Most music folk now know you don’t need a Universal or Sony behind you to enter the online music market and many independent artists are forging ahead and becoming increasingly savvy in the online music world. Services like Tunecore and CD Baby enable you to sell your music through the big digital music outlets: iTunes, Amazon MP3, eMusic, and Rhapsody, to name a few. Getting online is the easy part it’s the marketing once you’ve arrived online that takes the real work.
Marketing online is usually done to a smaller audience and requires targeted exposure. Having made your music and got it online, promotion is now the key to making people aware and building your fan base and sales.
Many indie bands are looking to use means that give them as much global exposure as possible including social networking, blogs and internet radio. This can also include sending out bulletins on MySpace and utilizing your email list.
MySpace and MySpace Music continues as one of the most well-known and well-trafficked social networks for artists and bands alike and is especially useful because it provides a play counter on your embedded music that lets you measure reaction to certain things on a day-to-day basis. It also provides the opportunity for bands to sell their wares and interact with fans.
A number of indie artists have commented on their tracks turning up on P2P networks and have found that although they could take the view that this amounts to stealing and action could be taken they have actually benefited by their music getting greater exposure. This in turn has lead to sales gradually increasing and more people turning up to live shows.
Music Money Link:
Keep an eye on it!
Having taken the time to get your website up and running you must give attention to marketing and promotion this is essential when it comes to making money from your music.
Call to Action:
What are you doing at present to market your music? If this is a problem take some time out to do some research. Go online and see what others are doing that you can cost effectively replicate. In this short video Hagop Tchaparian discusses music marketing online, specifically for start up bands and artists. As Hagop says “just do it”.
