The Internet offers a lot of possibilities to market and sells your own music yourself. Especially for musicians, there is a large selection of Internet portals and methods like what Harshwardhan Singh can do for music artists to bring their own music to the people. Find out more here.
Factors for success
Three factors are crucial for you to be able to successfully market yourself as a musician:
- Quality: Your music is on a good to a very good level, you have the basics of music composition and you have good knowledge to effectively implement your ideas with the help of DAWs (music programs).
- Image: In the best case, you already have references or works to show, these are important to recommend yourself for commissioned work or projects.
- Marketing: You have the basics of music marketing and know who your target audience is and what to expect.
Tips for self-marketing
Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing for musicians is about achieving reach and retaining your fanbase. Just sharing content is not enough. The community should be involved and get the feeling of actively participating in your (musical) life.
Website / SEO
Social networks are ephemeral. Do you still know Myspace or StudiVZ? That’s why I recommend you to create your own website, which is considered your business card and radiates seriousness. In order to be found in Google, you should use the tools of search engine optimization (SEO).
Contacts
In addition to your digital advertising activities, you must not forget the offline world. Ultimately, you work with people and you can find them in your immediate vicinity. Visit concerts, regulars’ tables, or events where you can meet like-minded people. If you are at the beginning of your music career, I also recommend that you look for a mentor to be successful with your music later.
ALSO READ: How to Produce the Music You Want, Regardless of Skill Level?
Marketing your own music on music portals
There are countless music portals to market your own music. Youtube is probably the medium with the greatest reach, but I would like to keep this out of my list, as it does not specialize directly in music. In the list below, I have made a selection of music portals on which you can present yourself well.
Among the most important features of a music portal, I count feedback possibilities from listeners, but also musicians, tools for self-marketing, and the promotion through the portal itself. And yes, quantity also plays a role, the size of the community is an important criterion, because it makes a difference whether you feel like you have one click per day, or a much larger and steady flow of listeners visiting your channel.
I would now like to introduce you to three portals on which I am active myself. These have helped me the most in my previous activity as a musician to market and distribute my own music.
- Myownmusic – A German-speaking community that offers very good feedback opportunities, a large forum for questions and a chart list that is updated daily. There are no exact user numbers, but the activity of the community is high, even if the importance for up-and-coming musicians is shifting more and more to international platforms.
- Soundcloud – Probably the world’s largest music portal. It is technically almost perfectly designed to spread your own music in social networks and to make contacts with other musicians. Here, as on Twitter, you have the opportunity to follow favorite bands or artists. There are also many labels and scouts on Soundcloud, which increases the chance of being discovered. Tip: Generate clicks with Soundcloud!
- ReverbNation – This is an online website for musicians, bands, and labels from all areas of music. ReverbNation is structured similarly to Soundcloud and allows you to chat with other users and also offers a wide range of promotion tools. This platform also keeps up with the times and puts its technical focus on tools for sharing your own content on social networks. It is also possible to write your own blog posts or to link to an existing one.
- BandCamp – This is an international music portal that allows you to offer your music for free in a community or actively sell it for a fixed price.
Jamendo – Is also international and has a large community. You can also monetize your songs by linking them to YouTube’s song library.
All these services are free in their basic version. A premium update unlocks additional marketing and editing tools. Overall, all platforms have a fair performance model and if you want to market yourself professionally as a musician, you have to take money into your hands at some point.