Getting Your Music Heard
Musicians have a tougher time than ever now. It's so easy to get your music out there with so many digital distribution services being so affordable and with social media the way it is, you can directly reach your fans but why are so many musicians struggling? That's simple, right now, the world is crowded. There are so many amazing artists and musicians doing their own thing, the attention of the audience simply cannot stretch to meet everyone. This is where you have to adopt a bit of business sense and get savvy with how you handle things. Let's say you've got your single, or EP, or album, and you're ready for the world to hear it. The first thing you should do it get it online via a few mediums:
- Physical Formats - You can invest some capital upfront and get a few CD's printed. Sell these via your own website. It's so easy to build a fully functional website with a working webstore. If you don't want to build a website, look at some online stores like BigCartel and see how they can benefit your online sales presence.
- Digital Formats - Look into a digital distributor like CDBaby or Ditto Music. With these services you can pay a small fee to have your music listed on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify and all the other major music retailers online. Getting your music here will be the first step in reaching a potential audience all around the world.
- Social Media - Make a music video for your strongest song and put this on Youtube. Then, get your friends and family to share it around social media. This will help you get noticed and improve your musics reach to a wider audience.
Now that you've done all that you need to get out into your local music community and make friends. Go out to big cities with buzzing music cultures like London and Manchester and chat to other bands to help your own bands potential for getting on some gigs. Remember how crowded this market is so when you're approching music marketing, think about how you can stand out from the crowd. Is there something you can offer potential fans that other bands can't? This could be extra tracks, pop up gigs, interesting merchandise.
Get out there and get yourself heard!