Do you 'care' at all about 'marketing' your music?

[Mahesh]

While the pre-production for my upcoming EP/album is in progress, I have also been preparing a lot of assets for the upcoming music releases - an updated EPK, a well thoughtout and designed brandkit with logos, colours and fonts to use etc. It's a lot of work! Work that I personally believe helps me in my music career and help me take the next leap with the next release. But I know many musicians who do not care about these sorta things. I mean, I understand if you do music part-time or as a hobby. But are there any professional musicians here who believe that marketing your music is an irrelevant effort?

[john]

There’s an axiom in the music industry - A successful song is 80% music marketing and 20% music.

 

That’s broadly how the industry feels about it. Then there’s the large pool of independent unknowns who believe that their music should be enough. I wonder how that is working out?

 

There’s another large contingent who believe music should be free (largely because they don’t think people would buy their own music, and they are already giving that away for free and still have a teeny tiny audience!).

 

I think a better ethos is to give your music the marketing you think it deserves.

 

If you can’t give your music away for free, something is wrong. Often, it has absolutely nothing to do with the music itself, and that is a great pity.

 

Cheers

 

John

[Mahesh]

On 4/28/2024 at 5:12 AM, john said:

 

I think a better ethos is to give your music the marketing you think it deserves.

 

I've understood this more and more every single time I've released something - the value of a good marketing plan. It was not about trying to mislead my audience into thinking it's more bigger or better than what it actually is. Instead, I've come to see marketing as my effort to make sure the music I make reaches those people who will enjoy it, understand it, relate to it. 

[john]

4 hours ago, Mahesh said:

 

I've understood this more and more every single time I've released something - the value of a good marketing plan. It was not about trying to mislead my audience into thinking it's more bigger or better than what it actually is. Instead, I've come to see marketing as my effort to make sure the music I make reaches those people who will enjoy it, understand it, relate to it. 

 

Exactly. It is a mindset thing. Our mindset is created by misinformation and misunderstandings that are often never corrected and they don’t set us on the right path. This is the same for most independent artists and it is the cause of the biggest problems.

[VSThost]

On 4/28/2024 at 1:42 AM, john said:

There’s an axiom in the music industry - A successful song is 80% music marketing and 20% music.

I agree with this, unfortunately. 
Your success depend on a quality video, your image, marketing efforts and finally - music.

[john]

2 hours ago, VSThost said:

I agree with this, unfortunately. 
Your success depend on a quality video, your image, marketing efforts and finally - music.

 

I agree that video is a major component. Good quality audio is a given. Video can be lo fi, as long as it is part of the creative aesthetic. What you need is plenty of creative video ideas mixed with fairly consistent form with a high production standard. You need a release strategy, mixed with a consistent method of buzz building and you need to build momentum in your marketing through regular, intentional engagement. It sounds like a lot, but once you learn some basics, it’s more about working practice and not stopping giving a damn as soon as the music is finished!

 

Mind set is everything.

[VoiceEx]

When it comes to marketing for me its not about 'caring' about the act itself, per say. But rather, its simply a part of the job. And as with many things in life, some aspects of marketing I find as being enjoyable and challenging, while other aspects I find as being tedious and boring.

 

And I think that's perfectly fine because every job has its ups and downs. Its normal. A person doesn't 'have' to be passionate about every single aspect of their job in order to preform it well.

 

And, no, I'm not dissing the people that don't have an interest in marketing (i.e in general). Far from it. I think that, if a person believes that marketing their music will only make them miserable, or if marketing their music goes against their beliefs, then, by all means, they needn't bother themselves. If making music just a hobby for someone, then there's nothing wrong with treating it that way 👍

 

Speaking about marketing, @john@Mahesh, with your permission, I would like to make an observation (i.e forum wise). If you want to get people to be more into marketing, perhaps you should consider also presenting the fun sides of it (alongside the useful information). "Adding value", if you'd like.

 

I mean, think about it. Even with proper context and giving the right kind of information, marketing can still seem like a cumbersome chore that sucks the life out of people. Or worse, it could potentially confuse people into thinking that marketing is only for people who obsess about the "bottom line".

 

Just my two cents 😶👍

Edited June 5 by VoiceEx