💡✍️ADN #151: The One Metric That Matters

MONEY.

With it, you have time.

Without it, you’ll struggle to keep moving forward.

As artists, we often want to focus on our art more than our earnings, but to sustain a career, you must build a system to turn your art into income.

Here is a simple system for tracking what is going out and what is coming in.

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What did your last single cost you to create?

How much has it earned?

I mean every last penny.

Expenses:

• Studio
• Players
• Producer
• Mixer
• Engineer
• Vocal Tuning
• Editing
• Mastering
• Distribution Fees
• Art
• Marketing
• Social Content
• Merchandise

Earnings:

• Streaming
• Sirius XM
• Radio
• Merchandise
• Show Income
• Fan Club
• Sync
• Sound Exchange

Whatever you put into your single is the least you want to get out of it.

Why?

To build a lasting audience, you’ll need to be able to repeat this process month after month and year after year.

So, there are two sides to this equation.

There’s the money spent and the money earned.

I’m not much for math, but the less it costs, the quicker you’ll recoup your investment.

Now this doesn’t mean make something of lesser quality.

What it means is that with every step along the way, ask yourself, “What is the value of this decision?” and “How will it affect my ability to keep growing?”

• Self-produce vs. hiring a big-name producer
• Play the instruments yourself vs. hiring a band
• Do the art yourself vs. hiring a designer
• Shoot your video or social content yourself, rather than hiring an agency

If your goal is to release a single every eight weeks, you’ll want to craft a plan to recoup your money quickly.

There are ways to do this, but initially, it likely won’t be from streams alone.

Let’s say your total for expenses per track is $4,000.00.

Here are a few ways you could earn your money back:

• Reaching 1 million streams on Spotify will yield approximately $4,000.00.
• 400 paid fan club sign-ups at $10 will also yield you $4,000.00
• Selling 200 tickets to a show for $20 around your new release = $4,000.00

In the early days, you may need this money to afford your next project (unless you have outside funding), so spending less will help you move forward more quickly (duh).

It may also take longer to earn your money back, so budgeting for 2–3 releases before you put your first single out into the world is a good way to stay ahead of the pace of your project’s growth.

Implementing a combination of money-making tactics will (of course) also get you your money back more quickly.

Here is a simple SINGLE EXPENSE & EARNINGS TRACKER that you can use to monitor your expenses.

Go to “File”

Select “Make a copy”

And it is yours to use.

If you keep your expenses relatively low, over time, you should be able to earn more than you’ve spent.

To run a profitable and sustainable independent business, you’ll want to focus on planning for each release to put yourself in a position to do so quickly.

Balancing low expenses and incorporating money-generating plans into your marketing strategy is the best way to establish a repeatable system for successful releases.

If you’d like to develop a strategy together, feel free to schedule a time with me.

See you next week,

Neil