Thanksgiving isn’t just the time of year where you get to gather around the table with your crazy uncle and aunts, avoiding heated conversations while scooping a second helping of mashed potatoes onto your plate. At its core, it’s meant to be about finding gratitude in things. Which I get can sound a little hokey. Of course it’s in the name itself “THANKSgiving” and we know we’re supposed to be grateful because every year a million social media posts (and now this blog post) tell us so.

Succeeding in music is a frustratingly vague thing to wrap your mind around because it means something different to every music-maker. For some, success might be the idea of transforming into a mega popstar overnight and earning enough money to buy an island. For others, success means making music audiences love and being praised by critics. But no matter what success means to you, you won’t find it without doing the work.

Wouldn’t it be cool if you had a built-in monthly income that you could rely on that came solely from your music? 

Picture it. Every month you get to show up to your most loyal, excited, enthusiastic fans, giving them a sneak peek into your life (and maybe a few extra goodies along the way) and in return, you could see a paycheck ranging anywhere from $50 to a few hundred, or even a thousand dollars a month? 

Have you ever gone out for drinks with your friends, and it turns out they’ve brought along another friend who you don’t already know? It might feel a little weird at first, but as soon as you get to talking you realize that you actually get along really well with this new person—and the more you hang out with them, the more of their personality you get to see, the more you realize you’d actually like to keep hanging out with them even after this.

If you’re a musician that’s obsessed with statistics, you probably love the in-depth analytic information that most major streaming platforms now offer to artists. But if you’re not a fan of numbers and graphs, you might be missing out on the benefits that streaming analytic data can give you as an artist. If you’re a serious artist that tours and frequently releases new music, paying attention to the data behind your music can help you. Here’s how:

It’s the dream of countless music-makers to spend their days writing music and earning a living. For many developing artists, songwriting seems like the opposite of working at a conventional job, and in some ways they’re correct. When you create music, you are your own boss and what you say goes. It’s a creative pursuit that allows you to express yourself exactly how you want to. Compare the experience of creating a new song to sitting in an office all day, and the two experiences couldn’t be any more different.

When it comes to social media, it can feel like you’re screaming into the void. You put all this time and effort into trying to create a post that people are going to care about, only to check back hours later and see you only got 5 likes. We’ve all been there. 

So, what if I told you that there was a way to never again wonder what to post. A way that you could quickly come up with new ideas—the kind of ideas that encourage people to actually interact with your content, so that the next time you post something you’re sure to get lots of interactions? And how about if the icing on the cake was that you’d also grow your following and create a true community of fans through all of this?

You’d be in, right?

It can be exciting to read reviews of your music when they portray your music in a positive light. But, unfortunately, make music and share it with the world long enough, and it’s almost inevitable that some negative feedback about your work will get published and sent your way. The truth is that music criticism can help you as a music-maker whether the reviews covering your music are flattering or difficult to read. It all depends on your perspective and goals.