets to making it in the new music business. Productivity, Performance & Profits Blackbook: The first of its kind – David’s new premium book covering productivity, featuring content from Music Entrepreneur HQ, his personal blog, his many books, and even Start Your Year the Right Way, which is included in its entirety. Be fully unleashed in accomplishing your dreams and desires! The New Music Industry Podcast Unisex Fleece Zip Up Hoodie: Another exciting addition to our merch line. The official zip up hoodie is warm, comfy, stylish, unisex, and it’s even available in multiple sizes and colors! Click the “Buy this” button to add yours to your wardrobe now! The New Music Industry Podcast Unisex T-Shirt: It’s finally here – the official podcast T-shirt! It’s comfy, it’s stylish, it’s unisex, and it’s available in multiple sizes and colors. Click on the link, choose your size and color, and click on the “Buy this” button to get yours now! Transcription: Hey, it's David Andrew Wiebe. You know, something that comes up time and again in the early chapters of The Music Entrepreneur Companion Guide is this whole idea of taking full responsibility for yourself and your music career, and that should tell you how important it is. I'm not being repetitive to be repetitive. We all know the importance of repetition as musicians, right? If you want to get really good at something, whether it's playing the guitar or singing or writing songs, repetition helps reinforce the skills that we need to learn to become better at our craft. So, even though there's really nothing woo-woo about this, there is a certain magic to taking full responsibility. Your life transforms the moment that you take responsibility for everything that's ever happened in your life, and you stop blaming other people, other events, and other things for the way things turned out. It's about taking full ownership. You might remember that from an earlier episode. Again, this is not a harsh truth, but I don't know how artists hope or expect to be able to get anywhere in their careers without first taking full responsibility for who they are, what they've done, what they haven't done, outcomes produced, results produced, or otherwise. Oftentimes we think it's up to something else, someone else, some other factor. It rained that day. I wasn't feeling good. I was tired, and it's none of those things. So, instead of doing lengthy post-mortems, thinking about what went wrong in that gig and why it was so-and-so's fault, why the weather could have been better that day, and why was the hockey game on? Let's start thinking in terms of "What did we do to prepare for this show? How did we promote it? What were the specific things we could have done better?" That's a much more productive use of your time. Closing Segment So, if you enjoyed this episode, what you just heard was an insight from The Music Entrepreneur Companion Guide. You can get the book for free at davidandrewwiebe.com/FreeBook. This has been episode 291 of The New Music Industry Podcast. I'm David Andrew Wiebe, and I look forward to seeing you on the stages of the world.

Everyone’s talking about making sales funnels. Yes, they are great, and yes, they are built on a solid foundation of traditional marketing philosophy. But there are some serious challenges to getting your first sales funnel up and running never mind selling your music and merch for you. In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, David shares how you can test your sales funnel idea without wasting an insane amount of money and time. Download the PDF Transcription Podcast Highlights: 01:02 – Setting up your own “ghetto sales funnel” 02:46 – The four items you need to set up your sales funnel 04:02 – Step by step process for building your ghetto sales funnel 05:47 – Driving traffic to your sales funnel 07:48 – Episode summary 08:15 – Closing thoughts Sponsors: Digital Marketing Essentials for Musicians: When it comes to getting your music out there online, it’s easy to get caught up in a lot of stuff that doesn’t matter and will never work. If you want just the essentials that have been proven to work, you need the Digital Marketing Essentials for Musicians course. The Music Entrepreneur Companion Guide: Get the official, definitive companion guide to The Music Entrepreneur Code covering, in clarity and detail, secrets to making it in the new music business. Productivity, Performance & Profits Blackbook: The first of its kind – David’s new premium book covering productivity, featuring content from Music Entrepreneur HQ, his personal blog, his many books, and even Start Your Year the Right Way, which is included in its entirety. Be fully unleashed in accomplishing your dreams and desires! Transcription: Hey, it's David Andrew Wiebe. As you know, I love to connect you with other great music industry resources and today I wanted to share The Unstarving Musician with you. The Unstarving Musician, hosted by Robonzo, was created as a way to help other independent musicians better understand the marketing, business, and creative processes that empower us to make music and make a living doing it. Episodes feature insights from Robonzo and a wide array of guests. Topics covered on The Unstarving Musician includes songwriting, recording, release strategy, building an audience, music licensing, and more. hear it at UnstarvingMusician.com or wherever you get your audio. And if you'd like to dig in the archives a little bit, you can hear Robonzo on episode 164 and episode 259 of the New Music Industry podcast. Alright, so in today's episode, I wanted to talk about setting up your very own ghetto sales funnel. I'm interrupting a series of podcasts on my latest book, The Music Entrepreneur Companion Guide to bring this to you. But rest assured I will be sharing more insights from the book in future episodes. Ghetto Sales Funnel? What the hell is a ghetto sales funnel? And why would you want to build one? And why does it even matter? Look, a lot of people are going to sell you on purchasing expensive software to build your first sales funnel, and that's not wrong. But the problem with it is that you're not going to be very good at building sales funnels the first time you do it. And this is something you get better at with more experience. I've done many launches before, not all of them sales funnels, but there were definitely a few of them. And I can tell you from experience, every time you do it, you get better. And so, so many people that are trying to build sales funnels from scratch, they don't have the experience, or knowledge, or knowhow to create anything great on the first go round. If you have an idea, you might as well test it. Minimum viable style, right? And then the other problem is that many experts are teaching you how to sell like a $5 tripwire, and then a $15 upsell, and a $30 one-time offer. This is wrong. You're either not going to be able to make enough to spend on advertising, or you're not going to make any money at all. There's the danger of losing money if you do things that way. So, you can test your sales funnel idea relatively inexpensively, and the reality is you're going to need to do all the same things to promote it anyway. So, the only thing that changes when you go from a normal sales funnel to a ghetto sales funnel is the step-by-step setup. For this episode, some knowledge of sales funnels is recommended, and if you have no idea what I'm talking about, well by the end of this episode, you should be good and murky. The 4 Items You Need for a Ghetto Sales Funnel So, why don't we look at what we need to get started. There are really just four items. First, you need a way to capture email addresses and send email campaigns. I recommend ConvertKit. You can find it at davidandrewwiebe.com/ConvertKit. I am an affiliate of ConvertKit and may earn a small commission on qualifying purchases. Two. We need a way to sell the product. So, it could be Bandcamp, it could be Gumroad, or even Sellfy. Free to low-cost solutions

Everywhere you look, there are incredibly talented YouTubers. Is everyone a virtuoso? It’s sure starting to look that way. Not to mention – they look and sound great. How is one even supposed to compete? Well, here’s the funny thing. There are a couple of things most artists – and not just artists but even digital marketers and SEO agencies – aren’t very good at. Care to find out what those things are, so you have a chance even in an increasingly noisy world? In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, David shares how you can stand out from the crowd. Download the PDF Transcription Podcast Highlights: 01:00 – Is the bar higher than ever? 01:49 – Two things most artists aren’t that great at 03:27 – The secret to pitching 04:18 – Closing thoughts Sponsors: The Music Entrepreneur Companion Guide: Get the official, definitive companion guide to The Music Entrepreneur Code covering, in clarity and detail, secrets to making it in the new music business. Productivity, Performance & Profits Blackbook: The first of its kind – David’s new premium book covering productivity, featuring content from Music Entrepreneur HQ, his personal blog, his many books, and even Start Your Year the Right Way, which is included in its entirety. Be fully unleashed in accomplishing your dreams and desires! The New Music Industry Podcast Unisex Fleece Zip Up Hoodie: Another exciting addition to our merch line. The official zip up hoodie is warm, comfy, stylish, unisex, and it’s even available in multiple sizes and colors! Click the “Buy this” button to add yours to your wardrobe now! The New Music Industry Podcast Unisex T-Shirt: It’s finally here – the official podcast T-shirt! It’s comfy, it’s stylish, it’s unisex, and it’s available in multiple sizes and colors. Click on the link, choose your size and color, and click on the “Buy this” button to get yours now! Transcription: Hey, it's David Andrew Wiebe. Today I wanted to let you know about another really great podcast called The Unstarving Musician. This show is hosted by Robonzo, and it was created as a way to help other independent musicians better understand the marketing, business, and creative processes that empower us to make music and make a living doing it. Episodes feature insights from Robonzo and a wide array of guests. Topics covered on The Unstarving Musician includes songwriting, recording, release strategy, building an audience, musical licensing, and more. Hear it at Unstarving Musician .com or wherever you get your audio. I also did a couple of interviews with The Unstarving Musician, and you'll be able to hear me over there as well. With that, let's get into today's episode. And today I wanted to talk about separating yourself from the pack. A lot of people tend to think this is harder than it's ever been. Like how do you stand out? How do you cut through the noise? How can you be so unique, so different, so compelling, so noteworthy, so interesting that people are just naturally and automatically and magnetically drawn to you. And the reality is, sure the bar is pretty high in terms of production. Even independent records nowadays tend to sound pretty amazing with all the technology and knowledge that's out there. I've found some incredible guides on mixing online that have made a huge difference to my own mixes. And sure, the bar might be high in terms of artistry and musicianship and craftsmanship. You can find some incredible players out there, whether it's Tosin Abasi, or Steve Vai, or Joe Bonamassa. But you know where the bar isn't very high, is in pitching. A lot of musicians are unskilled when it comes to pitching. Now I get it. There's actually a lot of discomfort around the subject matter. Any time I post something about networking or growing your network or finding more people or creating connections, I often see responses from other people, artists, my social media followers, or otherwise saying, "well, I'm an introvert." And you know, being an introvert doesn't exclude you from getting to know people. They say even people who live in a cave will probably impact 10,000 people in their lifetime. So being an introvert has nothing to do with it. That is as much a label as anything else, so we don't want to use that as an excuse for not connecting. But I think people misinterpret it too, as in, "okay, I need to go to these networking events and hand out business cards and run off." It's like, no, don't do the hit and run. A lot of people do that and they're terribly ineffective at networking. They're really just trying to work through their own discomfort. If you watch them closely, that's what's actually going on there. What I'm saying is smile, extend your hand, make some friends, go to the open mic, and get to know the host and get to know the people performing that night. Anybody can do this. Now I know it might make you a l

There is no power in viewing everything in your music career as happenstance and circumstance. The power is in taking responsibility for your actions and even the outcomes you produce. In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, David shares how you can reap the rewards of an ownership mindset and achieve elevated results in your music career. Download the PDF Transcription Podcast Highlights: 00:17 – Ownership mindset: Why it’s so powerful! 01:12 – Why being on the hook leads to greater rewards 01:39 – How having an entrepreneurial mindset lightens your load 03:09 – Elevating yourself means elevating your music career 03:31 – Closing thoughts Sponsors: The Music Entrepreneur Companion Guide: Get the official, definitive companion guide to The Music Entrepreneur Code covering, in clarity and detail, secrets to making it in the new music business. Productivity, Performance & Profits Blackbook: The first of its kind – David’s new premium book covering productivity, featuring content from Music Entrepreneur HQ, his personal blog, his many books, and even Start Your Year the Right Way, which is included in its entirety. Be fully unleashed in accomplishing your dreams and desires! The New Music Industry Podcast Unisex Fleece Zip Up Hoodie: Another exciting addition to our merch line. The official zip up hoodie is warm, comfy, stylish, unisex, and it’s even available in multiple sizes and colors! Click the “Buy this” button to add yours to your wardrobe now! The New Music Industry Podcast Unisex T-Shirt: It’s finally here – the official podcast T-shirt! It’s comfy, it’s stylish, it’s unisex, and it’s available in multiple sizes and colors. Click on the link, choose your size and color, and click on the “Buy this” button to get yours now! Transcription: Hey, it's David Andrew Wiebe. Today I wanted to talk about something that is very foundational to having a successful artistic career. It's not necessarily easy. It can be challenging at times. But what I want to talk about is the power of taking an ownership mindset. In other words, taking ownership of your goals, your objectives, your intentions, and even the results and outcomes you produce in your music career. So often what people do is they don't take ownership of any of it, so they end up blaming the venue. They end up blaming circumstances, the weather. The hockey game, pretty much anything they can think of. "Well, you know, no one turned out to our show because tonight there was a hockey game, and everybody was going to see that." Well, who is responsible for booking the show? It was you, wasn't it? Or it was at least someone in your band. I can't imagine it was your manager or your agent. So, why aren't you taking ownership for that? I think oftentimes people don't want to be on the hook for anything, which is why they don't commit. But when you are on the hook for something, you have the chance to be paid immeasurably more for the work you do. Another way of thinking about this is entrepreneurial mindset versus employee mindset. Why do entrepreneurs get paid more for what they do? Because they take on the bulk of the risk. So, are you willing to take on the bulk of the risk for the chance at a better income in your music career? Now, what's the difference between an entrepreneurial mindset and employee mindset? Here's a statement that really brings it into view. Employee mindset is working for other people and money. And an entrepreneurial mindset is having money and other people work for you. Now, you're a creative, you're an artist, obviously. You're going to be the one working on your music, probably doing some song writing or composing or arranging, recording in the studio, performing live. You're going to have different responsibilities as an artist, so that part, you'll want to take ownership over yourself. It's not necessarily about having other bands work for you, right? Unless you're planning to start a label, which might be a cool entrepreneurial endeavor. Don't get me wrong, I've thought about doing that too, and I might still start a label here someday. But practically speaking, the way that we can have money and other people work for us is by hiring virtual assistants, and freelancers, graphic designers, photographers. When you digitally distribute your music, that in effect is an entrepreneurial mindset because it's not something you're doing yourself. You're paying other people to do that work for you. And there are many opportunities. You don't necessarily have to dish out huge amounts of money to get work done on your behalf. I remember stuffing envelopes with my band mates and my sister. Nobody got paid for it. I think we might have shared a pizza later that night, but everybody was there for the common reason of "let's get this band out there and see if we can get it booked." So, we wer

