Making money as a DIY musician

You may well have seen this story over the last few days as it was picked up by some big sites.

It's worth reading both these pieces and the comments (apart from the Trolls!) as they have a few insights in to what the band are doing well and not so well.

Gizmodo

Techdirt

In essence the band in question, Uniform Motion, disclose how much their self-released album will make them from all the usual sources - iTunes, Bandcamp, Spotify etc.

Some people have argued that they aren't making much because they have a small audience and that they are making some mistakes in their marketing.

I don't agree.

They seem to be doing everything absolutely right.

They've obviously learnt all the ways that are available to them to spread their music and are offering it for sale in a variety of ways with packages that increase in price to increase their revenue.

Like all artists, they could do more to expand their audience and I'm sure they're working on that.

What I find interesting though is that their material and their approach to their own artistic development is the right one. They are making music, evolving, practising what they want to do and be and letting their audience grow as they do so.

You know, like true artists do?

So, to say that they aren't making any money from each individual sale now and that their audience is small is to miss the point.

Getting to a sustainable level as a DIY musician isn't about hyping yourself up to get a fleeting sales boost. It's about embracing and perfecting your art, becoming really good and finding an audience that appreciates that and then monetizing that symbiotic existence in a non-exploitative way (for both sides).

My guess is that this band will get there.

Oh, and of course the irony is that in writing about how their releases don't make enough money they have sent massive attention their way from the web savvy crowd and this will undoubtedly shift them up a gear or two.

It's also well worth reading:

their original post on this;

and the follow up;

and the follow up to that!

Here's a video so you can see that they're great!

 

Forty Foot Man from Uniform Motion on Vimeo.