the.awakened.creative
Alex Love
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🍁 Helping creatives build a meaningful brand online 🍃
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Musicians of tiktok, it’s hard out here haha. You absolutely cannot blame musicians for struggling. I hope this is helpful:
What ‘works’ by itself = good but not enough (too generic)
What’s unique by itself = good but not enough (too out there to be digestible)
What works + what’s unique = winner
There’s still practise you’ve gotta do to make this work, but this is a great long term strategy to not get lost in the endless sea of musicians all fighting for attention. And of course not everyone who’s doing well is following this and not everyone who tries unique things fails.
This is just another approach you can try if things aren’t working.
An example of a structure that works might be: A performance clip that’s 15—30 seconds long, meets a certain standard of visual and audio quality, and is a part of the song that’s easy to relate to.
A unique spin on this might be the use of colour, an interesting way of filming, a location, a unique message, whatever.
Another example of a structure that works might be: A musician giving production advice that includes a negative hook, is laid out like hook—actionable steps—wrap up, and that stays under 40 seconds.
A unique spin on this might be the depth or originality of the idea, a perspective, a personality quirk, a tone of voice, or something visual—again, whatever.
If you want specific examples you can see, the things that stand out on here ARE the examples. Just search for music in your genre or field and see what comes up. Generally speaking, the recent high performing stuff will be content structures that work but with the musician’s unique spin on it.
There IS room for doing your own thing on here AND it actually working. Combining these two things—based on what I’ve seen and experienced—is one of the best approaches to take to get there.
Any questions let me know :)
#musicmarketingtips #musicmarketing #indieartisttips #musiciansoftiktok
What ‘works’ by itself = good but not enough (too generic)
What’s unique by itself = good but not enough (too out there to be digestible)
What works + what’s unique = winner
There’s still practise you’ve gotta do to make this work, but this is a great long term strategy to not get lost in the endless sea of musicians all fighting for attention. And of course not everyone who’s doing well is following this and not everyone who tries unique things fails.
This is just another approach you can try if things aren’t working.
An example of a structure that works might be: A performance clip that’s 15—30 seconds long, meets a certain standard of visual and audio quality, and is a part of the song that’s easy to relate to.
A unique spin on this might be the use of colour, an interesting way of filming, a location, a unique message, whatever.
Another example of a structure that works might be: A musician giving production advice that includes a negative hook, is laid out like hook—actionable steps—wrap up, and that stays under 40 seconds.
A unique spin on this might be the depth or originality of the idea, a perspective, a personality quirk, a tone of voice, or something visual—again, whatever.
If you want specific examples you can see, the things that stand out on here ARE the examples. Just search for music in your genre or field and see what comes up. Generally speaking, the recent high performing stuff will be content structures that work but with the musician’s unique spin on it.
There IS room for doing your own thing on here AND it actually working. Combining these two things—based on what I’ve seen and experienced—is one of the best approaches to take to get there.
Any questions let me know :)
#musicmarketingtips #musicmarketing #indieartisttips #musiciansoftiktok
Musicians of tiktok, the secret music marketing tip that’s going to change everything… 😅
If you’re asking “do the work? well what is the work?”—it’s working on the fundamentals repeatedly until you get as good as you need to.
The fundamentals (great music, branding, content, relationships, consistency and an understanding of the platform you’re on) will get you further than spending energy looking for shortcuts. It’s hard for our minds to accept that the things we’re already working on are probably the things we need to just keep developing to get further—but it’s most likely the truth.
Continue to learn about these things by consuming high quality information about them, studying those who are doing what you want to be able to do, putting what you discover into practise, making mistakes, and doing it over and over. Limit your info if you’re not acting enough and take more info in when you’ve been acting a lot and you’re not seeing any change.
Getting good results is the consequence of following a good process, but the process takes time, effort, energy. As long as you’re putting that time, effort, and energy to good use by paying attention to what happens when you do something and adjusting accordingly, you’ll be fine — just be patient and keep going 😁💪
#musicmarketing #musicmarketingtips #indieartisttips #musiciansoftiktok
If you’re asking “do the work? well what is the work?”—it’s working on the fundamentals repeatedly until you get as good as you need to.
The fundamentals (great music, branding, content, relationships, consistency and an understanding of the platform you’re on) will get you further than spending energy looking for shortcuts. It’s hard for our minds to accept that the things we’re already working on are probably the things we need to just keep developing to get further—but it’s most likely the truth.
Continue to learn about these things by consuming high quality information about them, studying those who are doing what you want to be able to do, putting what you discover into practise, making mistakes, and doing it over and over. Limit your info if you’re not acting enough and take more info in when you’ve been acting a lot and you’re not seeing any change.
Getting good results is the consequence of following a good process, but the process takes time, effort, energy. As long as you’re putting that time, effort, and energy to good use by paying attention to what happens when you do something and adjusting accordingly, you’ll be fine — just be patient and keep going 😁💪
#musicmarketing #musicmarketingtips #indieartisttips #musiciansoftiktok
Musicians of tiktok, performance videos are a solid way to go to promote your music. You can usually get a more out of them than just a few posts.
If you have 5 different full length music performance vids, and you can squeeze ten shorter vids out of each, you’re setting up yourself for about 2 months of content for one song, or 1 month going hard on the posts. And this doesn’t have to be your entire strategy either.
A blend of unity and variety is a good thing. This method lends itself to both. To keep things interesting enough you can use different sections of the song, different length clips, try different hooks or text among them, and alternate between all the different performances you did.
Add in some stories, any other content you think would be cool, and a lot of engagement with people on the platforms and you’ll probably get a decent response overall (if the music is good).
I hope this helps — remember it’s just one way to go and you don’t have to do this. Any questions let me know :)
#musicmarketing #indieartisttips #musiciansoftiktok #musicpromotiontips
If you have 5 different full length music performance vids, and you can squeeze ten shorter vids out of each, you’re setting up yourself for about 2 months of content for one song, or 1 month going hard on the posts. And this doesn’t have to be your entire strategy either.
A blend of unity and variety is a good thing. This method lends itself to both. To keep things interesting enough you can use different sections of the song, different length clips, try different hooks or text among them, and alternate between all the different performances you did.
Add in some stories, any other content you think would be cool, and a lot of engagement with people on the platforms and you’ll probably get a decent response overall (if the music is good).
I hope this helps — remember it’s just one way to go and you don’t have to do this. Any questions let me know :)
#musicmarketing #indieartisttips #musiciansoftiktok #musicpromotiontips
Musicians of tiktok, this is not a necessity — it’s something to try if what you’re currently doing isn’t working. There are plenty of musicians who do fine without doing this, but everyone is different. And I see a lot of music performances that are good, but not great and could be elevated by trying this.
Why do we sometimes need to make it about more than just the music (or the main focus of the video) on here? I get it, it’s frustrating. For one, it’s the nature of the platform. This isn’t somewhere people come primarily to LISTEN to music. They come to watch and experience stuff.
Secondly, we’re becoming more and more desensitised to higher quality stuff. Adding extra value to your posts and creating a more impactful experience around your music gives you an advantage over those you don’t.
Like I said, it doesn’t apply to everyone. But based on what I’ve seen, in a lot of cases extra points of engagement are a massive, massive help. If things aren’t happening when you try to promote your music, try this.
If you want examples of this, go to the search and type in your genre. Within a few minutes you’ll find plenty of examples of musicians who are pairing their amazing music with something I mentioned in the video or some other appealing thing.
Another way to think about examples is music videos. They’re a visual representation of the songs and give them extra depth—they’re building a world around the song, helping to tell the story and get us more invested into the world.
Hope it helps :)
#musicmarketing #indieartisttips #musiciansoftiktok #musicpromotiontips
Why do we sometimes need to make it about more than just the music (or the main focus of the video) on here? I get it, it’s frustrating. For one, it’s the nature of the platform. This isn’t somewhere people come primarily to LISTEN to music. They come to watch and experience stuff.
Secondly, we’re becoming more and more desensitised to higher quality stuff. Adding extra value to your posts and creating a more impactful experience around your music gives you an advantage over those you don’t.
Like I said, it doesn’t apply to everyone. But based on what I’ve seen, in a lot of cases extra points of engagement are a massive, massive help. If things aren’t happening when you try to promote your music, try this.
