When it comes to the music business, there is no single route to success as every aspect of the business is constantly evolving, from listeners' tastes to music trends and how music is discovered and consumed. But understanding the business and having certain relevant skills could improve your chances of success as an independent artist.

Here are some things you can do to be a successful Independent Artist:

Short for Electronic Press Kit, an EPK is your digital resume. It tells music professionals and gatekeepers what they need to know about you, including your biography, professional artist pictures, most popular songs, upcoming releases, contact, notable moments, i.e. performances, press reviews, or artist cosign, and what impact your music has had.

EPKs are a must when networking or reaching out to publications, radio stations, show promoters or labels. They help you stand out and give a sense of who you are as an artist. You could either hire someone to create one for you or create one yourself by using tools like Canva, which provides free templates.

All major streaming platforms provide profile pages for Artists, which most artists often underutilise. To optimise your artist page, make sure you upload a profile and banner picture that is in line with who you are as an artist and the music you create, write out a compelling bio, and also customise your distribution links, ensuring your name and song title exist on the link. While these might seem little, they help make your page stand out and be more engaging.

When last did you analyze your backend data to utilise the insight in decision-making? Well, do that more often. Most DSPs provide an artist page that gives you insight into your best-performing songs, cities in which your listeners are based, and much more. Using this data would help you know what works for you, what your fans enjoy, and what you should build on.

Music Metadata provides critical information that identifies your music and documents everyone who took part in making it. Think of metadata as the DNA of your music release. Ensuring your music has the right metadata helps ensure your music is discoverable on DSPs, either through search results, playlists or recommendations. It also helps DSPS track publishing and royalties payments, as about 25% of all royalties are not paid or paid to the wrong people because of missing or incorrect metadata.

Collaboration is a great way to build strong relationships with your fellow artists and music business professionals like A&Rs, curators, and promoters. Working with your fellow artists through features or recording camps help expand your network and fanbase and provides you with helpful feedback and constructive criticism necessary for your growth as an artist. The Nigerian Alté scene's success has been because of collaborations between its members, which helped fans of one artist discover others and build the community. Even the biggest Afrobeats stars have collaborated with foreign artists to break into new markets outside the continent.

How many recorded songs are languishing in your hard drive? What purpose are they serving there? Whatever your reasons, putting off music release because you do not have enough resources to promote them is like choosing not to participate in a lottery because you can only buy one ticket. One thing is guaranteed, you’ll never win. While bigger artists can go years or months without releasing music because they have enough star power to remain in the consciousness of their fans until they eventually release music. As an independent artist with fewer resources and a small fanbase, releasing music constantly helps keep your fans engaged, drive discovery, and creates opportunity to experiment and discover what your tribe enjoy. Put that music out today.

About 100,000 songs are uploaded to DSPs daily. The sheer amount of music released makes it imperative that artists prioritize content creation on social media and other platforms to promote their music and brand. While releasing music is the primary way to keep your fans engaged, creating fun content for social media, like freestyle videos; song and beat breakdowns; and videos on your creative/recording process; are great ways to repurpose your music and increase engagement on your social media pages.

It is important to know the basics of the music business as an artist. While it is your team's job to understand and make sure the business part of your music runs smoothly, understanding various aspects of the business would help you avoid getting exploited. Some important areas to get familiar with are: music publishing, copyrighting, contracts, licensing and royalties.

As your career grows as an artist, it is important to create a team to assist you with areas that take away time from you being an artist or require skills you don’t have. As you grow, their insights, specialisation, and skill sets will help you make the best decisions and advance your career.

Two of the most important roles are an artist manager and a lawyer. An artist manager helps plan your career and handles the administrative process. An entertainment lawyer helps review your contracts, protect your copyright, and avoid exploitation. Some other management roles include publicist, booking agent, distributor, road manager, photographer, videographer, and graphic designer.

To save cost, your team does not have to work exclusively with you and can work on a per-time or per-project basis.

An image of Rema and Selena on the set of the video for their collaboration track "Calm Down Remix"

9 Things You Must Do To Be a Successful Independent Artist

An image of Rema and Selena on the set of the video for their collaboration track "Calm Down Remix"

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