Create Great Music.
Let’s be honest here; consumers
aren’t stupid. They may not be
music connoisseurs, but they
certainly have musical tastes and
an absurd amount of music
discovery apps and website options
to choose from. However, studies
show that music discovery
continues to be dominated by the
radio. And we all know major
recording artists dominate radio
airplay–thanks to promotion
departments with big budgets. But
we also know that independent
artists are selling records and indie
artist are winning Awards. This is
because their music is cutting
through. Not because a shit load of
blogs write about it, but because
it’s great music that incites a
response. Bad music is shit. Good
music is tolerable. Great music
incites response; and the response
is repeat streams, evangelical
shares and downloads.
Set A Release Date & Schedule
Distribution.
One of the challenges upcoming
artists face in building a release
campaign is not giving themselves
a sufficient amount of lead time to
layout and execute the details of a
plan. You need time to do all of the
work involved with a release.
Sometimes, you’re so excited about
your new record that you post it
up prematurely. This is fine if you
have no intent to commercially
release the record. However, if you
do want to generate sales–and your
fan base has not historically been
quick buyers of your music–then
you need time to start generating
buzz and momentum. Most major
labels spend no less than 8 to 16
weeks planning towards the
release of a single. Sometimes they
push the release date back if they
have not reached certain goals by
specific weeks (although this
mostly happens for albums, and
not singles). You should consider
giving yourself no less than 6-12
weeks from the start of activating
your campaign. Also, the release
date you select can also be a factor
in the success or failure of your
release. Some parts of the year
there are a lot of major artist
releases. Therefore, radio play,
blog features, press/media
coverage is focused on these major
releases. Holiday season (October-
December) and Spring are two of
the biggest seasons for major
releases. However, there is
discrepancy in the music industry
on when is the “best” time for
upcoming artists to release music.
Some say that the Summer is solid,
and that’s because of the major
label hiatus (execs going on
vacation) and the increase in music
events such as summer concert
series, indie music festivals, etc.
While I agree that the summer
months are much better than
Holiday season in general, it’s a
whole different story if you’re
releasing a Holiday themed song.
The bottom line is, selecting a
release date is part smart and part
timely. Once you’ve determined
when you want to release, you
need to schedule the distribution.
Set Reasonable Goals.
Now that all the “administrative
work” is complete, it’s time to
develop a plan and get to work. A
good plan needs concrete goals.
One of the ways to measure the
effectiveness of a plan is to
determine if you’ve reached or
exceeded your initial goals. Too
often, upcoming artists create
music, throw it up on the Internet
and are disappointed with the
outcome. But, you may be selling
yourself short by not setting
reasonable goals in advance. In
fact, you may have exceeded what
the music ecosystem has
determined as your demand/worth
based on your existing support
system. As an upcoming artist–even
with no fan base–there are
reasonable goals that you can set
that have nothing to do with record
sales. Your goal may be to earn X
number of video views, or X
number of music streams, or X
number of shares, or X number of
downloads (including free
downloads).
Marketing & Promotion Planning .
Once you’ve set your goals, you
need to think about how you plan
to reach and exceed those goals.
There are a number of approaches.
I am a huge proponent of
integrated marketing approaches.
That is, tactics that overlap and
contribute towards the impact of
two or more goals. For example, if
you have a video on YouTube, at
the end of the video should be a
download link for the song that
was just played (use YouTube’s
video editing features to embed
links in videos). If you print up
flyers and posters to promote
upcoming gigs, include your social
media links. To reach a goal for
shares of a song; consider creating
a “Share And Win” campaign on
social media. The basic premise is
that by sharing your song or flyer,
the action represents an entry for
the chance to win something such
as a pre-release or tickets to an
upcoming gig. A cool way to
promote your upcoming release is
by giving away a previous release
or a record you do not intend to
release. Check out SocialUnlock,
which is a platform that lets you
setup a campaign to give away
music in exchange for social
interactions (such as “Likes” and
Shares). Also, look into securing
radio airplay on a number of the
independent radio sites. You want
your song on air no less than 4
weeks before the release.
Line Up A Few Gigs .
When releasing new music, it’s
helpful to perform the music in
front of an audience prior to
release. If the music is as great as
you think, they’ll respond. If the
response is not what you expect,
you’ll have some food for thought
in terms of continuing the journey
towards a commercial release.
Reaching out to local bars,
nightclubs, small concert halls with
upcoming artistes nights. You also
might be able to secure gigs by
directly contacting medium sized
tour management companies and
booking agencies and talking your
way into opening up for a bigger
act that’s coming to your city.
Seek And Secure Publicity.
There are an insane number of
music blogs generating exposure
for new music every day;
connecting music lovers with
upcoming artists. There are three
basic types of publicity you want to
secure and it’s a good idea to make
this part of your goals. First, you
want music reviews. If your music
is great, the reviews will be
amazing. If the reviews are
negative, then you might have a
rude awakening that will help you
evaluate your music. Secondly, you
want interviews. Often, music
bloggers will simply send you a list
of questions via email that you
respond to and send back with a
biography and discography and
they take it from there. The third
kind of publicity is features.
Ideally, you want to be featured on
the main page of the website/blog.
Normally, the feature will include a
photo and link to a post (either a
review or interview). Most
websites/blogs have a contact page.
Find that page to submit your press
release (oh yeah, you should
probably write a press release) or
click on the author of any given
music post to locate the
information of a specific writer.
Another form of publicity is radio
interviews. While it is incredibly
difficult to get an interview with a
mainstream radio station, it is not
that difficult to get an interview
with an independent or lesser
known radio station. There are a
number of independent terrestrial
radio stations in and around major
markets. Do some research and
give them a call about setting up an
interview. Also, many of the djs on
mainstream radio stations have
their own Internet radio shows.
Reach out to them to see if you can
set up an in-studio interview at
their Internet radio show. The idea
is to capture your interview on
video and to post it on YouTube.
Another publicity boaster is a
Wikipedia page for your band.
Hypebot explains how to get your
brand on Wikiepedia.
Review And Adjust.
I know you may think the last step
is a cop out to providing some
useful information, but the reality
is reviewing and adjusting efforts
in the remaining weeks or days
before a release can be the
difference between good response
and bad ones. Have you reached
your goals with two weeks left until
the release?
Throw A Party!
You’ve worked your butt off.
Celebrate with a single release
party. You might offer fans a ticket
to this single release party as part
of the bundle when you’re gigging
to raise awareness of your release.
Do you need promotion for a new
single? CONTACT US ON WHATSAPP
07089239722 or EMAIL
Kadamusic18@gmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment