To everyone making excuses. You can’t bring those with you when you die so you might as well try to do something you enjoy before you go. Why work to just die and be forgotten in time?! Create music and let your name go down in history, plus. Your family can listen to your work when they feel like hearing your voice or your music
I've been following you for two years now. This year I'm finally going to put out my first single, and I can't thank you enough for your kindness and way of sharing your knowledge. Cheers Damo!
ME TO!!! i been watching him for a while and been so scared but my debut single is finally finished mixed and mastered and i think im ready!! good luck friend!
Having a 9 to 5 sucks the life out of me. I am so caught in meeting the deadlines, life beyond now doesn’t exist and leaves no time for music. I haven’t made any music this year cause I get home at 8pm cook dinner and it’s time to sleep for a 6am wake up. Just me?
I feel your frustration Josh. Trying to make music and content with no time is so tough: Try and find some time and make sure you are enjoying some kind of writing and creating and start off with something simple on socials even if it’s just live performances or demos etc Hope things get easier financially so you can down some hours and make more music
@@DamianKeyescan you make a course on this? like developing a financial plan so you don’t have to work, the power of boundaries, etc. Financial plan would be awesome to make visible ones options. It’s all good saying do work and music until you can make music your full time thing… but options to show how this can be speeded up would be awesome.
@@joshuarodriguez5986 I absolutely can, I’ll make a start on it this week, give me a few weeks and I’ll get something out for you. Let’s get you out of the slog if the 9-5 or at least find a way to appease both somehow 😊
Great video, packed with valuable insights! I wanted to add some thoughts that might be helpful to the community. First, regarding release days, consider Wednesdays or Thursdays instead of the popular Friday. With so many artists, including big names, dropping new music on Fridays, smaller bands with limited budgets can get lost in the noise. A quieter day allows for better exposure and potentially higher conversion rates. I've also observed steeper engagement declines on Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays after Friday releases, whereas mid-week releases tend to see a more gradual drop-off. Second, targeting audiences in upcoming tour locations can be highly effective for boosting concert attendance and merchandise sales. Third, while I'm a fan of content batching, consider doing it well before the promotional period. Creating behind-the-scenes content like songwriting, recording, production, and photoshoots can be very engaging and scheduled for release ahead of time. This frees up the artist to focus on fan engagement during promotion. Finally, I like to optimize the "link in bio" using it to re-direct to the "Artist's pick" playlist with the new release as the first song and the rest with all the songs in the artist's catalog. This keeps listeners within your catalog when the promoted song finishes, potentially increasing plays for other tracks. This idea comes from observing people behavior using streaming, Most people are not active on the platform because they're doing other activities while listening to the music and the automatic "go to the next song" can work in the artist's favour. But these are just my thoughts, and I may be wrong, but I hope they spark additional ideas for upcoming artists.
Actually whenever I listen to your strategy in 2023 November, I brought out a piece of paper and a pen andd made my own strategy , when I released my single Manya in November last year and it worked out , I have another release coming up in February 9th ,I will make out anothrr strategies and hopefully I believe it will work out more this time around, I love watching your videos , you are a great 👍 man , keep it up and God bless 🙏 you, Definitely I tried everything last year to join your Dk music academy but maybe it does not allow my card , I am the artiste that wrote you email , i am watching from Nigeria
Tonight's movie & popcorn! My plan is to continue recording my new album throughout the months...and release each one w/ the previous piggybacked until the whole shebang is released (the waterfall thingy). Why do an album when singles are THE thing? As a children's music artist, I've learned that reviewers for blogs, websites, journals, award organizations, libraries, parent groups, etc. don't waste their time reviewing singles. Albums are what they want, and I'm due for a new one. So the waterfall method, from what I see, brings the best of both worlds--steady stream of singles topped off with an album I can submit for reviews. Debate and other perspectives are welcome on this comment. And thanks for another great vide, Damian!
I’ve got my debut single out on 16th Feb and have already planned it out using the 2023 23 day plan! Will see how it goes 😬 then will use this plan for my following single release in March
I’m so happy that I have been listening to you.. Now I got a mail from radio station that they will listen our music… I’m so excited for this and slowly but surely I will progress.. this has take few months and still working on music video but as you said better to make it right then fast ❤❤❤
This man speaks the truth. The knowledge Damian shares is absolutely priceless. About to release a few singles (Not in Nov-December) and will be implementing these new strategies, along with the other strategies that I learned in his program. If you're reading this comment btw, I hope your release(s) smash the charts!!
It would be really good if you could do some sort of a ‘strategy’ video for people starting from scratch. No fanbase, no followers, no socials, no releases etc. How do you really get going and get started in the first place? I mean I’ve got my singles ready for release and have my first release in a few weeks and started my RUclips channel a couple of weeks ago, posting daily content, trying to implement the strategies, but is there any specific advice for people right at the start?
If you need an advice , all these things said in the video are important, but they wont make you have thousands or views and streams. Lately i had a deal with a record label and they told me to "invest" on Spotify mostly and the only way to have a well done marketing for your songs are Ads (ignore this guy telling to avoid Ads). Ads are the only way, investing money on Conversion Ads is the only way unfortunately . I'd say 800$ for Spotify Ads and 200$ for RUclips ads would be best to promote 1 song. Most of these things "presaves,press etc" are all bullshit. These work only when you already have some wide fanbase ,but if you're new in the industry this wont work.
@@ninodani6 hmm I think it all depends on what you’re trying to achieve. If you simply want thousands of streams then it’s easy to chuck money at it and achieve that. But if it’s thousands of streams from people who hear your song once through an ad then what good is it really? Surely it’s a lot better to get hundreds of streams from people who go to your music because they’re genuinely interested and want to listen? Yeah you could pay a load of money, get your thousands of streams and get your £50 from Spotify. Or you could slowly and steadily get your name out there through regularly posting content, music blogs, social media shoutouts, collaborations with other artists, and very gradually build a fanbase of people who keep coming back for more. A fanbase that will eventually buy merch and tickets to live gigs. Meaning you could then sell 5 t shirts and make £50, and 20 tickets to a gig and make £200, and you’ve already made 5 times the money you’d have got from your instant thousands of Spotify streams. I’m very early days in my journey, my release date is next Friday, and I’ve been posting daily RUclips shorts. In 19 shorts I’ve gained 21 subscribers, which in my view is a success. It’s 21 people who liked what they heard/saw enough to want to come back for more, and I haven’t even released a song yet. It’s not groundbreaking progress, but it’s slow, steady and genuine progress. So I’m happy
@@TheO.O. Doing all this is a very very slow way (if you wanna become a "Rockstar) and also its still not granted that you'll become one day. + people nowdays want to see a good quality content , which needs a good eqipment , good visuals and good audio and a lot of free time. So in poor words all this thing needs money in general, if you wanna have some good content , or a professional mix&master and a photoshoot or music video. These things told at the video will take you at a certain point , but they wont make you part of the "Professional League" and millions of fans, after doing all of the things you said before you'll still need a looot of money to push yourself to the "Professional League" . I dont know what are your goals , but if you wanna play stadiums someday this is for sure not gonna take you there (maybe only if any miracle happen ,but which is not very likely) So those damn amounts of money are needed :p Anyways im not here to demotivate you , its just unfortunately some big amounts of money are needed if you need professional things. I wish you a lot of luck tho' ! 🤘
@@ninodani6 and I’d say 99% of people whose expectation is to become a ‘rock star’ overnight, or to go on to play stadiums with millions of fans, are going to be disappointed. I have a love and passion for music, and I want to share that with others who also love my music. Whether that’s 100 people, 1000 people, 10000 people, 100,000 people, or a million people, it doesn’t matter. My goals aren’t to be a ‘rock star’ or to be ‘famous’. My goals are to love creating music and sharing it with people who also love my creations!
Thank you for all that you do. This will definitely be helpful for the releases I have planned. I am sure I will find myself watching this more than once.
Hello! I have just discovered your videos and all i can say is i wish i found you a year ago!! I dont spend alot of time on youtube but just managed to land a distribution deal for my first EP, and suddenly having to promote the heck out of myself with no marketing knowledge and 2 kids 😂 your videos are super helpful, thank you! 🙏
This is awesome Damian big huge fan from Boston such a tight budget so I’ve decided to spend it to improve and make my home studio pretty and approachable
Well, I gotta thank the Good God and Google, for this one finds me 25 days out from my next release. And I am half way into to it my second time and will be having one more time and a share to others in my group. So a big THANK YOU, is in order and you see I did that. Really psyched by how far we are and how the future is looking bright for growing our audience.
In Australia we suffer from tall poppy syndrome, the majority of ‘Ausrap’ support pages and radios only play music of a certain ‘image’. I’m doing my best to build my audience my self but they gate keep the wider audience. Gonna follow your plan for new release every step and show them who’s boss 🖤
I opted to start dropping music on Mondays, I know Friday was always traditional and I use to follow that but after 4 years out of the industry and just being a fan and songwriter. I find that I get disappointed every Friday when there’s nothing good dropping BUT it’s always good when an artist that I like is dropping their album on a Friday and I just get anxious and want to add more new stuff to my library so I search for new stuff Monday-Thursday to see if I missed anything Friday
As a 23 year old Josh who's just left music college and is slightly panicking, thank you so much for this video hahah! Can't wait to put some of this information to use in my upcoming release, awesome vid as always
BRAVO! Damian, I've watched you for years and I advise my artists most of what you've covered here, but this is THE BEST video you've done. Comprehensive. An absolute masterclass. Thank you!
Thanks Damian for this fleshed out guide. Just about to release my first single and this helped IMMENSELY to point out what needs to be done. Some steps already missed but I'll adapt for the next release. Thanks again.
Thank you so much for the time, effort and love that you put into this video and all your videos. I will be studying this, making notes and looking to take as much as possible from it, in the forthcoming months 🙏
Hey Damian, first of all I'm extremely grateful for having a mentor like you, can't imagine what I would do if this channel was not here. So just know how great of a job you're doing helping us. Can you please help me with a question, every other person on Instagram, tiktok, RUclips is posting covers of other's songs so do they take licence for that or not because this copyright thing is so confusing for me & I have been holding myself back from releasing cover songs just because of that. Can you please help me out ?
From my understanding as long as youre not receiving money from it (like the “free beats” on here), and not claiming it as your own song, you should be good. Can anyone confirm?
I really appreciate this, thank you. I agree its a daunting place where the industry doesn't help with how to do things or how to improve things! Hope i can help 🙂🙂
Bravo! I'm a bit behind on the 20 days with a release coming out in 5 days! But I've taken many notes down and plan to implement as much of this advice as I can for now and ALL of it for my next release in a few weeks! Using the music to promote me, rather than the other way around is a mind blowing shift in approach. Makes so much sense. Thank you so much for this, Damian!
Hi Damian! I just started watching your videos to make my music career amazing, and it's super helpful for me. I'm just wondering how many of your fans (Musicians ) have told you they make their lives epic by using your methods. I know this question would be too advanced 🙄But, no offense. I'm thinking about it seriously. I'd be happy if I could hear your opinion 😌💗
Been around this industry for a long time Damien, including many writing trips to Nashville when i was signed. I'm UK based and I'm restarting my artist career as a rather mature independent artist these days, but still think I've got something to contribute! Lots of advice around, but yours in my humble opinion, makes the most sense with so much great information. Thank you and well done mate. keep up the great work
What if I DO have a million USD to put into my music as an independent artist, what’s the strategy then? Ads? PR? Would be great with a video about this please.