How do you build an authentic connection with your fans? Can you be true to yourself and your art and still build a viable fan base? What does it take to build your music career in 2023 and beyond? In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, you’ll be hearing from partner at Collective Entertainment and founder of #iVoted Festival, Emily White. Download the PDF Transcription Podcast Highlights: 00:17 – Preamble 00:58 – Today’s guest, Emily White 01:10 – An artist’s email list is their retirement plan 05:23 – Who is Zoë Keating? 09:22 – Getting a booking agent is harder than getting a record contract? 12:56 – Why our opinion on your music doesn’t matter 15:24 – You’re the CEO of your own music career 18:56 – Why should artists learn to record and produce themselves? 20:46 – Spend one hour per day on your communication 24:22 – What is the last YouTube video Emily watched? 24:36 – What is Emily’s daily routine like? 27:19 – What is the greatest challenge Emily has overcome? 31:38 – What is the greatest victory Emily has experienced? 33:03 – What books have helped Emily on her journey? 34:33 – How to connect with Emily 35:10 – Closing thoughts Sponsors: Productivity, Performance & Profits Blackbook: The first of its kind – David’s new premium book covering productivity, featuring content from Music Entrepreneur HQ, his personal blog, his many books, and even Start Your Year the Right Way, which is included in its entirety. Be fully unleashed in accomplishing your dreams and desires! The New Music Industry Podcast Unisex Fleece Zip Up Hoodie: Another exciting addition to our merch line. The official zip up hoodie is warm, comfy, stylish, unisex, and it’s even available in multiple sizes and colors! Click the “Buy this” button to add yours to your wardrobe now! The New Music Industry Podcast Unisex T-Shirt: It’s finally here – the official podcast T-shirt! It’s comfy, it’s stylish, it’s unisex, and it’s available in multiple sizes and colors. Click on the link, choose your size and color, and click on the “Buy this” button to get yours now! Transcription: Preamble David: Hey, it's David Andrew Wiebe in the lab. Well, it happened again. I tried filming and recording an interview with Zoom. And my audio kept cutting out throughout, so what you're about to hear, it's all fixed up and repaired. It sounds great. I had to spend a lot of time doing this in the studio. Not that you care too much about the gory details, but sometimes we do go to extraordinary lengths to make this happen for you. This does unfortunately mean you're not going to get to enjoy the video portion of the interview, though. It would've been entirely way too much work for me to try to line up my lip movements with the newly recorded tracks. But that's all. Otherwise, the interview is, every bit as value adding as when I originally recorded it, so I hope you enjoy. Emily White Today I'm joined by partner at Collective Entertainment, founder of #IVoted Festival and number one Amazon bestselling author, Emily White. How are you today, Emily? Emily: I'm okay, David. Thanks so much for having me. David: Yeah, thanks for joining me today. We're going to jump right in, and the quote that I know you for and have probably even referenced or stolen at times is "an artist's email list is their retirement plan." This is something that makes an appearance in your book as well, and it's a full mic drop moment. But I would love for you to elaborate on why email lists are so important. Emily: Yes, definitely. You know, tech companies are the most valuable companies in the world because they have all of our data and you know. I'm not saying don't be on social media or Spotify or anything like that, but I had the privilege of interviewing Seth Godin, last year, who of course invented permission marketing and he said it better than I do. You know, on those platforms, you are the product. And why are these multi-billion-dollar platforms? Because they have all our data, right? They have your fan's email addresses, often their mobile phone numbers more often than not their locations. So it's not always the most like sexy, exciting thing, but artists and industry people really need to think of themselves as tech companies. You know, I started working with The Dresden Dolls, almost 20 years ago, which was pretty wild. And when they were, you know, a local band, but a local band on the rise in Boston, they weren't getting booked at traditional venues because it was a very rock scene at that time. And so they were playing art galleries and lofts and all sort of, all sorts of alternative spaces. So, the singer of the band, Amanda Palmer, started an email list. Really, I think just BCCing fans. I don't even know if like, email list software really existed then. She was starting to build a small team at the time. But she said to me one day like, well, what happens if you

Scammers are everywhere. People are desperate. In tough times, people will go to extraordinary lengths to cover their bills and meet their needs. In his coaching efforts, however, David often helps his clients create “possibility lists,” a long list of items (usually 50 to 100) possible sources of money an artist or entrepreneur can leverage to get themselves out of tough times. David usually finds his clients are back on track by the time they’ve actioned five to seven items. In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, David shares how to navigate the desperate post-pandemic world. Download the PDF Transcription Podcast Highlights: 00:18 – Scamming is at an all time high 01:23 – A post-pandemic economic downturn 01:47 – The feeling of desperation 02:22 – Catfishing attempts 03:25 – Negative influence of the movies 03:42 – Opportunity and problem solving 04:15 – Creator economy 04:33 – Freelancing 05:05 – Advertising 05:22 – Affiliate marketing 05:44 – Collaboration 06:11 – Sponsorships 06:26 – Other opportunities 07:29 – Final thoughts Sponsors: Productivity, Performance & Profits Blackbook: The first of its kind – David’s new premium book covering productivity, featuring content from Music Entrepreneur HQ, his personal blog, his many books, and even Start Your Year the Right Way, which is included in its entirety. Be fully unleashed in accomplishing your dreams and desires! The New Music Industry Podcast Unisex Fleece Zip Up Hoodie: Another exciting addition to our merch line. The official zip up hoodie is warm, comfy, stylish, unisex, and it’s even available in multiple sizes and colors! Click the “Buy this” button to add yours to your wardrobe now! The New Music Industry Podcast Unisex T-Shirt: It’s finally here – the official podcast T-shirt! It’s comfy, it’s stylish, it’s unisex, and it’s available in multiple sizes and colors. Click on the link, choose your size, and color, and click on the “Buy this” button to get yours now! Transcription: Scamming is at an all time high. I pulled some stats from LegalJobs for your perusal. In the U.S., one in 10 adults will fall victim to scam or fraud every year. In 2018 alone, internet enabled theft, fraud, and exploitation were responsible for a massive $2.7 billion in financial losses. In 2019, phishing attempts grew by 65%. One in 10 profiles on free dating sites is a scam. Anecdotally, I see attempts at scamming on a near daily basis, be it on Twitter, WhatsApp, BEGO LIVE, Line, YouTube comments, or otherwise. I posted a video on a Coinbase Wallet scam in 2022. I ended up losing about $500 and every day there are multiple scammers trying to get people to sign up for their so-called services to recover their crypto, which is the furthest thing from their mind. They're just trying to take more money from the people who've already potentially lost thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of dollars. Adding insult to injury, a post pandemic economic downturn was a foregone conclusion in my mind. It surprises me when people are so taken aback that things are taking a turn for the worst. I mean, we have clowns running this country and it doesn't look all that different for our friends down south, so I'm not sure what people expected. But this is not a political show, and you don't need to agree to my opinions. Desperation I understand well the feeling of desperation. I've gone broke and in debt at least three times. A credit card company even started taking legal action against me last year. I suspect there's a decline in morality and increase in narcissism and sociopathy because I don't know about you, but my conscious would be seared and rattled with guilt if I tried to extract money from people using anything less than ethical and legal means. I'm all about working for big bags of money, don't get me wrong, but I put more than an honest day's work in on any given day, and I've earned my way to becoming an award-winning composer and best-selling author. Catfishing Recently on Twitter, there was someone trying to catfish me, and it's certainly not the first time someone has tried this on me, so I recognized all the signs. It's not like they were hard to identify either. They were posing as one person while sending me a picture of someone else entirely. It was some Instagram model that I possibly would not know about. Sidebar, for those who don't know, you can upload a photo to Google to check if it's associated with any social networks, and this is an easy way to identify possible scammers. Well, when I pointed this out to the person who was trying to catfish me, they admitted to me that they were scamming me, and I'd never had that happen before where someone actually admitted their crime. While they were apologetic, I'm not sure they were remorseful, because when I suggested that they go write for Medium, or do something, anything to earn a bit of extr

If you simply do what successful people do, you will also find success. This is what marketing guru Dan Kennedy defines as “behavioral consistency.” Founder of Mezz Entertainment Roanne Mesirow argues, however, that we should always remain open to opportunity, and there are no formulas to creating success in the music business. In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, you will discover the value of following your own path. Download the PDF Transcription Podcast Highlights: 00:29 – Roanne and fashion PR 02:04 – Why did Roanne make the transition to music? 03:04 – What does it take to be a manager? 04:40 – How did Roanne apply what she learned in fashion PR to apply it to the music business? 05:33 – How has PR changed? 07:03 – What is Roanne’s approach to getting artists exposure? 08:58 – What steps can we take to create the lives we love through our passions? 11:25 – Where can people find sounding boards and mentors? 13:27 – Does “behavioral consistency” lead to success? 17:00 – What was the last YouTube video Roanne watched? 17:29 – What is Roanne’s daily routine like? 18:56 – What is the greatest challenge Roanne has overcome? 20:26 – What is the greatest victory Roannae has celebrated? 21:30 – Mezz Entertainment’s internship program 23:02 – Roanne’s recommended books (and speeches) 26:41 – Final thoughts Sponsors: Productivity, Performance & Profits Blackbook: The first of its kind – David’s new premium book covering productivity, featuring content from Music Entrepreneur HQ, his personal blog, his many books, and even Start Your Year the Right Way, which is included in its entirety. Be fully unleashed in accomplishing your dreams and desires! The New Music Industry Podcast Unisex Fleece Zip Up Hoodie: Another exciting addition to our merch line. The official zip up hoodie is warm, comfy, stylish, unisex, and it’s even available in multiple sizes and colors! Click the “Buy this” button to add yours to your wardrobe now! The New Music Industry Podcast Unisex T-Shirt: It’s finally here – the official podcast T-shirt! It’s comfy, it’s stylish, it’s unisex, and it’s available in multiple sizes and colors. Click on the link, choose your size, and color, and click on the “Buy this” button to get yours now!

Change is often uncomfortable. Not only that, but it’s often hard, too. Things generally want to remain unchanged, and a great deal of energy and force can be exerted in changing habits, routines, actions, and anything else that might make a difference in your music career. But when we force change, it tends not to stick. So, what do you do if you’re stuck in a rut? How do you get out of it? In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, David shares several ways music career inertia can be overcome. Download the PDF Transcription Podcast Highlights: 00:18 – Capturing ideas as they come to you 01:06 – Inertia and coasting 02:08 – Facing up to discomfort and inertia 03:34 – Making tough decisions 03:57 – Having difficult conversations 05:08 – Taking big, uncomfortable actions 05:49 – Identifying and changing unproductive habits 07:22 – Episode summary Sponsors: The New Music Industry Podcast Unisex Fleece Zip Up Hoodie: Another exciting addition to our merch line. The official zip up hoodie is warm, comfy, stylish, unisex, and it’s even available in multiple sizes and colors! Click the “Buy this” button to add yours to your wardrobe now! The New Music Industry Podcast Unisex T-Shirt: It’s finally here – the official podcast T-shirt! It’s comfy, it’s stylish, it’s unisex, and it’s available in multiple sizes and colors. Click on the link, choose your size, and color, and click on the “Buy this” button to get yours now! The Music Entrepreneur Companion Guide: Get the official, definitive companion guide to The Music Entrepreneur Code covering, in clarity and detail, secrets to making it in the new music business. The Music Entrepreneur Code – 2022 Edition: The latest edition of The Music Entrepreneur Code, now with more ninja. This book features my personal story of failure and success, case studies, examples, insights, and more. Get paid for your passion and impact more fans without wasting thousands of dollars and years of your life.

Completing a yearlong leadership program. Embracing the nomadic life. Nearly being scammed by fraudulent landlords. Being sued by a credit card company. Filing for consumer proposal. Putting on a theatrical production in Calgary. 2023 was an insane year for David (read about it here and here). And in this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, David recounts his experience from 2022 and shares what he sees coming next. Download the PDF Transcription Podcast Highlights: 00:17 – Happy New Year! 01:00 – The final stretch of the yearlong intensive leadership program 02:40 – Accidentally nomadic and out of control 04:09 – A spotty year for The New Music Industry Podcast 06:03 – The 3 Project 07:06 – Time to streamline 09:11 – Closing thoughts Sponsors: The New Music Industry Podcast Unisex T-Shirt: It’s finally here – the official podcast T-shirt! It’s comfy, it’s stylish, it’s unisex, and it’s available in multiple sizes and colors. Click on the link, choose your size, and color, and click on the “Buy this” button to get yours now! The Music Entrepreneur Companion Guide: Get the official, definitive companion guide to The Music Entrepreneur Code covering, in clarity and detail, secrets to making it in the new music business. The Music Entrepreneur Code – 2022 Edition: The latest edition of The Music Entrepreneur Code, now with more ninja. This book features my personal story of failure and success, case studies, examples, insights, and more. Get paid for your passion and impact more fans without wasting thousands of dollars and years of your life.

SubmitHub is one of the music industry’s leading platforms for connecting musicians with bloggers, Spotify playlists, influencers, YouTubers, radio stations, labels, and more. It’s our favorite service of its kind! But if there’s one thing you can count on, it’s change. Whether it’s updates to the SubmitHub platform, or new competitors in the market, the industry has been evolving since we last talked with Jason. And in this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, founder of SubmitHub and Indie Shuffle Jason Grishkoff shares how he’s been making SubmitHub even better for all users. Download the PDF Transcription Podcast Highlights: 00:44 – Return guest, Jason Grishkoff 02:09 – How has Jason been doing post-pandemic? 03:05 – SubmitHub’s “night” mode 05:52 – SubmitHub’s growth 08:54 – SubmitHub competitors 15:03 – No more music premiers 18:14 – Adjustments to influencer prices 26:50 – The “choose for me” button 32:09 – The 2022 wish list and the marketplace 41:26 – Spotify data 45:58 – What else is Jason excited about? Sponsors: Elite Players: Newsletter: The brand-new Elite: Players Newsletter is our first-ever print newsletter, and it’s like having a David Andrew Wiebe print seminar delivered to your door every single month. Click on the link to subscribe to the newsletter and learn more about the incredible bonuses that come with it. The Music Entrepreneur Companion Guide: Get the official, definitive companion guide to The Music Entrepreneur Code covering, in clarity and detail, secrets to making it in the new music business. The Music Entrepreneur Code – 2022 Edition: The latest edition of The Music Entrepreneur Code, now with more ninja. This book features my personal story of failure and success, case studies, examples, insights, and more. Get paid for your passion and impact more fans without wasting thousands of dollars and years of your life.

