We recently connected with Sonja Midtune and have shared our conversation below.
Sonja, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?
I have! I just doesn’t look the way I thought it would. It took a long time, but after having some viral success on Tiktok, I’m able to make a living from a combination of streaming revenue, merch sales, and I teach songwriting at a university, which I count as creative work. I also pitch my music for TV.
Sonja, 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 an indie pop/rock, indie artist from Minnesota living in Los Angeles. I’ve been putting out music for 9 years through 3 EPs and various singles. I focus on the music and try to reach as many people as possible. I love to travel and find solace in the woods and by lakes :)
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
Creative freedom. You’ll notice bigger artists with bigger budgets will present their music to you with visuals, music videos, video content, etc. As an independent on a low budget, I work with amazing creative people to present my music on a low budget. I would love to pay those people more, and have a bigger budget in general to share my music and reach more people. This counts for gigs as well. Think about when you go to a Harry Styles concert and he pumps his arm and a firework goes off. How does someone in the same genre create that simple yet shocking, euphoric, stadium effect without a massive budget? No idea.
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
-Add us to your playlists with similar music -Buy merch AND stream the songs
-Advocate for and support us when we’re asking for a raise from big tech
-Interact with our social media (like, comment)
-SHARE our music directly with your friends
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/sonjamidtune
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sonjamidtune/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0Vk-4q9vtQFN2C56KWYzWQ
- Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sonjamidtune?lang=en
Image Credits
Maxine Bowen Burak Yerebakan Philíp Alexander