How to market and promote and grow band from home

[Kaptain K. Rool]

What’s up guys Not sure if this is the right subforum to post but-

I’m hoping some of you more experienced guys can shed a little bit of light on how to promote and grow a band fan base from home. I know it’s not all done from the home, there are shows and connecting and networking; I just don’t know what the most proficient and useful ones and/or out of home methods are. There is a project I’ve recently been working on and I really want to upload a track this month when I finish the track I’m working on. I’ve played in a bunch of Local bands here in my city; it’s nothing new to me. I just really like and believe in the stuff I’m making I want to make sure I go about it the absolute best and smartest way possible. If it was up to me, I’d play locally for a little, get some merch, and fund a small tour maybe with other bands, promote and post on some social media sites. Some of you might think “well yeah pretty much” But I ask cause recently I spoke with someone who told me I need to hire a promoter, that actually spending good money on a promoter with connections and a network trumps just the basic social media sites and mentioned some band sites I’ve never heard of. I feel like there are a lot of tools I can utilize besides Facebook and YouTube, Instagram etc. etc.
I know even Facebook has an option to spend money and have a number of people see your page. I think there was a video I saw on how it’s actually garbage. Idk that’s why I’m just looking for some insight on this.
Thanks guys

 

[Plendakor]

 

[smy1]

I've said it many times: conventional wisdom is basically ... conventional. It doesn't work for any of the self-releasing artists.

What does work (but needs money is):

1) buy ads in the biggest genre mags in your country or the countries where your style of music is biggest
2) get editorial/articles in return for the ads
3) do buy-on shows on the biggest bands in your style
4) try to get on festivals

Unless you have some genius music video that's insanely interesting (not good looking, interesting!), unless you have that nobody will care about any of that FB/Twitter/Social Media stuff.

That, or you just play 100 shows a year in every bar in your country until you might get discovered. But that's not "from home".

Do not pay "promoters". They usually don't do anything for you except take your money and give you results you could have achieved yourself with a little legwork.

 

[Kaptain K. Rool]

Seriously man thanks for the response. There is so much BS online about how to approach growing and getting your stuff out there and known I appreciate the honest response. Some real good ideas I honestly never considered. Anyone else know any good ideas please feel free to chime in! Even outside the home, any "go to touring/show spots" please I really want to make sure I approach this as strong as I can and the right way.

 

[plague_rider]

I was opening this hoping smy1 had replied

 

[arvoitus]

Fake it until you make it

 

[Kaptain K. Rool]

I was opening this hoping smy1 had replied

Seriously. Anyone else have any good ideas I'd really be grateful. Those other tips I would have never though of!

I was thinking too. Among bands that are all trying to be heard in a sea of bands using social media etc. essentially competing (within their genre) in a sense, I can see why they would not want to help other bands with some useful tips/tricks. But ..as a studio owner, recording artists for a living, having that information out there would actually be a good thing. If let's say you record a band that's pretty good but also knows a lot of useful ways to promote and get noticed beyond the norm, and that helps them enough to get a deal or at the least become very popular, it could only be in your benefit.

Anyways thanks in advance!

 

[smy1]

One of the fundamental mistakes that everyone makes is to think that gatekeepers (magazines/recordlabels/etc) are no longer necessary, while they have actually become more necessary because the amount of bands that exist is so much higher than it used to be. So what's a listener gonna do? Go search google for "awesome new djent band"? Surely not. And even if they did, they would find an online mag or a major music blog who writes about new bands. Not the bands themselves.

The listeners will (as they always did) depend on suggestions/recommendations from trusted sources. Those could be friends and people in their social network but also definitely those gatekeepers. And let's face it: why do people share anything on the web? Not cause the thing they share has any inherently superior quality but because they (the sharing person) wants to be associated with the perceived qualities of the shared product, so that if Johnny Metal shares something all his friends will think he's the "cool metal guy" that he would like to be. Or the hot make-up chick or the nerdy computer dude or the (insert stereotypical assumption about character). That and because people are generally bored out of their minds and just randomly share stuff to pass the time while they wait for the bus. Those shares don't even have to apply to the interests of 99% of the people who view them, so most of the sharing power is lost very often.

