How to Promote Your Mixtape to the Streets

Promote your mix tape on the streets using the Internet.

A mix tape (or a mix CD) is a collection of a musician's best songs or music to date that he uses to promote himself or his band. In this digital age, an online following must precede nearly all street promotion. Fortunately, this online following can help improve your chances of getting noticed when you do in-person promotion. Keep in mind that each artist, city and genre of music will work differently, and that no amount of promotion can help you if your music is not good.

Things You'll Need

• Recording studio
• Desktop publishing program
• Printer
• Blank CDs
• CD-R drive

Instructions

1. Create your mix tape, CD or online recording using the latest recording technology. Now that more and more artists have their own recording studios, your potential audience is accustomed to hearing music tracks of the highest quality. Try to find a friend who has his own studio and will let you work in trade, for free or cheaply.

2. Set up online fan pages on all the major websites. This should include sites on MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and any local musician websites. Look up musicians related to your genre of music who play in your area. Send them an email asking if it is possible for you to open for them or play with them. Do not immediately send them your mix tape until they ask.

3. Book a gig at a bar or club. Do not worry if nobody knows you yet, as this is the first hurdle you need to clear for publicity. Design and print a flyer for yourself that includes information on your websites and a place they can download your best song for free. Copy your best song or several of your best songs onto enough CDs to give at all your gigs.

4. Play the gigs and give your free CD to anybody willing to accept one. Accept all friend requests from your fan pages after the event. Keep tabs on any fans extremely devoted to your music. Repeat steps three and four until you have built up at least 10 fans who attended more than one show.

5. Request that these fans join your street team. A street team helps with promotions, posting flyers and devoting their resources. Keep booking gigs and ask your street team to promote you through distributing the free CD and flyers before, during and after the event. If your fan base continues to grow, your street team will also continue to get bigger and it will continue to feed your mix tape success.

6. Approach local radio stations and deejays with your mix tape. Give them a list of the shows you have played and give them statistics that show how many people have listened to your song. Do this until you get one or more deejays to promote your songs.

References

• Independent Music Advice: How to Make a Mixtape
• Boi Genius Beats: 4 Easy Steps to Promote Your Mixtape Better
• Gen Y Rock Stars: Music Marketing