Going after a musical career is something that requires all of a person’s passion and energy. Nowadays people are opting to self-record and/or self-release their music. Here are a few tips and tricks to help you out when self-releasing music. Marketing & Branding Social media is an extremely powerful source for marketing and branding. Therefore, before anything ever releases we recommend that an artist take a quick look at all of their postings on all of their social media platforms. This is extremely important for a couple of reasons, but it's most important to make sure that your fans are just as pumped as you are for your release, and are engaging in pre-release posts and content. Releasing your project without an engaged audience will not lead to much success, even if the material is outstanding. You may be asking yourself "what if user engagement was never great". Well, then you may need to take more drastic measures. You may need to consider giveaways of merchandise, offer prizes for competitions, make it your number one priority to make sure you have an audience. Make sure that you understand the current trends on social media, and then construct all of your content around that. When engagement does begin to rise, start to post things related to the new release. This will generate anticipation and excitement for the album and will have people counting down the days till the great release. One way to do this is to post videos/photos for people to hear a little snippet of the song before it releases. Up until the day of your release make sure to continue to post to all of your social media and constantly promote. Booking Shows Booking shows can sometimes be quite a daunting task. One thing that you need to start doing is building connections with people as you go. A release show is a perfect way to promote your new music and is also an incredible opportunity to make new connections, new fans and sell merch. Organizing and promoting your own show is a great way to get live music experience. Inviting other artists from around the area is a perfect way to get a new audience and fresh ears. Always try to maintain a human connection when working with venues. While email and social media are great ways to communicate, nothing works better than a good-old fashion phone call.
Timing When is a good time to release your new material? A great time to release a new album/song(s) is after the New Year. People are expecting new releases and new sounds after listening to "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" for 2 months straight. Summer is also a great time but is a time when a lot of artists are also releasing, so you may face a lot of competition during this time. All in all, before releasing new music you must first have a game plan. Make sure you are marketing at the right times and to the right people. Make sure you are booking shows, and also make sure your release is timed perfectly to get the biggest audience. Happy Playing!