How to Promote Your Music and Grow a Fan Base Without Being Pushy

Transcript

Okay, so how do you get people to listen to your music? 

I did a reel recently asking people what their biggest struggles were with like just making music, putting it out there and asked them to comment their problems. They have done and now I'm making the answers. At least what I think you can do and I really hope this helps. So this one is about How you can get people to listen to your music without paying someone to promote it. And I think this one is quite simple and maybe even annoyingly so. You just need to focus on connection and not hype. Now, let's break that down. 

Firstly, what is hype? 

Hype is, listen to my song. I've got a new song out. This is the best thing I've ever done.

Listen to my song, you know? 

It's just saying that over and over again. Or, did you know my songs out? 

All of that. um just like, that's not connection. Connection is, I've made this song, it means so much to me, it's about this. Or, I really enjoyed making this song with my friends in this band, I'd love it if you gave this track a spin, blah blah blah.

Now, what that looks like is going to be different depending on what sort of artist you are or what sort of music you're putting out. So, let's go with the guy who asked the question. He's in a band and they make like really good, fun time um hard rock. They're called the Blackstone. Go and check them out. There you go. He's made a connection with me and now i'm talking about his music on a video so people who hadn't heard of his band are going to hear about it.

So that's how connection wins over hype. But right. They've got some songs that are about like getting up to no good on nights out. Right. So you can't just say like, oh, like this is so emotional. 

It means that you can't you can't do that sort of thing, which you could do with like a ballad that's about like trauma or a breakup. You could say, oh, this is what happened in our relationship. And you could talk about those things. Right. But what you can say is like the real human aspect of that is. It's like people get bored of going to work five days a week. And when it comes to Friday, they want to go out and they want to blow off steam. And for lots of people, going out and sculling a load of beers is fun. And everyone knows what the consequences of doing that is. 

So talk to them about that. And yeah, I think just being really, really focused on connection and not hype. Being really, really sincere and open um it's just gonna allow that to happen. So on your social media channels um don't just post the music video over and over again um do a bit to camera talking about like why the lyrics are funny or like who came up with what part or like um what what the story is based on and what was the most stupid thing that happened on that night out. And if you're doing your ballads and you're doing your music that's really, really sincere and about trauma that happened in your life, be brave and open up about it a little bit. 

So yeah, I think that's like really, really practical. And I think that sort of moves on to like the whole social media thing. Social media is like probably quite bad for the human race, but it also has loads and loads of benefits where if you are opening up on it and you are personal, it's a way of allowing people to see a side of you which they wouldn't get without getting to know you for a long time or meeting in person. So I think use that power and if you look at big artists like musicians that are big on TikTok or Instagram and stuff, they're not just sharing like how they EQ their kick drum. they're talking about their stories and they're inviting people into the creative process and they're talking about the things that are going on in their life. So, you know, there's a balance to be struck there. You don't have to become like, like for me, I'm not a content creator. I create content as a part of being a mixing engineer and helping like championing independent artists reach more listeners. Like that's my thing. I live in the modern world, so I'm making content part of that, however, my living is not earned through content creation. So don't feel like you have to become like a blogger. 

You can still be a musician. You can still have your life, but maybe try just opening up a little bit. Focus on connection, not hype. So I'm just gonna check my notes very, very quickly because I don't want to edit these videos. I really don't want to edit these videos. 

So what are other ways that you can reach people? 

And this is, I really like this one because it's focusing on like momentum and not numbers. So if you go to a venue, like let's take in Leeds, you've got the Brood. What have we got? You've got the Windmill we see in London, but let's take a rock venue as well. Let's do the Blackheart in Camden, right? So Black Heart's a really good example. They're known for rock music and hard rock music. So if you make that music and you go to gigs there, just talk to the people there. Try and get a show there. Maybe talk to them. Maybe see if you can get on their playlist. But come at it from a perspective of like, I'm part of this community. I go to shows there. I watch bands here. And I'm also in a band. Here is the music. So then again, it's not just like, I don't care about you or who you are. 

Listen to my music. All I want is listens. And I'm not accusing anyone of doing that, but it's like focusing on them and their needs. And it's coming from a place of humility. So that also obviously works with more intimate music. If you're doing stuff that's really, really sincere and intimate, where are those people? Are they playing like a So Far Sounds gig?

And if you can get one of those shows, then you're going to be playing and performing in a really intimate setting and you're going to be able to meet those fans and you're going to be building connection. Um, yeah. And I think that like momentum over numbers, uh, that's really important. And another, thing that follows on from that, sorry, I just don't want to edit these videos um but the the the repetition that the level of repetition that is required to reach people is probably slightly higher than you're comfortable with or that feels natural um so if you do a post on social media, let's say only like 10 10 of the people um you want to reach see it, how many times you actually have to post and different times you have to post to reach them. And the same is with natural connection. Someone will ask you to do something like, well, I don't know, if someone asks you to remember to bring something back that you've borrowed off them, you forget it. It's just, if they'd have asked you five more times, you probably wouldn't have forgotten. But they would have been worried about like nagging you or being annoying. Right. 

But they probably could have asked you at the right moment, just before you left the house to bring it. And you would have remembered and you wouldn't have found them annoying. So that's a bit, that's a bit out there, but like, I think that's a really good example of find out where your listeners are, when they're going to be receptive and like, [1.3s] talk to them then. And again, when you talk to them, it's about connection, not, it's like about genuine connection, right? Not about hype. Just listen, listen, listen. Um, so i wonder if we can just come up with some more practical examples. Um, or like, let's, let's set a challenge for you, right? Like you're there promoting your music, you've released it.

You feel like you've done the job, but you haven't got the listeners. Just start finding artists who make similar music to you and following them and starting genuine conversations with them. Because if you become part of an ecosystem or you build an ecosystem around you, then people will naturally talk about you or listen to your music. And when you have that connection with them, they won't just be listening to some random person's music they don't know. They'll be listening to their friend's music or someone they're aware of. Do you know what I mean? And then it'll mean more and they'll have more connection to the music and then they're probably more likely to put it into a playlist. They're probably more likely to listen to it over and over again. I certainly am. That's true for me. So I hope that helps. 

There are ways to hype up your music before you release it and there are ways to build a strategy over a year to release music really, really effectively and build momentum.