Does this sound familiar? You\u2019ve just uploaded your brand new track to SoundCloud. You\u2019re super excited. This is the one that surely is going to make you famous. 24 hours later, it has 4 likes. 50% of them are yours, the other 2? Your mom, and maybe she shared it with her best friend. Chances are, if you\u2019re an independent musician, you\u2019ve been in this situation many times before. For some of us, this is the daily reality of being an unsigned musician.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The music industry is over-saturated<\/strong>. And think about it, why would someone take the time to listen to an artist with 34 followers when Lil Nas X just dropped new music? He has a marketing team to promote his music to millions of fans around the world. You\u2019re always going to have a disadvantage when marketing against signed artists, but who wants to sell their soul and music career to the musical corporate overlords?<\/p>\n\n\n\n It can be pretty brutal out there for independent music artists. The truth is that no marketing technique is going to guarantee you success<\/strong>. Music, as with any art form, is measured subjectively, in the ear of the beholder. Quality cannot be measured in an objective manner. Popularity, however, can be. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Let 2022 be the year that you decide to build upon your marketing game and start getting your music heard by music fans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are lots of options to explore in independent marketing, but if you are truly good enough, then you can build a solid music career. I\u2019m going to be exploring some of the marketing techniques used by independent artists<\/strong> around the world so you can apply these tips to your offline and digital marketing efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What is marketing for independent artists?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Put simply, music marketing (music promotion) is a method of increasing your music’s visibility. If you don’t promote yourself or your music, no one will know you’re even making music. Just with any form of marketing, you are trying to make potential customers (music fans in this case) aware of your product (your music).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Email is easily one of the most effective ways to promote your music and brand. Email is still alive and kicking<\/strong> and for many people, it’s the absolute best marketing channel<\/strong>. Tell your fans about a new track or a live show, introduce them to you or your band, ask your fans questions, link to a blog post – these are ways to use email effectively for marketing your music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For a marketing platform to be successful, you will need one important thing, and – Captain Obvious speaking here – this essential element is a list of your fans’ email addresses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The first part of this process is finding a way to gather your fans’ email addresses and manage them effectively. Add calls-to-action<\/strong> (CTAs) to your website, social media profiles, and other profiles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A great way to add CTAs is to use popups and embedded forms on your website. (Ignore what the cool kids say these days – you need<\/em><\/strong> a website and domain name if you want autonomy over your marketing). Convert Pro<\/a> and Optin Monster<\/a> are good choices here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You probably come across these on a daily basis, and well, they can be annoying. But they are also very effective<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Consider this, if you sent an email to 100 people about your latest show, even if only one person opened it, you effectively marketed your product. It’s always a good idea to have multiple methods of collecting email addresses<\/strong>. It can be as simple as asking your fans for their emails at your concerts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can also use customizable one-page landing pages, sometimes called Link In Bio tools<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once you’ve collected email addresses, it’s time to send emails. Don’t use Gmail or your personal email address for this. That’s a quick way to get blacklisted or have all your messages land in spam. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Use a dedicated email marketing software platform<\/strong>. Here are some great options, all of which have free plans. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If you’re using WordPress and would prefer to keep the newsletter marketing “in house”, try MailPoet<\/a>, the best newsletter plugin for the world’s most popular CMS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let your emails to your fans feel as personal as possible. Thank them for their support. Our careers wouldn’t be possible without them. For the subject matter, there are several options:<\/p>\n\n\n\nBecome an Email marketing Pro<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Build a marketing plan<\/h2>\n\n\n\n