7 critical stages every successful artist experiences 

If you want to build a successful music-based business, the only way out of the fire is through. 

At some level, we all want to skip the hard parts so we can get to the good ones. 

It’s part of the human experience. 

We all want to live perpetually at the top of the mountain, staying away from the valley below. 

The desire to succeed is strong, but the desire to avoid pain is stronger. 

But no matter how much we fight it, the journey from nobody to somebody generally tends to follow the same trajectory for everyone. 

And honestly, there’s really no other way it’s supposed to be. 

Stage 1: No one cares 

The beginning of anything is generally the hardest part. 

Attempting to build a music-based business is no different. 

Well, almost. 

The hardest part in this case is step three, but we’ll get there. 

Every artist has to start from square one. 

Many people try to skip this part through connections or funding, and a small fraction do manage to succeed from time to time, but they are the exception, not the rule. 

For 99.99% of us, if we want the payoff, we have to put in the work. 

And that means releasing music to no one. 

For a while. 

But this stage lays the foundation for everything else. 

It’s how you find the overlap between what you love, what you’re good at, and what people will, ultimately, pay you for. 

Embrace it. 

Stage 2: I think it’s working 

Ok, so you’ve got some material out, and you even have a few listeners. 

Congratulations! 

This is the stage where you “catch the bug”. 

You feel those early dopamine hits of success, and now you’re chomping at the bit to keep that experience coming. 

Top of the mountain. 

The only problem is, it generally doesn’t last. 

But that’s ok. 

It’s not supposed to. 

This stage is simply meant to give you a taste of success, something to hold on to when it gets difficult again. 

Because it will. 

Stage 3: Wait, it’s not working anymore—why even try? 

This is the actual hardest part of being an independent artist. 

This is the valley. 

You’ve experienced some early success for a song or two, and those have propped up the rest of your small catalog for a while. 

The only problem is, you can’t seem to repeat it. 

Each subsequent release doesn’t seem to have the same level of impact, social numbers are stagnant, and it feels like the love just isn’t there anymore. 

And what’s worse, the numbers for your previous winners seem to continually drop off over time, perhaps due to playlisting or maybe from simply taking too long in between new releases. 

Here’s the thing though, you have to push through. 

Because this stage is about building your catalog and priming yourself for what’s coming. 

If you can survive this, the next stage is where it truly gets fun. 

Stage 4: OMG, it’s actually working! 

The beauty of having a catalog of music is that you have a full body of work for your fans to discover now. 

They can go down the rabbit hole. 

This means the game shifts from trying to get every song to go off to consistently releasing and leaning into the winners when you find them. 

Because the whole game now is just to get people to your entire body of work, not just one song in particular. 

You can use your winning songs as ads to generate that top-of-funnel traffic, then save that information for retargeting later. 

You’re getting more love on social media, more saves and shares on DSPs, and, for the most part, everything you put out seems to be trending upward. 

It’s “go” time. 

Stage 5: Time to double down 

You have a system that’s working. 

Lean into it. 

Maybe you’ve struggled to put a specific genre to what you’re doing. 

Time to do that. 

Maybe you’ve enjoyed experimenting with different sounds or styles. 

Maybe it’s time to reserve those things for a new project? 

Now that you have a body of work and a group of people with expectations (yes, they now have expectations of you), you’ll want to meet them. 

It may feel limiting at first, but doing this level of analysis is how you will move from hustler to brand. 

Look for the patterns. 

Which songs do people like? 

Which posts? 

Do more of those things. 

Or how about the things people don’t seem to like? 

Do less of that. 

This systematic thinking allows you to clean up your output and narrow your focus so you can go an inch wide and a mile deep, which will assist you in serving your audience more effectively. 

Stage 6: How can I actually make money from this? 

Here’s where we shift from artist to entrepreneur. 

It’s time to start thinking long-term. 

You have a system of creation that’s working, and you’re enjoying it. 

But it still kind of feels like a hobby to some degree. 

So how can you make it a business? 

Is it time to play shows? 

Sell merch? 

Start a paid community? 

This is where we start thinking of ways we can monetize our efforts by providing additional value to our fans. 

Think less in terms of what you can get from them and more in terms of what you can give. 

How can you add joy to the lives of others through your creative gifts? 

How can you serve? 

And how can you take the earnings and reinvest them back into your business so you can grow even faster? 

Stage 7: Time to delegate 

Successful artists are hustlers at heart, but hustle only takes you so far. 

Eventually, you’ll have to put together a team. 

Now this can go a bunch of different ways. 

You can opt for more traditional roles like management and booking, even a record label. 

Or you can keep to the entrepreneurial end of things and hire subcontractors or even employees to do the more repetitive or administrative tasks that you don’t necessarily need to be doing yourself. 

You’ll need to evolve into a slightly different person too. 

Where you’ve simply been a creator, you’ll need to be a leader. 

It won’t be enough to simply have the vision, you’ll need to communicate it and share it. 

But if you can pull off this last transition with grace (it takes time and work, so be patient with yourself), you can truly build something that scales and changes the world for the better. 

Above all though, remember: wherever you are on your journey, there is nowhere else you’re supposed to be. 

So keep going, keep working, and keep believing. 

Because the world will always need great music.