Promoting music online?

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kratos

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I frequently use facebook and youtube to promote my music mainly because they are the most visited sites in the internet/world. I never actually use myspace because its too damn buggy, hard and plus i just dont like its format.
I dont know if im making a mistake here or missing out but i just cant seem to utilize myspace right. plus NONE of my friends use myspace anymore so its kinda pointless.
I know of bandcamp and soundcloud too but its slow for me (getting fans etc) on those sites.

Do you people know of any other sites I could promote my music or maximise my fan outreach? Or is my current selection ok? I only just started a couple of weeks ago and am getting about 20 fans a week so far mainly on my facebook. On Youtube Im getting more but thats converted into mainly views - not really subscribers/fans...

Plus i spam a lot in order to promote in the first place - i dont know if thats the right thing to do.

Thanks
 
Spamming is definitely NOT the right thing to do. People don't like spammers and they won't want to enjoy your music is they found it through spam. In your YouTube vidoes you can link to your Facebook and Twitter (if you have one) and any other websites you want to be seen. 20 fans per week is a great starting number, a number a lot of people wish they could have.

Check out this link: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=how+to+promote+music+online
 
Some tips:

  • Submit your music to stations that take solicited unsigned material - I know there are a couple on XM / Sirius as well as the Music Choice stations with your cable provider.
  • Make a video (doesn't have to be big budget) and get it on YouTube and Vimeo.
  • Record some YouTube videos of live performances and some behind-the-scenes of the band recording or just screwing around.
  • Get yourself on Last.fm and link up your tunes on Blip.fm
  • Consider joining Pump Audio
  • Get your music on iTunes, CDBaby, EMusic, Rhapsody, etc (go through CDBABY)
  • Do things that create a two-way relationship with your fans - meet ups, contests, etc.
  • Join Twitter and tweet about shows, band announcements, interact with others in the twitterverse... but don't over tweet.
  • Offer some free downloads of your music
  • Create banners / badges that fans can download and put on their site that link back to yours
  • Register a domain name for your band. Even if you don't have a proper website yet, forward your domain name to your FB page so people can easily find you online.
  • Get a proper website
  • Make a crazy video that goes viral and draws tons of attention to your band - in a good way... good luck with this one.
  • Make friends and link up with bigger bands / artists that will expose you to their larger fan bases.
  • There's more, but I'm tired of typing and you can figure out the rest.
 
A few months back when I saw that Prince was giving his latest CD away for free it made me not feel so bad. I thought, "see, even he can't figure out how to make money off of selling CD's in 2010".

This made come off like I think all is lost but I really don't. We're going through a massive paradigm shift and what worked before doesn't now.

So there's no easy answer, thinking out of the box is the best thing I know.
 
I'm not sure anyone actually pays for music anymore. I mean just about every album you can think of that has some kind of fan base it available to download for free.

You can get a ton of fans and a ton of people who know of you or your band, but actually selling your shit may be hard.

Depends on what you're into. If people want the latest album from Lady Gaga or Disturbed, what ever the hottest new artists are, they'll go to best buy, walmart, the mall etc.

If your music has it's own little niche, well people won't be going to those places to buy your album. So, digital releases and advertising is the best way to go. Maybe it's a good idea to upload your album for people to download for free. You may make some fans who like it so much they want to pay for a copy to support your work.

If it's not that good then don't expect to sell jack...
 
DogmaticVox said:
Some tips:

  • Submit your music to stations that take solicited unsigned material - I know there are a couple on XM / Sirius as well as the Music Choice stations with your cable provider.
  • Make a video (doesn't have to be big budget) and get it on YouTube and Vimeo.
  • Record some YouTube videos of live performances and some behind-the-scenes of the band recording or just screwing around.
  • Get yourself on Last.fm and link up your tunes on Blip.fm
  • Consider joining Pump Audio
  • Get your music on iTunes, CDBaby, EMusic, Rhapsody, etc (go through CDBABY)
  • Do things that create a two-way relationship with your fans - meet ups, contests, etc.
  • Join Twitter and tweet about shows, band announcements, interact with others in the twitterverse... but don't over tweet.
  • Offer some free downloads of your music
  • Create banners / badges that fans can download and put on their site that link back to yours
  • Register a domain name for your band. Even if you don't have a proper website yet, forward your domain name to your FB page so people can easily find you online.
  • Get a proper website
  • Make a crazy video that goes viral and draws tons of attention to your band - in a good way... good luck with this one.
  • Make friends and link up with bigger bands / artists that will expose you to their larger fan bases.
  • There's more, but I'm tired of typing and you can figure out the rest.
Click to expand...

I've done most of these things so far even the viral vid but it flopped. I'm trying a different approach now.
I've noticed currently that the more music I make the more fans I get...
A bit unsustainable hence I got to get to grips with another viral video :S
 
Hey Kratos, Why don't you post up a link to your band here? (Easy Advertising :D)

I'm wondering if the best solution for non-mainstream artists looking to support themselves is a mixture of touring a lot, giving away cd's as free downloads, And letting people buy CD's more as a donation. I think the donation thing is the only realistic way to look at it. Maybe offer exclusive tracks on CD's and DVD's of shows to buy etc.
I think 100% more people would buy a dvd rather than the CD.

