Jump to content
aberdeen-music

Promoting Music


Alkaline

Recommended Posts

I'm not new to the idea of getting music out and about but what do you folks find to be the best way of pointing people in the direction of your music?

Facebook is a bit hit and miss (though I have had a decent bit of success out of it recently when I was in Needleman it always felt like a struggle), I use bandcamp and soundcloud but to me both seem to be aimed more at established acts rather than at those looking to use it as a launchpad.

I'm specifically at a loss with electronic music as I'm not really that knowledgeable about that scene. 

Any ideas or discussion welcomed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you're willing to go down the shameless auto-promo route, Twitter seems a pretty good way to gain some traction.

Set up a rule in hootsuite or similar to auto-tweet/like/follow folks who are using phrases/words that may be relevant to what you're doing.

Set up another rule to tweet your music at regular intervals with a variety of different copy, (i.e. repeating the same content often enough so new followers see it, not too often that old followers get bored). Smatter in some links/videos/images (never just plain text - unless peppered with emojis - people respond to colour) tweets that are relevant to your type of music.

Set up an auto-response to people who follow you e.g. 'Thanks for following, hope you like my stuff...'. Include links to your stuff.

With minimal tweaking, you can have a twitter account that almost runs itself from a content perspective and from an audience-reach perspective.

If you want to take it further, bots that aren't your main account but drive traffic to it are easy to create.

A bit/a whole lot spammy but your question was what's a good way of pointing people in the direction of your music... and i guess this is one.

 

Source: a colleague who runs a side biz creating twitter bots for small businesses/bands/whoever

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Forums is still a good way to go, especially forums of musicians and gearheads. I always post my stuff in such places and it gets a lot of plays/download. I Love Fuzz, The Fretboard etc.

Submitting to blogs has served me well too too, though music blogging seems to be dying a bit. But there's still a good few within punk/hc circles. I can't speak for electronic music though.

Don't underestimate the power of tags on Bandcamp. Heaps of my plays and downloads have come through listeners searching tags. So tag your music adequately. Include every genre your music even glances at. A lot of gearheads surf tags on bandcamp, so even tag in gear you've used. E.g. heavy sludge/doom bands often tag in "sunn model t". Hell, they might not have even used one, but certain pieces of gear appeal to certain audiences. You can never have too many tags.

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, aside from this forum (which has about 10 regular posters) I don't really frequent any music forums at all. I found a lot of the other "gear" or recording ones a bit snobby but I may just have hit the wrong ones.

I'm not sure what electronic music forums there are either. I'll have a scout about.

I'll also have a look at my tags on Bandcamp too!

I'd not really thought about blogs, not sure again what ones would be worth looking at electronic music wise as I don't read any myself :(

Edited by Alkaline
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thinking about it a little more (perhaps too much)... nowadays, if I were to release music and really wanted as many people to hear it as possible, part of my plan would definitely be to make a video or at least have my music in a video. Worst case scenario it's a static image of the CD cover with the music playing behind that you make yourself (you see that a ton on youtube), best case scenario it's the soundtrack to a decent video that someone professional shoots and has large distribution (hound production companies en masse offering your music to use license free?). Either way, i'd get a visual element going because that's just the currency people trade in these days. It's hard to get people (people, meaning lots of people) to sit in front of their computer/phone screen to listen to what you've made. It's far easier to get them to watch something.

Youtube is going hard at music these days too. The two mediums are going to be more and more intertwined in the years to come I reckon. People already 'listen' to their music exclusively on YouTube. 

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...