Promoting Your Music On The Web

[tomcollins]

some good stuff here , and many many thanks to john for this site and all the info on it !!!!!!

 

what I see a lot here , and it really don't pertain to me , promoting your self and band , doing live gigs and such , want no part of that , but am looking to sell my songs let someone else tour ect. seen a section that touched a little on that , think it was started by john, about don't just send songs to promoters  ect ,  this is where it gets tough , least for me , do not have any songs demo ready , which for me is a step down from radio ready , but above a rough cut ,stepped away from music for a long time and now just getting back into it , learning the basics of recording and such ,  guess it is not just me from others I have spoken with , coming up with a plan to just sell your songs , setting a plan and following it , me I have looked into it a little bit because I have nothing really ready for sending out , just yet . but would like to set a plan in motion so that when I do have 3-4 ready I know where I am going !!

  so in that been searching for ideas that will help , many out there that are looking to do the same , sell their songs ,

I love this site and it has some really talented people , so looking for ideas of how to get the music into the hands of the people that can move the songs to the artists that will take it to the next level, other then just sending copies to labels and such

rock on !!!!

[Ravi Kumar]

Wonderful info

[Tyjon Hunter]

Hey I agree with just about all the suggestions as a starting point. However I know the best thing you can do is to first outline what is your end goal? If you fail to plan you really do plan to fail in the case of music marketing. There are millions of people out there who are already creating facebook accounts, soundclick, sound cloud, myspace music, youtube, pintrest accounts etc. The thing that seperates the successful ones from the copy cats is that they have a plan going in.

So you have to outline for yourself why you are signing up for these accounts and what they mean for your ultimate marketing goals. If you don't know why you are signing up for a myspace music page then why do it. If you don't know what you plan to accomplish on facebook then why sign up?

Really it just comes down to setting goals and using the tools available to you to achieve those goals. There are litterally thousands of sites that you can post your music on online but not all of them get the same kind of traffic, and certainly not all of them allow you to gain the same kind of exposure. So what do you do? Where do you start?

Believe it or not it all comes down to your market in this case you genre and sub-genre of music. You have to find out what they really like, how you can affordabbly reach them, and how you can engage them to support you. If you can do all this before you waste your time sending friend request, liking pages, and spending money on banner ads. You will be way more likely to succeed in you marketing goals.

Tyjon Hunter

[Eden Lloyd Bulagao]

What tools?
Search Engines Like Google or Yahoo

What methods?
Sponsored review from music websites.

What should you promote?
Music from professional and amateur artists most from youtube.

 

How do you grow your web presence?

Social media and reviews from music websites. I also do this kind of job.

[Kel]

Very interesting discussion. However, it doesn't really apply to me. You see, I'm not a performer, don't have the fingers, the ears or the voice. But I believe I can write. Here in Australia, in just about any genre you choose, the singer/songwriter is king, or queen. There seems to be little point to even trying to market my songs here, as all the known artists write their own songs. Emerging artists are a possibility, however in a land steeped in the worship of writers of their own material, it's a tough road. Luckily for me, my preferred genre has a huge audience in the United States, where although singer-songwriters aren't rare, it seems it's a land of opportunity because performers seem to concentrate on their performing art, and let others come up with the material. Only problem is, there's millions of writers! Well thousands, anyway.

 

But aside from my probably skewed perspective on the American music market (comes from looking around and up all the time!) the problem remains; it seems all advice on what to do is for the performer, not the writer. We can't go and do live gigs. We can't plaster our tunes all over the internet; our demo recordings, home made or professionally produced, are all about selling OUR product to the performer, not the consumer. I've yet to find an article that addresses this simple yet fundamental truth for songwriters who don't perform.

 

If anyone has anything, let me know!

 

Kel (Down Under) 

[artistmonster]

Thanks for the post. There are different method and tools are used in promotion.

Through Amazon and MySpace. Through Road shows and live performance at college and universities etc.

[symphonious7]

This is my new focus, I've decided that until I can go to school and get properly trained my mixes are going to fall short, I've listened to so much advice and my improvement is just too slow in that area, so I'm currently working my ass off to get the money to have someone ELSE properly produce my album, and now my focus is getting the right takes recorded for mixing, and learning how to "drop" an album so to speak, I want to do everything in my power to get this in the hands of as many people as possible, especially radio personalities and bloggers etc.  Man I wish I wasn't so busy, I'll be back in a few hours I have to run errands but yes, the more I can learn about creating an effective online marketing campaign the better, I remember John once you mentioned "all you have should be doing before you drop an album"  could you elaborate on that?  I didn't come back and kick your butt into telling us like I said I would hehehe cause yeah I need to get started on that stuff asap!  My first idea is to create a new youtube channel dedicated soley to documenting the creation of this album and talking about the concepts I have for it and such.  That's all I've got at this time.  

