Digital Marketing for Musicians

Things sure have changed over the past 20 years! Reaching your audience as a musician has never been easier…or has it? Here are a few tips we’ve learnt on marketing your music in the digital space.

Social Media Platforms
If you’re just starting out, Facebook is a great place to start. Create a band/music page if you haven’t already and start by inviting your family and friends. You really

Do you need a website? A website is your shopfront. If you don’t have anything to sell, don’t bother spending a bunch of money on this until you’ve got stuff to put in your shop i.e. merch, recordings, signed teaspoons, records.

Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and Vimeo can all follow but only set up what you can maintain. If that’s only one platform, stick to it.

Content
Start posting content to your platform. Think outside the box. It’s getting harder and harder to get noticed online so you need to catch your audience attention and create something share worthy! Likes are great but AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT is even better.

We’re a huge sucker for video because it’s is a GREAT way to showcase your story and what goes on behind the scenes as a creative. Showing the time and effort that goes into your work is a great way for your audience to understand value as well. We have a great list of Content Ideas for Musicians here if you get stuck.

Building Community: Audience and Industry Relationships/Development
This is SO important. The creative industries (and many others for that matter) are all built on relationship, community and collaboration. Are you plugged into your community? Who are your people? Are you plugged into your industry scene? Are you engaging with your audience online and at shows? Do you know where they’re hanging out online? Which “venues” or Facebook groups are they in? Are you liking other bands’ Facebook pages as your own? Here’s how:

WHY? It shows those you like that you’re supporting them as a creative, it shows others your interests as a musician and shows you’re plugged into community. There’s no use being in a music silo (especially here in Perth, it’s a small town!)

Accessibility
Giving your audience, industry and key stakeholders easy access to your music is KEY! Why would you make it hard for them to hear your craft? There are a bunch of online platforms you can upload your music to including Soundcloud, CD Baby, Bandcamp and Tune core. Be brave! Even if it’s demo stuff. Getting your tunes online will form a part of your Musician Ninja Pack…

Musician Ninja Pack
These are great tools for you to have online when you’re applying for festivals, releasing music, talking to promoters and getting out there. At the end of the day you’re running a creative business, so looking professional is pretty important.

1. Bio – your bio should be in several formats and lengths. 100 words, 250 words, 500 words. Never send a word doc. Always PDF before sending and send on appropriate letter head (perhaps with your logo?)
2. Media Release – keep this one up-to-date as you start to progress on your creative journey adding your accomplishments as you go. Media releases shouldn’t be much more than a page. If you’re stuck on how to write one, maybe google it.
3. Your music – get it up and digitalised! Soundcloud and Bandcamp are great places to start.
4. One Stop Shop: One Page Link and Bandpage are awesome websites where you can actually store all of this information in a central location. BandPage is free and also connects to Facebook.
5. Invoice header with your logo, ABN and up-to-date contact details.

Be persistent. Be patient.
Insert any one of the following: Rome wasn’t build in a day. If you build it, they will come. One day at a time.

If you’re in this for the long haul, keep on keeping on. To build anything online, takes time. To build real relationships, takes time. The music industry, just like many other industries, is built on the relationships and connections you make (both online and in real life). How do you make real connections? By going to other people’s gigs, talking to people in the industry, volunteering at local events and supporting other creatives in your town/city/country.

Outsource
Chances are, you also have a day job and can’t do it all yourself. Or you probably could but “burnout” might be your middle name. If you can’t do something, get someone else to do it. If you don’t know, ask. We’ve got to get out of the silo of “if I ask, then people will know I don’t know!”. Chances are they didn’t know at some stage as well.

Yes (insert shameless self-promotion) sorting out your digital marketing timeline and strategy is exactly what we do here at Do Re Media. We can create content for your next blog post, design a digital marketing plan for your next EP, create a social media calendar for your content or give you a lesson on HOW the hell all this works. Head to our workshops page for the latest workshop dates!

SO what are you waiting for?!

Delilah Walsh, Digital Communications