How to market my music

A first step to start a marketing process with our music would be to understand it as a
product. This way, we can see how our productions fit into our desired audiences' day-to-day
and consumption habits.

First, we must know that music is an intangible product. We cannot measure this level of
success or demand in the same way as other products and goods.

In the consumption of artistic works, the audience's subjectivity plays a fundamental role in
its purchasing power.

In search of the ears of your audience

To win the ears of our audience, we must first understand that satisfaction and tastes are
subjective. What is pleasant for some people may not be for others.

It is essential to create a community around our work that consumes our musical
productions, which is interested in us as artists and producers. They follow our evolution
step by step.

At this point, it is crucial to understand that having listeners does not mean great sales.
However, the larger your community, the more likely it is to market your music.

The cultural and social relations of their environment and their current emotions, tastes for
fashion, popular trends, select dates, lifestyles, and entertainment habits ( books, movies,
travel, etc.) guides music consumers' purchase intention.

Despite this, few people invest their money in music. On the contrary, this should not
discourage you; on the contrary, it must mark a starting point to generate striking strategies
to increase your fans' loyalty.

In your community of followers, there will be those who buy and those who do not
because music is not an essential product for the consumer.

Therefore, if a buyer's income deteriorates, he would stop purchasing this type of item.

In this sense, the economic situation, purchasing power, and the size of the country's market
(GDP) determine the degree of investment in our sector.

The music market in 2021

Another essential factor to consider when selling your music is understanding the market's
transformation: assuming current commercialization strategies will make your musical works
more likely to be sold.
The creation and distribution of music have changed almost entirely since the advent of new
devices and internet access generalization. This reality led to the primary form of music
distribution: the sale of so-called "singles" (which usually cost less than a dollar) instead of
discs and complete albums.

This situation has taken record companies and their artists to rethink the opportunities and
mechanics to earn the previously obtained money in the tour-album combo. The modern
costs and speed of diffusion bring another series of challenges.

Guide to start distributing your music on digital platforms.

Several options are available to sell our music directly; many distributors can list your music
for sale through online retailers. Your first task will be to define the niche for your music.

1. Define your niche

Location
Let's start with the geographic area. You may have a product specifically aimed at a regional
culture or a world-class-sounding style. You can also choose a niche based on a specific
country, continent, or geographic area.

Economic profiles
Look at consumer profiles, segmenting the specific audience by low, medium, or high
income. And not only this, take into account what they spend their money on, remember that
not all people have "consume culture or cultural goods" as a consumption option.

You can also use your specific audience's behavior, looking for a more informal, more
elegant, ruder, more cultured profile. Alternatively, the one that goes more with your music
and your content.

Level of elaboration of your product

The level of elaboration of your product will also help you filter the right audience.

Suppose your music is something like jazz, orchestral music, or something too elaborate. In
that case, you will want to offer it to an audience with a high educational and economic level.

2. Plan your social networks:

Once you have an exact niche, you must design an appropriate strategy for social
networks with your potential consumers in mind.

Design a specific content plan: create experiences that generate engagement, such as a
concert tour in places where your future fans frequent, emotional posts that spread your
creative process, tell your audience what and who is behind the music they hear.
Venues for concerts and related businesses are working as intermediaries to pages like
Sonicbids and Reverbnation. They handle almost all the slots for emerging artists for
concerts, venues, festivals, etc.

Promoting your music on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram is still essential to reach more
people and permanently in your possible audience's sights.

Facebook: create a page for your project (not a profile, since the profile is personal) and
generate content regularly with everything related to news, concerts, new topics, and
everything about your career.

Twitter: keep your account active and combine purely promotional news with other more
informal and everyday curiosities. On Twitter, as on Facebook, excess self-promotion pays
dearly, but it is the perfect place for people to feel close to your project.

Instagram: The social network has more users every day and allows you to search and
promote yourself through hashtags.

Don't forget to keep your account up to date, upload videos (for example, make a voice
recording of your new song or work in your home studio),

Also, make live connections, contests, and respond to your followers.

3. Register your songs

Find out about the intellectual property registry and use the different methods to register your
work and thus have legal proof of plagiarism or improper use.

You can opt for the traditional method and register your songs by the score in an Intellectual
Property Registry (the name will depend on your country). You can instead do it digitally
through an online platform such as safecreative.com.

