Daniel Donato combines spacey country guitar with a grounded business sense.

BY MICHAEL ROSS

YOU SAY YOU want to be a successful guitarist in the modern music economy? It’s simple, but not easy. First be a virtuoso, then tour relentlessly, and along the way master social media in all its forms. In other words, be like Daniel Donato.

Donato’s six-string mastery was forged through years of playing four nights a week, four hours a night, in the crucible of Nashville’s Broadway, beginning at age 17. The guitarist then toured America and Europe developing a brand of music he calls “Cosmic Country,” until he was selling out shows in both places. Along the way, he garnered tens of thousands of followers on Instagram, YouTube and Facebook.

All of this has led to a rapid rise for his latest record, the Robben Ford–produced A Young Man’s Country (Cosmic Country Music). “Our record is one of the top-four promoted releases across the entire folk category on Spotify,” he says.

If Donato sometimes talks as much like a marketing director as a musician, he seems genuinely comfortable in both roles. “I post content at least three times a week and make sure I have a distinct way of communicating,” he explains. “I always listen to my fan base.”

He has learned the crucial differences between the various platforms through experience. Though the songs on his new record have, to date, garnered more than 500,000 plays on Spotify, the three accompanying videos have fewer than 23,000 views combined. “Artists assume if they like something, the fans are going to like it too,” he says. “But often, the fans do not care. My fans preferred a video of me hanging out with Joe Bonamassa, playing Telecasters. So we try to create incentive-based opportunities for everybody who joins the Cosmic Country Club, so we can keep bringing more people into our circle.”