How to Become a Profitable Musician

We’re all familiar with the stereotype of the starving artist, playing and passing the hat. However, while we’re trained to think that’s necessary for “good art,” that’s a romanticized myth and one we don’t need. For every poverty-stricken underground artist, there are others who make it big -- so why can’t you be one of them?

Still, there’s no denying that making your way as an independent artist online or otherwise is hard. With so much competition, you need to make sure that you put yourself in the best position to succeed. One of the best ways of doing that is making sure that you have a comprehensive email marketing system in place, allowing you to distribute music and monetize your fanbase as best as possible.

This course offers a comprehensive guide to how to do just that.

1. About the Creator

The course was developed by Thomas Ferriere, a graduate of Berklee College of Music with more than 20 years’ worth of firsthand experience within the music business.

Musical groups as diverse as Nine Inch Nails, Imogen, Heap, and Radiohead have implemented variations of these proven practices and they’ve worked wonders for them. This course has been taken by more than two thousand satisfied students and is geared towards those looking to learn the basics of and make a big impact in their indie music sales.

You do not require any special copywriting skills or materials to begin. Thomas Ferriere’s course instead streamlines years of learning and specialized skills into a short course broken up over a few lessons that distill the essence of that academic and music background into an easy-to-understand and highly accessible format.

2. About the Course

The course itself includes 2.5 hours of video instructions split up into easy to digest lessons which can be viewed at any time after the initial download. In addition, you will receive four articles that help to explain the concepts covered in the course, additional downloadable resources, and a certificate of completion.

That latter part is especially pertinent if you ever want to prove to others that you have a grasp of what it takes to sell music online. In an age where certification is both increasingly important and increasingly conferred in an online fashion, the certification included can help elevate the course in the eyes of future employers if you seek out a music marketing job of your own.

You can also access the lessons on your smartphone or other smart devices, allowing you to watch them there, on your TV, or whichever way you prefer.

3. What You’ll Learn

The layout of this email marketing course for music breaks down the process into several steps.

First, you’ll want to develop special email-centric pages on your website. These are also known as “Squeeze Pages” and they are one of the most essential parts of the process. Many of the other methods of selling music require a lot more steps, effort, or copywritten work; however, by setting up an effective Squeeze Page, you can help automate much of the rest of the process.

Once you have done this, visitors to your site who are curious about your music can enter their email in exchange for free samples of your music. An autoresponder built into the site will then blast out friendly emails over the course of a few days.

This helps solve two problems with one big tool. First, as a musician, you don’t have time to send out dozens, hundreds, perhaps even thousands of emails to fans looking to engage with you. By setting up an effective Squeeze Page, you can automate the process by pre-writing messages (or hiring someone to do it for you) and then allowing the autoresponder to message them out automatically upon people entering their email addresses.

Secondly, this helps ensure that you’ll be able to keep fans and customers engaged with your content and informed of your latest concerts, releases, and other exciting news. Most of all, the autoresponder sends out offers of free music.

The overall effect of this is to help you build up a rapport with your fans and increase your chances of being able to monetize your fanbase while getting new sales on a daily basis without your direct involvement. This is a perfect example of passive income at work, which can be an essential way of helping build your brand and bank account without you having to spend extra time on it.

The course lays out the details of how to accomplish this on a step-by-step basis. It will also touch on the importance of generating increased traffic to your site via things such as Facebook Ads and how to make Adwords work for you. Examples of email tablets are given to help you demonstrate the best way to write these in a professional yet engaging manner.

4. Who it’s for

In distilling down advanced techniques and expertise to an easy-to-follow formula, this course is perfect for anyone looking for extra guidance on how to make music marketing work for them without the need for an advanced marketing degree or industry contacts. This means that it is accessible to and a great idea for anyone interested in making money off their music.

In particular, it’s a boon to bands, DJs, musicians, and other indie artists who could benefit from the insight it provides. If you have never marketed your own music before or that of someone else, this is a great introduction on how to do so in a cost-effective online-savvy fashion.

If you do have a basic idea of online music marketing, this course can help everyone from seasoned producers and podcasters to solo artists up their online game and stay ahead of the competition.

With the help of this course, you can maximize your monetization via Squeeze Pages and email automation, allowing you to enjoy more financial stability and focus on what matters most -- the music.