When you are learning how to promote your music, you want to look to the experts that have blazed the trails before you, while staying on top of twenty-first-century trends. Columbian icon Shakira in August 2018 hit the top of the list for most Facebook fans at 103.51 million.
Queen diva Beyonce, by contrast, had 64 million but was considered one of the most affluent performers worldwide. Facebook fans don’t always put food on the table, and this is only one way to promote your music and expand your fan base.
Keep reading to learn the top ways for how to promote your music right here, and make some bank at the same time.
How to Get Your Music Heard: Old School
Social media is an excellent tool when it comes to promoting your music, but you shouldn’t rely on it as your sole marketing source that will generate income. Start with the old school methods of music promotion, and then use social media and digital trends to take those methods to the next level with wider markets.
Of course, the best way to promote your talent is to show off your talent, and that starts with major gigging. Keep plugging away at getting those gigs, and do so any way you can.
Playing live is what music lovers love to see the most in their favorite bands.
They know you aren’t going to sound like a digitally perfect machine, and they know that’s not what it’s about.
It’s about the music.
So sing, baby, sing!
If you have no idea where to start, start off with your favorite bar. Just ask!
Attend open mic nights wherever you can, and start building that fan base.
You can bring pamphlets of your Facebook fan page with your Twitter handle and all of your digital info on it.
But it’s most important that you just start singing live.
Do it for free at first if you have to. Remember it’s about the art first, and the money second.
Eventually, your talent will spread by word of mouth, and by the digital machine, and the money will come in.
When You Get the Gig
When you get the gig, celebrate! And then promote.
No matter how big or small your gig is, or how much or how little you are getting paid, promote. You are now officially “on tour” even if you only have a one-nighter on the calendar.
This is when you can start using the digital world to expand your potential market. Sites such as BandsInTown and SongKick are great tools to begin listing concert dates.
List your concerts online.
Create an event on your Facebook fan page. Market that event using Facebook advertising.
One beautiful thing about Facebook advertising is that you can specify exactly who your Facebook event will be advertised to.
You won’t be advertising to all Facebook users. You don’t have to be afraid that 90-year-old grandmothers are accidentally tripping over your event ad when they are looking at their great-grandchildren.
On Facebook, you choose exactly who sees your ad, and it doesn’t have to cost you an arm and a leg. You decide who sees it, and how much you pay.
Ask churches to advertise flyers for you, especially if there are a lot of youth gatherings at specific churches. Advertise in local newspapers, and don’t be afraid to be a squeaky wheel at the radio station either.
Once you get the gig, use a combination of old school methods, such as churches and newspapers, and the digital world to market your first concert. Study how to promote your music online efficiently before you start.
There’s More to Music Life Than YouTube
Every musician loves YouTube and for good reason. Now that it is “married” to Google, it is so handy for search results.
Once a video goes viral a musician can be “made.”
But you can’t rely on just YouTube in this competitive digital day and age. There is more to the Internet for music promotion than YouTube.
If you want to learn how to promote your music, you need to be everywhere online. Yes, use YouTube.
But upload that thing everywhere you can. Facebook Video is a great second step when marketing online. Again, you can use Facebook advertising just to get some clicks on the video. You decide who sees it, remember.
Your biggest challenge in marketing your work is making sure that the right listeners see it. You don’t want to just throw your work out there and hope for the best. You want targeted promotion.
Facebook Video is great for that, and so is YouTube.
But other channels such as Vimeo and Daily Motion can also help you there too.
You also want to try to promote yourself to music blogs.
Every music blogger is looking for something else to review and rave about.
Learn how to start pitching music and getting featured on the big music blogs to get more fans, followers, and concert purchasers!
Do your research before you choose a music blog
Every music blog is going to be as picky and creative as you are.
Become a reader of the blog you want to be featured on and get a feel for the flow of their style. Send a personal email with a piece of digital work that has done well, and take it from there.
Don’t be afraid to be personal and relaxed when you are promoting your work online. Being approachable and having a personal story or two pulls the heartstrings while you are pulling the guitar strings.
And isn’t that what good music is all about anyway?
Learn From Industry Pioneers
There are a number of ways of how to promote your music and make money in doing so. Yes, you want to promote your artistic talents and creativity, but you are doing that so you can make money.
Dave Kusek is an American pioneer in music marketing. He’s authored The Future of Music, is a former music executive, and now teaches artists on how to be lucrative and creative at the same time. It was him that said you can have a lot of followers, but, “you can’t eat a tweet.”
Kusek serves as just one of many iconic examples that a combination of old school methods and social media marketing is the best formula when you are learning how to promote your music.
Use these tips, and learn how to avoid the 5 music PR mistakes musicians make and start creating and earning with your talents today.