Hey Carl, what I’d recommend with larger budget is building the best team you can to execute these elements, there’s also deals you can look into doing with larger budgets too. If you want some advice in where to spend it so you don’t get ripped off, DM me on insta or email me hello@dk-mba.com
Now I'm excited!!! When I get the masters back for my album, I'm joining the Academy and doing this multiple times for singles before dropping the whole project. So glad I came across you. Hopefully get to meet you in the future, as I'm also in Nashville. Thank you Damian!!!
Amazing info! There is however one major contradiction I need clarification on. Towards the beginning, you say promoting a single via ads is a bad idea. Then, later, you say if you have to budget for it, you should do ads. ???
Watched a few minutes of the video and I already got to say THANK YOU for this precious tips. We are a DIY band from Italy struggling everyday to get our music reach as much souls as possible, since we believe so much in what we do: writing songs for the people who need them! So Damian thank you again for helping us doing what we love to do, but with much more professionalism and efficiency! Our band is DEAF AUTUMN by the way😉🙏
Ciao amico mio, I've read your post and have checked out the deaf autumn channel. Mad props to your success, man. I do see a few things... first, compared to your real "diy" vids (which pull a few hundred views), your "official" music videos got some mad views, which tells me that those vids were campaigned, but at what cost? and more importantly, at what ROI? Point is, for a channel that has been around for 10yrs with a little over 1k subscribers and your last vid was dropped a year ago, it tells me your "everyday struggle" is that you are trying to manufacture an audience by spending a lot of money making great looking content. Perhaps take a step back and look at the whole arc of your music project. And consider this point of the journey the accumulation phase. You are not trying for the reach, right now. In fact, like Damian says, you're setting the place for when the party hits. Keep making great content. I subscribed. And don't break the bank! Ciao.
@@echo.messenger thanks man! Much appreciated! Your tips are precious too, and you "read" our history and present with such sharp precision! But we didn't spend that much money on campaigns,but we did concentrate our efforts on good sound recording and videomaking. Story is, we're not concentrating on "official videos" anymore, but on making several and more captivating short videos to share on RUclips and social medias. If you subscribed, then you're going to see them very soon as we are ready to drop new music in 6-8 weeks! We settled this new assets and we are very excited to share them! Cheers and thanks again for your precious words!
Thank you Damian! Love this 20 day plan, so much condensed 🙌🏽 Do you have any other video on how long to promote after the 10 days if you see your content or song hasn’t done well? Like when do you move on to the next single? I’ve promoted a song for 45 days straight, posting 3 times a day and only got 500 streams for it. So trying to understand the best method of when to give up on the song and move on to the next?
I can start working on a YT video about bringing a song back to life or building a song that hasn't moved the needle.. Leave it with me and I will start working on this with a few others over the next few weeks. Appreciate you 🙂🙂
@@DamianKeyes awesome thank you Damian! I appreciate you as well and all that you give to the world and us artists🙏🏽 you are the best! will be looking forward to seeing that video in the future 🙌🏽
Nice job on this! I'm getting ready to put out my first official single and music video "Red Flags" June 21st and I will be implementing all of this! Thank you for you guidance!
Well done. Thank you. You are helping me get some ideas to properly promote my music. That’s where I’ve been struggling all along. My songwriting is improving greatly, but I have not figured out promotional aspect yet.
Well, Damian, sir. That was more practical than about three months of my degree. Thanks for giving us such a great overview of what this game in 2024 is all about. Will certainly be making a plethora of immediate changes and so much more even to think about. Probably going to see you in the Academy later on. Gratidao
YESSSSS! Going thru Spotify 2.0 Course now but this is exciting!!! I can watch this when I get to the release plan part. 😁 thank you for your value Damian!
Could you make a vlog of how a content creation day with one of your artists looks like? This would be incredibly valuable because I really have no idea what kind of content to produce and how.
This is an amazing video. Thank you so much Damien for all your expertise, your insights and your knowledge. Evidently there is a lot of stuff in here to cover, but at least now I know where I'm going or what I'm getting into! I'm wondering if in the Academy there is personalize coaching?
Thank you so much for all the hard work you put into these videos. I feel incredibly inspired by your content specifically. I've seen dozens of other "release plan" and "tips for artists" videos from other creators, but they didn't inspire me to actually put the work in nearly as much as your content does. Thank you for all you do!
Okay I’m a bit confused on the three tips for content: Number 2 was ‘do content well’? I mean yeah.. Number 3 was don’t advertise - but then on release day you say ‘check your ads’?
Hello Damian! What are your thoughts on the 'Waterfall Release Strategy'? Instead of releasing your pre-release singles one by one, all as separate tracks, these are now being built up into an EP or an album as they come out.
@@DamianKeyes One more question. At the beginning of the video you mentioned not spending money on adverts but later in the video you said to (I did watch the whole video and will rewatch it again), I could’ve totally missed what you were trying to say 😂. I’m assuming you ads are still decent to use? I don’t wanna mess with the organic algorithmic push either. Appreciate you man!
@FaitMusic @DamianKeyes This is my question too! Did you find an answer? I'm gonna sign up for the course next month, but I am not ready to WAIT planning, ha ha
thx so much for this Damien! I'm a bit confused at how you say to stop doing ads, but then talk later about how to do ads?? Where do we stand on the ads 😅 B/c you say at 8:55 that if you start to advertise that your reach gets shafted? and it will harm subsequent videos? Would love to know more about this! Thanks!
