Looking for new resources to boost your productivity? Manage your finances, form better habits, and get shit done with these useful productivity tools. Here are some of our favorites for independent musicians…
10 Productivity Tools For Independent Musicians
Band Mule
Band Mule is an easy to use private band organizer and band calendar. With it, you can plan gigs, manage your set list, share files, chat, and share songs. It’s like having a mini manager in your pocket.
Editors Keys
Editors Keys is used by some of the top producers, editors, and recording studios in the world. They offer time-saving keyboards and keyboard covers with all the shortcuts for whatever program you use.
For example, this Serato DJ keyboard cover (shown right) has all the shortcuts for Serato.
Whether you use Garageband, Final Cut Pro, Ableton or many of the others like them, there’s probably a physical keyboard or keyboard cover available on this site, saving you ample time looking for shortcuts during your creative process.
Lifeline
Lifeline is a great app developed by the smart people over at Saent. It works by ensuring you take sufficient breaks and better manage your time so you can experience productive, healthy, and fulfilling days. It mainly functions like an innovative timer app, providing flexible session lengths, perfectly timed breaks, and a real-time progress bar to help you develop an optimal daily working rhythm.
If you’re looking to better manage your time and maintain a healthier workflow, this app will change your life.
Sheet Music Scanner
Sheet Music Scanner lets you easily scan, and playback printed sheet music using your smartphone, tablet, or whatever device you use on the go. Ever wondered how that interesting-looking piece of sheet music actually sounds? You can find out with this one. Just point your smartphone or tablet at the sheet and let it play the notes for you. You can choose the instrument, pick the speed, and you’re ready to go.
Mint
Mint is a budgeting app that can help you keep track of your spending and balances. Mint suggests how you could be saving money based on your financial information and transactions. As an independent artist, you’re in charge of how you decide to spend your money. From investing in your team to spending money on Spotify ads, it’s important to keep track of your spending no matter how big or small. — This app can help you do that.
To learn more about managing your money as an artist, check these out:
- Money Management Tips for Independent Musicians
- 8 Things Musicians Should Be Investing Money In
- 13 Ways Your Music Can Make You More Money
Kompoz
Kompoz is the perfect tool for remote collaboration. With Kompoz, you can use your favorite audio editing software, like Pro Tools, GarageBand, Logic Pro X, PreSonus StudioOne, REAPER, etc. Just upload your song idea to Kompoz, invite others to jump in and you might get a drummer in France, a keyboard player in Nashville, or a bass player in Malaysia.
It’s super easy to use, and you can create public collaborations to work with artists from their worldwide community or collab privately with your friends and bandmates. It’s up to you. (There are tons of other innovative online tools to help you keep working with your peers on your next banger without ever having to meet in person too. // This post gives you a rundown of some of our all time faves.)
Headspace
Hear me out on this one… If you want to avoid burnout, taking care of your mental health is just as important as anything else on your plate. That said, I think this one counts as a productivity tool. Especially for musicians. Through science-backed meditation and mindfulness tools, Headspace helps you create life-changing habits to support your mental health and find a healthier, happier you. It’s even proven to reduce stress by 14% in just 10 days, and can help you relax your mind in minutes, improve focus, and get the best sleep ever. All of which helps you stay on track in every other part of your life.
Streaks
Streaks is basically a to-do list that holds you accountable, every single day. With it, you can choose up to 12 habits per day that you’d like to implement into your daily life and track their progress. Want to spend more time learning music theory? Add it to the list. Want to make more beats every day? No problem. You can add that, too.
Working on something every day is the first step to forming a long-term habit. Every day that you complete on Streaks adds up, and if you forget a day, your score goes back to zero.
DropBox Sign
This website offers free online contract signing. For those who do a lot of remote collaboration, this is a godsend. Let’s say your vocalist lives in Los Angeles, your producer is in Atlanta, and you live in New York… Sure, you could mail everything back and forth or meet up somewhere in-between, but DropBox Sign lets you electronically request and add legally binding signatures to any document. From licensing agreements and split sheets to cowriting agreements and more, this one gets it all done with ease.
