Can anyone give me tips or advice on how to promote / sell my music?

hello

i make music and have just added some tracks to bandcamp but come to the realisation that i am totally rubbish in the art of promotion / marketing myself.

Knowing that there are a lot of you here that do really well with this sort of thing i wondered if you could offer up any useful tips on how is good to promote my music - either on bandcamp or other means

im sure there are other people here that would also like to know this, so any tips would be gratefully received

thanks :)

put all your time and energy into making music until your making music so good that anyone who hears it proactively wants to share it out of their own initiative

Link your music here, if its any good let watmm do the work for you.

  On 6/21/2014 at 11:33 AM, Cryptowen said:

put all your time and energy into making music until your making music so good that anyone who hears it proactively wants to share it out of their own initiative

  On 6/21/2014 at 3:19 PM, feltcher said:

Link your music here, if its any good let watmm do the work for you.

thanks :) , i did add a tune to the watmm group on soundcloud a few days ago actually havent checked if they approved it or not. note to self

Play shows, sell merch at shows, apply to festivals, keep creating, keep sharing, connect with like minded people in your area.

What's watmm's opinion on labels? Does it help having an album/EP released by a smalltime internet label?

viral market yourself on 4chan's music board

you're on the right track already in that you're spending more time and effort on making the music than promoting it.. you should keep it that way

link your music on all the appropriate music forums you can find... with some dignity..

spam short-time exposure places like 4chan's /mu/ relentlessly

since you're on bandcamp, try not to lazily spread your promotion campaign over time, ideally you want it to hit the daily/weekly charts

try to get connected with groups of similar artists, collaborate, repost and follow other people's music.. give a little, get a little

  On 6/21/2014 at 3:37 PM, th555 said:

What's watmm's opinion on labels? Does it help having an album/EP released by a smalltime internet label?

It can't hurt. Unless you're releasing on Rephlex this year.

Make something good and hope for the best.

Step 1: Make good music.

Step 2: ??????????????

Step 3: Profit

Edit: You've got some good shiz on your soundcloud there, so that's a great start.

  On 6/21/2014 at 4:18 PM, chim said:

you're on the right track already in that you're spending more time and effort on making the music than promoting it.. you should keep it that way

 

link your music on all the appropriate music forums you can find... with some dignity..

 

spam short-time exposure places like 4chan's /mu/ relentlessly

 

since you're on bandcamp, try not to lazily spread your promotion campaign over time, ideally you want it to hit the daily/weekly charts

 

try to get connected with groups of similar artists, collaborate, repost and follow other people's music.. give a little, get a little

thanks for this, really makes sense :)

  On 6/21/2014 at 6:19 PM, StephenG said:

Step 1: Make good music.

Step 2: ??????????????

 

Step 3: Profit

 

Edit: You've got some good shiz on your soundcloud there, so that's a great start.

ha thanks!, im scoping for that step 2 bit; some good jems though so far, really appreciate it!

send it to warp, they're gonna do it for you

jk, i really dont know. i have the same prob atm. but i guess my music is still not good enough. (primarily for my own expectations)

the only thing i can tell you is what i'm telling to my self is to make sure that your music is good enough to even exist. the rest will follow.

ok, ok, another thing is >>> make a lot of music. quality through quantity! yes, you'll make shit but something good will come out of it too. later, from 10-20 weak projects/tracks you can assemble 1 good one, taking the best parts of them. while working the only thing you have to do is to recognize the potentially good stuff. that's the 'taste' we usually talk about here, that computer/electronic composer/producer needs to have. 'taste' in rock or classical music or even mainstream 'electronic music' is something completely different imo.

  On 6/21/2014 at 6:43 PM, BIOXLAT said:

ha thanks!, im scoping for that step 2 bit; some good jems though so far, really appreciate it!

be creative. seriously. i know a lot of people that make music and just because of the sheer number of music released by all the people who now consider themselves producers, not only do you need to create music that hopefully resonates with your audience, but you need to stand out as well.

also i like music that's a full package: not just the tunes. i might explain this later because i gotta run. later

burn the CD

put it in a padded envelope

send it to Warp Records

Make a youtube video for your music with lots of ass and titties.

  On 6/22/2014 at 4:57 AM, Nebraska said:

 

  On 6/21/2014 at 6:43 PM, BIOXLAT said:

ha thanks!, im scoping for that step 2 bit; some good jems though so far, really appreciate it!

 

be creative. seriously. i know a lot of people that make music and just because of the sheer number of music released by all the people who now consider themselves producers, not only do you need to create music that hopefully resonates with your audience, but you need to stand out as well.

