8 Ways To Increase Your Publicity As A New Musician

As an independent musician, you should know and do it all on your own - even exposure and publicity.  You should have time to process your music, get in touch with the editor, music writer/ blogger, and local radio for just a few minutes to get known in public.  Doing these tasks are not easy or fun at all, but for startups or new musicians this is a common challenge to overcome.  

Band Exposure is not as easy as everyone thinks, but once we know the right thing to do to increase exposure everything should be easy.  Below are 8 effective ways that new musicians should know and use to increase their exposure.

Subscribe to Online Magazines and Music Blogs - Search for famous blogs that highlight new musicians that play your music genre.  Always check their writing like their habit of criticizing new musicians or if they are willing to share guides and tips.  Many can create a music blog so you need to be picky and careful which music blogs you subscribe.  You could also check their rankings in Compete and Alexa to know if they have many subscribers.  To start doing this, use Google search for looking blogs and create a list in a word document or excel spreadsheet, along with the listed blog’s ranking, blogger’s contact details and email, etc.  Even though it is a tedious task, you will definitely need this.

Sort Out Writers - As you are creating a list, you should consider the writing style of the blogger, like is his/her writing positive and useful for you as a reader, writing good news and success stories of different bands, or is he/she good in expressing negative opinions.  This needs to be considered because as a new musician, you can’t afford to have a negative review.

Give what the writers need - Before a writer writes an article for a musician they need detailed information.  They lose their interest to write if you provide them with incomplete information and this makes them think that you are not interested.  In your details, make everything easy to understand and simple.  These writers interview and read lots of musicians and the smartest thing to do is prepare good answers.  If you have a band, then everything should have a consistent answer to their questions about your group like “when is your first gig as a band”.

After One Week, Follow Up - As soon as you have contacted the producer, press person, blogger, or music journalist, provide them at least 1 week to follow up.  Don’t be shy to follow up, but don’t be rude or use strong words against them.  Always be ethical.  Ask them when is the right time to talk.  As soon as they say yes, provide information like your band name or name.  Ask them if they schedule everything you have submitted and the best time to do follow up.

Always Be Straightforward - Writers have hectic schedules and deadlines which makes them really busy, so it is advisable that talking with them is short but meaningful.  Before you contact them you should be prepared and make all details direct, short, and sharp.  Assure that you could provide the things that need to be answered in the 1st sentence to save time.

Make High-Resolution Images - As I mentioned in the last paragraph, always be prepared.  This tip is commonly missed by new musicians.  Don’t wait for the writers to request your picture or band picture.  Save the images on a USB or a CD and print three or four copies of the image.  Provide brief descriptions and captions to each picture so that they know what to say about you, your music, or your band.  Always consider that you are a new musician.  They don’t have the basic information that they need to know about you so always provide accurate and brief details.

Patience, Patience, Patience - Many writers, particularly the press and journalists build fat egos over time.  Some can be really mean to challenge you as a new musician if you could handle pressures in the music industry and career.  So once you have been criticized by them, do not be offended and handle them professionally.  Do not ask for respect that you want because this only makes the whole thing worse.  If they write a negative issue about you, do not grumble.  They have their power to show their opinion and you can’t do anything.  Continue playing your music and look for other writers or journalists.  Always remember that negative issues are part of the game.

Build Relationships - If you are done in your interview and your music, or your band is shown in a popular music blog or magazine it is still not over.  You need to keep in touch with these people.

Getting exposure needs a lot of effort like having meetings, answering questions, considering other ego’s by individuals, and coming up with gigs.  It is important for you as a new musician to get discovered.  Follow the tips outlined here and welcome to the music industry.  

If you want to help or add to this list, leave your tips and tricks below to help more aspiring musicians.

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JV White is a blogger, music enthusiast, and marketing consultant of We Print Discs and American Recordable Media.  He writes exciting tips and guides for musicians. Follow him on Twitter @jvwhite1980