Top 5 Musician Business Strategies to Grow Your Career Opportunities in 2025

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Whether you want to grow your following, play locally, tour regionally or internationally, place music in film or tv or create a behind the scenes career as a singer, songwriter or music producer knowing the right strategies to grow your career opportunities is the key to success. 

As the music industry continues to evolve in 2025, being successful with music requires a nuanced understanding of new trends, pathways and strategies to achieve your vision and goals. 

In today’s blog, we’ll explore practical tips, and the latest strategies to help you navigate the music industry in 2025.

For more help, join our burgeoning community of musicians building successful careers inside our Artist Sanctuary Membership. No artist succeeds alone. The key to climbing is community and mentorship. As a New Music Business mentor I’ve mentored countless artists to successful careers and have mentored for established organizations such as Grammy U, Women in Music, NYU, and the Association of Independent Music Publishers. My only requirement is passion and dedication. The Sanctuary is for singers, musicians, songwriters and indie artists of all genres and levels. Learn more about the Artist Sanctuary Membership here.

Here are my Top 5 Musician Business Strategies to Grow Your Career Opportunities in 2025. 

Music Business Planning

  A dream without a plan is a dream. Build your music business plan in phases. Start with your big vision and then fill in the details.

Half the battle is first knowing what you want to do, where you want to go in music and then know the paths to take to get there. Then knowing the strategies to apply take shape. 

The first thing is to do some music business planning for your career. Most musicians today are setting out to build their own brands. Whether you want to grow your own company or partner with other music companies or a bit of both, knowing the different sectors of the industry and addressing all of the aspects of building a career are at hand. 

The music industry is constantly changing. To keep up, you need to stay informed. Artists no longer need a deal with a major label to be successful, and while that is good news, the task of building a career falls squarely and completely in your lap. 

As a musicpreneur you’ll want to address and plan in these areas:   

• Artist Development is paramount to success. Map a plan for all aspects of your artistic development: voice, performance, music, songwriting, A&R development (sound + direction), image, brand, your niche, music business knowledge, and career strategy and development. I cover all of this from soup to nuts inside my Step Up to the Spotlight Artist Development Program. In just 6 modules you’ll get the complete overview and a 52 Week Artist Development Plan to map your progress. Click here to learn more about the Step Up to the Spotlight Artist Development Program.
• Put yourself on a rigorous schedule to up your professional artistry and to produce music. Only artists that have proven their artistry will succeed in the industry.
• Music Career Planning: planning your career ahead of time will save you time and resources in the long run. No two artists have the exact same path. Work with a seasoned mentor who knows the industry to get there faster. Learn more about the Artist Sanctuary Membership here.

Consult, Network + Build Relationships

One of the most important things you do is build relationships with people in the music industry. Start with consultants who are available to work with—coaches, mentors, experts in their fields of expertise from artist + career development to experts and mentors in music business, publishing and licensing and more. 

I started out in the industry with my vocal coach. She was my first mentor in the industry. Next was my producer, then a music lawyer and a manager came along, and then started meeting with reps at my PRO and labels. Over time it evolved into several handfuls of people in the record industry that helped to guide me. I also collected a large rolodex of peripheral contacts from music conferences and industry events that became familiar names and faces that contributed along the way.  

Start now to build your network and relationships. Do not attempt to navigate a career in music alone. if you want to go fast but make a ton of mistakes that end up taking way more time, go alone; if you want to go far, go together. Build your network. 

Try this:  

• Get a vocal coach
• Get a music mentor
• Join a community of other artists who are ahead of you – join our Artist Sanctuary Membership – it’s less than $50 a month you meet with me and a global community of artists 3x a month. Click here to learn more about the Artist Sanctuary Membership.
• Go to music conferences and industry events
• Join Women in Music and other organizations that help musicians

Building Your List of Raving Fans

Building your fanbase of raving fans is the ticket to a sustainable career that supports your music. 

The biggest mistake that many artists make is focusing too much on building their following on social media while not building their list—their email list. 

While social media following helps, it shouldn’t be the only focus. The reason you need to build your email list is because social media followers are not committed true fans. You only have their occasional attention and don’t have their email to communicate with them.

Your email list is how you communicate directly with your audience inviting them to your shows and to support your career. This is the start of developing a list of true fans. 

Try this:  

• Create a free music download for incentive for new fans to opt in to your list.
• Include a pdf of lyric liner notes as a special gift.
• Direct potential fans to get your free album and lyric liner notes on socials to convert them onto your email list.
• At shows offer brand new song demos to your audience by asking them to pull out their phones and opt in to your email list.

For more information about how to build your list of 1000 true fans, learn how to build your Fan Funnel in our Artist Sanctuary Membership. Click here to learn more about the Artist Sanctuary Membership.

Building Your Own Company + Brand 

As the music industry transitions, more and more artists are ditching pursuits of record labels and are building their own brands instead.

Now that you can build a following from social media to building your list, many artists are no longer interested in giving away over creative control along with over half of their income to a label and would rather build their own brand. 

While this is not a new concept for artists out in the marketplace, it is a daunting proposition to do it yourself. You need a good understanding of the music business and marketing to build success. But the sky is the limit if you can do it right! 

Try this:  

• Map a music business plan for your career. Where do you want to be in 5-10 years?
• Study, research and learn about the paths artists have taken to achieve the goals you are aiming for.
• Attend music conferences to learn and network.
• Get a music mentor and community of other artists to learn from. Get my mentorship and our community when you join our Artist Sanctuary Membership – it’s less than $50 a month you meet with me and a global community of artists 3x a month. Click here to learn more about the Artist Sanctuary Membership.
• Go to music conferences and industry events

Collabs + Partnerships 

Some of you may want to partner with other music companies, consultants, artists/musicians, and creative brands.

From collaborations to partnering with other companies and brands, these kinds of partnerships can benefit your career. 

Try this:  

• Build a well designed website that represents your music and your brand.
• Build a catalog of well produced music.
• Cowrite with other artists, songwriters, producers, and musicians.
• Collaborate with other artists, songwriters, producers, and musicians.
• Pursue relationships and partnerships with music companies that you are interested in working with. Set up consultations to get to know each other and discuss possible collaborations.
• Network by attending music conferences and industry events. 

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