If you want examples of this, go to the search and type in your genre. Within a few minutes you’ll find plenty of examples of musicians who are pairing their amazing music with something I mentioned in the video or some other appealing thing.
Another way to think about examples is music videos. They’re a visual representation of the songs and give them extra depth—they’re building a world around the song, helping to tell the story and get us more invested into the world.
Hope it helps :)
#musicmarketing #indieartisttips #musiciansoftiktok #musicpromotiontips
Musicians of tiktok, as with everything there are exceptions to this—there are people who make one video and it goes and goes and goes. But if you haven’t had that experience and / or you don’t know how to make that happen—I reckon it’s a good idea to have some backup.
The truth is that you decide what’s valuable to you but the audience decides what’s valuable to them. You don’t get to choose that for them. And I know sometimes the audience doesn’t know what they want, but you can’t make someone like something just because you put a lot of work into it and you think it’s great. It’s frustrating, but it’s reality haha.
At the end of the day, just make whatever you want to make—it’s not my business or anyone else’s to tell you what you can and can’t do with promoting your own music. And you should enjoy what you do. But the suggestion is here if you want it: have a solid plan and don’t assume you know what people are going to like.
I’ve done this heaps and been wrong a lot. And so have a lot of musicians I’ve spoken to or worked with. Sometimes it takes months to find something that’s properly effective. Sometimes a song just doesn’t work on social media. Sometimes something will work early. We don’t know for certain. All we can do is give ourselves the best chance of success by putting ourselves in the best position we can.
Hope this helps and gives you something to think about :)
#indieartisttips #musicmarketing #musiciansoftiktok #musicpromotiontips
The truth is that you decide what’s valuable to you but the audience decides what’s valuable to them. You don’t get to choose that for them. And I know sometimes the audience doesn’t know what they want, but you can’t make someone like something just because you put a lot of work into it and you think it’s great. It’s frustrating, but it’s reality haha.
At the end of the day, just make whatever you want to make—it’s not my business or anyone else’s to tell you what you can and can’t do with promoting your own music. And you should enjoy what you do. But the suggestion is here if you want it: have a solid plan and don’t assume you know what people are going to like.
I’ve done this heaps and been wrong a lot. And so have a lot of musicians I’ve spoken to or worked with. Sometimes it takes months to find something that’s properly effective. Sometimes a song just doesn’t work on social media. Sometimes something will work early. We don’t know for certain. All we can do is give ourselves the best chance of success by putting ourselves in the best position we can.
Hope this helps and gives you something to think about :)
#indieartisttips #musicmarketing #musiciansoftiktok #musicpromotiontips
Musicians of tiktok, it’s not about you - keep moving forward despite the resistance 🫶
For those of you who don’t know, this is Steven Pressfield. You may know his books The War of Art, Do The Work, Turning Pro. Do The Work has had a massive impact on me and i highly recommend him.
Your music is your life - don’t let your mind trick you into stopping you :)
#musiciansoftiktok #indieartisttips #musiciansontiktok #independentartistsoftiktok
For those of you who don’t know, this is Steven Pressfield. You may know his books The War of Art, Do The Work, Turning Pro. Do The Work has had a massive impact on me and i highly recommend him.
Your music is your life - don’t let your mind trick you into stopping you :)
#musiciansoftiktok #indieartisttips #musiciansontiktok #independentartistsoftiktok
Musicians of tiktok, you don’t need more tips - you need clarity and focus. Also when I say do what serves you, I mean what serves you in your pursuit of your dreams, not live a life where you never take anyone else into consideration 😅
Music marketing tips snd strategies are great, but there’s way too much out here and most of it will not be relevant to you right now. Take what you need to level up and then come back when you need to get to the one after that.
Hope it helps 💪
#musiciansoftiktok #musicmarketingstrategies #indieartisttips #musicmarketing
Music marketing tips snd strategies are great, but there’s way too much out here and most of it will not be relevant to you right now. Take what you need to level up and then come back when you need to get to the one after that.
