Should you focus your music marketing before your release or after it drops? We get this question all the time. The real answer? You need both...

In this episode of Creative Juice, Jack and Circa break down how to build an effective release plan that actually converts your fans' attention into impact! From stacking bonuses ahead of streaming drops to building experiences for your fans, learn how to make every moment of your release count!

If you’ve ever felt lost planning your next release or you want to rethink how you roll out new music, this episode will show you how to load up the right way!

DISCOVER:

1. Why The Best Marketing Happens Before And After Your Release Drops

2. How To Build A Timeline That Drives Action (Not Just Hype)

3. What To Do Instead Of Chasing Pre-Saves

4. How To Create Fan Experiences That Lead To Real Results

5. Why Industry Advice Leans Too Heavily On Pre-Release Promotion

6. What To Ask Yourself When Planning A Launch

7. How To Avoid Overplanning And Actually Ship Your Release

RESOURCES:

Learn The Top Music Marketing Strategies Inside IndiePRO

Join Us In The Indepreneur Discord Server!

Looking to expand your team or need marketing help? Apply to work with IndieX!

More and more it seems like “Direct to Fan” is having a moment in the music industry...but it’s not a new concept and a lot of what you’re hearing about it misses the point entirely...

In this episode of Creative Juice, Jack and Circa set the record straight on what “direct to fan” really means for artists. We unpack the buzz around D2F in the industry, the confusion with D2C models, and how to build a business on your terms with your fans and customers!

If you’re building your artist business and want to understand what's real and what's noise in the “direct to fan” conversation, this episode cuts through and gives you a path to follow without distractions!

DISCOVER:

1. Why “Direct To Fan” Is Becoming An Industry Buzzword and How To See Through The Hype

2. What To Know About D2C Artist Businesses and D2C Brands

3. How Gatekeepers And Middlemen Are Being Added Back Into D2C Unnecessarily

4. What Direct To Fan Is Actually About (Hint: It’s Fan Monetization, Not Platforms)

5. Why You Can’t Rely On Tools Alone To Build A Direct To Fan Business

6. How To Evaluate The Costs Of Changing Platforms In Your Business

7. What Direct To Fan Will Never Be and How To Build It The Right Way

RESOURCES:

Learn The Top Music Marketing Strategies Inside IndiePRO

Shout out to Dame Ritter for the Inspiration

Join Us In The Indepreneur Discord Server!

Getting Everything You Can Out of All You've Got

Looking to expand your team or need marketing help? Apply to work with IndieX!

Going viral and building momentum with your fans online is important but what you do after those moments can make your marketing count...

In this episode of Creative Juice, Jack and Circa unpack what to do once you've started getting attention online, whether it's from a viral video or slow, steady growth over time! Learn how artists get stuck in the murky middle when building a fan base, chasing ideas without direction, and what to focus on instead by testing content variations, building with ads, making simple offers, and moving fans to the next step!

If you’re seeing traction with your music online but are unsure what to do next and afraid of losing momentum, this episode will give you the roadmap to keep building!

DISCOVER:

1. Why Artists Get Stuck After Their First Viral Moment Or Spike In Attention

2. What Tests To Run After Getting Traction

3. How To Use Crossposting, Ads, And Hand-to-Hand Tactics To Drive Engagement

4. When To Start Selling and Why You Don’t Need The “Perfect” Offer To Begin

5. Why So Many Artists Underestimate Their Ability To Monetize Attention

6. What To Do In The “Murky Middle” Between Content Success And Business Growth

RESOURCES:

Learn The Top Music Marketing Strategies Inside IndiePRO

Join Us In The Indepreneur Discord Server!

Looking to expand your team or need marketing help? Apply to work with IndieX!

Want a masterclass in fan engagement? Not everything you see in the music industry is worth copying, but now and then, artists' release strategies really stand out...

In this episode of Creative Juice, Jack and Circa break down Jon Bellion’s release strategy for Father Figure and why it’s one of the coolest fan-focused rollouts we’ve seen in a while! Learn about Jon's dedication to his email list and growing an old school style forum, what’s working, why his fans are going crazy over it, and how you can take notes for your own marketing!

If you’re watching what other artists are doing and wondering what’s worth paying attention to (and what’s just hype), this episode will help you separate stunts from strategy!

DISCOVER:

1. How Jon Bellion Is Using Email Marketing And Forums To Build Deeper Fan Relationships

2. Why His Approach To His Comeback Is Rallying His Fans

3. What He’s Doing Differently With Instagram

4. How He’s Driving Traffic To Release Shows And Merch

5. Why Short-term Stunts Don't Create Long-term Fan Impact

6. What To Model From Jon’s Marketing and What To Avoid When Watching The Industry

RESOURCES:

Learn The Top Music Marketing Strategies Inside IndiePRO

Jon's Finsta Account

Join Us In The Indepreneur Discord Server!

