How To Market Your Music

After writing a couple of tips and tricks I was wondering which subject the audience (you guys) wanted to know more about. That’s why I did a poll in the Arist Coaching Facebook Community and the result of that poll was that people wanted to know more about how you can market your music. So, thanks for voting and being active in the group. This one is for you!

Let’s start off with the basics. The word “marketing” actually exists from two word

Market: as in the marketplace

Getting: how can you get the people to your shop?

So what is marketing exactly?

Marketing is all the things a company does to promote their product.

If we rephrase this to the music industry, the so called ‘product’ is your music and all the ‘things’ are video’s, photo’s, written content and livestreams.

Back in the days, people had to print posters, visit record shops or make appointments with every possible man or woman who could buy their music. That’s a lot of work and takes up a lot of time doesn’t it?

We live in a beautiful time people. We have the internet! We can speak to a person on the other side of the earth just by clicking our mouse. We can reach out to our fanbase by targeting them on Facebook. We can promote our music to people that are actually interested in our music. The ROI (Return Of Investment) is bigger than ever! It’s amazing what you can do by spending small amounts of money nowadays. It’s just all about using it in the right way.

So how do you market your music in 2017? By using the following platforms in the right way.

Facebook – Instagram – Snapchat – YouTube – Musically – Twitter

I’m not gonna talk about all of them but I’m gonna take a deep dive into a few of the most important platforms.

How to market your music on Facebook

Facebook is the biggest social media platform out there on this moment. All your friends are there, your family and guess what… So are your future fans! The biggest plus side of Facebook is that they own a LOT of data from every user. They know exactly what you eat, drink, laugh about, cry about and what you like to do in your spare time. They know all of this because they know what you click on. They know which movies you watch and how long you watch them, they know which pictures you like, share or reply on and they know who you are connected with (and much more).

All this data gives you a lot of power when it comes down to selling stuff. The only thing you should know before you start using this data is:

WHAT am I gonna sell?

HOW am I gonna sell it?

WHERE am I gonna sell it?

I’ll give you the answer to that:

Your music

By creating likeable,shareable and loveable content that represents your brand

Social Media (Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, Musically, Youtube etc.)

So now you have the answer, you can start filling in the blanks for your own brand.

Facebook is a platform where you can share a lot of different content. You can post video’s, photo’s, written word, animated GIF’s.. It’s up to you to decide which one you are gonna use for your marketing strategy.

Not everyone feels comfortable doing video and not everyone looks good on a photo.. So try to think of content that works best for you. Are you a great photographer? Great, post photos. Are you a great video editor? Awesome, use videos! Do you prefer to speak without visuals? Do podcasts. The most important thing here is that you pick a way of communicating that feels natural to you. If it doesn’t feel natural doing it, you’re not able to maintain it and so, you’re quality and quantity will go downhill after a few weeks/months.

Here’s a few ways to market your music on Facebook

Customize your content so people will instantly recognize it (see picture 1)

Be creative Try to make creative content that is easy to engage with (see picture 1)

Promote your post invest a small amount of money and create your custom audience to have the best ROI

Get involved respond to your audience when they leave you a message, I know you’re behind a computer but it’s still people who are typing those replies. People have feelings so be kind and show them your appreciation

Live video’s are a great opportunity to engage with your fans and give value to them

Quality over Quantity

Every platform has new content 24/7 so how are you gonna stand out from the crowd? It’s really important to know that we are at the time where quality is more important than ever! Because of the noise, it’s important that when you post something, it’s quality.

Are you posting a video? Cool, give me a reason why I should spent 2:30 minutes of my life watching your video.

Are you posting a livestream? Cool, why should I watch this?

Time is key nowadays. Everyone is busy so if they are gonna spent time it should be worth their while… Give them value in your content. Don’t only think about yourself, but think about what’s in it for your fanbase? What could they be interested in?

Is it a funny video of you falling off stage?

Is it a free give away of your latest bootleg?

Are you gonna pick a winner of the merchandise package?

That’s value.

Posting a photo and adding a text: “My new track is out now, buy it here” isn’t.

Quality over Quantity -> Right mouseclick -> Save as -> IMPORTANT

How to market your music on Snapchat and Instagram Stories?

A new way of communicating is the way people like to call creating stories. Snapchat was the first who started this (the first big and famous one actually) and it just was a matter of time before other platforms started adopting this feature. Nowadays we can’t think of Instagram without the stories functionality but only until a few months ago Instagram was only about posting normal content. This is one of those examples when I talk about shifting platforms. Snapchat started something that worked really well and other big platforms start copying it to keep their audience on their platform. When platforms start doing this you can see a shift from audience from platform to platform. That’s also why I should never go all in on one platform but always spread your chances and be active on multiple platforms.

Let’s say you’ve build yourself an audience of 100.000 people on Twitter and all of a sudden Twitter isn’t hot anymore because everyone is using Snapchat. That means you’re in deep shit! So try to cross-communicate online. Get your fans from Snapchat to go to your Facebook page as well and vise versa. Never rely on just one platform.

So why is marketing my music on Snapchat and Instagram Stories so different from using Facebook?

Well for starters.. Your content will disappear in 24 hours (or even quicker) so it’s not that important that all of your content should be picture perfect. It’s OK to post a crappy low quality photo of your coffee with a timestamp on it because it disappears in a few hours.

The reason why they call it “stories” is because it’s perfect to tell people your story of the day. Show them what you did today, what did you drink? What did you eat? Who did you meet up with? Where did you go?

Instagram Stories and Snapchat are all about the NOW. Not about what you did yesterday, not about what you are gonna do tomorrow. Nope, what are you doing RIGHT NOW. That’s what matters on these platforms.

So when you want to market your music through those channels. Don’t create perfect content, just show people who you are and what you do in a normal day! How much time do you spent in the studio? How much do you travel? What’s your favorite drink? What’s the name of your dog? That’s content that should be posted here.

If you really want to take things to the next level on these platforms, you can start to think about a strategy that gives people a real story. Think about the things that you are gonna show people before you go on your next tour. Take them on a trip and create a small movie that consists out of short 10 second video clips or show them backstage footage of your videoclip recording day, show them the crew and bloopers before you show them the final video. It makes them feel like they were there! It makes them feel special.

Like I said at the beginning, i’m not gonna talk about all the platforms.. I think that Facebook, Instagram, Instagram Stories and Snapchat are the most important platforms as we speak to market your music and all the things I told you today are also applicable on the other unmentioned platforms. Be creative with your content, be consistent and get involved with your fanbase.

And remember: ‘only ten views’ today, is already ten views more than you had yesterday!

Good luck!