 

also i like music that's a full package: not just the tunes. i might explain this later because i gotta run. later

 

yeah good one, this is what im also thinking :) i always come up with something but then discover a few hundred other people already done it bit like that south park!? episode where the simpsons already did it. for me its a fine line between coming up with something but either not being cheesy or being a pretentious twat.

a side step but also, i find writing bio's really difficult. its something im not naturally good at talking about myself in a selling kind of way

about 20 years ago i did actually send a demo to warp in a 'what have i got to lose' moment and got a nice rejection back. never sent a demo since - although not because of that

  On 6/23/2014 at 1:50 PM, mokz said:

Make a youtube video for your music with lots of ass and titties.

haha!

  On 6/23/2014 at 1:50 PM, mokz said:

Make a youtube video for your music with lots of ass and titties.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQ1dZoUMfoE

I say give up completely.

Do what you want to do for yourself. As soon as marketing and money enter in too much, the fun goes away, and its very difficult to get people to pay attention. So its a lose lose. As long as you are enjoying what you make, and that you know in your heart that you are making the best music around, you will be happy. You cannot get mad when people don't download or listen.

Do your own thing, not even kidding at all. People will come eventually.

Unfortunately the label system is dead and piracy is up, few understand how bad this is for music. Few love music enough to devote their lives to it. People think being a "musician" (aka a hobbyist who works a 9-5 corporate jhob) is "fun" while real musicians (do you think captain beefheart or zappa had time for a fucking 9-5?) suffer

People think piracy is acceptable

And music labels should die, and then we get what is referred to by alan kirby as pseudom odernism

The flooding of the market with trite, shallow creations and the erosion of quality be ause everyone is an artist, everyone is creative, and nobody should get paid for music because i'm not and its fun, etc

Whatever, the album in my signature is honest to god complete shit. I needed money to fuel my own projects so i tried to make so eting that the average joe might like, i will never do this again, because as i said, lose lose. I hate the music i made and nobody bought it (edit: I don't hate it but I definitely feel that thinking about the audience and marketing can have a negative influence on your enjoyment of music and the overall quality... Ironically, the less you care the better the music is and the happier you are)

Play shows and try to make fans there and network with them

Edit: what am i talking about, i have no idea how to promote my own music....

Bite the heads off some animals (doves and bats have been done before)

  On 6/23/2014 at 8:00 PM, xox said:

 

  On 6/23/2014 at 1:50 PM, mokz said:

Make a youtube video for your music with lots of ass and titties.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQ1dZoUMfoE

 

now that is a great way to wake up ina morning ::)

  On 6/23/2014 at 8:21 PM, vamos scorcho said:

I say give up completely.

 

Do what you want to do for yourself. As soon as marketing and money enter in too much, the fun goes away, and its very difficult to get people to pay attention. So its a lose lose. As long as you are enjoying what you make, and that you know in your heart that you are making the best music around, you will be happy. You cannot get mad when people don't download or listen.

 

Do your own thing, not even kidding at all. People will come eventually.

 

Unfortunately the label system is dead and piracy is up, few understand how bad this is for music. Few love music enough to devote their lives to it. People think being a "musician" (aka a hobbyist who works a 9-5 corporate jhob) is "fun" while real musicians (do you think captain beefheart or zappa had time for a fucking 9-5?) suffer

 

People think piracy is acceptable

 

And music labels should die, and then we get what is referred to by alan kirby as pseudom odernism

 

The flooding of the market with trite, shallow creations and the erosion of quality be ause everyone is an artist, everyone is creative, and nobody should get paid for music because i'm not and its fun, etc

 

Whatever, the album in my signature is honest to god complete shit. I needed money to fuel my own projects so i tried to make so eting that the average joe might like, i will never do this again, because as i said, lose lose. I hate the music i made and nobody bought it (edit: I don't hate it but I definitely feel that thinking about the audience and marketing can have a negative influence on your enjoyment of music and the overall quality... Ironically, the less you care the better the music is and the happier you are)

yeah totally agree with you on some of this and that's mostly what i have been doing most of the time. I am happier just writing and enjoying doing music. but i dont want to give up completely, i would like to find a way to promote the music at least so it reaches a wider audience.

i do play shws occassionally (im getting on a bit now), i joined a few electronic music meetup groups. joined a few websites. maybe its a british reserved bit of nonsense but i feel quite uncomfortable posting links and stuff to my music because i feel like im spamming.and its pissing people off - i know, stupid eh!

I get frustrated from time to time when i hear some really crap music on a release and think 'i can do better than that' so every now and again i get motivated to make an effort but yeah as i said above. even promoting my tunes around i just wondered what other people do and yeah if i could make a bit of money too then that's always a bonus

Kill Simon Cowell