If you’re an artist or independent musician hoping to grow a massive fan base and maybe even one day make a full time living doing what you love then today’s video is for you.
I recently sat down with one of my good friends, YouTube sensation Peter Hollens to talk about how he’s able to make a full time living recording and releasing music on YouTube, including what tools and techniques he’s using to actually grow his audience of over 1 million supporters and put money in his pocket.
There is so much gold in this brief interview you’re going to want to take notes.
Content Is King But Distribution Is Queen
One of the big things Peter shared was how having great content (i.e. amazing songs and recordings) is only half the battle. You need to find a way to distribute your art to the world.
In the interview Peter pulls back the curtain on his “secret sauce” on how to grow your fan base and make a living doing music. He covers:
- If you’re focused on being in the studio and then doing bar gigs then you’re stuck in the 90s – 6:30
- One mistake many artists make that creates an immediate separation between them and their fans (which is not a good thing) – 9:04
- Why creating a visual element is the best way to get your music heard these days (and no it doesn’t have to be high production quality) – 7:10
- You don’t need a million followers to make a living doing music (in fact the number might surprise you) – 12:40
- Peter hasn’t updated his DAW or computer since 2007 and still churns out top notch productions! – 16:43
- How to gain the most traction on YouTube (posting frequency, tagging videos, and titles) – 24:40
Truly Living The Revolution
Peter is an amazing example of the “revolution” we are living through in home recording.
Here’s a guy who doesn’t live in LA, New York, or Nashville; who can record, mix, and release his music from his garage; and over time with strategic moves and excellent craftsmanship, has created an income stream that pays his bills and allows him to continue making music.
This kind of story was not possible just a short decade ago – but it is now.
You and I no longer have an excuse not to try.
The music creating tools are affordable. The music distributions tools are virtually free. The infrastructure to receive payment for our art is in place.
And the ability for word of mouth to spread has never been faster or more powerful.
What more could we ask for as independent artists?
One Thing That Surprised You
I hope this has encouraged you in your journey. Peter’s story always encourages me. Make sure you subscribe to his YouTube channel and then definitely check out the latest Taylor Swift Medley we previewed in this interview!
Let me ask you: what is one thing that Peter shared today that surprised you? Share your thoughts below!
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My name is Graham Cochrane and I'm the founder of The Recording Revolution, one of the world's most loved audio recording and mixing blogs with over 200,000 readers each month. 
This video has me fired up to go out and rely hope to get myself some supporters and do this thing full time!!!
Awesome!
Great interview. What surprised me (and NOT surprised me at the same time!) was that Peter is using a 2007 machine and v7 of Pro Tools! I agree with his premise – don’t ever upgrade if you don’t need to and you have a stable system that works for you time and again.
…video is not available here due to some music rights stuff…any chance to load it up somewhere else, Graham? would be awesome!
best from berlin st*
I know – something having to do with a copyright issue. I’ve tried but YouTube is being lame.
Wait did he say he mixes exclusively on headphones? Damn I guess I have no excuse then lol
Great video. Makes a lot of sense and Peter is an amazing singer. This post is infectious with motivation. Keep’em coming Graham, they keep on getting better and better. 🙂
Thanks Chris!
Thank you so much for this interview!
UHH! THIS SUCKS SO BAD!
here in Germany you can t watch the video because of gema issues… 🙁
too bad!
is there a transcript up somewhere?
Use a proxy. 😉
Use TunnelBear.
Can U somehow upload just the audio?! Like a Special Podcast episode or something?!
Would love that!
As usual, another helpful and inspiring video from TRR. As a “part-time hobbyist” I’ll be pretty excited if I ever get 10 followers. Speaking of which, gotta get some songs out first – back to recording! Thanks for the “filthy-awesome” content!
Haha. Any time.
Hey Graham,
the video is banned in Germany due to an unclear copyright situation. Just thought I´d let you know.
Regards
Very aware. I’ve tried to get it resolved but to no avail.
Love the information,
Thanks Graham and Peter…
That was great information. I have been in the music business as a musician for a long time and I’m excited about how much more there is to learn and adapt. Graham you bring good and necessary content to even us old guys! Thank you and Peter.
Thanks James!
AWESOME video Graham! Got a lot out of this, thank you for the interview and posting.
You bet Adam.
I loved this video interview. I had seen some of Peter’s work before so it was great to hear him chat about it in a RecRev setting.
Definitely pepped me up to focus more on Youtube-style distribution…
Blessings
This video interview was very informative, I totally agreed when Peter said that audience interaction is so important, especially responding to everyone’s comments. I personally know this firsthand, I feel noticed everytime someone responds to my comment on one of their songs on Soundcloud, and believe me, it’s one of the best feelings. I’ve commented on a lot of remarkably good tracks in the past and sadly I have not even received even one reply, or even a quick “Thank you!” A lot of artists, especially those trying to make it in the music industry, tend to almost ignore their fans comments. I don’t know why exactly they do that, but it kills their chances. Some fans have written a lot of encouraging and positive remarks, and if the artist has no interaction with them, they’re bound to lose interest/respect and move on.
Overall, outstanding video!
Thanks Graham & Peter for making this interview possible!
You’re welcome Elisa!
