4 Tips for promoting your music online

I have produced music for about seven years now, and from the very beginning I was using social media to promote my work. Back then, bands and artists were primarily using Myspace to show off and promote their music. But today there is more diversity in promotion platforms. Today, Soundcloud, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook have become staples in musicians’ promotion toolkit, amongst other smaller platforms. Utilizing all of these services effectively isn’t always easy and can be a lot of work, but here’s a few things musicians can do to spread their work to larger audiences:

1. Use free downloads to gain Facebook ‘likes’

Everybody loves free music. Not only because it’s free, but because it’s usually more convenient to download. In my experience, a song released for free will gain much more attention than a song that costs listeners money to download. I prefer to release music for free because of this. But just because my music is free, doesn’t mean I don’t earn something in return for downloads. I began charging Facebook “likes” for downloads in 2012. This means a listener will need to ‘follow’ my Facebook page in order to get the free download link. Before I did this I had less than 500 followers on Facebook, but today, I have nearly 5,000 likes, which I attribute mostly to this strategy of charging “likes” for a download.

2. Build relationships with other artists on Twitter

Twitter is an amazing platform that has the ability to easily connect artists to their fans. I have found it to be an excellent service for building relationships in a very casual way. The trick to doing this is to be very active on Twitter and most importantly, tweet out to other users instead of just talking to yourself. When you engage other users on Twitter, it makes promoting yourself or your new album far easier. 

3. Upload all your music to YouTube

This is something I think a lot of new musicians and producers overlook. YouTube has become one of the most widely used music platforms for young listeners all around the world. It might seem backwards, but it’s incredibly common for listeners to first search for a song on youtube, before going to iTunes or Soundcloud. Youtube videos also appear at the top of google search results making them super easy to find (with the right keywords). This blog entry discusses this phenomena in greater detail. New artists should all have YouTube accounts with as much of their own music online as possible, and should always include an eye-catching graphic as the video. And don’t forget to include links to your other social media pages in the description!

4. Build a media promo kit with all the trimmings

This is something you want to have made, even if you aren’t sure you need it. It’s very handy to have this prepared ahead of time. Include a photo or two of yourself, a few graphics (hire someone if you don’t know how to make these), a bio, and a few choice songs. This will be useful in getting deals with labels, live event promoters, and blogs. 

5. Get to know music bloggers and send them your music (a lot)!

This has without a doubt been the single most significant factor in the promotion of my work. It is crucial for new artists to make relationships with at least a few music bloggers, and obviously the bigger the blog, the better. Talk to these bloggers frequently, even when you don’t have new music coming out. These people are the “media gatekeepers” and will give you access to thousands of potential fans. And in the EDM world, where I live, music blogs are the kings of what get’s heard. 

Net Neutrality Takes Major Hit

Net Neutrality took a major hit last month when a federal judge ruled against new FCC-proposed regulations for internet service providers. The basic gist of the new laws would prohibit ISPs from altering, interfering, throttling, or censoring websites and content at their discretion. Watch the video below for a basic explanation for the need to have net neutrality laws:

But aren’t there already laws similar to net neutrality that protect telecom consumers? Yes there are. The FCC labels telecoms and phone service providers as “common carriers,” and there are consumer protections enforced on these “common carriers.” But under the George W. Bush FCC administration, internet service providers were labeled as “information services,” not “common carriers.” And so they received different, less stringent regulations. The Obama FCC administration has now been attempting to enforce tighter regulations, and this latest ruling has had a major blow on these efforts.

Opponents to net neutrality have argued that even if given the freedom to provide this suggested "selective" service, that carriers and ISPs would not likely pursue such actions in order to stay competitive with other ISPs. The problem, besides the fact that there is evidence that shows Verizon has already begun throttling users since the federal judge’s ruling, is that the “competition” isn’t nearly as stiff as the federal government claims. The judge cited the infantile Google Fiber service, which has only been rolled out in small areas in Kansas City, KS and Provo, UT, as a main reason for rejecting the FCC proposal. His claim is that with this new Fiber service, consumers do indeed have a choice and power in the market. But in reality, this service is very new and Google has been taking their sweet time setting it up, while meanwhile, millions of internet users still have little to no buyer bargaining power. 

