5 Ways To Get Free Music Promotion

Artists and bands often complain about the cost of promotion, but thanks to the Internet there are more ways than ever to do it for free. Marcus Taylor outlined 49 ways over on Music Think Tank. Here are 5 of them.


#1 Host a free virtual show With Stageit.com.

Stageit.com has long been a favourite music marketing tool. The fact that it’s free is just the icing on the cake. If you’ve not used Stageit before, it’s essential a ‘Skype for bands’, where you can perform gigs from your kitchen to fans all over the World. Many good friends have used it and also found that it was a good way to raise a few hundred dollars for a couple of hours of performing.

#2 Add a Bands In Town app to Your Facebook Page.

BandsinTown is a must-have app for your Facebook Page. In short, it displays all of your upcoming gig dates in a slick-looking Facebook App. A great way of passively raising awareness of your upcoming shows.

#3 Create a FanDistro project to help charities & reward your fans.

FanDistro is another favourite. After creating your project page and sending it out to your fans, each fan receives a unique link, which they can send to their friends. If their friends then share your music or buy any of your products, they are rewarded with free merch and 20% of the sales go to a charity in the fan’s name. FanDistro is a brilliant way of increasing your social media engagement – artists like Cosmo Jarvis generated ~19 new fans for each fan who shared his music on the site!

#4 Build an app for your music with BandApp.

Created by Adam Perry, BandApp is a great platform for getting a free mobile app for your band.

#5 Upload your music to Soundcloud.

Soundcloud is arguably one of the best sites to host your music on, especially now that they’ve announced heavy integration with many of Google’s services. If you haven’t already, upload your music on Soundcloud, tag it well, and encourage fans to leave comments on the tracks.

Read the rest of Marcus' list on Music Think Tank. Many are UK-centric, but there's still lots of great ideas if you don't reside there.

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The Music 3.0 Blog Week In Review

Here's the Music 3.0 Blog Week In Review For March 3 through 8:

What Data Should Musicians Collect?
It's the quality more important than the quantity that's important. Read more...

Does Social Networking Affect What You Buy?
A new study says not as much as you think. Read more...

Does Being Signed To A Label Rock?
The RIAA thinks so, but they're biased and their numbers don't make sense. Read more...

10 Low-Cost Low-Tech Promotion Ideas.
10 inexpensive yet effective ideas for great promotion. Read more...

Proof That The Music Industry Is Not Dead.
These RIAA charts show that music is more popular than ever. Read more...

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

10 Low-Cost Low-Tech Promotion Ideas

I always get great response from excerpts from the Music 3.0 Internet Music guidebook, so here's another one. This time it's from The New Marketing chapter and it's called "10 Low-Cost Low-Tech Promotion Ideas."
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Promotion doesn’t have to cost money to be effective. Here are some ideas that can be powerful tools that don’t even involve a computer.

1. Don’t underestimate the value of something free. Fans love free items, either as part of a package (for example, buy a CD, and get a T-shirt free), part of a contest, or just being one of the first ten fans to email. Sometimes items of seemingly little value have a wide appeal. Backstage passes, seat upgrades, seats on stage, tickets to the sound check, invites to a meet and greet, and downloads of live songs are all prized by a real fan.

2. It’s surprising that this isn’t done more since it works so well: park a van or truck that has a banner on it across from a show by a similar act. Every fan entering or exiting the venue will be aware of you.

3. Free or low-cost entry to show “after parties” extends the show experience and rewards the true fan. These can be promoted along with the show, and even offered as a part of the ticket package. 

4. Instead of sending a “thank you” email to a promoter, writer, interviewer, or just someone who’s done you a good turn, send a hand-written thank-you note by snail mail. You’ll be shocked how well this works. It’s unusual, it’s sincere, and it’s remembered.

5. Consider asking your tribe to help you with promo. Ask them to put up flyers or send out emails. Put a PDF of a poster or flyer online for fans to download.

6. Fans always want a chance to meet the musicians. Consider having a “meet and greet” after every show, but make sure that the fans know about it in advance. 

