Upcoming Artistes Promote Your Music

Independent artists have more opportunities than ever before to launch their own career without the backing of the majors or a big budget. While we are seeing more and more unsigned artists breaking through off their own backs, many promising new artists out their simply don’t know where to start or how to maintain a successful promotional campaign.

HOW TO PROMOTE MUSIC

It should go without saying, but first and foremost, making great music needs to be your primary focus. You can follow all this advice to the letter, but if your track, EP or album isn’t well-written, tight instrumentally and professionally produced, you’ll fall at the first hurdle. 

Now that’s out of the way, let’s look at the best ways to promote your music independently in the modern music landscape.

PLAY LIVE OFTEN & MAKE AN IMPACT

Upcoming artists often focus their promotional efforts heavily toward the digital space (which is understandable and should make up a major part of your promo campaigns). However, never underestimate the power of live performance.

Gigs and tours offer an invaluable way to connect with fans in a way you simply can’t do online. Get booked at nearby venues, play awesome sets for local music fans and you'll quickly develop a strong, new fan base. But remember, you have to make them remember you, so be memorable.

Once you’ve built up a local following, you can head out on the road, taking on new music scenes city by city or even country by country. If this sounds too easy & simplified – that’s because it is. Touring and playing gigs night after night is hard work, but if you’ve got a killer live show, the rewards will speak for themselves.

DEVELOP AN ENGAGING SOCIAL PRESENCE

The promotional power of social media is no secret. Developing and maintaining a consistent, interesting and engaging presence across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and even less obvious platforms like Snapchat, is essential. Also, try and keep your profile handles consistent to make things easier for people searching for you online.

There’s an insurmountable amount of advice out there on how to manage your social channels, and things are constantly changing across every platform. Look through some of these helpful resources for more info on how to run and make the most of your social media presence.

GET PRESS & BLOG COVERAGE

If your music featured by music publications, those placements can help build hype and give you the credentials to take your music career up a level.

Hiring a professional PR executive to handle your campaign is generally the best way to get great coverage. But this isn’t always affordable or possible for a new artist with a limited budget. 

Do-it-yourself PR is an option for artists without a big enough budget. But it's important to approach blogger and journalist in the right way. 

Crested Planet Media offers a cheaper but effective promotional packages for your music to be heard worldwide

Send a mail to crestedplanetblog@gmail.com or Call us on +234 817 449 1023 to get started...

MUSIC VIDEOS

An exciting, interesting and original music video has the potential to go viral online, even if the track isn’t a hit.

Don’t be afraid to think outside the box when it comes to creating a video for your latest release. Think about the kind of videos from acts like OK GO and Childish Gambino that have blown up thanks to online traction. They’ve had something unique and intriguing about them, whether that was a deeper underlying message or a quirky theme.

You might want to develop and a standard music video or live performance-based visuals – which is perfectly fine. But investing thought, time and effort into your videos has the potential reap huge rewards.

KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE & FOCUS ON YOUR NICHE

Where and to whom you market your music can make all the difference. Thriving music subcultures exist in all corners of the world, some huge and sprawling, some small and dedicated. Finding, knowing and exploiting your musical niche is key to your promotional campaign.

It might sound obvious (and it should be) but if you’re a metal band, play metal venues, join a metal community and win metal fans. If you’re a rapper, find rap venues, join rap communities and win rap fans. And so on.

But niches aren’t always defined by genre. If your music has more widespread appeal, start locally. People generally want to see an artist from their area succeed. Take advantage of this mentality and grow your fanbase close to home to before expanding nationally or even globally.

Promoting your music independently may be easier than ever before, but it’s still a huge challenge to get heard. Hopefully, these tips and resources can help you on your way to success.