How to Promote Music for Free

Promoting music can be an expensive proposition. Big budgets for radio promotional campaigns, and buying TV, radio, print and online media advertising are largely the domain of established artists who are signed to record labels with national or international distribution deals.For an independent artist responsible for their own booking and distribution, it's difficult to justify the cost of buying an ad in a magazine, or paying a radio promoter to deliver your CD to targeted radio stations.Fortunately, there are an ever-increasing number of resources available for indie artists looking to promote their music for free.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Computer
• High-speed internet connection
• Video Camera

Be Sociable

1. Sign up with social networking sites. Although it can be time-consuming to adequately promote homepages on several different networking sites, it can be worth the effort. Why limit yourself to one particular group of subscribers? If you're promoting yourself exclusively on "iLike", for example, you're missing the opportunities that "Facebook" offers. Even if you don't have enough time to devote to really plugging all of these pages, just having a profile there with music samples is worthwhile, if only to ensnare casual browsers. Obviously, "MySpace" is the big fish in this particular sea, and because of its huge audience, it should probably be your first port of call. When someone lands on your page, your music automatically serenades the visitor. Given that this homepage basically functions as a mini-website without the hosting fee, a little legwork is a small price to pay .

2. Make yourself an active member of a few music business forums. Ask questions about topics you don't understand; answer questions about those that you do, or simply join in general discussions that interest you. It's a great way to share a little knowledge as well gain some. Further, if you make sure that you have a website link function as the signature on your forum profile page, every single post you make will display a live link to your musical wares.

3. Link to the competition. By being friendly and cooperative with others in your field. You can all reap the benefit of sharing fans. So don't be shy about asking to trade links on each other's websites and networking pages. If you hear good music, let your fans know about it; you'll probably endear yourself to the artist in question, and they may reciprocate and send a few of their listeners your way.

Be Seen

4. Play live shows. There's no CD promotion quite like it. Don't forget to make sure you have some sort of CD display box with you at every gig. It's still the most effective way to sell them. If someone really likes your show and there's merchandise for sale right by the stage, they're more likely to buy than if they have to visit a website the next day, when the thrill may have worn off somewhat.

5. Make video recordings of your shows. Take the best performances and upload them to "YouTube" and all of the sites where you have an online presence. Let the quality of the song and the performance speak for you, rather than the number of pixels and edits.

6. Support your local live music scene by attending your fellow musicians' gigs. Ask them for the opportunity to open a few of their shows and then return the favor. It's a great way for both artists to expose their music to a new audience.

Be Heard

7. Be a blogger, and try to post often. Whether it's functioning as a personal diary, as a news page, or a combination of the two, a blog is the perfect way to nurture the connection between you and your audience. Encourage your readers to subscribe to your blog via an RSS feed. That way, every post will be instantly delivered to them. Be sure to ask to exchange links with other like-minded bloggers to help build traffic. Most will be open to this since it's so mutually beneficial.

8. Make your music available royalty-free to any podcaster who wants to play it on their podcast. It's free music for them and it's free airplay for you. Sign up with, and upload your tracks to "The Podsafe Music Network" and they'll make them part of their catalogue and give you an artist page with all of your songs listed. Podcasters can then browse for music to play in their podcasts. Whenever a Podcast features your music, you receive an email with a link to the podcaster's website or blog. Podcasters post their own playlists, so you'll see your track listed, usually with a link back to your own website.

9. Submit your music to review sites. It may be tough to get your CD reviewed in "Rolling Stone" or "Spin," but by targeting smaller, indie online magazines and blogs, you can greatly increase your chance of online publicity. Many of them are run by hobbyists with a niche audience and are usually more receptive to submissions than the bigger websites.

Tips & Warnings

• Make sure that you're continually updating your mailing list. A sign-up sheet should be with you every time you play live. Make it accessible, so that anyone can easily add their contact info.
• "Last FM" and "Pandora Radio" are two other sites that should be part of your arsenal. They're both free services and although they differ in their approach, they both target listeners based on their music preferences and listening habits. The idea is that your music will be aligned with music of a similar style and thus reach the ears of listeners more likely to appreciate your music.
• It's a good idea to visit fan forums of those bands and artists in your genre whose sound or musical approach is similar to yours. If you interact with fans of artists you respect and admire, there's every chance that they might find your music interesting too. Give them an opportunity to hear your music and see what happens. Best case scenario--they buy a CD. At the very worst, they may not buy, but this person who may never have been aware of you otherwise, will have been exposed to your name and your music. Not only that, they'll likely recognize your name and sound if they happen upon you again in the future.
• Be careful when adding personal information to profile pages of websites. There's really nothing to be gained by adding addresses, birthdays, family information and such. Keep it professional; the name of your act and website address should suffice.
• Be careful when offered free trials with sites offering song pitching and other services. It might be free for a month or two, but when you sign up they still ask for a credit card number, so that when the trial period ends, unless you're really on the ball and promptly cancel your membership, they'll quietly begin charging the regular monthly fees to your card.
• Think before you speak. Say something ugly or inflamatory on a forum or website and it can come back to haunt you, since it can be impossible to truly erase information on the internet.

Resources

• Sign up at Last FM here
• Pandora Radio is here
• See a typical artist page at The Podsafe Music Network

[misthaven]

on 7/24/2009 Great article. You're very informed on this. 5*