Success in music hinges on a strong mindset, because inevitably there will be challenge and rejection to endure. The pressure to quit will always get the best of you unless you’ve got your psychology together. But what happens when you’ve been pushed so close to the edge that taking an involuntary leap into the great unknown is a foregone conclusion? What happens when a gentle shove is all it takes for you to plummet into the abyss? In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, David shares what “death by 1,000 arrows” is and how it can be avoided. Download the PDF Transcription Podcast Highlights: 00:17 – Success is an inside job 01:25 – What is “death by 1,000 arrows?” 02:27 – Star of the Giants (Kyojin no Hoshi) 03:38 – Real life examples of death by 1,000 arrows 05:11 – Everything is what it is 06:37 – The best way to avoid death by 1,000 arrows 07:27 – Expansion Sponsors: Elite Players: Newsletter: The brand-new Elite: Players Newsletter is our first-ever print newsletter, and it’s like having a David Andrew Wiebe print seminar delivered to your door every single month. Click on the link to subscribe to the newsletter and learn more about the incredible bonuses that come with it. The Music Entrepreneur Companion Guide: Get the official, definitive companion guide to The Music Entrepreneur Code covering, in clarity and detail, secrets to making it in the new music business. The Music Entrepreneur Code – 2022 Edition: The latest edition of The Music Entrepreneur Code, now with more ninja. This book features my personal story of failure and success, case studies, examples, insights, and more. Get paid for your passion and impact more fans without wasting thousands of dollars and years of your life.

Can a successful artistic career be boiled down to three key ingredients? If so, what would those ingredients be? What kind of cake could you bake with them? In this episode of The New Music Industry podcast, David interviews Diane Foy, who offers an in-depth look into her Superfan Attraction Playbook. Download the PDF Transcription Podcast Highlights: 00:40 – Today’s guest: Diane Foy 01:06 – Finding your authentic personal artistic brand 06:12 – It’s too easy to quit without a purpose 09:49 – Creating purpose driven content and finding your social media superfans 19:38 – Why you’ve got to keep posting 20:43 – Building your story repository 22:17 – How marketing is changing 26:28 – Getting media coverage 32:11 – 80% of the results for 10% of the cost 35:31 – Invest in coaching and mentorship 37:05 – Get Diane’s playbook for free 38:28 – Why do artists resist marketing? 44:40 – How does Diane go about getting invited to speak and share at various events? 51:18 – Multi-passionate 55:18 – What was the last YouTube video Diane watched? 56:40 – What is Diane’s daily routine like? 57:44 – What’s the greatest challenge Diane has overcome? 1:04:38 – What’s the greatest victory Diane has celebrated? 1:06:25 – What books have helped Diane on her journey? 1:09:03 – Closing thoughts Sponsors: Elite Players: Newsletter: The brand-new Elite: Players Newsletter is our first-ever print newsletter, and it’s like having a David Andrew Wiebe print seminar delivered to your door every single month. Click on the link to subscribe to the newsletter and learn more about the incredible bonuses that come with it. The Music Entrepreneur Companion Guide: Get the official, definitive companion guide to The Music Entrepreneur Code covering, in clarity and detail, secrets to making it in the new music business. The Music Entrepreneur Code – 2022 Edition: The latest edition of The Music Entrepreneur Code, now with more ninja. This book features my personal story of failure and success, case studies, examples, insights, and more. Get paid for your passion and impact more fans without wasting thousands of dollars and years of your life.

Do you find marketing boring, complicated, challenging, difficult, tedious, irritating, or otherwise unappealing? Hey, I get it. I was once a musician just like you… (Wait, hold on, I’m still a musician just like you.) I’ve said before that you are the most qualified person to do your own marketing, and I still believe that… But I also think it can be A LOT of fun! Honestly, if it’s not fun, you’re probably overthinking the process or trying to be a perfectionist. It might sound crazy, but the only thing separating you from the best marketers is that they got started and stayed started. There’s not a whole lot to it – make your best guesses as to what your audience will respond to, throw a bunch of stuff against the wall, notice what sticks, and track what works! The best marketers don't have a more detailed plan than that. In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, David shares how to make marketing more fun. Download the PDF Transcription Podcast Highlights: 00:18 – Marketing is fun? 01:33 – Marketing can be a game 02:23 – The “why” of marketing 03:53 – The foundation of good marketing 05:28 – Getting into the habit of showing up 06:34 – The game of life and marketing 07:19 – Something new and exciting Sponsors: Elite Players: Newsletter: The brand-new Elite: Players Newsletter is our first-ever print newsletter, and it’s like having a David Andrew Wiebe print seminar delivered to your door every single month. Click on the link to subscribe to the newsletter and learn more about the incredible bonuses that come with it. The Music Entrepreneur Companion Guide: Get the official, definitive companion guide to The Music Entrepreneur Code covering, in clarity and detail, secrets to making it in the new music business. The Music Entrepreneur Code – 2022 Edition: The latest edition of The Music Entrepreneur Code, now with more ninja. This book features my personal story of failure and success, case studies, examples, insights, and more. Get paid for your passion and impact more fans without wasting thousands of dollars and years of your life.

Your truck breaks down. You break up with your girlfriend. Your dog goes missing. You drop your bowling ball on your toe. Your fishing hook gets caught on your vest. Lyrics to a country song? Well, maybe… But the reality is, even the best laid plans, even music careers that appear to be all “mapped out,” still swing headlong into potholes and shuffle into figurative landmines in 12/8 time along the way. (And mixed metaphors fall apart like ceramic dinnerware falling from the granite counter and smashing on the hardwood floor.) You can’t control people, events, and circumstances. What you can control is what you think, how you feel, and what you make it all mean. Because “bad” people, events, and circumstances don’t necessarily mean anything you think they mean. They’re not even necessarily bad! Superstition is overrated. So, what do you do when you’ve got the music career blues? In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, David shares a recent “deep, dark night of the soul” and what he learned from the experience. Download the PDF Transcription Podcast Highlights: 00:17 – Encounters with resistance 00:52 – What do you do when challenges show up? 01:24 – Why consistency matters 02:10 – David’s long, dark night of the soul 06:18 – First step to easing into the resistance 07:16 – Second step to easing into the resistance 07:56 – There’s always something waiting on the other side Sponsors: PDF Vault: Sign up to receive my free music marketing newsletter and get access to the PDF Vault for free – filled to the brim with eBooks, cheat sheets, podcast transcripts, and other goodies to take your music career beyond. The Music Entrepreneur Companion Guide: Pre-order the official and definitive companion guide to The Music Entrepreneur Code covering, in clarity and detail, secrets to making it in the new music business. The Music Entrepreneur Code – 2022 Edition: The latest edition of The Music Entrepreneur Code, now with more ninja. This book features my personal story of failure and success, case studies, examples, insights, and more. Get paid for your passion and impact more fans without wasting thousands of dollars and years of your life.

When you realize that publishing, building your website, growing your email list, and converting leads into customers are among the most important activities you could be engaging in online, it’s only natural that you begin to wonder about the massive herd that all seems to be moving in one direction… in the direction of social media. With algorithms turning hostile and organic reach tanking well below sea level, does it still deserve the attention we used to give it in our marketing mix? In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, David considers how useful social media really is. Download the PDF Transcription Podcast Highlights: 00:17 – Your social media backup plan 01:37 – Why growing a social media following has become essential 01:59 – A model for monetizing your social media following 02:26 – Challenges associated with growing a following 03:16 – Why great content isn’t enough 03:43 – What’s your plan for people who engage with your posts? 04:20 – The power of social media advertising 05:26 – Retargeting fans and accounts who’ve engaged with your posts 06:11 – Final thoughts Sponsors: PDF Vault: Sign up to receive my free music marketing newsletter and get access to the PDF Vault for free – filled to the brim with eBooks, cheat sheets, podcast transcripts, and other goodies to take your music career beyond. The Music Entrepreneur Companion Guide: Pre-order the official and definitive companion guide to The Music Entrepreneur Code covering, in clarity and detail, secrets to making it in the new music business. The Music Entrepreneur Code – 2022 Edition: The latest edition of The Music Entrepreneur Code, now with more ninja. This book features my personal story of failure and success, case studies, examples, insights, and more. Get paid for your passion and impact more fans without wasting thousands of dollars.

When planning your music release schedule, product launch schedule (including merch), or even content schedule, is it better to focus on creating new things, or is it better to improve upon what you’ve already got? In other words, do new things engage more, or do repurposed and old things (you’ve improved in some way) engage more? In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, David Andrew Wiebe shares about the critical distinction between the two. Download the PDF Transcription Podcast Highlights: 00:18 – The feedback David received after releasing his first album 01:21 – Your music documents your journey 02:25 – Have you ever wanted to rework your first release (or two, or three…)? 03:41 – What’s an “improvement offer,” and how does it compare to new things? 05:46 – Where to put your energy as an artist Sponsors: PDF Vault: Sign up to receive my free music marketing newsletter and get access to the PDF Vault for free – filled to the brim with eBooks, cheat sheets, podcast transcripts, and other goodies to take your music career beyond. The Most Incredible Back to School Sale: Expires October 7, 2022. Take advantage of this one-time offer, featuring six eBooks, one course, two coaching sessions, an optional YouTube feature, and a hardcover copy of The Music Entrepreneur Companion Guide.

Is there some part of you that wants to be known, appreciated, and celebrated? Do you ever fear that your lack of fame could be affecting your opportunities in music? In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, David reflects on whether you need to be famous to make it in music. Download the PDF Transcription Podcast Highlights: 00:16 – Is it worth becoming a public figure, celebrity, or social media influencer? 01:14 – The artist mentality (“I don’t care about being famous, I want my music to be heard”) 01:47 – Would being known fulfill you in a way nothing else can? 05:26 – You can find the answer on the inside Transcription: Hey, it's David Andrew Wiebe, and I am on my daily walk. Today's episode is about whether we should strive to become known as artists. Should we become public figures and celebrities or social media influencers? There are some obvious advantages. Your fans or followers can act as your sales force. And if you’ve built an audience, the moment you come up with something new, new music, your art, a new film, a new book, anything you come out with, if you've got a following that cares and is engaged, you have a built-in fan base that will purchase what you have to offer. Not everyone who follows you will care about what you say. Not everyone who follows you will buy what you have to sell. But there is an advantage. Nowadays, even movie studios have recognized the advantage of a social media following. We live in an age when actors and actresses get hired because of their social media following, even if they are inferior in their skill as actors and actresses. An Artist’s Mentality For a long time, I've adopted a bit of an artist's mentality on this myself. I'm not sure exactly where I picked it up. But there are a lot of artists who basically seem to think “I don't really want to be known. I don't really care about being famous. I just want my music to be heard. So, I just want my music to be known. I want my creations to be known.” Is this impossible? No, not at all. There are plenty of artists who are not household names, whose music or books or artistic works are known. So, if that's a path that you'd want to pursue, it is viable. David’s Personal Journey & Why Being Known Matters to Him That said, I don't think this attitude has served me well. I've been on this green earth for a few decades now. And something that I've continually returned to upon reflection, time and time again, is the fact that I do want to be known, I do want to be a public figure, I do want to be a celebrity. And maybe this could stem from some of the trauma, some of the challenges, some of the difficulties that I've personally gone through. For those who don't know, my dad passed away when I was 13. When people ask me, what's the biggest challenge in my artistic career, music career, entrepreneurial career, it's that. It's the fact that my dad passed away when I was 13, that I had a huge macro impact on my life moving forward. And I had a great sense of confidence about myself, that I'm not sure I've totally recaptured. Certainly, I've delved deep into personal development, I've gone to counseling, I've been to grief and loss groups, and I've seen a couple of psychologists. But one thing that I just really haven't been able to recapture for whatever reason is this sense of personal confidence that I had when I was much younger. I always seem to put people first. In high school, I was darn well near a doormat. That was something of my own doing, though. It's not as though someone forced that choice upon me. If someone asked me for money in high school, I just gave it to them. I didn't care. So, pretty soon, people were just coming to me going, “Hey, will you buy me a slice of pizza? Hey, will you buy me lunch?” And I was like, “I’ve got lots of money. Money doesn't make you happy, I can tell you from experience.” People didn't know that I had a quarter of a million dollars sitting in my bank account. But of course, I was wrong. It probably wasn't a good idea to hand out money left, right, and center. Because I've had my struggles, just as anybody else has. I've gone broke and in debt, at least two or three times at this point. It's never been a pleasant experience. A lot of people will go, “Well, how could you lose all that money?” Most of it went into a car and a home. But there was also an economic downturn in 2008. That had a huge impact on my personal investments. But this isn't a conversation about income, specifically, income is obviously going to play into how well known you are. But it's a conversation about self. What is right for you. And I've just always had a nagging sense that I'm meant to be out there in some capacity. I've invested so heavily into myself, that I'm hungry for opportunities to shar

