How do you eat an elephant? Does marketing your music seem like an overwhelming mission?
How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Music is like every venture in life, you start small, but always think about the big picture. In other words, start locally, take little bites at getting some fans, but think world domination. Do all the ground work on a local level, make all your mistakes when there’s low stakes and very few people will know about it. That will prepare you for the world stage.
Say you play electronica, and there is a club in your area where you can build up an audience. Before you start booking your band into a cool club you heard about in the city of your dreams, you better make sure your audience goes to that club or you’ll be playing to two people.
This is why you’re lucky to being starting a career in music now. The internet is a tremendous resource and a great equalizer. A short time ago, only the labels had the marketing information, now you can have the same information. You can market, promote, reach out to your fans, find musicians (if you need them), make connections, sell your music..
Yes, you can do all that online. And yes, that is the start to becoming world famous - faster, for less money, and with less connections than ever before. And that’s because you don’t have to waste your time and money traveling 100s of miles to find out you’re playing at the wrong venue, you can look it up online.
Most clubs have web sites and you can usually tell a bit about who goes there and who plays there by it. Also, see if the venue has gotten any press. Even if it hasn’t, most cities (even small ones) or regions (that don’t have a big city but have a much of decent sized towns) will be listed in some sort of arts or culture magazine or newspaper from that area and they put their articles online. They are very easy to find by googling it. After you read about the club, you can decide if it’s worth it to play there. This is something that works world wide, not just in the place you live.
Once you go international, there are different trends to be considered in different countries. Laws are different. Customs, attitudes, taxes, the way the media does its job, all sorts of important stuff is going to vary everywhere you go. Be as knowledgeable as possible, get a tour manager if you can (or be one for yourself), and work with people you trust who speak the language. You will lessen your chances of getting screwed (we’re talking about business here) and you will build an audience and maybe even make some money.
Don’t forget to sell your CDs, t-shirts and other merchandise, which will get your name out there and name recognition is very important when marketing your band. Oh, and when you go into those different countries, make sure that you are allowed to bring your merchandise with you without paying taxes or getting the confiscated at the border.
How do you become knowledgeable about different countries and make connections? The internet of course. At this point of time, it’s all done online. The internet has the made the world a much smaller and more manageable place.
Marketing your music is work, but you can do it from your home computer. You take the same steps you applied to promoting your music or band locally and use that globally. Here are some things to think about:
Find out where your audience is.
Find and contact the media in that area.
If you’re interested in touring, find the venues that fit your music.
Send CDs or MP3 to be reviewed by the media and tell them where and when you’ll be playing.
We will cover how to finance a tour and or a CD in other articles. Be sure to check back.
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