[Dave Bradley]

Okay...coming at this from the reverse angle, slightly. I have an album on iTunes, amazon mp3, Google Play (and BandCamp and ReverbNation), which outlet should I direct potential fans to? I have all the links and logos on a hub page on my website and share the link to that to my twitter crowd etc, but I think a direct buy link is better, which is the one most likely to get people buying?

 

dB

[john]

Okay...coming at this from the reverse angle, slightly. I have an album on iTunes, amazon mp3, Google Play (and BandCamp and ReverbNation), which outlet should I direct potential fans to? I have all the links and logos on a hub page on my website and share the link to that to my twitter crowd etc, but I think a direct buy link is better, which is the one most likely to get people buying?

 

dB

 

Hi Dave

 

Ok, this raises a few points. Firstly, although it is a good idea to have a large web footprint, I would recommend having a core central site, ideally your own domain. I don't mean sciencebase.bandcamp.com. I mean sciencebase.com (for example). I have seen way too many sites like bandcamp, reverbnation etc disappear more or less overnight, right back to mp3.com. You may well have already learned this, but I thought it worthwhile to mention for the benefit of others.

 

Secondly, if it is your own link, you want to use something like bit.ly so you can track your links. Generate a new bit.ly link for every location you place a link. The answer to your question is all about metrics, and analysis... analytics.

 

If you have had your project up for a while you can also check sales figures. Considerations are:

 

Existing Sales Per Network

Individual Network Commissions

 

Some networks will give you additional information to help you work out numerically which is best.

 

Other useful information is:

 

Direct Referral Sales versus Search Based Sales versus Organic Sales

 

Direct Referral is sales where you sent someone to your music directly

Search Based are sales where someone searched via Google Bing etc and found your music. (There is also Organic Search, eg iTunes own search)

Organic Sales are sales created via people browsing the music site

 

These figures help you to factor less obvious aspects of where to focus your efforts. For example, if direct sales on a specific network more easily help you achieve chart position, and that chart position spawns higher level of organic sales from people browsing the chart, then that is a very worthwhile consideration. ie How easy is it to increase chart position? and secondly, With higher chart position, what level of additional exposure does that chart position give? To a degree you can work this back from published numbers and your analytics.

 

One very, very important consideration is... your mailing list. You do have one don't you? Please say yes.

 

Someone buying from iTunes, you don't get their details. They buy and they are gone. You rely upon them to find you again. That isn't very satisfactory. not at all.

 

For example:

 

1. They click your link and go direct to the sales network. Some buy your song (most don't). They are gone.

2. They click your link and visit your page. They read some info, click a buy link, they visit the sales network. Some buy your song (most don't). They are gone.

3 They click your link and visit your page. They read some info, sign up to your newsletter. You also provide a buy link on the page and on the post sign up thank you page, they visit the sales network. Some buy your song (most don't). You send out several newsletters, each with direct buy links, some click some buy with each newsletter.

 

In scenario 3 you get several bites at the apple. Even better, next time you release an album you already have a fanbase to pitch to.

 

One other thing. It is easier to get someone to sign up for your newsletter, than to actually buy something. Especially if you offer a freebie, for example a live performance vid of one of your songs. or an interview vid.

 

i could go on for hours lol

 

btw, to augment what we have here (and will add to) on Songstuff, we will be adding 3 things:

 

1. An info ebook / course with loads of details and much more on the stuff above.

2. Number 1 plus training vids and ongoing marketplace intel, group workshops and individual mentoring

3. A pro-level Music PR service

 

We have already done quite a lot of work on number 1 and number 3. Number 2 may well be split regarding individual mentoring. Sound good? Watch out for them being launched in the near future.

 

As an aside we also plan to launch Songstuff publishing in the very near future where we will be signing writers to publish and co-publish, and also offering some sub-publishing services (like song plugging) on a for hire basis. We also have some software products to automate some promo tasks (desktop, web and mobile apps). Cool stuff.