Have you ever wanted to launch your own information product? Are you looking for a better way to launch and market your eBooks, courses, or coaching programs? In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, David shares his thoughts on Robert Skrob’s Official Get Rich Guide to Information Marketing. Download the PDF Transcription Podcast Highlights: 00:17 – Official Get Rich Guide to Information Marketing 00:28 – Russell Brunson’s Secrets trilogy 01:23 – This book is an excellent starting point to learn about information marketing 01:51 – How the book is structured 02:25 – How to launch your business and be immediately profitable and sustainable 03:13 – Chapters on social media, mindset, legalities 03:29 – Where the book falls short 03:53 – Comments on Amazon reviews 05:32 – Closing thoughts Transcription: Hey, what's good, it's David Andrew Wiebe. And today I wanted to talk about a specific book, the Official Get Rich Guide to Information Marketing by Robert Skrob. Now there's a name that rolls off the tongue. Russell Brunson’s Secrets Trilogy & Why it’s Overwhelming In the past, I've talked a little bit about Russell Brunson’s Secrets trilogy, I think it's a great trilogy. There's a lot of fantastic information in those books to help you with your online marketing journey. But at times, you may find yourself a little bit overwhelmed with all the information that Russell provides. His frameworks are quite extensive, and the starting point in his trilogy is Dotcom Secrets, which talks about all the different types of funnels. There's some other important information in there, like how to build your attractive character, and so forth. But at the end of the day, the sheer number of funnels introduced in that book are just mind boggling to me. Expert Secrets is really the most overwhelming book of all with the webinar scripts. I don't know how he proposes anyone put together a perfect webinar script, it gets kind of insane. So, thinking to yourself, “I’ve got to master all this information if I want to build any kind of information marketing business.” Well, it simply isn't true. And I would suggest that going back to this book we're talking about today, the Official Get Rich Guide to Information Marketing is an excellent place to start. You can bypass a lot of the confusion, a lot of the complexity and a lot of the nuance that Russell seems to go deep on, even when it's not necessarily to the reader’s advantage. I get that he wants to dump everything he could possibly say about what he knows about succeeding online, but it just gets to be too much at certain points. How the Official Get Rich Guide to Information Marketing is Structured Now, this book has some introductory sections, talking a little bit about what you can expect if you get into the information marketing business, how you would make money, how much money you can expect to make things like that. Then it moves into the four biggest sections of the book on how to launch your business. Traditionally, when you think about a three-video launch, basically you introduce the offer, you tease the offer, and then you make the offer available to the people that you're talking to. And then you just market it endlessly through as many channels as you possibly can, while you've got the energy to do it. Robert Skrob’s method, by contrast, would allow you to launch your business, not just launch it, but have it sustainable after the launch, because you'll have repeat business if you build your business the way that he suggests. So, the four types of launches include: Teleseminar series Joint ventures Diagnostic surveys Three-day event He had me at teleseminar series, this one makes the most sense to me. Basically, with a teleseminar series, you would book the event, you would invite people to come, you'd have them pay a small amount of money to join in. And if you find that you get a lot of interest, you've got a niche that works. If there's no interest whatsoever, you can easily and quickly pivot and try something else. And that's one of the things I really like about the method discussed in this book. And then towards the end of the book, there are some chapters on social media, mindset, legalities, things like that. This is super generous, as far as I'm concerned, to have so many sections covering different topics that you might need to know about as an information marketer. Where the Official Get Rich Guide to Information Marketing Falls Short This book is over 10 years old now. And the reason that's a little bit of an issue is not necessarily because the information is outdated, just that the supporting links are outdated. Most of them you can't even go to a page, it doesn't exist, or someone has bought up the domain name and parked it or put something else up there. But overall, honestly, I still find the information very relevant today. Of

Every day, artists release new music. But there’s a big difference between the artists who get traction out the gate and those who don’t. It’s because the 5% who succeed are doing something different. In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, David shares what that “something different” is. Download the PDF Transcription Podcast Highlights: 00:18 – Shouldn’t I be further along than I am in my artistic career? 01:24 – Focusing on the value we create for others 01:56 – Showing up and marketing stamina 03:52 – You must build excitement for your launch 04:46 – How Hollywood promotes 06:53 – What is the teaser campaign / customer journey going to look like? Transcription: So have you ever woken up on any given day, and you feel like, man, I think I should be further along in my music or artistic career. It feels like it's I've been grinding for days, weeks, months, years, maybe even decades. And I am not getting the recognition I deserve. I'm not getting the success I deserve. I feel like the world is working against me. I feel like I've done everything right. I feel like I followed all the steps. I've put all of myself into this. And still, and yet, it seems as though I am getting nowhere in my music or my artistic career. Anyone feel like that? I have felt like that. I've had those moments. Some days I do wake up and go, “Why is it that I still don't have a team? Why is it that I don't have the revenue to sustain a team? Why does it seem like I'm getting ignored or shadow banned? Why aren't my books selling more? Why aren't things going the way I think they should be going?” Focus on Your Audience, Not on You And I'm reminded of one critical thing that we'd all do well to remember. We need to focus on the impact, the value, the difference that we make for people and our audience. We focus too much on ourselves and who we are instead of focusing on serving others and helping them achieve their goals and helping them achieve their desires and helping them get what they want. Because the greatest rewards, the greatest customers, the most income inevitably comes from you helping more people. Developing Your Marketing Stamina Showing up, even when you don't feel like showing up. Showing up when you don't even do it perfectly. And I don't even feel like I'm delivering this message perfectly. We need stamina. Just because you've marketed for a few days, a few weeks, a few months doesn't mean you should give up, even if you’re seeing no results. You know, the craziest thing, when you set up a campaign, whether it's a month-long campaign or a three-month campaign, or whatever it might be, for whatever reason, it's like the 80/20 rule, most of the results tend to show up in the last 20% of the campaign. What happens though, is people get 20 days in, or they get 50 days in, or they get 80 days in, and there's 10 more days to go or 20 more days to go. And they give up right before the results were about to show up. They give up at exactly the wrong time. Therefore, we need marketing stamina. You must be willing to persevere, to continue. We need to go back to our “why,” we need to go back to our foundation, which is adding value to people. It would be an injustice for people not to hear your music, just as it would be an injustice for me to not talk about my books, because I've poured myself into my books. I created them share with the world, to impact people, to make a lasting difference on people's lives. The true injustice is not showing up to do the work. Because you stop yourself from having an impact, even if it means changing one life at a time. That is why we need to show up. And we need to keep showing up when a video bombs. Who cares. It wasn't that good. Make another video. That is why we need marketing stamina, we must keep running, even when we don't feel like running. And we must treat it as a marathon. If we treat it like a sprint, we are going to run out of energy. Building Excitement for Your Launch This is something I’ve been discovering about marketing campaigns – here it is on a bumper sticker: You must build excitement for your launch. It sounds obvious. But every day people release things. They release books, they release music, they release collections of poetry, and they expect it to blow up overnight to get 100 purchases or 1,000 purchases or 10,000 purchases and it rarely ever works like that. Your audience is watching you. They're paying attention. They are waiting for you to show up where they are with new content and updates. And most artists do not build up to their launch. They do not build up to their release. They do nothing to build excitement. We need to take an example from Hollywood. What do they do? They start teasing the release of their latest movie a year out. We as an audience are sitting here and going, “You want me to wait a full year to

What is the most effective but underrated online strategy for creating results in your music career? How can you use it to grow your fan base, get your gig on, and earn an income from your passion? That’s what we’re going to be looking at in this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast. Download the PDF Transcription Podcast Highlights: 00:30 – An update on Spiderweb Marketing 01:07 – Creating a singular strategic focus 02:27 – Email vs. SMS / text messaging vs. personal connections 04:04 – Content syndication and distribution may not be the best use of your time 05:51 – Every social network has a pathway 07:10 – Episode summary 09:02 – Closing thoughts Resources Mentioned in This Episode: 182 – Spiderweb Marketing for Musicians [Mini Course] PDF Vault Transcription: Hey, it’s David Andrew Wiebe. And in this episode of the podcast, I’m going to share an update on spiderweb marketing, a topic I originally covered way back in episode 182 of the podcast and offered up as a free mini course. It’s kind of funny to me that I can even say “way back” because it doesn’t feel all that long ago. But true enough, it has been over two years since we published that episode. The strategy is still relevant and viable today. But we have learned a few things in the last couple of years. So, let’s talking about fine-tuning the strategy to get the best results possible. 1. Set Goals & Create a Singular Focus for Your Spiderweb Marketing Strategy At the center of the spiderweb is the beastly creature himself, the spider. So far as this marketing strategy is concerned, the spider represents your website. The web represents the various channels you acquire traffic from. Getting people to your website is the entire goal of the strategy. But more than ever, we need to be clear on what we want to get people to do once they’ve landed on our website. More than ever, we need to be clear on what we want to get people to do once they’ve landed on our website.Share on X Do you want them to sign up for your email list? Listen to your music? Watch a video? Buy your merch? It’s going to be tough to get people to buy your merch or sign up for your fan club upon first contact. So, I recommend getting them to take one of the other actions just mentioned, something low pressure. Since getting email signups is key to the strategy, you could potentially combine these goals. For instance, you could have the visitor enter their email address to receive a video, and upon signing up, take them to another page on your site to view that video. Boom! Now you’ve gotten more video views and have earned the right to contact the visitor about future offers. At Music Entrepreneur HQ, our singular focus is to get newcomers to sign up for the PDF Vault. This is reflected on our homepage, and soon, it will be reflected across the entire site. 2. Getting Your Content Seen / Your Spider Web Content Marketing Strategy ShortStack says only 10% of your followers see your new post on Instagram. Across the entire spectrum of social networks, that number is much closer to 3 to 6%. Meanwhile, email campaigns are generally seen by an average of 28 to 33% of your entire list. There’s a reason we suggest prioritizing email list growth. If all your hopes and dreams rest on social media success, you’re probably going to be disappointed with the results. But there’s more. RedEye says the average open rate of a text message is roughly 99%, with 97% of messages being read within 15 minutes of their delivery. So, if you haven’t started building your SMS contact list, that might be worth a try. I’m not going to sit here and tell you that it’s superior to growing an email list, because different things work for different folks. But if you haven’t experimented with text message marketing yet, you might want to give it a try. Beyond that, we still find that personal relationships should be valued above and beyond all else. This doesn’t mean that you’re immediately going to see immediate business results from networking and building connections, but there’s huge potential value long-term. You may uncover gig opportunities, get referrals, or find an investor. And I’m not talking about anything I haven’t done! So, never underestimate the value of personal connections – phone calls, video conferences, meeting in person and more. Never underestimate the value of personal connections.Share on X We recently found a new affiliate partner on Twitter, and that would have never happened if we weren’t dedicated to networking and outreach. 3. Content Distribution & Syndication May be Overrated And while I stress “may” be overrated… This is something I hate to admit, because I’ve gone deep into the topic and have invested a lot of time, energy, and income into repurposing and putting our content in more places where it had the opportunity to be seen. But what we’ve been finding is that when we make content for YouTube, it does best on YouTube versus Facebook, Instagram, or Odysee. When w

So, the ability to get your music out to dozens of destinations using music distribution services is awesome. But what if you want to sell your music and merch through other platforms and earn a greater income? What eCommerce solutions can musicians take advantage of? That’s what we’re going to be looking at in this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast. Download the PDF Transcription Podcast Highlights: 00:36 – The two pathways to earning an income from your music online 01:36 – Bandcamp 03:08 – Shopify / Single 04:22 – Gumroad 05:38 – Sellfy 06:46 – Koji 07:44 – Episode summary Resources Mentioned in This Episode: Bandcamp 155 – How to Use Shopify to Sell Your Music Single Gumroad 10XPro Sellfy Koji Transcription: Hey, it’s David Andrew Wiebe. Now, I’ve shared before about the two pathways you can take to create an income from music online. And of direct response marketing and eCommerce, eCommerce is the easier one to get started with. And the great news is, whether it’s direct response marketing or eCommerce, you can set the price of your music. You’re not obligated to sell your albums for $9.99 and your singles for 99 cents. You can be much more intentional and strategic about pricing. Plus, it allows you to do things like put your latest single up on Spotify, and then tell your fans, “if you’re interested in the whole album, check out my website at AtomikPenguins .com” or wherever you send people to buy your music. Now, the big question is whether you can even make money selling music as a musician, right? Just because you can set up an online store doesn’t automatically mean people will buy. But after listening to this podcast episode, I don’t think there’s going to be a shadow of doubt in your mind. So, keep listening to the end, and let’s get to the first of five eCommerce solutions we’ll be talking about today: 1. Bandcamp Bandcamp is one of the most popular eCommerce solutions for musicians, focused exclusively on music. On their homepage, they advertise the fact that fans have paid artists $199 million in the last year. So, forget the idea that you can’t get paid for your music – there are plenty of artists doing it already. Fans have paid Bandcamp artists $199 million in the last year.Share on X Unlike most other solutions available, Bandcamp is a marketplace. And that means they actively promote artists through discover, tag hubs, artist recommendations, fan collections, and music feed. You shouldn’t expect to receive a ton of promotion this way unless you’re already growing a following and selling your music on Bandcamp, but it’s still nice to know they care. Bandcamp gives you control over the design and colors of your page, and it lets you add key information like a short bio, lyrics, and liner notes too. In addition to digital music, you can also sell vinyl, cassettes, T-shirts, and other merch. Bandcamp even says in the last five years, vinyl sales have gone up by 613%, cassettes by 349%, and T-shirts by 492%, and they’ve already sold $341 million worth of merch. Whoever said vinyl sales are a mere blip on the radar just isn’t getting the point. Bandcamp offers other great features like analytics, a merch backend for order fulfillment, and they plan to add a vinyl pressing service too. Bandcamp was founded on December 12, 2007, so it also has quite a bit of longevity behind it as well. 2. Shopify / Single Based on the success of my interview with Tommy Stalknecht (Stall – Neck) of Single Music, which is now simply called Single, in episode 155 of the podcast, it’s clear to see quite a few musicians are interested in the prospect of selling their music through the top eCommerce site builder. Shopify basically is to eCommerce what WordPress is to blogs. Single has expanded their functionality in the last few years. In addition to music, you can use it to sell live stream events, video rentals, merch, and even NFTs on Shopify. Single has delivered and reported over five million downloads for thousands of artists to date, including the likes of Foo Fighters, Dua Lipa, Harry Styles, and Adele. You can sell just about anything you can think of with Single – albums, singles, beats, or loops. It also allows you to set up pre-orders, instant grats, bundles, and it comes with an embedded audio player. As you probably guessed from what I said earlier about reporting, Single handles daily chart reporting to Billboard, OCC, and Aria as well. Single is an affordable solution with four-tiers depending on your needs. But you can get started with them for free, where you only pay when you sell something. If you’re thinking about using Shopify to sell your music, Single is certainly worth a look. 3. Gumroad Gumroad was developed with all types of creators in mind. Whether it’s blog posts, eBooks, courses, Photoshop templates, software applications, or music, Gumroad lets you sell just about anything digital or physical. You can even set up subscriptions or memberships using their platform. Just last wee

