The David Andrew Wiebe Show

David was recently invited to check out Groove Gainer’s Stage – an app that helps turn your streaming listeners into real fans. In this episode of The David Andrew Wiebe Show, he takes you behind the scenes and explores the platform for the first time.

While this isn’t a thorough tutorial, the first look gives you a good idea of what Stage can offer and how you can leverage it for your music. David plans to follow up this episode with additional instalments.
In This Episode:

What Stage by Groove Gainer is and what it does
How Stage could replace multiple tools you’re already using
Dashboard tour and features
Building a Smart Link with Stage
Checkout code to get a free month of Pro

Key Resources:

Stage: Enter code DAWCAST at checkout for a free month of Pro

Transcription:
Today I’m checking out Stage by Groove Gainer.

This is the first time I’ve looked at this platform, so you’re coming along for the ride.

I do know a little bit about it because I took a quick peek at the website beforehand.

Initially, I thought this was a service like Songwhip.

Honestly, I’d like a solid Songwhip replacement, since it was great before but isn't quite as good as it used to be.

Stage allows you to turn your streaming listeners into a proper email list, which is something most of us can agree is very much needed.

Looking at the website, it does look a bit like Songwhip: one link, every platform.

If it provides detailed fan insights right out of the gate, that’s pretty incredible.

It also includes an EPK builder, multi-platform streaming analytics, playlist pitch campaigns, a smart link feature, fan email marketing tools, and an AI music growth advisor.

Let's dive inside and start poking around.

I'm copying my Spotify artist link into the setup.

Don’t be surprised if I don’t have a huge streaming audience; I didn't build my career off streaming, even though I've used it and profited from it.

Once the profile links, the dashboard presents four main pillars: your identity, your data, your tools, and your AI manager.

Under Artist Core, you connect your streaming and social profiles – Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, SoundCloud, Bandcamp, Instagram, TikTok, and X.

HANI, the built-in AI, reads your profiles to learn your catalog and sharpen its suggestions.

The Data Stream section syncs monthly listeners, followers, and audience locations across 7, 14, and 28 days to give you real data without vanity metrics.

Then there is the Strategy Engine, which offers seven core tools for releasing and promoting music.

The Smart Link builder creates one page for every release across every platform, and best of all, it captures fan emails.

That is how a casual stream becomes an owned fan.

The suite also features a playlist fit analyzer, a Spotify promotion service that pitches to real curators, press release drafts, email marketing to your smart link contacts, and a release calendar.

At the center of it all is HANI, your AI growth manager, which helps write pitch emails, draft release statements, and plan 30-day release campaigns.

Testing the smart link builder with my synthwave track, "City Lights," the platform lets you select visual themes, customize colors, and paste in the track URL to populate links for Deezer, Apple Music, and Spotify automatically.

That gives you a clean, functional landing page in seconds.

I plan to return and update you as I continue exploring the promotion tools and seeing what they can do for my catalog.

If you want to check it out for yourself, you can get your first month of Stage Pro for free using the code DAWCAST.
Subscribe to The David Andrew Wiebe Show
Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode of The David Andrew Wiebe Show, take a moment to subscribe. You’ll receive updates for future episodes, PLUS weekly digests and empowering music career recommendations sent directly to your inbox. Let’s make your passion goals a reality. We’re here to help.

Until next time, stay empowered.

AI can handle most of the grunt work. Its ability to complete the task to your satisfaction depends heavily on the quality of the instructions given. But it’s hard to deny that automation is now well within reach for the average person. It’s just a matter of how you utilize it.

In this episode of The David Andrew Wiebe Show, David explores how business models have been changing in the age of AI, and how artists can adapt these models to their careers.
In This Episode:

How James Schramko has adapted to the AI age, and what that means for artists
The psychological effect of giving everything away
The multi-step funnel model
Why capturing emails is still essential
The supporter model
New ways to leverage your content and frameworks
Why singular calls to action (destinations) are crucial
How you can better leverage platforms like Patreon and KLEQ
The educator model
Positioning your content to attract your target audience

Key Resources:

Trapped in Your Own Business? The Model That Frees You (Two Decades of Receipts)
Patreon
KLEQ

The “Free Frameworks, Pay for Personal Access” Model
Entrepreneur coach James Schramko has been in the online space for 20 years. In that time, he’s never seen faster change in the last year.

The core of his business model remains the same. He runs a membership site that gives his students access to his knowledge and expertise.

What has changed is the number of offers he promotes (which is down to one, called Mentor, which he charges $1,800 USD per month for), and the number of things he’s giving away (ALL of his playbooks).

This is, effectively, the “Free playbooks, pay for personal access” model.
Playbooks
James used to charge for what he calls his “playbooks,” which we could also call processes, frameworks, secrets, whatever word rings true.

This is what he’s now giving away, entirely for free.

The psychological effect, as David points out, is “Whoa, I can’t believe he’s giving all of this away. But I’m not sure how to apply it. So, I should hire him to show me.”
Paying or Personal Access
What can’t AI duplicate? Personal experience, taste, judgment, accountability. This is not to say there won’t come a time when AI won’t be able to do these things, mind you.

