How To Promote Yourself As An Artist

How To Promote Yourself as an Artist | Elevate

How To Promote Yourself as an Artist:

Becoming an artist and making music is just the beginning of your journey. To take your music career to the next level, you need to promote yourself as an artist and build a brand for yourself. It’s not enough to simply upload your songs on SoundCloud or YouTube and wait for views and followers to come your way. You need to be proactive, find new opportunities, network with people who can help you grow your audience, and create content that will make people want to know more about you as an artist.

Fortunately, there are lots of little things you can do as an artist to get your name out there and position yourself for success in the music industry.

Make Great Music

Let’s start with the basics. If you want to be successful as a musician, you have to make great music. What do we mean by that? Well, you need to think about your sound, the message behind your music, and the style of music you produce.

There are a lot of different types of music out there right now. Some of them might be a bit unexpected, but luckily, this means there’s room for everyone. You don’t need to fit into any specific genre in order to be successful in the music business. You just need to find what resonates with you and make sure that comes across in your music.

Our Music Business for Artists online course will teach you how to create a website and market yourself on social media; record, produce and collaborate with others; and build an impressive portfolio – including an electronic press kit (EPK) for that perfect pitch. You’ll also learn about booking gigs, distributing music and earning royalties, picking up networking skills and building a fanbase along the way.

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Have a Music Marketing Plan

Next, you need to have a solid music marketing plan in place. You should know how you’re going to generate buzz, find fans, and convert them into loyal, paying customers that will support you for years to come. Most importantly, you should know how you’re going to do all of this without going broke.

A good way to make sure your music marketing plan is on the right track is to hire a marketing consultant. A music marketing consultant will work with you to come up with a plan, identify your target audience, and make sure you’re putting your money where it will have the most impact on growing your fanbase.

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Collaborate With Other Influencers & Musicians

One of the best ways to get your name out there and build a loyal fanbase is to collaborate with other independent artists. Collaborating with other musicians and similar artists will not only help you win new fans, but it will also help you get more exposure for yourself and your music.

Collaborations can be done in a few different ways, but the most common is to simply do a song together. You can collaborate on an original track, or you can put your spin on a cover song. Another way to collaborate is to do a feature or interview on another artist’s podcast or YouTube show. There are also paid collaborations that you can do through sites like Collide.

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Perform Memorable Live Shows

While you should be focused on putting together a great studio album you should also be thinking about how you can build your brand with live shows. Live shows are a great way to get your name out there, connect with your fans in person, and build your fanbase. As an artist, you should be playing shows as often as you can.

Ideally, you want to play a show every single week. The more times you’re on stage in front of people, the more fans you’ll build. Find any and every opportunity you can to get on stage and perform in front of a live audience. If you’re just starting out, play for free at open mic nights. You can also work with local bars to put on shows. If you’re in a band, you can try to book shows at venues in your area.

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Focus A Good Part of Your Time on Gigging  

Even if you don’t ever become a household name, you can still make a decent living as an artist. If you’re putting in the right amount of work, you can probably make enough money to pay the bills with your music. The best way to make money as an artist is to focus on getting paid for live performances. 

To start off, decide if you want an acoustic or electric guitar or classical guitar. It is also a good idea to start off by attempting to determine the types of musical styles or genres most appealing to you. You can do this by getting a booking agent. There are also a number of online platforms available, like Gigster, where you can find paid shows. If you can, try to negotiate a percentage of the door, so that you’re getting paid each time you play a show, no matter how well it does. 

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Email Marketing Campaigns  

When you first start out, it’s important to do anything you can to get your name and music out there. One thing that many artists don’t think about doing is building a mailing list. Having a mailing list can be a great way for fans to stay in touch with you. You can send exclusive content to your mailing list, like behind the scenes photos or audio snippets from new songs that won’t be available anywhere else.