Are you looking to grow your email list and attract your 1,000 true fans? What if you could grow your email list well beyond 1,000 subscribers? That’s what we’re going to be looking at in this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast. Download the PDF Transcription Podcast Highlights: 00:26 – 1,000 true fans 01:18 – Laying the groundwork to grow your email list 02:24 – Creating an irresistible lead magnet 02:59 – The best type of lead magnet: Content upgrade 04:13 – Which pages do you create content upgrades for? 06:02 – You'll need to adjust and optimize your strategy 07:37 – Episode summary 09:05 – Setting up your OTR website Resources Mentioned in This Episode: 086 – How to Work Less & Make More as a Music Entrepreneur 10XPro ConvertKit Music Money Machine PDF Vault Transcription: Hey, it’s David Andrew Wiebe. Now, the title of this episode is How We Collected Over 5,000 Emails, but in the grand scheme of things, 5,000 emails is nothing. There are plenty of bloggers and businesses out there that have collected over 10,000, 100,000, even one million plus subscribers over the years. But we’ve all heard about 1,000 true fans, the idea that you could have a perfectly sustainable, even thriving artistic career if you had a minimum of 1,000 people who bought everything you made. And a small, engaged audience, is better than a huge database of subscribers who don’t open your emails. A small, engaged audience is better than a huge database of subscribers who don’t open your emails.Share on X Anyway, getting to the point of finding your 1,000 true fans is likely going to take collecting more than 1,000 emails, but if you could get 5,000 people on your email list, do you think you’d have a pretty good chance at living out the independent music career of your dreams? Keep listening to find out how we did it… Setting the Foundation If you don’t lay the groundwork, you can’t collect emails. That’s the bottom line. If you don’t lay the groundwork, you can’t collect emails.Share on X There are many methodologies out there, and you can experiment with all of them to see what works best for you. But for Music Entrepreneur HQ and practically any other site we’ve established, there’s only been one reliable way of growing our email list. We haven’t gotten results with putting up a signup form on our website and waiting for people to sign up. I guess that works for some people… We follow a methodology created by James Schramko of SuperFastBusiness called Own the Racecourse or OTR. By the way, I had an excellent conversation with him in episode 86 of the podcast. People often think the key to OTR is publishing great content, when really the most critical aspect of it is setting up a platform you own. It’s one of the reasons we believe so strongly in that. In the long run, though, you do want to establish a platform that’s full of content your audience will love. But you can and should start collecting emails from day one. Once you’ve bought your domain, paid for hosting, and have established your website, that’s the time to start collecting emails. That’s your foundation. Create Lead Magnet(s) The next step is to create your lead magnet. That’s a fancy term to describe something free and irresistible your audience will want and will happily give you their email address to receive from you. Many artists hold back and try to give their prospects and fans something they aren’t all that interested in, or couldn’t possibly care about, like a basement demo they recorded on a cassette player when they were 12 years old. No wonder your email list isn’t growing. You want to give away an EP, a recording of a radio interview that went particularly well, or some high quality behind-the-scenes videos. Brainstorm and you’re sure to come up with some ideas of your own. Content Upgrades We’ve found the best way to get people to sign up, though, is with content upgrades. So, our lead magnets take this form. I’ll share how this works. First, we develop a great piece of content we know our audience will love. Then, we offer an upgrade. Oftentimes, it’s a transcript, cheat sheet, checklist, or eBook – something directly connected to the content piece they were viewing. But again, we don’t just drop a signup form in the content and expect them to use it. We get them to click a button. Since we used to use Leadpages, back in the day, a popup would appear when they clicked on the download button. But nowadays we use 10XPro to collect our leads for us. So, when the audience clicks the button, they’re brought to a landing page we’ve built on our 10XPro installation. Best practices and methodologies are always changing. If you’re listening to this in the future, who knows, we may have moved over to a different system, but that’s what we’re using right now. The truth is you don’t need any fancy tools. An email service provider like ConvertKit has great landing page templates built into it, and like many ESPs, it’s free to use up to a point. B

Is it time to embrace Web3 as a musician? What steps should you take if you’re interested in making a go of it as an independent artist? That’s what we’re going to be looking at in this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast. Download the PDF Transcription Podcast Highlights: 00:27 – Web3 is here 01:06 – Learning about blockchain-powered, decentralized platforms 02:13 – Discover the platforms and experiment with them 03:41 – Dig your rolodex well before you're thirsty 04:34 – Create your first NFT (if you haven't already) 05:46 – Understanding how to handle cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc. 07:01 – Episode summary 08:10 – Closing thoughts Resources Mentioned in This Episode: 016 – 5 Things I Learned From Blockchain Revolution 180 – The IMDb of the Music Industry 192 – Looking to the Future of a Blockchain-Powered Music Industry 237 – Music Streaming, Copyright & NFTs 248 – Get Your Music Distributed & Tap into More Revenue Streams 260 – The Future of Music & Multimedia Odysee BitClout Koji PDF Vault Transcription: Hey, it’s David Andrew Wiebe. Like it or not, Web3 is here. Now, nobody knows for sure how things are going to shake out with the current hype. The parallels to the dot-com bubble are practically beyond reproach, so separating hype from reality is a serious challenge. But investor Eric Siu makes a good point – it’s called Web3 for a reason. It’s happening, and it’s here to stay. It’s the next evolution of the web. Web3 is the next evolution of the web.Share on X And so, we need to begin dipping our toes into the waters before jumping headlong into the unknown. But the time to get started is now. The longer you wait, the greater the chance you will miss out on incredible opportunities. Today, we’re going to be looking at five steps to Web3 success for independent musicians. Step #1 – Begin Learning What is Web3? How does it work? Why does it matter? Whether on The New Music Industry Podcast or Music Entrepreneur HQ blog, we’re no stranger to blockchain related topics: You can go all the way back to episode 16 of the podcast to listen to my review on Blockchain Revolution and pick up the book if it interests you In episode 180 of the podcast, I talked to Vasja Veber of Viberate You can have a listen to episode 192 of the podcast with Stefan Schulz of Bitfury Surround You can also listen to some discussions on NFTs with Steven Gagliano in episode 237 of the podcast, John Kohl in episode 248 of the podcast, as well as with Ori WInokur in episode 260 of the podcast The point is that what may have been taken for granted only six years ago is now manifesting at a dizzying rate. Decentralized, blockchain-based platforms are here. And there are already many creators taking advantage of them, earning a full-time living, and more. The time to start learning is now. And if possible, you want to make it part of your daily routine to read, listen, or watch on the topic, whichever medium suits you best. The time to start learning is now.Share on X Step #2 – Start Experimenting Even on the podcast, I’ve made multiple invitations to come and join me on platforms like Odysee and BitClout. Odysee is like the blockchain-powered YouTube, and BitClout is like the blockchain-powered Twitter. You’ve probably heard my invitation to join Koji in recent episodes as well, which is an amazing link in bio app that even allows you to create and sell NFTs. I’ll talk more about NFTs in a moment, but what I want you to take away is that you can still be an innovator or early adopter in the technology adoption life cycle, and that can be an exciting thing. Decentralized communities are still smaller than on most social networks, but they’re very connective, and they’re obviously forward looking. These platforms also tend to value things like free speech and freedom of expression, and I know people kind of seesaw on that issue these days, but if that’s one of your values, that’s another reason to begin to check out Web3 platforms. And while you might be intimidated, many of these platforms are just like the social networks you already use and are an excellent place to build a following and create connections, for reasons I’ve already shared. In many cases, there are even opportunities to earn on the content you share. So, what else is out there? Here are just some of the many platforms people are getting excited about: Rumble, DTube, Steemit, Mediachain, Fluz, Sapien, and Vevue are all exciting new platforms. And when it comes to NFT marketplaces, there are many others, though some platforms already mentioned allow you to create and sell NFTs too. Step #3 – Dig Your Well Networking and collaboration are huge in the music industry. If you want to grow your music career, there’s nothing quite like expanding your rolodex. I just got my first gig in Vancouver today, and it’s all because of who was in my network. It had nothing to do with my ability to sell myself, and everything to do with who I knew. I’ve

Do you know what your brand message is? Do you know what difference you’re out to make in the world with your music? That’s what we’re going to be looking at in this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast. Download the PDF Transcription Podcast Highlights: 00:25 – Tara Divina's awakening 02:48 – Why Tara found the career path stifling 03:30 – What does "meaning" mean to Tara? 05:08 – Rediscovering your identity as an artist 08:17 – How to scale a successful business 11:03 – What is core message marketing? 14:40 – Exercise to discover your core message 17:44 – Examples of core brand messages 19:44 – Turning your life and business into a work of art 21:03 – Branding sounds like a lot of work... 23:00 – Tapping into creative inspiration 28:30 – Why is beauty so important? 30:45 – How do artists monetize their work effectively? 34:36 – What's the last YouTube video Tara watched? 35:03 – What is Tara's daily routine like? 35:44 – What is the greatest challenge Tara has overcome? 36:00 – What is the greatest victory Tara has experienced? 36:41 – Tara's recommended books 39:01 – Tara's final thoughts Resources Mentioned in This Episode: Tara Divina Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert Attached by Amir Levine and Rachel S. F. Heller Healing Back Pain by Dr. John E. Sarno 257 – Living Pain-Free in Music & Life Knockout Originals PDF Vault Transcription: David Andrew Wiebe: Today I'm passing the mic with Tara Divina. How are you today, Tara? Tara Divina: I'm doing great. David Andrew Wiebe: I understand that you became an intern at London-Sire Records in New York City at 20 years old. Then you joined the executive team at Warner Music Group overseeing the independent music arm, specifically in digital sales and marketing. But then you realized you're made for something else. What happened? Tara Divina: Well, what happened was that I had sort of a rocket ship to the moon type career in the music industry. And I had originally gotten into the business because at the end of my university degree in business, I thought to myself, "What am I going to do next?" And the answer, unlike most of my peers, was not become a product manager at Pepsi Cola, or an accountant at KPMG. That for the going, typical career flow was and so I thought to myself, well, I love music. I love being a musician, perhaps entering the industry will bring me closer to these things. And over time, what I discovered was that being in the industry, took me much further from these things, and from my creative impulses. And so, being a very creative spirit, I began to get progressively more and more depressed and disillusioned, even though on paper, I had everything that anyone would ever want, you know, wonderful, prestigious career, lots of abundance financially, lots of engagement with things. It just didn't add up for me. And I hit a breaking point where I was starting to decline and then went to Burning Man, I was invited to Burning Man, a little festival in the desert that at the time, not everyone had heard of. And I went out there and I met all these people who were really pursuing their creative dreams, and up to things, doing things that really meant a lot to them. And, you know, things that were overly ambitious and projects that are now defunct, but they were really caring about what they did for a living and spending their time pursuing that, which was their core purpose. And so with that, I bodly quit my career, walked out of the office no plans. And voila. David Andrew Wiebe: So I think it's not too unusual a story that people go down the career path and then find it stifling. Of course, many people find it difficult to then make the leap to something creative. So what was it about being in a career that just wasn't working for you? Tara Divina: The monotony, the repetition, and the lack of meaning, like, I was never sure if I was helping anyone. So you know, the disconnect between the record labels and the interests of the artists so fast, the interests of the managers and the booking agents, and it just, it felt like a big circular cash grab, and participating in that didn't fulfill me with any sense of contributing to the planet in any significant way, or even contributing to the artists. And that's what really got me> David Andrew Wiebe: You used the word "meaning." And I do hear a lot of people say that they want to pursue some kind of meaning. But what does that mean to you? Tara Divina: I have reflected on this question. What is meaning anyway, you know, and the conclusion that I've come to is a little off the ball, which is that we all have within us a core message. And we're practically born with this message. And throughout our lifetimes, we have different opportunities to express it, different ways of understanding what that message is. And the closer we are in our lives to living an expression of that message or doing som

Do you wish you could be a spectacular failure in the music business? Are you looking for the step-by-step process that will make you an embarrassing disgrace to yourself, your family, and the world? That’s what we’re going to be looking at in this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast. Download the PDF Transcription Podcast Highlights: 00:32 – A framework for failure 00:52 – Be a jerk to everyone 01:17 – Flake out on everything 01:58 – Don’t improve as a musician 02:29 – Spend all your time on social media 03:18 – Don’t build email lists 03:55 – Make Spotify your sole source of income 04:34 – Don’t get expert coaching 05:16 – Don’t invest in your personal growth 05:56 – Don’t reinvest in your music career 06:29 – Remain a Blockbuster in the age of Netflix 07:00 – Episode summary Resources Mentioned in This Episode: 266 – The 5 Layers of Independent Music Success Leadpages The New Music Industry by David Andrew Wiebe Transcription: Hey, it’s David Andrew Wiebe. So, normally I talk about frameworks for success, just like in the last episode of The New Music Industry Podcast. This episode is going to be a little different. What follows is a framework for failure. Now, this might seem a little strange, but by the end of it, I think you will begin to see how powerful an exercise it can be. You’ll see what I mean. Let’s get into this. 1. Be a Complete Jerk Insult the people you meet. Make fun of your fans. Criticize and attack your bandmates. Curse the media. People are awful and they deserve to know just how much they suck and how much better you are. Hit on men or women who are already attached to someone else. Stay at hotel rooms, throw the TV out the window, and refuse to pay for your stay. Flip off everyone. They’re horrible people for not recognizing your greatness. 2. Be a Flake Don’t show up to band meetings or rehearsals. Don’t show up to gigs. Don’t show up to radio or podcast interviews. And if you do show up, make it an hour late, and pretend like you weren’t at fault. Make no excuses, no apologies, and put no effort into salvaging the opportunity or resolving the situation whatsoever. Be a person who promises big and delivers small. Or deliver nothing at all. Disappoint your friends, your family, your fans, and anyone else who dares express any interest in you. Make bad excuses. Say, “I’m washing my hair that night,” or “I’m tired,” or “I have to get up early tomorrow,” or “my dog ate my homework,” in contexts where it doesn’t make sense, and pretend like people buy your reasons for being absent. 3. Don’t Improve Spend no time whatsoever working on your craft. Don’t try to be better. Next time you have a show, or a new release, make no effort. Don’t practice. Don’t market. Don’t show up with new material unless it’s just as bad as your earlier works. Don’t engage the fans. Don’t engage the venue owner, event organizer, or anyone else connected to your show or project. Actively insult them instead. Give a half-assed attempt at everything, just to make sure your performances aren’t getting better. You don’t want to improve by mistake and give the wrong impression. 4. Rely Exclusively on Social Media Spend all your time and energy on social media. Create accounts far and wide – Bandcamp, Facebook, Fanbase, Instagram, LinkedIn, Medium, Pinterest, ReverbNation, TikTok, Twitter, Tumblr, Snapchat, SoundCloud, YouTube, and any other sites you can find. Go join all the Web3 sites while you’re at it. Don’t post anything. Follow a bunch of people and leave useless comments on their posts, like fire emojis, and “DM us” or “promote it on” some random Instagram account no one has even heard of or cares about. It’s the classy thing to do. Use social networks for all the wrong reasons. Don’t network. Pretend like you’re more important than everyone else. Don’t promote unless you’re promoting a scam. Violate the terms and conditions proactively. And as much as possible, delude yourself into thinking that all your efforts on social media will one day pay off. 5. Refuse to Build an Email List Email lists are for chimps (and yes, my use of the word “chimp” rather than “chump” is intentional here). Don’t set up an account with an email service provider. Don’t put email signup forms on your website, don’t give away anything for free in exchange for anyone’s email address. Don’t ask for anyone’s emails at your shows, either. Don’t use a tool like Leadpages to hypercharge your list building efforts. If you do end up with a list of emails, spam them mercilessly with online gambling and erection pill ads. Don’t mention anything about your next release or next show. Don’t invite anyone to be a part of anything. Don’t share content, don’t survey, and don’t ask questions. Don’t waste time getting to know your fans. 6. Hope & Pray That You’ll Earn a Living from Spotify Sit at home and wait for the dump truck full of money to roll into your driveway. Do nothing to earn it. You’re entitled. Actively pretend and delude your