In times like that, the "top-down" opinions of Metal Hammer (a "trusted" source for decades) will serve to create the idea that "newcomer of the year" is a better band than "local djent act from around the corner". Even if that could be totally false. Just because band A is on a major blog instantly lends them more credibility than showing up in 5 FB feeds for a week.

Another thing that constantly gets forgotten is industry interdependencies. It works like this:

If you want to get booked on a bunch of good festivals, you need a booker who knows the festival promoters. You only get a booker if you have a label that puts some promotional power (aka money) behind you, because a booker won't waste his time trying to get you 10 gigs for 500 bucks (of which he sees 50 bucks each) if he can just make 3000 bucks by doing two phonecalls for his bigger indie-major artists. At the same time promotional power means that you'll have advertisements, editorial content, music videos, etc etc which is something the label will have to pay for. This is something the festival promoters and local promoters see and think "Ahh, band XYZ is hot and has some push going on, so we may want to get them on our festival/club show!", which is when they call your booker ...

You see the circle? It's actually far worse than this. Example: one of the major festivals booked by FKP Scorpio books their bands largely based on what the 3-4 main booking agencies suggest and (hold on to your pants!) which bands they have seen advertise and featured most in the relevant scene magazines 6-8 months before the festival happens. Why? Cause the booker freely admits that he has no idea about the scene in question but the festival is mostly sold out and "it just works this way!".

Social media is really just a bunch of crap that doesn't work like that. A lot of social media success stories were fakes that were run by major labels to lend credibility ("Oh, we found this kid on youtube, he's so authentic!") to their artists. Exceptions do exist (and they mostly happened 5-6 years ago when people weren't sick of FB and Twitter already) of course but running a business on trying to be the exception is typical artist-head-in-the-clouds-I-am-so-special thinking.

Hope this helps.

 

[smy1]

If let's say you record a band that's pretty good but also knows a lot of useful ways to promote and get noticed beyond the norm, and that helps them enough to get a deal or at the least become very popular, it could only be in your benefit.

Quickly wanted to touch on that:

If you do any of that, make sure you get points/buy-out money/what-have-you from that band. The music business is littered with stories where the band later completely forgot that knowledgeable-producer-X helped them out big time - and he was quickly replaced by famous-producer-Z after they signed with a major label (because Z has been buddies with the A&R for 10 years, see my post above about interdependencies).

If you have a promising band and you help them with anything, make sure you have detailed clauses in their recording contract that gives you stuff like percentages on future earnings (including gigs and merch!), options on producing future records (which will probably be bought out by a label if they want someone else, but hey, that's money!) and simple stuff like credit naming conventions in booklet and/or advertisements. This is all completely normal and not shady at all, but most people forget about it cause they are "metal bros" and it's "all about the music" ... then later they cry how they were screwed by their former friends

 

[Kaptain K. Rool]

If you want to get booked on a bunch of good festivals, you need a booker who knows the festival promoters. You only get a booker if you have a label that puts some promotional power (aka money) behind you, because a booker won't waste his time trying to get you 10 gigs for 500 bucks (of which he sees 50 bucks each) if he can just make 3000 bucks by doing two phonecalls for his bigger indie-major artists. At the same time promotional power means that you'll have advertisements, editorial content, music videos, etc etc which is something the label will have to pay for. This is something the festival promoters and local promoters see and think "Ahh, band XYZ is hot and has some push going on, so we may want to get them on our festival/club show!", which is when they call your booker ...

You see the circle? It's actually far worse than this. Example: one of the major festivals booked by FKP Scorpio books their bands largely based on what the 3-4 main booking agencies suggest and (hold on to your pants!) which bands they have seen advertise and featured most in the relevant scene magazines 6-8 months before the festival happens. Why? Cause the booker freely admits that he has no idea about the scene in question but the festival is mostly sold out and "it just works this way!".

Ok. First off thanks man this is incredibly informative! Second, so how then would a self releasing artist get on those festivals? Is it i guess pay the booker way more or they're screwed unless their on a label?