Hope it helps 💪
#musiciansoftiktok #musicmarketingstrategies #indieartisttips #musicmarketing
Musicians of tiktok, if it’s something you MUST go after, youve just gotta do it. Be smart and find a way to make it happen. Dont just quit your job with no plan, or let your emotions completely take over and lead you down the wrong path - because a love for creating can make you do some pretty cr4zy things… but if you can feel that pull and it’s impossible to ignore, you should do something about it. You’ve got this 🫶
#musiciansoftiktok #indieartisttips #independentartistsoftiktok #musiciansontiktok
#musiciansoftiktok #indieartisttips #independentartistsoftiktok #musiciansontiktok
Musicians of tiktok, here’s how to promote your music with content and have it reach more people.
Removing or fixing ‘flat spots’ means identifying parts in your videos that are likely to be less interesting and either getting rid of them or making them more interesting and to keep people watching the entire video. This is important if your videos are longer because you need to keep people engaged for longer.
Watch your videos and try to be honest about areas that might be lacking. If you can’t remove those parts, adding things like movement, edits, text, etc. can help a lot. If you’re doing music performance clips, this shouldn’t be too much of a problem is the song is awesome, but it’s still worth paying attention to.
Visual storytelling – as you know these apps are all about the visual. It doesn’t matter for every type of post, but if you’re sharing your music it really helps to use the things mentioned in the video to help tell the story / communicate the message of the song. The stronger the messaging, the more people will be able to connect to it and being able to see or read things that help them ‘get it’ will help you a lot.
Building towards rewards – give people a reason to stay to the end by implying a ‘reward’ at the end of video, or rewards throughout the video. Some ways you can do this:
- Using parts of your songs that naturally build tension and build up
- Using numbers or lists or checkpoints (“3 things, etc…” like this video). It makes people want to find everything out and so they’ll hopefully stick around
- You can use the “wait til the end” type of thing IF it’s genuinely worth it. If it’s not people won’t appreciate it.
- Even using a slow zoom effect can help to lead people through the video
These are just a few ways. There are plenty of other ways to market your music on here. Play around with these and see how you go and don’t be afraid to try other things too :)
Hope it helps!
#musicmarketingstrategies #musiciansoftiktok #musicpromotion #indieartisttips
Removing or fixing ‘flat spots’ means identifying parts in your videos that are likely to be less interesting and either getting rid of them or making them more interesting and to keep people watching the entire video. This is important if your videos are longer because you need to keep people engaged for longer.
Watch your videos and try to be honest about areas that might be lacking. If you can’t remove those parts, adding things like movement, edits, text, etc. can help a lot. If you’re doing music performance clips, this shouldn’t be too much of a problem is the song is awesome, but it’s still worth paying attention to.
Visual storytelling – as you know these apps are all about the visual. It doesn’t matter for every type of post, but if you’re sharing your music it really helps to use the things mentioned in the video to help tell the story / communicate the message of the song. The stronger the messaging, the more people will be able to connect to it and being able to see or read things that help them ‘get it’ will help you a lot.
Building towards rewards – give people a reason to stay to the end by implying a ‘reward’ at the end of video, or rewards throughout the video. Some ways you can do this:
- Using parts of your songs that naturally build tension and build up
- Using numbers or lists or checkpoints (“3 things, etc…” like this video). It makes people want to find everything out and so they’ll hopefully stick around
- You can use the “wait til the end” type of thing IF it’s genuinely worth it. If it’s not people won’t appreciate it.
- Even using a slow zoom effect can help to lead people through the video
These are just a few ways. There are plenty of other ways to market your music on here. Play around with these and see how you go and don’t be afraid to try other things too :)
Hope it helps!
#musicmarketingstrategies #musiciansoftiktok #musicpromotion #indieartisttips
Musicians of tiktok, you have to be obsessed with your goals if you want to win, that’s a given. And hard work is a good thing, but not when it’s constantly at the expense of productivity. I’m discovering more and more through my own experience and studying high performers that bursts of focused work and then intentionally disconnecting is the best way to make progress, and to achieve more in less time.
I used to be that stubborn hard worker. And I will say there is great benefit to having a natural inclination towards getting sh!+ done. But we only have so much of that go in us each day, and I can say now with absolute confidence that overworking is not the way.
