5 Tips to promote you music in SoundCloud

 

SoundCloud continues to be a terrific location for music promotion. Taking advantage of SoundCloud’s growing community of music lovers should be a strategic practice of all musicians, big and small. Sharing tracks, creating sets, and interacting with other users are all essential parts of good SoundCloud promotion. Add to that commenting, following and group joining, and SoundCloud becomes the online pulse of social music.

Looking at the current success of Skrillex and his presence on SoundCloud, you can’t help but get excited about the potential for music discovery that SoundCloud offers. To help gain the most out of SoundCloud and reach the widest audience possible, I’ve put together some tips and ideas that any musician can easily implement. I call them my5 Super-Social Easily-Implemented Just-Do-It-Already SoundCloud-Tips.

Tip 1: Share

Sharing your SoundCloud tracks is very important. In today’s age of social networking this should not come as a surprise. In fact, this should be second nature by now. When you release a new track or a new set, always remember to share it on Facebook, send out some tweets, embed a HTML5 player on your site, post the music on Tumblr, share the track with SoundCloud users who are not following you already, and send some old-fashioned emails. SoundCloud even lets you connects various networks in their Settingsarea to assist in this process. Make sure you use it.

Tip 2: Be Free

Everyone likes free stuff, including free SoundCloud downloads. Don’t be afraid to release tracks for free every so often. Many people have grown up not even paying for music anymore. And although that can be detrimental to the starving artist, letting a track go for free can have it benefits. Free downloads have a certain type of virality. When the right fans get their hands on them they can spread across the world at a much faster rate than paid tracks. Use free downloads to produce a larger fan base. With a larger fan base, you have a greater chance of selling more music.

Tip 3: Join Groups

Joining groups that are befitting to your musical tastes is both fun and rewarding. When you decide to join a group or submit your tracks, remember to think outside the“dropbox.” Submitting tracks to groups that reflect your genre of music is important, but don’t forget about location based groups. Targeting SoundCloud groups in your city and state is one technique that many musicians neglect. These groups can help to build a grassroots type audience and provide many opportunities for future gigs. Join only the groups that make the most sense.

Tip 4: Comment

If you’ve ever had someone comment on one of your tracks then you know the excitement that it generates. Provide that same type of excitement for others. Comment on the SoundCloud tracks of other users in a constructive and sincere way. By taking the time to applaud another artist and extend your support, you are also creating an opportunity to get yourself noticed. I know this may sound self-serving, but that’s because it is. We’re talking about SoundCloud promotion. Promoting your music is always self-serving. But this does not mean that you should make insincere comments. It does not mean ignore what’s happening within the track to blatantly write something about yourself. People most definitely notice when you comment on things. Make sure you’re using the right, constructive words.

Tip 5: Follow

Do not hesitate to follow and/or follow back. This is perhaps the most obvious of all 5 Super-Social Easily-Implemented Just-Do-It-Already SoundCloud-Tips. Why? Because following is a recurring action. If another user sees you’re following them, guess what, it’s very likely that they’ll not only follow you back, but also check out your tracks. This leads to more exposure. Maybe they’ll happen to love your latest release, download it because you let it go for free, share it around their network, and bring you more fans. A scenario similar to this is not unrealistic.

 

 

How to increase Gig Attendance?

If there is one thing that almost every musicians dreams of, it is of that first major tour. Its that feeling of playing night after night, in the best venues of all of the major cities around the world, and always to a sold out crowd. But before that will ever happen, you need to answer one major question: Do you have a plan? If not, you can be sure to kiss that dream goodbye. And if you do have a plan, is it good enough? Music is a business just as anything else, and as such it is your job to play entrepreneur and marketer. While it is your product or service you are trying to sell, it is also your job to expose your music to the public.

