# Strategy for a successful release



## handel_afficionado (Jun 9, 2022)

In about 30 to 45 days I plan to release an ep on the digital platforms. The tracks consist mostly of piano and some strings.
How can I reach as many people as possible whether it's spotify or other streaming platform?

Is it true that If the music is really great there's no need for marketing? (I don't really believe this).

If I have 400 dolars to spend in marketing how should I proceed?


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## johnsrev (Jun 9, 2022)

First, I would avoid the "usual suspects" that promise marketing tools if you sign up for their distribution platform. I have tried them all. All have their recipe for release schedules and such. Distribution to all the streaming platforms does not a music career make. The ROI on the work and money required is abysmal. If you want to truly monetize your music and generate sales, I recommend John Oszajca's MoneyMarketingManifesto.com. He has two products that produce results, MMM 5.0 with optional Insiders Circle coaching, and Tunepipe. Tunepipe is a customizable website with marketing baked in and a customizable sales funnel. This also includes an automated email responder with can programmed. I have profited from this artist-centric sales model which adds the ability to develop passive income streams. Once you get this approach set up it is easy to maintain. Best of all, you will have more time to create music, service client projects, and plan your future in this business. Check it out! Wishing you all the best in your musical pursuits. Blessings.


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## Scripter (Jun 9, 2022)

johnsrev said:


> First, I would avoid the "usual suspects" that promise marketing tools if you sign up for their distribution platform. I have tried them all. All have their recipe for release schedules and such. Distribution to all the streaming platforms does not a music career make. The ROI on the work and money required is abysmal. If you want to truly monetize your music and generate sales, I recommend John Oszajca's MoneyMarketingManifesto.com. He has two products that produce results, MMM 5.0 with optional Insiders Circle coaching, and Tunepipe. Tunepipe is a customizable website with marketing baked in and a customizable sales funnel. This also includes an automated email responder with can programmed. I have profited from this artist-centric sales model which adds the ability to develop passive income streams. Once you get this approach set up it is easy to maintain. Best of all, you will have more time to create music, service client projects, and plan your future in this business. Check it out! Wishing you all the best in your musical pursuits. Blessings.


Screams scam to me... New Member posting to make someone pay for a probably expensive course. Looked on the side an haven‘t found a price mentioned, only BIG RED Buy Buttons. Not looks that legitemate for me. Also you find nearly no reviews or anything. 
Also for building funnels and co. there are good yt tutorials. Consider that before spending your hard earned money. Just my two cents tho.


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## johnsrev (Jun 9, 2022)

Scripter said:


> Screams scam to me... New Member posting to make someone pay for a probably expensive course. Looked on the side an haven‘t found a price mentioned, only BIG RED Buy Buttons. Not looks that legitemate for me. Also you find nearly no reviews or anything.
> Also for building funnels and co. there are good yt tut4orials. Consider that before spending your hard earned money. Just my two cents tho.


Well, I started with MMM 1.0. The price back then was $147.00. It was an SEO-based program then. The money I invested then resulted in monthly sales of $2700 on average. MMM 5.0 which teaches targeted advertising, branding, and finding where fans of your music are most likely to see your ad and respond. The current price for this course is $197.00. The Tunepipe product is 30.00 a month. You can spend that and then some on CD Baby/Symphonic/BandZoogle/Wix/Squarespace and those platforms do not include the music marketing and email autoresponders. 

With the training, I got from the MMM 5.0 course I am averaging 9000 in album sales every quarter. Can your "two cents" bring you an ROI like that? As I said in my first post, I tried all of the other platforms and I did not learn the tools to make a profitable enterprise. If you add up the cost of an ISP, Website, email autoresponder, add creation with targeted buys, multiple sales funnels, and fulfillment costs required to generate these kinds of sales, you have far surpassed the 400-dollar budget our fellow composer mentioned. Tunepipe covers that infrastructure for $30 a month. 

