How to Promote Your Music Independently

 

The internet has opened up countless opportunities for music promotion. Today, independent artists have more possibilities than ever before of starting their own careers without the backing of big companies.

Despite the increasing number of unsigned artists who are breaking through on their own, many promising new bands and artists simply do not know where to start or how to implement a successful marketing campaign and make money from their music. Below, Canadian music composer Andrew Huggett takes a look at some basic strategies you could be using to promote your music right now.

 

Record Music

First things first-if you want to do great music promotion, you must have great music. Before you begin your promotion, make sure your music is as compelling as possible. Make sure you take the time to produce great tracks, master your mix, and perfect your final product. After you've completed tracks you're proud of, you'll have the confidence to set goals and promote yourself enthusiastically online, explains award-winning musician Andrew Huggett.

Record your music on a DAW (digital audio workstation) such as Logic Pro, GarageBand, or Ableton. This allows you to record, edit, and produce music in a free, digital environment. Having a digital recording environment will allow you to create and edit music more efficiently. Using a digital audio workstation also lets you import your songs into music production software like Maschine or the Ableton Pack.

 

Sign up to artists services

Sign up to services like SoundCloud, Bandzoogle, and Last.fm to promote your tracks and albums. Although you can upload tracks to these sites on your own, using a service will allow you to easily promote your tracks and albums to an existing audience. This will improve your song’s discoverability and help you build a following as an artist.

According to Ottawa-based professional musician Andrew Huggett, a great way to promote your music on Spotify is to sign up for artist marketing accounts. These accounts allow you to create and manage your own playlists. With the ability to create your own playlists, you can create a playlist full of your music that has your tracks at the top of the list. This will allow you to easily increase your Spotify plays and boost your artist profile on Spotify.

 

Build a website & mailing list

A website will help promote your music and build your brand. This can be a simple website hosted on a service like WordPress or Wix or a more professional online store-front like Shopify or Squarespace. A website is essential for promoting your music and building your brand because it gives you the opportunity to build a following. You can use it to easily upload content like lyrics and videos for your tracks, which will help promote your music, and connect with fans. You can also use a website to host digital content like your music. This is important because it allows you to easily share your tracks with fans and the world, adds Andrew Huggett.

The best way to build a mailing list is to send a weekly email to your fans. Include a link to your music, links to your social media pages, and links to your website. The best way to use a mailing list is to sign up for email marketing services like Mailchimp or Aweber. Both of these services have free trials so you can test them out and see which one fits your needs best.

 

Develop an engaging social presence

No one can deny the power of a good social media marketing strategy. Maintaining a consistent, interesting, and engaging presence across Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Facebook, and even less obvious platforms like Snapchat, is crucial. You should also keep your profile handles consistent so that people can find you online more easily.

An engaging social presence will help promote your music and build your brand as an artist. With an engaging social presence, you can easily create and manage a social media presence, grow your email list, and create content that is engaging and relevant to your fans. There is an insurmountable amount of advice out there about how to manage your social media channels, and things are constantly changing across platforms.

 

Network

This is a point Andrew Huggett cannot stress enough! As a musician, networking is vitally important for your success. Without knowing who you're working for, you won't get hired! But where should you start?

If you are a musician, you are probably used to attending events, competitions, and conferences. You have probably attended more events than you can count if you studied music in college or even in high school. That is a great place to start. Make an effort to engage in conversation with conductors, businesses, event coordinators, other musicians, and anyone else you can at your next event.

Networking is important because it helps you discover new artists, find collaborators, and build relationships with other artists who can help promote your music.