by Francesca | Feb 15, 2024 | Music Industry, Music Marketing
In the ever-growing world of entertainment publicity, reaching thousands of listeners on your upcoming releases require a unique plan. Until your brand is recognized worldwide (i.e. Beyonce), it simply doesn’t make sense to spend the majority of your budget on recording new assets just to release them to the public without a solid strategy. Even so, a plan made up of basic press pitching might not always do the trick to build the worthwhile and engaged fanbase you’re looking for. Thinking out of the box is becoming more important in every quarter as we progress into the age of digital streaming and internet consumption. As a listener, a few Fridays contain enough new music releases to last a lifetime, so how can yours make the cut?
We’ve put together a list of eye-catching tactics to build buzz and excitement around your new release.
1) Memorabilia
This begins with another incredibly important part of music marketing: developing a cohesive brand. Actively participating in the way your fans view your band as a whole is a required stepping stone before you tackle this marketing strategy. Memorabilia in this instance is something that’s brand-specific but still wide-reaching. Developing these assets starts with remembering memorabilia that influenced your childhood. Did you have a sweet set of Hot Wheels with crazy turns? Do you wish you still had that glitter lipgloss from your first school dance? Gather ideas from yourself and your band, create a list, and then brainstorm together how you can turn those ideas into marketing products using your brand instead of releasing yet another t-shirt with your logo on it. Besides being fun and interesting, most of these things become relics that fans will hold onto for a very long time.
A few great examples of bands harnessing this method are the band Sleep On It creating pillowcases that read “Sleep On It” with their logo, Dance Gavin Dance releasing a “Strawberry Milkshake” limited release beer, The Story So Far creating a viewfinder with photos taken by the band, and the list goes on.
2) Limited Edition Prints/Presses
It’s no secret that vinyl has made a triumphant comeback. For many artists, vinyl is the only type of physical copies they’ll release. Some even go as far as releasing cassettes for a real pre-2000’s feeling. Just by themselves, vinyl and cassettes are great ways to release an album since they clearly outlive any other music trend, so use that to your advantage and create limited editions and/or collectors editions! For those who already love to collect vinyl and cassettes, different sleeves or tape designs is enough reason to buy the same album twice. This strategy can be used in different instances, like in a pre-order bundle, a deluxe post-release album, a “B” side album, etc.
3) Harness Your Local Scene
Remember when we mentioned Dance Gavin Dance crafting up a limited beer? Imagine doing that for your band, with your favorite local brewery or your favorite sandwich shop. Sound cool? It’s actually not the hardest thing to do but requires a long process and a lot of dedication. Many local-run establishments love to support local bands that give back to their community in exciting ways like this! Have an elevator pitch ready and ask to speak to the general manager so you can explain why naming a turkey melt after your band Stale Bread would boost their sales and help promote your upcoming album. Brewing a specific beer involves alcohol laws and actual brewing knowledge (to an extent) but most local breweries will go for it if you can promise the product will move off shelves. Another way to harness your local scene is asking record stores to stock your upcoming release in a local section. If they don’t have one, pitch one!
4) Get Fans and Friends Involved
Your close friends and fans are obviously your biggest supporters, and they most likely would love to be involved in your band’s success. Ask your friends to help spread the word about your new album by hosting giveaways, build a scavenger hunt that involves clues leading to free release show tickets, create a drinking game that mocks your band, hire your friend to photograph your band, or commission an artist friend to create the album art or a new shirt. There’s nothing better than involving your other creative peers to promote each other’s work!
5) Give Your Release Show a Twist
Most album releases are complimented by a release show, where you perform your new music live for the first time. With the right amount of promotion and ticket sales, this is an exciting way to throw a party for all your hard work! Consider hosting the show at a non-traditional music venue. Years back, Carousel Kings played the first (and last, for good and hysterical reasons) at a Haunted Mill during the Halloween season for a truly unforgettable show. I can’t remember the songs they played but I will never forget that show. Giving your fans a reason to talk about your show, especially your album release show, can improve your future crowd numbers and build buzz.
Part of succeeding in the music industry is continuing to learn every single day. Being a “jack of all trades” is the norm in today’s connected globe, where all information about pretty much anything can be accessed via the internet. The best thing you can possibly do for your band is to learn about every aspect of the music industry and how you can use it for your advantage. With these branding ideas, you have no excuse to not promote your album as hard as you can!
by Francesca | Feb 15, 2024 | Music Industry, Music Marketing
Want to learn how to build a fanbase and improve your skills as an artist from one of the best in the business? Musician’s Fanbase Growth Workshop offers all of that in their weekly Wednesday workshop. Here’s how to secure your spot for free.
Reserve Your Spot for Modern Musician’s Fanbase Growth Workshop
Here’s the rundown…
Founder of Modern Musician and host of the Modern Musician Podcast, Michael Walker is hosting an in-depth “fanbase growth workshop” for artists who are ready to level up their music career, and thrive during these challenging times. In this workshop, he’s revealing some of their best techniques that are usually reserved for his $5000+ clients at Modern Musician. This is the first time he’s given away this information for free, and you don’t want to miss out on the valuable insights he has to offer.
“How do I get involved?”
Every Wednesday @ 3PM ET, they offer LIVE training in 3 main topics:
- Artistic Identity: Hone in your music brand to give you clarity about who you are as an artist, so you can attract the best-fit audience who will love your music.
- Thriving Fanbase: Set up your marketing so we can build your loyal fanbase based on your artistic identity and your strengths.
- Revenue Multiplier: Create an automatic monetization system to fund your artist lifestyle so you don’t sacrifice your talent or lose touch with your musical identity.
If you’re interested in tuning in, click this link to register in one-click:
Reserve Your Seat – Fanbase Growth Workshop
Once you’ve done that, you’ll receive a “welcome pack” with all the resources needed to take part in this special, one-time event.
——
Want to learn more?
In addition, you may have also heard about the Gold Artist Academy, Modern Musician’s flagship mentoring program. This program is a great resource for artists who are ready to truly commit and step up their game.
- Learn more about the program, plus testimonials and additional details, right here.
See you there!
by Francesca | Feb 8, 2024 | Music Marketing
It’s undeniable that TikTok has given many up and coming artists a chance at major exposure with its algorithm. As long as your music is on TikTok for you (and other creators) to use, you have the chance to promote yourself through challenges, trends and so much more. If you’re ready to promote your music on TikTok, here’s everything you need to know.
How To Use TikTok To Promote Your Music
First things first…
Before you can start anything, you have to upload your music to TikTok.
Back in 2019, we announced our partnership with TikTok which allows our clients to deliver their tracks onto TikTok for its millions of creators to use in their videos. This offers an amazing opportunity for our clients to spread their music through one of the most popular apps in the world, with us to guide them along.
In the meantime, think about what part of your track has the most potential for going viral. — That means 15 seconds of catchy, groovy greatness that you can imagine people singing or dancing along to. Don’t be afraid to dig into your back catalog to find songs that truly fit the bill. Oftentimes when one song goes viral, it may bring some of your other songs right up with it.
Hop On TikTok Trends
Every week, something new is trending on TikTok. Hell, it seems like something new has taken the platform by storm almost every day. Even if a trending challenge doesn’t necessary align with your brand, it’s still useful to get involved. If an unrelated video of yours goes viral, it may bring your other posts along for the ride.
Hopping on the latest trend is a great way to get seen by more people and blow up the engagement on your present and past posts. Whether you’re on the hunt for audio, effect or hashtag trends, there are tons of ways to find what’s popping off on TikTok. // To help you out, we wrote a whole post that gives you all the sneaky tips and tricks we know about how to find what’s trending.
Post Music Video Sneak Peeks
While you’re working on that new music video, take behind-the-scenes clips during the process. Even better, you can tease final cuts of the video by posting them as a Reel before the launch date. You can do this by using captions like, “Coming Soon… 👀” with the launch date worked in. You can even link to Spotify for presaves, YouTube premieres, or wherever else they can find your music once it comes out.
Create Your Own Challenges & Trends
If you want to go viral on TikTok, you’re going to have to get creative. The most popular challenges and trends on TikTok are lip syncing, dance routines and comedy type videos. That’s why it’s important to have songs on TikTok that are catchy enough to support these type of challenges.
Need some ideas?
- If you hate dancing, you can tell your fans to create their own dances to your song and tag you on TikTok.
- If you have a song with amazing lyrics, do a VoiceOver of you lip syncing along with the lyrics on screen.
- Want fan engagement? Tell your audience to do covers of your song and repost them when they do.
- Want to collaborate with others? Try the Duet, Stitch and Collaboration features.
Just how tagging other creatives can double your video’s reach, so can collaborations. Finding your niche is important in anything you do, as it helps engage a more loyal audience and helps you secure yourself in a more manageable, less saturated space. — Be sure to comment, like, share, duet, other artist’s work and encourage your followers/viewers to do the same.
Try Covers Of Your Song in Different Styles
One of my favorite trends that musicians like to do on TikTok is when they give new life to an existing song by creating new versions of it you would have never expected. For example, those videos captioned: “If my song, [blank] was a metal song” or “If my song, [song here] was an EDM banger”. As an artist, you have many strengths you can leverage when creating content. If you’re low-key really good at making beats, show off that talent with a cover. If you aren’t so good at another genre, you can ask your audience to do their own version.
