GMC:er Posts: 25.297
Joined: 23-December 09
From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA
RELEASING MUSIC TO NOBODY? GROWING YOUR FAN BASE
What happens if you have a small or non engaged audience? If you have spent time working on new music and you want to share it with the world, it’s important that the world actually gets to hear it and knows that it even exists. Are you releasing music to ZERO fans? If so, that’s more about ego than about music. But, we all have to start somewhere, so how do we plan to release music with an eye towards people actually hearing it? 1.)SET A RELEASE DATE This is the most important thing. After the music is released, the real work starts. If you have little or no actual audience that is waiting for your music, then doing a lot of preliminary social media/press is sorta pointless. After all, if your audience is very small, spending lots of time to promote the release won’t really help that much. Instead, try to focus on what to do after you release the music to the world. How are you going to build up an audience for the music that you just shared? 2.)YOUR MUSIC BECOMES A DOOR OPENER Think of your music as a way to create new relationships with people/sites/press that can help you in your quest to share your music. If you are an actual band, you can contact bars/venues that are doing OPEN MIC NIGHTS and try to get on and play your music for an actual audience. Also, contact every local/college radio station that you can find and try to get in touch with someone who might be interested in playing your music on the air. Then, contact music blogs. Point them towards your music and see if any of them will be up for doing a review of your music. The more music blogs you can get on, the better 3.)YOUR MUSIC IS A CONVERSATION STARTER Start a facebook group. Make it about music similar to yours. Introduce you rmusic as part of the conversation. Don’t just start with LISTEN TO MY MUSIC. Start talking about music that is similar to your music Introduce your music to the group in a natural way. Try to connect personally with direct messages. You want to create relationships with actual people, these people will become actual fans. These relationships are critical. Asking favors of strangers is always a bigger ask than asking someone you’ve been commencing with online to check out a new track.
4.)RUNNING SOCIAL MEDIA ADS There is no way around it. Social Media ads can help spread your message, your music. Make a short introduction video about you/your band. Rather than just a music video. Again, you want to try to connect, to personalize you message. Then at the end of the vid, mention the new music and give a link. It’s a way better approach than just putting up a music vid and paying to promote it.
5.)FRIENDS AND FAMILY COUNT Starting as close to home as you can get. Your family probably have social media accounts. If you can share your music with your family, and if they actually like it, they can start helping to build your fan base by sharing it with their friends. You can ask your sister to do a tik tok vid of her singing your song in the car, etc. Be creative in the ways you integrate your family/friends in to your musical world. They can be the foundation of your new fan base.
KEEP IN MIND
What makes a “fan”? What about your favorite music, made it your favorite music? Was it the album cover? The opening riff? The lyrics? Try to take what connected you to your favorite music and integrate it in to your music. You’ve got to connect, emotionally, with people to get them to invest in the idea of your music. If you can create that connection, you get not only a fan, but an advocate who will share your music and help create other fans. Take David Bowie for example. He used to write letters to individual fans. Taylor Swift buys xmas presents for her fans. “Looking after your fans” is a great way to connect with people and it provides something cool to share on your social media as well. What can you do to help people you’ve connected with? Be creative. Find a way. With some time and creativity, you can start creating the connections that lead to people becoming fans of you and your music. Remember, a fan base starts with one fan. Each one is important. Tend your fans like a finicky plant. The relationship is your responsibility as a creator. It means taking ownership of the relationship. It’s not enough to put out great music anymore. That’s only part of the equation. It’s not easy to fight up hill. You can do it though. Start connecting and start growing your fan base.
