A solid marketing campaign is essential for any artist looking to push their music further. With so many opportunities for marketing readily available, artists often submit their music for promotional services as soon as the track is finished, often leading to disappointment as campaign leaders reject the material. Keep reading if you want learn about how to prepare yourself to market your music independently.
The common misconception is that marketing campaigns begin when recording finishes, in reality, there is a significant amount of work that needs to be done prior to submitting your music to playlist curators, radio pluggers, PR experts and other avenues of marketing.
Social Media:
In the modern-day music industry, your first port of call should be your social media- do you have it, are you active and are you knowledgeable on how to utilise it to your advantage as a musician? Horus Music are here to make things simple. Our new Indie Guide to Social media package is perfect for independent artists at all stages and genres looking to organically grow their social media. Including a 1-1 review with our social media expert 6-8 weeks after receiving the guide, we will provide you with the tools you need to create social media successfully as an independent artist. You can read more on this service here.
Music Distribution:
Once your social media is in check, you need to make sure you’ve distributed your release. Horus Music offer quick and easy solutions for all your music distribution needs, from bedroom artists to global labels, we’ve got you covered. You can find more details on our distribution services and get started today here.
It’s particularly important to ensure you’ve distributed your release in advance of reaching out to playlist curators as it is a requirement for most DSP’s that the release is already ingested in their system prior to pitching. Spotify require artists to submit to playlists at least 2 weeks in advance of your release date, so ensuring your release is distributed early means that you’re not rushing to upload to your distributor to meet Spotify and other platforms deadlines.
Here at Horus Music, this is also important if you are submitting your music to our team for consideration for our new Global Editorial Playlist Pitching campaign. We require your music to be sent to us 6-8 weeks in advance and the release must be distributed before starting the campaign. If you’re interested in this service, you can send your release to our team for review here.
Press Releases & One Sheets:
Most promotional services will request either a one sheet or press release in order to carry out the agreed campaign. This is a document which contains information about you as an artist, listening links, press shots, details on your latest release and achievements to date. Artists commonly make the mistake of sending over a few short lines which does not provide press with a detailed overview of who you are as an artist and what you are looking to achieve, resulting in the campaign stalling before it’s even started.
Our new Digital Press One Sheet package is available for independent artists of all genres and calibres looking for the perfect calling card to utilise for press or marketing purposes. If you are looking to take your career to the next level our Digital Press One Sheet will provide a professional steppingstone to enter the market. Learn more about our service here.
Private Listening Links:
The final check point before beginning to market your music independently is to ensure you have a private listening link available. Most press contacts will request to listen to the release before deciding to take on a campaign. We recommend either uploading your track and setting to private on Soundcloud, or alternatively adding to dropbox and providing a link rather than sending large files. Providing a quick and easily accessible link will enable you to reach out to a wider range of press contacts and ensure they can listen to your music at the click of a button.
For more information and advice on how to market your music independently, get in touch with our team today!
