Independent Artists: How To Promote Your Music
Generator, the UK’s leading music development agency based in Newcastle, presented a DIY Masterclass in London on Monday 3rd December as part of Roundhouse 3030. This is an audio recording of the opening session on “Attracting press, radio and online coverage” presented by myself, covering the following topics:
• How do you get your music to press, radio and blogs?
• What goes in a press pack and what are people looking for?
• Physical vs. digital press pack
• Is your track right for the radio?
• Setting realistic expectations
• Release formats — tracks vs. singles vs. EPs & the pros and cons of physical
• The pros and cons of hiring PR & Plugging specialists
• Developing an online presence — websites, social networking, SEO & blogs
LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS TALK:
MusicBrainz: https://freshonthenet.co.uk/musicbrainz
Sending CDs to radio: https://freshonthenet.co.uk/cds
Cheap .com domains: http://mydomain.com
Cheap .co.uk domains: http://123-reg.co.uk
Contact TR: https://freshonthenet.co.uk/contact
Brilliant Information – Thank You Tom. Regards,
Thanks for this Tom and also for the end bit about the price of ‘success’.
Few people would admit that a couple of hits does not measure up to the blood sweat and tears of squeezing those hits out of the system.
Focus on developing the artist….yes and let success take care of itself.
Man, I wish I’d listen to this a year ago…our abuses have been many;))) Great advice…we found some of it to be true through trial and error…this might help us skip some error;)
Hi Tom, A really excellent redefintion of promotion for the industry as it is right now, thanks! I realise that I am still approaching promotion as if it were the pre-digital age (well, i remember when 2-4-6-8 motorway came out so that dates me…). Time to re-think!
In the commentary you mention where to get .com names at reasonable rates, could you send me the link? Thanks. Andy
Hi Tom, thanks for the info. I found myself stopping the vid and going to make changes on my sites. I liked the way you rounded it off at the end because I was getting a bit worried about the blatant aim just for a no 1 pop single. I will definitely be revisiting this because it was a lot to take in at one sitting. Cheers Tom
Hi Tom, just listened to the above masterclass talk. Thank you very much for some invaluable and heartfelt advice.
@Andy Wiles: Hi Andy cheapest suppliers I’ve found are http://mydomain.com for top level .com .net and .org domains, and specifically for .co.uk by far the cheapest is http://www.123-reg.co.uk
@Eric Tricklebank @ Dean Greenway: thanks so much for your kind comments – glad you found this helpful. Good point about the No.1 record – key thing is to set apppropriate goals. Starting out in a band with a vague idea of “making it” is like setting out in your car with a vague idea of “getting there”…
Am a rapper! I hv released 4 music bt i don’t hav a sponsorer.pls could you help me out?
Hey Tom
Do you know where it is possible to have card sleeves made up?
Thanks
Max
your exit is best advice to an artist – thank you for caring and sharing your best / Jeanne
Hi Tom,
We are thinking of approaching a plugger to promote our music, but we don’t want to waste time and money on bad ones as you explained in your video.
Could you please let us know what are your favourite pluggers (as you mentioned at 54:54)? It would really help us 🙂
Thanks so much for your time and thanks for helping unsigned artist like us.
Have a great week.
Gigi [SHOWROOM DUMMIES]
Thanks for this, it is a gift. Mark, Village Green Machine
hello people help me out… [YouTube link]
hello Daniel – for help on how to promote your music try watching this video.
Team Freshnet
Hi Tom,
I am from India and I must say that I was very much inspired by your video titled “Independent Artists: How To Promote Your Music” which I stumbled upon on Youtube lately. It has given me the kickstart that was much needed as I have been for the past few months working on a couple of projects myself and am preparing myself to streamline the marketing/production etc. Having said that, I must confess that the music scene is quite different here in India and not that great when it comes to songs especially written in the English language and I have seen music bands fail miserably in reaching/connecting to the audience here even though the songs are pretty good. This could be attributed to the over-dominance of music produced in local languages and also to the tidal wave of music arising from the commercial movie industry. Was wondering if there is anything that needs to be done from the marketing perspective that would help an artist ( especially from a diverse nation like India) get noticed/recognized in the international scene.
Kind Regards,
Edsel
I’m in the unusual position that I do some promo for other artists and I’m also part of a band who have been lucky enough to make Tom’s Mixtape show. I also appreciate all too well how hard we work week in week out in the hope of getting airplay on the shows we love listening to. But you can never know so much about the industry that you can’t learn more and things are always changing so it’s fantastic when experienced figures like Tom Robinson go to the trouble of providing so much free advice. Really appreciated.
Tom, thanks a lot for such invaluable insight – this will be a game changer for our future releases!
Kind regards,
Bruno
Why is there so much marketing in having fun nowadays? Why can’t I just enjoy playing? This link to my own web page shows just how bad we got at living:
Why ask this question here? Of course you can just have fun and enjoy playing, without doing any marketing at all. Nobody is forcing you to read this page or watch this video.
Hi Tom,
I have spent the last few months (finally) releasing my music and I just wanted to let you know how I appreciate your insights that you kindly share via freshonthenet.
It’s Inspiring stuff and I really appreciate it!
Thanks,
Chris
Hi Tom,
You mentioned in your ‘how to promote your music’ video, which made me wake up a bit….so thanks…..it is about working the social media…a lot!
You mentioned sending music to the people whom will obviously want to listen to your genre and one person you mentioned was Craig Charles on 6 music. Sorry, if this is obvious, but is there a web address I can send a track to?
Mark
Awesome session, I’m glad I took time to listen through this. It still feels relevant eight or nine years later. Thanks!
Just 50 years old and just releasing my first music soon, so listening through this video this evening has been interesting, insightful and helpful. The balance of ‘fame and fortune’ and enjoyment was appropriately addressed and not heard enough! Thank you Tom.
musicians and bands are certainly very obliged to build a very strong identity! with a strong identity the promotion process will be much easier! social media is certainly used nowadays, but it’s not enough! i think having a website is mandatory at this time, no need very good simple and informative is enough!