I think he's suggesting the idea of stopping the direct promotion of your single or album as it is. Instead, a better alternative would be to promote the content around it.
I'm kinda against playlisting. Anybody can make a playlist, bot it, put your music on said playlist, without your knowledge or consent...causing you to get your stuff removed or even banned entirely. Beware.
Appreciate you! yeah That's a good idea, let me think about who and how i can work on that. While there is no guarantees for any artist or song, using a solid strategy time and time again normally shows off results and improvement. My issue with RUclips is the unrealistic expectations many people have thinking that you can take any songs and get hundreds of thousands of streams in 24 hours without faking it. But I defo think more showing off results is the way forward for 2024 🙂🙂
HI Damian, thanks for the help in organizing the life of us DIY musicians. Regarding pre saves, i've had people tell me they're put off when the pre save link asks for permission to get data and modify things in your spotify account (which is obvious it has to but still). I think Spotify is working on having them be directly on Artists,(Countdown pages) which would be much better. Cheers!
Hey Damian! I would love your thoughts on this - Have you come across the "waterfall method" release strategy? Essentially releasing an album or EP one single at a time weeks apart and each consecutive release contains the previously released songs until the project is complete. My band is considering this method as we have 4 songs ready to go, but we don't get to the studio but every 4 years or so and want to get the most longevity out of this next batch as possible. Does this sound like hogwash to you or do you think it might actually be a good idea? Very appreciative of your knowledge and channel!
1.Also dont forget that getting one song on one radio station is not the goal. That 1st song is your opening to forming a fantastic rekationship with that one station so they always play all ypur songs for the rest of your career. 2. Your merch shop is a second career/business. Treat it that way. Sell UNUSUAL things that have secondary uses-uMBRELLAS, Laptop cases, raincoats..and remember you only need ONE rich fan to buy the $3000 item..to make $3000. 3. Support other artists. Promote other artists release tays so they ferl obliged to return the favour on your release day. Give to other artists
To everyone making excuses. You can’t bring those with you when you die so you might as well try to do something you enjoy before you go. Why work to just die and be forgotten in time?! Create music and let your name go down in history, plus. Your family can listen to your work when they feel like hearing your voice or your music
Omg your comment is so depressing
@@amandabloom8428everyone works 50 years just to buy 20 years of free time. 😊
@@amandabloom8428 bit depressing but also wonderful. mozart died over 200 ago but still moves people emotionally every day
Words of wisdom, bro. I'm about to dive into it, and break myself financially in the process. If I can keep a roof over my head, I'll call it a win.
I've been following you for two years now. This year I'm finally going to put out my first single, and I can't thank you enough for your kindness and way of sharing your knowledge. Cheers Damo!
ME TO!!! i been watching him for a while and been so scared but my debut single is finally finished mixed and mastered and i think im ready!! good luck friend!
@@GabbySimoneMusic ima listen just come back to this comment section to tell me when drop same for both of u
let's make a feat before it become over asked
Best of luck with that!
Best Wishes and Have Fun!
Having a 9 to 5 sucks the life out of me. I am so caught in meeting the deadlines, life beyond now doesn’t exist and leaves no time for music. I haven’t made any music this year cause I get home at 8pm cook dinner and it’s time to sleep for a 6am wake up. Just me?
I know the feeling, kind of extreme but I had to prioritize life and take breaks from work. I plan to stick to contract jobs
I feel your frustration Josh. Trying to make music and content with no time is so tough:
Try and find some time and make sure you are enjoying some kind of writing and creating and start off with something simple on socials even if it’s just live performances or demos etc
Hope things get easier financially so you can down some hours and make more music
@@maelz difficult when you need money to pay off a mortgage, car, etc. Wish I could win the lottery!
@@DamianKeyescan you make a course on this? like developing a financial plan so you don’t have to work, the power of boundaries, etc.
Financial plan would be awesome to make visible ones options. It’s all good saying do work and music until you can make music your full time thing… but options to show how this can be speeded up would be awesome.
@@joshuarodriguez5986 I absolutely can, I’ll make a start on it this week, give me a few weeks and I’ll get something out for you. Let’s get you out of the slog if the 9-5 or at least find a way to appease both somehow 😊
I was able to get my goals met by following your last version of this video and looking forward to this new one. Thanks for the great information!!
I really appreciate that, thank you so much and congrats Reeves. Let's make 2024 a big one!!
Great video, packed with valuable insights! I wanted to add some thoughts that might be helpful to the community. First, regarding release days, consider Wednesdays or Thursdays instead of the popular Friday. With so many artists, including big names, dropping new music on Fridays, smaller bands with limited budgets can get lost in the noise. A quieter day allows for better exposure and potentially higher conversion rates. I've also observed steeper engagement declines on Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays after Friday releases, whereas mid-week releases tend to see a more gradual drop-off. Second, targeting audiences in upcoming tour locations can be highly effective for boosting concert attendance and merchandise sales. Third, while I'm a fan of content batching, consider doing it well before the promotional period. Creating behind-the-scenes content like songwriting, recording, production, and photoshoots can be very engaging and scheduled for release ahead of time. This frees up the artist to focus on fan engagement during promotion. Finally, I like to optimize the "link in bio" using it to re-direct to the "Artist's pick" playlist with the new release as the first song and the rest with all the songs in the artist's catalog. This keeps listeners within your catalog when the promoted song finishes, potentially increasing plays for other tracks. This idea comes from observing people behavior using streaming, Most people are not active on the platform because they're doing other activities while listening to the music and the automatic "go to the next song" can work in the artist's favour. But these are just my thoughts, and I may be wrong, but I hope they spark additional ideas for upcoming artists.