The modest investment I made has enabled me to build a business. I bought the course and proved that it works. You look at the website and see "Screaming Red Flags." I looked at this platform and saw an opportunity that made sense. My perspective came from having a successful career as a composer for media. My music was proven in the marketplace and I had confidence that it was marketable to a broad fanbase. I own all of the rights and performances to a catalog that spans 4 decades and covers many genres. I have been a member of this forum for over eight years. I was 72 in January of this year and have been a classically trained professional musician since I was 16. So, I am not a "nooby". The "New Member" comment betrays a bias that is unfounded in my case. 

I wish that I had this kind of advice from a fellow composer before I had wasted hundreds of dollars on platforms that promised success but never delivered. I get no referral fee from this recommendation. I posted on this thread because my experience may be of some help to Handel Afficionado for his success.


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## Arbee (Jun 9, 2022)

I'd love to believe there is a shortcut to driving independent instrumental music sales, but my several years of experience now tell me that anything and everything that promises such a shortcut is at best misleading, at worst a complete scam. I've dabbled with many of them, been caught a couple of times, but mostly dodged some potentially expensive bullets. Yes of course my own music might suck and you may have a much better and quicker result, but if you're going to be an artist/composer you have to build a profile and a fanbase, a real marathon that takes time. Otherwise, production music is the more sensible path. 

As I've said before, there is more money in selling dreams than living them, and these training, marketing and PR businesses all know it. My email is full of such "opportunities" every day now. Well targeted (keywords and knowing your audience) YouTube Google Ads has been quite effective in my experience.


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## johnsrev (Jun 10, 2022)

Arbee said:


> I'd love to believe there is a shortcut to driving independent instrumental music sales, but my several years of experience now tell me that anything and everything that promises such a shortcut is at best misleading, at worst a complete scam. I've dabbled with many of them, been caught a couple of times, but mostly dodged some potentially expensive bullets. Yes of course my own music might suck and you may have a much better and quicker result, but if you're going to be an artist/composer you have to build a profile and a fanbase, a real marathon that takes time. Otherwise, production music is the more sensible path.
> 
> As I've said before, there is more money in selling dreams than living them, and these training, marketing and PR businesses all know it. My email is full of such "opportunities" every day now. Well targeted (keywords and knowing your audience) YouTube Google Ads has been quite effective in my experience.


I agree with your post. I never said that there is a shortcut to success with this program and website platform. It is a lot of work to start and set this approach up. A large part of the training does involve developing a fan base. My point was that the infrastructure for executing the marketing concept is what Tunepipe is all about. 

Look, this is something that is different than most of the sell-the-dream platforms that you referenced which I have tried in the past. You either have the goods or you don't. What worked for me may not be everyone's cup of tea. Learning and executing this approach does result in a marketing plan that is much easier to maintain, than the rabbit hole of drowning in social media burnout. This is offered for others' consideration. If they are interested, they look into it. If they don't they move on.

I agree with you also regarding production music being a sensible path. However, my catalog breath affords me the ability to market a comprehensive boutique production music library, and the sales that I have been able to achieve have provided the capital to do so. Since most of that catalog was for broadcast properties, to begin with, brings the opportunity to again realize performance royalties that would far outpace sales to fans alone.

Finally, in terms of time, it has taken me a year and a half to get where I am. The disruption of the pandemic availed me the time to diligently pursue this Enterprize. It was a choice that I am glad that I made.


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## SupremeFist (Jun 10, 2022)

handel_afficionado said:


> In about 30 to 45 days I plan to release an ep on the digital platforms. The tracks consist mostly of piano and some strings.
> How can I reach as many people as possible whether it's spotify or other streaming platform?
> 
> Is it true that If the music is really great there's no need for marketing? (I don't really believe this).
> ...


Submithub for a start, to pitch your tracks to people who run popular playlists.


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## doctoremmet (Jun 10, 2022)

So would you perhaps be willing to share some examples of how you’ve set up your website, socials, Bandcamp, Spotify etc? How does one build a fanbase and how does that look in practice? There has to be some sort of first point of contact?


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## GtrString (Jun 10, 2022)

You will need to identify your core audience for the music. Nobody buys music anymore, except for some specialty purposes, that dream died 20 years ago. Music is free to listen to, but you can find an audience that will listen to your work on the streaming platforms.