First we will take a look at forming a proper plan, followed by exploring different strategies for putting that plan into action. The following are 3 very important steps to ensuring that you have a proper plan in place before you even attempt to get that first gig:

How to master a song in Ableton Live

Getting your tracks ready for playing to the public is something we all need to do from time to time. Liam O’Mullane shares his tips on making the best-sounding master possible in this Ableton Live tutorial 

 Love it or hate it, but in the world of club music it’s a necessity to give tracks a certain degree of loudness. For many, professional mastering isn’t an option as you may not be signed to a label yet, but if you want to get exposure, you still need to get your tracks to club and radio DJs for a possible lucky break. This month we’ll show you how to use specific mastering techniques on your mix buss to get a polished, loud track for promotional use.

You can also apply these to pre-mixed audio files, but working while the mix is still live can be an education in how your mix changes when mastered and how it can be shaped to work better with your mastering chain. But before any processing begins, let’s look at using reference material to help keep you on track. 

8 TIPS FOR USING FACEBOOK TO PROMOTE YOUR MUSIC

1. Make An Official Page

   If you are serious about promoting your music to the whole world, you can’t rely on your personal profile forever. Make an official page for yourself as an artist. This is going to be your promotional “headquarters” on Facebook. You can still use your personal profile from time to time to post about your music, but you will want to have your official page become the main destination for people looking for your music on Facebook.

2. Use Pictures

   Having professional pictures or imagery to represent yourself as an artist is key for two reasons. For one, you become more engaging as an entertainer when a listener can associate an image with the music. Many “superstar” artists are known as much for their image as they are for their music, and the concept is the same for indies. Secondly, having a specific picture or image will make you recognizable online. If someone is searching for you, they will be more confident that they’ve found the right page if it features pictures. Make use of the cover photo feature as well as photo albums, and put a few pictures out in status updates from time to time. Show your personality, but keep your imagery of a professional quality and try and limit the subject matter generally to music-related activities.

3. Fill In Your Info Sections

   You have several sections on the page for information, “About”, “Basic Info” and “Contact Info”. You need to fill these out to make best use of your page. Include a concise and descriptive paragraph about yourself or your band that communicates key points such as geographical location, style/genre and influences. Make sure you have names, emails and phone numbers in the sections for your press, booking and management contacts. Even if you are self-managed, you need to include this contact info. Do not assume that everyone who is interested in working with you will contact you using Facebook only. Make other options available.

4. Manage Apps

   Facebook supports a lot of apps that bands and artists can use to promote their music. While there is no specific app or apps that I would recommend as essential, it is important to utilize applications to facilitate a few core functions of music marketing: music hosting, video hosting, webstore, e-mail list sign-up, events and contests. A great way to scout out apps and see how they can be used to enhance your social media marketing is to visit the pages of some of your favorite superstar artists. All superstars have a professional social marketing team working with them who are always researching and developing apps. Take a look at their work for ideas.

5. Manage Content Flow

   Here is where a lot of artists stumble; content management. If designing good content flow strategies were easy, I would be out of a job. There is a fine line between too much and not enough and between too direct and too tangential. Like in all parts of life, balance is key here. Without going overboard on detail, here are a few fundamentals to keep in mind when posting status updates on your music page. Ideally, you should be posting new statuses a couple times per day or every other day. There should always be a “purpose” to the status update. Each one should include a link to one of your videos, songs, webstore pages, an e-mail list sign-up, your website, your event calendar, websites of venues you will be playing at, etc. Sprinkle in a couple musings or unrelated content to break it up a bit, but don’t turn your music page into another personal page. People want to see interesting content (links, music, videos, etc), and if what you post is not interesting or relating strongly to your music, you will start to be ignored. Do not repeat the same content multiple times unless you are coming up on a deadline. For example, if you have a show this weekend, it is okay to post about it a few times. Do not however, post about the same song three of four times in the same week. This is called message saturation, and you will lose the interest of your audience. Design a “content cycle” for yourself, and be sure to keep your content fresh by rotating it every few weeks. If you are at a loss for new content, don’t be afraid to go dark for a little while until you have something new to talk about. Nobody likes the people who talk needlessly without anything new to say, and this concept translates to the digital world as well.