Just getting started with releasing songs and I've never made any "content". Great tips. Thank you!
@@christopherkouri2317 you're welcome
I appreciate your consistency with these videos every year🙏🏾
Actually whenever I listen to your strategy in 2023 November, I brought out a piece of paper and a pen andd made my own strategy , when I released my single Manya in November last year and it worked out , I have another release coming up in February 9th ,I will make out anothrr strategies and hopefully I believe it will work out more this time around, I love watching your videos , you are a great 👍 man , keep it up and God bless 🙏 you, Definitely I tried everything last year to join your Dk music academy but maybe it does not allow my card , I am the artiste that wrote you email , i am watching from Nigeria
I love that, let's make 2024 a big year and make sure all of Nigeria knows your name! I'm so here for that! 🙂🙂
wow….
i’m listening only 5mins but it’s full of big insights which is super valuable to me….
omg
thanks
so much happy me after 1h
you're doing a fantastic job helping all of the musician's community. You rock Damian
I can't tell you how much that means to me, thank you so much 🙂🙂
international release day is Friday because of Beyonce. I'm serious, look it up:) . She made it with the "Yonce" album
Tonight's movie & popcorn! My plan is to continue recording my new album throughout the months...and release each one w/ the previous piggybacked until the whole shebang is released (the waterfall thingy). Why do an album when singles are THE thing? As a children's music artist, I've learned that reviewers for blogs, websites, journals, award organizations, libraries, parent groups, etc. don't waste their time reviewing singles. Albums are what they want, and I'm due for a new one. So the waterfall method, from what I see, brings the best of both worlds--steady stream of singles topped off with an album I can submit for reviews. Debate and other perspectives are welcome on this comment. And thanks for another great vide, Damian!
Really appreciate that thanks Kitty and enjoy the popcorn! 😊😊
YESSSS. I look forward to these every year!!! 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
I’ve got my debut single out on 16th Feb and have already planned it out using the 2023 23 day plan! Will see how it goes 😬 then will use this plan for my following single release in March
Hi, I'm from the future...ummm.. what's the song called?
I’m so happy that I have been listening to you.. Now I got a mail from radio station that they will listen our music… I’m so excited for this and slowly but surely I will progress.. this has take few months and still working on music video but as you said better to make it right then fast ❤❤❤
thank you! please do a video on how to debut as a DIY artist, how to grow a fanbase ready for your first single and even have it go viral
🎉🎉 Let’s goooo!
😊😊😊
This man speaks the truth. The knowledge Damian shares is absolutely priceless. About to release a few singles (Not in Nov-December) and will be implementing these new strategies, along with the other strategies that I learned in his program. If you're reading this comment btw, I hope your release(s) smash the charts!!
Wow - this was amazing. I took a ton of notes. Thanks for sharing and getting me ENERGIZED to finally RELEASE MUSIC!
It would be really good if you could do some sort of a ‘strategy’ video for people starting from scratch. No fanbase, no followers, no socials, no releases etc. How do you really get going and get started in the first place? I mean I’ve got my singles ready for release and have my first release in a few weeks and started my RUclips channel a couple of weeks ago, posting daily content, trying to implement the strategies, but is there any specific advice for people right at the start?
If you need an advice , all these things said in the video are important, but they wont make you have thousands or views and streams. Lately i had a deal with a record label and they told me to "invest" on Spotify mostly and the only way to have a well done marketing for your songs are Ads (ignore this guy telling to avoid Ads). Ads are the only way, investing money on Conversion Ads is the only way unfortunately . I'd say 800$ for Spotify Ads and 200$ for RUclips ads would be best to promote 1 song. Most of these things "presaves,press etc" are all bullshit. These work only when you already have some wide fanbase ,but if you're new in the industry this wont work.
@@ninodani6 hmm I think it all depends on what you’re trying to achieve. If you simply want thousands of streams then it’s easy to chuck money at it and achieve that. But if it’s thousands of streams from people who hear your song once through an ad then what good is it really? Surely it’s a lot better to get hundreds of streams from people who go to your music because they’re genuinely interested and want to listen?
Yeah you could pay a load of money, get your thousands of streams and get your £50 from Spotify. Or you could slowly and steadily get your name out there through regularly posting content, music blogs, social media shoutouts, collaborations with other artists, and very gradually build a fanbase of people who keep coming back for more. A fanbase that will eventually buy merch and tickets to live gigs. Meaning you could then sell 5 t shirts and make £50, and 20 tickets to a gig and make £200, and you’ve already made 5 times the money you’d have got from your instant thousands of Spotify streams.
I’m very early days in my journey, my release date is next Friday, and I’ve been posting daily RUclips shorts. In 19 shorts I’ve gained 21 subscribers, which in my view is a success. It’s 21 people who liked what they heard/saw enough to want to come back for more, and I haven’t even released a song yet. It’s not groundbreaking progress, but it’s slow, steady and genuine progress. So I’m happy
@@TheO.O. Doing all this is a very very slow way (if you wanna become a "Rockstar) and also its still not granted that you'll become one day. + people nowdays want to see a good quality content , which needs a good eqipment , good visuals and good audio and a lot of free time. So in poor words all this thing needs money in general, if you wanna have some good content , or a professional mix&master and a photoshoot or music video. These things told at the video will take you at a certain point , but they wont make you part of the "Professional League" and millions of fans, after doing all of the things you said before you'll still need a looot of money to push yourself to the "Professional League" . I dont know what are your goals , but if you wanna play stadiums someday this is for sure not gonna take you there (maybe only if any miracle happen ,but which is not very likely) So those damn amounts of money are needed :p Anyways im not here to demotivate you , its just unfortunately some big amounts of money are needed if you need professional things. I wish you a lot of luck tho' ! 🤘
@@ninodani6 and I’d say 99% of people whose expectation is to become a ‘rock star’ overnight, or to go on to play stadiums with millions of fans, are going to be disappointed.
