What? How? Why? …
As an artist or music band, your main focus and passion is writing/playing/recording music. But even if you create the most wonderful, original and exciting music, it won’t get you fans automatically. It takes a lot of luck to gain traction, if you don’t put in some effort and/or resources toward getting your music to the right people.
You’re already in luck, because you found the right article to help you get started! Read on and learn about some basic promotion concepts for independent musicians.
Building your brand
“We’re a band, not a brand!”. Sure, you’re not a company or commercial product. But it can be really beneficial to create a consistent ‘brand-style’. Determine what should be the atmosphere of your messages to the world. Try to make your messages and images recognizable to the target public. Then aim to get your message in front of the right audience regularly. Read on to find out what your ideal audience looks like.
Finding your audience
Who is your ideal fan? Can you describe them in detail? As an indie musician, it’s crucial to have a clear picture of your target audience to successfully promote your music. Take some time to think about it and really define who who would connect with your music on a deeper level. Then you can tailor your messages specifically to speak to that audience. As an example: your fans are independent and rebellious? Try to reflect this by the tone and images you use in your messages.
Remember this: if you try to appeal to everybody, you will likely end up with a watered-down message that will ultimately appeal to no one. Aim at finding the ‘superfans’ that are in close alignment with what your music stands for, as opposed to getting a lot of semi-enthusiastic listeners.
You can also use the description of your ideal audience to narrow down your targeting for online advertisement and finding more communities to connect with.
Consistent content creation
To make people remember you, it is of importance to repeatedly get their attention. Aim at sending out content regularly. What kind of content? Evidently, your music is the most important content you will make, so make sure it sounds professional and finished. (If you would like some help with finishing your tracks for release, you can always ask me 😉 )
But it does not end there, for the audience to start knowing (and trusting) you, keep adding related content. Do this regularly, for example every two weeks, ideally at a consistent day/time. Some examples: a picture or clip of rehearsal/recording, of members band having fun in other ways. Share an interesting story, like giving an insight the process of writing new songs. Send preview clips of songs, share announcements about upcoming releases or gigs, … Be creative in finding interesting and original ways to put the band and music in the spotlight.
Consistency can be hard, but if you do a little bit of planning in advance, you can make sure there’s always some content ready to share at the right times. If you have more content than needed for the next post, for example, plan a future date in your calendar to publish it. Keep a list of content ideas and update it as you think of more creative ways to engage your (future) fans.
Tap into and expand your network
Where to start? Well, the ‘lowest hanging fruits’ to pick, are the people that already know and trust you. Use your personal social media accounts to get the people you already know to follow your band pages. If they like the music and are proud of you, they will share it with others, which is the best way of promotion: word of mouth. “Have you heard this band? I think they’re really great.” is much more efficient and authentic when coming from a trusted friend. If it comes from a ‘generic’ advertisement for example, the chance of piquing the interest is much lower.
Be on the lookout for local events for bands and music industry. These are nice opportunities to get your name out there and connect with people that can help you. Consider having a card or flyer ready with your band’s contact information to hand out at local events. Try to think of a sort of ‘elevator pitch’ beforehand: two or three sentences to introduce yourself and your band in an interesting way. To build a relationship with people you’ve met, follow up with a personal message afterwards. Keep regular contact to make it last.
Online communities like discussion groups, social media groups or chat groups are an easy way to connect with more people and get your message out there. But be helpful to the group and try to interact in other ways than just pushing your own message.
Promotion
Specifically, how do you get started? Well, there are a lot of ways. The most basic and generic is ‘paid advertising’. This can sound very complex and expensive, which, granted, it certainly can be. As a basic piece of advice: start small. Set a small budget and a modest target. Try something out with a small budget and use the monitoring tools to check if it works and what kind of message/image/target audience works best. Many advertisement services have ‘automatic improvement’ systems, which will use a few alternative ads and find out which of those work best. Try to find ways to narrow the audience to those who fit your ideal fan profile. The more specific you go, the more efficient and the lower the cost.
For music, there are a lot of different options too. Push your music to popular playlists and/or (online) radio stations. Try to find the playlists or streams that are specific to your genre or feel. This way you will resonate with the audience much easier and find those ‘superfans’ more quickly.
When planning a music release, be sure to notify (online) magazines and music review blogs beforehand. It can help to add in (a link to) some kind of press release or information page with more specifics about the band. Reviewers love to add in some interesting piece of background story to make their article more engaging.
Conclusion
Marketing and promotion can seem like daunting tasks, but they don’t have to be boring or tedious. Just create some fun messages and spend some time to contact the right influencers in your niche. With a little effort at the right times, you can get really far. And in the end, what’s more exciting than gaining new fans, am I right?
You can start today with implementing some of the above ideas. Remember: as with your music: experiment and be creative. If you have any questions or remarks, don’t hesitate to contact me.
