1 Million Monthly Listeners on Spotify Featuring Smart Music Business

Manafest (Chris Greenwood) has about 1 million monthly listeners on Spotify, has been signed to multiple record labels and has sold tens of thousands of albums. In this interview we talk about how he did it and how you can too!

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Important Points:

Chris and Andrew stress the importance of collaborations in the music industry, even if there’s a difference in audience size. It opens doors to new fan bases and business integration through co-writing and marketing efforts.

They also emphasize the value of physical merchandise like CDs and vinyl records, offering fans a deeper connection to artists, even in the streaming era.

Andrew and Chris highlight the need for self-education and personal development through courses, books, or mentorship for professional and personal growth.

Chris discusses financial planning and wealth-building, sharing insights from his journey to financial freedom and encouraging artists to consider wise financial habits and investments for long-term stability and independence.

Podcast Outline:

[07:09] Marketing tips for artists – Chris

[01:31] Artist’s cringe feeling when people talk to them about marketing- Andrew

[02:00] How you can’t buy fans, but you can buy impressions – Chris

[03:15] How key players pay for marketing – Andrew

[05:57] The challenge of promoting one’s music – Andrew

[16:08] Current marketing campaigns – Chris

[19:07] How he pulled miracles when it comes to marketing songs – Andrew

[24:08] Having no leverage as an indie artist – Chris

[29:56] Building relationships as part of the music industry – Chris

[34:15] Collaborating with artists – Andrew

[37:20] The challenges of increasing your fanbase with Spotify – Chris

[45:36] Running ads and making offers with music releases/marketing music – Chris

[46:33] Measuring the numbers (for people who purchase music releases) – Andrew

[48:34] First book written and his love for books – Chris

[50:17] Belief in investing in mentors – Andrew

Wise Words:

[05:22] “But I encourage all these artists that are listening when you’re promoting, and you feel like nothing is happening, don’t give up. That’s called the messy.” – Chris

[35:12] “I think collabs are a great way to kind of hedge your bets because, you know, if you’ve got 10 friends that make great music, you collaborate with all 10 of them, like you have 10 times the chance of being somewhat successful“ – Andrew

[37:25] “Follow one course until successful“ – Chris

[37:46] “I believe that you know, it’s not just about tactics. Like, you have to know your why. You gotta know your purpose“ – Chris

[47:42] “Write down your numbers and look at where things are at the beginning, the middle, and the end of the campaign. Did you grow? Did this have an effect?” – Chris

[50:35] “If I look at my life, the things that have moved the needle the most are when I like paid money for my education” – Andrew

Resources Mentioned:

• Manafest’s Spotify – link
• Learn how to grow your Spotify DIY – link

Learn More:

If you enjoyed this interview you might also like this one I did with Alternate Side on how they get 30 million Spotify streams per week.