I have a love and passion for music, and I want to share that with others who also love my music. Whether that’s 100 people, 1000 people, 10000 people, 100,000 people, or a million people, it doesn’t matter. My goals aren’t to be a ‘rock star’ or to be ‘famous’. My goals are to love creating music and sharing it with people who also love my creations!
@@TheO.O.Speaking mad facts this the one tho
The man is a prophet, listen up y'all!
Thank you for all that you do. This will definitely be helpful for the releases I have planned. I am sure I will find myself watching this more than once.
I really appreciate this Luke, thank you. I really hope it helps and 2024 is a big year! 🙂🙂
Amazing watch, I've learned so much and there are so many light bulb moments in this video. Thank you for taking the time to put this together.
I really appreciate that, thank you so much 😊😊
Hello! I have just discovered your videos and all i can say is i wish i found you a year ago!! I dont spend alot of time on youtube but just managed to land a distribution deal for my first EP, and suddenly having to promote the heck out of myself with no marketing knowledge and 2 kids 😂 your videos are super helpful, thank you! 🙏
Amazing! it's always a big event when Damo drops this yearly plan 🔥
This is awesome Damian big huge fan from Boston such a tight budget so I’ve decided to spend it to improve and make my home studio pretty and approachable
This helped me release almost all my singles ❤
Well, I gotta thank the Good God and Google, for this one finds me 25 days out from my next release. And I am half way into to it my second time and will be having one more time and a share to others in my group. So a big THANK YOU, is in order and you see I did that. Really psyched by how far we are and how the future is looking bright for growing our audience.
Thank you so much DK! This is all amazing info. I appreciate your hard work, man!
I really appreciate that, thank you so much 😊😊
In Australia we suffer from tall poppy syndrome, the majority of ‘Ausrap’ support pages and radios only play music of a certain ‘image’. I’m doing my best to build my audience my self but they gate keep the wider audience. Gonna follow your plan for new release every step and show them who’s boss 🖤
Let's goooooooo 🙌🙌🙌
Thanks Jamie 😊😊😊
The video we all have been waiting for!
Appreciate that I hope it lives up to expectations 😊😊
I opted to start dropping music on Mondays, I know Friday was always traditional and I use to follow that but after 4 years out of the industry and just being a fan and songwriter. I find that I get disappointed every Friday when there’s nothing good dropping BUT it’s always good when an artist that I like is dropping their album on a Friday and I just get anxious and want to add more new stuff to my library so I search for new stuff Monday-Thursday to see if I missed anything Friday
The best day of the year has finally come! 🔥🔥🔥
You really have a great channel man and you’re great with your delivery. Super entertaining and funny/helpful. ❤❤❤
Fantastic & super informative content Damo, thanks for this. Definitely helped spark some new ideas I'm looking forward to implementing.
Hey Jamie, really glad it’s been helpful!
As a 23 year old Josh who's just left music college and is slightly panicking, thank you so much for this video hahah! Can't wait to put some of this information to use in my upcoming release, awesome vid as always
Haha I’ve found you! You got this!
You’re the marketing 🐐! Thank you 🙏🏾 💯
BRAVO! Damian, I've watched you for years and I advise my artists most of what you've covered here, but this is THE BEST video you've done. Comprehensive. An absolute masterclass. Thank you!
batching content major 🔑
Yeeeesssss thank you!!! Been waiting for this video!!!!
Thanks Damian for this fleshed out guide. Just about to release my first single and this helped IMMENSELY to point out what needs to be done. Some steps already missed but I'll adapt for the next release. Thanks again.
Thank you so much for the time, effort and love that you put into this video and all your videos. I will be studying this, making notes and looking to take as much as possible from it, in the forthcoming months 🙏
Hey Damian, first of all I'm extremely grateful for having a mentor like you, can't imagine what I would do if this channel was not here. So just know how great of a job you're doing helping us.
Can you please help me with a question, every other person on Instagram, tiktok, RUclips is posting covers of other's songs so do they take licence for that or not because this copyright thing is so confusing for me & I have been holding myself back from releasing cover songs just because of that.
Can you please help me out ?
From my understanding as long as youre not receiving money from it (like the “free beats” on here), and not claiming it as your own song, you should be good. Can anyone confirm?
My next release is 3/29/24 I’m on this DK Release Plan now. Let’s go!🙌🏿
Great video!!super helpful! The music industry can be very overwhelming especially as an indie artist. So it’s great to have some one help navigate.
I really appreciate this, thank you. I agree its a daunting place where the industry doesn't help with how to do things or how to improve things! Hope i can help 🙂🙂
Bravo! I'm a bit behind on the 20 days with a release coming out in 5 days! But I've taken many notes down and plan to implement as much of this advice as I can for now and ALL of it for my next release in a few weeks! Using the music to promote me, rather than the other way around is a mind blowing shift in approach. Makes so much sense. Thank you so much for this, Damian!
Thank you for this! Watched the whole video taking notes. I'll be releasing my first single called "No Money" in March so lets put this to the test!
2024, you still got no money? 😭
@@jazzampa I do often blow all my cash but in fair I did write this when I was 20 so that’s my excuse
Top Tier Stuff Right Here🎉
Thank you very much, Damian. This is extremely helpful. Keep up the great work!
Hi Damian! I just started watching your videos to make my music career amazing, and it's super helpful for me.
I'm just wondering how many of your fans (Musicians ) have told you they make their lives epic by using your methods.
I know this question would be too advanced 🙄But, no offense. I'm thinking about it seriously.
