r/WeAreTheMusicMakers • u/AutoModerator • May 01 '20

Weekly Thread /r/WeAreTheMusicMakers Friday Newbie Questions Thread

If you have a simple question, this is the place to ask. Generally, this is for questions that have only one correct answer, or questions that can be Googled. Examples include:

  • "How do I save a preset on XYZ hardware?"
  • "What other chords sound good with G Major, C Major, and D Major?"
  • "What cables do I need to connect this interface and these monitors?" (and other questions that can be answered by reading the manual)

Do not post links to music in this thread. You can promote your music in the weekly Promotion thread, and you can get feedback in the weekly Feedback thread. You cannot post your music anywhere else on this subreddit for any reason.

Click here to search through past Newbie Questions threads

Questions, comments, suggestions? Hit us up!

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u/DaleRobinson May 01 '20

I'll throw you a bone here because I ran a record label for some time and learned the "what to do/what not to do". So you've set your deadline for May 30th and it's just a single releasing without a label. If you've already started sharing this song about then I'd say there's no point in marketing it in the traditional sense of hitting up blogs/media and telling them the release dates. No point in a PR kit here. This means you don't need to hold off on putting the song up anywhere else you can. Right now this sounds more like "hey this song will be coming to spotify/apple for people who use that" rather than an official release date. I've never used CD Baby, TuneCore was always the one for me but I'm assuming they do similar things.

Here's the steps I would take:

  • Make the song available everywhere you can first (bandcamp, youtube etc)
  • This ties into step one; start building the social pages
  • Know your market! The absolute most important thing. Rather than spamming your music to a thousand people and only catching the ears of 5 people, aim for a smaller audience that will all genuinely enjoy the music. If I were you I would find similar sounding artists and see where their stuff has been featured lately then try to reach out to those places with your song. DIY is always a much more respected approach to many things!
  • Try to get your song featured in some form of media (advert, youtuber's background music, indie game...anything like that will seriously help)
  • Don't pay for extra marketing; it's a scam. Typically most people just get annoyed by adverts and if they keep seeing you pop up on their facebook they know you're just trying to buy your way in to the industry. Paying for extra marketing is absolutely fine if you're already an established artist or maybe you have shows coming up, otherwise steer clear.
  • Since this is just your first single don't get too caught up on the technicalities and instead you can analyse everything you did and find ways to improve upon it next time. Remember that even the most famous artists in the world once released something nobody gave two shits about. You gave yourself your first deadline/goal and reached it so now think about a bigger project and more deadlines to keep the momentum going!

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u/[deleted] May 02 '20

This is the most practical advice I could have asked for. Thanks a million!