‘Tis the Season! I have to admit, the holiday season is a special time of year for me. Not only am I a sucker for all the holiday festivities like the sparkly lights, ice skating and hot cocoa, gift-giving, and time with family, but it’s also such a fruitful time for creativity.

While the winter is naturally a slower time for the music industry, that doesn’t mean it’s all halting to a stop. And, if you plan it right, it can actually be a really good time to use some of that creative energy you have and put it into making something special for your fans, and doing things a bit differently.

The conventional knowledge in the world of music today is that CDs do not sell anymore. Yes, CDs are no longer the mainstream media for releasing new music. However, this does not mean that as artists we cannot generate revenue from CD sales. In fact, a lot of artists today still depend on CD sales for their merch revenue. Along with merch revenue, there are other potential avenues where releasing your new music in the CD format can prove useful. In this article, we’d like to outline five reasons why you should still release your new music in CD format.

In today’s world of music streaming, thousands of songs are being released every day. As listeners, this is wonderful because it gives us access to a lot of new music. On the other hand, for us artists, that means we have to compete with each other for the attention of our listeners. 

If you’re a musician doing your own PR, it’s likely that you’ve requested—or been offered—interview opportunities on a variety of blogs and other industry publications.

Whether it’s conducted over email, phone, or video, an interview is an exciting opportunity for you to share more about your music, and to show your audience a new side to who you are, what drives you, and why you make the music you do.

But it’s also important to keep a few things in mind during each interview you have the chance to participate in. The following are some tips to help make your next interview your best yet.

Late last year, Spotify expanded access to Spotify Canvas—a feature that lets artists visually brand their tracks with short looping videos. This was great news for every artist who’s keen to increase streaming time and draw listeners in deeper, but you may have noticed that there hasn’t been a whole lot of advice available on HOW to make them. 

So let’s fix that! Here are the three main methods available to every artist:

2020 was the year of surprise albums by major artists, and most offline marketing efforts went out the window. So some artists experimented with releasing their album with zero marketing. This is an interesting strategy for a major artist, as it is a pleasant surprise for fans, which is likely to become a success and an engagement driver.

At least over the short-term, the pandemic is transforming almost everything about music, including the way artists need to promote their work effectively and enduringly. Whether it’s heading off on tour to promote a new record to sending CDs out to college radio stations, the usual ways of getting the word out about music are being upended. Here are three current promotional changes you should think about if you’re sharing new music right now: