Tips To Promote Your New Release

You've worked for months on your new single or new album. Now what? Unless you have a major label, experienced management or a generous amount of investor money behind you, the ability to promote your own album is crucial. Besides the talent to make great music, promotional skills are some of the most important skills you can have as an indie artist.

When you don't have the means to hire a PR firm to push the album for you, try these five steps and cover your bases.

Keep in mind that these actions are crucial to your success and the process takes the 3 Ps: planning, persistence, and patience.

1. Target the Right Audience - It is very important to know and understand who your audience is in every aspect. What age group are they? Where do most of them live? What kind of music do they like? Write out lists and target each relevant group.

2. Create a Press Kit and Promo Package. Think about what you need to include so that the media gets to see everything they need to know about you in a concise, yet detailed manner. For example, a press kit could include:

a. A press release about the new album
b. A succinct (one page) bio about the artist and release
c. The Song - have it availabe to listen to (even if just a sample)
d. Quotes pulled from press coverage and/or fellow industry musicians 
e. Contact information
f. Artwork for your new release - in color
g. Links to your websites (Myspace, Facebook, etc.)

Some people can get more creative, but the basics are all you really need at the end of the day.

3. Compile a Media List - Getting all your personal and profession contact lists together is one of the most important things to do. Compile a press list and send them a copy of your new release (with or without press kits, but do at least send a bio with contact information noted) to every contact.

4. Plan an Album Release Party to promote the new album. Find a cool venue that you're comfortable at, plan a set, have the release vailable for sale and invite everyone you can-fans, media, family and friends. The bigger the crowd, the better. Invite the media to meet and greet and get a free copy of the release to publish a review.

5. Newsletter Mailings -  Identify all the newsletter lists that you can promote your new release through. Reach out through your network and ask your contacts to promote your new release to their lists. Make sure to have the email creatives ready for them so they do not need to do much work. Target these lists with a newsletter creatives all about your new release.

6. Promote through your social networks - put together a strategy to promote the new release through your social networks like MySpace, Facebook, iLike, Imeem and other music sites that you have identified as your target market. Create promotional campaigns and/or contests to get others to viral the release for you.

Abridged:  Mona L. Loring

Artist Blog: Attract Fans, Not Visitors

MP3 Blogs can cause significant music and event ticket sales. If the MP3 blog community embraces the artist, they could potentially have thousands talking about the artist and providing MP3s of their songs to hundreds of thousands of music fans. A great way to get the word out is by a real grass roots campaign of music fans talking about the artist. With the Internet, they have a vehicle to communicate with the world.

MP3 Music Blogs: An Invaluable Medium

Over the past few years, music blogs have become an invaluable medium for new artists to garner positive internet exposure. By establishing personal relationships with blogs that are most relevant to their particular sound/genre, new artists have the opportunity to reach vast, unexpected audiences.

Producing unique and high-quality content is the foremost concern for any artist looking to attract more fans and increase their brand awareness. Artists should take advantage of all available media resources -- YouTube, Facebook, Myspace, blogs, message boards, etc. In a day and age where new acts emerge left and right, it is fundamentally essential that you have your name out in the vast web domain. Otherwise prospective fans outside of your town or inner-circle will not have any reason to know about what you do.

Since artists and bloggers continue to develop a keen professionalism in promotion and content delivery, utilizing the web space and social media tools effectively will allow you to distinguish yourself from other artists. Remember that bloggers with significant traffic are constantly bombarded with all kinds of press materials from bands big and small, and are much more inclined to post about something that comes off as natural and personal, rather than manufactured.

Viral Marketing The Artist's Music

Once a connection with a like-minded blogger is made, the artist's content can spread like wildfire, producing what’s known as a viral effect, where one source with an audience disseminates the information to countless others, much like a virus. And when that happens, it can become a vital and rewarding aspect of your own online media campaign.



Abridged: Gorillavsbear.net