How artists can find the right channel to help them grow

Hit the bullseye with just one channel to focus on.

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How artists can find the right channel to help them grow

Poor distribution may be the reason that many artists’ growth efforts fail.

Why it matters

TikTok, Instagram, Threads, X, Spotify, Tidal, social ads, networking events, Soundcloud, and Bandcamp are just a few channels that artists could add to their content distribution playbook. It's impossible to focus on all channels, and it's unnecessary. Artists only need one distribution strategy to reach their next growth stage. It's worth spending time and effort finding that single best distribution channel.

How it works

The book Traction: How Any Startup Can Achieve Explosive Customer Growth (Weinberg & Mares, 2015) describes a three-step framework called ‘The Bullseye’ to find the one channel to focus on.

• Brainstorm: The outer ring lists every single distribution channel available. For each channel, artists should imagine what success would look like by identifying a distribution strategy. For example, pitching playlist placements could be a good strategy for the channel Spotify. This phase is essential because it may help artists break out of their comfort zones and explore unfamiliar channels.

• Prioritisation and Experiment: The middle ring is about running fast and low-cost tests in the channels that seem most promising. The best ideas from the first phase are evaluated with cheap and speedy experiments, and analysed by answering questions such as:

  • How easy is it to target the core audience?

  • How strong is the user intent on this channel?

  • Do we have the time, capacity, budget, and skills to use this channel?

• Focus: The inner ring holds only one channel: the channel that generated the best results in the previous phase. It’s important to keep running experiments to optimise the tactics used on this channel. When saturation hits, it’s time to evaluate and repeat the entire process.

Generated with SDXL using the prompt ‘a vinyl record with a bullseye’

Yes, but..

Obviously, it doesn't have to be this difficult. Artists could just follow their gut feeling and focus on the one channel they already use as a consumer. For example, artists that enjoy TikTok should focus on TikTok first. Most probably, their potential fans also use TikTok because a cognitive dissonance effect occurs.

Take action now

Execute the first phase of the Bullseye model and come up with ideas for channels that are overlooked until now.

Further reading

• Weinberg, G. & Mares, J. (2015). Traction: How Any Startup Can Achieve Explosive Customer Growth (goodreads)