Promote on MySpace
This is one of the first stops for many new artist, as the popularity of the site continues to grow.
Setting up music pages is simple and quick, and features like event listings, birthday announcements, bulletin postings, music and video player all come for free.
It has become an essential tool in marketing online. Be careful not to bog your page down with too much graphics and widgets, and join the millions of people online at MySpace.
Don't forget about Facebook.
Similar to MySpace with numbers to rival it, Facebook is another social app that is a great new marketing tool for independent acts.
Place it on Craigslist!
Have a party coming up and you want to invite as many people as possible? Throw an ad up on Craigslist. Think of a couple of ways to say it and repost a few ads on Craigslist at the same time.
Example- draft one page to say "Come out to see our band play at Joe's Bar, TONIGHT". Then make another one that promotes your myspace page, with a mention of your live act mentioned second. You can do a few variations like this to avoid getting blocked by Craigslist, as well as exposing yourself in multiple listings.
Don't forget to sell something! Since your already on Craigslist, offer whatever you may have to sell: i.e. books, CDs, DVDs, pictures, services, tickets, etc.
Create a blog site
Blog sites are one of the newest ways to promote yourself online. Major corporations are setting up blogs by the second. The opportunities that come with maintaining a good blog site are many, as you can promote yourself directly to subscribers as well as random visitors. Voice your opinion on current matters and bring a new audience to your page, giving your music more exposure!
Sites like Wordpress and Blogger offer free hosting services, and tons of adds ons, or widgets, are available as well, bringing video, texting, photos and more to your site. Take the time to learn about blogs and get yours going asap!
Newsletters
Similar to setting up a blog, newsletters are a great way to promote your music to people! If you don't have one, you can set them up pretty easy, many of the free blog host have them added as a feature.
Looking to boost your newsletter membership up? Make sure you take a guest list at your next event! Set up sign up sheets with pens at tables in your next event, and watch how many people leave their info!
Email blast
Once you have a newsletter set up, you have to keep your audience entertained! This is where the email blast come in! After all, they want to know the scoop before the next guy does. Make sure you give them something on a regular basis. Monthly may be a bit too slow, while daily is overkill. Somewhere in the middle is a good way to start.
Work with other promoters, on & offline!
Reaching out to other music promoters is always a good thing. While you will have to deal with a few bad eggs before finding the few good promoters, reaching out to them all will boost your presence and give you a good look at how it's done. Once you start to work in your area, people will feel more comfortable working with you as well. Soon you will have a list of past gigs under your belt, which always helps to promote your future work!
Email promoters of other parties that you see on social sites. Go to their parties, hang out a bit. The internet is good for promoting, but you need to meet people to build relationships too. Get from behind the computer every once in a while and go met some other people!
Maximize social sites, aggrgator and rss sites!
Sites like Flickr, Reddit, Digg, are all social sites, with potential to market your material to several people at once! Set up accounts with these sites and begin to learn how they work.
Soon you will see how you can plug your own blogs into these networks and promote yourself on a indie grass roots level, while making meeting new people!
Research your industry!
The best way to learn how to promote yourself and your music is by learning from those who already have. I am a big believer in research and studying the music industry on a whole.
Example..log on to your favorite search engine and type in music related searches. Mind you, you will get a few bogus sites and companies trying to pitch their services. If your patient and wade through them, you will start to find some interesting tips and articles scattered. Change up your search query and check the results. Use words like music promotions, music industry tips.
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