The point is, even if you’ve got all the information in hand, if you don’t understand it, find it too cumbersome to implement it yourself, or want to ensure you’re applying it correctly, your instinct is going to be to pay for access to the person who created the frameworks in the first place.

And as someone who’s opening the kimono on everything, don’t you think you should charge more for access to you?
The 3 AI-Age Artist Models
David shares three possible AI-age artist models. He quickly admits there may be others and would love to hear your thoughts. Here are the approaches covered in this episode:

The multi-step funnel model. Give away everything upfront. Make your entire discography available for free in exchange for an email address. When visitors enter their email address, they are taken to the next page where they’re introduced to your offer – e.g., private membership, monthly live calls, merch items, etc. for $127 per month.
The supporter model. Post your lyrics, guitar tabs, and sheet music to your blog. Set up a podcast where you share all your music, commentaries, interviews, and other audio content. For video, create lyric videos, music videos, behind-the-scenes content, and rig rundowns. Drive all traffic to Patreon or another subscriber-based platform that can be monetized.
The educator model. As a music producer, you’d showcase your recording process, gear, techniques, software, approach, microphone positions, and so on. Position your content for the audience you want to attract. Then, charge a premium to hire you. This is just one example of an educator model, and other approaches can work.

Subscribe to The David Andrew Wiebe Show
Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode of The David Andrew Wiebe Show, take a moment to subscribe. You’ll receive updates for future episodes, PLUS weekly digests and empowering music career recommendations sent directly to your inbox. Let’s make your passion goals a reality. We’re here to help.

Until next time, stay empowered.

Is the news manipulating your emotions? If so, how, and… why? Is there a better way to stay up to date with the latest headlines without feeling powerless, angry, and fearful?

In this episode of The David Andrew Wiebe Show, David interviews Kira Shishkin, founder of informed.now, the leading news-by-SMS research and delivery service in North America. In this conversation, Kira shares about DJing, the problem informed.now was intended to solve, an accident that nearly took his life, and more.
In This Episode:

What it means to be a DJ, according to Kira
How music production has become more automated
Why Kira believes being a DJ is about helping people discover music they didn’t know they needed
Why being creative doesn’t always translate to being popular
Why Kira is disrupting sensationalized, uncredible news
The truth about news, propaganda, and the media slant
What Kira noticed about a delusional 70s movie
What Kira believes the pandemic revealed about our unpreparedness
Why you have no choice but to pay attention to our increasingly globalized world
How news manipulates your emotions to force reactions
Why informed.now has remained a human-centric company
Why independent creators should focus on communication in the age of AI
How you can level up your workflows by leveraging AI
How AI can rapidly increase your results and satisfaction
Why you can’t let AI take responsibility for results (at least not yet)
How Kira wound up in a coma
Why you can continue to expect greatness from informed.now

Key Resources:

informed.now

Subscribe to The David Andrew Wiebe Show
Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode of The David Andrew Wiebe Show, take a moment to subscribe. You’ll receive updates for future episodes, PLUS weekly digests and empowering music career recommendations sent directly to your inbox. Let’s make your passion goals a reality. We’re here to help.

Until next time, stay empowered.

The Renegade Musician is David Andrew Wiebe’s definitive, most up-to-date guide for independent musicians, detailing how to grow your fan base, leverage your releases, get more and better gigs, and more.

In this episode of The David Andrew Wiebe Show, we do a deep dive into the introductory material, which includes the cover design, origins, starving artist syndrome, the Spotify delusion, and living your true worth as a musician.
In This Episode:

Why you must observe where the crowd is going, and run the other way
Why being a Renegade Musician means developing acumen and competencies in multiple areas
Why letting go of prominent “starving artist” figures helps reprogram your artistic mind
How liberation without compromise is a lofty but achievable ideal
Why artists must become intimately familiar with the value they bring to the world
Why Spotify and streaming royalties aren’t the ultimate income source for artists
What it looks like to be a true renegade

Key Resources:

The Renegade Musician: Step out of the shadow of the old music career model
The Strangest Secret: Earl Nightingale’s seminal personal development resource (affiliate link)
Renegade Millionaire: An essential entrepreneur book by Dan Kennedy and Lee Milteer (affiliate link)
Why I Don’t Think 1 Cent Per Stream on Spotify is Going to Save the Music Business: the blog post referred to in this episode
God Wants You to Be Rich: by Paul Zane Pilzer, this book proves unlimited riches (affiliate link)

The Renegade Musician Masterclass


This masterclass is just the tip of the iceberg. If you want to explore all the principles, strategies, tactics, frameworks, and mental models that guide a Renegade Musician to achieving success on their terms, pick up your copy of the book.

Here are the key lessons covered in this episode:
The Book Cover – The Wolf & The 3 Pillars
The book cover doesn’t just look cool – there’s a significance to the imagery of the wolf. The platitude of the “lone wolf” applies here, because, of course, renegades disrupt and betray.