 

I digress. If you have questions Dave, please feel free to ask, though as I am sure you will understand the best approach will be to buy the products mentioned above

 

I hope this helps.

 

Cheers

 

John

[Dave Bradley]

That's excellent John, corroborates my initial impressions re the various outlets. I've been sending people to a sciencebase.com hub page with links to the iTunes, amazon, Google links for the album etc and it's a bitly - http://bit.ly/sciencebass-album. Yeah, I have a mailing list too, I'm gradually weaning those people on to the idea that I'm Songs, Snaps, Science and no longer just Science...need to make more of that like you say. The freebie offer is a good idea...I should get someone to video my next gig...

 

Thanks again!!!

 

dB

[john]

Have a read at the Fan engagement article:

 

http://business.songstuff.com/article/fan_engagement/

 

Plus there are several other useful articles in the business area

 

http://business.songstuff.com/article/

[john]

Oh and i see you are using Wordpress. Install MaxA/B plug in to do some A/B testing... ie you create two versions of a page. Sometimes the difference could be wording, or colour scheme or layout etc. You then display pages on a turn about basis (handled automatically). Use different bit.ly links on each page and then use the stats to see which page converts better and then make that the permanent page, or put up a new version to compete with it.

[Dave Bradley]

The A/B plugin is a nice idea!

[project2wo]

Has YouTube been mentioned? Also I was reading about a free itunes aggregator, any views on them?

[Brad Barnett]

There are many effective ways to promote your music online.  Here are a few:

 

Create a website for your music

Join social networks

Keep your website and social media accounts active

Build a mailing list of fans and keep them updated on what you are doing

Get an app for you or your band

Contact indie blogs to request online interviews

Buy targeted Facebook ads

[john]

There are many effective ways to promote your music online.  Here are a few:

 

Create a website for your music

Join social networks

Keep your website and social media accounts active

Build a mailing list of fans and keep them updated on what you are doing

Get an app for you or your band

Contact indie blogs to request online interviews

Buy targeted Facebook ads

 

Hey Brad

 

Have you done much with getting an app made for your band? There are a number of off the shelf solutions, or you can make one yourself with one of the kits (if you have software skills) or hire someone to make one for you. I wondered what you found were the most effective featurtes, and the most engaging from a fan perspective?

 

Cheers

 

John

[Brad Barnett]

I built an app for my band.  It hasn't been up for very long and it's only available on Android devices for now.  Apple takes a lot more time to get your app approved.  

 

Funny you talk about an off the shelf solution, because I am working on a service that gives apps to bands and musicians for a low monthly fee.  

 

As for what works best I just try to put things in the app that create conversation or interaction on the users part.  I would add things like my blog feed, Youtube video gallery, Facebook and Twitter feeds, an audio playlist, upcoming shows and a form to sign up to a mailing list.  I've also worked on push notifications (which are extremely useful) but don't have things working 100% yet.

[Mahesh]

Brilliant discussion you guys.

Maximum visibility coupled with equal interaction is key. I was recently having a discussion with John about making your content available on all social portals and I found an app for Android called IFTTT (IF This Then That) which I installed today. With the app, if I post an instagram pic, it gets shared on Twitter. If I post on my Facebook page, it gets added to my twitter feed. I could do many such combinations. Pretty cool.

Technology is really picking up (like it always has been) with such things and we can do so much. The right direction I guess is where usually many people (including me in the past) fall short.

[MonoStone]

On 2 September 2015 at 3:14 PM, Mahesh said:

Brilliant discussion you guys.

 

Maximum visibility coupled with equal interaction is key. I was recently having a discussion with John about making your content available on all social portals and I found an app for Android called IFTTT (IF This Then That) which I installed today. With the app, if I post an instagram pic, it gets shared on Twitter. If I post on my Facebook page, it gets added to my twitter feed. I could do many such combinations. Pretty cool.

 

Technology is really picking up (like it always has been) with such things and we can do so much. The right direction I guess is where usually many people (including me in the past) fall short.

 

Sticking my nose in again ... I think Youtube is really important these days, and YOU should talk to your audience! Introduce the songs, put your personality across... engage... 

 

I say YOU because I know I don't take my own advice...but that's because I'm crap at making videos and I'm no longer young or trendy and just have no desire to 

 

 

[The Still Waters]

But still what r the tools these days? YouTube certainly, then SoundCloud, bandcamp, Reddit ... what else would you advice?