New here?

Start here

MusicWide covers the whole journey of an independent musician: record it, release it, get it heard. Here's the reading order that makes each piece build on the last.

1. If you're still recording the songs

Start with the budget home studio guide, which sets up the whole gear philosophy in one read. Then go specific as needed: choosing your interface (and whether the $40 one is fine), picking between the two eternal microphones, getting clean vocals in a normal bedroom, and why you probably don't need monitors yet. If you record with a USB mic, read this before buying anything else.

2. When the songs are ready to release

Pick a distributor in ten minutes, then learn the one legitimate way into Spotify playlists, including the Release Radar guarantee most artists never collect on.

3. Getting it heard

The promotion playbook is the spine of this site: release cadence, short-form video, email lists, gigging, and the scams to walk past. Everything else here feeds into it.

Playing guitar?

All the guitar gear questions (amps, pedals, which guitar) live at our sister site, A1Guitar.com, including its own start-here guide.

Prefer to browse? Every article, newest first.