I'd be happy if I could hear your opinion 😌💗
Your videos have been transforming my music marketing for years 🎉
I really appreciate that, thank you so much! 🙂🙂
THIS VIDEO IS AMAZING. i’ll do every part you say
Been around this industry for a long time Damien, including many writing trips to Nashville when i was signed. I'm UK based and I'm restarting my artist career as a rather mature independent artist these days, but still think I've got something to contribute! Lots of advice around, but yours in my humble opinion, makes the most sense with so much great information. Thank you and well done mate. keep up the great work
I really appreciate that, thank you so much 😊❤️
What if I DO have a million USD to put into my music as an independent artist, what’s the strategy then? Ads? PR? Would be great with a video about this please.
Hey Carl, what I’d recommend with larger budget is building the best team you can to execute these elements, there’s also deals you can look into doing with larger budgets too.
If you want some advice in where to spend it so you don’t get ripped off, DM me on insta or email me hello@dk-mba.com
I was waiting for this!!!
Now I'm excited!!! When I get the masters back for my album, I'm joining the Academy and doing this multiple times for singles before dropping the whole project. So glad I came across you. Hopefully get to meet you in the future, as I'm also in Nashville. Thank you Damian!!!
Let’s do it!! 🎉🎉
Amazing info! There is however one major contradiction I need clarification on. Towards the beginning, you say promoting a single via ads is a bad idea. Then, later, you say if you have to budget for it, you should do ads. ???
Watched a few minutes of the video and I already got to say THANK YOU for this precious tips. We are a DIY band from Italy struggling everyday to get our music reach as much souls as possible, since we believe so much in what we do: writing songs for the people who need them! So Damian thank you again for helping us doing what we love to do, but with much more professionalism and efficiency!
Our band is DEAF AUTUMN by the way😉🙏
Hey! This means a lot, I’m so glad to be able to help. You got this and let’s have a great year 😊😊🙌🙌
Ciao amico mio, I've read your post and have checked out the deaf autumn channel. Mad props to your success, man. I do see a few things... first, compared to your real "diy" vids (which pull a few hundred views), your "official" music videos got some mad views, which tells me that those vids were campaigned, but at what cost? and more importantly, at what ROI? Point is, for a channel that has been around for 10yrs with a little over 1k subscribers and your last vid was dropped a year ago, it tells me your "everyday struggle" is that you are trying to manufacture an audience by spending a lot of money making great looking content. Perhaps take a step back and look at the whole arc of your music project.
And consider this point of the journey the accumulation phase. You are not trying for the reach, right now. In fact, like Damian says, you're setting the place for when the party hits. Keep making great content. I subscribed. And don't break the bank! Ciao.
@@echo.messenger thanks man! Much appreciated! Your tips are precious too, and you "read" our history and present with such sharp precision! But we didn't spend that much money on campaigns,but we did concentrate our efforts on good sound recording and videomaking. Story is, we're not concentrating on "official videos" anymore, but on making several and more captivating short videos to share on RUclips and social medias. If you subscribed, then you're going to see them very soon as we are ready to drop new music in 6-8 weeks! We settled this new assets and we are very excited to share them! Cheers and thanks again for your precious words!
Thank you Damian! Love this 20 day plan, so much condensed 🙌🏽
Do you have any other video on how long to promote after the 10 days if you see your content or song hasn’t done well?
Like when do you move on to the next single? I’ve promoted a song for 45 days straight, posting 3 times a day and only got 500 streams for it.
So trying to understand the best method of when to give up on the song and move on to the next?
I can start working on a YT video about bringing a song back to life or building a song that hasn't moved the needle.. Leave it with me and I will start working on this with a few others over the next few weeks. Appreciate you 🙂🙂
@@DamianKeyes awesome thank you Damian! I appreciate you as well and all that you give to the world and us artists🙏🏽 you are the best!
will be looking forward to seeing that video in the future 🙌🏽
@@DamianKeyesthat would be great! Thanks Damian
Always helpful! Thanks mate
Nice job on this! I'm getting ready to put out my first official single and music video "Red Flags" June 21st and I will be implementing all of this! Thank you for you guidance!
You didn't come up with the SMART acronym! 😂
Well done. Thank you. You are helping me get some ideas to properly promote my music. That’s where I’ve been struggling all along. My songwriting is improving greatly, but I have not figured out promotional aspect yet.
Well, Damian, sir. That was more practical than about three months of my degree. Thanks for giving us such a great overview of what this game in 2024 is all about. Will certainly be making a plethora of immediate changes and so much more even to think about. Probably going to see you in the Academy later on. Gratidao
Can we pitch our music to Playlist before the release date?
Yeah! Very excited to hear the latest, and just in time too …
Thanks Nick! Always appreciate you and let’s smash 2024
YESSSSS! Going thru Spotify 2.0 Course now but this is exciting!!! I can watch this when I get to the release plan part. 😁 thank you for your value Damian!
Love it, appreciate you Ray, let's make 2024 a big year, I'm here to help 🙂🙂
Great work again, thank you.
Could you make a vlog of how a content creation day with one of your artists looks like? This would be incredibly valuable because I really have no idea what kind of content to produce and how.
This is an amazing video. Thank you so much Damien for all your expertise, your insights and your knowledge. Evidently there is a lot of stuff in here to cover, but at least now I know where I'm going or what I'm getting into! I'm wondering if in the Academy there is personalize coaching?
Thank you, love this.......now let's GO
Another year another 20 day plan thank you brother 🙏
Thank you so much for all the hard work you put into these videos. I feel incredibly inspired by your content specifically. I've seen dozens of other "release plan" and "tips for artists" videos from other creators, but they didn't inspire me to actually put the work in nearly as much as your content does. Thank you for all you do!
