This is the second installment of Today’s Indie Musician series in which ’m talking with former guests of the podcast to do deep dives on the industry, what’s happening during these wild times and where we see it going. These episodes were done as research I did for a Forbes.com article on the Six Skills All Indie Musicians Need Today.
Our guest today is Mawk Phoenix from episode 131. We discuss my various suppositions about the important elements an indie musician must master these days. I share my experience recording drums at home, which was fun to discuss with Mawk given his experience in production and sound engineering. Mawk’s long career gives him a unique perspective on the skills indie musicians need today.
Episode Highlights
We start by talking about how artists need to be entrepreneurs (05:43) and go on to discuss:
- (08:40) Building a community versus followers
- (10:15) Re-inventing how we perform
- (17:40) Recording at home and digital distribution
- (22:44) Building a niche audience
Quotable
The path is not to getting a deal anymore. The path is to creating your own business and your own branding.
–Mawk Phoenix
Mentioned in this Episode
- Forbes Article: Six Skills All Indie Musicians Need
- Dark Days Indeed Jace Everett
- Celebrating the Wins and Struggles Along The Way—Mawk Phoenix (Ep 131)
- Crossing Paths with Jace Everett (Ep 64)
- DistroKid
- CDBaby
- Today’s Indie Musician—Ariane Cap (Ep 164)
- The Portal – 35:Balaki Srinivasan – There Heretic & The Virus
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MUSICIAN RESOURCES
- The Unstarving Musician’s Guide to Getting Paid Gigs, by Robonzo
- Bandzoogle– The all-in-one platform that makes it easy to build a beautiful website for your music
- The Musician’s Profit Path: The 5-Stage Blueprint To Create Massive Growth In Your Fan Base and Sustainable Income For Your Music Career, by Bree Noble
- No Booker, No Bouncer, No Bartender: How I Made $25K On A 2-Month House Concert Tour, by Shannon Curtis
Visit my Resources page for more musician resources.
Pardon the Interruption (Disclosure)
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