SH TV
possibilities to promote your music. And, while
that may seem daunting, it really allows you to
experiment and let your creativity run wild!
The key to successfully promoting your music
in today’s music industry is to try new
things, learn from the promotions you run,
make changes, and fine-tune them to your
unique career.
Let’s take a look at some basic strategies you
could be using to promote your music right
now.
1. Live Music Promotion
With everything moving more and more
towards digital, it’s easy to forget about the
value of that person-to-person interaction.
After all, these days you can create great
quality music, release it, distribute it, promote
it, and even play live without ever leaving your
room.
But, just because you can release something
entirely online doesn’t mean you should! In
fact, these personal interactions are still
extremely important in the music industry.
Let’s take the live show as an example. Sure,
it’s a chance to make some money and
perform your music and have fun. But it also
presents some really unique marketing
opportunities.
Gigs are a great place to promote your new
album or song. Tell your fans that you’ll be
premiering a new song (or the whole album if
you want to go all out) before it’s released.
Choose one local gig and turn it into an event.
Maybe fans who come to that show will be
able to buy the album at your merch booth
before anyone else.
You could also use gigs to grow a fanbase in
new cities, states, or countries. Work with a
local established band and propose a headline
swap. You’ll open for them in their home town
and they’ll open for you in your home town.
Just make sure you pick a band with a similar
musical style. Do this a few times and
eventually you’ll be able to do your own
headlining show.
If you want our free guide on
How to Promote Your Music with 3 Social
Media Checklists (Click Here)
2. Use Social Media the
RIGHT Way
We all use social media. If you’re not on
Facebook, Instagram and Twitter these days,
it’s almost like you don’t exist. However, you
may not be using social media to it’s full
potential to promote your music.
Social media is NOT a straight-up marketing
platform. It’s really a catalyst for conversation
and word-of-mouth marketing. About 80% of
your posts should be funny, conversational,
and interesting, leaving about 20% for
promotional material.
That’s not to say that conversational posts
can’t be promotional! You just need to learn
how to frame the content in interesting ways .
For example, if you’re in the studio recording a
new album, try sprinkling little updates on
social media. Tell a story about your studio
experience that day, share a photo of the mix,
or post a short teaser video of a song.
If you’re out on tour, take photos at the
venues or share short videos or photos of the
audiences. These things aren’t obviously
promotional, but they still let fans know what’s
going on.
It’s important to remember, though, that social
media isn’t the end-all-be-all when it comes
to promoting your music. It can easily become
a huge time suck that takes you away from
your music if you don’t manage your time
properly (Hint: get social media time
management tips here ).
3. Promote Your Music and
Sell it on Your Website
Your website shouldn’t be a static thing. It
should be ever adapting and changing to
reflect new events in your career. Basically,
you want your fans stopping by your website
as often as possible. The more often they’re
on your site, the more they’re exposed to your
albums, merch, and tickets.
If you’re just starting out, you probably don’t
have a lot of big updates other than the
occasional album release and tour. Starting a
blog is a great solution.
It’s fairly easy to set up a blog on the
homepage of your website. Most website tools
like Bandzoogle, and WordPress, have blog
capabilities. Plan out blog posts at regular
intervals like once or twice a week and share
anything you think your fans would find
interesting. This could be the inspirations
behind certain songs, new lyrical ideas you’re
working on, a funny story from the last band
practice, or even a run-down of the gear you
use.
Another idea is to create landing pages on
your website . Landing pages can be used to
collect email addresses, to raise awareness,
to give your fans more information, or to make
a sale.
4. Reach out to Music Blogs
If you want to promote your music, it isn’t just
about sharing things with your fans. You also
want to reach out to new audiences and
convert them to fans. And music blogs are a
great way to do that. Bloggers are always
looking for fresh, new content, and the cool
thing is, there are a ton of smaller blogs that
are totally within your reach as an indie artist.
Blogs also tend to have a pretty niche
following. This means that if your music is run
on a blog, it’s guaranteed to be seen by people
who already like the genre!
Do some research, find blogs that cover your
type of music, and send personal emails out to
the bloggers. Are there any interesting stories
about your new album, song, or tour? Having a
unique story will definitely help you stand out
from the thousands of other musicians
releasing an album. Make it as easy as
possible for them to cover your story and treat
them like people. Remember, it’s all about
establishing a relationship.
5. Collaborate with Other
Musicians
Collaboration is an often overlooked aspect of
music promotion. It’s a great way to get your
music in front of a new group of people and
grow your fanbase exponentially. You can
collaborate on pretty much anything. Just
make sure you collaborate with musicians
whose fans would appreciate your music.
Choose to work with bands in a similar genre
or with similar fanbase demographics.
Of course, the headline trade strategy we
looked at earlier in this article is a great
option. But let’s talk about some things you
can do online as well.
Obviously, you could also work together on a
song or album. Try recording a cover song or
two together and release them on your
YouTube channels or Facebook pages. The
key is to drive your fans to each other. If you
create a song or video, link to each other’s
website and social channels.
An even more easy-mode option is to just
agree to give each other shout-outs on social
media. Share each other’s newest track and
tell your fans how much you dig it. (Obviously
work with artists whose music you actually do
dig.) The power of a recommendation is one of
the best marketing tools out there.
6. Promote with Email
Your email list is an extremely valuable tool to
promote your music. Unlike collaboration and
blogs, your email list is marketing to your
current fan base. If someone signed up for
your email list, they want to hear from you, so
take advantage of it!
Remember, your emails should be driving your
fans to your website, so you want to include
links.
So what do you send to your email list ? The
obvious use of an email list is to let your fans
know when you have an album coming out or
a tour. BUT you can also use your email list to
send fans to your blog when you have new
content. (Remember, you want to get your
fans on your website as often as possible.)
Of course, you need to get fans to actually
signup for your emails before you can start
using it as a music promotion tool, right? An
easy option is to trade something of value for
an email address. Keep in mind this doesn’t
have to be a free song (in fact there are a TON
of more effective ways to grow your email list )
If you’re not sure where to even start when it
comes to growing your email list, here are 10
easy ways to build an email list for your
music.
“No matter how many
followers you have, you can’t
eat a tweet. Get New Artist
Model and learn how to turn
traffic – into fans – into
money.” – Dave Kusek
How to Promote Your Music:
Conclusion
Your music promotion strategy is going to be
something that you refine over time, so don’t
get frustrated if things take some time to
come together.
The important thing to remember is that you
should be taking advantage of all the different
promote your music tools you have right here
at your finger tips instead of relying on just
one thing.
If you want more music marketing guidance,
download this free ebook. You’ll get a roadmap
showing exactly how different elements like
social media, email, and your website come
together into a music promotion machine that
will help you grow your fanbase and make
more money. You’ll also get 3 social media
checklists with easy post ideas you can use
on your own social channels.
There are a lot more resources available for
you at the New Artist Model blog. For
example, if you want to self release an album,
this will help you get started. If you want help
with Instagram for music, this post may be
very helpful.
The New Artist Model is an online music
business school for independent musicians,
performers, recording artists, producers,
managers and songwriters. Our classes teach
essential music business and marketing skills
that will take you from creativity to commerce
while maximizing your chances for success.
Check out the Music Business Accelerator
(MBA) a new program that will help you plan
your music projects, promote your music and
create a sustainable career.
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