6. Cross-Promote

   Facebook is a treasure chest of cross-promotional opportunities. If you work with other musicians or artists, propose that you share each other’s page or links to each other’s audiences from time to time. Don’t be afraid to post on the pages of venues you are playing at in order to connect with their fans. Whenever possible, ask others to share your content and be willing to reciprocate by sharing theirs. Watch out that you don’t come across as a spammer however, or that you become too aggressive in your cross-promotion. Exercise tactful restraint. Don’t make it look like you are desperately trying to piggy back on everybody else’s pages. If done right, these cross-promotional activities will help you open up new audiences and continue to grow your likes and interactions.

7. Don’t Pay For Likes

   While it looks great to have thousands of likes on your page, they are meaningless if you pay for them. At best they will distort your analytics and make all of your audience data unreliable, at worst they will make your page a target for spammers. 1 like from a real fan will be better than 10 likes that are artificially gathered. Steer clear of paying for likes.

8. Keep Tabs On The Competition

   If you want to be successful, you should do what other successful artists are doing. Visit the pages of major label artists and observe how they maintain and run their pages. As I mentioned before, all major label artists have a social media marketing team behind their Facebook page. Use them as a resource and observe the product they put out. Keep your eye on the competition and stay innovative. Don’t obsess over what others are doing, but check in every few months to see if the stars are doing something that you aren’t.

If you follow these tips you will be well on your way to making the most out of Facebook as a promotional tool for your music!

How to promote your music? 5 important tips.

1. Don’t Promote a Bad Track

I suggest getting feedback from respected people in the industry and other music enthusiasts before releasing. I personally have a promo list of 30 producers respected in the house community (it took me awhile to build these relationships). I respect their opinion and taste. If 60% of them like a track, it’s a green light to market and release the track. Why 60%? Think about it, 18 out of 30 respected taste makers from the industry liked the track. The odds of having 60% of my overall total fans liking the track and sharing it with their friends are high. My goal for each campaign is not to chase pennies and cents at the retail stores, but to grow my fanbase and share great music.

If you don’t have a network of tastemakers, I recommend checking out Soundout, it’s a great music feedback service that sends your track to other listeners, and you get feedback a few days later.

2. Market to Your Target Audience

I’ve seen a lot of producers who like to produce tracks in different genres and then market them to a totally wrong fanbase. Some people can’t tell Deep House from Tech House from Electro. Some people see it all as Techno. That’s fine if you are blanketing that fan base as your target market. But be clear what your target market is and what is the messages you want to communicate to them. For example, promoting your electro house track in a dubstep forum or your top 10 deep house beatport chart on an EDM Facebook group, is a bad idea. Don’t do this.

It’s not always easy to decide who you should market to. It took me some time to identify my target audience. Initially they were younger producers from South Africa, Germany and Sweden. Now I have expanded to the electronic music enthusiasts in DC, Baltimore and NYC (the U.S. has always been a late adopter for electronic dance music). My message is catered to them, and I’m closely interacting with them.

3. Don’t Believe the Hype

Perhaps one of the biggest mistakes in marketing is to get caught up in all the marketing noise made by other producers. When you’re inside the bubble and paying attention to every announcement of your nearest 3-4 producers/competitors, it’s easy to get despondent when they get their killer magazine review or are featured on every Beatport Top 10 and Traxsource Top 10. It’s okay to be competitive though. I noticed not a lot of producers are competitive with their music. I’m very competitive and I expect the same from other producers. If you’re not competitive, expect to live in a world of mediocrity.

Those of us that have been around the block tend to not get too worked up by any big announcements. They come and go. They’re mostly fleeting. Life goes on and you have tons of differentiation.

4. Your Competitors Feel the Same

One thing that upcoming producers often overlook is the impact of competitors’ marketing on their morale. Every day you read about all of the great gigs your competitors are racking up and their high profile remixes released left and right. You’re reading their press releases or blog posts. Inside your mind, everything is going to hell in a handbasket and you don’t know how you are ever going to make it.

That’s how it ALWAYS feels being an UPCOMING PRODUCER. You are still learning your craft, you don’t have enough gear, you don’t have access to great vocalists, your network of other producers to learn from is nonexistent, you have no fan base. That is EXACTLY how your competitors feel. And they’re listening to your tracks and thinking, “Shit, they have a good thing going on” or “Uh Oh, how did he get that gig?” Make sure you stay confident.

