As a new hip hop music maker wanting to make money, it’s important to know how to market music in an effective way. Music, when used as a product, can provide financial support for any person involved with making the song an overall success. When used in a certain way, hip hop beats and more can launch a profitable career in the music business. Thousands of indie musicians are making money this way, and you can too.
Here’s how to market music online.
Learn to recognize opportunities and immediately take advantage of them. Keep open ears for new music, let it become available to you and you’ll be able to see the money making opportunities; however, only after you’ve learned how to market music effectively on social networks like twitter and facebook.
As music producers, one of our many responsibilities is to actively market and promote the music we’re involved in.
The best way to learn is by joining an online social networks and online communities, talking to people about music and quickly demonstrating the effectiveness of our contributions. Talk to music makers about their music, your music and other people’s music. Meet more people you who share your taste in music, better you chances are of finding artist to sell your beats to and build a reference list of musicians you’ve worked with. In new hip hop, producers and artists own building websites and use them to find and reach new listeners, as well as gain record deals and collaborations. Some of you may be asking yourselves, “Why do I need a website?” The answer is simple; you need websites to track your online efforts when processing our sales transactions, searching for new people to work with and more.
As a music maker, facebook is the number one way to get your music to listeners around the world. However, there’s a right and a wrong way to use facebook. For instance, I’ve noticed that facebook is bit stricter in terms of usage and profile updates. As a person who often uses Hootsuite to share the music I listen to, articles I write, deals I come across, etc.
Facebook is a great for sharing pictures, planning events, playing games, and chat; among other things. When marketing on facebook, you need to plan your updates in a reasonable timeline to avoid being labeled a spammer. Instead, when using facebook as a social network of choice, it’s best to post on your friend’s wall with a conversation starter. Now, I know you’re thinking something along this line, “I don’t have time for this…” This business practice usually means setting aside an hour or two for getting on facebook and socializing.
If making time simply isn’t an option, hire someone like me to manage your social media connections. To market your music, create a facebook page specifically about your music. The purpose for this is to keep your personal facebook private while promoting your music profile, which should look professional. Once you created your profile and updated its main content, get started by inviting friends and family to subscribe. Update your profile daily, more often than once and less often than eight times.
Music makers who prove to be socially active online benefit most from using twitter. Links and mentions that get shared by followers and friends are often clicked on by others. This social network helps spread information faster than most other social networks; and, updates usually include links to more detailed content. Website owners benefit most social networks like twitter because there’s no SEO required, yet it is still possible to get thousands of website visitors from twitter alone. Ultimately, the success of a marketing plan is mostly determined by the number of potential customers it reaches.
Twitter is a social network that is ideal when releasing new hip hop or music in. The number of character that you can put into a message is smaller than what’s allowed in facebook; therefore, tweets need to be direct and to the point. It’s no wonder that new hip hop artists are able to build such a huge following using this online network of people.
Now, understand what I’m about to share with you is meant to be used to market to and connect with new people. The music business is crawling with indie musicians who just want people to like their music. Most of these artist and producers are using this online network in ways that keep their twitter followers smiling, laughing, or virally curious. I’ve noticed that twitter users are more likely to respond to your message if they’re mentioned direct. Those who follow you can see the messages you send, and will get your updates. On the other hand, your followers can’t see the messages sent to you unless their follow the same people you follow.
Courtesy of Producer JC
