The 9 Hard Truths For Releasing Music In 2024

I have helped tens of thousands of artists with releasing their music, and I repeatedly face the same problems.

Making small changes to your strategy could be the difference between millions of streams and a failed release.

Digital marketing means you are now in control of your destiny, and you can be successful regardless of your budget, if you understand these secrets of releasing music.

Let me know your thoughts below 👇

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00:00 - Intro
00:34 - Streaming
01:55 - Short-Form Content
03:11 - Business
04:59 - Shadow Banning
06:00 - Albums
08:43 - Music Videos
10:19 - Socials
12:59 - The Music Industry
13:41 - Control
16:03 - Summary

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Let's work together on your music.

LET’S GET SOCIAL:
📲 Instagram: @damiankeyes1
📲 TikTok: @damiankeyes

ESSENTIAL VIDEOS TO RELEASE YOUR MUSIC:

📚 MY BOOKS:

👇 ABOUT ME:
Hey! I’m Damian Keyes and I've worked with musicians every day of my life for the past 20 years. The internet is de ply untrusting understandably and here is my background so you can have the full picture.

When I was 18, I was signed to a major label and at 23 I co-founded a Music University in Europe called BIMM (valued at $300M). I’m also a bass player, I’ve played for a number of artists including Eric Clapton, Alanis Morrisette and Billy Cobham. I initially retired at 30, but realised that life gets boring if you’re not building!

I have always been in-between the music industry and education which is how I ended up building my YouTube channel - I’ve been teaching artists how to release music long before it was a ‘niche’! I now educate artists around the world with my Academy, YouTube channel and Social Agency.

It’s great to meet you and looking forward to working together on your music!

[TomBretonOfficial]

The best thing you can do to share your music is to get out of your house. Either physically or digitally. Ideally both. No one is coming to knock on your door looking for new music.

[treybruce]

Spot on! One of the best, most honest, cut thru the BS mentoring videos I’ve ever seen. Damian knows what he’s talking about.

[odessachen]

I am quite frustrated by tech companies who made music free and now make streaming free and the answer is always that the musicians need to work harder.

Making .0000 on each stream? It’s your fault. I seriously feel this is blaming the victim.

Personal responsibility is a dying thing so perhaps you’re trying to counteract that but we exist in a system and no matter what spin you put on it, musicians are criminally devalued while the tech guys who run the platforms take not 80 but 99.999percent.

It’s so soul crushing for those of us who aren’t natural self marketers.

I appreciate your free advice and I hate to hear much of what you say but try to open my mind to the realities of music today.

Thanks for your advice.

[garyjohnstonemusic]

I've always dipped into Damo's vids but nowadays I start my day by watching one in full. He's the biggest kick up the arse most of us need. I play weddings and covers gigs for income, but i still release an original album per year (almost).

His points that regular singles and microcontent are more important than albums have changed my whole game plan.

Plz keep em coming sir!

[RollerDoper]

Music videos build relationships with the fans and it helps grow a deeper connection with the music. If you focus on social media you only gain followers, not fans.
Also it means you're trying to be an influencer not an artist.

[garybrowe]

I’m taking a break from music and writing a book of poetry. At least with a kindle book, the customer gets a sample for free and if they want to read the rest they have to buy it. Book publishing doesn’t have the same free model as music.

[TheMortonians]

Several undeniable (and sometimes painful) points, as usual! We wouldn't even have half the small following we currently have without your invaluable tips and insights. Our first release is hitting the digital shops later this month and we're trying to follow your 21 day roadmap as closely as we can! Thanks so much for all the great pointers!

[tvman]

A couple of things to consider though. With a music video, you can chop that up into several short length content videos, even cropping and zooming in a vertical format and use those for shorts, tiktoks, make stills for band pics and ads and for canvases for spotify. Secondly considering many people see most music like fruit - only have a certain amount of time to sell it before it becomes unsellable - you probably should release an album if it's done, not all the songs probably make sense as singles and on some distributors it costs 10 dollars for a release whether it's an album or single.

That being said I'm not saying you're wrong and I am having the worst time trying to sell music.

[normalizedaudio]

Spotify just gets better and better. I LOVE the Spot. Let's all monetize guys. I am going to buy a new keyboard.