Of course, I am all for net neutrality. But I’m a libertarian, so it feels a little strange to be so in favor of massive federal regulations. Let me explain why this is important to me. In the past 20 years, the internet has evolved from a small project amongst academics and universities, and become one of our most vital pieces of infrastructure. Financial systems, communications, entertainment, marketing, product retailing…. I could go on and on about what we rely on the internet for and how important a non-censored and unaltered internet is for our society. Verizon, Time Warner, Comcast, and other ISPs have agreed that they want to be in the business of providing us these internet services. But since the internet is so vital for what seems like just about every corner of civilization, these companies should absolutely not be allowed to alter our experience or internet capabilities in any way. This isn’t like telling a local tavern they can’t allow people to smoke inside, a regulation I’m staunchly opposed to. Nobody needs to go to that tavern, bars are not vital to the function of our society like the internet, and consumers do indeed have other options for that. But if we are going to let these companies sell us internet service, they need to do it on our terms.

1. Drum, Kevin. "Net Neutrality Takes a Big Hit in Court." Mother Jones. N.p., 14 Jan. 2014. Web. 14 Feb. 2014.

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2014/01/net-neutrality-takes-big-hit-court

2. Lilly, Paul. "Verizon Allegedly Already Throttling Customers After Net Neutrality Ruling." HotHardware Computing and Tech News. N.p., 9 Feb. 2014. Web. 14 Feb. 2014.

http://hothardware.com/News/Verizon-Allegedly-Already-Throttling-Customers-After-Net-Neutrality-Ruling/

Journalists Complain About Sochi Conditions

The winter Olympic games in Sochi, Russia have gotten off to a rather rocky start. Before the games even began, there was controversy surrounding the country’s backwards homosexuality “propaganda” laws, terror attack risks, and general human-rights violations (specifically free speech, or lack-of).

As athletes, spectators, and journalists began pouring into the newly constructed olympic villages in Sochi, one thing became very obvious to them, and the rest of the world: Russia is completely unprepared to host the Olympic games. Almost immediately, reports began to surface on news sites and Twitter regarding packs of stray dogs, toxic tap water, unfinished streets and buildings, brown grass being spray painted green, unfurnished hotel rooms, and  just a general sense of chaos all around Sochi.  

Now of course not everyone has been affected from these issues, in fact I would bet most people are probably having a pleasant time. But there is a common trait about these reports on Twitter I have noticed: They are mostly all from journalists. That’s right, it seems that journalists as a group have been thrown under the bus, and yes I am talking about Russia’s “spaceship” bus. The Olympic games are watched by millions of people, and of course nearly all of them are not in attendance, but watching on TV, reading articles, and reading Tweets. And Sochi organizers have screwed over the very people who get their games out to the rest of the world, and of course there is not a better way to guarantee bad press than by screwing over the very people that control the flow of information. So naturally, there has been a steady flow of bad press coming out of Sochi, which has cast a shadow over the entire games. But journalists aren’t the only ones complaining; local residents say the Olympic games have greatly and negatively affected their lives.

Russia says that they have spent a whopping 54 million dollars on 2014 Winter Olympic Games, which is more than five times as expensive as the last Winter Olympic Games in 2010 in Vancouver.

Johnson, Benny. "Sochi 2014 Opens as Stray Dogs, Empty Malls Greet Spectators." Bloomberg.com. Bloomberg, 6 Feb. 2014. Web. 08 Feb. 2014. www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-07/sochi-2014-opens-as-stray-dogs-empty-malls-greet-spectators.html

 Phillips, Mark. "Russian Villagers Say the Olympics Have Ruined Their Town." CBSNews. CBS Interactive, 4 Feb. 2013. Web. 08 Feb. 2014.  www.cbsnews.com/news/russian-villagers-say-olympics-have-ruined-their-town/