You might be an aspiring musician or someone who lives, breathes, and eats music.
The time is right to start music blogging.
According to the Recording Industry Association of America, US recorded music revenue grew by an impressive 27% on a year-on-year basis in the first half of the year 2021 to reach more than $7 billion.
The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry has revealed that more people than ever are listening to music. In 2019, the average person listened to 18.4 hours of music per week.
Eight out of 10 music lovers said that music was instrumental in their emotional well-being as the world went into and out of lockdown.
While we hear headlines constantly claiming that streaming is ruining the music industry, in reality, we spend relatively little on streaming compared to other music-related expenses.
Nielsen found that, on average, people spend $156 per year on music. Streaming accounts for just 9%.
If you’ve ever thought about becoming a blogger for music, it’s time to leap. This article will show you exactly how to go about it.
Why start a music blog?
It’s not enough to be a huge music fan or a rising act in order to start a blog.
A successful music blog takes a lot of time.
It takes an average of four hours to create a blog post. And that’s not even counting the time it takes to build your website, develop your brand, or use tactics such as search engine optimization (SEO) and social media marketing in order to increase your traffic.
Four reasons why the effort is worth it
Share Your Work
A music blog is a great way to showcase your work.
This “work” can be the new music that you have created. You could use content to demonstrate your writing and knowledge skills. This will help you get a job in the music media.
You could also be looking for the best new music in your locality, preparing you for a successful career in the industry.
Expand Your Resume
In the same vein, your blog is a great way to highlight your credentials in the music industry.
Starting a music website can help you create your brand.
A successful music blog can open up new doors that you would not have otherwise had. It could land you a job at your favorite record label or a booking for one of your famous music festivals.
Build a Community
In the music industry, community is very important. You could have a “community” that includes:
Your music fans or readers of your articles
Local artists willing to collaborate
Journalists and publications who support you
Promoters who want to book your gigs
Clubs or festivals near you
And much more. Your music blog is the central hub of your newly formed community. It’s a place where you can tell people about what you are working on, what venues you will be appearing at, what artists you admire, and what plans you have.
Earn Money!
While music fans may be quick to accuse artists of “selling out,” the truth is that everyone has to eat. While money may not be the primary reason for starting a music website, it is definitely something to consider.
You have many options for monetizing your music blog. These avenues will be discussed in greater detail later in this article. But, in general, they include:
Here are some examples of successful music blogs
It would be best if you started by looking at other blogs to get an idea of how they operate. Here are our three favorite music blogs.
Pitchfork
Pitchfork, whether you love it or dislike it, is one of the most popular music blogs. It is a music blog that focuses on new music. Pitchfork publishes a lot of reviews, interviews, features, and music.
Advertisement and affiliate marketing can be a great way to make money.
As well as organizing their music festivals in Berlin, Chicago, London, and Paris.
BrooklynVegan
BrooklynVegan, as its name implies, is a music blog focusing on New York City. It features articles about new songs, concert reviews, tour dates, and news from the music industry.
It was founded in 2004 and has grown over the years. In 2013, it acquired the popular metal blog Invisible Oranges. Advertising is the main source of revenue.
ReverbNation
ReverbNation, a social network platform, aims to assist musicians, music venues, and promoters in communicating and collaborating. The platform also allows artists to reach millions of music fans through some of the biggest music websites in the world.
Its blog doesn’t promote third-party products, but rather, it promotes the ReverbNation Platform. The content focuses on music management, marketing, promotion, concerts and tours, and the creation of music.
How To Start A Music Blog In 10 Steps
We’ve covered the basics of music blogging. Let’s now talk about how to get started.
Narrow down Your Music Niche
The music niche, in reality, isn’t very niche. It’s too big.
You won’t appeal to anyone if you create a music blog that is generalist.
Why? People value expertise when it comes to music. You’d look for hip-hop blogs that offer recommendations and not ones that cover everything from vaporwave to 10th-century Gregorian chants.
Your first step is to find a niche that you are truly passionate about. It should at least be something that you are truly interested in. Music fans can tell a faker from a mile away!
Consider your target audience when you are at this stage. Who are you trying to reach? Why would they visit your site?
There are many potential target audiences in the music niche. Examples include:
People who wish to learn to play an instrument
People looking for reviews or recommendations of music in a particular genre
Find local concert listings and tickets
People who are looking for advice on starting a band or recording music
People who want to buy merchandise from their favorite acts
People looking for information on a particular artist
People looking for a music venue or club night in their area
Searching for free music?
There are many other examples. You can imagine that all those audiences would be looking for different content.
While you may not be able to nail down your blogging niche completely at this point, you will have some ideas.
Looking for inspiration? Don’t worry. We at Authority Hacker have a lot of experience creating content websites in a wide range of industries. So, we know how to choose a niche.
You can find other music blogs by visiting websites such as Detailed or FeedSpot. You can read through several blogs to determine the main niches that each blog is focusing on. Then, you can decide which niches appeal most to you.
If that fails, you can always turn to Ahrefs, one of our favorite search engine optimization platforms. One of the many tools available is Competing Domains, which lets you search for music blogs that target similar keywords.
Take your time and browse through the list of domains to find sites that you like. You may want to run them all through Competing Domains to get a larger list of blogs to look at.
Use the information you gather to help you choose your blog niche.
Choose A Blogging Platform
You’ve chosen a niche — congrats! It’s now time to build your music blog. The first step is to select a blogging platform.
A blogging platform is a tool that gives music bloggers tools to manage and publish the content they produce.
Some platforms for blogging allow users to select a unique domain, choose a web host, and build a website from scratch. Others- such as HubPages or Medium – keep bloggers on a standard platform.
Some are also free, while others charge a fee.
It is easy to be tempted early on in your music blog project to choose the cheapest solution. You might even question why you should start a music blogging site. It would be quicker and more affordable to create YouTube videos or a podcast.
We’ll start with the last point. It’s possible to earn money in the music business even without a site. However, this is not recommended.
You’re dependent on one platform to reach your audience when you choose social media. You might lose a lot of traffic if your platform decides to change its algorithm.
If you create a music-related blog, you will be able to use a variety of tools and channels to increase blog traffic, engage with your audience, and make money.
Search engine optimization can be used to target keywords. Create an email newsletter to promote your content. Create multiple profiles to send traffic to your blog. You can run ads on your website to attract paid traffic.
It is smart to start your website. When it comes to blogging, we recommend WordPress.org above all other platforms.
