All The World’s A Stage: A Literary Exploration Into The Art of Self Promotion

The world we live in has changed drastically since William Shakespeare penned the infamous phase “All the world’s a stage”. Especially for us artists, and specifically in regards to the options we have when it comes to promoting our work. Take myself as an example, I went from being a no name author who couldn’t sell a single book, to being an internationally known author with multiple best selling books. And we don’t have to go as far back as the times of Shakespeare, even compared to just a decade ago, our options for self promotion have greatly increased.

Gone are the days when the traditional gatekeepers such as Record Labels, Distribution Companies, Publishing Houses and Art Galleries held all the power when it came to determining if our art would succeed or fail. Here, now, more than any time in the history of human civilisation, we, as artists, literally hold the power to push our art into the world in the palms of our hands.

This is true for all artists and all artistic mediums, however since Couch Mag is a collective that focuses primarily on music, this article will be centred on what it means to be a musical artist in our current times, and how, as a musical artist, one can best utilise current technology to most efficiently and effectively get their music to the masses. So settle in and go ahead and dedicate the next few minutes of your life paying attention to the following words, for the information you gain in the next few minutes may very well change the course of your musical career, for the rest of your life.

First, let’s talk demographics. While Australia has a population of approx 26 million people, the world as a whole has a population of approx 7.6 billion. Now of those 7.6 billion worldwide, there are 1 billion on Facebook, another 1 billion on Instagram, and a further 800 million on TikTok. This means that one those three platforms alone there are approx 2.8 billion users, which is over 100 times more people than in all of Australia. So already, by engaging online, you can potentially reach over 100 times the amount of people you could be simply focusing on regional or even national campaigns.

Furthermore, given that 90% of people between the ages of 18-29 use social media, the people that interact daily on social media are more likely to be the types of people that have the potential to be supportive fans than those who are not daily users of social media. Just based on these numbers alone, this means that the same amount of time, energy, and effort it takes to speak to a single person here in Australia, can potentially reach 100 people with exactly the same amount of time, energy and effort.

Okay, now that we fully understand the magnitude of social media’s reach, let’s go over how best to utilise social media to spread awareness about your music.

Understand that you are a brand

First of all, you must understand that you are a brand, you are marketing yourself, just as much as you are marketing your music. Sure someone might appreciate the sounds you create, but if they don’t also find you interesting, as an individual, the level of their engagement and the loyalty they hold for you will be significantly less. So keep this in mind when posting anything online. Make sure you compliment your music, and your music compliments you.

Engage with your fan-base

Second, engage with your fan-base in every way possible. Respond to comments with compliments, like their personal content, hold contests, do giveaways, give shout outs, etc. etc. I know a lot of indie artists that start to catch a little bit of a buzz, go on an ego trip, start to think they are too cool to respond to their fans, and fall off as quickly as they got on. You must always respect your fan-base, for without them, your music will go nowhere. On the other hand, I personally know a lot of indie artist that went from a few hundred followers to tens of thousands of followers and millions of plays on Spotify and still engage with their fan-base like it’s day one.

Network with other up and coming artists

Third, network with other up and coming artists. Do features, cross promote, collaborate in creative ways, whatever it takes to cross pollinate your fan base with theirs.

The music itself is not enough

Fourth, the music itself is not enough. You can have the best most groundbreaking sound in the world, but if people don’t hear it, it ultimately won’t really matter. Promoting yourself is half the battle. So put as much effort into promoting your music as you did making it.

Make trends, don’t chase them

Fifth, make trends, don’t chase them. This one is easy to ignore, but very important. You’ve got to create your own lane. If you try and copying someone else’s style by the time you catch up to them, the style you were chasing will already be done. You’ve gotta literally beat to the sound of your own drum, make music in an unfiltered, unapologetic, non pandering way. Be genuine, be real, listeners will know if you’re just putting on a show, so express yourself from the heart, speak your piece, show your soul, there is nothing listeners appreciate more than true authenticity.

Persistence, persistence, persistence..

Sixth, persistence, persistence, persistence. When Edison said ‘genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration’ he wasn’t joking. You’ve really got to put the work in. Sure Picasso was a talented painter, but if he’d only painted one painting his whole life no one would of cared. He had to really put his work in. I’ll never forget when I was touring the Picasso museum in Picasso‘s hometown of Barcelona, I’d asked one of the expert staff there how often Picasso would paint, and they replied “He painted every single day”.

If you don’t sometimes fail, you’re not trying hard enough.

Seventh, If you don’t sometimes fail, you’re not trying hard enough. Any mistake you make along the way can be a lesson if you learn from it. Do you know the only difference between a mistake and a lesson? You learn from lessons, you don’t from mistakes. The only way to insure failure is to not try. So push the envelope, keep going, take risks, and above all, do not give up.

But, what now?

Sure, that all sounds really inspiring and all that, but, like, how can I actually earn a living with my art so I can dedicate myself fully to my artistic pursuits and quit my day job? Easy. Let’s go over some cold hard numbers. Please note, all prices are in USD, not AUD.