Piano with strings is an aquired taste, and a very saturated niche, so you would be better off thinking about why you’d like someone to listen to your music. If they enjoy listening to it, where would you like them to go afterwards? Do you have anything else/ more to offer?

The streaming platforms are basically just part of a marketing funnel now, you don’t make much from them in itself, but you can use them to attract attention to other parts of your business or worklife. Like the big artists release music to find fans to go to their live shows. The principle is that streaming help them sell tickets.

That’s what you should do with your marketing money (find the core audience), whether you want to sell tickets, production, composition, education, public speaking ect.


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## handel_afficionado (Jun 10, 2022)

johnsrev said:


> Well, I started with MMM 1.0. The price back then was $147.00. It was an SEO-based program then. The money I invested then resulted in monthly sales of $2700 on average. MMM 5.0 which teaches targeted advertising, branding, and finding where fans of your music are most likely to see your ad and respond. The current price for this course is $197.00. The Tunepipe product is 30.00 a month. You can spend that and then some on CD Baby/Symphonic/BandZoogle/Wix/Squarespace and those platforms do not include the music marketing and email autoresponders.
> 
> With the training, I got from the MMM 5.0 course I am averaging 9000 in album sales every quarter. Can your "two cents" bring you an ROI like that? As I said in my first post, I tried all of the other platforms and I did not learn the tools to make a profitable enterprise. If you add up the cost of an ISP, Website, email autoresponder, add creation with targeted buys, multiple sales funnels, and fulfillment costs required to generate these kinds of sales, you have far surpassed the 400-dollar budget our fellow composer mentioned. Tunepipe covers that infrastructure for $30 a month.
> 
> ...


What kind of marketing is included on the tunepipe?
Tunepipe is 30 $ a month
Distrokid (I'm not saying distrokid is a great product) is 35$ a year + You can build a website for around 60$ a year. 
Tunepipe for a year will cost me 360 dollars and that combination above costs around 95 dollars.

No hard feelings! I'm just wondering what's best for me and economically
9000 in album sales every quarter is impressive!

Can you share the links of your website and social media?


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## handel_afficionado (Jun 10, 2022)

SupremeFist said:


> Submithub for a start, to pitch your tracks to people who run popular playlists.


I've tried submithub in the past with one track. I wonder If that money aplied on facebook ads or other platform had been a better choice


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## handel_afficionado (Jun 10, 2022)

doctoremmet said:


> So would you perhaps be willing to share some examples of how you’ve set up your website, socials, Bandcamp, Spotify etc? How does one build a fanbase and how does that look in practice? There has to be some sort of first point of contact?


I have the opportunity to build a website. I'm kinda lucky in that regard because I have a friend that understands a lot of creating websites. But I see so many independent artists and creators with websites but no traffic. I also see composers with many monthly listeners that don't care about websites.

I might create one especially to write music articles, sell sheet music etc

I don't mind share the links later with you.

I'm going to create an youtube channel to try to drag attention to my music.

My instagram presence it's weak at the moment.


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## handel_afficionado (Jun 10, 2022)

GtrString said:


> You will need to identify your core audience for the music. Nobody buys music anymore, except for some specialty purposes, that dream died 20 years ago. Music is free to listen to, but you can find an audience that will listen to your work on the streaming platforms.
> 
> Piano with strings is an aquired taste, and a very saturated niche, so you would be better off thinking about why you’d like someone to listen to your music. If they enjoy listening to it, where would you like them to go afterwards? Do you have anything else/ more to offer?
> 
> ...


Those are big questions that I need to answer. 

Do you have any suggestions of what I could offer If they enjoy listening to my music?

I also would like to give composition lessons If they enjoy how my music was made. And do songwriting for other artists. 

The core audience? 
That's difficult to answer


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## Roger Newton (Jun 10, 2022)

handel_afficionado said:


> Is it true that If the music is really great there's no need for marketing?


No.


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## Jeremy Spencer (Jun 10, 2022)

johnsrev said:


> I am averaging 9000 in album sales every quarter.