Again, that doesn’t mean you can’t and shouldn’t be obsessed with your goals. It means that in order to maximise your productivity and wellbeing, you should alternate between intense bouts of focused work and intentionally disconnecting (as Chris Bailey calls it in his book Hyperfocus: How To Work Less To Achieve More, “scatterfocus”).
This intentional disconnection doesn’t mean filling your mind with 🗑 and distractions. It means emptying your mind, recovering and allowing your creativity to bubble up to the surface. Go for a walk, go to the gym, just let your mind wander. This will give you the fuel to go back into your work and absolutely sma$h it.
I know it’s hard to do this with a 9-5 as well, and I can’t tell you exactly how to manage yourself because I don’t know your situation. But if you can, I recommend finding space for both this focused work and intentional disconnection so you can spend less time getting more done.
Hope it helps :)
#musiciansoftiktok #indieartisttips #musicpromotion #productivity
I used to be that stubborn hard worker. And I will say there is great benefit to having a natural inclination towards getting sh!+ done. But we only have so much of that go in us each day, and I can say now with absolute confidence that overworking is not the way.
Again, that doesn’t mean you can’t and shouldn’t be obsessed with your goals. It means that in order to maximise your productivity and wellbeing, you should alternate between intense bouts of focused work and intentionally disconnecting (as Chris Bailey calls it in his book Hyperfocus: How To Work Less To Achieve More, “scatterfocus”).
This intentional disconnection doesn’t mean filling your mind with 🗑 and distractions. It means emptying your mind, recovering and allowing your creativity to bubble up to the surface. Go for a walk, go to the gym, just let your mind wander. This will give you the fuel to go back into your work and absolutely sma$h it.
I know it’s hard to do this with a 9-5 as well, and I can’t tell you exactly how to manage yourself because I don’t know your situation. But if you can, I recommend finding space for both this focused work and intentional disconnection so you can spend less time getting more done.
Hope it helps :)
#musiciansoftiktok #indieartisttips #musicpromotion #productivity
Musicians of tiktok, if you’ve heard these a thousand times and you’re thinking “I would never do these” - that’s good news. We’ve come a long way and this app has made it easier to learn fast, but unfortunately this is still happening a lot, so if you’re one of these I hope it helps.
If you’re asking “well if I don’t advertise my music how am I supposed to get it heard?” just scroll through a few more posts and you’ll find the answer in my previous videos.
If you’re asking “well how do I show personality?” I also have videos on that but am gonna do a new video on it.
This is maybe common sense to you, but I made it because it’s still so common. If you’re doing this stuff I hope this inspires you to experiment with new ways to get your music out there on here :)
#indieartisttips #musicpromotiontips #musicmarketing #musicmarketingstrategies
If you’re asking “well if I don’t advertise my music how am I supposed to get it heard?” just scroll through a few more posts and you’ll find the answer in my previous videos.
If you’re asking “well how do I show personality?” I also have videos on that but am gonna do a new video on it.
This is maybe common sense to you, but I made it because it’s still so common. If you’re doing this stuff I hope this inspires you to experiment with new ways to get your music out there on here :)
#indieartisttips #musicpromotiontips #musicmarketing #musicmarketingstrategies
Musicians of tiktok, creating over consuming. Sometimes knowing less means having less things to stop you from moving forward. Short bursts of learning followed up by acting on what you learn is the way. Add this to your social media strategy and keep going, you’ve got this :)
#indieartisttips #musiciansoftiktok #musicpromotiontips #musicmarketing
#indieartisttips #musiciansoftiktok #musicpromotiontips #musicmarketing
Musicians of tiktok, if you’re wondering how to make music content that stands out, here are 3 ideas.
Different perspectives and lenses: I’ve seen a bunch of awesome music content where the artist has used like a fisheye lens or filmed from a cool angle or perspective. Mess around with different angles and in different locations too – it can make all the difference.
Colour grading (using colour in your videos to help tell a story and make it look awesome): Something I’m only recently learning about properly but a lot of high-performing music content has some sort of interesting colour grading that adds to the messaging of the song. It’s a good way to brand your videos – definitely worth learning a bit about. I’ve started learning from basic free videos and you can too :)
Animations and images: I’ve been playing with animations lately and I had a conversation with a musician earlier about how it could be used for music content. I think it could be awesome to see the song being represented by little images or animations; have relevant images / graphics / whatever come up on the screen as the lyrics come up.
