Marketing Music and Performers
Writing and recording music is just a small part of the overall package you need to have in the profession of being a musician, and they are not needed for all musicians.
When you’re looking to present your self, your music and your band in a professional way we are there to help. Many decades of experience means we’re ready to handle your branding and design needs. A strong, cohesive brand helps musicians stand out in a crowded market, making them instantly recognizable to fans and industry professionals alike. Effective graphic design—ranging from album covers and logos to website layouts and promotional materials—communicates a musician’s style and story, fostering a deeper connection with the audience. Consistent branding across all platforms ensures that fans have a memorable and professional experience, ultimately helping to build a loyal fanbase and drive career growth through increased visibility and marketability.
To market your music and/or performances you’ll need several avenues of getting the attention of potential fans. We can create the building blocks so you can effectively market yourself without hindrance. Some of these building blocks include (but are not limited to):
Your website
Is a social media account enough? No. Facebook and Twitter are declining in importance, and TikTok – which is cool as I write this – will also decline in the not so distant future as will instagram. What that means is you need your own piece of internet “real estate” that is yours alone, that you control and where you can gather your fans to keep them as your fans. Perhaps they only visit your site once but that is enough with a strong enough funnel to get them started with giving you their email.
Yes, email gathering sounds archaic but still proves to be THE number one way for musicians to survive and thrive in today’s economy. But we’ll cover email later – just remember SPAM is never good, but keeping fans interested in you and giving them offers they want is good.
Your website also serves as a place to book shows and get press coverage. It used to be, in the ‘olden days’ that musicians would send out big envelopes full of information, bios, CDs and more to venues and reporters. That’s been replaced with the Electronic Press Kit or EPK which resides on your website. We suggest having two EPKs – one for venues so they can see videos of you performing and get the basic information they need to have you perform including what you need for sound systems and stage setup; and the other EPK with bio information, high-resolution photos, and sound samples as well as previous press clippings. Those two sets of people need very different kinds of information from you so why send them all to one place? This is where a website can excel at helping you market your music and your performances.
Email List
People buy from people, not from messages that say “buy me,” so your email list should help fans to understand you as a person and as a musician as well as show them what the songs are about and why they should be interested. You need to do more than create music, you need to create an “experience” because that is something they will invest in emotionally.
Once they’ve become more invested in you as a person, then you can ask for their help – whether that is joining your crowdfunding campaign, buying T-Shirts from you, or of course, buying your music.
We can help you by creating a place for your mailing list, the signup page – also known as a “squeeze page” – and guide you on the types of content which builds your community and help lead to a profitable career.
Posters, CD covers, Mailers
We’ve been in the marketing, communications and design game for decades – so creating your printed materials and online marketing posts are the easy part. Let us help you make that great “first impression” everyone talks about.
As designers we’re not here to create art for our sake, we have no need to show off our skills – our entire job is to make your promotion look and sound like you and how you are different from everyone else, the things that make you the unique artist you are.
Services include:
- Websites so you have a single place to have fans, media, bookers,
- Websites can include funnel pages for emails,
- eCommerce for selling your music and merch,
- EPKs for booking shows and for media
- CD/Single Covers (physical or digital)
- One Sheets for promoting yourself to booking agents and festivals
- Posters for promoting your gigs
- Contact or business cards as leave behinds
- Social Media Strategy so you know what to post and when, saving you time and brain power
- Music Videos – from very simple TikTok style for social media to full blown extravaganzas
- Headshots and Band Photos – images that match your style
- Brand Discovery so you can find out how to best tell the world why they need to listen to you and your music