That is indeed impressive considering album sales are pretty much in the days of yore. I’d like to check out your stuff, do you have a link?


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## Arbee (Jun 10, 2022)

Jeremy Spencer said:


> That is indeed impressive considering album sales are pretty much in the days of yore. I’d like to check out your stuff, do you have a link?


I agree, would love to hear some of your work @johnsrev with those relatively quick results, very impressive.


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## Scripter (Jun 11, 2022)

johnsrev said:


> Well, I started with MMM 1.0. The price back then was $147.00. It was an SEO-based program then. The money I invested then resulted in monthly sales of $2700 on average. MMM 5.0 which teaches targeted advertising, branding, and finding where fans of your music are most likely to see your ad and respond. The current price for this course is $197.00. The Tunepipe product is 30.00 a month. You can spend that and then some on CD Baby/Symphonic/BandZoogle/Wix/Squarespace and those platforms do not include the music marketing and email autoresponders.
> 
> With the training, I got from the MMM 5.0 course I am averaging 9000 in album sales every quarter. Can your "two cents" bring you an ROI like that? As I said in my first post, I tried all of the other platforms and I did not learn the tools to make a profitable enterprise. If you add up the cost of an ISP, Website, email autoresponder, add creation with targeted buys, multiple sales funnels, and fulfillment costs required to generate these kinds of sales, you have far surpassed the 400-dollar budget our fellow composer mentioned. Tunepipe covers that infrastructure for $30 a month.
> 
> ...


Glad if it worked for you no offense, but I guess you understand that im kinda suspicous here. Also cause i couldn't find real prove that the program is legitemate. Really on the internet theres literally nothing useful to this program except the praising reviews on the website. Why are there no reviews from bigger YT or voices on bigger blogs if this program exists that long and is that good? Really. Also the name of the course mentor says nothing to me. Haven't found really sucessfull work of him too. But im curious too to hear your music.  Best regards


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## Roger Newton (Jun 11, 2022)

handel_afficionado said:


> Those are big questions that I need to answer.
> 
> Do you have any suggestions of what I could offer If they enjoy listening to my music?


Let's hear some, or even a lot of your music before I commit to anything.


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## handel_afficionado (Jun 11, 2022)

Roger Newton said:


> Let's hear some, or even a lot of your music before I commit to anything.




I only have one track released.
Since that release I had counterpoint lessons, composition, harmony and got better at composing, production and a bit better at orchestration.


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## Scripter (Jun 12, 2022)

handel_afficionado said:


> I only have one track released.
> Since that release I had counterpoint lessons, composition, harmony and got better at composing, production and a bit better at orchestration.



We actually wanted to hear the music of john who claimed to be very sucessfull due to this program. 
But anyway thanks for the music.


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## Roger Newton (Jun 12, 2022)

handel_afficionado said:


> [
> 
> I only have one track released.
> Since that release I had counterpoint lessons, composition, harmony and got better at composing, production and a bit better at orchestration.


Well. It's a start.


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## handel_afficionado (Jun 12, 2022)

Scripter said:


> We actually wanted to hear the music of john who claimed to be very sucessfull due to this program.
> But anyway thanks for the music.


I can't wait for John's music and website links!


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## SupremeFist (Jun 12, 2022)

I hate funnels.


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## handel_afficionado (Jun 12, 2022)

SupremeFist said:


> I hate funnels.


I know very little about funnels. Do you have any experience with funnels?


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## Jeremy Spencer (Jun 12, 2022)

Arbee said:


> I agree, would love to hear some of your work @johnsrev with those relatively quick results, very impressive.


He’s averaging at least $360,000 per year in album sales if it’s $10 per album.


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## Arbee (Jun 12, 2022)

Jeremy Spencer said:


> He’s averaging at least $360,000 per year in album sales if it’s $10 per album.


Sadly no reply so far....


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## Yellow Studio (Jun 13, 2022)

handel_afficionado said:


> In about 30 to 45 days I plan to release an ep on the digital platforms. The tracks consist mostly of piano and some strings.
> How can I reach as many people as possible whether it's spotify or other streaming platform?
> 
> Is it true that If the music is really great there's no need for marketing? (I don't really believe this).
> ...