Use The Right Hashtags
Hashtags are important on pretty much every platform. With the right hashtag strategy, you can increase the reach, engagement and visibility of your posts on TikTok in no time. Luckily, figuring out which hashtags will work best is fairly simple.
- First, go ahead and open the app, tap on the “Discover” tab on the bottom of your screen and scroll through the previews of all the trending hashtags.
- Now, let’s dive a little deeper. In the search bar at the top, go ahead and search whatever hashtags are relevant to you. Once you hit search, you’ll be able to see related hashtags and view counts for each of them.
- With a quick Google search, you’ll see that the most popular hashtags for musicians are: #music, #singer, #artist, #songwriter, #livemusic, #newmusic, and the list goes on and on.
However, these are just the most popular, overall hashtags. If you’re looking for more interactive engagement with a more segmented fanbase, we recommend looking into artists like you on the platform and checking out the hashtags that are popular in their circles. Then, you can make a solid list of these and keep them in mind for your own efforts.
Try TikTok’s Promote Feature
With Promote, you can turn any organic TikTok video into an ad, right from the app. You can start reaching new audiences, build a following, and drive traffic to your business website. Once you run a Promote campaign, you also get insights into your audience and how your videos are performing to help you improve your efforts moving forward.
We wrote a whole post that breaks down exactly how to do this; you can check that out right here.
Utilize TikTok Analytics
Driven by machine learning and a technical algorithm, TikTok thrives on data and metrics. If you want to improve your content’s performance, understanding your profile’s detailed analytics is the first step to improving your efforts. With it, your data-filled dashboard is separated into three main categories: Overview, Content and Followers.
By clicking through each tab, you’ll be able to see videos views, profile views, follower count, and follow demographics in terms of gender and geography. With this information, you can see which videos are working and which aren’t. Then, you can adapt your strategy as you go to improve in the future.
Not sure how to find them? Check out, “Where to Find Detailed Analytics for TikTok” to learn all the different ways to access these analytics.
In Conclusion…
Aside from being an addicting past time for most of us, TikTok is also a wonderful tool for your promotional efforts as an artist. If you work with the algorithm and all the features the platform has to offer, you’ll see your content start to thrive.
On that note… As you reach a wider audience on TikTok, you can funnel those users over to your socials and streaming platforms in the process. By taking steps like adding links to other platforms in your bio, cross promoting content on your feed and following the tips mentioned above, you can grow your audience everywhere in no time.
Good luck!
by Francesca | Feb 8, 2024 | Music Industry
Job hunting. We’ve all done it, and most of us will continue to have to do it until retirement comes along. Indeed and Glassdoor are great for seeing everything and anything all at once, but what if you’re tired of wasting your time sorting through thousands of unrelated jobs? Believe it or not, there are job sites just for us music biz folks. Here are some of the best music industry job sites to help you land your next job…
9 Music Industry Job Sites To Help You Land Your Next Job
The Digilogue
The Digilogue is a diverse community of creators and industry professionals in music and tech. They curate conversations and programming around industry education, artist discovery content, and a great career resource on their website. Under their Music Careers tab, click on Job Postings, and you’ll find tons of job listings up for grabs. // Check it out for yourself on their website here.
Music Business Worldwide
This site is one of the best resources for anyone looking to broaden their horizons in the music biz. Music Business Jobs is a website for the global music industry to find the best candidates for their open positions. They post openings all over the country, and you can filter results by location, companies, and job type. // Check out what’s available right here.
Doors Open
The world of electronic music is shaped not only by artists and fans, but also by thousands of small businesses, from clubs to booking agents to publishers and promoters. If you’re looking to work in the electronic music scene, this resource is for you. Doors Open is a place for people to connect with companies and projects they believe in, and for independent music companies to find the staff they need to turn ideas into reality. // Check ’em out here.
Shesaid.so
Shesaid.so is a global community of women and gender minorities in the music industry. They’re absolutely awesome, and they happen to also provide a very useful job portal tab on their website where you can browse open positions and apply. // Click here to see what’s available.
Music Careers
Music Careers is built for music professionals by music professionals to help you find your next job in the music industry. They post up to date jobs, refresh every 30 days, and give you the ability to refine your search by specific niches within the industry. They even post freelance opportunities, too. // Check out what they’ve got to offer here.
Digital Music News
You may already be a fan of Digital Music News‘ industry articles to keep up to date on the latest news, but have you checked out the jobs tab on their website? There, you can check out music industry jobs from major record labels and streaming services to universities, merchandising companies, startups, and more. // Check it out here.
