July 15, 2010
Is It Your Goal To Get Music Contracts? Time To Promote Your Own Music If You Want To Get Signed!
Does it feel like you’ve been trying to promote your music and get music contracts but you keep hitting your head against the wall? Have you been trying to get noticed by a record label for awhile but it never seems to happen? If all you want is to play music, it can be depressing to think that you might have to give up the dream if you can’t get signed.
It can seem like record labels are designed to keep the new musician out. Like you have to know someone to get a decision-maker to listen to your music. Yes, every once in awhile you hear about the person who gave their demo to the right person. Or you hear about a kid who put his music on Youtube and had labels fighting over him. You might even hear of a scout at a local concert that signed a band no one had heard of. But often times it can feel like that will never happen for you.
It can almost feel like you’re playing the lottery. You just have to keep hitting the numbers until you get a jackpot and someone notices you. But eventually, you’ll run out of money if you don’t hit it big. Really, how long can you keep sending out demos or playing shows and hope to get discovered? Even if you have a burning desire to get music contracts, it gets old doing the same thing over and over. But what else can you do?
If it feels like you can’t keep promoting your music on your own forever, you need a plan of attack. This means it’s time to get serious and treat your band as a business. Obviously, you don’t want to take the fun out of playing music and performing. But you need to have the balance there and only make decisions if they’re for the good of the business. This means keeping your goal of getting signed in mind and only doing things if they move you toward that goal.
Here are three steps that you will need to get started if you want to get music contracts. These aren’t the only things you will need, but they will get you on the right track to promoting your music as a business.
1. Is your band marketable? If your band plays death metal, but three of your band members look like concert pianists, you have a problem. It is easier to market your band to a record label if everything about you has a consistant image. Look at your band through business eyes. Will you be easy to promote? Can people look at you and instantly know what you’re about?
2. Are you currently marketing your band like you would if you were a business owner? If music is just fun for you and something to do in your spare time, that’s fine. But if you aren’t willing to fight to get your music heard, then why would a record label? If you really want to get a music contract, then make sure that get your own marketing ideas together. Get a business plan in place. If you can present the record label with your own marketing plan you will both be on the same page. You can get them excited about promoting you if you can show them you are excited about promoting yourself.
3. Start the grassroots movement yourself. With the internet, you can get tons of people listening to your music, which will make it easier to get signed. Get your band a website, a Facebook page, a Myspace account, and an account on Itunes. None of these things cost very much, and once you start interacting with people you will get tons of followers. Just think of how great it will look to a record label if you can show them that your music has been listened to by millions of fans on Myspace. Record labels will fight over you to give you music contracts. Don’t forget, if you can show a label you will make them money, it will be easier for you to get them to sign you. The more promotion you do for your band yourself, the better off you will be in the end.
Think you can’t promote your music on your own and get a music contract? Think again! Check out: http://musiccontract.org for more info!
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