Graham … I just wanted to thank you for introducing us to Peter Hollens. I went to his youtube and Patreon sites and listened to the music that he created along with his wife, and guests. I was absolutely staggered by his talent. I guarantee anyone who is reading this that if you click on any one of Peter’s videos, you will not be able to stop. I’m not sure if he inspired me to do more music recording, or quit completely. If you have Peter … you don’t need me. He, and his wife, and other guests have created something unique and special. Staggering talent.
Yes – he’s insanely talented.
I have more of a question on this. Many of the videos that Peter does are great, but use popular music that people are familiar with. Does he have to pay royalties our get licenses for using those songs?
Yes – to sell his version of the song. He sells albums on iTunes and elsewhere.
PS. What was the iOS app for iPad/iPhone Peter was referring to for Youtube analytics?
Thanks ahead…
Creator Studio
Can you tell me once again the name of that funding platform?
Thanks
http://www.patreon.com
Hoping to get into patron-based funding myself, and Patreon looks like a great way to go.
Peace – Freejay
…unfortunately, the youtube video doesn’t stream in Germany. Reason is that the German mechanical licensing authority (GEMA) never reached a basic agreement with youtube. Hence, most videos containing licensed music and being shared by third parties are blocked to play (by youtube, mind you – to avoid license claims)
Yup
Wow! Graham, this interview is awesome and inspiring!! I think this is another proof that your mindset related videos are even more valuable than the technical (at least for me). Awesome! Way to go!
Graham you are “filthy awesome” as Peter Hollens states in the interview. Ha ha, Great work m/
Gold.
Thank you both Graham and Peter.
Glad it helped!
Liked the vid.
He talks about the need to keep constantly uploading content… “a new video every week”
Unfortunately for a singer songwriter who is working with his own original material this is not realistic.
What Singer songwriter has a new great song to post every week. Not even pro Nashville writers turn out that much material of great worth that gets cut.
In my circumstances It makes no sense for me to learn new cover tunes constantly to put up a song every week. My time needs to be focused on my own writing and recording what I have and working with my musicians to get out in to my community as well and be in their face live creating that kind if impact.
This guys way is great but live performance is highly important as well for someone in my position. I can’t sit at home in my jammies and expect that to build me a career.
But it was great to glean what I could from his perspective as well and I found it very useful. More power to him.
One way for a singer/song writer to take the Peter Hollens approach might be to not post songs as you complete them. Take the time to build up your portfolio of new songs and video performances. Once you have built up a decent number of songs, release them one by one weekly. That way you can build the audience anticipation that Peter promotes but adjust for the time it takes to write new songs, vs. covering existing songs like Peter does. Anyway, the article is “How to make money with music on Youtube.” I guess there are a lot of ways to do that. Peter describes one way. Good for him. I enjoyed his talent. (He’ll probably be making money from me as I buy his CD … it worked!)
As a YouTube content creator he’s right – the more regularly you can post something the better. But you can get creative about this. You can do behind the scenes videos of your studio, or songwriting/recording process. Or do acoustic versions of your songs. Or the occasional cover.
Glad he’s making money, but where’s the “doing music full time” part? This sounds like he just traded one full-time day-job for another.
Um – not sure how you made that assumption. I would much rather make music, and do social media and not have to go to an office every day.
It’s the flexibility that counts.
Every artist has to spend time promoting. You can’t simply create art and assume money will fly in.
@ 2:28, Graham:
I was assuming that do music meant working on actual music. Of course, you never said he does music full time, only that he is able to. My mistake.
Great Interview, I will definitely take this Info under assignment Happy for Peter and Thanks Graham for passing this on to us.
Thanks, Graham! Super inspiring as always 🙂
Thank you so much for this video. I just signed up for Patron. Still figuring it out as it’s a bit confusing. Misunderstood the “Goals” section and had to go back and fix that one. (page looked like I was asking for $200.00 per song…oops…) Will get the hang ofit quickly though I’m sure.
Advice on how best to post to the site would be welcome though so wander over if you can and let me know what to fix?
Linda was blown away by Peter Holland (so was I) and we will definitely be subscribing to his link.
Thanks again. Oh by the way I left a comment on your YT Vid about mics. Couldn’t find it on your RR.com page so left the comments on the YT vid. Have a great week and thanks again.
Marty & Linda
Once again, thanks for the awesome video!!!
This video was an absolute jewel!!! The ideas are churning right now just from my watching of this video. What I wonder is this; can this system be emulated for multiple genres? The reason that I ask is that I am a hip hop artist. I would be considered a conscious emcee, along the lines of the Dungeon Family, Mos Def, Common, etc. I would love to implement something like this so that I can not only make my music full time, but reach my intended market. Thanks for this video and knowledge!
A lot of great info in this video. I come from the analog days of the late 70’s early 80’s and wanted to up my game a few years back with DAW’s and you rock. I have watched many and purchased some of your videos and you do an exceptional job.
This Video is not available to watch in Germany…….Its so saaaad 🙁
There’s an easy way of avoiding countries restrictions. Just use a proxy.
I use Falcon Proxy plugin for Chrome, but there are plenty of them for every browser.
Install, google for proxy lists or use this site: proxylist[dot]hidemyass[dot]com
Type in one of the listed IP Adress & Port into your plugin, and you’re good to go!
Graham and Peter, thank you guys so much. Now there is a light in the end of the tunnel 🙂