We’ll start with Spotify. Songs on Spotify earn approx. $5 for every 1,000 streams. Ever heard of Charlie Puth, Lauv, or Dua Lipa? Probably not, or at least you likely haven’t heard of all of them, but they all have had over 1 billion streams on at least one of their songs over the past year, and that translates into over $5 million dollars each.

See, it only takes ONE hit. You can be a relatively unknown artist, but if you have a decent base of hardcore fans that truly support what you do, that’s enough to get a good song shared millions of times.

If 1000 people share a song and 100 people hear it, and those 100 people share that sound, and 100 more people hear it, that’s 10 million people listening to your song. If 10 million people listen to a song 10 times on Spotify, that’s 100,000,000 streams, which translates into $500,000, and that’s not including all streams that come from all the playlists that the song will probably have been added to by the time 10 million people hear it.

Now let’s get into Instagram. An account with say, 100,000 followers can make approx $1,000 per post for sponsored content.

YouTube advertisers pay approx $5 for every thousand views, so 100,000 views will earn you approx $500.

Plus, when you use these platforms to promote yourself on other platforms, you can boost your exposure exponentially across mediums. Now everyone can’t expect to get 100,000,000 streams on Spotify, or have 100,000 followers on Instagram. But getting say, 1,000,000 streams is not that difficult, in fact I have multiple friends that have done it with as few as 10,000 followers on Instagram.

Then there is Apple, which pays $7 per 1,000 streams. Now, $7 per 1,000 streams might not sound like much, but it’s more than might first appear to be, especially when you add it all up.. See, 1,000 streams is ridiculously low, and any decent artist with any sort of social media following, on any of the major platforms, can easily get 100,000 streams on Apple and/or Spotify as well as 100,000 views on YouTube.

So, lets add it all up..

Say, for simplicity, you get 100,000 streams on Spotify ($500) and Apple ($700), plus 100,000 streams on YouTube ($500). That’s $1,700 USD for a single song off of only three platforms, and doesn’t include actual album downloads, Pandora plays, Tidal plays, or any of the other multitude of platforms. $1,700 USD is not bad for one song, especially when you consider that it can all be done from your living room, without spending a single dollar on advertising whatsoever.

Now, bump those 100,000 to 1,000,000 streams across those platforms and that $1,700 USD quickly becomes $17,000. That’s real money, and more than enough to quit your day job and focus on what you truly love, creating brilliant music to share with the world at large.

From Down Under to on top, gone are the days when young aspiring Aussies had to leave their family and friends behind to travel across the Pacific and take their chances in the cut throat music industry mecca of Los Angeles. Now an aspiring and talented Aussie artist can literally reach millions and millions of people all over the world without ever even leaving your house.

Let’s quickly go over a few of the recent superstars to emerge out of the Australian music scene. First up, we’ve got Flume.. Flume went from putting out his first song, to playing The Glastonbury Festival and garnering over a billion streams on Spotify alone (that’s $5mil on streams, remember) in less than a decade. Then there’s Chet Faker (Now Nick Murphy). He put out his first EP in 2012 and has since gone on to win multiple international awards and acquire millions of streams. And how about Sia? Though being a lifelong musician, she didn’t really start to take off until the release of her sixth studio album in 2014.

And finally, let’s take a look at Troye Sivan, who may have the most applicable story of the four stars I’ve listed. Troye began his path to stardom through YouTube fame. Although he was born in South Africa, Australia can claim him as it’s own since he was raised here. Troye first got famous by making YouTube videos while living in Perth, not by making music. It was only after a few years of YouTube success that he crossed over into the music world in 2015. Since his fans liked him for who he is as much as they liked the content he created, his music was easily accepted by his fan-base even though it was very different from the content he was creating on YouTube. From there the rest is history.

This reminds us of Lesson #1 from above, you are a brand, you are marketing yourself as much as the art you create. Troye crossed over into a different artistic medium and people followed him because it was him they were into just as much as it was his content that they were into. So hey, if a kid from Perth can go from making YouTube videos in his bedroom to making songs with Ariana Grande in Hollywood, anything is possible as long as you have unlimited ambition and a good internet connection.

Now this isn’t to say that all of you that are reading this are going to be the next Flume, or Chet Faker, or Sia, or Troye Sivan, but undoubtedly at least one or two of the people that read this will be, and the rest of you don’t have to be, you can easily make your own lane and find a way to make enough from your artistic pursuits to pay for the time that you put in.

Like I said in the beginning, all the world’s a stage, and the question you’ve got to ask yourself is what part will you play on this stage in the time that you have to be on it?

Only time will tell what future history you will make with the tools you’ve been given to do so.. So get out there and make unapologetic art. The mic is on, and the world is listening.

In the words of the late great pop artist Andy Warhol, “Don’t think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it’s good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.” The world is the canvas, your art is the paint. What you put on that canvas with the life you have is up to you….