The world of promotion and how to promote your music are a growing area of interest for many artists. With the advent of social media, the internet and a plethora of other ways to promote your music these days, there are more people out there looking to get you noticed. This is a wonderful thing, especially when it comes to making a name for yourself and building an audience of devoted fans. However, in order to effectively promote yourself or your music, you will need to learn how to use some of the most effective marketing methods out there.
One of the most important things you can do for your music online efforts is to play on various types of social media outlets. You can use YouTube, Facebook, MySpace and more to get the word out about your music. As with any type of marketing, be sure that you don’t spam the forums or engage in extremely spammy behavior. Instead, be creative and interesting in how you promote your music online. If you have a good website, you can use it to promote upcoming shows and concerts, as well as offering a list of your discography for fans to purchase online. If you own a Soundcloud account, you can stream the audio only, rather than the entire song, which allows you to give your fans a taste of what they can expect from your music without forcing them to download everything you have to offer.
The next thing you can do when you are learning how to promote your music online is to get gigs. It would be a shame if you were to have a large following and not be able to find work to fulfill your potential as a musician. There are a number of ways to go about securing a gig. First, contact local radio stations and try to talk them into granting you a playing slot on their air. Chances are if you have a great reputation within the local community as a musician, you have a leg up on the competition for a gig, even without the advantage of networking with other local musicians. Always be polite and professional throughout the process and be sure to send them a thank-you note afterwards.
Another option is to sign up for online music websites and to promote yourself there. Many of these websites will require that you make an initial deposit to join, but once you hit the minimum posting quota you will be eligible for a good portion of the profits that will be made by the site. Not only will this give you a boost in the audience, but it will also give you a portion of the profits that will be left over from the advertisers that managed to get advertising for the site.
Social media can also help you in your quest to learn how to promote your music online and get a wider audience interested in your music. If you have a good portion of your audience based in another country or even another continent, you can have a successful promotion campaign by using social media to reach out to your fans in another way. There are many ways to go about doing this. The easiest would be to set up your own fan page on Facebook, MySpace or a similar site and invite your friends to like the page. This will allow you to reach out to those who do not necessarily follow you on Twitter or Facebook or any other site that you may use to promote yourself.
Your audience may also include people in other countries who are interested in your music but are unable to attend your shows. You can take advantage of this fact by making videos of your sets available to YouTube. These should be uploaded while you are on stage so that you can share the videos with your audience. Just as with your online fan page, you should encourage your fans to post their comments and suggestions on your videos. By doing this you will gain even more support and the chance of people being able to reach out to your audience via video.
One of the best ways to promote your music and gain more exposure is to sign up for a major label contract. These contracts will allow you to be signed to a label that will promote your music in a variety of ways. The downside is that signing a contract will require you to spend a large amount of money upfront, in exchange for a certain number of promotional opportunities. If you are a musician who is just starting out then it is advisable to sign up for a small record label. This will give you an opportunity to learn the business first hand and understand the different aspects involved before moving on to signing a major deal.
Your audience is the most important aspect of how to promote your music. As a musician you already have an audience but to continue to grow your audience and build your career you need to learn some effective methods of music marketing. Music marketing is very similar to traditional marketing but instead of trying to attract new customers through traditional means you will instead be attracting new customers based on your past performances. You can learn these methods by watching other successful musicians and applying them to your own music promotion.
