How You Should Promote Your Music on Social Media in 2017
It’s surprising to learn that a lot of independent musical professionals (Musicians, DJs and Producers) don’t realize that the most important thing that makes the Music Industry thrive today is Marketing. In promoting music, I’d like to break it down to 60% Marketing; 40% producing. That’s the kind of percentage breakdown that you, as a music professional, should always have in mind. You have to get familiar with Marketing.
If you want to make it big and have your voice and your music be heard, you want to get your content (which is your talent) to a mass audience by using one of the most accessible tools —- the internet. Don’t wait for some big label to sign you up– the power to promote your own music is literally right under your fingertips.
This isn’t a new thing by any means. After all, there’s a number of relatively successful Indie Artists out there. They marketed themselves as a brand using their own efforts. You just have to know what strategies to use, what tools and what platforms to be on, and what sort of content you have to produce right along side with your music.
Get on those Platforms!
It’s 2017! You shouldn’t shy away from being prominent on a all the Social Platforms that are available to us now. A music professional such as yourself can use all of these to post and promote music. It’s only a matter of being creative with them.
I’ve seen a lot of DJs and Indie Bands on instagram who mainly post posters of their gigs, which looks godawful boring, dull, and unengaging. It tells your followers nothing about your music. It wouldn’t even entice anyone to come to your gig.
Instagram has now evolved into a multimedium platform that you can use to engage with your fans. You can choose to post videos, teasers of your music, behind the scenes look using IG Stories as well as going InstaLive in your gigs. This allows you to give your followers a taste of what’s behind the curtain.
Facebook is a very powerful tool. Don’t underestimate it. It’s a good place to share news, launches, gigs, create events and so on. You can even create Ad campaigns for that new single or album of yours. Remember to always make it engaging and exciting. Posting a teaser from your instagram is one way of hitting two birds with one stone. The goal here is to let a larger audience see your presence and HEAR your music.
Soundcloud
If you’re starting out as a DJ, you can post your samples on Soundcloud. For example, you can post teasers of your work, OR you could upload weekly podcasts where you talk about your process and inspirations– anything under the sun really! As long as you are talking about your music and your brand. Remember that your brand is yourself. Souncloud is an easy platform where people could share your music to others.
Youtube
It’s no brainer that on Youtube, you’re allowed to upload longer content. You can do almost everything on Youtube. You could start a vlog about the process of how you do your own music. You could post tutorial videos on one of your songs. You could even release the full audio/ lyric video of your songs once you release them, so long as you place the link where they could buy it on iTunes.
Your Website
This is the most important platform of all. Your website should be the place where all of your content should eventually lead your viewers, listeners, and followers to. Through this, they could learn more about you and your music.
This is where you can blog and share your thoughts and insights as an artist. You can even give exclusive sneak-peeks on what you’ve been working on. It’s a great place to put out news and press releases, announcements, and gig schedules. Make sure you leave information where you can be contacted in case someone will want to hire you or invite you to be a special guest.
It’s also important to note that this is where you can build a mailing list of subscribers. It’s where they can get instant updates, incentives, and other freebies from you directly.
A Good thing to Rememeber: The point of having all these platforms is to know who your audience is, where they are at, and what sort of things they like. These places are also where you can engage and talk to them. The main thing here is that you’re reaching out to people who are more likely to listen to your music. Get yourself a bigger following.
Did you find this helpful? If you want to learn more you can click on my video below and find out more strategies you can do to expand yourself as a Music Professional.