7. Find your niche and market to it. It makes no sense to market to Amy Winehouse’s tribe if your music isn’t like hers, so don’t waste your energy marketing in that direction.

8. Make everything you do an event. What holiday is coming up? Is it a band member’s birthday? Is an anniversary near? Try a tribute to “Fans that just got laid off” or “Fans that just got hired.”

9. Use the power of your niche to widen your fan base. Flyer someone else’s show in a related genre. Sponsor somebody else’s event. Consider trading sponsorships and gigs with another band.

10. Align yourself with a cause you believe in. Causes often have a large PR mechanism behind them that can expose your music, but it has to be something you really believe in or it may hurt you in the long run.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

10 Low-Cost Hi-Tech Promotion Ideas

It's about time for another book excerpt, so here's one from Chapter 4 of Music 3.0: A Survival Guide To Making Music In The Internet Age. This one outlines 10 ways that you can promote yourself without spending much money.
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Never leave promotion to someone else. You always must be actively involved in at least an oversight level to be sure that not only are you getting promoted, but that it’s something that’s beneficial to your image as an artist. This even includes having a publicist, since she takes the cues from you. Especially don’t depend upon a record label, particularly in these days where so few people do so many jobs. It’s up to you to develop the strategy or it might not get developed at all.

That being said, here are a number of very low-cost M30 ideas that you can do to get your promotion started.

1) Set up both a MySpace and Facebook page, then be sure to stay active. It won’t do you much good if you just set it up and never update it. The only way it’s worth your fans visiting is if you remain keep the updates coming as often as possible.

2) Every time a friend request is exchanged between yourself and another MySpace or Facebook user, send them a note back thanking them and ask if you can include them in your group of friends outside of MySpace or Facebook. Ask them to “Please reply with your email address if that’s OK.”  This is a great way to build your tribe, but make sure they can easily opt-out if it’s not their cup of tea. It’s not too beneficial to have all those MySpace and Facebook friends if you can’t contact them outside of those sites.

3) Always have a “Press” section on your website that contains:

   * high resolution color and black and white photos 

   * logos

   * biography

   * quotes from the media

   * links to any interviews

   * scans of just 3 or 4 of your best press clippings

   * scan of a promo flyer and poster

   * web ready graphics and banners

Having any of these tools easily available will increase the chances of getting media coverage. It’s a fact that the easier you can make it for a writer or an editor, the more likely you’ll get covered.

4) Backlinks are important. Anytime you are mentioned in a club listing, on the site of a band you’re playing with, or anything else, make sure that it links back to your site.  People won’t do this automatically, so make it standard operating procedure to ask.

5) Encourage fans to tag you and your content on sites like Flickr, blogs, Digg and Stubleupon, then make that data available on your site. 

6) Even though you may have a presence on MySpace and Facebook, you still need a website. It’s still the best place to gather your tribe and communicate with them. Make sure that you follow Figure 4.7 for the best website experience for your fans.

7) Engage your fans.  Ask them questions. Polls and surveys are free (that magic word again) and easy to set up with sites like PollDaddy and Surveymonkey.

8) Develop a press release mailing list of music writers and editors from any local and regional newspaper, magazines, specialty papers, radio stations, on-line radio station, music blogs (especially) that covers the type of music that you play (later you can do national and international when you grow into it). Remember that it doesn’t do you much good to send something to a magazine that specializes in metal if you’re a folk singer so don’t even think about anything out of your genre. Once the list is complete, send out a short email for any major gig, event, or song release, but don’t make it too frequent or you won’t be covered - ever.  Include links to your website and an offer for a free press pass to a show. About once a month is a good frequency. If you get a mention, be sure to send an email or even a hand-written note to say thank you.

9) Create your own YouTube channel. Make sure to post new videos frequently and encourage fans to post as well.

10) Create a special “Insider” email list for a few fans, key media, tastemakers and bloggers for pre-announcements who love to know things first…and like to tell others.

There are a more excellent tips on marketing, promotion and sales in the Music 3.0 guidebook.

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Follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.