7 Tips to Increase your Exposure and Potential

By now it’s apparent that there is a ton of music out there – over-saturation is a term you may hear often these days. For anyone getting involved with the music industry there is always a need for more exposure and promotion. If an artist or a record label has it, they will sell better, simple as that.

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What Bands Should Know About the Myspace Relaunch

If you haven’t received a notice or saw the posts, Myspace has relaunched with an all-new look. I found my email invitation in the spam folder. So what does this star-studded relaunch mean for musicians?

Probably nothing.

Myspace has tried multiple times to resurrect itself, though it was unsuccessful each time. We’ll see if Justin Timberlake and loads of money can make it work this time.

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Why and How ReverbNation Lost My Love

Summary: There was a time when I used ReverbNation daily to connect with fans, promote my music, and grow my network. Things were great. But then things started changing and I began using the platform less and less. I used to be an advocate for their services and now I find myself telling people not to bother.

Below I will share my perspective and experiences with the platform simply to provide insight to those who want it.

If you want to know why I wrote this before reading, feel free to skip to the why.

In the beginning…

Back in 1999, when I decided BUNKS was the musical direction I would take into the future; we chose to stay independent and use the Internet to promote and market the music.

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Feeding the Starving Musicians of Tomorrow

Music used to make millionaires. There was a time when Rock Stars were right up there with Russian Oil Oligarchs, a steady stream of champagne and cocaine trailing behind them as they traverse the globe on their private jets. Nowadays ‘rock stars’ are more commonly found lining the pavement leading up to the Job Centre. I know, I’m one of them. And whilst I, like most people, didn’t get into making music to be rich, as I sit and eat my Tesco Value beans on toast, I can’t help but ponder what the future holds for us all. So how did we get here? What went so wrong?

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Finding Your Online Voice

When you are just getting started online – whether it’s a blog or you’ve just taken over a Facebook fanpage, or you have to do a video or put out a podcast, I won’t lie, it’s going to feel weird and it’s going to feel like everyone will judge you. You’ll feel awkward, you might sweat, you’ll start to find excuses for not doing the thing you have to do and before you know it, you’ve probably hit the whisky and passed out on the couch. I’m here to tell you that EVERYONE feels like this the first time. The trick is to work at it and have fun with it and most of all, don’t beat yourself up over it.

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Buzz Marketing | Fanbase Word-Of-Mouth

As you know (hopefully), social media websites provide you with a platform to grow your fanbase, and expand your reach to people that you never could have connected with before.

What you need to understand is how to utilise your social media fanbase in order to market your music, promote gigs, and hopefully become commercially successful (If that’s what you’re going for of course). First, a brief introduction…

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Music Marketing: It's More Than Just Putting a Bird on it

The comedy series Portlandia kicked off their tv show with a brilliant music video entitled “Dream of the 90′s.” There’s one punchline that has become a running joke in the city: “In Portland, you can put a bird on something and call it art!” Of course, this kind of shortcut logic doesn’t work in most areas, let alone indie-hipster art created in the City of Roses.

In the world of musicians, it’s easy to think that we can just sign up for social media or put a QR code on something and call it online marketing.

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Make A Name For Yourself Online

While some people become a musician because they like music and love to play or sing, most do it because they also hope they’ll become famous. Of course, with millions trying, it’s difficult to be that special singer or band everyone is talking about. Nowadays though, getting noticed is much easier than even ten years ago. That’s because of the internet.

Using the internet, any musician can hit the big time, and sometimes overnight. You just have to come up with a plan, use the best social media and, of course, be prepared for a lot of hard work.

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The Virtual Tour, Part I (OR: How Your Band Can Tour the World from Your Living Room)

A virtual music tour is similar to a traditional tour in that the band/musicians make several appearances, and in several locations, in an attempt to promote and sell their music. On a traditional tour, musicians make contact with clubs, bars or other suitable venues (suitable venues: house parties, small music festivals, state fairs, and Geri’s Bat Mitzvah) to book live shows. They then travel to each city, spend time at each location playing their music and possibly spending time with the audience in an effort to sell their music and merchandise. Many musicians will agree, for the effort and expense involved, touring and playing live doesn’t sell many CD’s or music downloads. (Although it can be a heck of a lot of fun, if you have the money.)

A virtual tour is very similar to the traditional live tour. The biggest difference being, there are no extensive travel, no travel related expenses, no need to try to figure out how to take 2, 6, or 12 weeks off work. Virtual tours are accomplished 100 percent over the Internet.

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Facebook Has Fan Pages: Use Them!

Here at Music Without Labels & Beat-Play, LLC we currently represent 320 independent musicians, offering free promotion. There are currently way too many artists today not utilizing social media the right way to promote their music. Facebook has had fan pages for close to 2 years now so don’t represent your band under a “personal” profile. Take a look at the reasons why it is not beneficial to build your music recognition on Facebook through a personal page.

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Online Music Marketing: 38 Metrics and 7 Tools To Measure ROI

Using the Internet to market and promote your music is one of the most affordable ways to establish and build a following. The abundance of free tools and music-based social networks has made music marketing more accessible than ever for musicians around the globe. Rather than investing boatloads of cash into advertising, PR, and radio promotion, instead musicians invest their time. Through social networking and direct-to-fan engagement musicians can achieve remarkable results with online marketing.

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“Direct-to-Fan Live Sessions” via Audiolife and Ustream

The next gen music biz music keeps rolling out new opportunities for musicians to creatively pursue new revenue streams: To take advantage of this you need to talk to your fans, ask for ideas, get them involved, interact as much as possible as I mentioned in a previous post. (See Marketing is everything - Let me show you how!) Here’s a great example of someone who is doing just that using Audiolife and Ustream…..

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5 Online Marketing Essentials for Musicians

With so much noise and confusion in the world of online marketing I thought it might be useful to lay out some basic starting points to form the foundation of a successful campaign. Here are 5 things that, in my opinion, are essential to maximum online exposure.

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