You’re more likely to get your music heard if you’ve actually put in the time creating all the information behind your content. If you’ve spent all that time creating and producing mixes or tracks for the world to hear, why wouldn’t you put in the time to make it easier for people to find you and your music?
Don’t fall at the last hurdle by leaving out vital info people need to discover you and what you’ve created. This starts with you knowing what you want to create as much as it does to how you are going to promote your material once it’s done.
Following these simple areas will help you get heard by people within the music industry and grow your audiences.
Content Creation
Knowing your strengths and weaknesses goes a long way to your planning out what you want to create and how your music will sit amongst the mountain of other material being created by people worldwide and how you are going to stand out and shout above the noise.
It’s important to plan out a loose structure so you know you and your brand as it were. Music isn’t 100% structured all the time, you’ll find what you create comes from multiple inspirations at times when you least expect it, but still knowing the basics and having those foundations about what tracks you want to create and who you want to work with is really important.
Are you going to be working solo or with other producers / singers? Are you planning on self-releasing your music? It’s a lot easier for artists to release their content online these days without the help of expensive labels and PR agencies and knowing the benefit of self-releasing against having pro industry support is a subject which has been debated at large over the last 5-10 years. Check out info on how to build your networks here as you might not want pro help initially until you reach a certain level.
Mastering & Labelling Content
Make sure when you’ve laid down tracks you check over everything. It’s advisable to get someone else to master your tracks. When you used to send your music to a label, they would get the work mastered to a level which was quality. These days lots of people master their own work and that lends to all sorts of differing levels of quality when sending out your work. You want to make sure what you send out is the best it can be. Always get someone else to master your work if you can afford to.
Make sure you label your content correctly, no-one wants to receive music which is labelled without artist info, track names, reference to the label it’s coming off and whether you have support artists involved. Everyone wants to be credited when they have been part of something musically, so missing out all the vital information will not only dent the ego, it will also make it more likely they could miss out on vital royalty payments and recognition further down the line if the track makes it big.
Sending out WAV’s and high quality mp3’s in 320kbps is the industry standard, anything less and your work is unlikely to make it through to playlists and on-air where it can be supported by other artists.
If you are making a full-length track, ensure you also make an edit of it so it gets picked up by radio. Edits are generally between 2-3mins and extended mixes are around 4-5mins.
Growing Your Online Networks
As you start to grow your fanbase you need to make sure you have the right platforms for how you want to promote yourself and your music. Pick your platforms, whether that be launching a Bandcamp profile or using conventional social media such as Instagram, Twitter or Tiktok. Grow your fanbase on these platforms with content to tease future releases and give them a reason to follow you and to keep coming back. It’s turning into a full-time job doing your digital platforms, but you’ll reap the rewards if you get it right and hit a chord with your followers. At the end of the day, they are buying into you and your music because they relate to you, look up to your, want to be you and everything between.
Create Digital & Video
Surround yourself with good people. Those who have skills you might not or the time to be able to help with things like digital and video content. You’re building your brand, so making sure you have lots of content you can push out in various ways across multiple platforms will allow you to be seen faster and louder.
Get Playlisted
Whether you are being playlisted on radio stations across the country or just featuring in a Spotify playlist and in those streaming site charts. The more you get your material tagged, shared, playlisted and featured, the more chance you have of growing your networks and having more people interested in you and your music. Followers = opportunities.
Build PR Coverage
Everyone has a brand whether they realise this or not. Artists more so are aware of their own personal PR and that is important when you consider you are trying to be heard over and above everyone else. It’s a tough business so you want to make sure you are doing everything in your power to look and sound the best you can. That means building stories, building PR around your music and how that fits in to your everyday life. Are you playing gigs or festivals? Are you doing anything over and above the ordinary in order to create that content? Is this solo or collaborative work, in which case, find a way to tell a story about it. If you are unsure about how to create great PR which will get you noticed then speak to people who have already done it, or if you can afford it enlist someone in PR to help you.
Use Networking
Networking is something you’re either a natural at, or it’s something you might need to work at in order to get the most out of it. Networking opens doors and gets you opportunities you might not have expected, as you’re effectively talking to likeminded people within the industry who can help you and in-turn you could probably help them back.
Sometimes stuff is free, other times there might be money involved, but the main underlying benefit from networking, is that you are expanding your professional circles with people who you might be able to work with and help out in the future.
Decadance has a series of music networking events called ‘Sound Social’ which are currently run in Brighton at venues across the city. It’s free to join, and you get access to thousands of likeminded members who you can network with. You get info on the monthly BSS radio shows, online support material and face to face events. Jump into the Facebook Group to start the process and you can click here to get more information on when the next Sound Social events are taking place.
Using Live as a Tool
It’s important you see the benefit of performing your material in a live environment as part of the overall promo strategy. Performing at events and festivals and even doing things on-air, coupled with all the digital online content you are creating makes for a more powerful impact on your potential fans.
A multi-platformed approach when it comes to promoting yourself is important so make sure you are tagging in music promoters or approaching them to play at their events. Reach out to venues and clubs to get spots and eventually residencies if you can. Festival line-ups are good if you can get them although they are harder to secure.
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