How does one promote themselves in the modern-day world? This question is no longer a mystery to those who’ve been around in the industry.
The way for modern singers to promote themselves is through social media. If the artist can control all aspects of their production they can use the saved money to be put into professionally marketing their songs and other related products.
But, what benefits lie in going this route? Why is social media and controlling your music production so important? Let’s find out.
Social Media
Social media is the place to get yourself promoted. Everyone is there. From every big-name producer to the 12-year-old kid from another part of the world where he/she can put their skills on the show and wait for the world to come to them.
Gone are the days when you had to sit and find people to get yourself out there. You’ve probably heard the fact that your phone has more computing power than NASA required to calculate the trajectory of one of their ships back in the early days. Now, we use our phones to get our music out to the public and keep them well informed about our latest song’s release date.
Releasing Your Song Has Never Been Easier
I personally use distrokid but you should look into how easy it has become to release your music in the wild for everyone to enjoy. Follow basic guidelines and promote your music on social media and keep at it until you find something you can hook on.
I am always for embracing the future but it’s good to know that such things were definitely not possible 20 years ago. Imagine how many record deals must’ve fallen apart because of some dispute and the label just decided to throw the artist? Poof, there goes your career.
Not anymore.
Why You Might Need a Manager
It is only in this scenario that you might need someone to do your managing instead of yourself. If you’re savvy with how the algorithms work and how to batch content then you can rely on yourself but you should try to focus as much as possible on your singing as you let your lets your socials be managed by someone else.
If you’re paying decent money to have your social media accounts managed then you should be getting more rights to ask what and how the progress is unfolding.
On almost every platform you can manage your stats and how many people you’re reaching with what content. So you can pinpoint how you’re performing with each post you’ve posted. Try to understand them even if you have a manager. It’s good to know.
People Can be Critical
It goes without saying but you know how people are and how rude they can be. You can avoid the comments and reply to only the ones that are positive and have your social media team take care of the other ones, however you want them to be treated.
But, regardless of where you go, if you make money they’re going to curse you and if you don’t they’re still going to curse you. There is pleasing everyone. Just focus on your craft and never back down. At least you’re trying to get something done. These days that’s a hard thing to come by.
How to Save Money
Your biggest expense in terms of money is going to be used in getting your music mixed and mastered. If you plan to do it on a regular basis, the bills are going to rack up very fast. They are not going to stop if you want to keep putting music out there.
Paying for it is going to save you time for sure but if you are anything like me when you’re first starting out you might not have the money for it, I believe it’s important for people to know what their options are and how they can save both time and money in the long run.
I’ll keep this brief.
First, you can save a lot of time and money by just learning how to record yourself at home. Almost everything can be done at home. You can send those recorded files to be mixed and mastered. At this stage, you have essentially enabled yourself to be free of the studio and their daily wages. You can take as many tries as you want until you get the right take. There is a little bit of a learning curve but you get the hang of it pretty soon.
Second, with books and online courses, you can start to replace the mixing aspect that you will be paying the studio for as well. It’ll take a bit of time to get decently good at it but I personally think it’s worth the wait, especially after a friend of mine told me how much he has to pay for five songs. I just need to pay for electricity (technically I have solar paying my electricity bill).
What Does This Mean?
It gives you control and more power in your hands to pull off even bigger projects. With knowing how to produce your own music, you are rarely waiting on someone else to do the job. The more variables your project has, the more likely it is to delay.
If you’re in control of your projects from start to finish then it gives you extra space and money to be put elsewhere. Ad campaigns and marketing. You see, that’s the best way to promote yourself, through marketing.
The reason I ask you to learn production is that it’s still a relatable skill to music. You’re still making music in one way or another. But, instead of spending money on that you are spending money on marketing and letting other professionals who know what they’re doing do their thing.
Which has nothing to do with music. The rules of ad campaigns and marketing don’t work at all in music. The two, are very separate things.
You Can Only Promote Yourself If…
If you’re a good singer.
In order to become a better singer, you have to practice, and getting a teacher to teach you in person is really hard given that it is location bound and the only skill that is going to stick in the studio or live is your ability to sing.
Read this article on why I think online courses are the way to go here.
You can read all about it on this page, where I have explained everything in detail along with how much they are going to cost you. Pick the one that best fits your needs and budget.
I personally own a copy of this myself. ‘The Four Pillars of Singing‘ (affiliate link). The book is also included.
Whatever you end up doing, I hope you succeed!