by Jnmarseille13 (April 27th, 2024)
by Jnmarseille13 (April 27th, 2024)
“Make good music, and watch your audience grow”. “Let the music speak for itself”. “You don’t need to do all that social media bullcrap to build your audience”.... Lots of sentences that we’ve all been hearing often as struggling musicians. And when we tried to follow that kind of advice, we realized at some point that those statements are simply not realistic for up and coming artists and producers. You make an amazing piece of art, you let it sit, hoping that people will come and listen, and no one cares.
Every successful release, in the history of recorded music, has benefited from a high amount of promotion. Sure, there was no social media when Michael Jackson released his album Thriller, which remains to this day, one of the most successful albums ever. Sure, the quality of the music in Thriller plays a big role in this success. But it would be naive to believe that it was the music only that contributed to this achievement. It was a combination of creative and innovative promotion techniques that led to this.
Every era had its main promotion platform. And nowadays, our main platform is social media. So the question is : how do you promote your music with social media?
Yes, this is obvious, but it needs to be said. How are people going to know who you are, what you have released, when you will release your next project? Through social media. But you shouldn’t only use your social media to update your followers about your release. You have to communicate with them, react to their feedback (by answering their comments, talking with them), tell them about who you are as a musician, what’s your message, what benefit they will get by following you and supporting you in your journey!
“Interactive”, in this context, means posts where your followers can see you, a human being, doing stuff, and not just the material you release. Sure, it’s nice to show them your beautiful album cover and let them know that it’s out everywhere. But it’s even better to show them that you are a human like them, who has a message to deliver, and something to offer. So instead of just posting your single artwork, why would you not post a video of you telling them the story behind your single, or a short performance of you singing or playing it?
Of course, you are not an influencer, but a musician. However, social media influencers have been a thing for a bit more than 10 years now, and we all saw how people (not just the younger generations) are interested to be updated about their daily activities. As a musician, it’s up to you to use those techniques to show that you have an interesting life and a lot of things to do, while also being an artist with a message.
This is a risky one. But you may be interested in doing something that will shock a big group of people and bring attention to you. Then when you have everyone talking about you, you can use this exposure to bring this attention to your music. But be careful about the kind of clout that you search for, as it can sometimes bring negative attention!
Making content with other similar artists in your niche (or outside) can be interesting. It shows your followers something different from usual, and it’s also a way to attract your partner’s community and vice versa : a win-win situation.
Most social media platforms have integrated ways to pay for your posts to have more exposure. It can be expensive, but it’s a way to make sure your post is seen by a lot of people. However, if you want your content to succeed and drive the audience to your music, your content needs to be something that you’d know would catch people’s attention even without promoting it. So you have to follow all the advice above.
However, some people claim that the more you use these tools, the more platforms will lower your natural reach so that you continue to be dependent on paid promotions and ensure you come back and spend money. But this has never been confirmed by the platforms, so there’s no way to know for sure…
Those were a few techniques that you can use to be relevant on social media as a musician. Make sure to be creative and unique in everything you do, and of course, you make sure your music is good. Good luck!
“Make good music, and watch your audience grow”. “Let the music speak for itself”. “You don’t need to do all that social media bullcrap to build your audience”.... Lots of sentences that we’ve all been hearing often as struggling musicians. And when we tried to follow that kind of advice, we realized at some point that those statements are simply not realistic for up and coming artists and producers. You make an amazing piece of art, you let it sit, hoping that people will come and listen, and no one cares.
Every successful release, in the history of recorded music, has benefited from a high amount of promotion. Sure, there was no social media when Michael Jackson released his album Thriller, which remains to this day, one of the most successful albums ever. Sure, the quality of the music in Thriller plays a big role in this success. But it would be naive to believe that it was the music only that contributed to this achievement. It was a combination of creative and innovative promotion techniques that led to this.
Every era had its main promotion platform. And nowadays, our main platform is social media. So the question is : how do you promote your music with social media?
Yes, this is obvious, but it needs to be said. How are people going to know who you are, what you have released, when you will release your next project? Through social media. But you shouldn’t only use your social media to update your followers about your release. You have to communicate with them, react to their feedback (by answering their comments, talking with them), tell them about who you are as a musician, what’s your message, what benefit they will get by following you and supporting you in your journey!
“Interactive”, in this context, means posts where your followers can see you, a human being, doing stuff, and not just the material you release. Sure, it’s nice to show them your beautiful album cover and let them know that it’s out everywhere. But it’s even better to show them that you are a human like them, who has a message to deliver, and something to offer. So instead of just posting your single artwork, why would you not post a video of you telling them the story behind your single, or a short performance of you singing or playing it?
Of course, you are not an influencer, but a musician. However, social media influencers have been a thing for a bit more than 10 years now, and we all saw how people (not just the younger generations) are interested to be updated about their daily activities. As a musician, it’s up to you to use those techniques to show that you have an interesting life and a lot of things to do, while also being an artist with a message.
This is a risky one. But you may be interested in doing something that will shock a big group of people and bring attention to you. Then when you have everyone talking about you, you can use this exposure to bring this attention to your music. But be careful about the kind of clout that you search for, as it can sometimes bring negative attention!
Making content with other similar artists in your niche (or outside) can be interesting. It shows your followers something different from usual, and it’s also a way to attract your partner’s community and vice versa : a win-win situation.
Most social media platforms have integrated ways to pay for your posts to have more exposure. It can be expensive, but it’s a way to make sure your post is seen by a lot of people. However, if you want your content to succeed and drive the audience to your music, your content needs to be something that you’d know would catch people’s attention even without promoting it. So you have to follow all the advice above.
However, some people claim that the more you use these tools, the more platforms will lower your natural reach so that you continue to be dependent on paid promotions and ensure you come back and spend money. But this has never been confirmed by the platforms, so there’s no way to know for sure…
Those were a few techniques that you can use to be relevant on social media as a musician. Make sure to be creative and unique in everything you do, and of course, you make sure your music is good. Good luck!