German-American novelist Charles Bukowski has been quoted as saying:
Wherever the crowd goes, run in the other direction. They are always wrong.
Wherever the crowd goes, run in the other direction. They are always wrong. – Charles BukowskiShare on X

This truism, however, has also been repeated by the likes of Earl Nightingale, as David points out.

But wolves also symbolize loyalty, family, teaching, communication, intelligence, and wisdom. Of these, David highlights Community, Intelligence, and Wisdom. You can find additional reference in an earlier podcast episode.
Foundations & Inspiration – Dan Kennedy and Origins
David elaborates on the significance of direct-response marketing expert Dan Kennedy in coming up with The Renegade Musician concept. Especially the Renegade Millionaire book, which Dan wrote in collaboration with business and life strategist Lee Milteer.

This is somewhat understated, but in this chapter, David also points out how important it is for independent musicians to develop their attitude and mindset, while gaining competence in areas like communication, leadership, digital marketing, PR, and other business aspects.
Starving Artist Syndrome – Liberation Without Compromise
Vincent van Gogh is often pointed to as the poster child of the starving artist. Yet, Van Gogh never pursued the commercialization of his art. So, how accurate an example is this, and should we continue pointing to it as a reason not to pursue our passions?

There are many ways to create an income, with jobs being the most prominent. We’ve also seen the rise of the creator economy in recent years, showing yet another way for people to engage an audience and earn an income from their activities.

But the danger is that you can just as easily leave one form of “slavery,” as David describes it, only to walk right into the hands of another master – live streaming video games from the 90s, twerking in front of a camera, producing dozens of articles per day on making money online…

Liberation without compromise is doing what you love to do and earning an income from it without compromising your values and identity.

Artists often feel unworthy of earning a higher income, which is why David suggests exploring the value that art brings to the world. From the importance of creativity in a child’s development to music’s ability to heal, an artist must become intimately familiar with their total, holistic package, not just the ability to sing, play an instrument, or write lyrics.
The Spotify Delusion – Penny Per Stream and Platform Traps
The moth-to-flame attraction to Spotify is widespread. Yet, there isn’t really a solution to the streaming dilemma. So long as you’re playing the algorithm game that’s been set up by a company that has different interests than you as an independent musician, realistically, there are no paths to victory.

But there are many vehicles for the independent musician. Streaming is just one among many. Artists would do well to empower themselves with knowledge of better income sources.
Living The Renegade Musician – Understanding Your True Value and Identity
A Renegade Musician disrupts and betrays the traditional path. Not just the path laid out by record labels and the media, but the paths of those who don’t think for themselves.

KISS bassist Gene Simmons is famous for saying that if you think for yourself, you might not make more friends, but you will make more money.

Many independent artists are playing a blind game of “follow the leader,” without making a thorough examination of their leaders, whether they’re competent, and whether they’ve made a comprehensive, logical, and strategically sound plan for attaining success on their terms.
Subscribe to The David Andrew Wiebe Show
Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode of The David Andrew Wiebe Show, take a moment to subscribe. You’ll receive updates for future episodes, PLUS weekly digests and empowering music career recommendations sent directly to your inbox. Let’s make your passion goals a reality. We’re here to help.

Until next time, stay empowered.

In his book, David defined The Renegade Musician as a concept. What is a concept, exactly, and why does it matter?

In this episode of The David Andrew Wiebe Show, David illuminates the idea of a concept through well-known and understood cultural concepts like the American Dream and Ikigai, as well as why a purely intellectual understanding of these is insufficient.
In This Episode:

What the “American Dream” really is
What “Ikigai” actually means
The importance of real-life experience and surrounding yourself with other renegades
The true test of The Renegade Musician

Key Resources:

The Renegade Musician: Step out of the shadow of the old music career model

The Renegade Musician Concept
The Renegade Musician book defines being a renegade musician as a concept, philosophy, ideal, and a movement. In this video, David expands on what it means to understand it as a concept. The key takeaways from the video are that:

The American Dream. It’s not 1.93 kids, a golden retriever named Charlie, and a white picket fence, though some may aspire to that. The American Dream is equality, opportunity, and the freedom to pursue your highest aspirations.
Ikigai. David argues that not only has this concept been overexplained, but also misrepresented. The definition of Ikigai is “purpose for living.” Ikigai Venn diagrams have frequently made their rounds on social media, but these are not true to the concept. David says the only thing he would add to the simplest definition is “a purpose for living that shifts with circumstances, priorities, and time.”
The renegade musician. You can’t just declare yourself one. You’ve got to be around one. The only way to “get” a concept is to be around it. Who are you learning from? Who is your renegade coach or mentor?

Subscribe to The David Andrew Wiebe Show
Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode of The David Andrew Wiebe Show, take a moment to subscribe. You’ll receive updates for future episodes, PLUS weekly digests and empowering music career recommendations sent directly to your inbox. Let’s make your passion goals a reality.

Until next time, stay empowered.