Indie Awards Page
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Indepreneur presents
The 1st Annual Indie Awards
Win Up To $1000 In Prizes For Nominating & Voting!
Indepreneur is proud to announce our first annual IndieAwards! Nominate yourself and other indies to be eligible to win category awards, and even win stuff just for submitting nominations!
Indepreneur is giving away more than $7,000 in prizes and services for this incredible community
Prizes include: Ad budgets ranging from $250-$1000, strategic planning sessions with our IndieX Account Strategists, shoutouts on all of our socials, your music featured in an episode of Creative Juice, Indie swag, access to a staff inspo session, and of course, an awesome trophy to display--so everyone knows that you're a total marketing baddie.😎
The nomination period closes Monday, May 1st! So get your nominations in today!
“...the Introduction stage is your chance to make a great first impression. Introduction campaigns let fans discover you…”
The Introduction Stage includes marketing campaigns and strategies that generate the most new attention. In this stage, Indies use marketing to show their content and music to as many new potential fans as possible and create "first touches" with a broad audience.
Campaigns and assets in this stage include:
“...when we discover an artist we like, we explore their content and learn about them to 'educate' ourselves…”
The Education phase of the Buddy System is the moment where a fan starts to learn more about your music through content consumption. Fans begin to literally “educate” themselves further on who you are as an artist. They start to take interest in your story, your motivations, and more of your output. The name of this phase is fairly literal - fans are educating themselves on who you are.
Campaigns and assets in this stage include:
“...the Permission stage is all about starting a friendship by exchanging Permission to contact directly…”
The Permission Stage of the Buddy System represents the first “ask” that’s being made to a new fan. Permission refers to the act of asking fans for their consent to contact them in a one-to-one communication channel such as email or text. You get this consent when a fan opts in with their name, email, phone number, and sometimes other details.
Campaigns and assets in this stage include:
“...by never allowing a favor to go unrepaid, artists can ensure a lifetime of favors from their fans. Nurturing follows any fan action…”
The Nurturing stage of the Buddy System is the glue that holds all the other phases together. Unlike the Permission or Introduction Stages, nurturing isn’t something you just do once with a fan. In fact, your fans need to be nurtured at every phase of the Buddy System. Making sure your fans get a consistent stream of nurturing content from you is the difference between a shriveled up cold fan who can’t even remember how they got on your email list and a super healthy, engaged fan that’s excited about whatever new stuff you have going on.
Campaigns and assets in this stage include:
“...the first sale is always the hardest to make, shifting someone from observer to action-taker. Affirmation offers should be overwhelmingly valuable…”
The Affirmation stage is the culmination of the first 4 stages of the Buddy System - the moment where you make your first offer to your listener. This stage is a test of how well your fan relationship has been developed so far. If a fan takes your offer and becomes a customer, then that means you have ‘succeeded’ at the Affirmation stage with regards to that particular fan relationship.
Campaigns and assets in this stage include:
“...some fans will make one purchase and then move on. Some fans want to support their favorite artist as much as possible over many years…”
The Ascension stage is where businesses make targeted offers to their existing customers to ascend their "lifetime value" and develop a deeper relationship. Just as the name indicates, this is where we start growing the relationship with a one-time customer, translating to multiple purchases and deeper engagement.
Campaigns and assets in this stage include:
"...It’s not the case that every single fan of music out there has shifted to a mindset of only streaming and never intending to go to a show or buy a merch item from you..."
Making merch is an opportunity to be more of an artist. Creating physical items and media as an added realm to the world you’re creating as a musician is a limitless practice that could really make an impact on your fans. Merch brings your music into the physical world where there are new artistic opportunities and ways for your fans to celebrate your music.
Campaigns and assets for this category include:
"You need to be aware of what others are doing, applaud their efforts, acknowledge their successes, and encourage them in their pursuits. When we all help one another, everybody wins." – Jim Stovall
Here at Indepreneur, we believe that a success for one indie is a success for all indies. This community thrives on collaboration, and camaraderie--never competition. We encourage one another, help each other through challenges, and celebrate each others wins!
Attributes of an Indie Cheerleader include:
"There's nothing to compare to live music. There just isn't anything."
-Gloria Gaynor
For many artists in our community, touring full time is a huge goal! And for some artists in our community, it's a goal they've achieved. This category is to award an indie in our community who is killing the touring game.
Achievements for this category include:
"Money grows on the tree of persistence." - Japanese Proverb
Proper planning and execution of your promotions will help you to stand out among the scores of artists that do nothing with their lists, miss opportunities to bring revenue into their business, and make offers to their fans that are creative, enticing, and valuable.
Attributes of a Money Maker include:
"Stay away from those people who try to disparage your ambitions. Small minds will always do that, but great minds will give you a feeling that you can become great too." - Mark Twain
When you've been grinding away at your music business for years, with little movement, finally implementing marketing can feel like turning on the light in a previously dark room. And when we finally experience the growth that we've been working for, it's all the more motivation to run towards our goal full force! This award is to celebrate the "sprinters" in our community who have finally found the right track and are sprinting towards big moves in their career.
Attributes of a Breakout Indie include:
"Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent...the slogan 'Press On' has solved, and always will solve, the problems of the human race." —Calvin Coolidge
Being an independent artist takes an incredible amount of time, work, dedication, and perseverance. We have many members of this community who have been with Indepreneur since the beginning. Artists that have putting putting their nose to the grindstone for years, building a career that is solid as a rock. This award is for the indies who have been building, growing, and brick by brick, building the exact career that they envision for their lives.
Attributes of Indie Of The Year include: