What Do You Do To Promote Your Music?

[john]

Hey

Every once and so often I like to ask what people are doing NOW to promote their music. It's a good way t get a snapshot of where and how people promote their songs and get new fans.

Please take part, even if you do nothing!

I will post a similar topic for lyricists

Cheers

John

[Just1L]

I voted other since I haven't promoted any of my music. Just looking for critiques.

[upperlines]

Well, i'm a newbie in music promotion but that's what i do:

- post news on my facebook page.

- give news to soundcloud and myspace's followers (myspace doesn't really work since a few times).

- send a mail to all of my friends

- give site's url to every one that could be interested with my music

- Keep in touch people in this forum. I repeat that this forum is very helpful because people take care about listening carefully ang give "true" comments.

Then I made a site to gather all of that, with my own url : www.upperlines.com .

Visitors can read news, a bio of the group, listen every tracks, see visuals and all of relative links.

I put an RSS and a newsletter, so that "fans" can get news when i change something or when a new content is added.

I'm beggining the promotion of the site, so we'll see if it works good...

Anyway i try to create new "add" graphics and to share it everyway i can. Think it's very important to have a visual identity so that followers can easily remind you.

I intend to create traffic on my website by adding regularly new pictures, graphics, or video if we have the time.

The aim of our project is not only musical but also "graphic". We'd like to create something where music mixes graphic visuals and/or videos.

And when we finished the album we let people download it.

Finally I am mostly promoting the site on the internet because I don't think we'll can play the songs live yet, because we are only two, and should find others to do so.

Waiting for reading others methods!

Seb /// Upper Lines

[pskains]

I used to post revernations flash player on facebook when I would do a new song, but it seems that my" friends" on facebook were just too busy playing farmville and posting about how long the line at wal-mart is to listen. It might have taken me 5 days to do the song, but no one could be bothered to listen to the 3 minute track. I left facebook. Useless. Also, reverbnation is full of people promoting their stuff. That's it. Not many actually listen to others music. There is a little game they play on there. Sometimes I get a message that I got a new fan. Instinctually, you want to go to the persons page, see what they are about, listen to their tunes.... they are usually ranked #1 in their area. But then you notice that when they fanned you, they also fanned virtually everyone in your area, upon further inspection, when you check listeners, they never even listened to your tracks at all. This is what they do to keep a high rank. This has happened over and over.

This is the rant section, right?

There used to be a website called" soundlantern". It was a true community where everyone was really sharing and listening to tracks. It was very cool and I miss it.

Edited January 5, 2012 by pskains

[john]

Hey pskains

Out of interest that is the community we try to have here. We don't host audio or run charts. Still some people want reviews but can't be bothered giving one or simply giving a one line review. That said there are plenty of members who do listen, consider and offer genuine comments.

The sad fact is that obvious, or obscured, people in general are transactional. To many, so it seems, it's more important to feel you are getting something for free than it to feel you are contributing positively to something such as another's well being or even in the running of a community site such as Songstuff.

Songstuff has been running for more than 11 years, trying to build a true community of the form you describe. Such communities rely upon members "taking part", being as interested in the community as each other's music. One needs the other.

Just my two cents!

[pskains]

John, I really like it here at songstuff, otherwise i wouldnt be here. My comments above were in regards to facebook and reverbnation. They were in no way meant to speak poorly on this site. When I spoke of soundlantern, it was not meant to imply that sharing doesn't happen here. It does to a great extent. I was speaking only of sites that host music. Sorry if you took it the wrong way.

[upperlines]

Same problem on myspace.

Myspace has lost many non-musician suscribers, because for "normal people" it is boring. They prefer Facebook and Facebook nom allow to share music. So myspace is just a place full of musicians who do not have the time to listen and comment on other songs. But an artist must have a myspace. That's so.

pskains : I agree with you that it is difficult to get true feedback, and most people do not bother to check your songs if you don't play "fashion rock or r'n'b". But I'll continue to share our tracks. We have really genuine comments and advices about the mix, the song itself... Songstuff is very good for that (coongratulations!!!).

I wish i have more time to listen more tunes here, but for now i'm too busy. Be sure i'll do.

Good luck!

Seb

[john]

Thanks both for your comments and endorsements. I really should get around to gathering testimonials from members!

@pskains no worries... I just wanted to state the case in case anyone else took it that way

[Gijs]

I've tried to promote my music on various platforms. I've used reverbnation, myspace and some other I can't even remember. The problem always is that it takes tremendoes effert to get something of the ground on any site that is ment to promote music ( I don't consider forums such as this one a site to promote music). If you want to have some results you have to be very active. Therefor I choose to have one platform to promote my music on. In my case that's Youtube. I like the fact that you can become a partner. I think's that's a nice goal. And it;s a huge community with a lot of people who are on the site out of interest in (new) music and not just to promote their own music. The problem with sites that are devoted to promoting new music is, like Upperlines and Pskains said, that the people on these sites are only interested in promoting their own music.

I use forums such as this one to be part of a community with like minded people.

[pskains]

Gijs, that is probably the best way to go. "Band" sites generally only attract bands and musicians. The sites do nothing to draw in the listener. Youtube is a great idea because let's face it, everyone is there. I think that would be good advice for anyone.

[farouk2music]

I agree with what people say about YouTube. I'm not having too much success with my Facebook page interms of activity, even though ill still keep it up. But yt is great. Just upload your songs for free there, and hopefully you'll attract tons of listeners...in theory.

[itsGoodness]

Everyone is right in that it can be extremely difficult to promote online, but what I'm noticing is that no one has said that they regularly comment and review other artists' music (outside of the songstuff community.) A great way to stimulate a response for your music is to take time out of your day to comment on another musician's social media site. It can be something as simple as telling them you like their style. Don't even suggest that they come see your page because they will think "oh that's just a cheap marketing tactic." If you show a genuine interest you increase your chances of them returning the favor.

Also when their fans see you interacting with each other they will be more inclined to check you out because you are establishing a common interest, thus leading to more new fans for you!