Introduction
As the fear of contracting the corona virus spread across the world, local and state governments began to shut down places of gathering to help flatten the curve. Bars, ampitheatres, concert halls, and all other venues became vacuums of desolation, virtually destroying the cultural epicenters of most cities. This shutdown didn’t just impact business owners, it also beat the guitars, mics, and drum sticks out of the hands of hundreds of thousands of musicians, pausing their ability to perform and market the songs they worked so hard to write and produce.
Many of you may see this corona virus pandemic as a break from the normal, everyday life. It gives us an unforeseen amount of free time to find new hobbies, learn new skills, and get better at the things we’ve already learned. As a musician, the silver lining here is that we have more time to write new music, learn new instruments, and become better all around musicians, but it’s also important to promote the music you’ve already sent out. More people are home now than ever before making this the perfect time to push your music to its maximum potential. Here are 5 ways to promote your music during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tip 1 – Perform on a Live Stream
In the past couple of months, live streaming has become one of the most prominent methods for businesses, brands, and musicians to speak and engage with their audiences. The industry is up by 99% year over year and it has grown over 45% in just March and April alone. Live streaming allows you to communicate and perform for your freinds, family, fans, haters, and anyone else who is willing to listen in real time creating a unique experience for everyone involved. There are plenty of platforms to stream on and the choice is yours to decide whether you’d like to show off your fresh sweatpants and new quarantine haircut on Facebook, Twitch, Instagram or YouTube.
It’s not as simple as just turning the camera on and having a chat with your audience though, you need to make your live streams engaging and ensure that your audience knows the stream is happening. It’s important to promote your stream just as you would with a live performance. Tell your followers on Instagram with an instagram story, share your live stream link to your personal and business facebook pages, create a quick video and share it on your YouTube page…whatever it takes to let your audience know that you’ll be live. These posts will pull in a variety of viewers, but you also need to keep them engaged. You can stream a Q&A, perform a new live set, or even teach your audience how to play your most popular song live. As with anything artistic, the more creative you are the more likely people are going to watch you. Treat these live streams as if you were in the room with your audience and the rest will come naturally.
To learn more about the pros and cons of each platform read this article: https://growyoursound.com/2020/05/18/best-live-streaming-platforms-for-musicians/
Tip 2 – Utilize Social Media
As more and more people began to work from home, the amount of individuals on social media surged. Engagement increased 61% over normal usage rates and the amount of people on Twitter alone increased 23% when compaed to last year. These numbers matched by the amount of free time everyone has makes this the perfect opportunity to double down on a social media strategy for your music. Social media is not just about posting your favorite photos or videos to Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. There is a deeper strategy that will guarantee an increase in followers as well as an increase in engagement.
First of all, you need to be posting content consistently across each platform. Whether that be posting pictures and videos of your previous live shows, giving tours of your gear, or recording videos of you playing your favorite songs, you need to ensure that your content makes it through the clutter. Since everyone and their mother is also posting daily, you need to ensure that your content is seen. Secondly, you need to be sure to engage with your audience. This means replying to comments, commenting on your followers posts, and commenting on other musicians posts. Building these relationships will ensure that your community feels welcome and involved with your music.
You can also route to utilize paid ads and sponsored posts across the multiple social media platforms. This will allow you to find an audience who may have never heard of your music before and increase the reach potential of your posts. These cost money and are less organic, but the results show that utilizing paid posts boosts your impressions significantly where social ad impressions are up 20% year over year.
Tip 3 – Reach out to publications, podcasts, and interviewers
As important as a social media strategy is, it shouldnt be your only digital marketing strategy. Building a larger presence online is extremely important as well and it will give you the upperhand during these trying times. There are hundreds of thousands of music blogs, podcasts, and publications that are looking for independent artists to interview. Especially now, with so many professionals looking for content to publish in order to keep their audience’s minds off of the world around them, you are more likely than ever to have your pitch accepted. Cold call, cold email, and direct message these publications on social media with your story and your pitch. The more people and publications you reach out to the more likely you will be to break through the clutter and find someone willing to write or speak about your music.
This larger digital marketing strategy should also include a website for yourself or your band as well as profiles on every music platform you can find. It is extremely important to get your name out to as many people as possible.
Tip 4 – Get your music on all platforms
Similar to the last tip, you should be streaming your music on as many platforms as you can find. Spotify and SoundCloud are great starts, but there are thousands of other streaming platforms that will allow you to upload your music and create a free profile. Since you can’t go out and perform your new songs at open mics or concerts, you need to find a new way for your audience to hear you making the distribution of your music extremely important.
Similar to the social media strategy, you can not simply post your song and expect the masses to come and find it. You need to distribute your music and then strategically promote it across your other digital profiles. This means posting on social media, promoting thorugh your website, or creating posts on your streaming profiles. You can utilize social media with this step as well by creating music videos and promoting those across IGTV, YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, and any of the other thousand platforms that allow video. Having a video element attached to your music is extremely important today and as long as you have a smart phone you can create something.
Tip 5 – Promote your merch
As with most industries right now, many bands and artists are struggling financially. This could be the perfect opportunity to promote your brand specifically through your merchandise. You can use all of the tips above to promote your merch, but it is important to create merch that people will want to buy, even if they’ve never heard of your music before. There are millions of people who will buy a band shirt without even listening to their music. I can’t tell you how many times i’ve been in a crowd and saw a girl with a Nirvana shirt to find out she didn’t even know who Kurt Cobain was. You logo or art work across your merchandise can help promote both your music and your brand without you having to even lift a finger. Band mrech is like creating moving billboards.
If you would like to create new merchandise, this would be the perfect opportunity for you to work with a graphic designer who can create incredible art for you at a reasonable price. There are thousands of freelance graphic design websites that will match you with an artist who can create a T-shirt design, hat design, or album cover design for you. What’s a good band without a good album cover, right? You can then go ahead and sell these items across the web on sites like Etsy, EBay, ThreadUp, or your own personal website. Don’t forget about that backlog of old tour merch too. This is the perfect opportunity to sell those items and make space for new designs.
Conclusion
As you can see there are hundreds of creative ways that you can promote your music without even leaving your bedroom. Live streams, social media, digital marketing, and merch sales will help you propel your career and grow your sound exponentially. We offer a variety of services in order to assist you in growing yourself or your band’s presence online and are willing to help you navigate the complexities of the digital world. Learn more about our services here: https://growyoursound.com/
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