Promoting your music in Nigeria can be an uphill task especially if you are an upcoming artiste. It is no longer news that the internet has disrupted the way the music industry operates. From the invention of file sharing, streaming, social media, and e-commerce to downloadable content, artistes nowadays have more opportunities to expose their music and reach far larger audiences than their counterparts had ten years ago.
In this post, I will show you 9 ways to promote your music in Nigeria. Whether or not you are an upcoming artist and you don’t have enough money for mega promo, you can self-promote your music and reach the audiences you wish to serenade.
You must get your music out of the studio and bring it to the ears of the people whether you have money or not. Remember, money is hidden behind popularity; to get the financial rewards tied to your doing music, you must consciously work on targeting your audience.
Here are tips you can practice to promote your music in Nigeria.
1. CREATE A MUSIC WEBSITE
To stand out from the sea of performers and artiste, you need to have a professionally done website that compliments your portfolio as a musician. If you are tight on a budget, a website builder like Wix can help you get started on all the tools you need to sell, promote and distribute your music online.
2. USE SOCIAL MEDIA TO PROMOTE YOUR MUSIC
Social media is not a straight-up marketing platform, but a catalyst for conversation and word-of-mouth marketing. These days, it has become popular to use social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to promote your music.
You can make 70 percent of your posts humorous, conversational and interesting, and use 30 percent for promotional material. This does not mean posts for conversation purposes can’t be promotional, but you need to learn how to frame the content in interesting ways. Add a bit of storytelling to your content, share a photo, post or teaser video in the studio to keep followers or fans up to date with the latest happenings around your music.
3. MAKE USE OF LIVE MUSIC PROMOTION
If you can, consider a live show as a chance to make money and perform your music while having fun. This provides some distinctive marketing opportunities for you as well. You can organize concerts as a means of promoting your music and inform your fans about your plans to present a new song or the whole album before it is released in a concert.
4. REACH OUT TO MUSIC BLOGS
There are blogs that cover your type of music you can find through research and send personal emails out to the owners of the blogs. If you have any interesting stories about your new song, album or tour, you can share with the bloggers for a background story as this together with your new songs will paint a picture of you and your music to avid listeners.
There are top entertainment sites where you can submit your songs with a little profile and album pictures. Some of the best Nigerian music and entertainment blogs/websites include Nairaland, Naijapals, and Kennymp3.
If you can, go a step further by requesting an interview . While some may not even reply to your email, do not be discouraged. Develop the courage to ask those entertainment and music blogs for an interview, others will feature your profile.
5. OFFER YOUR SONGS FOR FREE DOWNLOADS
Free rules on the internet! You will gain more popularity and your songs will reach a wide audience when you offer your songs for free downloads. People generally love free music downloads, so if you can upload your songs to music sites such as Kennymp3, Musikally, Reverbnation and Soundcloud, you can promote your download links to your fans on the social networking websites.
Admittedly, uploading your songs for free may hurt you financially but you can always recover the money when you start performing in concerts or live shows.
6. COLLABORATE WITH OTHER MUSICIANS
From cover songs to features, collaboration is a great way to market your music and a powerful tool for your music promotion. It is one of the fastest ways to promote your music and grow your fan base because you will have the opportunity to showcase your music in front of a new group of people.
You can try to record a cover song or two together and release them on your Facebook pages and YouTube channels. This will help drive your fans to each other, and link any song or video you create to each other’s websites and social channels.
7. PROMOTE YOUR MUSIC WITH EMAIL
Another great way to promote your music is to build an email list. You can build an email list by giving fans a preview or sneak-peek of your current project and then ask them to sign up so they can be the first to get your songs before they are released.
Take advantage of your email list and consider it as a powerful and valuable tool to promote your music. When someone signs up for your email list, the person wants to hear from you.
When you have new content, your email list will also help you to lead fans to your blog. Before you can start using your emails to promote your music however,, you need to first get your fans to sign up for your emails.
8. SHARE YOUR MUSIC ON MUSIC PROMOTION SITES
You can upload your songs on websites such as Soundcloud and Youtube for free download. As you display your music on as many sites as possible, you are gradually increasing your reach and popularity.
8.HOST YOUR MUSIC ON ITUNES/ APPLE MUSIC
These default music service for all Apple products are widely regarded as the largest online music library in the world. Reach already existing listeners with your new tunes when you choose to host your music with Apple Music.
9. USE HASHTAGS ON TWITTER (@TWITTERMUSIC)
Twitter is your go-to app for any breaking news. But what many people do not know is one can actually use Twitter to promote music. Give music fans an opportunity to find you first by using twitter popular hashtags such as #Music, #rap, #rnb, #jazz, etc. You can also look out for trending hashtags like #MusicMonday or #NewMusicFriday
CONCLUSION
Before promoting your music, remember that you need to take advantage of all the various tools necessary for running the promo successfully. Do not rely on just one method to promote your music. You can simultaneously employ two or three methods and in no time your song(s) will be the next big hit.
Have a new song to promote? Notify us in the comment box below. You can also tell us about your knowledge and experience with music promotion, and how successful you have become engaged in a music promotion campaign.
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