Adrian from Modern Producers has worked with artists like Snoop Dogg and Wu Tang Clan as award-winning producer Anno Domini. He used his reputation to build a community of artists and sell audio software and has begun transitioning to a monthly subscription business model.

Could you tell us a bit about the story behind Modern Producers and what you sell?

Modern Producers is an online store for music producers. We sell products and software for the modern music producer, including drum kits, loop packs, sample collections, VSTs and vocal services.

How did you get your first sale?

I already ran various other music companies including Anno Domini Nation which is a multi-platinum music production company, so this helped a lot in reaching an audience and spreading the word about our new website.

Initially our first sales all came from promoted social media posts and a newsletter we sent out to our Anno Domini Nation customers. Cross-promotion can definitely be a powerful strategy if you or your partners are already tapped into your target customer base.

When did you get started with Shopify and why did you choose it?

I got started with Shopify in 2015 and I chose it because it provides a very streamlined process. It's very easy to get started and start selling products right away, yet complex and flexible enough to grow your business into something substantial.

What are your most successful marketing avenues?

I primarily use our mailing list and Facebook ads.

Engage your audience in a conversation. Don't give them the hard sell. Post interesting, useful and funny things and only sprinkle your promotions in there from time to time.

Did you build your Shopify store yourself or hire a designer and how long did it take to launch?

It was built from scratch, using a template as a starting point. It didn't take long and there was no need to hire a designer, other than to create our company logo.

What Shopify apps do you use? Which apps are most important to your business?

We use SendOwl for delivery of our digital downloads. Couldn't live without it. We also use Soundest for curating our mailing list and sending out our weekly newsletter. I'm also a big fan of the Boost Sales app (for cross-selling) and Countdown Timer Bar to create urgency and promote sales. Both of these have significantly grown our revenue.

Are there any metrics you can share in terms of order volume or monthly sales?

We're about to fulfill our 10,000th order so that's a great milestone for us! Though we are constantly growing, we currently send out about 1000 orders a month and gross $40,000 - about a third of that comes from a monthly subscription service.

What would you do differently if you had to start over?

I would have started up our monthly subscription service a lot sooner. The recurring revenue is a great foundation for financial planning. Also I would have invested more into Facebook advertising early on as this really helped us grow disproportionately over the last half year or so.