Welcome [back] to another week of your weekly dose 🎶

Every Tuesday, I’ll be sharing tips, updates, and must-know music marketing insights to help you get your music heard!

By Finch Bergling

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This week's newsletter is sponsored by... me 😀

I would like to introduce you to "More Than Streams 🧩" - the weekly music marketing podcast that will teach you how to get, you guessed it, more than streams.

Listen to the most relevant music marketing tips, case studies, interviews, and everything you need to grow your music career.

LISTEN TO MORE THAN STREAMS 🧩

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Your Weekly Tip

In 2023, the year I started my music marketing business, I set myself a big goal. I wanted to reach 10,000 Instagram followers by the end of the year. I ended that year with just over 1,000 followers.

The thing is, 2023 was also the year I had to build my business from scratch after years of working inside an agency that wasn't mine.

I was figuring out how to market myself instead of someone else, and that meant a lot of rebranding, experimenting, and making mistakes I had to learn from.

Today I have over 25k followers, and I'd like to share 10 lessons from my journey:
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Lesson 1: Things take longer than you expect.

I thought I would reach 10,000 followers in a year. It took me two years. In those two years, I learned a bunch of lessons that completely changed the way I approach growth, content, and marketing.

It's okay if things take longer than you expect - do things in your own rhythm.
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Lesson 2: Conversion matters more than the follower count.

If you can't get people to listen to your music when you have 100 followers, you won't magically get them to listen when you have 10,000. The follower count is pointless if nobody is engaging with what you post.

What you want to focus on is turning followers into listeners, and turning listeners into fans. Ask yourself if your followers are streaming your music, if you are building any kind of relationship with them, and if your posts make them take action.

When you figure out how to convert a small audience into fans, scaling up gets a lot easier.
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Lesson 3: 20% of your work brings 80% of your results.

For me it was even more extreme than that. Around 5% of my posts brought me 95% of my followers (and clients). Most content you create won't go viral or get crazy engagement, and you have to be okay with that.

The goal is to find the small percentage of content that works and double down on it. This rule also applies to your audience. 20% of your followers will bring you 80% of your streams, and a smaller group of those will be the ones sharing your music the most.

Forget about pleasing everyone, and focus on the people who already engage with what you put out.
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Lesson 4: The best results come when you least expect them.

Some of my most polished, time-consuming content went nowhere. And then I have three reels that I made in under ten minutes each, and those three reels brought me most of my followers.

So what does this mean? It means you should stop overthinking it. A lot of your best content will come from quick, simple moments where you were not trying too hard.

If you are hesitating to post something because it doesn't feel perfect, post it anyway. The lowest-effort thing you make this week could be the thing that changes the trajectory of your career.
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Lesson 5: People consume content differently.

Not everyone likes the same kind of content. Some people only watch reels, some people only read carousels, some people only stick around for newsletters like this one. If you assume every follower will love every piece of content you make, you will be disappointed.

The way to handle this is to diversify what you put out and reach your audience in a few different ways. Your music deserves to be heard, so don't limit yourself to one type of content or one platform.
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Lesson 6: People on social media crave strong emotions.

Every time I post about how the music industry is rigged, it blows up. The reason is that it makes people feel something. Social media thrives on big emotions like rage, sadness, excitement, or happiness.

If your content doesn't make people feel anything, it will not stick around in their head for long. So next time you make something, ask yourself what emotion this is supposed to make someone feel.
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Lesson 7: Aesthetics matter less than they used to.

If you are a graphic designer, then yes, a perfect Instagram feed probably matters. But as a musician, your feed doesn't have to look polished. I used to stress about making my grid look good until I realized that most people don't care about that.

People are scrolling for value, for entertainment, for something to connect to. Your perfectly designed grid is the last thing on their mind.

If obsessing over how your feed looks is stopping you from posting, let it go. Pin three key posts to the top of your profile and focus on posting consistently instead.
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Lesson 8: Automate as much as you can.

When I had 500 followers, I could reply to every DM and every comment myself. By the time I hit 2,000 followers, I couldn't keep up anymore. That is when I discovered automation tools like ManyChat.

Now, if someone tags me in a story, they get an automatic thank-you message. If someone comments on a post with a keyword, they get a response or a DM with more info. If someone asks about my services, they get directed to the right resources without me lifting a finger.

Without automation, I would have missed hundreds of messages, and lost a lot of potential listeners and customers along the way.
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Lesson 9: You will only learn by doing.

I am a marketing nerd. I listen to podcasts, I read marketing books, I watch strategy videos all the time. But 99% of what I know today came from making mistakes in the field, far more than from any of the podcasts or books.

Learning without doing is an illusion of progress. You can read every guide on content strategy, watch every video about Instagram growth, listen to every podcast about music marketing, and still not grow if you don't start creating.

Your first hundred reels are going to be bad. The next hundred will be a little better. After that, you start to see it click.

No one can tell you exactly how to do it. You have to figure it out by doing it.
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Lesson 10: This only works if you love what you do.

My business is the longest relationship I have ever had. Even as a musician, I couldn't stick with one genre for more than a year before switching styles. So if I am being honest with you, the only reason I have stuck with this is that I love it.

If you don't love making music and sharing it with people, you will burn out before any of this starts working. Growth takes a long time, and passion is the thing that keeps you going through the slow months.

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If you find yourself dreading content creation, ask yourself if you are making content you enjoy, if you are talking to the audience you want to be talking to, and if you are focusing too much on numbers instead of impact [More Than Streams! More Than Streams!]

At the end of the day, if you love what you do, it shows in the work, and people will connect with that.

I didn't reach 10,000 followers in a year like I planned to. It took much longer than that. But in the years it took me to get there, and then to 25,000, I learned lessons that completely changed how I approach growth, content, and the work itself.

If you apply even one of these lessons to what you are doing, you might start to see a shift in how your audience grows and how they engage with your music.
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Which one of these did you have to learn the hard way too? Or which one are you still resisting? Please reply and tell me, I love reading your replies! (:

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Your Weekly Reel Idea

A gig is a gig :) This Reel sets up like a music tip, but then cuts into real life and shows the all-too-familiar reality of working musicians today, in this example, doing deliveries to fund the dream.

📝 Want to watch this full content idea + hundreds more? Find this and hundreds of other proven content ideas inside my 'Content Vault'. Click here to unlock lifetime access to the full collection - never run out of content ideas again!

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Let's work together

• ​Submit your music to my Spotify Playlists.
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• Learn step-by-step promotion strategies with Your First Hit Song 2026.
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• ​Book a 1-1 consultation.
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• ​Build a playlist and grow your streams, email list and fanbase.

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Discounts & Links 🔗

• Get 10% off on SubmitHub​
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• Get ​7.5% off your first campaign on Playlist Push - use code finch
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• Get 40% off your first month on PlaylistSupply - use code finch40
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• Get 40% off your first month on Booking-Agent.io - use code finch40
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• Get 40% off your first month on RadioPromo.io - use code finch40​
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• Get 7% off on DistroKid​

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That’s it for this week! Hope today’s email gave you something useful to work with.

Until next week, Finch 🎶

P.S. Newsletters aren’t social media - I can’t see what you’re enjoying unless you tell me. Hit reply and let me know what you liked (or didn’t) - I’d love to hear from you! 😊

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