Music marketing matters. Hopefully we established that in the mini-series of the same name earlier this year.
What keep on coming, though, are the examples of independent artists getting creative with their music marketing.
From 10,000 hours of practice to getting social across many media, there are plenty of theories on how you should be behaving as a musician seeking to break out. But what are your peers doing, down in the trenches of small clubs and minimal budgets? How are inspired artists communicating what they do and what fuels their passion?
Most importantly, what can you take away from the examples of others and use in your own marketing efforts?
Leading by Example
To continue the spirit of the MMM series, every week I’ll be posting a few brief examples of smart, affordable marketing from musicians at your level. Not artists with major label backing. Not those who have hit it rich with a lucrative licensing arrangement. Just those taking an alternative or interesting tack towards spreading their music and winning new fans. Each example will have a more general marketing takeaway, that you can then apply to your own situation.
Examples of Creative Music Marketing
Khaled Dajani writes a name on New York City…
Every creator has dreams of making a name for their art in Manhattan, but few twist that into using the city as their canvas. Khaled did just that, tweeting his way around various locations until it spelled L U C I from midtown to the Lower East Side. The significance? ‘Luci’ is the title of the Hoboken singer-songwriter’s next album, with a devilish subject matter, which he promoted with the help of temporary tattoos, promotional literature, and rising photographer Monica Cohendocumenting the entire effort for online posterity. That this was all undertaken the weekend before Halloween afforded the journey even more relevance, tying in with the imagery and sentiment of the occasion.
Takeaways: Tie in the subjects of your songs to the presentation of your promotion. Utilize memorable merchandise and help talented friends to help you, giving back whatever you can.
Aldo Aréchar ventures into the visual art void…
The music video is older than many of you reading this, but the explosion of streaming video sites and cheap tools of production has made it more accessible to a new generation of artists. As with all content forms on the web this has resulted in a vast swathe of unremarkable video vying for our eyeballs. Utilized creatively, however, the independent music video can be an excellent way to stand out from the crowd… and what more logical way to create strong video visuals than by collaborating with a digital artist?
[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/53444911[/vimeo]
Mexico City-based composer Aldo Aréchar chose to do just that with this effort for his track ‘That Will Be the Day’, which comes alive through the motion graphics of Matthew De Vito. Setting the soundscapes perfectly to exquisite, vaguely nostalgic digital imagery, this collaboration garnered the attention of the widely-read site The Creator’s Project, catapulting both artists to the eyes and ears of many in one fell swoop. As we covered not so long ago, attention is a scarce resource in this time of content fatigue, and the door is now ajar for these two to start relationships with some new fans on the back of this.
Takeaways: Think beyond your own field of work and create with others. Find artists of all different forms to complement your music and give back to their creations, expanding to each other’s audiences as you do so.
Uniform Motion experience the serendipity of search…
Okay, so this one is a little whacky, but the band in question very much deserves it! By a stroke of good fortune, Anglo-French group Uniform Motion picked up some of the enormous search traffic coming the way of a band you’re more likely to recognize, Of Monsters & Men.
[youtube]http://youtu.be/Ki59H-SnUc4[/youtube]
As a result of the happy coincidence that their song features very similar lyrics to the chorus of ‘Little Talks’, it racked up 80,000 spins on YouTube. It not being their own channel or even upload, this didn’t actually score them any income, but the exposure is there nonetheless (as well as an incentive to get your own, high quality versions of songs up on the world’s second largest search portal, perhaps).
Beyond that, though, Uniform Motion have plenty of creativity in their own right, from creating a game that accompanies their song to writing compelling observations on the music industry, some of which are picked up by mainstream outlets. Oh, and some gloriously soothing music that fully deserves your ear time.
Takeaways: Control your YouTube presence as best you can, so that any errant searches represent your music in the best possible light. Keep all your titles, descriptions, and tags in order and relevant for searches. The same can apply to your blogging, which is a great way to both keep fans up to date with your movements and write about more general subjects that inspire you… all of which feeds nicely back into the likelihood of being found by those search engines.
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