But again, what do I know? This is based off of what I see bands like "Andrew Jackson Jihad" or "Bomb the Music Industry" doing (sans the dvd idea). They're Smaller bands but have ravenous cult following.
 
Somebody mentioned Pump Audio before and I would have to agree that licensing your music is the way to go. At least for the stay-at-home musician who doesn't tour or play live gigs. But why stop at Pump? There is musicsupervisor.com, musicdealers.com, jinglepunks, crucial, yookamusic, audiosparks, etc, etc.

The nice thing about licensing is that there really is no risk on your part. As long as your production is broadcast quality most of your non-exclusive music libraries will host it. Some, like Pump, will even hustle your music for you. You will earn $$$ for your tunes. The downside is that it might take years before your music gets exposure and it may take years for your royalty check to come in. At least you get paid for your work.
 
You could also stand outside of Hot Topic in the mall and pass out CD samplers to teenage kids. :laughings:
 
online music promotion

I don't think you are doing any mistake you should not think like that.Promotion through social networking site is a best way.
 
I have the same problem, currently I only have some records on soundcloud and I'm not sure how to proceed. I don't have the means to make a youtube video. Unless I can use just a static image and sound but this seems kind of lame :/
 
Youtube, Facebook can be a great place to promote your own music
 
literally sign up to EVERY single music platform out there. EVERY.SINGLE.ONE. it wil maximize your hits on search engines
 
oh and reverbnation is the shit, its grown exponentially and has tons of free features as well as paid ones. HOLLA son good luck!
 
If you play in your city of residence often then you could always handout handbills for up coming live performances. I've found that it generates a lot of name recognition.
 
Another way to promote your music is making videos showing how you use music hardware or software.

When the companies of those products see that you're using their product to make music and/or perform live they will automatically help you promote your music. It is kind of a win win situation for both parties.

This might work especially with new companies making innovative products, like Percussa for example (the company that makes audiocubes: www(dot)percussa(dot)com). They seem to have a lot of artists using their product lately and their blog is quite active with news about artists: www(dot)percussa(dot)com/blog
 
making your own website makes you stand out. cos everyone has a reverbnation or purevolume account.
 
Woah a lot of replies - so here I go: use online promotion as a place for excited fans to go AFTER they have seen you play live! play gigs! then have a facebook or myspace for them to go to. thats all you need. After that, people are only going to hear of you 'by chance'...i.e you need your music on popular blogs and internet radio. Facebook/Myspace/Twitter et al are only really useful when people have already heard of you..by playing live or word of mouth (which either comes from playing live or from someone who has already been on your site, and they probably got there because they heard you at...a concert!).

But you can only sustain visits to your site by playing live and making new music. After someone has been there and heard the songs they like, their next question is 'When can I see them play?'
 
Music promotion needs lot of effort and it can be done in different ways.Here are some ways:
1.Set up a website:As good as MySpace and its mates are, having your own website too looks more professional. Websites are cheap to host and easy to build so there are no excuses. Remember to update it as often as your social network profile though.
2.Keep your website/profile current:Make sure that you post regular updates and news stories. Add new photos frequently and generally keep your profile looking busy. That way you'll be seen as a serious, enthusiastic, up-and-coming act. Regular profile/website updates will also keep things interesting for returning fans.
3. Write a decent biography:An artist biography should be concise, informative and interesting.
4.Offer your songs for free download:If you're an independent act, your goal is to get your music heard as much as possible. Be aware that people are much more inclined to listen if you offer the occasional track for free. If you do decide not to give away your music then at least offer streaming full-length versions of your tracks rather than short clips.
5.Interact with other artists:Networking with other artists and bands by keeping in regular contact and giving feedback on their music means you're likely to find gig partners and be asked to play support slots. Musicians are also generally more interested as fans when it comes to independent music like yours.
6.Dedicate some time to your fans:Replying to mails and friend requests can sometimes be a chore but try to avoid blanket "thanks for the add" messages. If you keep things personal you're far more likely to be remembered and if your audience likes you, they'll be predisposed to like your music.
 
I have found that the majority of what's been said in this post to be complete bull shit. You can sign up for all the sites and promote your shit every single day for the last 12 months and reach a massive amount of people, but that doesn't mean it's going to do jack for you. You can have 100 thousand fans on your reverberation and still not sell a single copy of your CD. The absolute truth is you do have to sit there every day and promote as much as you can any way that you can, but blindly adding friends isn't going to do anything for you. You have to find your target audience and collect resources that will help you keep in touch with them, with out spamming. It's a total waste of time to have a ton of people on your social net works unless they are die hard fans of the kind of music you play.

It's a waste of time to reply to every single person who visits your page. they still wont buy jack. If your video on YouTube doesn't go viral it's useless and will sit there for months and get only a few hundred views if you're lucky.

Unless you find a way to get SERIOUS exposure and become a house hold name or internet name lol you're just going to stay a part of the cesspool of garbage music that's flooded the internet.
 
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