Producers who started 8-10 yrs ahead of you aren’t the competition, these are your mentors. Respect them and ask them for feedback, which the majority will offer if approached correctly.

5. Build Relationships

Many newbie producers make the mistake of thinking that they can simply approach a high profile producer to remix some of their work and gain recognition. It doesn’t work that way. High profile producers are constantly harangued by over-eager producers. Go slowly. Get to know them when you don’t need remixes. Same thing goes for club promoters or owners.

Follow them on Twitter. Respect their profession. Buy their music. Go to their shows. Ask if you can be on their promo list. Say hello to them at clubs or events. Understand how their job works. Understand that for every track they make, they need some support promoting it, and if you can’t help, you’re not likely to get inches. The more helpful you are over time, the more likely you are to get inches when you need them.

Building your fan base and support network is a marathon, not a sprint. Spread the love out. Your small wins will result in larger wins over time.

How to build a music production studio for under $1.000

So you know how to produce but you now want to get started in your own studio, on a fairly low budget. How do you do that? 

Michael Walsh’s home studio

One question we often get asked is, “How much do I need to spend to build a decent home studio?”This is a tricky question because for the audio enthusiasts amongst us, there is never enough sound or enough gear. Creating a home studio can be a wallet-draining hobby. But it can also be a streamlined affair if you know exactly what you want to get done.  All you really need is a MIDI controller of some sort (to play your keys and your beats) and a decent pair of headphones or speakers. If you want to record live sounds such as vocals or guitar, you’ll also need an audio interface and a microphone to get those sounds into the computer.

Speakers vs Studio Monitors

Do you need high-end studio speakers? Not necessarily. I remember visiting a producer friend once and noticed that he was mixing tracks (that were getting published on the regular) with a pair of $20 computer speakers. He could do this because he knew from experience how to EQ his sounds and master his track to rumble a club sound system, so he didn’t need to hear the bass on his home system to know what was happening to the sound. For those of us who don’t have that skill (yet), it is probably wise to invest in a set of speakers that will give you a good idea of what you are creating. This is where the term “studio monitor” comes into our conversation. Studio Monitors are speakers that are made to give an accurate, transparent representation of the sound you are making. Where a pair of home theater or bookshelf speakers may “color” the sound to make it sound more appealing to the ear, studio monitors are made to sound accurate and therefore very flat. At first they may not sound as exciting as your other speakers. This is because you are hearing an honest representation of the music.

10 inspirational tips for music production

Source: “Diesellaws.com”

1. Loosen The Grip On Your Mind

If you occasionally beat yourself up for not coming up with something the way it sounded in your head, you’re not alone. The way we hear things in our mind and the way we interpret that thought into our music are nearly always going to be different. This IS a good thing. Allow your inspiration to come through your music in a way you weren’t expecting. It keeps it interesting, fresh and can spark a lot more inspiration.

2. Start Before You Think

Often referred to as “on the fly”, being spontaneous can sometimes kick-start your imagination in a big way. Dropping in a random loop, off beat percussion or quick melody and building a track around that regularly leads to something worth saving. Sometimes, getting stuck with a particular sound, VST or genre can quickly demotivate you in making another track.

3. Remix

Remixes (and bootleg remixes) are great ways for producers to gain some attention. They are also great for breaking free from the ‘freak out’ that can come from seeing a blank canvas. By challenging yourself to remix you will inevitably fuel your inspiration and at the same time learn how other producers construct their songs.

4. Humour Yourself

Got Cheese? Humour is a great way to break up an uninspiring production. Open a new project, lay down some random samples and add some humour either in the form of funny recorded vocals or cheesy sounding synths. Sure it may not be a track you ever show anyone else, but it might just be the kick* you need to jump into the next project with a clear mind. *Pun intended

5. Lay It Out

Some producers may struggle with melodies, while others may struggle with the layout of a track. Whatever your hurdle, laying out a track from another artist you admire may just help you overcome that obstacle. While I don’t recommend copying another artists work, I do recommend gaining inspiration from the way in which they have crafted their sounds, started their breakdowns, changed the riffs and fleshed out their layers; Which may help you get past those technical issues that can block creativity.