I really appreciate that, thank you so much. I will keep them coming! 🙂🙂
Great update to the 2023 edition :)
Another banger filled with good info. You're the guy, Damian.
I really appreciate that, Thanks Ace! 🙂🙂
No problem. Thank you for the all of the help. Many artists will be empowered because of it. @@DamianKeyes
Awesome, thank you👏👏👏
Okay I’m a bit confused on the three tips for content:
Number 2 was ‘do content well’? I mean yeah..
Number 3 was don’t advertise - but then on release day you say ‘check your ads’?
Thank you ! this is definetely the best music promotion video I've found on youtube and its gonna help me a lot with the release of my upcoming ep !
That really means a lot, thank you so much. This made my day! 🙂🙂
Hello Damian! What are your thoughts on the 'Waterfall Release Strategy'?
Instead of releasing your pre-release singles one by one, all as separate tracks, these are now being built up into an EP or an album as they come out.
Thank you for the great information and video Damian🙏🙏🙌🙌.
Superb video!!! I'm creating my first single and this is so insightful and helpful!! Thank you so much ❤
Hey! I’m so glad to help. You got this ❤️
❤@@DamianKeyes
I’m helping a few artists launch new music this summer and I really appreciate your tips on playlists. Thank you! 41:06
Appreciate that thank you. Good luck and I’m here to help if I can 😊😊
Thanks Damian, good video fr
Excited about this video!
Thanks so much Matt 🙂🙂
@@DamianKeyes One more question. At the beginning of the video you mentioned not spending money on adverts but later in the video you said to (I did watch the whole video and will rewatch it again), I could’ve totally missed what you were trying to say 😂. I’m assuming you ads are still decent to use? I don’t wanna mess with the organic algorithmic push either.
Appreciate you man!
@FaitMusic @DamianKeyes This is my question too! Did you find an answer? I'm gonna sign up for the course next month, but I am not ready to WAIT planning, ha ha
thx so much for this Damien! I'm a bit confused at how you say to stop doing ads, but then talk later about how to do ads?? Where do we stand on the ads 😅 B/c you say at 8:55 that if you start to advertise that your reach gets shafted? and it will harm subsequent videos? Would love to know more about this! Thanks!
I think he's suggesting the idea of stopping the direct promotion of your single or album as it is. Instead, a better alternative would be to promote the content around it.
I was waiting for this video the hole month!
Thanks alot!
I really appreciate that, thank you for being patient and I hope it helps! 🙂🙂
Thaks for sharing this content! I see you from Colombia.
Thank you Damian! “I only wanna be with you” is guitar driven song out in March. I’ll think of something in between my pro live shows
that's already a VERY famous song by Hootie & the Blowfish, bubby... id think of a different name for the song 😬
@@totalSLACK thank you 🙏 For your comment about my new release on March 22. They’re a cool band 👍
@@totalSLACK Dusty Springfield
I'm kinda against playlisting. Anybody can make a playlist, bot it, put your music on said playlist, without your knowledge or consent...causing you to get your stuff removed or even banned entirely. Beware.
thats why i only pitch to playlists i knew and follow, that way iam certain that its actually has fans and the numbers are not from bots
Yeah, I had some experience with that too, it sucks.
Great content man! 🔥🔥🔥
Great gems as ever. (You know the best way to get new members is do a "Results Video" jus' saying!)
Appreciate you! yeah That's a good idea, let me think about who and how i can work on that. While there is no guarantees for any artist or song, using a solid strategy time and time again normally shows off results and improvement. My issue with RUclips is the unrealistic expectations many people have thinking that you can take any songs and get hundreds of thousands of streams in 24 hours without faking it.
But I defo think more showing off results is the way forward for 2024 🙂🙂
Waiting for an EP/ Album release strategy for 2024
your so good at what you re doingl man ;) cheers from sao paulo!
I really appreciate that, thats so much 🙂🙂
HI Damian, thanks for the help in organizing the life of us DIY musicians. Regarding pre saves, i've had people tell me they're put off when the pre save link asks for permission to get data and modify things in your spotify account (which is obvious it has to but still). I think Spotify is working on having them be directly on Artists,(Countdown pages) which would be much better. Cheers!
Hey Damian! I would love your thoughts on this - Have you come across the "waterfall method" release strategy? Essentially releasing an album or EP one single at a time weeks apart and each consecutive release contains the previously released songs until the project is complete. My band is considering this method as we have 4 songs ready to go, but we don't get to the studio but every 4 years or so and want to get the most longevity out of this next batch as possible. Does this sound like hogwash to you or do you think it might actually be a good idea? Very appreciative of your knowledge and channel!
lol Damian claiming he came up with the SMART acronym! To be fair this video is fire
Hey, thats one very helpful video but i have a question. Should i do all those things if i am just putting out instrumentals on youtube?
another great video, thanks much DK.
Appreciate that, I'm hoping it helps and isn't too much information in one go! 🙂🙂
@@DamianKeyes no sir. It's a tough go, but I'm going after it.
@@vernonpapers I’ll be here to help!! Let’s have a big 2024 😊😊
For content creation day- how important is it to have different looks (clothing, hair, props, etc.) and if so how many do you suggest?
1.Also dont forget that getting one song on one radio station is not the goal. That 1st song is your opening to forming a fantastic rekationship with that one station so they always play all ypur songs for the rest of your career.
2. Your merch shop is a second career/business. Treat it that way. Sell UNUSUAL things that have secondary uses-uMBRELLAS, Laptop cases, raincoats..and remember you only need ONE rich fan to buy the $3000 item..to make $3000.
3. Support other artists. Promote other artists release tays so they ferl obliged to return the favour on your release day. Give to other artists