PROMOTE YOUR MUSIC FREE!

Hello all you musicians (and record labels) out there! As your music career evolves,one of the most challenging questions you are going to face (and probably facing right now) is how to promote your music. There are so many promotional variables, opportunities and cost-effective decisions to make along the way. Combine this with a competitive and expanding global marketplace, it’s perfectly normal to feel lost sometimes. Sugo Music would like to offer some advice for you.

No, we are not just going to tell you to create a Facebook fan page and then promote your music through it. Instead, follow this article to learn some real actionable tips that will help youfind your core target audience, engage more listeners and garner more dedicated fans. So let’s begin, shall we?

1. Be Present On As Many Media Outlets As You Can

All musicians know this simple rule: be present to get noticed. Whether it’s a gig or your social media account, just be there and be present. Pity is very few musicians and record labels follow this simple social rule. With this is mind, you can categorize all media outlets in just a few clusters:

• a. Streaming music services
• b. Online music stores
• c. Social media platforms
• d. Websites& blogs

First, streaming music services have become the transistor radio of the Millennial Generation. The rise of streaming services has created new and exciting opportunities for musicians to get closer to their audience. Don’t resist. Make sure that all your tracks are available on major streaming services.

Remember, when thinking of streaming services (e.g. Beats Music, Pandora, Spotify, etc.), keep in mind where digital music distribution is heading: automobiles, TV sets and mobile devices.

Keep in mind that the music industry will explode from $15 billion/yr. to $100 billion/ yr. within the next few years. Also consider that an exponential amount of consumers can actually afford streaming versus downloading, especially in low to mid economic countries.

Second, online music stores like iTunes and Amazonmp3 should also be important parts of your music distribution portfolio. There is a plethora ofquality digital music retailers throughout the world and digital downloadingis not going away anytime soon, despite public conjecture. Keep in mind that many emerging territories will also be opening up for music sales soon, including India and China!

Third, some social media platforms are very music-centric, such as SoundCloud, and you should consider being on some of these social networks for increased exposure and to expand your fan base, which differs from common sites like Facebook, Twitter and Google+.

Fourth, there are a number of websites & blogs that will publish your artist info, articles and updatesfor their readers. Take a moment to research these opportunities via Google and Twitter search. The key here is to be consistent, communicative and to be present.

If you show up on your social profile once in a blue moon, it’s never going to work. You need to respond to your audience regularly and give them quality info and updates, either created by you or someone else.

You can indeed contact our Sugo Music team we’ll set up your global distribution portfolio. We’ll cover hundreds of countries, territories and channels including all streaming music services and online music stores.

2. Work On Your ‘Gig’ and Recording Skills

A musician is not just an artist. Musicians are also entertainers and gigs are a great way to entertain people and to connect deeply with them. Creating a song and performing it live in front of audiences are two totally different ballgames.

You need to work on your performance to incrementally make it better and better, so that people are compelled to talk about your performance to others. Yes, it can also become viral: first locally, then regionally and then possibly worldwide. Post your gig videos on YouTube for increased virality. Keep in mind that word of mouth, retweets, likes and shares are the best promotional tools.

Make sure that when people leave your gig, they remember you as an outstanding and charismatic performer. However, a great gig is not all about performance.It also requires good planning, resources and capturing the right audience. You need to plan and practice every little detail of the event ahead of time, and prepare and synchronize all the resources you’ll need.

Plus gigs will sharpen your tunes up: nothing like a gig to hone your craft, presence and songs.Having said this, there are numerous artists around the world who are discovering that success is not totally reliant on concerts, so to speak. Although performing can be extremely beneficial and contribute mightily to a successful career, don’t forget about your recordings and music products (i.e. singles, EPs and albums). And recordings don’t have to cost an arm and a leg!

Nowadays there are cost effective recording studios (and home recording systems as well) that can get the job done within budget, which will allow you to create as much music as your heart desires. Remember that “more” sometimes actually does meanmore!

They say a prolific musician can’t be denied, especially if they exude talent. Your fans will see (and hear) you as a committed artist with lots of good ideas and songs, and will be curious about your next creation.Staying active in your life equates to staying active in their lives! Create, gig, record, and sell!

3. Promote Your Music Free: Tweet. Tweet, Tweet!

Facebook is great, but Twitter is the real deal when it comes to connecting with people closely and building a following. So you better learn how to use Twitter effectively!You can choose to tweet manually all day but it might take away a significant chunk of your day. Here are some tools that you can use to schedule and/or automate your tweets:

• Hootesuite
• SproutSocial
• Buffer

But how do you find people who will be truly interested in your music? A good way is using Followerwonk from Moz.com. It’s a great tool to find out the “influencers” of your music niche. You can then review the list of people who are following these influencers, music movers and blogsters.

Start by connecting with them by following, retweeting and ‘favoriting’ their tweets. Also, remember to tweet good, interesting and meaningfulstuff on your account. Swayy is a great tool to find out interesting content that is worth tweeting!

4. Use the Good Ol’ Email Marketing

Yes, it’s true! Email marketing is still one the most effective methods among the various online marketing strategies. Yes, you heard it right! Statistics show that email marketing is even more effective than social media marketing or content marketing. It should still be a part of your outreach arsenal. But unfortunately most musicians ignore it in their marketing strategies and tactics.

First, it’s imperative to have a website of your own and then you can start your email marketing efforts right from there. You can offer a song or maybe a few songs with an opt-in form in exchange foryour visitor’s email address. You can use Mailchimp or Aweber or ConstantContactfor your email marketing management.

Try to build a quality and potent email list and remember to keep in contact with them, possibly once or twice a month! Let them know about your music, recent news and upcoming events,and anything special that is happening to you or your music.

5. Multiple Occurrences and Cross Pollination of Your Songs

Let’s say you have 10 songs recorded and they’re allfeatured on your new album. Why shouldn’t those 10 songs be sub-licensed onto 10 completely different albums? Those 10 albums may include 100 different musicians collectively.

Each album may have a different theme, which would attract a wider volume and variant degree of consumer tastes, demographics and psychographics. Let’s say that your original album was rejected by Pandora or SirusXM, yet several of the new compilation albums (which included your song) were accepted by both broadcasters and are now in continuous airplay rotation.

Let’s say your original album was selling modestly, yet one of the other compiled albums was selling off the charts and you were being exposed to an increased number of new fans because of it. Let’s say someone was searching for a specific artist featured on one of those compiled albums and just happened to bump into your song, and then they clicked their way through to find the rest of your works.

This new listener soon becomes your most loyal fan: a viral magnet, a champion of your works, a flag-waverof your songs to the known universe. Hmmm. Well, all this is possible. Yet it wouldn’t have been possible unless your music was sub-licensed onto the other 10 albums!The problem is who’s going to do this for you? Well, we will!

Our product development team here at Sugo Music Group has been building high quality compilations for over 30 years. We’ll guarantee that your music will be listened to and artistically compiled with other like musicians, which will provide increased sales and greater exposure for both you and your songs, especially here in the evolving digital streaming era.

Contact us now and we’ll get you started! If you follow these 5 hot tips consistently, you’ll be sure to have a good following soon. Be present, be consistent, and be responsive. Keep in mind that you can start distributing and streaming your music around the world without any setup costsor initial fees with Sugo Music! Yes, incredible but it’s true.

To know more about these 5 hot tips and your new global music distribution package, get in touch with us by filling out this short contact form. Thanks much!