We wanted to offer you a concise, bullet list of music marketing truths that an indie musician must accept and abide by, sooner or later. While some may leave you disheartened, take comfort you’ve learned it from an article and not after having lost years of trial and error and tens of thousands of dollars. Best of luck, and embrace your power over your career by taking informed responsibility!
15. Music marketing requires ongoing effort. It’s not something you only do around album releases. Make it a consistent process, and you will reap the rewards sometime later. It almost never shows itself in the beginning. It’s down the line, when the ball gets rolling, that you can connect the dots and link the names and see how much of it is owed to your past efforts.
14. Do not rely solely on online music marketing. Gigging, making personal connections, and chasing opportunities offline are invaluable. People remember a face and a handshake more than they do a video.
13. Initially, you’re on your own. Do not expect labels, fans, or others to help market your music until you build your talent and status. Learn to promote yourself.
12. A two-way dialogue with fans is most effective. Reply to fans and continue conversations to build loyalty. Ignoring them will frustrate them.
11. Music marketing is about raising awareness and convincing people to give your music a try. Talent is not enough. You must actively promote to break through the noise.
10. Involve others to ease the workload. Get fans, hire a team, or sign with a label to share the marketing responsibilities. But first, prove yourself.
9. Music marketing does not have to be difficult if you’re willing to learn. With consistent effort, it can become second nature. You may even find it fun!
8. Remember that music marketing is necessary to get your music heard, even if you don’t enjoy it. Some promotion is required to build a career in music.
7. You will NEED money and lots of it. Actually, you will need more money for marketing than you will need for producing music. Maybe not when you have time in the beginning to make up for the lack of resources, but eventually, you will. Develop a healthy relationship with budgeting, planning, and tax filing.
6. It is best to start on the right foot to avoid wasting resources and precious time. We’ve had to consult many artists and give them the bad news that due to the high numbers of fake streams and video views, they are better off creating a new identity and name for their music. Study before doing. Walk before you run.
5. You don’t know everything, and sometimes it is best to trust others. Do your diligent work and research everything you can about the person you want to employ, and ask all the possible questions there are for your ease of mind. But if they’re good at what they do, don’t be cheap and trust their opinion. The telltale sign of a professional: they never speak in absolute terms and always leave you the option to stop working with them. They do not want to work with people who don’t appreciate their experience and input.
4. Embrace change, or you’ll drown before you get to the shore. If another app like TikTok ever comes around, JUMP on it without thinking that you’ll lose time and effort. You won’t. The firstcomers always reap the highest return on their effort.
3. Don’t look back too much on missed opportunities. Music marketing is also learning from your mistakes and making smarter, informed decisions moving forward.
2. You WILL dislike your first songs and collaborations. It’s a sign of growth. The important thing is to stop promoting a project/visual when you realize you would much rather talk about your dog instead. Don’t push what you don’t LOVE. It never works.
1. The market changes, and so do the strategies. Doing covers was the easiest thing to do to get attention and build a fanbase in the late 2000s as YouTube was a ‘baby’. Then altering the original version into your own was the top guaranteed way to success and notoriety. Now it’s doing YOUR thing that works since people have heard everything under the sun twice and once for breakfast. Don’t get discouraged, get motivated and take action!
Blue Rhymez Entertainment ©2023
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