Greetings my friends,
I'm starting early this year to plan for 2018. I simplified my goals, made them a little more reasonable and actionable. Below are the biggest that I'm working on for next year.
I'd love your thoughts and feedback.
The Spotify Experiment
I have trouble wrapping my head around Spotify. I hear about artists making a living from streaming music. I’m not talking about major labels. I’m talking about independent artists. How is that possible when you’re being paid a fraction of a cent per stream?
Over the past two or three years, I’ve been promoting my Christmas music playlist on Spotify. I focused on Celtic Christmas music. The response overall was poor. I never noticed a huge uptick in income. This year, my promotion has been minimal.
Nevertheless, Spotify continues to gain popularity. And CD sales continue to diminish. So it’s time to embrace change full on. I want to increase the streams of my music and grow my fan base with Spotify,
It actually seems like a fairly natural transition from creating music podcasts to Spotify playlists.
Yesterday, I made a Cats & Kids Playlist because the Irish Drinking Songs for Cat Lovers series is by far my most viral music project. Cats & Kids was an idea I had for a CD. Instead of making a compilation with this theme, I just made a playlist. That was a lot easier!
How can you help?
- Listen and share my Spotify playlist
- Exit suggestion for songs to add to the playlist
- Create your own Spotify playlist with my music and share it with me so I can share with others
- Contact the owners of playlists that you enjoy and asked them to add a song or two mine
- Keep an eye open for Spotify listening challenges
Live Streaming Video: Coffee with The Celtfather
Another part of my promotion for next year will be live streaming video shows.
My success with Facebook Live is up and down. I started Coffee with The Celtfather just a few weeks ago. I am seeing new sales each and every week. I get at least one tip after every show. While 5 to 10 bucks is not a whole lot, it feels like a great start for something bigger.
Imagine if I could very 100 people watching for a few minutes instead of the 10-20 I currently get. Will those tips grow?
I will continue to do Coffee with The Celtfather in 2018. Yes, these are morning shows. The evening shows are a lot more difficult to pull off with family at home. I do still hope to do more, but I'm not sure when at present.
Mostly I want to capture some new traffic and fans on Facebook. That's gonna come from Coffee with The Celtfather
How can you get involved?
- Watch one of my live-streaming concerts live around 9 AM some mornings (can I be more vague) or watch the replay
- As soon as you see I am live, share the video with your friends
- Post a comment and interact with others on the feed
- If you were able to tip, awesome, you could also post links to albums or virtual little tip jar for others. The big thing is just interact.
- If you aren’t on Facebook Live, I will share on YouTube where you can do many of the same things listed above
Collaborations
I have wanted to do more collaborations since the big success of Don’t Go Drinking With Hobbits. It’s just cool think that there are all these incredible musicians out there who I could have a chance to work with. Now, I probably won’t crowdsource an album like that next year.
Instead, I want to be more strategic. There are some great musicians who I want to contact and see if they’d be willing to record a song together.
My thought is I would release a bunch of singles and see if any gain traction. Once I get enough songs, I will release an album.
I’m not yet sure who those people will be, but you will be the first to know.
How Can You Get Involved?
- Do you have any suggestions for artists who might be willing and able to collaborate next year?
- Is there a song you would love to hear me sing? Even better as a duo?
Thank you for being a part of brainstorming and planning for next year. Hopefully, I'll find some degree of consistency and new successes in 2018.
Slainte!