6. Enjoy Your Production Space

Most artists will tend to have one main space to which their productions are born. Allow this space to be a place that inspires you and invites you back each time. Some will find the addition of the Internet to this workspace to be a freeing move which can help break up studio time comfortably, especially in the track rendering down-time.  Other additions may be open window lighting, controlled darkness, sound-wall padding, plants, supporting chair and (monitored) alcoholic beverages.

7. Don’t Do Anything

How often have you forced yourself to create something even when you haven’t been in the mood? Producing is a very complex process and can occasionally be slowed to a halt with forced creativity. If you don’t feel like making any music, then don’t. While there are moments when you may need to push on through regardless of mood due to project time constraints (#Tip 2), creating a track when your mind isn’t there can often do more harm then good; Leaving you frustrated and annoyed which can alter your positive perception of your production space and musical abilities.

8. Time Constraints Are Good

If you have managed to gain a project with time constraints, think of yourself as a lucky one. Many producers ( usually including yourself at an early point in your career) would love to have the opportunity to be asked by labels and other producers to create original and remix productions for them. Essentially, it’s the next step up from producing tracks and sending them to labels in the hope that they listen to them, let alone sign them. If the time constraints are really eating at you, it might be best to go back to Tip #1 or #2 or contact the label/producer and coming to an alternative arrangement.

9. Allow Yourself The Freedom To Change

Most people do a variety of different projects at any one time in their lives. The same goes for producers, who often pick up the ‘cousin’ craft of DJing. Participating in another activity that occupies your mind for long periods of time can often alter how you produce; Sometimes making it harder to create new tracks. This situation is perfectly normal and may just mean that you are putting inspiration into your other activity and it may take a little while to get back into the mind space needed for new productions. To counter act this situation, you may just need to play out Tip #2 or even #7 until you decide which path should take precedence.

10. Listen, Watch and Attend

Listening to new music, Watching music videos and Attending gigs, concerts and festivals should be a must for every producer. Opening your mind to ‘research’ via the Internet, or in the physical world will impact directly on your productions. As humans, we often emulate what we hear and see, and as most productions fit to a certain style based on genre (Kick, Snare, Perc, Instrument, FX) the visual and aural learning can only benefit your mind and concepts. Add to that the rapid rise of the digital producer taking his productions to a LIVE show purposely blurring the lines from bedroom producer to live act.

5 Things Record Labels Don’t Want You to Know They Do

You’ve read so much about the music industry and its upstanding business practices that you likely think there isn’t anything else we could tell you that would come as a surprise. But some record label tactics are so covert that it takes a fair amount of digging just to find out they exist. Here are a few things record labels don’t want you to know that they still do in an effort to separate you — and the artists — from your hard-earned cash. Things like …

Labelnot welcomes music lovers!

Hello music producers, bands, solo artists! Labelnot welcomes you to a whole new concept in music buisness, where you get a more protagonist and free role. We give you the opportunity to sell music and get yourself out in the market without being signed by any label. Though, we do have some “standard quality rules” in order to offer the best music to clients.

* In order to have a deeper view in how it works, please visit “How it work?” section.

** Labelnot.com is not currently available, because is under construction, so you will not be able to sign up, but please subscribe with your e-mail and preferences to recieve all the news.

Have you ever thought you could really make some money selling music online? One of the most frustrating thing selling music through other portals is the share you get for your sales: for example, you get only the 50% of the 50% that the label gets from the portal who sells your music, if you are lucky. Some artist struggle so much to get better deals with label companies that do not get to good terms because, of course, you are not know yet, just yet. Labelnot offers to be your partner in this businnes, going 50/50, with no intermediares, sweet right?

At this time we are working hard in order to lunch our store as soon as we can, meanwhile, we want you to subscribe to this project to mantain you updated on the news. Apart from this, first people who suscribe Labelnot will have some awesome benefits when this project gets running, which I assume you would not want to stay out!

Thanks for your time and keep always doing what you love, music!

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