Internet Promotion for the Indie Artist

Written by Beatwize. Published: Tuesday, September 1, 2009.

So for the past two weeks I’ve spoken about how tough it was for indie artists to get their names out. This week I have a bright light at the end of the tunnel. Everyone sees it, but no one gets to it the right way. The internet is such a great tool for bringing out your music, yet it seems that artists aren’t using it right.

Internet music promotion became a huge thing when MySpace began music pages. It wasn’t the first, but it was the biggest at it’s time. Soon, everyone started getting a music page whether they were good, bad, or just doing it for fun. MySpace got flooded with these websites and soon it just became a nucience. But still, other social networking sites tried the same. Facebook went ahead and made a Pages section for numerous types of things – artists being one of them. But people started making really dumb pages like “I like cookies”, “Shooting a wall” etc. Again, the site got flooded with nonense and good artists never got a chance. The net has made it easy and hard to promote yourself. Easy because accessability to potential fans is a lot easier. Hard because you went from just local competition for promotion to a global mass of artists doing exactly what you’re doing.

So how do we get past all this? How can an artist in a worldwide pool of talent get his or her name out there? It’s not easy, but the key is ‘branding’. Keep your name and put it everywhere. Make sure no one else has it. Using social networking sites (SNS), post your name, or rather your ‘brand’, and let everyone know who you are. Make sure that if someone crosses over to another SNS, they know it’s you and no one else. Those connections cross-site will be a huge help to your promotion. So what are the possible things you could do to brand yourself? Well, there’s a few…

MySpace: The classical internet promoter. Now it’s kind of played out, so I wouldn’t suggest it; but keep one regardless, everything helps.
Facebook: Use those pages to the max. Put up your music, send regular updates, get your fans to hit the “Share” button to show your friends. Before you know it, you’ll have tons of followers and that can only lead to more promotion.
Blogging: Send to blogs and/or create your own blog. Self-promote your music on a blog you’ve created and make sure to let people know you have a blog. It’s probably the best way to create a site, but that’s all about preference. Sending to blogs is definitely another thumbs up, but a lot of blogs will pass it off if you don’t have contacts.
Twitter: Probably the newest most powerful way to connect to artists. Just sitting tweeting on a normal day, I find at least two new artists in my followers box. Every once in a while I’ll even find a magazine, label rep, or promoter following me as well. At the same time, you can have fun with this one – make it publicity-wise but also personal. Let your followers know you’re comfortable with them so that when you drop a song, they’ll want to check it out. If all you do is promote your stuff on your Twitter, chances are people will ignore you and stop following your profile. It’s all about balance. And if someone starts following you, check out their page. If you think they’ll help you in any way, follow them too!

These are probably my top four net-branding faves. There’s others like FriendFeed, ReverbNation etc., but these are definitely the most powerful. So go out there and get your name out!

Category: WizeThoughts

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