Download music-marketing-essay

Music Marketing
In this essay I want to further explore the idea of not just marketing,
but marketing being used particularly within the music industry and
the many tips and tricks many musicians and other music industry
figures use to make sure they get noticed within this fast paced
industry.
Have you ever wondered why many dedicated and talented
musicians never get the fans and recognition they deserve? This is
basically down to marketing and promotion. It sadly means they
don’t have the proper marketing techniques in place in order to get
them noticed and a stronger fan base. Having a solid marketing plan
which is practiced practically every day can be the difference
between being noticed or not. Unfortunately just having the talent is
simply not enough anymore. The magic key is being able to market
yourself without paying anybody when really, it’s pretty simple to
learn the tips and tricks yourself and can be a really enjoyable
experience whilst doing it, its honestly so easy to do once you know
how.
It’s because of a lack of marketing that many musicians and other
figures within the media and music industries have not got where
they otherwise could have been. This is also why they struggle to
make sales, get gigs and generally move their music career forward
in order to get the recognition they truly deserve, again marketing is
the missing piece in the puzzle, many people don’t realize this, but
you do now!
The good news is that if you’re willing to put in the work than it’s
possible to market your own music in an easy and efficient way.
From researching online I have found many useful videos and guides
that help you get the basics of music marketing. Like I have
mentioned in previous essays, the easiest way to start is using social
media to your advantage. Every musician needs a Facebook, Twitter
and Instagram page, along with a YouTube page which could be used
to add gig and music videos, again this is all ways you can use
marketing to your advantage. When someone says marketing it can
sound scary and confusing, it’s basically a posh word for promotion.
Before you can learn specific tips and tricks to marketing your firstly
need to know and get a good idea of what music marketing is, and
isn’t. There are a lot of common misconceptions about this amongst
many in the music industry. With the right marketing it should
hopefully get you on the right track in order for you to promote your
music efficiently and correctly.
If you want to get your music heard by millions of people than
marketing is necessary, but doesn’t have to be difficult! Pretty much
all of music marketing can be learnt, everyone has to start
somewhere. It doesn’t require a degree in science or maths to put
into place a solid promotion plan for your music career. As long as
you’re willing to learn, and put the work in where needed, after a
while this will definitely become second nature to you, I remember
loving it after a while and realising this is something I want to pursue
a career in within the future.
Music marketing is all about raising awareness. A lot of musicians
when starting out feel like if they make their music good enough,
they will get noticed, sadly this alone isn’t enough anymore! Being
talented and letting people know about your talent are two very
different things. As well as making music that people want to listen
to, you need them to actually listen to your music in the first place.
Without marketing how will this happen? By marketing your music
your doing two very important things, you’re showing people that
your music exists and more importantly you’re convincing people to
give it a try.
Marketing is often most effective when it’s a two way process.
Marketing in order to be effective must be a two way process
between yourself and your fans, the people who listen to your music.
When you update your social media profiles for example and get
more followers you’re most likely get messages and replies from
your listeners wanting to know and hear more about you and your
music! This is how the two way process starts, engage with your fans
in order to be successful, never ignore, probably one of the worst
things you could do in the early days of trying to establish yourself.
By getting your fans involved in your music career, you’re creating
more loyal fans who will stick around for much longer. When you
speak to them, you make them feel like they’re part of your journey
too. If you didn’t reply to them it’s likely they’ll get bored and go and
check out someone else’s music that will interact and answer their
questions, effectively this is your competition!
The marketing of your music in an on-going requirement, not
something that is just done once... more like every day! As well as
being aware that it’s important to market your music, it’s also
important to realize the amount of time and effort that goes into this
process in order to make it worthwhile for you and your career. The
marketing of your music should begin as soon as you’ve a good level
of talent to promote. While the degree of marketing you undertake
at the time will depend on what exactly you have to promote, and
what else you have on your plate. Marketing has to be an on-going
process for as long as you’re trying to become a successful musician.
Getting others involved will make your marketing efforts a lot easier!
While music marketing isn’t that difficult once you know how to do
it, it still requires a lot of time and energy to do it to the extent
needed to make consistent money from your music. Often, doing all
the marketing alone can lead to much slower progress, frustration,
and possibly burnout. The solution is not doing it alone and dealing
with too much, get others involved is definitely the solution. This can
be in the form of getting your fans to help you out, hiring a
marketing team, or eventually letting a record label handle that side
for you. Hiring a marketing team can and will be an expensive
process though it’s important to point out. More hands make lighter
work, it’s not a good idea to do everything by yourself once you
know that someone could help you out.
Initially, no one will help you. When you’re a new independent
musician, you won’t get much outside help. Ok, you might get some
kind of help from a friend who likes your music, other than that don’t
rely on a record label or fans to promote your music for you, it just
won’t happen! This is because record labels don’t generally work
with unproven music, and you won’t have a fan base yet at this
stage.
Lastly, it’s really important to note that you need to do more than
post and promote your music online. Remember a bit of face to face
and online is the best recipe for success, not just lots of online and
no gigging, speaking and meeting people in real life can prove to be
much more effective in the long run. Another thing you’ll want to do
offline is chase up opportunities. Email can be a really slow process,
but when dealing with companies, often a phone call or going to see
them in person can prove to be more effective and speed the
process up. I can add from personal experience that phone calls have
proved more successful than emailing! Obviously these aren’t the
only ways to promote your music offline. Don’t focus strictly on
online music marketing, as working within your comfort zone will
most likely slow things down for you in terms of how you progress.
So give music marketing offline a go to!
The tips and information I have mentioned above are important to
know before you start implementing specific music marketing
strategies, as even the most powerful promotion methods will
obviously not be as effective if you don’t understand them.