Looking to expand your team or need marketing help? Apply to work with IndieX!

As artists grow, it’s easy to let the little things slide. It’s the artists who stay locked in on the details who see long-term success...

In this episode of Creative Juice, Jack and Circa dig into the small tweaks that lead to big results as your music career grows. Learn about how email and text personalization, fan recognition, and better messaging habits are a superpower that the best artists get growth from!

If you’re looking to increase engagement, build real fan loyalty, and stand out, this episode will give you a clear path forward!

DISCOVER:

1. How To Use Fan Data In Your Messaging

2. Why Simple Personalization Shows Fans You Know Them

3. How To Create Subject Lines And Questions That Spark Replies

4. Why Shouting Out Fans Matters (And How To Do It Well)

5. How Consistent Small Actions Compound Into Long Term Growth

6. What Separates Great Artists From The Rest

7. What Is The One Opinion That Should Drive Your Decisions

RESOURCES:

Learn The Top Music Marketing Strategies Inside IndiePRO

Join Us In The Indepreneur Discord Server!

Looking to expand your team or need marketing help? Apply to work with IndieX!

What's up Indies welcome back to Creative Juice, this is the podcast where we cover growing and monetizing your fan base and building your music career with marketing strategies that are working RIGHT NOW based on what we see every day at our music marketing agency and across our community of thousands of artists and bands, I hope you enjoy and subscribe. I'm your host Jack McCarthy and with me as always is my co-captain Circa, what's up dude?

Figuring out how to grow in your music career probably feels somedays like you're trying to hit a moving target. It can be, and here's why.

Theory of constraints - it's a management concept that can be applied to business. It says that a business, whether it's your music career or the restaurant down the street, is limited in achieving its goals by a small number of constraints or bottlenecks. Basically that a business only grows up to its constraint.

And when you apply the Theory of Constraints to a business, you look for the largest constraint or bottleneck to hitting your goals and remove that constraint first.

Business examples - supply constrained (i don't have enough staff) vs demand constrained (i don't have enough customers)

How to apply this

candid conversation

We do this all the time, literally OFTEN because it's so easy to get distracted

different way of fighting shiny object syndrome

Will doing X distract us/get us closer from/to our bigger goal of Y

Ask circ of times he's helped an artist identify their constraints

not new ways to do x, why currently why y isn't working

when you live in your problems, you get blindness

how to look for the one big thing

sidequests and skills - the dirty secret of the fitness industry

attacking your goals head on

“How about TikTok?” It’s one of the most common questions we get from artists and their teams when talking about running ads...

In this episode of Creative Juice, Jack and Circa dig into how we run TikTok Ads at our music marketing agency IndieX—where they fit, when we use them, and how to get results without burning cash! Learn why we don’t use TikTok Ads for testing, how we rely on organic content first, and how to use viral videos to your advantage!

If you’ve been wondering where TikTok Ads fit into your music marketing strategy, this episode will give you the approach you need to use them the right way!

DISCOVER:

1. Why We Don’t Recommend TikTok Ads For Testing

2. How Organic Content Sets The Foundation Before You Spend Money On Ads

3. What The Community Interaction Objective Is And How To Use It For Growth

4. When To Run Ads On Proven Viral Content To Build Audience

5. How TikTok’s Audience Growth And Retargeting Tools Work

6. What Changed With Retargeting on TikTok

RESOURCES:

Learn The Top Music Marketing Strategies Inside IndiePRO

Looking to expand your team or need marketing help? Apply to work with IndieX!

Join Us In The Indepreneur Discord Server!

In a noisy music industry, artists often find themselves stuck, spinning their wheels with different advice, and not knowing what steps to take to actually hit their goals. And it's not your fault...

In part two of this Creative Juice conversation, Jack sits down with IndieFounder Lead Strategist Jonah McLean to dig deeper into marketing systems that help artists hit their goals! Learn about growing streaming with digital marketing, where to optimize your marketing for chart success, and how to think bigger about your music career.

If you're chasing your goals, trying to figure out your next step, or wondering how the future of music marketing is shifting, this episode is packed with stories from other artists to help!

DISCOVER:

1. How To Think About Growing Your Streaming Numbers Using Digital Marketing

2. Why Streaming Might Not Be Your First Roadblock and How To Find What Is

3. What To Focus On If You're Aiming For Chart Success With Your Releases

4. What Jonah Wishes Every Artist Knew About Music Marketing

5. Why "Direct To Fan" Is Becoming A Buzzword

6. How The Music Marketing Landscape Is Evolving And What To Prepare For Next

RESOURCES:

Learn The Top Music Marketing Strategies Inside IndiePRO

Apply To Work With The IndieFounder Team

Looking to expand your team or need marketing help? Apply to work with IndieX!

Join Us In The Indepreneur Discord Server!