A2IM
A2IM has their own job board to help you find your perfect position. Whether you’re looking for temporary work, an internship, or full-time, their database can search jobs by keywords and location. // Check out jobs on A2IM here.
Music Jobs
Music Jobs is part of a global publication and online community which brings their subscribers industry opportunities and daily news from the world of film, TV, music and gaming. On their site, you can also sign up and subscribe to emails with job opportunities tailored specifically to what position you’re looking for. // Click here to check out the site and search for jobs.
Entertainment Careers
Entertainmentcareers.net is a great site which features jobs in in Film, Television, Music, Production Companies, Radio, Animation, Acting, Production, PR, Design, and more. Whether you’re interested in the music industry or something adjacent, this is the ultimate place to check. // Browse available jobs on their site here.
You got this!
⚡️
by Francesca | Feb 1, 2024 | Music Industry
Looking for new resources to boost your productivity? Manage your finances, form better habits, and get shit done with these useful productivity tools. Here are some of our favorites for independent musicians…
10 Productivity Tools For Independent Musicians
Band Mule
Band Mule is an easy to use private band organizer and band calendar. With it, you can plan gigs, manage your set list, share files, chat, and share songs. It’s like having a mini manager in your pocket.
Editors Keys
Editors Keys is used by some of the top producers, editors, and recording studios in the world. They offer time-saving keyboards and keyboard covers with all the shortcuts for whatever program you use.
For example, this Serato DJ keyboard cover (shown right) has all the shortcuts for Serato.
Whether you use Garageband, Final Cut Pro, Ableton or many of the others like them, there’s probably a physical keyboard or keyboard cover available on this site, saving you ample time looking for shortcuts during your creative process.
Lifeline
Lifeline is a great app developed by the smart people over at Saent. It works by ensuring you take sufficient breaks and better manage your time so you can experience productive, healthy, and fulfilling days. It mainly functions like an innovative timer app, providing flexible session lengths, perfectly timed breaks, and a real-time progress bar to help you develop an optimal daily working rhythm.
If you’re looking to better manage your time and maintain a healthier workflow, this app will change your life.
Sheet Music Scanner
Sheet Music Scanner lets you easily scan, and playback printed sheet music using your smartphone, tablet, or whatever device you use on the go. Ever wondered how that interesting-looking piece of sheet music actually sounds? You can find out with this one. Just point your smartphone or tablet at the sheet and let it play the notes for you. You can choose the instrument, pick the speed, and you’re ready to go.
Mint
Mint is a budgeting app that can help you keep track of your spending and balances. Mint suggests how you could be saving money based on your financial information and transactions. As an independent artist, you’re in charge of how you decide to spend your money. From investing in your team to spending money on Spotify ads, it’s important to keep track of your spending no matter how big or small. — This app can help you do that.
To learn more about managing your money as an artist, check these out:
Kompoz
Kompoz is the perfect tool for remote collaboration. With Kompoz, you can use your favorite audio editing software, like Pro Tools, GarageBand, Logic Pro X, PreSonus StudioOne, REAPER, etc. Just upload your song idea to Kompoz, invite others to jump in and you might get a drummer in France, a keyboard player in Nashville, or a bass player in Malaysia.
It’s super easy to use, and you can create public collaborations to work with artists from their worldwide community or collab privately with your friends and bandmates. It’s up to you. (There are tons of other innovative online tools to help you keep working with your peers on your next banger without ever having to meet in person too. // This post gives you a rundown of some of our all time faves.)
Headspace
Hear me out on this one… If you want to avoid burnout, taking care of your mental health is just as important as anything else on your plate. That said, I think this one counts as a productivity tool. Especially for musicians. Through science-backed meditation and mindfulness tools, Headspace helps you create life-changing habits to support your mental health and find a healthier, happier you. It’s even proven to reduce stress by 14% in just 10 days, and can help you relax your mind in minutes, improve focus, and get the best sleep ever. All of which helps you stay on track in every other part of your life.
Streaks
Streaks is basically a to-do list that holds you accountable, every single day. With it, you can choose up to 12 habits per day that you’d like to implement into your daily life and track their progress. Want to spend more time learning music theory? Add it to the list. Want to make more beats every day? No problem. You can add that, too.
Working on something every day is the first step to forming a long-term habit. Every day that you complete on Streaks adds up, and if you forget a day, your score goes back to zero.
DropBox Sign
This website offers free online contract signing. For those who do a lot of remote collaboration, this is a godsend. Let’s say your vocalist lives in Los Angeles, your producer is in Atlanta, and you live in New York… Sure, you could mail everything back and forth or meet up somewhere in-between, but DropBox Sign lets you electronically request and add legally binding signatures to any document. From licensing agreements and split sheets to cowriting agreements and more, this one gets it all done with ease.
