It’s not exactly news that the internet has revolutionized the music industry from top to bottom. It’s now easier than it has been at any point in history to share your music with millions of people, without even leaving your own home. With such a large audience, finding a niche for your specific genre or style of music is practically guaranteed…
So long as you don’t get lost in the crowd of other artists who are also trying to take advantage of the massive amount of exposure the internet provides.
This is where it becomes obvious that promotion is key. Every artist should have a promotion strategy in place to ensure that people get the opportunity to actually listen to their music; a method of standing out from the crowd.
- Master social media.
Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Tumblr. etc. are all vital ways to help promote your band. However, it’s not enough to just have an account with each. You need to learn to master the art of social media; update frequently, but never spam your audience. Instead, make sure you take the time to interact with your fans as well as simply updating them on your music. If you find managing this difficult or too time-consuming across so many different platforms, get a social media management tool like Hootsuite. - Create a website.
Just having social media accounts is not enough. A website is key to making you appear professional and for giving your fans one central location to keep up with you, a home base that links out to all your social media accounts and showcases the unique image and ‘brand’ that your music represents. - Entice people with free music.
People love free stuff, and the same applies to music. Give away at least a few tracks for free to give people a taste of what you do. Posting music to Youtube for free is an excellent way to get yourself out there, too. - Take advantage of the latest and greatest music playing apps and services.
There are many apps and services that are designed to help get your music out there, and which are very popular with music listeners worldwide. For example, there is Spotify (and its direct competitor Rdio), a mobile and desktop app with an enormous music library and a Discover tool for finding new artists, something that may connect you with bigger names that play similar music.
There is also Bandcamp, which allows you to not only upload your music and share it, but also sell it for downloading (and turn a reasonable profit doing so). Last FM will match your songs with the musical tastes of their users, so you get a targeted audience. Likewise, they have a Royalty Program that guarantees you actually earn with every listening. And of course, get your music on iTunes, the home of legitimate musicians everywhere.