We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Austin Hopkins a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Austin, appreciate you joining us today. Can you recount a story of an unexpected problem you’ve faced along the way?

As an independent artist, I’ve faced many issues. I never realized how hard it was to break out into the music industry until I released my first album in 2016. Up until that time, it was really just a hobby for me. My family and friends encouraged me to do more with my music, so I thought why not, it can’t be that hard can it? So, in 2015 I worked with my first producer and put together an album of my first recorded songs. I released it in June of 2016, thinking I’d put it out there, tell a few people about it, and gain listeners. What I really didn’t understand was the backend marketing and how to reach and retain followers.

After the album was released, and it didn’t get anywhere near the number of downloads I had expected, it was very discouraging. In my mind, I started wondering if my music was really any good, did people actually want to listen to it? I struggled with this, and wondered was this really even the path for me? It took quite a while for me to make the decision to continue recording.

For the next few years, I just wrote songs, and then decided in 2019 to try recording again. I found a new producer, recorded my song “Right Now” and released it. This time I sent it to hundreds of radio stations asking them to listen to it and possibly play it on their stations. Even then, it still took time for them to get back to me, which I thought, not again. When the first station finally got back to me, letting me know they liked it, it was such a relief. Then more stations started contacting me, letting me know they liked it and it started getting played on independent stations all around the country, and even globally.

While this is just one part of reaching new listeners, I felt reassured knowing that this wasn’t such a bad experience as I had endured with my first album.

Austin, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m a guy from a small town that genuinely just loves music. Growing up with 4 brothers, music was my escape. I immersed myself to the tunes of Garth Brooks, Matchbox 20, Alan Jackson, Aerosmith… anything I could get my hands on. It didn’t matter the genre. I found that for everything I was going through, every feeling I had, there was a song out there that I could relate to, that spoke to me.

When I started writing songs, I thought about when I was growing up. Music helped me through so many problems and situations in my life, and I wanted to my music to do the same for other people. I write music based on situation-ships. I listen to friends, family, fans and write songs based on things we are all dealing with in one way or another. I want my listeners to connect with me and my music on a real level in that way. For them to immediately look for my music to listen to when they are dealing with a situation in life, for me to be that Go to artist for them.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Social media is changing constantly, and is the best way for independent artists to start building their fan base. I started off on myspace, continued on to Facebook and instagram, but it wasn’t until TikTok came around that I really saw the growth. As each new social media platform came out, I started learning what people responded to and what they didn’t. I knew I had to find a niche. TikTok has been by far, the best social media platform as an artist. For me, music and singing is what I wanted my audience to be, and short form videos fit that. So I had to find a way to make catchy videos to grab their attention quickly. I came up with this video series called complete the chorus, and I would notice it would get thousands of views on each of those posts, so I kept posting the same type of videos with different songs, which ultimately helped me build up my fanbase to over 50k followers. The key I learned is to not only make it fun, but to be consistent as well, making them look forward to more.

Social media I would say is incredibly important in this day in age. It’s how you get yourself out there. As life has gotten busier, people no longer take time to purchase music in a store etc, so you have to give them a reason why they should go stream it on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube. You need to know which platform will fit to your content, and what type of content will fit the audience that uses that particular platform. Overall you have to be consistent in what you’re posting as well. For musicians, you can’t just say “Hey go listen to my music”, because they won’t. Everything is quick. You have a very short amount of time to grab someones attention or they will move on. They need to relate to the content you’re providing to them in one way or another. Knowing how to relate to people and get them to stay is key. Right now, TikTok is so important in the way they push out their content to their audiences. Other social media platforms are now trying to mimic that algorithm as well. Research each platform and find a way to relate to people on each one, in different ways.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

What’s most rewarding to me as an independent artist, is when I talk to someone and the tell me how one of my songs really resonated with them, or helped them through a situation they had, or brought up memories from a time in their life. As this is the main reason I do this, it really warms my heart to hear fans tell me this.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.austinhopkinsmusic.com
• Instagram: http://instagram.com/austinhopkinsmusic
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/austinhopkinsmusic
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/austin12384
• Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/c/AustinHopkins
• Other: Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@austinhopkinsmusic