Having a mailing list is helpful because you can also use it to communicate with fans, announce new music, tour dates, or anything else you might want to tell them. You can use a website like MailChimp to set up an email newsletter. You can also use social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram to collect email addresses.

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Connect With Music Fans One on One  

Another great way to grow your fan base as an independent artist is to start engaging with your fans one on one. When someone likes or comments on your music, you should respond to it. You should also be engaging with people who follow you on social media.

Responding to comments, liking, and sharing posts, and engaging with your fans one on one will do a few things. First, it will help you stay connected with your fans and let them know that you care about their feedback. It also gives you the opportunity to redirect people to your website and social media pages.

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Post Regularly on Your Own Professional Website 

Make sure you have a website where your fans can find all the important information, they need about you. Your website should have links to your social media accounts, links to your music, links to your merchandise store (if you have one), links to your booking information, and links to any other relevant places your fan base might want to go.

If you don’t have a website yet, this should be your number one priority. And once you have your own website, make sure to post new content regularly so that your fans know there’s always something new to look at. Your website is a great place to post your bio, information about your music, photos from shows, videos of you in the studio, and anything else that might be of interest to your fans.

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Develop a Presence on Social Media Platforms

Of course, in this day and age, you need to develop a presence on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and SoundCloud. Start with the most popular social media platforms and create an account. Start posting content regularly and interacting with your fans. This will help you build a following and get more people interested in your music.

When you’re first starting out, it may be a challenge to find new people to follow you on social media. That’s totally normal. Don’t get discouraged. It takes time to build a following on social media. With time, your following will grow, and you’ll have more people interested in what you have to say.

Live Stream Your Music Online

If you want to promote your music, consider live streaming your songs on platforms like Facebook Live, Instagram Live, and YouTube Live. This is a great way to interact with your fans and get them involved in what you’re doing. Once you’re live, invite your fans to come into the stream and comment on your songs. This will get them more involved in your journey.

If they have the chance to get involved, they’re more likely to become loyal fans who can help you out by sharing your music with their friends and family. You can also use live streaming as an opportunity to do interviews with other artists. This can help you build relationships with your peers. And it can help you become friends with people who have a large following who might be interested in your music.

Get Your Music Playlisted on Streaming Platforms

Playlists are a great way to put your music in front of as many people as possible. If you can get your music featured on SoundCloud, Spotify, Apple Music, Google Play Music, and other streaming services, you’ll have the opportunity to reach a wider audience that may be interested in your sound.

You can get your music playlisted on streaming platforms by contacting the platform’s music team and letting them know you’re an artist and you’d like to get your music playlisted. You can also look into hiring a publicist who can help you get your music playlisted on all the big streaming platforms. You can also reach out to radio stations near you and see if they’ll play your music on the radio.

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Find a Great Publicist and Work Closely with Them 

Another great way to promote yourself as an artist is by hiring a publicist. A publicist is someone who will work closely with you to get your music into the hands of journalists, bloggers, and other people who can help you get your name out there.

A publicist will help you with things like finding new opportunities to play shows, connecting you with people who can help you build your audience, submitting your music to streaming platforms, and much more.

If you can find a publicist who is interested in working with you, this can be a great opportunity. You can work closely with your publicist to make sure they’re promoting your music in the best way possible. Together, you can come up with a promotional strategy that will help you get your music in front of new listeners who will hopefully become new fans.

Network with People in the Music Industry

Networking is one of the first things every aspiring musician should do. But many people don’t take it seriously enough and end up regretting it later on. You should start by networking with people you actually know. You don’t want to waste your time trying to connect with music industry influencers who are way out of your league.

The people you should be focusing on are like minded people who show an interest in your music online. People you already know may also be able to give you tips and guidance as you navigate this difficult industry.

You can also collaborate with them on new music or share opportunities with them that might be mutually beneficial. If you want to take networking to the next level, you can also consider attending networking events in your city where you can meet new people who work in the music industry.

