I'm a musician and host of The Unstarving Musician podcast. Liner Notes is my biweekly newsletter that shares some of the best insights garnered from the many conversations featured on the Unstarving Musician. Topics covered include, songwriting, touring, sync licensing, recording, house concerts, marketing, and more.
Unstarving Musician | What Twenty One Pilots' 143K first-week sales reveal about physical product strategy
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Happy Friday! What if the artists selling out Madison Square Garden aren’t the same ones topping the Billboard charts—and what if that gap represents revenue you’re leaving on the table? Thom Skarzynski spent 20 years at Epic Records, Spotify, and Atlantic Music Group before starting Happiness Marketing, a physical-first music strategy consultancy. At Atlantic, he worked on campaigns where Twenty One Pilots’ album Clancy sold 143,000 units in its first week. Streaming alone would have generated about 28,000. This episode is brought to you by Podcast Startup. Whether you're launching your first episode or adding video to your show, Podcast Startup eliminates the guesswork with the systems and strategies I've developed from producing 250+ podcast episodes—without the trial-and-error that cost me months. Learn more at UnstarvingMusician.com/PodcastStartup. Three insights from our conversation:1. The format decision isn't about trends–it's about your audience Thom shared a framework using the band A Day To Remember as an example. The decision between vinyl, CD, and cassette comes down to understanding existing audience behavior. Do they already buy merch? Do they collect? What signals suggest they’ll actually purchase physical products, not just stream? Format selection is a strategic decision based on fan psychology, not what’s popular on Instagram. 2. First pressings sell fastest–scarcity is your friend Thom’s closing advice: don’t bite off more than you can chew. First pressings always go the fastest, and those buying fans will be the happiest. Once sold out, you can always order more. He sees too many artists and teams sitting on 8,000 albums in dead inventory because they didn’t respect demand forecasting. Manufacturing strategy isn’t about optimism—it’s about risk management. 3. Generic shipping kills loyalty and revenue The biggest mistake independent artists make is shipping generically with no experience behind the order. This is easily fixable by including something personal—a handwritten note, a small extra, anything that shows thought. When Thom talks about direct-to-consumer (D2C) becoming an “operating system for fandom,” he means owning every touchpoint–the web store, messaging, packaging, and post-purchase experience. Artists who do this best think about fans first, not just fulfillment logistics. 🎧 Listen to the full episode 🔗 Want the complete frameworks?Liner Notes Insider delivers the implementation-depth frameworks episodes can’t cover—the kind of resources you can’t just summarize. Recent examples include contract negotiation checklists, release planning templates, and revenue modeling calculators. If you’re not yet a Liner Notes subscriber, the free edition covers highlights from this and 340+ conversations: Get the Liner Notes FREE edition! Liner Notes Insider gets you the complete frameworks: Learn more about Liner Notes Insider Support the Unstarving MusicianIf you find value in this podcast, please consider a donation via our online tip jar – click, tip, done. Or visit UnstarvingMusician.com/CrowdSponsor to learn about the many other ways of showing your support. Your support = love 💟 Coffee or tea anyone?If you're a coffee or tea drinker, I know you're going to love this. I've immortalized my beloved cat Sparticus in an awesome coffee mug. Spartacus was a 15.5 pound tabby who Sami and I adopted in California. He traveled the South and North American continents with us and lived his last days with us in Querétaro, Mexico. This cup features one of my favorite pics ever of him. This mug design was originally a gift for Sami – now it's an homage to the most gentle cat we've ever known. Affiliate Partner ResourcesKit – Email Marketing for MusiciansKit (formerly ConvertKit) is an email marketing and audience building software that helps musicians like you turn your passion into a full-time career by connecting you to your fans faster. Start a free trial. Dreamhost Web Hosting Get a Website Built for You — 100% Free! You don’t need to hire a designer, mess with templates, or figure it out yourself. The team at Dreamhost will create a beautiful, mobile-friendly website that’s ready to launch — completely free, when you sign up for a year of web hosting. Limited time only offer. Get started! Disclosure: Our affiliate partnerships pay us a small commission if you purchase using the links above – at no extra cost to you. Thanks for your support! Peace, love and more cowbell, Share this email and/or read it on the web Stay in touch! Feedback, comments, complaints? Reply to this email. I'd love to hear from you. 📭 Where to Listen to The Unstarving Musician Click here to listen on Apple Podcasts Click here to listen on Overcast Click here to listen on Spotify Click here to listen on YouTube Click here to listen on Pandora |
Liner Notes
I'm a musician and host of The Unstarving Musician podcast. Liner Notes is my biweekly newsletter that shares some of the best insights garnered from the many conversations featured on the Unstarving Musician. Topics covered include, songwriting, touring, sync licensing, recording, house concerts, marketing, and more.
If I asked you to rank the revenue streams that grow fastest for independent musicians, what would you say? Streaming? Touring? Both wrong. According to music business educator Amani Roberts — a Berklee-educated DJ, USA Today bestselling author, and college professor who’s coached artists through this exact exercise — the two income sources with the most growth potential are private events and direct fan-to-artist platforms. Many, if not most, musicians do not prioritize either one. I...
Happy Friday! What if the best business decision you could make is accepting your music is “unmarketable”? Not in the sense that nobody wants it. But in the sense that it’s never going to compete for Spotify playlist placement alongside mainstream artists. Singer-songwriter Abe Partridge makes genuinely niche music–psychedelic surf rock, genre bending stuff, and a unique brand of acoustic Americana. Beautiful if you’re into it. But it’s not everybody’s cup of tea. So here’s what he does with...
Streaming pays you $0.004 per play. A direct sale through Bandcamp nets you around $8 on a $10 album. To earn that same $8 from streaming, you need 20,000 plays. Most independent artists release everywhere immediately, training their actual fans—the people who would happily pay $10-15—to stream for pennies instead. Ezra Vancil took a different approach. He sold his last album exclusively to his email list for a year before releasing it on streaming services. His new double album employs a...