Welcome to the DIY Musicans' Workgroup.
Are you a musician/artist who needs a little guidance?
Do you want to work with other artists doing the same thing?
Do you want to work in a positive environment where we say anything is possible?
If the answer is yes, then this is for you.
This FREE self-help workgroup is designed to create goals, share information, learn, plan and execute together. We'll learn new tools, share milestones as they are achieved, share results of various projects and campaigns and celebrate when someone does something they didn't think they could do. It's casual. It'll be fun. It'll be a bit scary, and it'll be hard work. But we're all going to work together to strategize our individual goals and make them happen. Do you wish you had a cheerleader to support what you are doing? We will all be cheering each other on and helping where we can. Let's do this!
First of all, please do not fear that you will be forced to do things you don't want to do, like create TikTok posts every day. That is not the goal here.
You will learn the benefits of various platforms, but you won't be forced to do what you don't want to do.
You have goals. We all do. Whatever they are, the mission here is to help you achieve them. I'm not asking for anything in return, just your enthusiasm and dedication to your art.
We are going to do a dive deep, so start thinking about what you really want to do, because the first couple of meetings are going to be about setting goals for the year.
The sessions start on Monday, March 16th in the evenings from 7:00pm-10;00pm and will be held at The Bunker, 104 Wellington St., Stratford, ON.
Once you fill out the form below you will receive a link via email for you to fill out a survey. Please ensure you fill the survey out or your spot will not be guaranteed.
This program is limited to 20 participants, will continue for 20 weeks, excluding long weekend Mondays (April 6, May 18, Aug 3) and should conclude on Monday, Aug. 17th.
Some of the subjects we'll be covering.
• Setting goals
• Presenting yourself as an artist - levels of experience, types of activity
• Branding and why it is important
• Different revenue streams
1. Access to grants (Factor, OAC, CC, Municipal arts grants),
2. gigs/recording (top-lining, session work, beats, etc.),
3. merch,
4. streaming/views,
5. ads,
6. branding deals,
7. sync deals
8. PRO Royalties, SOCAN, SOCAN RR (Mechanicals), Connect Music (Master Ownership), SoundExchange, Artisti (musicians on recordings) - royalties (radio, live, TV)
• Composer/publishing vs master rights
• WFH sign-offs, split sheets, master rights agreement.
• Publishing, Label royalties
• Finances and budgeting - why is this important?
• Gate-keepers - the old system
1. record labels,
2. management,
3. booking agents,
4. publicists/trackers,
5. radio stations and programs,
6. TV programs (Good morning, Late Night, etc.),
7. live music venues,
8. production companies (LiveNation, House of Blues, etc.)
• The new system
1. Social Media & Websites overview
2. online content - Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, Twitch
3. direct to consumer - pros & cons.
4. managing yourself through the quagmire of to-dos. Why is it important?
• Pay to play, pay for media reviews, playlists, streams. - SubmitHub, Groover, etc.
• Awareness campaigns/Musician’s Hubs and why they don’t work
• Distribution - Tunecore, Distrokid, CDBaby, etc.
• Streaming - Spotify, Tidal, Apple Music, Amazon, YouTube, etc.
• Touring - are you ready?
1. Pubs vs concerts.
2. Amateur vs Professional.
3. Seasoned vs emerging, etc.
• Performance - presenting, confidence, preparation, rehearsing, self-practice
• Merch - When to launch. Physical vs dropship
• Patreon and patrons of the arts/monthly subscriptions - when should you launch?
• Publicity - traditional media and why it’s important
• Radio Tracking - does radio still work?
• Self Promotion & DIY shows and how to promote and manage them and make money
• Assessing your audience.
1. Who do you think they are?
2. Who do you want them to be?
3. How do you find them?
4. How will they find you?
• Online tools & AI,
• Creating Content and putting a plan in place to make it simple
• Schedulers, various graphics tools, video editing
• Getting used to being in front of a camera, why it’s important. How do actors prepare for it?
• Different Strategies
• Collaborations & 3rd party validation - searching for collaborators
• Writing Sessions - Nashville style
• Monthly projects - duos, trios, one day per month - a strategy
• Searching for Trends, answering questions, etc.
• Reels, Videos, Shorts - different types of content and why we need to make it
• Putting an achievable plan together - where will you be in 1 year?
• Executing - let’s make it happen
• Let’s create content together - a live performance video
I look forward to working with you.
Barry