Finding your fans is something that we all should be doing on a regular basis and one of the simplest ways is through the many social music sites. So here’s a quick outline of my plan for building up my network of fans before I release the EP. This only focuses on the social music sites that I’m currently involved with and doesn’t cover all the aspects of my digital strategy which will also include posting on forums, commenting on blogs etc. If you have any other suggestions for building up my music networks then let me know by adding a comment, any help is always appreciated and I’ll be posting about my experiences with these different strategies as we go along.
So here’s the plan at the moment:
- Myspace - many people think myspace is dead as a way of finding music fans and specifially music buyers but it’s a platform which still needs some attention. I’ve really only been using myspace so far to find collaborators which has been really successful but now I’m going to start building up my network of music fans.
- Last.fm - I have an account but haven’t really been using it so I’m really going to start spending some time getting to know a few of my neighbours and getting involved in the community.
- Facebook - I have my Bluevibe studio page but haven’t really started to push it yet. I need to learn a little more about how to make the most out of the facebook community before getting things going.
- Coopr8 - a great music community out of the UK with some real music lovers on board. This is a niche community site which I’m going to be spending some time on to build up a network for the EP.
- Voeveo - I currently sell my ring tones through Voeveo but they also have a social aspect to the site which I’ll spending more time getting involved with over the coming weeks. I also won a promotion package last month with Voeveo and will be working with the team there to promote the EP.
As you can see focusing on some of the social media sites I’m currently involved with and really making an active contribution to the community is something which I’m hoping will help to build a good level of awareness around the launch of the EP and my music in general. Social music sites should be seen as part of your digital promotion strategy but I actually feel that your music sales should be a secondary consideration behind the huge number of other benefits you will see from being involved in sites like last.fm and Coopr8. Discovering amazing independent artists and supporting the music you love should always be the driving force and not clocking up as many friends as you can find! Call me naive but it’s the real personal interactions which will help the music scene and your career both online and off.
I’ll be posting about the full promotion plan in a few weeks and will be getting a few local experts on board to help me put my plan together. Finding fans for my music in New Zealand will mostly be done through some of the more traditional methods and will consume the larger part of my small budget for this release. I’ll be talking to a few people about how to get really creative with your cash when it comes to promotion and outlining a few of the ideas for you here. If you’d like those posts delivered direct to your inbox then subscribe to my blog and just sit back, relax, listen to some hiphop!
Tags: EP, Industry, marketing
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