It is important to note that it is not strictly necessary to register songs to prove our
authorship. Any evidence (email, recording, etc.) would be worth checking whose
composition it is in a possible trial.

4. Decide on the format and distribute your music.

With music production and registration done, you must decide how you will group your
musical product: (single, EP, album).

You must also think if you will distribute the physical format (CD) or just the digital one.
The physical format will be necessary to sell copies to acquaintances and at concerts. But
the classic idea of having your album in stores requires more and more effort and budgets.

Physical distribution is not profitable without the support of a large and expensive
promotional campaign and a record company, investors, or distributor to fund it.

Suppose you decide to sell your music digitally. In that case, your primary focus will be on
Spotify, iTunes, and Amazon Music, which takes most of the slices from the music
platform industry.

Some of the Top Online Distributors to Sell Your Music

Online are:

Tunecore

TuneCore is a distributor created in 2005 and whose main offices are in New York. This
distributor does not charge anything for the money generated by your songs' downloads.

In other words, everything that your music generates on the more than 150 platforms it
works with will be for you.

Besides, suppose there is any possibility of selling your songs to a film, television, or video
game production company. In that case, you can also do it there if you wish. The Tunecore
team is on the lookout for any opportunities that arise.

TuneCore charges a fixed annual amount for each album ($ 29.99) or song ($ 9.99).
Tunecore will also protect you if someone uses your music without permission.

https://www.tunecore.com/

CDbaby

CDBaby is a distributor created in 1997 and based in Portland, United States. Like
TuneCore, it also has a payment in its standard version per single ($ 9.95) and per album ($
29), but in this case, it is a single payment; it is not annual.

CDBaby will charge 9% of the income generated by your songs, and the company will be
publishing your music on more than 150 platforms worldwide. The remaining 91% is for you.

You will also have access to offer your music to film productions, television, and video
games. CDBaby is responsible for protecting your rights as a music creator with your Pro
package.

https://es.cdbaby.com/
Bandcamp

Bandcamp is a free service where you can upload and sell your music directly to your fans;
They receive a modest cut in sales or commission (15%). More importantly, they can collect
your valuable data and email addresses when you sell through Bandcamp.

There is also an emphasis on discovering new music with Bandcamp.

They repeatedly recommend the music to fans through their fan accounts, blog, app, and the
Bandcamp Weekly podcast. (tools that this platform uses to circulate your music)

https://bandcamp.com/

Distrokid

Launched in 2013, Distrokid, based in New York. The novelty of Distrokid is that it has a
single annual payment ($ 19.99) to upload unlimited songs and albums so that you will get
100% of the money generated by your music.

Also, you can pay part of the benefits to other collaborators on your topics as copyright.
They also help you collect royalties if someone uses your themes without permission on
YouTube.

https://distrokid.com/

Freshtunes

Based in Dubai, FreshTunes is one of the best options, whether you are starting to produce
or doing it professionally. The reason is that this distributor allows you to upload your music
to the leading online music platforms, like the rest of the distributors, but for free.

You don't have to pay a penny, and everything you generate on those platforms will be for
you. Freshtunes makes money through similar services such as special reports, promotional
campaigns for your music, and many other options.

https://freshtunes.com/es/

Amuse

Founded in 2015 and based in Stockholm, Amuse is one of the most exciting distributors to
promote your music. Like FreshTunes, it's free, and you can upload your songs to more than
150 platforms, including the most famous on the web. Also, you will keep 100% of what your
music generates and copyrights.
Amuse makes money looking for artists interested in representing them professionally and
making money as a professional record label.

https://www.amuse.io/

Do you want to go further? Loyalty to your fans as sponsors

This trend has increased significantly in recent years. Making your followers become
sponsors of your projects is something that you can achieve through platforms such as
Patreon, BrandMe, or Glambassador.

You can also focus on the crowdfunding field, basing your strategy on the profiles of
supportive people who are interested in your creations.

Both models work similarly: your followers or clients can access different products or
exclusive content, in advance or at a special price, through a monthly amount of money (or
as you establish it), to support your creative projects.

To finish, let's not forget to mention that historically, there has been an oversupply of artists
in each musical style. So the quality and originality you have, count in your favor to stand out
among the great constellation of artists and aspirants in the market.

Something crucial is to check your contacts' strength, which they can do for you, and never
forget chance; uncontrollable factors are always present. It would help if you managed them
to conquer the ears of the audience.