Fast Track Your Music Career
Todd Simpson
Dec 31 2020, 09:24 PM
GMC:er
Posts: 25.297
Joined: 23-December 09
From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Paid promotion is part of the reality of being a musician these days. There is sadly no quicker way to gain any traction on social media. Social media of course, is the main way people are finding new music. The bad news is that the competition is fierce. There are corporate people paying top dollar for eyeballs. Competing with them is a challenge. For the little guy, you gotta be smart.

EVERYTHING IS ON YOU:

This is a fairly new thing. In the old days, you would be trying to get a record deal and the label would be responsible for most of the promotion. Those days are gone. Now, people are doing it themselves. Emerging artists are all competing with each other. Some bands are still getting signed but more and more they are doing it for themselves. Record labels don’t have the same amount of money that they used to have. Even having a contract does not mean you are off the hook for promoting yourself. With a contract or not, it’s still down to you.

DIG IN AND START GRINDING:

Get on social media and start grinding it out. Collect every piece of content you have ever created and get ready to try to make each piece into click bait. Make a thumbnail for every video you have ever made that is so click baity that people can’t avoid clicking on it. Don’t be shy and don’t be afraid to say whatever it takes to make people want to click. If you have music you have never put out there, or videos that you’ve not shared on social media, it’s time to repackage all of it and get ready to put all of it out on social media in a steady stream. You may have lots of songs that are almost done. You can put these out there for feedback. You have maybe some videos you’ve never shared. It’s time to share all of them. See what works and then make more of that.

CLICK BAIT:
Sadly, click bait is the order of the way. You have to find a way to entice people to click on your content. So the key is to really understand how to create good click bait. It puts a bad taste in my mouth to say these things but it’s true. You are competing for eyeballs with everyone else in the world who is also trying to grow their audience. Social media is not only a way to grow your audience, it’s a way to attract record labels. If you can get traction on social media you have taken the first step toward a larger audience.

BURNOUT:
The main problem these days is burnout. The sheer burden of having to create content non stop, and keep it up is draining. It takes huge amounts of time and effort and it can become so draining that people just get burned out and simply stop doing it. I have hit this burnout stage myself. At one point, years ago, It was just too much. I was getting hundreds of comments a day on youtube and I tried to answer them all. Finally, it was taking several hours every night after work and it was just too much. I stopped replying to comment. People thought I’d died. AT that point, youtube changed the way you see your comments and I didn’t see comments that were made for the next few years. I focused on my job and on GMC and just let go of youtube.
By the time I got back to youtube, the entire thing had changed. The competition had become crazy. I remember when OLA ENGLUND was still just getting started. He was a machine. Every few days a new video. It worked well for him. The key is to find a balance. You will get burned out if you push to hard, so find a way to create content that doesnt’ burn you out. You can do live videos, you can do one take videos using only your phone that don’t require editing Find a way to make it easy and part of your every day life. That’s the real key.





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Kristofer Dahl
Jan 1 2021, 10:19 PM
GMC Founder
Posts: 18.746
Joined: 15-August 05
From: Stockholm, Sweden
Interesting stuff!

I agree paid promotion is usually part of the equation. However I also find that some people hop on to this train before their musical skills are mature enough - which is a shame as those $$ could have been spent much wiser with a bit of patience.

So I am a big fan of testing the organic response of your content/music - and when you get a good indication people outside your core base appreciate it - then is the time to start considering paid promotion.

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Todd Simpson
Jan 2 2021, 01:27 AM
GMC:er
Posts: 25.297
Joined: 23-December 09
From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Well Said!! Pulling the trigger too early on paid promotion can be a complete waste. Organic reach/growth should ALWAYS precede any sort of ad spend imho. If a song is getting traction, it might be time to put some money behind it. If not, then it's time to work on song craft, not on ad spend.




QUOTE (Kristofer Dahl @ Jan 1 2021, 05:19 PM) *
Interesting stuff!

I agree paid promotion is usually part of the equation. However I also find that some people hop on to this train before their musical skills are mature enough - which is a shame as those $$ could have been spent much wiser with a bit of patience.

So I am a big fan of testing the organic response of your content/music - and when you get a good indication people outside your core base appreciate it - then is the time to start considering paid promotion.

You are at GuitarMasterClass.net


Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

Don't miss today's free blues, jazz & country licks. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!
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