In today's music industry, there is more music on the market than ever before. Today's technology has allowed “anyone" to create music, release it on streaming platforms, become a superstar in under 24 hours, and then be forgotten just as quickly. The importance of standing out from the noise and finding your own audience and your own followers has therefore become even more important.
The idea of this plan is to help you discover how, through your unique personality, life journey, creativity, and voice, you can reach more people with your music and make a lasting impact in people's lives and on this world.
How To Easily Stand Out From The Noise
How do you stand out from all the noise? Well, by simply being yourself to the fullest. You are unique and have a very special combination of personality, experience, abilities, and wisdom the world is just waiting to access. Yes, it's about access to yourself.
Unlike when promoting physical things, in most cases, Music is not a product that solves a specific problem. Music is a medium that conveys emotions. It can make us feel joy, peace, belonging, sadness, meaning, anger, and a lot of other things. In other words, the music itself is just a tool to make people experience emotions. The product itself is ACCESS to YOURSELF. The product that people want to pay for is access to your unique perspective on the world, your unique life journey, your way of thinking, your tastes, your feelings, etc, which you convey to the world through text and music and which makes people feel belonging because they can personally relate to what you sing about.
Craft your Music Marketing Guide In 3 Steps
Your marketing and promotion plan doesn't have to be complicated or difficult to come up with. It only consists of 3 simple parts that you have to define. 1. Vision, 2. Target audience, and 3. Strategy. Please see below.
1. Your Vision/Message
The first step is to know what we want to market, and why. What do you want to say to the world through your music? Maybe you're thinking that your music is just self-fulfilling that doesn't really have any more purpose than being a draft of emotions that you scooped out of you in the toilet at the nightclub, but try to think through and ask yourself the following questions: What emotions in the song can people relate to? What do I want to say with this song?
2. The Target Audience
In order to market something, you need to know who to target. The whole world will not be interested in you and your music, but there is no need for that either. All you have to do is figure out who your target audience is.
To find your target audience, ask yourself the following questions:
Who has listened to my music before? For instance, look at your Spotify For Artists profile, what kind of people listen to your music the most?
Who can relate to my personality? Example: your life journey, existential thoughts, humor, dreams, moral/ethical likes, etc.
Who can relate to my song? Ex: who recognizes themselves in the message, which person is the song written for/from, what does this person struggle with/what does it long for?
Now list people and groups that can relate to any of the above, think both in large Terms (age groups, demographics) but also in small terms as specific people who you know and who have inspired you.
3. The Marketing Strategy
How do you find and reach out to these people? - By practicing the 3 ESSES: SHOW UP, SEEK OUT, and SAY SOMETHING.
SHOW UP
In order for people to find you and your music, you need to be visible and SHOW UP to the world and your target audience. This is the first step. Examples of practicing the step SHOW UP are shown below:
Create a stunning album cover that will make more people open their eyes
Ask someone to take a photo of you as an artist
Be active on social media (share your music and inspirations, talk to people - invite yourself)
Get a website where information about you and your music is available, as well as contact information.
Share your own playlists on your artist profile on Spotify, and include your own music
SEEK OUT
In order to reach more people, it's not enough to just wait for the world to come to you. You need to actively seek out those people who belong to your target audience. Examples of practical searches can be found below:
Write and tip influencers/magazines that inspired you personally / influence your target group
Recommend newspapers and magazines that reach your target audience
Write and recommend your song to people who have playlists of similar music on Spotify
Tell friends and family, people you already know about your music
SAY SOMETHING
The third step is to SAY SOMETHING, and it's actually as simple as it sounds. For people to notice you and your music, you have to say something to get the world's attention and let the world hear your voice.
What are you gonna say? To know what to say, you need to ask yourself what from your life you want to share with the world. There are several ways for you as an Artist to use your unique voice to say something to the world. Ask yourself these questions and answer based on your own situation.
What interests/influences do you have? (What inspires you, what do you think is fun, art, poetry)
What dreams/ambitions do you have? (What do you want to learn, what do you want to achieve?)
What problems/frustrations do you have? (What bothers you in life?)
What opinions do you have? (What are you for and what are you against?)
What inspires you? (What inspires you on different levels in life, both in everyday life and in the creative?)
Now it's up to you to SHARE THIS WITH THE WORLD! Remember, it's not your music that's your product, it's access to yourself that's your product. People are curious about who you are and want to know more about the person behind the music that you make. That's what will make people want to follow and support you on your journey and become loyal fans. Build relationships with your target audience and make them feel like you're a person they want to get to know more.
Ending
The world longs for what is genuine and real and is drawn to people who dare to be themselves fully, who dare to vulnerable to the world and show that they are human beings with struggles, dreams and needs like we all do. Keep in mind that the most important thing in your marketing and promotion, is that you should be completely yourself - not some copycat or wannabe someone/something other than what you are. The world longs to take part in the inner beauty that your soul carries, so go and have fun!