How do you achieve independent music success on your own terms? What music distribution service should you choose, and what are the nuances you should be aware of in selecting a partner? All this and more in this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast. Download the PDF Transcription Podcast Highlights: 01:11 – Catching up with Monica Strut 03:26 – What’s new with Monica? 06:59 – What’s new with David? 12:52 – The 5 layers of independent music success 50:18 – Navigating the music distribution minefield 1:05:23 – Get in touch 1:06:11 – Closing thoughts Resources Mentioned in This Episode: Sign Up for Koji – the Best Link in Bio for Musicians Episode 125 – Getting the Most Out of Your Social Media Marketing as a Musician Monica Strut Episode 86 – How to Work Less & Make More as a Music Entrepreneur Elite Players: All Access Pass Episode 262 – “All Successful Rock Musicians Are Business Minded” Gaki Music The 5 Layers of Independent Music Success The Nobody Prayer (Original Soundtrack) Music by ItsWatR Navigating the Music Distribution Minefield 248 – Get Your Music Distributed & Tap into More Revenue Streams Episode Summary: David welcomes back Monica Strut to the show – her last appearance was on episode 125 of The New Music Industry Podcast. Monica shares what’s new in her world. Her rock-metal band, The Last Martyr recently launched a new single and rebranded their online and offline presence. Her band now has a booking agent who is keeping the band busy on tour. Monica also put together a new course called Crush Your Next Release. Normally, she works with bands on a case-by-case basis to develop their release strategy, so this is the first time her methodology has been available as a six-week course. David shares about his search for a new home. He also shares an update on his search for a Chief Marketing Officer for Music Entrepreneur HQ. Through an insurance agent, he was connected to CAYK Marketing in Calgary, AB. After a couple of sessions, they informed David that they did not detect any major SEO concerns and that it would not make sense for him to go on a retainer at this time. David and his team plug away at Music Entrepreneur HQ’s SEO day by day. The 5 Layers of Independent Music Success The five layers of independent music success are as follows: Principles / mindset: These are the things that remain true no matter what changes around you. People change. Circumstances change. Your goals change. But the one thing that does not change, that you can always count and rely on is principles and your mindset. This is what keeps you anchored when the going gets rough. And without a strong foundation here, success in music as an independent artist is difficult if not impossible. Experience: You become better at what you do through experience. The more experience you gain as an instrumentalist, the better you will ultimately be at playing your instrument. The same could be said for songwriters, vocalists, producers, and more. Your experience can also guide the direction of your career, steering you towards opportunities that are worthwhile, while helping you avoid pitfalls. But experience isn’t always reliable. And those are the times you need to fall back on principles. Branding: Your external brand has to do with colors, fonts, logos, costumes, business cards, and so on. Your internal brand has to do with your purpose, your mission, your reason for existing in the world. Crafting your brand may not be easy. But it’s one of the most critical aspects of building your music career, because if you know what you're doing, you can create a magnetic brand your fans and potential fans will be attracted to. When you have your branding, strategy basically sorts itself out. Marketing / strategy: Once you have your brand in place, developing a marketing strategy is a walk in the park. You can identify specific dates and events that are aligned with your brand. You can uncover where your fans like to hang out online. You can develop your voice and messaging. Without your brand, marketing is but a shot in the dark. Tactics. Posting to social media. Sending email campaigns. Setting up advertising campaigns. These are all tactics. Tactics are sexy. They basically form the foundation of your daily to-do list. The only problem? Tactics are not a strategy, especially when you don’t even know what your strategy is. You must let your strategy inform your tactical approach. Also see David’s blog post on the same topic. And the following is David’s four-time Best Original Score winning film score: Navigating the Music Distribution Minefield Music distribution services get your music out to all the major destinations. If you’re a new artist, choosing a digital music distribution service might prove a pretzel. Which distributor should you choose? What kind of marketing do they offer you, if any? Do they even care about you as a customer? Should you even distribute your music digitally? Monica’s band used DistroKi

Are you still promoting your music on Facebook? That’s not necessarily a bad thing. The challenge is that algorithms are constantly changing, and what used to work doesn’t work anymore. Are Facebook pages dead? That’s what we’re going to be looking at in this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast. Download the PDF Transcription Podcast Highlights: 01:17 – Facebook is on a downward spiral 02:11 – Instances in which Facebook pages still work 05:48 – Alternatives to pages 08:15 – Episode summary and additional tips Resources Mentioned in This Episode: The New Music Industry by David Andrew Wiebe The Indie YYC Music by ItsWatR The Nobody Prayer (Original Soundtrack) Chord King Course ConvertKit Transcription: Hey, it’s David Andrew Wiebe. Over the years, I’ve warned about single source dependence, building on rented land, digital sharecropping, and the fickle nature of social media platforms in general. As far as I can tell, Facebook, or Meta, or whatever they want to call their products these days, is on a downward spiral it may not recover from. As of now, it’s still a viable marketing platform. It’s just that, as per usual, marketers ruin everything, and if you aren’t doing the right things, you aren’t rewarded for your behaviors. And what I’m about to share with you here may not be news to you, but I do think it’s worth viewing through the lens of adapting. After all, the subtitle of The New Music Industry is Adapting, Growing, and Thriving in The Information Age. And, while some say we’re now in the Experience Age, and no longer in the Information Age, I don’t think adaptation is going to prove any less important. So, let’s talk about Facebook pages. The Death of Pages Now, there are exceptions to everything. If you have an established Facebook page, or if there’s a reason for people to come looking for you, pages can still work. There are, for example, personalities who only ever seem to publish on Facebook, so I miss out on their videos unless I actively seek them out. So, every Wednesday, I log in to Facebook to see what they’re up to because I know they usually go live on Wednesdays. I co-founded a community called The Indie YYC and we use Facebook as our primary platform. There are always risks and I’ve shared my concerns with the inner community, but given everyone’s busy schedule and participation level, publishing to Facebook has worked, and continues to work for us. Just for reference, we have nearly 1,500 likes, and over 1,600 followers. Although engagement level isn’t always consistent or predictable, we do reach about 100 to 600 people per post without boosting them. The issue is, if you’re trying to establish a new page and a new brand now, unless you’ve got a big budget to spend or a lot of traffic you can push from your email list or another platform, a Facebook page is not going to be a good use of your time. I’ve read articles on Facebook’s algorithm updates, and honestly, I see the same generic advice that always gets thrown around – connect with your audience, post at the right time, share inspirational stories, create quality content, make short and engaging videos. Not only is this largely unhelpful, because it’s subjective advice, I find that the most engaged videos on Facebook are now long form, not short form. So, some of the advice is either bunk or misinformed. In other words, you can’t exploit a specific tactic to get more engagement right now. It used to be that if you went live, you could drive up a bunch of engagement, but again, that only seems to work for established pages at this point. Alternative to Pages Like I said earlier, though, Facebook is still a viable platform. It’s just that you should consider prioritizing different activity. Groups are still more valuable properties than pages, especially groups where participants are actively posting and asking questions. If you have a group of your own, you’re all set. Put your attention on growing it instead of your page, because chances are it’s going to prove more valuable. But even if you don’t have a group, you can join groups and be a part of the community, so there are plenty of chances to leverage other people’s audiences. Profiles are also great soapboxes. I’ve talked to enough artists to know that some are going to take exception to that. They treat their profile as sacred, don’t post unless they have something to share, don’t post things they don’t support, shy away from posting marketing posts, and so on. Look, you’ve got to be the one to decide what your tolerance is. But some of my most engaged posts, recently, were either about my now four-time award-winning film score for The Nobody Prayer, or my beginner guitar program, Chord King Course. For the most part, I don’t understand the aversion to posting more frequently, because at the end of the day, you can’t outsmart the algorithm. I’m not necessarily saying you should post 17 times per day to your Facebook profile. You can certainly do that with your stor

The Music Entrepreneur Code – 2022 Edition features an all-new introduction, along with plenty of new tools, resources, and up-to-date strategies and mental models to help you grow and impact a fan base and make a living from your passion. The hardcover edition of the book just came out, so to commemorate this occasion, David reads the updated introduction in this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast. Download the PDF Transcription Podcast Highlights: 01:20 – The introduction to The Music Entrepreneur Code – 2022 Edition 01:55 – David’s lowest moment in music 05:39 – Digital marketing 09:36 – Personal development and mindset 10:44 – The business of music 12:00 – The three ingredients to success in music 12:59 – Closing thoughts Resources Mentioned in This Episode: Sign Up for Koji – the Best Link in Bio for Musicians The Music Entrepreneur Code – 2022 Edition by David Andrew Wiebe Music by ItsWatR Content Marketing Musician Transcription: Hey, it’s David Andrew Wiebe. Today, I’ll be sharing the introduction to my latest book, The Music Entrepreneur Code – 2022 Edition. The hardcover edition of the book just came out, and I’m really excited about that. You can always get your copy at davidandrewwiebe.com/Code2022. So, if you’re ready to discover the critical importance of marketing, mindset, and business in building a music career, let’s get into it. All-New Introduction to The Music Entrepreneur Code – 2022 Edition If I had understood the value of marketing, mindset, and the business of music, I know I wouldn’t have struggled the way I did, especially in the first decade or so of my music career. The people closest to me knew my work ethic. They knew I was serious about making music my life. They knew I was talented and had the chops to back my passion. But like most artists, I ended up struggling in obscurity. I couldn’t sell enough music or book enough paying gigs to make a living. Merch? Forget it! I didn’t have the financial outlay to put my logo on a shirt. I was barely keeping pace with expenses related to my home, where the fridge and furnace broke down every three years. I figured there would always be more time to figure it all out. I believed in my heart that one day I would grow into the Rock Stars I loved and admired. It took many years for me to discover that I would only ever grow into a better version of myself, not into someone else I looked up to. As it turns out, comparison is almost thoroughly unhelpful, especially when comparing one’s bloopers to another’s highlight reels. If you have any hope of being happy in this life, I can tell you from deep personal experience that it’s not going to come from comparison. But I digress. Back to the crappy fridge, broken ass furnace, and the mountain of bills I couldn’t possibly climb my way out of. (By the way, this is not some kind of sob story or B.S. backstory – all this really happened.) Unfortunately, things kept turning from bad to worse for me. And it all culminated in a hellish six months beginning in January 2011. Because my former roommates and best friends had all moved out, I had to bring in new tenants. And the roommate I ended up with was one of the messiest, loudest, and most messed up guys I’d ever met (last I heard, he ended up in jail). He was convinced that his only two options in life were to get a job on the oil rigs or become a stripper. He complained that he didn’t want to go to the rigs, so you can see where things went from there. As you may recall, 2011 was shortly after the global economic meltdown, so my investments had mostly tanked. I was starting to feel the crunch financially and was running out of options. So, all I could do was sell my soul to five poorly paying jobs. I had to work mornings, days, evenings, and weekends. I endured long commutes. Sometimes I had to fight for healthy working conditions and the money I was owed. No one cared that I was going through hell. Not their problem. All the while, I hoped and prayed these jobs would lead somewhere… Somehow, I kept the hope alive. At the time, the only music in my life was the local singer-songwriter open mic night on Tuesdays and the occasional rehearsal or gig. And I would happily go just to get away from my roommate and the mess he was making at my once beautiful home, knowing full well that it would not be in a better state when I got back, nor would I have the time or energy to clean up. For a while, I soldiered on undeterred. I believed if I persevered, I’d find a way. But I finally broke down. I was carrying a bag full of bricks, and the unbreakable back of Atlas started to falter with the addition of a single straw. One Sunday, after church, I ended up sobbing in my blue Toyota RAV4 with two flat tires in front of an Italian restaurant. I felt exhausted, defeated, and humiliated. My spirit was crushed. In that moment, you could not have convinced me that there was anything left worth living for. I managed to refinance my home and stay afloat for a w

