How To Market Your Release on a Budget
Not all of us walk around with Marketing degrees under our belts, and especially for artists starting out, this can be one of the hardest sectors of the industry to get right. Too much marketing can overwhelm your potential fans, not enough can limit your chances of gaining traction in a highly competitive industry. An important note is that marketing can also be expensive and big campaigns are often unrealistic for fresher artists whose followings are growing steadily but might not have the financial backing to splurge on a marketing campaign for every new release. Below, I’ve included some tips to pave the way for marketing that amazing new release of yours without breaking the bank.
How To Market Your Release on a Budget
- Establish your brand.
The best way to go about this is to be faithful to who you are, what you want to represent, and put out into the world. This will permeate into everything you post. Take a moment to assess what kind of artist you are. This will make producing marketing content a lot easier when you know which angle you are coming from.
- Get your website sorted.
If you don’t have a website dedicated to your music/brand yet – you need one. This should be the one-stop-shop for potential fans so include a concise but interesting bio, your music with attachments or links to where it is being released, shortcuts to your social media accounts, and updates on your upcoming events and releases.
- Social Media.
Make sure your social media platforms are active and clear. Ensure your bios include relevant details, but don’t be afraid to put in something memorable about you too.
Similar to 1, your social media should reflect who you are so don’t overload your followers posting about your latest release without including content alongside this as all they will see is ‘Out Now’ or ‘Latest Release’ without any context of who you are as an artist – they need a reason to want to click the link.
Use hashtags to link your content to the wider world.
Some good ideas for posting include backstage footage of your recent gigs, life updates, your interests/hobbies outside of your career, cover art, and merch. “Promote yourself as a person who also happens to be a musician”.1 - Utilise the resources available to you already.
Spotify for Artists: Upload your releases and pitch music for Spotify’s playlists. Note: you can only pitch music that hasn’t been released yet so get your new track up weeks before the actual release.
TikTok: There are a number of platforms that you can upload your music to that makes it available for users to choose for their TikTok content. Who knows, your track could be the music for the latest viral dance challenge. - Don’t forget the oldies, but goodies
Live Gigs: A lot of artists start out performing at their local pub’s open mic night. Don’t stop. You can even tour around your area, widening your fanbase by performing live gigs in the popular spots in town.
Local Radio Stations: Send your latest release to your local radio stations alongside a press release. Keep a lookout for openings such as BBC Music Introducing and you might hear your release on the radio!
Utilise the free marketing at your disposable, both the physical kind that involves you performing and the virtual content that can reach a wider audience.
Marketing can be creative and individualised so use your new release as an opportunity to reassess how you are marketing yourself as an artist already. Most importantly, have fun when marketing your release, it doesn’t have to become too pricey so focus on sharing your passion with your current and potential fans.
Useful links:
- https://www.ucraft.com/blog/7-tips-for-promoting-your-music-on-instagram
- https://www.mi.edu/in-the-know/promote-music-2021/
- https://bandzoogle.com/blog/7-top-marketing-strategies-for-musicians
- https://soundcharts.com/blog/tiktok-guide-for-artists-and-music-professionals
- https://dittomusic.com/en/blog/how-to-submit-music-to-spotify-playlists-directly/