1ns and 2s with DJ-Sticha - 5 Reasons Why DIY is the best approach every musician needs to take today

As musicians and artists we are all looking to grow our fan base by reaching out to as many listeners as we can who will appreciate our music. Digital music production tools have made making music more accessible and affordable for the aspiring solo artist or band. Also digital music sharing and distribution platforms have made it easy for artists to put their music out there in the world.

But there is a gap between releasing your music online and reaching out to fans. Is spending all your time trying to get signed on to a label the answer or should you do everything yourself as an independent artist? Well, getting signed to the record label of your dreams will obviously help you reach out to the type of listeners that will appreciate your music and will eventually help you amass a great fan following, but lets look at why the "Do It Yourself" approach is so important before getting signed on to a label.

1) Labels are looking for artists with a fan following already

Digital music revenues worldwide are falling and labels want to minimize their risk as much as possible. Labels want to see an artist's online presence and preexisting fan engagement on Facebook, Twitter and Sound Cloud. Labels also want to see crowd reactions from the artists' live gigs to gauge their marketability. Therefore, it is important to start growing your fan base yourself by putting out as much music as you can on Sound Cloud and trying to play out as many gigs as possible because that will help you reach a lot of fans and will get you a lot of engagement on social media. Look how it happened with Durbanytes, they've been gudling in the industry for years but only got signed by Kalawa after they dropped a hit Shumaya that went viral and secured them a spot in one of the biggest independently owned Indie labels eMzansi.

2) Independence

When you start building your fan base yourself, there is a sense of independence that comes with it. The fact that you acquired your early fans yourself before getting signed, will give you the confidence and independence that every artist strives for. Lokho kush' ukuthi noma beku approach(er), bazokhuluma nawe ngentlonipho and negotiate a great deal, kodwa if ufika ungumalambane with no following uzobukeka desperate bese bekujayivis' eyabo ke.

3) You will acquire skills that will help you in this new marketing age

The marketing landscape has evolved drastically and the fundamental factors responsible for a product's visibility and reach is not common for all anymore. Brands like Instagram, Airbnb and Google went viral almost instantly without spending a single dollar on advertising and acquired millions of users for their products in a short span of time. When you take the DIY approach for your music you will be forced to think out of the box and learn as much as you can from successful strategies to build your own methods to reach your listeners and grow your fan base. The skills and knowledge that you will acquire during this time will be priceless and will set a great foundation for entrepreneurship in the future.

4) Keeping most of what you earn

DIY involves doing absolutely everything yourself, right from making music to distributing it for sales on online platforms, managing your live gigs and being your own publisher. Initially if you don't get a manager or agent and a publisher it will help you retain almost all the money you will make from your music. This is great because when you start out you will need as much capital as possible for growth. Setting up a website, collecting emails for email marketing, online advertising and PR costs money, and the DIY approach will help you retain most of what you make. The advantage of doing you yikuthi uba ne experience in different fields, should you decide to hire a manager or PR team ngeke bahlale phezu kwezandla ngoba bazobe besaz' ukuthi you good in that field bazosebenza kanzima to outdo you which means great nzuzo and publicity.

5) Better licensing and publishing deals

Music licensing is a great way for artists to make money from their music. Sync licenses especially, which are heavily in demand right now, can pay the artist a substantial amount of money for their music. When you grow yourself as an artist with your own marketing efforts initially, and are somewhat successful, you can strike better publishing deals with publishers who will license your music to various projects. This is where your marketing and music law knowledge you acquired by taking things in your own hands, will come in handy. Okusalayo the decision is yours at the end of the day, isifiso sami yikuthi wenze isinqumo unolwazi olupheleleyo ngoba ukungazi kufana nokufa.

Asabelane ngolwazi, asikhule kwezomculo

In case you missed it, we'll be launching an online music store {CODENAME:INGOMA}. Uma kungabe ufuna ukuthengisa umculo wakho kuyo, please send your art cover and one song to

Sticha via whats app to[ +27 76 143 4787. ]Ungabuza noma yini ofis' ukuyazi njalo. Your song has to be professionally recorded, mixed and mastered.

House heads, mii nans' into. Download and share, the download button is grey in color. If you click download bese kuvela a pop up ad, press back and try again don't click on the ads. Dankie

http://www.datafilehost.com/d/9e9d3398

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/keith.phakathi

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DeejaySticha