Ways to soar as an independent artist

Making music is half the struggles in the entertainment world, and even that can be expensive. Independent artist have to worry about things like budgets for promotions, wardrobe etc., to try to push themselves and stand out in an over saturated market. As an independent artist you have to invest in yourself and pull in all resources possible. There are so many things that artist can do to promote themselves for minimal money. Sound cloud, reverbnation, YouTube, MySpace is a few great ways to showcase your music for free. The issue with that is now people have to know you exist to look for you. So how do you go about doing that on almost non-existent?

 “Instead of focusing on music publications and media, think in terms of audiences. Put your music where it can stand out from the crowd. Consider one of the early days of CD Baby: an album about sailing. Instead of following the crowd and sending the album to a music magazine, the band instead cleverly sent their album to a sailing magazine.The sailing magazine, which wasn’t used to receiving music, much less an entire album dedicated to exactly what the magazine was about, ended up reviewing the CD. The band’s CD didn’t have to compete against stacks and stacks of other CDs to get noticed. And because the magazine had a large audience and the CD got a great review, sales shot through the roof. The great thing about the standing-out strategy is there is room for everyone. While your music has a style or genre, just targeting the people that like that kind of music represents only one, highly competitive channel for your music. By putting your music where there usually isn’t any, you can get noticed. Another way to get recognized is known as the piggy backing strategy. One of the best known forms of piggybacking is listing out the bands you sound like on your website, CD Baby page, and press correspondences. This gives new listeners a clue as to what to expect by drawing on what they already know. Of course, another popular piggybacking tactic is to cover a well-known song. Often, these covers become your initial best sellers. But they also act as a gateway. If listeners like your version, they’ll likely check out your original material" (discmakers , 2013).

Lastly one of the best ways of getting your name out there is by having an agent. Finding a resourceful and well-connected agent that works on commission is one of the hardest ways, but the best way in my opinion.

References:

http://www.discmakers.com/pdf/10-effective-strategies.pdf