If any part of what you do in music depends on you working with clients, then it’s important to know which types of clients to pursue, as well as which types to avoid. After all, your survival depends on your ability to bring in an income, and nothing can affect your ability to create an income faster than working with clients who endlessly negotiate, waste time, and refuse to pay. That’s what we’re going to be looking at in this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast. Download the PDF Transcription Podcast Highlights: 01:19 – Client disaster stories 01:41 – #1: The rush job 03:20 – #2: The “why, why, why?” 04:59 – #3: The fault finder 08:33 – #4: The charlatan 10:08 – #5: The self-appointed pinnacle of virtue 11:56 – Episode summary and additional tips Resources Mentioned in This Episode: Sign Up for Koji – the Best Link in Bio for Musicians Music by Coma-Media from Pixabay Book Yourself Solid by Michael Port Music Money Machine Also recommended – Winning Through Intimidation by Robert Ringer Transcription: Hey, it’s David Andrew Wiebe. In this episode, we’re going to be looking at five types of clients to avoid in music. This should be a fun one, because I’ll even be sharing some of the details of my own client disaster stories. And if you have any of your own client disaster stories you’d like to share, drop us a line at [email protected]. With that, let’s get into it. Client Type #1: “I Needed This Done Yesterday” There are those who will come crying to you at the last-minute, in all seriousness, saying, “I need a rush job.” For example, it could be an artist who has all their recording done, but because they weren’t thinking ahead, or they’re already behind on timelines, they will ask you to rush their album artwork. This is exactly the situation I found myself in many years back. My partner gave me lead on the project because it was my contact. So, I had to deliver. We rushed the designs and got them out to the CD manufacturer as soon as we possibly could. But this type of client has other attributes that makes them difficult. For one, they don’t care about the details. Even if there was a misprint on the liner notes, they probably wouldn’t bat an eye. They only care about their project being done, and yesterday! While the client’s CD was being manufactured, I got a grave phone call from them, which nearly turned hostile. They asked me, “Where are the CDs? You told me they would be done today.” I said no such thing! But after I gathered my composure, I had to explain to him how business days work, which pacified a potentially volatile situation. I still misquoted him on the contract, though, so, I ended up eating some costs on the project. Ultimately, no money was made. Can You Still Work with This Type of Client? Though not ideal, there are still ways of making this type of agreement work. You’ll probably want to charge a substantial rush fee to account for errors that stem from the pressure this type of client is going to put you under. You’re also going to want to keep in regular communication about the project, something you’re not going to want to do, because this client takes themselves a little too seriously and they aren’t fun people to deal with. Client Type #2: Asks Questions About Everything Some clients want to know how everything works, as well as why you’re doing things the way you’re doing them. “Why are you sending an email right now? What’s the strategy behind it? Is there a reason why you rewrote that lyric? Do you really think the guitars should be mixed that way?” They don’t care about trade secrets. It’s more like they’re a 12-month-old who just learned to talk and can’t stop asking “why?” about everything. Now, this is distinct from the type of client who wants to be involved with everything. I know people like that, and the relationship can totally work if they reward you handsomely for your work, and you set proper expectations with them. No, this is the type of client that, no matter how many times you’ve explained the terms of the contract, or why you’re charging a fee, or why websites need to be renewed each year, always come back to you requesting explanations for every decision made. I had a client like this who I decided to cut off after a few years. It was a small contract, and I was only breaking even on it, so there wasn’t anything in it for me. Once I started charging for time spent in correspondence, the client rapidly backed out of the contract. Can You Still Work with This Type of Client? Yes, you can still work with them. They’re probably one of the most benign types of clients on this list. Constantly having to refresh them on the details of the job is exhausting, though, so you’d better have structures in place for that. But that’s assuming they agree to your fees in the first place. This type of client is either tight with money or doesn’t feel like they have much to spend on needed services. If your rates are low, you may attract clients like th

What did Marty Friedman recently say on ROCK FUJIYAMA that caught my attention? What’s Wolf’s philosophy on achieving success in the new music industry? All this and more on the latest iteration of the monthly, 2022 Edition of The New Music Industry Podcast. Podcast Highlights: 00:32 – David and Wolf share what’s new in their worlds 04:44 – The secret is there is no secret 11:48 – The shortcut to success is the long road 31:20 – The Unstarving Musician 31:48 – Marty Friedman’s bold claim 40:02 – The fastest growing industries in the US 45:20 – A special message 49:10 – Get in touch and final thoughts Resources Mentioned in This Episode: Music by EvgenyBardyuzha from Pixabay Music by Coma-Media from Pixabay Gaki Music David Andrew Wiebe Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill The Unstarving Musician ROCK FUJIYAMA Frontiers Music Rock Legends Cruise Sex Money Kiss by Gene Simmons Fastest Growing Industries in the US by Revenue Growth (%) in 2022 The Great Gift Giveaway Chord King Course Episode Summary: David and Wolf share what’s new in their worlds. Wolf introduces himself and talks about his London-based independent business, Gaki Music. David is taking on his new album, Back on Solid Ground, publishing daily on DavidAndrewWiebe.com, and is looking for an interim Chief Marketing Officer for Music Entrepreneur HQ. See Careers page. The Secret is There is No Secret What is the secret to success? Is it a specific set of actions? A mindset? Having a great attitude and working hard? David explores the example of Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich, in which the author described a “secret” in the introduction that everyone claims to know. David says the secret was removed. It’s not in the book! The Shortcut to Success is the Long Road As an artist, it may be a long time before you see the fruits of your labor. Are you willing to play the long game? Stay patient? Keep putting in the work even if it doesn’t seem to be going anywhere? Mid-Roll The Unstarving Musician podcast, hosted by Robonzo, features interviews with independent music artists who share their experience and expertise on recording, touring, getting gigs, the creative process, marketing, and more. It’s a podcast intended to help independent music artists better understand the marketing, business and creative processes that empower us to do more of what we love – make music. Find it at UnstarvingMusician.com and wherever you get your favorite audio. Marty Friedman Says “All Successful Rock Musicians Are Business Minded” What did Marty Friedman recently say on ROCK FUJIYAMA that caught David’s attention? David mentions Gene Simmons’ Sex Money Kiss as an essential read for music entrepreneurs. The Fastest Growing Industries in the US It seems like there’s a lot of pent-up energy because of the pandemic. People are looking to travel, vacation, attend events, and find opportunities to get away from the humdrum lockdown life. Concerts and artists are clearly on a path to recovery as well. David shares his views on The Matrix Resurrections. A Special Message Wolf and David deliver a special message to a notable figure in the music entrepreneur space. Get in Touch Find Wolf at GakiMusic.com. Email [email protected]. Find David at davidandrewwiebe.com. He’s easy to reach on Twitter and BitClout. Final Thoughts Hey, it’s David Andrew Wiebe here to wrap up this episode. I really hope you enjoyed this episode. And I wanted to urge you to stay subscribed to the show. I know we’re going down to a monthly format for a while, and that might be disappointing to some, but if you think of it like a Christmas present each month, wait on bated breath for each episode, and the moment it arrives, consume it like you just paid $997 for it, you’re going to get so much value out of every show. And if you want to see more from us, show us that you care. Leave a rating and review for the show in iTunes and share this episode with a friend. There’s bound to be someone you know who can benefit from it, so give the goodness away and be a leader in your world. Be someone who adds value to others. Thank you for listening. We love and appreciate you. Closing Segment Today, I wanted to share something special with you. It’s called The Great Gift Giveaway. You might recall that my friend, Amos Bracewell has been on the show a couple of times, and most recently, he shared about his new contest. Well, this contest is now live, and there are daily giveaways, weekly giveaways, some amazing opportunities to win access to my brand-new Chord King Course, vocal lessons with Jane Perrett, handmade soaps, and a great deal more. Go to TheGreatGiftGiveaway.com and sign up today. You’ll have me to blame when you start winning… This has been episode 262 of The New Music Industry Podcast. I’m David Andrew Wiebe, and I look forward to seeing you on the stages of the world. Upgrade to Members Only Audios for more exciting, exclusive training.

So, what exactly is going on with Music Entrepreneur HQ and The New Music Industry Podcast in 2022? Will it be business as usual, or are there changes to come? That’s what we’re going to be looking at in this episode The New Music Industry Podcast. Podcast Highlights: 00:32 – David addresses what’s been going on in his world 02:40 – Improvements that need to be made to Music Entrepreneur HQ 03:40 – Career opportunities at Music Entrepreneur HQ 04:22 – These are tough times 05:24 – But these are still amazing times to be an artist 05:44 – Our plan moving forward 07:54 – Opportunity for innovation Resources Mentioned in This Episode: Chord King Course Careers Music Entrepreneur HQ YouTube channel The Unstarving Musician Transcription: Hey, it’s David Andrew Wiebe. You may have noticed that we’ve been a little slow to update Music Entrepreneur HQ as of late. So, I wanted to address this. A lot of this will become clearer as we go, but in general, this has a lot to do with the renewed efforts I’m putting into my music career, as well as my new guitar course, the Chord King Course program at ChordKingCourse.com. In terms of music, I’m working on my album, Back on Solid Ground. This has been the big, unfinished, “Duke Nukem Forever” project in my life that dates to 2008 / 2009 that I have yet to complete. I realized there’s not going to be a perfect time or space to complete it in. It’s now or never. That’s why I’ve been working on it this quarter, and I will continue to work on it next quarter, as I’ve realized it’s a little ambitious to try to get it all done in three months. My yearlong leadership program is part of what has me engaging in these projects to begin with, but the leadership program in and of itself, as I’ve said before, is also expansive in its scope, velocity, and intensity. So, while I am using it as a vehicle to finish the things, I’ve chosen for myself, it’s true that there are certain requirements and demands in terms of training, meetings, calls, and tasks. Either way, I’m going to continue to share what I’ve been discovering in the program so you can benefit from it. But it’s come to the point where picking up more clients, working on music, and everything else I’m up to right now isn’t entirely sustainable. I get it done, but at the expense of life – and to an extent, health, because I’m exhausted. It has come to my attention too, that while Music Entrepreneur HQ’s SEO needs to be improved, constantly publishing new content doesn’t give us a lot of space to do the overhauls we need to do. As it stands, there’s still a good amount of traffic coming to the site, but a lot of it is deadweight, and people who bounce off. Maybe this is just the curse of having a site that’s so big with content that needs to be updated, but we’re noticing that this doesn’t drive results. I’m acknowledging that, while I could be the point person for SEO, it would be a very slow-going process because of what I’ve already taken on. And, to that end, we’re looking for solutions. There is a new Careers page on the website, and we’re currently looking for an interim Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) – this is not a full-time position, but rather a medium-term revenue share opportunity where the CMO will be paid a percentage of the business based on performance. It would be their responsibility to improve the site’s SEO and copy, so if you happen to know anyone that’s skilled in those areas that’s looking for five- to 10-hour per week type commitment and would like to work with me over the course of the next two to three years, do let me know. But I’ve also heard from some of you that this is just a tough time and you’re trying to figure out your finances, and you may not have discretionary income to spend on courses and other programs right now. And I can appreciate that, but there is an impact. Look, in the last few months, I’ve had to tighten the belt a bit, cut some expenses, look for additional writing work I could take on, and generally begin to seek out opportunities that are a little less reliant on client purchases, and are more predicated on engagement, views, time invested, and so forth. But whether it’s Medium, YouTube, BitClout, Odysee, or otherwise, it takes time and effort. Short-term, there isn’t much in it. And while I still think this is an excellent time to be an artist, and there are more opportunities than ever, it’s basically brought me to this point of having to switch things up a bit. And the decision isn’t to stop everything, give up, or otherwise walk away from what we’ve built up with The New Music Industry Podcast or Music Entrepreneur HQ… Like I said, we’re looking for solutions. The plan is to slow things down a bit, to get our messaging right, optimize our website, and to fine-tune what’s clearly not working for us right now. So, I wanted to give you a sense of what to expect moving forward: With the podcast, I will be moving to a monthly format for a while, probably for the rest of the year

Are you looking for licensing and placement opportunities? How is multimedia changing, and how does that impact your outlook as an artist? That’s what we’re going to be looking at in this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast. Download the PDF Transcription Podcast Highlights: 00:31 – What is Artlist and what makes it unique? 05:58 – Where are things going with stock music? 09:01 – The intersection between multimedia and NFTs 09:49 – Can anyone join Artlist? 15:08 – A&R and a new kind of record label 17:16 – Revenue models for independent musicians 30:09 – What is Ori most excited about with current producing efforts? 32:47 – What was the last YouTube video Ori watched? 33:23 – What is Ori’s daily routine like? 34:28 – What are Ori’s favorite books? 35:38 – What is the greatest challenge Ori has overcome? 36:46 – What is the greatest victory Ori has experienced? 38:24 – Closing thoughts Resources Mentioned in This Episode: Artlist Episode 248 – Get Your Music Distributed & Tap into More Revenue Streams Mixing with Your Mind by Michael Paul Stavrou The Unstarving Musician Transcription: Coming soon. Closing Segment The Unstarving Musician podcast, hosted by Robonzo, features interviews with independent music artists who share their experience and expertise on recording, touring, getting gigs, the creative process, marketing, and more. It’s a podcast intended to help independent music artists better understand the marketing, business and creative processes that empower us to do more of what we love – make music. Find it at UnstarvingMusician.com and wherever you get your favorite audio. This has been episode 260 of The New Music Industry Podcast. I’m David Andrew Wiebe, and I look forward to seeing you on the stages of the world. Upgrade to Members Only Audios for more exciting, exclusive training.

What would it look like to start a new podcast? How do you market your music effectively? What are the most important tools you could be taking advantage of in 2022? That’s what we’re going to be looking at in this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast. Podcast Highlights: 00:35 – Robonzo returns 01:46 – Robonzo’s new podcast startup program 09:56 – The importance of segmenting your audience 12:16 – Is it too late to get into the podcast game? 18:00 – Robonzo’s latest singles 22:12 – How has Robonzo been holding up during the pandemic? 27:07 – What was Robonzo’s approach to writing lyrics? 28:35 – What are the most important music marketing lessons Robonzo learned? 31:05 – Leveraging your successes 32:06 – What roadblocks has Robonzo worked on overcoming? 34:46 – Robonzo’s tool / tech stack – the essentials 37:25 – What is Robonzo most excited about? 40:04 – Closing thoughts Resources Mentioned in This Episode: The Unstarving Musician Episode 164 – How to be Happy & Profitable Live Performer Podcast Startup The Power of Your Subconscious Mind by Dr. Joseph Murphy Review The Music Entrepreneur Code – 2022 Edition by David Andrew Wiebe Transcription: Coming soon. Closing Segment Did you pick up your copy of The Music Entrepreneur Code – 2022 Edition yet? If you got the original edition, then I understand why you might not be rushing over to Amazon to grab this, but there are some new things in there, especially on the opportunity side that make it quite compelling. And if you don’t already have a copy, well, this is the definitive version of The Music Entrepreneur Code. Think of it this way – you would be supporting the podcast with your purchase. So, go to davidandrewwiebe.com/Code2022 to pick up your copy. I hope you’ve been enjoying the holiday season, and I want to wish you a Happy New Year! This has been episode 259 of The New Music Industry Podcast. I’m David Andrew Wiebe, and I look forward to seeing you on the stages of the world. Upgrade to Members Only Audios for more exciting, exclusive training.

