Why you shouldn’t look to established artists for your marketing strategy
I'm really excited to announce that the guys over at Mugasha have asked me to contribute to their Mugasha Aux Blog. Here is my first post for them:
When asked for advice by other artists that are trying to climb the ladder within the EDM community, my advice is often to look toward the artists that influence you the most for inspiration. For my own purposes, when making music I try to emulate the artists I respect and admire – artists like Jaytech, Boom Jinx and
EDX set standards of excellence that provide me with direction and focus. Artists such as Crystal Castles that have engaged in wildly successful campaigns to get discovered and establish themselves in the mainstream keep me motivated to search for new, effective and innovative ways to capture the attention of more and more music-lovers.
But when it comes to the run-of-the-mill amateur dance music artist who is toiling away in his/her studio, mom’s basement, or wherever they may be, trying to get discovered by new fans I wouldn’t look to your idols for much help. If you follow any of the more popular trance or progressive artists out there today on Twitter, you know what I am talking about… 140-character postings about boarding a flight from party destination A to party destination B, having lunch in Ibiza, and links to buy music on Beatport aren’t particularly interesting or engaging. They certainly don’t promote a feeling of interest or relevance amongst their audience either. What value do I, the reader, really get from hearing that Deadmau5 is too sick to get wasted?
It’s a shame that the misuse of the more engaging suite of marketing tools available to our EDM legends goes unpunished. We’re talking about a bunch of artists that are already in the mainstream, and they have booking agents, tour managers, and marketing professionals that dedicate significant time and resources to ensure that they stay in the mainstream. Their ignorance doesn’t really matter in this case.
The vast majority of us aren’t so lucky – established artists have exponentially larger marketing budgets larger than you do, and their reach is far greater, so the game is different. You need true fans. You need to prove to people that you deserve to be paid attention to, and you have to do it without the help of booking agents, tour managers and marketing professionals. Engaging in the same kind of casual, un-strategic and generally poorly thought out activity online that our more successful peers do will not land you fans with the level of intensity or loyalty required to grow your online following. If you or I engaged in the same kind of online activity that our beloved EDM legends do the results would not be so fruitful I’d bet.
So when it comes to promoting your own music and trying to get new fans for yourself, here are some things you might keep in mind:
Value
How many times have you gotten promotional e-mails that are nothing more than an image with a bunch of text about how great artist X is and how their new track is getting massive support from DJs A, B & C? If you’re at all like me, you’ve probably received more messages like these than you can count. In fact, today I received a promo for Sander Kleinenberg’s latest mix compilation from a list that I never signed up for – from a rather rude lady that I’ve only ever had a single interaction with over e-mail.
There is absolutely no value to these types of interactions. Unless I am a die-hard fan of Sander K. there is little to no chance that I will even give this e-mail a second thought. As a lesser-known emerging artist you have even less of a chance of someone being responsive. You’ll never succeed in getting people to checking out your music without offering some value in return.
Accessibility
Make it easy and effortless for people to discover your music. The fewer barriers there are between your content and the ears of a potential new fan, the better.
Consider how much easier it is to sample new music on a service like SoundCloud than every other method out there today. Not only does the service give potential new fans instant access to your music, but it also delivers it in full-length, high bit rate. For my own purposes, I’ve even made my back catalog downloadable though this service free of charge – increasing the accessibility of my music content even further.
When you have something to prove, the fewer barriers your audience has to overcome, the better.
Portability
The most powerful features of services such as SoundClound and Mugasha are those that make your content portable. These services make sharing my music with other people intuitive and easy.
A widget or a status update featuring one of your tracks in the right place can go a long way. One of my back catalog tracks that I made available via SoundCloud received nearly 1000 listens from a single share by an influential user.
Personal
Your goal as an emerging artist is ultimately to have more people aware of and talking about your music. You’ve got a greater chance of invoking a favorable response to your promotional attempts if you make them a little more personal – and I’m not talking about a mail-merged greeting at the top of your e-mail blast.
Someone once suggested to me that it might be a good idea for me to give promos to people beyond the usual suspects (established DJs, tastemakers etc.). When you think about it, this is a great idea.
Remember that your goal is to get people to talk about your music, to tell others about you so that you can grow your fan base. Someone who isn’t accustomed to receiving promos is much more likely to tell others than someone who receives them on a regular basis.
But remember, there is no magic solution to getting new fans and finding your way in to the mainsteam. In a lot of cases, artists happened to be in the right place at the right time – or were lucky enough to be discovered by someone who could make things happen for them. What may work for one person may be completely useless for another.
There are no rules, so don’t try and emulate your idols. Define your goals, figure out how to measure them and make it happen.
David Akermanis (@davidakermanis) is an up and coming Progressive House Producer/DJ from Toronto, Canada.
