Why is Self-Promotion so Taboo?
As music industry professionals who are more often than not also musicians to one degree or another, even we can fall into the trap of either forgetting or hesitating on marketing. Ok, sure it can feel somewhat big headed to go around yelling about yourself, but with a little tact and the right tools marketing is a very positive thing for music brands.
In this article we’re going to delve into some strategies and how to use some of the features offered by Reprtoir to market and grow your music business. As technology and the world of music business have evolved, things have changed. Before we get started on some modern-day strategies let’s paint a picture from a little way back and compare the difference.
Let’s take it back a few decades to the famous night that the Beatles took the stage on the Ed Sullivan Show. The British invasion was underway and they were world-famous literally overnight. That’s because they earned a spot on the one channel that everybody had – and if you didn’t have it, you heard about it.
Obviously, things are much different today and predictably the internet and technology have come into the picture in massive ways. The effect that this has had is a seemingly infinite number of channels for artists and music businesses to promote their work on. So, what is our equivalent of the Ed Sullivan show – the channel that everybody hears, whether they like it or not.
The answer to that is unsuspectingly enough – in business. Sync and licensing deals for commercial use of music not only pays better, but potentially gets aired on channels that the general public can’t avoid.
No, the solution here isn’t mega-fame and that rags-to-riches plotline that so many music documentaries have come to follow. The solution is a set of marketing strategies that are adapted to the modern world.
Let’s take a closer look at some of these.
You need a website – a place to sell your music. This is to start at the absolute most basic level. You can’t sell your lemonade if you don’t have a lemonade stand. Set that up, and start building an email list. This is indispensable to your marketing efforts. Collect contact information not only from fans, but also from fellow music pros – music promoters, label heads, publishers, bloggers, the lot.
Whenever you release a new album or asset like a video – let them know and ask for their support. Most people in the industry know they have to give it to get it, and that is why you need to hoard as many of these emails as you possibly can. People will help you out.
The Importance of Playlists in the World of Music Marketing
Getting on playlists is key to getting your or your artists’ music heard, played and to getting paid.
Playlists? You may be asking. What playlists?
That is a great question. No, we aren’t talking about getting your music onto your friend’s iTunes playlist.
We are talking about pitching your music to curators with large followings. Think of channels like 24hourLoFi, which typically have a really strong theme or genre association. Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer all these streaming platforms have playlists that you can pitch to, but one of the most lucrative strategies is one we already half-mentioned.
Pitching Playlists to Businesses
With Reprtoir, you or your sales team can easily put together an entire themed playlist from your catalogue and pitch it to businesses. What’s to stop you from putting together your own playlist and pitching it to businesses on your own? Well, you certainly could go that route and all the power to you, but with Reprtoir, you and your team will have access to important insights and analytics.
This allows you to see important data points like when people stop listening. If you find a trend of prospects turning the music off in the same place, you may want to do something about that. If you find they keep coming back to the same piece or part of a piece time and again, you may want to pitch that one more.
How Else Can Reprtoir Help?
The Pitch Playlists to Businesses feature is just one of Reprtoir’s long list of dedicated music industry services. This platform allows you to manage all of your music businesses assets – videos, music catalogues, digital assets, marketing assets and etcetera from one location.
By using Reprtoir you can keep track of and manage the very sync and licensing deals and royalty splits that are generated by your marketing efforts with ease, and rest assured that everything is in order.
