It’s the beginning of a brand new yr. As you’re setting targets, beginning tasks, and dreaming up your supreme 2026, we requested a few of our prime artists to share the recommendation that’s helped them develop their careers.
On this weblog, you’ll discover sensible insights you possibly can put to work immediately — from fan engagement and content material technique to psychological well being and profession longevity. Be taught from unbiased artists similar to you and stage up your music in 2026.
LukHash: Personal your fan relationships, keep dynamic, and discover your area of interest
Have a direct reference to followers: “With social media platforms consistently altering and natural attain changing into much less dependable, I’d positively suggest constructing one thing you actually personal, like a mailing listing, so you possibly can talk straight together with your viewers when your new launch drops.”
Be dynamic together with your platforms: “Completely different varieties of content material carry out higher somewhere else, and that may change from launch to launch. For years YouTube has been handiest for my longer-form visuals, which might now even be adopted by Shorts, IG reels and TikToks after the discharge. I’ve additionally began utilizing Spotify Clips, since all you should do is trim movies you’ve already made for different platforms. It’s price utilizing all of those and posting wherever you’ve got a presence, no matter how huge it’s, as I’ve usually discovered some movies carry out higher on platforms with fewer followers than anticipated.”
Discover your area of interest: “I strongly consider that discovering your area of interest, making belongings you genuinely love, and celebrating it throughout all of your content material is what actually brings success and makes creating really feel most rewarding.”
The Frst: Keep centered, lean into your strengths, and community
Keep centered with actual targets: “I’m attempting to get hyper centered on the precise targets that we wish to attain and how you can accomplish them. So as an alternative of claiming I wish to be the most important artist within the style or I wish to play at a large venue – getting extra particular with it. Be hyperfixated in your targets and you’ll accomplish them.”
Lean into what you do greatest: “Hone your weaknesses, however work out what you are able to do that resonates with folks and begin there. For us, it was pivoting towards incorporating screaming and among the heavier riffs — tuning the guitars down, too. Individuals similar to that higher from us. So it made sense to do extra of that.”
Community, community, community: “Community as a lot as potential. [When seeking out collaborators], you’re usually not simply coping with an artist. You’re coping with their administration, their label, their groups. Then provide worth to them earlier than you ask for one thing. You suppose huge artists don’t discover who their prime followers are — they positively do. Have interaction with folks on-line. Present help. You’ll be stunned. Simply being good to folks will usually end in them being good to you.”
Olivia King: Be taught by attempting, deal with your music like a legacy, and keep away from burnout
Fail quick and transfer on: “Don’t be afraid to fail and fail quick. If one thing’s not working, you don’t have to beat a useless horse. Simply preserve going and take a look at new issues. The start of my profession was simply throwing issues at a wall and seeing what caught. Actually, I had a complete wall in my home stuffed with sticky notes for my first single and me and my now husband would simply provide you with loopy advertising and marketing concepts and anytime we had an thought, we’d throw it up on the wall with a sticky notice and we tried each single sticky notice on that wall for my first single and the primary single received about 500,000 streams with out paying any cash for advertising and marketing and it was simply getting actually artistic.”
Let your music and content material mirror your life in actual time: “I’ve simply sort of taken my viewers alongside for the journey with me. So whether or not I’m going via my early girly-pop years or coming into my very own as an grownup and beginning a household alone – and the struggles that include that – I’ve simply introduced everybody alongside. Releasing music to me is sort of like your legacy that you just depart behind — a journal of your life.”
Keep away from burnout by filming your content material in batches: “Particularly as a woman. Getting myself all dolled up and prepared takes time. For those who’re doing that each day and filming each day, it will get exhausting. Now Tuesdays are the day the place I shoot all of my content material — whether or not it’s for my music or model collaborations, I’ve every thing accomplished. On Monday, I sit and I write out all my scripts and content material concepts. I’ve a complete guidelines in order that going into Tuesday, I do know precisely what I’m filming. I am going via that complete listing, get all of it accomplished. Then I edit every thing on Wednesdays. That’s helped me construct a backlog of content material in Google Drive, so I at all times have one thing able to submit—model or natural. When every thing’s already filmed, there’s no motive to overlook a day.”
Luisa Marion: Join with followers, belief instinct, and discover your sound
Create real, low-pressure methods to attach with followers: “After I launched my first album, Simply Reminiscences, I themed the discharge round childhood: pet rocks, friendship bracelets, foolish bands. The pet rocks caught, so I began leaving them round city and promoting them as $3 merch objects. They’ve turn out to be a enjoyable inside joke and an ice breaker for assembly folks.”
Belief your instinct, even when it feels uncomfortable: “I’m tremendous instinct based mostly and infrequently comply with my intestine. I make music that manner too. I’ll say, if it feels improper, don’t do it. But when your instinct is saying it’s proper and your head is saying it’s improper, comply with that intestine feeling. Whether or not it’s releasing music, taking part in gigs, or writing music — ignore that nervousness and discomfort in your head.”
Take possession of your sound: “I’ve labored with tremendous wonderful producers, however nobody goes to search out my sound however myself. The earlier an artist can work out how you can make their very own sound, the higher. Work out how you can make your sound give you the results you want and don’t depend on different folks.”
Conclusion
At CD Child, we’ve backed unbiased artists with inexpensive and world distribution for over 25 years. We hope you discover inspiration within the ideas and steering from these artists – a number of amongst our neighborhood of two million worldwide.
Able to get began in your subsequent launch? Create a CD Child account and put these insights into motion. We’ll be with you each step of the way in which from launch to promotion and past.
