I wrote this as a guest post for Ari’s Take - head there to read it.

As an independent artist, it can sound like a dream to have a team of people working on your behalf. And when it’s the right fit - it can be. But getting the right artist managers, booking agents, publishers, publicists, and others in place can be a long process -- often one that has to be tweaked as you go. It's important to keep your expectations in check, to trust your team and empower them to do their jobs. At the same time - only you can set the right expectations for your team - you can't rely on your manager, label, or anyone else to do it for you. If you’ve got your team in place and you’re feeling like something’s just not quite right, it might be time to re-evaluate.

There comes a time for every artist when they make the decision to transition from viewing music as a hobby to trying to make an actual career for themselves. As with all industries, the independent artist’s success is highly dependent on the team they surround themselves with. While the size, composition and complexity of each team varies from artist to artist, the fact remains that knowing when and how to effectively build your team is one of the most important steps in ensuring a successful career in music.

You made it. You got your feelings into a record. You’ve uploaded it to your distribution platform of choice and it’s set for release. Now what? There are many angles to take when promoting new music, but here are some simple organic marketing building blocks for any new release.