After sending my demo out to several labels and not hearing back, I’m leaning on self-releasing on my own label as usual. This is also because most small to medium underground electronic music labels usually release singles and EPs whereas mine is a full length. I also don’t personally know any of the people in the labels I’ve sent to. I don’t want to end up compromising on the album. I like it exactly the way it is with its current artwork and all. Lastly, half of teh tracks on my album are very pertinent to the events and culture of now so I don’t want to end up on a late 2020 or even 2021 release schedule.
For all the above reasons, I’ve decided to self-release. But… this time I want to do it right. In the past, I’d just upload a new release to my label’s Soundcloud, Bandcamp and go through a digital distributor to have it sent to Spotify, Apple Music, Beatport, etc. I’d post an Instagram snippet and short video of it, but that’s about all. This time I want to market and promote the sh*t out of my album. So I’m asking y’all on here for some pointers and places you’d recommend me do. What should I do or not do? Who or where should I reach out to? What type of marketing should I spend money on and roughly how much? What should I not bother wasting my time or money on?
Most of what I’ve read online about this is about larger labels handling multiple artists whereas my label is just myself handling 4 of my own aliases. That’s why I’m asking on here as I’m sure some of you have some experience with having to promote a small label or your own releases.
Btw, I don’t plan on releasing vinyl to sell on Bandcamp because it’s just way too damn expensive and I’m COVID related unemployed. I don’t like the cassette format either, but am open to selling CDs (does anyone even listen to those anymore?). Thanks for any tips and suggestions!
Through this service, you can upload your music to various distrubutors, like Spotify and YouTube.
I’ve already published one of my songs with DistroKid and hope to do more.
Here’s a review by Sanjay C, a musician on YouTube.
Also, like you, I have songs on SoundCloud and BandCamp.
My marketing knowledge is, shall we say, under development.
Damien Keyes has marketing strategies.
I hope this helps.
Much success on your job search.
Thanks for the second link, but regarding Distrokid… I don’t need any help on how to get my music on Spotify, Bandcamp or Beatport. I already have all that covered as well as artwork, my own label, mastering, etc. I’m 90% there, but I need info and help on marketing and promoting my music once it has already been released (or pre-release promo).
You get what you pay for with promotional efforts…but it doesn’t sound like you can afford a pricey PR firm to plug your release. A typical PR budget for an indie record would be in the 3-20K $ range. A self release, 1-2K $ or so.
If you are bootstrapping it yourself, then…just email/text/dm everyone you know. Cold message as many ‘influencers’ as you can, with personal, thoughtful messages. Target your efforts…
PR should happen before release, months before. You want to create ‘hype’. One track at a time.
I follow some SoundCloud account that aims to promote music. They publish some kind of techno/Industrial/wave/dark music but I’m sure this kind of SoundCloud promoter exists for every kind of music. When I publish music on a label, the label usually contact a lot of them and ask for a track premiere on their profile. I’m sure it’s free and it can do wonder.
Here are some account, I can provide more if you want.
Make a bunch of stickers and leave them in a bus shelter outside a school (just before finishing time) - little buggers will pick them up and plaster them everywhere
This is some kind of next level guerilla marketing anyways.
The threads that are kreeping up from time to time are hyping me up like nothing else for your new album!
I’m running a very small label with 2 friends of mine since almost a year.
Here’s a list from what I think is the less to the most efficient concerning promotion.
We do stickers. Well… I’m not sure it brings us anything. =)
We know what we’re aiming at.(We want TECHNO in far-left parties (we mostly get rap and punk), and we realised everybody there wanted techno/house/disco… On the other hand, we want the politicize the ultra-depoliticized techno dancefloor. What’s going on with women and colored DJs/producers theses days is really cool, and we want to go further.)
We have an active FB account. We try to post very regulary, we plan our post, etc…
During the COVID, we made a Facebook group, so people stayed in touch with us. Having people sharing their favorite music on the group was actually really cool!
Music videos and visuals. Social networks will promote your stuff if you made it, if it’s original content. So everytime we have something important to announce on FB, we make a little 15 sec vid. Not something really special, but we know if we upload original creation on FB our post is gonna spread. A Youtube link will remain stuck and nobody will see it.
We worked A LOT on our logo. People remember it!
We have friends playing our tracks and make Instagram stories while they do.
We pay premiere on a proper soundcloud account (thanks @loa!!) We did it once for my last single. We paid 20€ for a premiere on “44,100Hz social club”. We though 20€ was a little bit too much but we wanted to try. So we paid and… next thing I know Kegffnayy was playing my track at Intercell xD And I got ten followers on my RA page…
We do release parties. That’s defenetely the best way to promote our music. We have packed dancefloors. Everybody is happy. All the girls are grateful for having a safe dancefloor. People buy our stuff when they leave, they listen to our music when they’re back home.
So… pretty much, my first advice would be : find collaborators to work with!
