By Farley J. Joseph |Founder, DianJen

A new year is always a great time to look at where you are in the music industry and create your key goals for improving what you offer, increasing visibility or growing your fanbase! Failure to plan means that you will always be struggling to produce quality work, feeling like you are working hard with little recognition and never finishing the projects you start! You’re in the right place! Based on our research and experience training music professionals over the past 15 years, here are 5 areas you should brainstorm to help you take action and do more with your music in 2024! Just follow the steps and you’ll feel more confident and enjoy more structure and ease in your music business operations in 2024!

Ready? Let’s go!

Step 1: Focus on the Music

Before you scale up your business activities in the music industry, what you offer needs to be of the highest possible quality! Whether you’re a songwriter, recording artist, record producer or artist manager, spend time developing your craft so that you provide immense value to your clients and fans!

You should:

  • Invest in growing your skill set- spend some time and money on formal training so you improve your technique and sound.
  • Stay abreast of industry trends- Follow the leading industry thinkers, pay attention to the top blogs and podcasts so that you can stand out and be innovative in your approaches.
  • Start small- choose 1 or 2 projects and refine them as best as you can before moving on.

What to look out for:

Many people skip this foundational step, many times thinking they can depend on their innate talent only and then wonder why success keeps eluding them. Don’t let that be you!

Music is your product and your business is only as good as the product you offer! This is a crucial foundational step that will determine your success later on.

Step 2: Build Your Team 

At this point, you’re probably thinking that you may not have the time to improve your skills or invest in your music! You may feel that you don’t have the connections to move further, or even if you do, you just don’t have the financial resources to do what you would like to.

One thing that may help is to partner with freelancers, as the need arises to help you achieve tasks with professional results. A good place to start is to:

  • Explore platforms like fiverr and upwork depending on your budget.
  • Review samples of work from top rated or low-costs freelancers that can support your music related goal. For instance, if you need a web or graphic designer, or need to have your work mixed or mastered, see how many orders they have fulfilled and the reviews left by past clients. 
  • Finally, select the freelancer(s) that best suit your requirements and budget and form a relationship with them. Incorporate them into your overall business strategy using them each time you have a project to work on. 

Step 3: Grow Your Online Community

You may be feeling a bit overwhelmed and that’s perfectly normal. Any time you’re about to try something new, it takes some time to process it. Just be patient and stay with it. 

Next, you have to grow your online community. You do this by creating systems to connect with clients and fans. Yes, having a social media presence on multiple platforms is important, but in 2024 building your email list is more important! Remember social platforms can change their algorithms or policies at any time and this can adversely affect your music strategy.

We recommend that you use email marketing software to help you combine and manage fan contacts. You can consider a platform like Mailchimp which has a free tier with great features to get you started collecting fan and client email addresses. Once you have their email contacts, you can send them your personalized updates on music releases, tour schedules and new ventures etc. 

Step 4: Engagement

We’re just about done. There are just two more steps. 

Here’s what to consider next:

You need to create content to help you engage with the fans and clients in your online community. Whether they are on social media or your email list- you must ensure that you remain visible to them and they know what you are up to. You should create a content calendar system that lists the days of the month and the type of content you wish to share with your audience. Specific ideas include: 

  • Video clips that share some personal details that you don’t mind sharing
  • Asking for content creation recommendations
  • Valuable industry insights
  • Podcasts/ interviews you appear in
  • Special upcoming projects  

What to look out for:

No matter what you do, don’t treat this carelessly. Try to avoid selling too hard- provide quality communication that show your community that you have their best interest at heart.

Keep going! You’re nearly there.

Step 5: Be Consistent

This is the last step!

You must make everyto create your action plan and stick to it! At the start of a new year, most independent musicians are optimistic. However, as time progresses they fall behind! This is even more so for those who are working full-time jobs outside the music industry and are trying to juggle their desire to be musically creative with earning a stable income!

Here’s how to get the best results with this:

  • Set 3 specific music business goals- one for each of the next 3 months
  • List your motivations and possible setbacks for each
  • State your action steps to move towards those goals

We’ve given you some tips, tools, and techniques to help ensure your success. Just knowing them isn’t enough, though. It’s time to act and get better results!

Click/Tap here to download our FREE 3 Month Music Business Goal Planner so you can get started now!

There is a special power attached to writing down your goals! When you see what you are working towards it is easier to become focused and stay on track!

Now, over to you!

Have you tried any of these steps? Let us know how they are working for you in the comments.