Marketing 101 Ep. 1

Welcome to a new series discussing the basics of marketing and promotion for the independent artist! We'll start with a common comment I hear often from artists: why do I need to care about promo? It sounds boring, used car salesman-ey, and I'm not into it.

Good question! The more creative your promotion, the more effective it can be!

This is good news for you as a creative person-an opportunity to apply your existing skills in a new direction. If your promo is boring or copycat, you're not making effective promotion. Promotion is what you decide to make it. If you don't want to sound like a used car salesman, don't write your promo that way.

We always forget that most great pieces of artwork have promotion of some sort attached to them. Stanley Kubrick films still had trailers, after all.

I like to think of promotion as showing respect for the work you've done, and the time you've spent making what you make. It would be disrespectful to your work to allow it to die on the shelf, or to allow it to be a flash in the pan.

Promotion also shows caring towards the audience of people who really want to hear your stuff, and might just need a friendly reminder. Nobody wins if you make something great and it gets swallowed up by the world!

Albums can take years to finish, and I think every artist owes it to themselves to be proud of what they've done. It's good to be comfortable standing up and saying "I did this, I'm proud of it, check it out."

Taking the time to release your work properly shows you care about your work and showing it to the world.

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"But I got into this to make music, not do stuff like this."

Join the club! Marketing and promotion are just a few of many skills that fall outside of those necessary to make music, yet are critical for the successful musician to learn about.

If you're really into only pure art for art's sake at all costs, then why bother releasing your music at all? You've gotten everything you wanted just by finishing the song. A very pure approach. I gotta ask, though: if you make the greatest song in the world and nobody ever hears it, who cares? If you're choosing to release your music publicly, it implies that you care about it being listened to. So, do it right, and get it listened to!

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“But if the artwork itself is just of high enough quality, this will all take care of itself." Nah-that only happens if you're Snoop Dogg (who got established by doing a lot of very smart promotion).

Plenty of amazing artists struggling or quitting, because they never applied their creativity towards getting their work out there in a sustainable way. Plenty of blah artists who are doing better than they should be, because they've got a strong promotional game.

Artistic quality and success are not always directly connected things in this world, sad to say. If we can make more amazing musicians who also understand how to get their work out effectively, that means there's more people listening to more great music in the world! I hope that’s something everyone can get behind.

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"I'm not planning on doing this as a career, I'm just having fun, and I don't mind obscurity. Why do I need to promote if it's just for me?"

You don't have to if you don't want to! But, releasing your music in a more thoughtful way might help you develop a more sustainable creative practice. That's important to consider if you still want to be here making music/having fun in 10-20 years.

And again-showing respect for the creative work and your time making it means caring about it being experienced by people, if you're choosing to release it publicly.

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"I don't want to annoy people."

Well, don't spam people, of course, but spam is not effective promotion anyway. Pacing is important, sure, but you're also not bothering anyone who is a true fan of your work.

If someone is honestly into what you do, they'll appreciate occasional updates when you do something cool. If they're not into it, we've got unsubscribe buttons for a reason.

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Homework question to ponder:

"What kind of promotion would I feel excited to show my friends?”

Try to think of something creative, fresh, unique to you, genuine, and that speaks to the people who you think would be into what you’re doing.

Anything’s on the table, and may I suggest considering music videos?