These are pretty visually engaging (in my opinion) and could be an interesting alternative to what a lot of people are doing. If you’re like “there’s no way I’m learning that”, it took me maybe a week or two to learn how to put these videos together (for free) and my views on both plats on average have gone up a good amount. Food for thought anyway! If you have any questions let me know :)
#musicmarketing #indieartisttips #musiciansoftiktok #musicmarketingstrategies
Different perspectives and lenses: I’ve seen a bunch of awesome music content where the artist has used like a fisheye lens or filmed from a cool angle or perspective. Mess around with different angles and in different locations too – it can make all the difference.
Colour grading (using colour in your videos to help tell a story and make it look awesome): Something I’m only recently learning about properly but a lot of high-performing music content has some sort of interesting colour grading that adds to the messaging of the song. It’s a good way to brand your videos – definitely worth learning a bit about. I’ve started learning from basic free videos and you can too :)
Animations and images: I’ve been playing with animations lately and I had a conversation with a musician earlier about how it could be used for music content. I think it could be awesome to see the song being represented by little images or animations; have relevant images / graphics / whatever come up on the screen as the lyrics come up.
These are pretty visually engaging (in my opinion) and could be an interesting alternative to what a lot of people are doing. If you’re like “there’s no way I’m learning that”, it took me maybe a week or two to learn how to put these videos together (for free) and my views on both plats on average have gone up a good amount. Food for thought anyway! If you have any questions let me know :)
#musicmarketing #indieartisttips #musiciansoftiktok #musicmarketingstrategies
Performances & story: If you don’t know what I mean by performances, they’re videos of you performing your song in some awesome, on brand way. I have many posts on these, so feel free to look through. When I say story, I mean any and all kinds of storytelling – putting lyrics on screen, sharing what the song is about as you play it, literally telling stories related to it, etc. Whatever helps give the music more meaning to us. I also have lots of posts on storytelling too.
I say the answer is these two things because they seem to be the fastest, most effective way of connecting with people and getting listeners on social media. It’s been shown to work over & over. That doesn’t mean that’s the only thing that works – but if you’re unsure, start here.
Intense focus: Remove any & all distractions – put your phone in another room, say no to people & things, do whatever you’ve gotta do to get more focused on your goals. I know it’s hard & everyone has different responsibilities & schedules but give it a go & see what happens.
Simplify your days: Remove anything that isn’t absolutely essential or serving your goals. You might have to make sacrifices & that’s fine, as long it’s not your health. Time blocking & my calendar are my best friends – try them if you’re not already :)
Your ‘why’: You already know what this is, but if you don’t have a good one it’ll be hard to keep things going. Remember why you do this and remind yourself as much as you need to so you can keep pushing forward. If you don’t have a massive why, it’s time to write. Make a list of everything that’s important to you. Sort through your soul until something jumps out. You can do this!
#indieartisttips #musiciansoftiktok #musicmarketing #musicpromotiontips
I say the answer is these two things because they seem to be the fastest, most effective way of connecting with people and getting listeners on social media. It’s been shown to work over & over. That doesn’t mean that’s the only thing that works – but if you’re unsure, start here.
Intense focus: Remove any & all distractions – put your phone in another room, say no to people & things, do whatever you’ve gotta do to get more focused on your goals. I know it’s hard & everyone has different responsibilities & schedules but give it a go & see what happens.
Simplify your days: Remove anything that isn’t absolutely essential or serving your goals. You might have to make sacrifices & that’s fine, as long it’s not your health. Time blocking & my calendar are my best friends – try them if you’re not already :)
Your ‘why’: You already know what this is, but if you don’t have a good one it’ll be hard to keep things going. Remember why you do this and remind yourself as much as you need to so you can keep pushing forward. If you don’t have a massive why, it’s time to write. Make a list of everything that’s important to you. Sort through your soul until something jumps out. You can do this!
#indieartisttips #musiciansoftiktok #musicmarketing #musicpromotiontips