Caleb J. Murphy

How To Make Money From Music (12 Ways)

November 11, 2023

Photo credit: Chase Yi Whenever you see musicians complaining about not being able to make money from music, they’re probably not making money from music. Because there are definitely ways to use your music... Read More...

How 6 Independent Musicians Make a Living Today

Caleb J. Murphy

November 9, 2023

The whole point of this post is to show you that, yes, you can make a living as a musician. It takes great music, a lot of hard and smart work, and a solid music community. But you can do it. This post also... Read More...

Is SMS Marketing for Musicians Still a Thing?

Caleb J. Murphy

November 3, 2023

Photo credit: Fausto Sandoval As an indie artist, I’m always looking for the best way to engage with my fans. And I’m sure you feel the same way. A few years ago, SMS marketing for musicians became the new ... Read More...

Trying To Escape the Musician’s Rat Race

Caleb J. Murphy

October 30, 2023

Tell me if this has happened to you… You find a musician on social media. You like the song you hear, so you look it up on Spotify. Once you land on their Spotify page, the first thing you instinctively ... Read More...

Is Email Marketing Dead? What Musicians Think…

Caleb J. Murphy

October 26, 2023

I’m sure you’ve heard music marketers talk about email marketing. “You have to ‘own’ your fans,” they say. “Social media algorithms come and go!” And I’ll be honest, the idea of bypassing the whim of algori... Read More...

A Different Way To Think About Music Marketing

Caleb J. Murphy

October 10, 2023

Photo credit: HIVAN ARVIZU @soyhivan Music marketing intimidates many indie musicians. We don’t want to feel sales-y, spammy, or like we’re yelling at people. Fortunately, there’s a way to share your music ... Read More...

5 Methods That Will Improve Your Recordings

Caleb J. Murphy

October 3, 2023

Photo credit: Tim Toomey A recording can have many problems. Bad timing. Thinness. Blandness. So I want to share five methods that will improve your recordings. These are things I do as an indie songwriter ... Read More...

How “Morning Pages” Unlock Your Creativity

Caleb J. Murphy

September 29, 2023

Photo credit: Mike Tinnion I started doing something called Morning Pages a few weeks ago. They’re supposed to help you unlock your creativity and improve your life overall. Big claims. So let’s talk about ... Read More...

The Point of Spotify Playlists Is Not Streams

Caleb J. Murphy

September 26, 2023

Your ROI for Spotify playlists will probably be $0, at least for a while when you first start out. But that’s okay. The point of playlists is not to make money or get more streams. Yes, the ultimate goal is ... Read More...

Is TikTok Promote Worth It? My Experience…

Caleb J. Murphy

September 15, 2023

Photo credit: Solen Feyissa In yet another attempt to promote my music, I recently promoted four of my TikTok videos. In other words, I paid for my TikToks to get shown to more people. It’s a feature called... Read More...

The Creative Life vs. Building a Music Career

Caleb J. Murphy

August 28, 2023

Photo credit: Aziz Acharki There are two general camps in the musician world. There’s the “I just want to make music I like” group and then there’s the “I want to make music my living” group. But what if bo... Read More...

How To Make a Good Music Video on a Budget

Caleb J. Murphy

August 21, 2023

OK Go's music video for their song "Here It Goes Again" Many indie musicians don’t have a ton of money. But every indie musician who’s serious about building a career will do whatever it takes to promote th... Read More...

Author Caleb J. Murphy