Do you have goals for 2026?
Set specific, measurable goals for 2026 that balance achievable wins with stretch targets. Regularly revisit and adjust your goals to track progress and stay motivated throughout the year.
By Andrew Southworth
Hey friends!
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!
Every year around this time of year I take some time off, to relax and spend time with family for the holidays but also to prepare for the coming year. One thing I always do is think about what my goals are.
My particular list is quite long this year be cause I have a million things going on, but here are a few examples:
Upload at least 72 videos on my channel (averaging 6 videos per month)
Upload at least 200 short form videos throughout the year on TikTok / Instagram (4 per week average)
Write 36+ of these newsletters throughout the year (averaging 3 per month)
For my agency Southworth Media I want to get our response time to under 2 business days for people applying to work with us
For my new online record store I want to create a standard contract for artists, and add 6 new artists to the site throughout the year
For my band Every Waking Moment I want to have at least 6 releases throughout the year
The actual list is 4 times longer than this and broken into categories, but you get the idea.
Specific, actionable goals that have a clear pass or fail criteria to them. Nothing generic like ‘get better at guitar’. Make it specific like ‘be able to play this particular exercise at 200 BPM’, or ‘finish writing and record this album’ etc.
The goals you set shouldn’t be impossible, but they also shouldn’t all be super easy either. Some of my goals are easy, like the 72+ videos per year on my YouTube channel - i’m already doing that. But another goal I have is to hit 100k subscribers on YouTube, which is a stretch goal because I know in 2025 I grew by 12,500 and i’ll need 14,500 more to hit 100k.
I only sent 21 of these newsletters this year, so hitting 36 would be a nice improvement!
Your goals should force you to grow and work hard, but you also want some easy wins as well so you don’t feel like a failure.
As a music artist here are some specific goals you might write down:
Hit a stable 20k+ monthly listeners on Spotify, with a peak of 30k
Grow to 5,000 followers on Instagram
Release at least 6 songs throughout the year
Have one of these tracks be a collaboration track with a new artist you haven’t worked with before
Get the band’s online store launched
Book your first 3 shows
These are just ideas of course and the numbers would be tuned to what you’ve already achieved in 2025. But note that they’re all specific, actionable goals with a clear pass or fail criteria.
By the way, there is no reason that this has to wait for the New Year to happen. You can do this at any point throughout the year. In fact I think it’s valuable to revisit your goals every couple months and see what makes sense, and what you’ve already accomplished. Maybe you’re going to hit your goals super early so you need to reach further, or maybe you were too ambitious.
Either way the big takeaway I want you to have is: think about your goals, make them specific and actionable, and write them down so you can reference them and track them throughout the year and over time. Because you can’t manage what you can’t measure.
Now another thing I tend to do around this time of year is batch create to give myself a head start for the year. That’s why in the past week or so I recorded 8 super helpful YouTube videos - meaning I already filmed every video that’s going to come out in January on my channel. It’s a pretty awesome feeling going into the new year knowing that you’re a month ahead of schedule.
Now with this buffer i’m going to batch create these newsletters and more social media content. I highly recommend batch creating and building buffers for yourself when possible. While I find it nice to do this at the end of the year it can happen at any point.
Thanks for reading Music Marketing Monday this year! I hope you have a fantastic New Years Eve and i’ll see you in 2026!
Whenever you’re ready, there are 4 ways I can help you:
My courses. Spotify Growth Machine teaches you how to use Facebook ads to promote your music on Spotify. YouTube Growth Machine teaches you how to grow a YouTube channel organically and how to use YouTube ads. Fan Growth Machine teaches you how to build a website, online store and grow your email list.
My ad agency Southworth Media specializes in running Meta conversion ads to promote your music on streaming platforms, email list growth, tour promotion and more.
Website / Store / Funnels. MusicFunnels and FanFunnels are the best all-in-one platforms for music artists to make a website, online store, sales funnels, build a mailing list and more!
1-on-1 consulting. You can book 1-hour calls with myself or my team here.
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