Claim your artist profile on Spotify and other streaming sites before your release then you will be able to pitch a track for consideration to some of the sites.
Watch a few videos like these maybe?



https://www.youtube.com/c/AndrewSouthworth/videos


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## handel_afficionado (Jun 13, 2022)

Yellow Studio said:


> Claim your artist profile on Spotify and other streaming sites before your release then you will be able to pitch a track for consideration to some of the sites.
> Watch a few videos like these maybe?
> 
> 
> ...



What do you mean by claim your artist profile on Spotify? Like get my spotify account verified? If so I already did that via distrokid.

What do you mean by pitch a track for consideration?


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## Yellow Studio (Jun 13, 2022)

handel_afficionado said:


> What do you mean by claim your artist profile on Spotify? Like get my spotify account verified? If so I already did that via distrokid.
> 
> What do you mean by pitch a track for consideration?


On the artist page you will find how to pitch a track to Spotify


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## Yellow Studio (Jun 13, 2022)

handel_afficionado said:


> What do you mean by claim your artist profile on Spotify? Like get my spotify account verified? If so I already did that via distrokid.
> 
> What do you mean by pitch a track for consideration?


After the release it is possible to claim artist on Amazon and pitch too


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## handel_afficionado (Jun 13, 2022)

Yellow Studio said:


> After the release it is possible to claim artist on Amazon and pitch too


I will not release on Amazon. Distrokid released my music on other artist profile. I've tried several times for them to correct this but they don't do nothing about it. Same thing happened on deezer etc. So with this recurring problem I will only release on Spotify and apple unfortunately.


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## Chamberfield (Jun 13, 2022)

Yellow Studio said:


> Claim your artist profile on Spotify and other streaming sites before your release then you will be able to pitch a track for consideration to some of the sites.


Is it possible to do this on any other site, aside from Spotify? I have an Apple Music artist profile, but never saw an option to pitch songs or do any type of marketing. It's very bare bones compared to Spotify. But I'm not a paying member, so maybe I'm missing something.


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## Yellow Studio (Jun 13, 2022)

handel_afficionado said:


> I will not release on Amazon. Distrokid released my music on other artist profile. I've tried several times for them to correct this but they don't do nothing about it. Same thing happened on deezer etc. So with this recurring problem I will only release on Spotify and apple unfortunately.


Have you tried to claim artist directly from Amazon, not through DK?
You have to do it after the release


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## handel_afficionado (Jun 13, 2022)

Yellow Studio said:


> Have you tried to claim artist directly from Amazon, not through DK?


Yes, I tried months ago. I will try it again to see if the process is better now.


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## Scripter (Jun 15, 2022)

Arbee said:


> Sadly no reply so far....


I guess we will see no in a very very very long time  Just a guess, but it would proof my thesis.


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## ryst (Jun 15, 2022)

Scripter said:


> I guess we will see no in a very very very long time  Just a guess, but it would proof my thesis.


Give him a break. He's probably really busy counting his money.


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## Scripter (Jun 15, 2022)

ryst said:


> Give him a break. He's probably really busy counting his money.


Don't wanted to say it this way, in case he is legitimate.  But if he is: take my 500 bucks and I'll be rich and well known everywhere like the mentor of this course... 😂


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## ryst (Jun 16, 2022)

He could totally be legit. I was more making fun of the "suspense" of waiting for his next post.


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## Scripter (Jun 16, 2022)

ryst said:


> He could totally be legit. I was more making fun of the "suspense" of waiting for his next post.


Haven’t said anything else, trough the whole story sounds a little to good and hasn’t got any backup so far. But we will see.


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## handel_afficionado (Jun 20, 2022)

Scripter said:


> Haven’t said anything else, trough the whole story sounds a little to good and hasn’t got any backup so far. But we will see.


He was trying to capitalize on someone with very little experience in the music industry. I asked a software engineer about that website that he mentioned and the guy told me that it is very expensive and garbage. Truly snake oil.


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