Create TikTok & Short-Form Content

With TikTok’s popularity rising every single day, it’s no surprise that more and more people are starting to use it as a platform for promoting their music. If you’re hesitant about TikTok as a promotional tool, don’t be. TikTok is a platform where you can create short videos that can help you get your music heard by new fans.

TikTok is very much like YouTube in the sense that you can post videos and host your own channel. If you post your songs and music videos on your channel, you can drive lots of traffic to your page through TikTok’s algorithms.

On TikTok, you can also create other types of content that can help you get your name out there. You can create music memes, lip-sync videos, trivia quizzes, or giveaways. You can even use TikTok to host live Q&As with your fans.

Take Advantage of Paid Advertising

If you want to get your name out there to more people, paid advertising is one of the easiest ways to do so. There are tons of different paid advertising platforms out there that you can take advantage of for free, including Facebook Ads, Google Ads, Instagram Ads, and Twitter Ads.

These platforms allow you to create a sponsored post or an ad that will be shown to users who are most likely to be interested in your music. If you aren’t sure what messaging to use for your ad, you can also hire a professional copywriter to create a custom ad for you. Remember, these ads are designed to help you get more views on your content and generate more leads.

Use Social Media the Right Way  

Social media channels are a powerful tool when it comes to promoting yourself as an artist. There are millions of people out there who are actively using social channels every single day. If your name somehow manages to get in front of one of them, you could have a new fan. But if you’re not careful, you could also end up annoying the hell out of them.

How you use social media can make all the difference in determining whether it actually helps you or hurts you as an artist. When it comes to using social media to promote yourself as an artist, you want to be using it as a platform to engage with your fans. You don’t want to talk about yourself all day long. Instead, you want to focus on helping people and giving them value in some way.

Guest Post on Music Blogs

Guest posting is another great way to promote yourself as an artist. If you’re wondering what guest posting is, it’s when you write a blog post for someone else’s website and include a link back to your own website (or social media profile) somewhere in the content. But it’s important to note that you don’t want to write a blog post for any and all music blogs.

You want to pitch your ideas to influential music blogs and publications that are specifically related to your music and the industry as a whole. Having your own blog on your website is important, but guest posting is another great way to get your name out there and get your content in front of the right audience who might be interested in your music.

Remember That Music Promotion is a Process

Promoting music as an artist is a never-ending process. You can’t just do a few things and expect the money to start rolling in. If you want to be successful, you need to constantly be promoting yourself through different channels. You can’t become too reliant on one platform, or you risk falling apart if that platform suddenly crumbles.

You need to diversify your efforts and have several different digital marketing channels in place. That way, if one of your promotional channels stops working, you can switch gears and focus on another one. You don’t want to get caught up in one thing for too long and end up burning out. If you’re consistent with your efforts, you should start to see your efforts paying off over time.

Don’t Give Up

One of the most crucial things to remember about promoting yourself as an artist is that it’s not a one-time thing. It’s a continuous process that takes lots of time and effort. You can’t expect to put everything into one track and then wait for the dollars to start rolling in. You need to be patient and understand that promotion doesn’t happen overnight. You need to be consistent, and you need to be creative.

There are thousands of other artists who are also trying to promote themselves and get a following. You need to do something that makes you stand out. You also need to be careful not to get caught up in the hype. If you’re releasing new music and you’re seeing a spike in the numbers, that’s great. But don’t get too excited and let it go to your head. Keep pushing yourself and keep pushing your music.

Conclusion

So, what does it all come down to? When it comes to promoting yourself as an artist, it’s all about being authentic and putting in the work. It’s about understanding that success doesn’t happen overnight and being patient with the process.

Building a fanbase takes time and effort, so you need to be strategic with your approach. And while promoting yourself is a lot of work, it’s also a ton of fun. It gives you an opportunity to be creative, experiment, and try new things. If you follow these tips, you’ll be well on your way to building a fanbase and promoting yourself as an artist.

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