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<p>In an era of streaming services and a pandemic that’s pushed touring to the side, monetizing music has never been harder. While it may sound old-fashioned for a rockstar, emails can unlock your income potential.</p>
<p>In this episode, we’re speaking to <a href="https://kit.com/resources/blog/how-musicians-make-money" target="_blank" rel="noopener">musicians looking to monetize their online presence</a> and turn casual followers into fans and superfans. Learn to stay strategic with your releases, use Instagram to build an email list, and personalize content to incentivize sign-ups.</p>
<p>If you’re listening to this, you probably know that reaching more listeners is what propels your career forward. More fans mean larger venues and, of course, larger paychecks. So stop renting your followers and embrace emails for full-time fandom.</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-33774 lazy" data-src="https://media.kit.com/post/vSMx5OJ1-incentivize-fans.jpg?fm=pjpg" alt="Ways to incentivize fans to join your email list" width="1500" height="1916" srcset="https://media.kit.com/post/vSMx5OJ1-incentivize-fans.jpg?fit=scale&amp;fm=pjpg&amp;h=600&amp;w=470 470w, https://media.kit.com/post/vSMx5OJ1-incentivize-fans.jpg?fit=scale&amp;fm=pjpg&amp;h=1024&amp;w=802 802w, https://media.kit.com/post/vSMx5OJ1-incentivize-fans.jpg?fit=scale&amp;fm=pjpg&amp;h=981&amp;w=768 768w, https://media.kit.com/post/vSMx5OJ1-incentivize-fans.jpg?fit=scale&amp;fm=pjpg&amp;h=1536&amp;w=1203 1203w, https://media.kit.com/post/vSMx5OJ1-incentivize-fans.jpg?fit=scale&amp;fm=pjpg&amp;h=754&amp;w=590 590w, https://media.kit.com/post/vSMx5OJ1-incentivize-fans.jpg?fit=scale&amp;fm=pjpg&amp;h=240&amp;w=188 188w, https://media.kit.com/post/vSMx5OJ1-incentivize-fans.jpg?fit=scale&amp;fm=pjpg&amp;h=2048&amp;w=1603 1603w, https://media.kit.com/post/vSMx5OJ1-incentivize-fans.jpg?fm=pjpg 1500w" sizes="(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px" /></p>
<h2>Main takeaways</h2>
<ol>
<li>Focus on the music before anything else. No manager or fancy gear or release strategy will grow your audience faster than great content.</li>
<li>Always release a song with a marketing push. <a href="https://kit.com/features/email-marketing" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Start working on email marketing</a> and growing your social presence at least six months in advance.</li>
<li>Email allows for a level of personalization that isn’t possible on social media. A combination of promotional and personalized emails boosts fan engagement.</li>
<li>Don’t rent your audience from a social media platform. An email list puts you in direct contact with your audience where you can build relationships.</li>
<li>Build a landing page and <a href="https://kit.com/compare/linktree" target="_blank" rel="noopener">link it everywhere</a> fans can find you. And give fans a reason to give you their email address. Drive urgency and incentivize fans with free, personalized content.</li>
<li>Send emails asking your audience to pre-save your songs before they release. This helps sway the streaming algorithm in your favor once you do release.</li>
<li>Create a <a href="https://kit.com/resources/blog/how-to-create-a-paid-newsletter" target="_blank" rel="noopener">paid newsletter</a> to monetize your craft.</li>
</ol>
<h2>Pullquote</h2>
<p>(28:28) <em>“When you sit down and you open your inbox, whether it’s on your phone or your computer, you’re right there ready to take an action that someone wants you to. You&#8217;re in a better headspace. So asking someone to pre-save your song on Spotify through email is probably going to have a much higher success rate than doing it on Instagram. And the reason why that’s really important is because, sort of like how email deliverability works, it tells the algorithms that people want to hear this song.”</em> ~ <a href="https://x.com/alyssa_dulin" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@alyssa_dulin</a></p>
<h2>Links</h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3Kvoq05bio" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Creator Sessions: Musical performance with Drew and Ellie Holcomb</a></li>
<li><a href="https://kit.com/resources/blog/writers-earn-living-through-email" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Deliverability Defined S02 E03: How writers can earn a living through email marketing</a></li>
<li><a href="https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/billie-eilish-the-worlds-a-little-blurry/umc.cmc.5waz3hfo9r1133t8arap8b6nq?itscg=MC_20000&amp;itsct=atvp_brand_omd&amp;mttn3pid=a_google_adwords&amp;mttnagencyid=1625&amp;mttncc=US&amp;mttnsiteid=143238&amp;mttnsubad=OUS2019876_1-500847015584-c&amp;mttnsubkw=120760793880_kwd-1188380025351_BkIdmSxD_&amp;mttnsubplmnt=" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Billie Eilish: The World’s A Little Blurry</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Tipping-Point-Little-Things-Difference/dp/0316346624" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Tipping Point</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.instagram.com/kevinogarrett/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kevin Garrett</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.instagram.com/matkearney/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mat Kearney</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.timmcgraw.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tim McGraw</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.netflix.com/title/80992997" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Song Exploder</a></li>
<li><a href="https://x.com/LordeDaily/status/1262883232204427271" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lorde’s iconic newsletter</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.patreon.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Patreon</a></li>
<li><a href="https://kit.com/features/deliverability" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Need help with deliverability?</a></li>
<li><a href="https://kit.com/pricing" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Join Kit For Free</a></li>
</ul>
<h2>Try Kit&#8217;s deliverability in action</h2>
<p>It&#8217;s now free to use Kit with an audience of 10,000 subscribers or less! Start building your audience and reaching their inboxes: <a href="https://kit.com/pricing" target="_blank" rel="noopener">kit.com/pricing</a>.</p>
<h2>Stay in touch</h2>
<ul>
<li aria-level="1"><a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/deliverability-defined/id1515377286" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Apple Podcasts</a></li>
<li aria-level="1"><a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/1ElZx2zrhvllOkbPzSfGxX" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Spotify</a></li>
<li aria-level="1"><a href="https://x.com/kit" target="_blank">X/Twitter</a></li>
<li aria-level="1"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/kit" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Facebook</a></li>
<li aria-level="1"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/kit/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Instagram</a></li>
<li aria-level="1"><a href="https://kit.com/features/deliverability" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Deliverability Defined Website</a></li>
</ul>
<p>To receive email notifications when new episodes of Deliverability Defined are available, or to submit topic suggestions, <a href="https://deliverability-defined.ck.page/d1d644385c" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sign up to our email list</a>.</p>


How musicians can turn fans into superfans through email marketing

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Alyssa Dulin

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