Marketing for indie musicians is a different pie than for signed acts. An independent artist must take continuous responsibility for the marketing aspect of their music, or they risk bumping into dead ends sooner than later. Sure, once one reaches financial independence, the task can then be assigned to a marketing professional, but until then, here are the 7 music marketing habits you must live by as an indie musician if you want to see a return on your investment.
7. Know your audience: Understand who your fans are and what they want. You can’t create adult-based content only to turn around and decided you want to do Gospel music. Sure, you are free to do as you please, but you will lose all of your listeners in the process.
6. Understand and leverage social media: Engage with your audience on various platforms to build a strong online presence. Older acts think just understanding TikTok and making use of it is enough. It is not. You must always aim to create your own indie funnel of contacts. What will you do when Instagram falls out of favor with governments across the world due to privacy reasons, and you never collected any phone numbers or emails for keeping in touch with your supporters?
5. Create quality content: Focus on producing high-quality music, visuals, and promotional materials. While you may think that a great song may suffice, in 2023, it won’t. People see, hear, feel, and touch (your merch), and sometimes even taste (some artists sell sweets and edibles). If you only satisfy one sense, the market will swallow you alive and keep you in anonymity. Record labels understand this, so they create entire experiences around their artists’ tours, shops, and visuals. Do the same. On repeat.
4. Be consistent: Maintain a consistent brand and release schedule to keep your audience engaged. You can’t release a song a year and expect to develop a loyal fanbase. We know releasing songs costs, so we advise you to stick to covers and freestyles until you are ready to get the ball rolling ongoingly.
3. Collaborate with others: Work with other artists and industry professionals to expand your network and reach. All indie artists have a bubble around them that they are afraid to pop. But guess what? The moment you do, you grow. You learn, evolve, and get exposed to more people in the meantime. So pop that bubble and proudly leap for change.
2. Leverage analytics: Use data to make informed decisions about your marketing strategies and track your progress or don’t do music at all. We are stunned to discover so many indie artists are focused on the numbers that they forget the end goal of having a loyal fanbase: knowing exactly who and where they are so you can create longevity and sustainability. What is the point of reaching 10k Spotify listeners one month if the next they drop to half of that and you never checked to see where those other 5k came from? You will NEVER get to tour if you don’t use analytics.
1. Adapt and evolve: You must stay up-to-date with industry trends and be open to trying new approaches for promoting your music. We know it’s hard to accept change, especially if you’ve had a streak of luck in the past. But you must know that change is the only constant both in life and in the music industry. Don’t get stuck in your ways. If you do, you are left behind.
Blue Rhymez Entertainment ©2023
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