What can you expect from the 2022 Edition of The Music Entrepreneur Code? What’s different about this version versus the last? That’s what we’re going to be looking at in this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast. Podcast Highlights: 00:26 – The big reveal: The Music Entrepreneur Code – 2022 Edition 01:01 – What led to the creation of the latest edition of The Music Entrepreneur Code 01:54 – What’s new in the latest edition of the book 04:02 – Closing thoughts Resources Mentioned in This Episode: The Music Entrepreneur Code – 2022 Edition by David Andrew Wiebe Transcription: Hey, it’s David Andrew Wiebe. So, at long last it’s been revealed… Now you know ONE of the reasons I’ve been wanting to talk more about The Music Entrepreneur Code as of late. It’s because I’ve been working on the second edition of the book! As for the other reason I’ve been wanting to talk more about The Music Entrepreneur Code? Well, that will have to wait… In this episode, I wanted to give you a preview of the new book. Normally, this is where I would read you the introduction, which is what I’m going to be doing in one of the next couple of episodes. But here, I wanted to share a little bit about what’s new with this edition. So, let’s get into it. What Led to the Creation of The Music Entrepreneur Code – 2022 Edition (Now with More Ninja) This post originally appeared on http://www.davidandrewwiebe.com/ on December 7, 2021. Last year, I had the pleasure of sharing my best-selling, guitar-windmilling, cigar smoking, and whisky swilling The Music Entrepreneur Code with you. And the feedback I got on the new book was phenomenal. Rocker status. As I continued to share the work with readers and friends, though, I realized there was an opportunity for an encore performance. Most if not all of what’s shared in the book is going to stand the test of time, like “Stairway to Heaven,” meaning it’s unlikely to go out of style like nu-metal shlock of the early 2000s. Not to mention, in the book, principles were distilled down to their core essentials like Eric Clapton’s Unplugged. No fluff, no B.S. In that sense, revision would have been redundant, like the Beastie Boys’ deluxe edition of Check Your Head. Here’s What’s New in The Music Entrepreneur Code – 2022 Edition (Now with More Ninja) The most significant opportunity I recognized with the book was the importance of sharing my story. As we all know, story creates connection. And I don’t say that to sound smart. Some of the greatest songwriters of all-time, Leonard Cohen, Bruce Springsteen, and Paul Simon obviously knew this. But with a new introduction centered on story and heart-based connection, I knew that the tactics and strategies discussed in the book would land the plane on smoother, gold-studded runways. As with any other artist or creative, I’ve had many struggles (some would say that’s putting it mildly). And while struggling is ultimately optional, to get to that point in your development requires some deep intellectual digging (and usually several thousand dollars’ worth of courses). But that’s a whole other conversation. Remind me to waffle it out on another occasion. With the latest edition of The Music Entrepreneur Code, I wanted to crack the code on creating intense relatability and instill an emotional connection, just as Elton John did with “Candle In The Wind.” I believe I have accomplished exactly that with the new introduction. This isn’t all that’s available in the latest hard-rocking edition of The Music Entrepreneur Code, though. Here’s what else was changed: More data and insights. Although some of the bigger questions will be left to the forthcoming follow-up, The Music Entrepreneur Companion Guide, the latest edition of The Music Entrepreneur Code features art- and science-based secrets to unlocking your inner musical star. More opportunities. We’re getting ready to launch some done-for-you opportunities to earn an income from sharing the book, and we’re excited about what’s to come. More ninja. Talking about revisions and updates is unsexy. So, I’m calling these changes “more ninja” instead. It’s more fun that way. More tool and resource recommendations. One of the things readers loved about The Music Entrepreneur Code was how it pointed them in the direction of other great gear to help them on their Budokan journey. The latest edition of the book comes with even more. Closing Segment So, if you’re ready to crank your amps up to 11 and embark upon your Budokan journey, the 2022 Edition of The Music Entrepreneur Code is ready for pre-order on Amazon. Of course, I’m groovy enough to have set up a short link for you. You can go to davidandrewwiebe.com/Code2022 – that’s the numbers 2 – 0 – 2 – 2, to pre-order your Kindle. The Kindle launches on December 15, and paperback and hardcover versions will be soon to follow. This has been episode 258 of The New Music Industry Podcast. I’m David Andrew Wiebe and I look forward to seeing you on the stages of the world. Up

There are many forms of pain, whether physical or emotional. What if there were tools and products that could help you live pain-free? That’s what we’re going to be looking at in this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast. Podcast Highlights: 00:29 – Amos Bracewell makes his return to the podcast! 01:36 – What has Amos been up to since August? 06:18 – Amos’ story: From pain to freedom 10:41 – What David Andrew got out of The Gold Within program 12:21 – The purpose of Knockout Originals: The 3 R’s 15:02 – Why Amos bundled up The Gold Within and Knockout Originals 20:51 – We’re not meant to stay in pain 22:12 – David Andrew’s transition 23:21 – Closing thoughts( Resources Mentioned in This Episode: Episode 240 – Manifest Your Music Career Dreams Knockout Originals ClickFunnels The Music Entrepreneur Code – 2022 Edition by David Andrew Wiebe Transcription: Coming soon. Closing Segment So, if you’re ready to crank your amps up to 11 and embark upon your Budokan journey, the 2022 Edition of The Music Entrepreneur Code is ready. Of course, I’m groovy enough to have set up a short link for you. You can go to davidandrewwiebe.com/Code2022 – that’s the numbers 2 – 0 – 2 – 2, to get your Kindle or paperback. This has been episode 257 of The New Music Industry Podcast. I’m David Andrew Wiebe and I look forward to seeing you on the stages of the world. Upgrade to Members Only Audios for more exciting, exclusive training.

How do you establish a successful music business online and off? How do you create a popular YouTube channel, and market your music or your enterprise successfully? That’s what we’re going to be looking at in this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast. Podcast Highlights: 00:29 – Matt Ramsey is back! 01:10 – Matt’s journey to building Ramsey Voice Studio 07:40 – Choosing your focus as a small operation 10:04 – A love for sharing knowledge and discoveries 12:00 – How to set yourself up for success on YouTube 14:46 – Noah Kagan and The Underdogs 19:23 – Repurposing content 21:05 – Using compelling thumbnails in your YouTube videos to get the click 23:24 – Diversifying your content 24:16 – Organic traffic and annoying guest post pitches 30:08 – Waking up to do what you love to do every day 35:31 – Success leaves clues 37:29 – Dan Kennedy resources David loves 39:24 – Wasting time on fluff work and figuring out what to prioritize 41:15 – Your dream customer 46:18 – Mastering the marketing channels you’re using 55:39 – Repositioning your offers (can sometimes lead to success) 57:06 – The importance of keyword research in creating content 58:23 – Is building an email list still all it’s been cracked up to be? 1:00:06 – What is Matt most excited about right now? 1:01:00 – Closing thoughts Resources Mentioned in This Episode: Episode 198 – How to Become a Better Singer Ramsey Voice Studio Noah Kagan How to Make a $1,000 a Month Business Course 80/20 Sales and Marketing by Perry Marshall No B.S. Business Success in The New Economy by Dan Kennedy The Renegade Millionaire by Dan Kennedy $100M Offers by Alex Hormozi Elite Players: All Access Pass ThriveCart 10XPro Ahrefs Surfer SEO Moz Descript The Music Entrepreneur Code – 2022 Edition by David Andrew Wiebe Transcription: Coming soon. Closing Segment So, if you’re ready to crank your amps up to 11 and embark upon your Budokan journey, the 2022 Edition of The Music Entrepreneur Code is ready for pre-order on Amazon. Of course, I’m groovy enough to have set up a short link for you. You can go to davidandrewwiebe.com/Code2022 – that’s the numbers 2 – 0 – 2 – 2, to pre-order your Kindle. The Kindle launches on December 15, and paperback and hardcover versions will be soon to follow. This has been episode 256 of The New Music Industry Podcast. I’m David Andrew Wiebe and I look forward to seeing you on the stages of the world. Upgrade to Members Only Audios for more exciting, exclusive audio training.

What does it feel like to compose an award-winning score for a short film? What goes into a project like that? That’s what we’re going to be looking at in this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast. Podcast Highlights: 00:25 – The story behind David’s award-winning compositions 01:56 – The Long, Lonely Walk 03:00 – Desolation (Broken) 04:18 – Suspense 05:18 – Meet Me Here 07:07 – Closing thoughts Resources Mentioned in This Episode: The Nobody Prayer (Original Soundtrack) Members Only Audios Transcription: Hey, it’s David Andrew Wiebe. You may have heard me talk about my award-winning compositions in recent episodes of the podcast. So, in this episode, I thought I would share a little bit about The Nobody Prayer (Original Soundtrack) as well as a few audio clips from the score. These compositions won Best Original Score at: Hollywood on the Tiber Film Awards Vesuvius International Film Festival New Jersey Film Awards This came as a surprise even to me and wasn’t imaginable when I originally went to work on this score five or six months ago. So, let’s rewind… Five to six months ago, I started an intensive two-year leadership program. A long-time collaborator reached out to me and asked whether I’d be able to compose for his short. I wasn’t sure how much time I’d have to dedicate to this project, but I said “yes.” But of course, it wasn’t long before the chickens came to roost. The producer gave me a relatively tight deadline for the music. And so, while I’d already started the process of writing, I now had to deliver on my promise in short order. Based on the subject matter of the film, I knew I wanted to feature the acoustic guitar in the score. So, I made some sketches and sent them over to the producer. At first, he was worried that the score might end up coming out sounding like Brokeback Mountain, but when he layered the music over the footage, he could see the merit in my approach. And so, with his approval, I set to work on turning my demos into full-fledged compositions, with strings and piano playing a supporting role to the acoustic guitar. The score opens with a song titled “The Long, Lonely Walk.” #1 – “The Long, Lonely Walk” In the opening scenes of The Nobody Prayer, the protagonist is seen walking along a path on a hill with the Calgary skyline in the background. I probably don’t need to say much more about this tune because what I just said paints a nice word picture. The song carries a dark, melancholy feel because that’s where the leading character is at mentally and emotionally for most of the film. It’s the first composition in the film and on the original soundtrack, but it’s not the first song I started piecing together. This next one is: #2 – “Desolation (Broken)” “Desolation (Broken)” is the centerpiece of the score. It’s the first song I started working on for The Nobody Prayer. In a short film requiring about five minutes of music, it usually happens that one song does most of the heavy lifting, and in this case, it was “Desolation.” Compared to the other tunes, which tend to feature more repetition, or what one might call “mood music,” this one is longer and features more movement. It’s a song with structure, as it goes from dark and melancholy to urgent and emotive. There’s a bluesy lick in the middle section, and that was pure inspiration. It just felt right. I don’t think it would be too much of an exaggeration to say that “Desolation” is the main theme of The Nobody Prayer. Then comes a track called “Suspense.” #3 – “Suspense” In The Nobody Prayer, the leading character starts out despondent. But as the short unfolds, he experiences a significant shift in emotion. The “voice of God” calls to him, letting him know that everything is okay. So, I knew I needed a song that bridged the earlier songs in the score, which were decidedly gloomy. “Suspense” is obviously somewhere between woeful and hopeful, and from that perspective, the title might be a little obvious or tongue in cheek. Oh well. The film ends on a happy note, and that’s why the following track was written: #4 – “Meet Me Here” “Meet Me Here” is the happiest song in the score, and that’s because the score follows the character arc of the lead, from feeling completely desolate and alone to finding hope in his identity, from upset to resolution. This song features percussive “slaps” on the acoustic guitar. I knew from trying this in an earlier demo that I’d need to use automation rather heavily to tame those beasts, and I was successful in that. What’s fascinating about this guitar part is that it was quite easy to perform. Sections that should have been obvious and easy on the guitar ended up tripping me up, and sections that should have been harder to capture came together relatively quickly. Scrapes, string noise, body shifting, muted notes, and other minor noises were all left in to create a more authentic feel. When The Nobody Prayer opens, the lead is unstable, and I wanted this to be reflected in the music too.

How do you run an independent record label? How do you set yourself and your artists up for success long-term? That’s what we’re going to be looking at in this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast. Podcast Highlights: 00:24 – Nick Sadler is back! 00:54 – Nick’s new book 08:57 – Artist contracts and recording agreements 10:02 – Finding an extra set of hands to help you in your career – artist manager 13:30 – Successful artists generally don’t wait around for representation 16:04 – Why is it important to throw more money at album artwork? 21:11 – How David won Best Original Score for The Nobody Prayer 23:15 – How to grow an email list in depth 33:33 – Has Nick ever had to diagnose and repair a business that wasn’t working? 34:48 – What is the importance of a business plan? 39:05 – Instagram and Facebook ads and the gold rush 45:58 – Nick’s closing thoughts 49:03 – Setting up your artists for success Resources Mentioned in This Episode: Episode 167 – How to Get Your Independent Record Label off the Ground NSDMT The Label Machine The Label Machine by Nick Sadler The Nobody Prayer (Original Soundtrack) Music Money Machine Transcription: Coming soon. Closing Segment So, if you enjoyed this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast and want to figure out how you can take care of your artists, or even give your own music a serious boost, I want to invite you to download our new free training called Music Money Machine. If you’re discouraged and tired of trying to stand out from the crowd, only to come up empty handed, this training is for you. Claim it now at davidandrewwiebe.com/Machine. This has been episode 254 of The New Music Industry Podcast. I’m David Andrew Wiebe, and I look forward to seeing you on the stages of the world.