[Xcharlie_brownX]

I'm reading 'the subtle art of not giving a fuck, ' which goes on to explain that "it's not your fault that bad things happen to you, but it is your responsibility with how you deal with life's problems". In this context, I don't believe it's an artists fault for the examples mentioned, BUT the point you make is TRUE. Artists should take the ownership to make changes to their careers.

[tacarachi]

My guy is back and im listening to every word

[thecoyote]

It's all on me. Thanks for your help, Damian!

[danyielevanmusic]

If you do something that Damian "explained how" and it doesn't work.
Damian will say "it's your fault".
And it's dangerous, it sounds like a guy telling you how to lose weight in 10 minutes, or get hair by eating onions. But if it doesn't work, that's not his problem. ITS YOUR FAULT.
Thanks internet.

How is it possible to say such stupid things in the music industry.


If I can speak from experience (and not some invented but realistic one). We cannot apply the same solution at the same time to everyone as each country will have different forms of opportunities and industry paths. This will never apply in Belgium for example, its laughable.
So, it's maddening to hear so much nonsense in a single video while reading the "presupposition" experience which shows all the legitimacy of a carpet seller.

Every country and terrain works differently, every detail, on an industry circuit, every path will be different. And I've heard that so much, from artists who signed with record labels, "each path is different" MANY TIMES.
If you ever hear it's your fault. There he tells you anything. But really anything.

It's quite amusing not to hear it at all but we get a full view of it.

He has done everything, succeeded everything and he lost himself making YouTube videos while saying not to make YouTube videos (how can you take us for...)


We are at the top of the top.


Damian reminds me of Tommy Tallarico like that in the video game that impressed me. He was obsessed with records, he had done everything. They look A LOT alike.

Be careful when you watch these kinds of videos, believe in yourself and don't believe everything you are told on internet.

[wildeocean]

These are exactly the same points that Damian has been making ever since I first discovered him but and its a BIG BUTT, loved the examples, Bulls eye.

[Boneidlebros]

Most people watch you tube on a Fri Sat night now to hear new music it’s much better than Spotify and and social media cause you’ve got the visual element which is more engaging than listening and watching stuff on a pishy phone . I think you’ve have got the video thing wrong Damien but i agree with everything else you’ve said.

[TheMadComposer]

I still think music videos have a place. They can be cut up for ads and promo at any point and also represent the body of work.

Agree with everything else.

[ultimatecomeback]

i believe making music as an artist and getting paid isn't really a thing anymore. it's evolved way past that. music is an expense, not a business. unless you're as big as taylor swift or not far off then there isn't a lot of money to be made in the music industry. lots of musicians spend thousands of pounds on music gear and equipment and will never make a return on that investment. if you are spending money on a good guitar and an amp and all this other stuff and venues are asking you to play for free for experience and spotify is paying you nothing then you aren't going to make money you are going to lose money. people are working a regular day job to fund their music passion, not doing music to try and make a livable wage. sure there is ways to make money in the industry but not as an artist. you could sell beats to rappers or work in a music store but if you are an artist where it's your name on the song and you are selling yourself then you aren't going to be paying your rent from that even artists that blow up on tiktok are forgotten about a couple months later and are are back in the same situation. every gig i've played has been for free not out of the kindness of my heart but because no one will pay me so i'd rather have gigs and no money instead of no gigs and no money. i've been signed to 3 labels and haven't made a penny as my music didn't sell enough to turn a profit and barely broke even with the budget. in my 10 year career i've made less than £500 but have spent roughly £10k on music gear. and i know plenty of people in the same boat who are working regular day jobs to fund their music passion but are making less than £50 a month from music. i know someone who works as a teacher and has spent near to £100k over the decades on their music journey and is making about £20 a gig from their percentage of the band and plays 4-5 gigs a month. for lots of people music is an expense and not a business

[manzg]

Damian is straight to the point😂🙌🏾 people keep whinging for nothing

[ItsQUENCY]

Damian, what about a 3 to 4 song EP buh treat each as a single buh still respecting the EP aspect?

[MusicMom-cl]

You provided some very helpful information, Damien…

But the one thing that I want to question is…

If YouTube is one of the number one places to get your music out there…


essentially you do need a music video for your song…

Yes, there are people who just put their song out there
… But most people are attracted to the music video before they listen to some random song without a video

I myself am putting out a music video with my first song release

… It wasn’t high budget…
But it matches nicely with my song