Why you need a content schedule
A content schedule helps you organize and plan your posts across multiple platforms, reducing stress and improving consistency. It can be as simple or detailed as you need, tailored to your workflow and goals as a music creator.
By Andrew Southworth
Hey friends!
Today we’re going to talk about content schedules / content calendars. First, what is the premise of this and then what my content schedule actually is as an example.
What is a content calendar / content schedule?
If the name didn’t give it away, a content calendar is a calendar of your content plans. It’s essentially just a list of what content you’re going to post on which days of the week or month. And by that same logic, a content schedule is just a broader term for it.
In some cases people might literally have a calendar template that they write out which post they’re going to do on which day of the month. In other cases it’s more general like ‘I post on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at this time’.
Why should I have one?
As a music artist nowadays you’re essentially also required to be a content creator. I’m not saying this is how it should be, it’s just kind of how it is right now. And being a content creator involves posting lots of content, namely short form video content, onto social media platforms.
This means lots of video clips, photos, text hooks etc being posted on multiple online platforms, which means there is a large potential to lose track of what you’re doing.
Having some type of organizational structure to your content allows you to more easily stay on top of what you’re posting, which means you do a better job and go less crazy than you otherwise would.
Andrew as an example
I thought it’d be helpful to give you a glimpse into my content organizational process as an example to give you ideas for how you might organize your content life.
First of all, here’s my general content schedule:
Monday - Music Marketing Monday newsletter (the one you’re reading right now)
Tuesday - My 0.4 Cents Podcast / YouTube
Wednesday - YouTube video
Friday - YouTube video
IG/FB - 2X per week
TikTok - 4X per week
Threads - 5-10X per week
Essentially my long form content has specific days of the week I tend to post (and specific time ranges) but my social media is more fluid.
Someone from my team edits my long form YouTube content into short form videos, and those get scheduled on IG/FB for 2 posts a week. They also get posted to TikTok, but then on TikTok I film extra content that I post manually, and then try my hardest to remember to also post this off-the-cuff content to IG as well.
Threads I post as much as I feel the need to. It’s my current favorite social media platform, and interestingly enough I get more views on Threads than TikTok and Instagram combined. Granted the format is text based and not video based, so it’s a bit easier in that way.
If you’re thinking this is a lot - you’re right! It takes a lot of time and effort to pull this off and at this point I have a team that helps me do it. But it was built up slowly over time. The end result of all this content is that people interested in what I have to offer will pretty much see me on every platform. So not only am I impossible to miss, but there is content for every type of person, whether you want 30 seconds of me each week or over 1 hour of me each week.
I don’t always hit this schedule perfectly. I miss weeks for my newsletter, sometimes I only post 1 YouTube video per week, life gets in the way etc. But this is what I strive to do and I pull it off more than I don’t.
As far as how I organize things, I use ClickUp for basically everything.
I had to hide / blur stuff here to avoid spoiling things, but you can see I track videos by their status (there are more statuses here not show, such as filmed but not edited etc), and keep track of things like if the video is life, it’s publish date, if the clips are live and if the thumbnail is done.
The system isn’t perfect, but it gives me a way to write down ideas in a central database and keep track of where that video is in production life. This is especially important when it comes to working with other people.
Now it’s worth nothing this entire thing i’ve just walked you through is for my music marketing content and not my music content. But I assure you this stuff works the exact same. As an artist you’ll want to pick a content schedule, create a way to organize ideas and find some way to keep track of it.
Knowing what days and times you’re going to post allows you to more easily plan for the future. Having a central database of ideas for content makes it so you can set aside blocks of time for ideation and other blocks of time for creation. Having tools like ClickUp, or just a simple word doc or spreadsheet, to keep track of it allow you to take it out of your head and keep it organized.
It doesn’t have to be some big elaborate system, it can be simple. The important thing is that it works for you. Most artists I know that actually do good on social media have some type of system.
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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** There are affiliate links on this site, meaning I may receive a kickback when you purchase a product or service using my links at no extra cost to you. I only recommend products I’d recommend to friends, but i’m obligated to inform you that these affiliate links are present. Overall affiliate income is not my focus and is a relatively small part of my income.
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