In a perfect world, being a musician would be all about the music. But it’s not. To have a successful band you have to master self-promotion as well, and that’s where a lot of great bands fall flat.
Here are six quick and easy tips that will help you boost your online influence and bring in more fans.
1. A complete website
Your online presence should start and end with the website. Social media has a lot of great tools, but everything should tie back to the website, which should have everything people need to know, including contact information, where to buy music, bios, videos, blogs, and details about upcoming shows.
2. Bandcamp and Soundcloud
Releasing music online can be tricky. You want people to download it and enjoy it, but it’s not easy to decide how much you should charge for it.
Soundcloud and Bandcamp are two of the best places to upload and share music, and Bandcamp especially gives musicians a lot of control over pricing; or gives the control to the listener, with the “pay what you want” option.
3. Rootmusic
It also helps to make your music available on your band’s Facebook page. Rootmusic is a tool that enhances your Facebook music page and makes it easier to upload tracks that actually look nice on the page.
4. Youtube
Your Youtube channel doesn’t have to be impeccable, but when someone searches your band online it’s nice to have a few live performances or music videos to pull up. It’s also good to explore different types of media on different social media sites because you never know what people will respond to.
Your audience might love videos and regular vlogs, or you might get the best response on Facebook posts or pictures on Instagram.
5. Tweet for a Track
This is a great way to get people to share your music. When they share the link to your song on their Twitter or Facebook they receive an email with a download link for your music. It’s a super-simple way for you to release music and get people to share it at the same time.
6. Get in touch with local websites
If you’re in a city like Austin with a good music scene, there are sure to be a number of websites, radio stations, or newspapers that run features on local music.
When you’re gearing up to release a new album or EP or you have a big show coming up, it’s a great idea to send a polite heads-up to those media outlets. They’ll be glad to have some easy content and you’ll get some extra attention from local music lovers.
