How
to Self Promote Your Music   By
Heather McDonald
Unless
you have major label money behind you, the ability to self promote
your music is one of the most important skills you can have. When
you don't have money to hire PR people to run media campaigns for
you, it is up to you to make sure people know about the music you
are making. Getting started can be a little overwhelming, however.
These steps will help you start out on the right foot, to make sure
all of the right people are standing up and taking notice of you.
Here's How:
1. Identify Your Goals - When you set out to promote
your music, don't try to cover too much ground at once. Look at
the way larger artists are promoted - they have specific campaigns
that promote specific things, like a new album or a tour. Choose
one thing to promote, like:
• A single
• A show
• A website
Once you know what to promote, you will be able to make clear goals
for yourself, i.e. if you want to promote your website, then your
goal is to bring traffic to the site. With these goals in mind,
you'll find it easier to come up with promotion ideas, and you'll
be better able to judge the success of your promotions...
Read
the full article here.
Heather McDonald is a freelance writer and full time music fan.
She splits her time between North Carolina and coastal South Carolina.
She has worked in the music industry since her teen years. She started
out sitting behind a record store counter, first as an employee
and then as the manager of a small, independent record store. During
her time at the record store, Heather worked closely with both major
and independent labels on new release promotion and worked on in
store performances from artists as varied as The Barenaked Ladies
and Alejandro Escavado. Heather left the record store to move to
Glasgow, Scotland, where she worked at indie label Shoeshine Records.
There, Heather wore the jack of all trades hat: dealing with manufacturing
and distribution, securing international licensing agreements, artist
management, tour booking, and album promotion. She has worked with
artists like BMX Bandits, Laura Cantrell, Paul Burch, and Steve
Young. Heather left Shoeshine after six years and now works as a
freelance writer, covering music for many print and web outlets
and doing PR for labels and bands. |
Onlinegigs
empowers you with multiple ways to communicate and get news
out about upcoming shows or other special events to your fans
and media. This is a crucial aspect of touring that is very
often not given the priority that it should be given simply
because it is a very labor intensive process. Onlinegigs has
changed that! A general press release about an event other
than promoting an upcoming show can be sent out by doing a
quick search of the media contacts based on the criteria you
need (for instance, if you were doing a radio campaign you
could search by that type of contact only). Notifying media
and fans of upcoming shows has been reduced to the click of
a few buttons. When you schedule a new performance, part of
the form gives you the option to automatically send out a
performance press release to any combination of media categories
you want to include. You simply put in the number of days
prior to the event that you want the press release to go out,
specify within how many miles of the venue you want to include,
make any edits that you want to the press release and that's
it. It is a good practice to ask the venues where you schedule
shows if they have a media list and cross-reference that with
the database. The talent buyer will be impressed, any updates
or additions you make to the database will earn credit toward
your subscription, and you're getting the word out about your
show to as many people as possible! 
