Let’s just be real, marketing as a creative is hard no matter what. If you’re looking to find your feet alongside a co-manager like me with this real campaign example, read on.
Now that your music is ready and you want to share it, it’s time to think about the bigger picture. What’s the end goal with it? Get a million streams, land your dream blog placement, get on the bill to a festival, sell 100 t-shirts, get A&R feedback? It’s important to hone down on a target so you can see real progression. In my case, my artist wants to get a Booking Agent after the release of her debut EP.
Now it’s time to think smaller- how do you get there? Research time. Get all the best advice and pointers together in one document to look back on. To get a booking agent I found that these were the main things:
Next is the target audience, and I’ll spare you the university lecture. Don’t stress about the small stuff, just start simple- start with you. I mean you made that song because you like that type of music, it resonates with you and there’s more like you out there. Where would you be hanging out if you heard this? What specific part or visual would draw you in? What would make you want to share it? What about it makes you invest time in it? This is where I’d re-evaluate the release: is it my most mainstream track? Would this easily get placed on blogs, live sets etc? Would time and money be returned with a song/project like this? Be real, and take your time to figure it out.
For our artist’s debut Pop EP: We’re looking at 12-30 year-old mostly girls and women, based in the UK (for now, since we’re looking at booking shows and are starting locally). We’re aiming for IG, YouTube and Spotify here, based on popularity and the EP we’re promoting. It’s simple and based off of wide sourcing judgements, but it’s a good place to start and whittle down on for future campaign.
Now that you hopefully have your audience, think about the quickest most eye-catching way to attract their attention. I know it’s shallow, but this is reality, unless you’re some kind of niche music artist with a completely distinct audience. Here are some core marketing aspects of my artist’s Campaign:
These channels cover the all the basics, making sure to have a focus on more followers, more streams and mailing list subscribers.
These will have to be budgeted accordingly, perhaps since we’re looking to get a booking agent, we will spend more on our mailing list promotion and launch event in order to build our organic fanbase while also creating a show for booking agents and A&R to remember!
They will also need to be scheduled in detail, this is where it changes for each of us. Maybe you need to learn how to set up your YT ads, so that will be a small step in your schedule, split each and every aspect of the campaign into tiny tasks like below.
A gantt chart is the perfect way to schedule a campaign but of course use whatever way works for you!
That’s it, you’ve created your basic DIY marketing campaign for your music! What’s next? Well maybe a little creative grassroots marketing or viral social ideas could work, but all in good time! Maybe something to talk about in a future Artist Avenues post?
Hope this helped someone out there! Stay posed for more.
ARTIST AVENUES 
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