Music Promotion: 8 Mistakes to Avoid Before Choosing a Platform

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The music industry is constantly changing. Hence, as a musician, you need to keep up with the changes. Technology has changed and diversified music promotional platforms. You might be confused about which platform to settle for. Before settling with one, you need to be sure about the platform you choose.

Since there are different platforms today, finding the best platform to promote music can be challenging. The following article covers mistakes to avoid before settling for a music promotion platform. But before that, let’s look at the meaning of music promotion.

What is Music Promotion?

Strong music promotion is vital in your music career. It’s the act of marketing your music. When you market your music, you can easily reach a new fan base. The result is that you get new streams, likes, and shares, which may contribute to your career growth.

There are various ways to promote your music. Fortunately, not all of them cost money. Free music promotion can result when your friends and family interact with your music and share it. 

There are also several free music promotion sites you can use to push your music. The platforms give opportunities to artists to promote their music without having to pay a dime. They offer free music promotion services, thus ensuring the music reaches a larger audience.

You can also opt for paid music promotion. For instance, you can pay for ads on Facebook, Spotify, or Soundcloud. Here are the various platforms you can use in promoting your music.

• Social media campaigns
• Radio airplay
• Collaboration with other artists
• Music Marketing Companies
• Playlists

The following are some of the mistakes to avoid before choosing a music promotion platform.

1. Not Knowing Your Audience

People are attracted to different music genres. Hence it’s essential to discover who your tribe is—people who will love, enjoy, and share your music. Your audience may differ in age, gender, and geographical location.

Thus, curve your niche to target a particular audience. You create better music if it’s aimed at people who appreciate your content.

2. Being Unoriginal 

You are unique in how you create your music, and that’s your power. What works for someone else won’t always work for you. Choose a music promotional platform because it’s excellent and not because everyone uses it.

What’s your unique selling point? Because each musician has one. You have to find your style and stick to it. Emulating and copying another musician can be the beginning of your downfall.

Always think outside the box. Research about different plans of music platforms, and don’t forget to be creative in the process. 

3. Being Inconsistent in Your Schedule

Whether you settle for a free music marketing path, a paid one, or both, consistency is vital. You don’t want to show up today and go months before showing up again. Consistency ensures the visibility of your brand. The more consistent you are, the more you are likely to connect with your audience.

Hence you need to create a promotional schedule and ensure that you stick to it. Posting regularly on social media is one way of achieving consistency.

Your brand also needs to be consistent. Everything from the logo, slogans, sponsorships, and music videos affects your brand. Any confusion is likely to disengage some fans, making you lose in the process.

Always remember consistency beats talent.

4. Not Having a Social Media Account

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In the internet age, it seems like a crime not to be on social media. Social media is a huge deal and a great free online music promotion site. It connects people beyond borders and is an excellent way of exposing your brand to people.

You should create your social media accounts before settling for a music platform. These two are a great combination in spreading your music. Through your social media accounts, fans get to know you exist. They get to hear every time you release new music.

To succeed in your music career, build relationships with your audience. Social media platforms allow you to engage with them virtually. You can talk about anything music, for instance, how and where they can download free music.

5. Relying on One Platform to Market Your Music

You have to promote your music both online and offline. Don’t promote your music on only one platform. Fans hang around different places. Thus, you need to diversify your marketing ways. There are a ton of other ways to promote your music.

Examples include:

• Advertising your music through Social media
• Radio promotion
• Sponsorships face to face marketing
• Billboards ads
• Music events
• Press releases.
• Guerrilla street marketing.

Depending on one platform to market means you are leaving out others. Hence, you don’t manage to reach some consumers and also make your sales. The more places you market your music, the more songs you are likely to sell.

6. Shying Away From Pushing Sales

Once you get a chance, normalize promoting your music. Some artists don’t promote themselves enough. However, you need to remember anybody walking in a show is a potential buyer of your music. Take the chance to plug yourself out shamelessly. Tell them to share your music.

If you have something great to offer, let the world know. It’s great in ensuring your music reaches your target audience.

7. Failing to Own a Website

Your audience may likely search for you online. Hence your web presence is necessary. It’s one of the mandatory channels to create a successful marketing plan. A website makes you look more professional. It shows you are dedicated to your course of creating music.

Ensure your website has the right look and touch, from the design to the layout.

It needs to show your personality and imitate your music brand. When someone lands on your website, they associate it with your music. You can add storytelling elements to make it more appealing to your audience.

8. Failing to Promote Your Videos

Promoting your videos is incredible for your marketing plan. Videos are interactive. They make your audience connect to you in a personal way. So, you need to create a youtube channel and share your music.

You could add aspects like album trailers, music videos, and single previews. Your audience gets a glimpse of what you are working on, which would make them yearn for more. Apart from being a promotional platform, you can earn a lot from it.

Wrap up

There are no shortcuts to succeeding in your music career. You need to engage in the promotion of your music religiously. However, before choosing a music promotion platform, you need to avoid the above mistakes.

Lastly, have a plan and set goals. You can collaborate with a professional music marketing agency to help you out. Success should be your end goal. Happy music promotion!