Martin Strang in the Video Clip “Out Of My Window”
Getting noticed in the music industry
Ok, so you composed, recorded and distributed your first / next single. Now what?
We need to part from the obvious. I assume that if you are actually taking the time to investigate around the internet on how to promote your music by now you have already a notion of the most basic part from where we will take action. You have a GOOD song in your hands.
Of course the first filter you need to pass to get noticed is that your music is good enough. There are many ways to learn this lesson, rather by getting the feedback from peers or bloggers in sites such as Submithub or by playing judge, jury and executioner yourself and compare with other acts competing in the same space by being honest and answering yourself: Am I good enough?
Truth is, you wont have success if you don’t have a good song in hand and while taste might be subjective, you have to be objective and honest with your music.
If this filter has been sorted out, congratulations, now you are facing the other side of the equation and probably the most difficult one of all in which you don’t control every factor and success rates are extremely low. Getting noticed.
Everyday there are 40.000 new songs uploaded to Spotify. Competition is fierce and while not all of this songs are actually competition to your genre and overall strategy, they are competing for the same space and a chance to blow the algorithms with people doing music just for fun and professionals alike. Around 4 million songs in Spotify, does not have not even one stream. This is for you to have a clear idea that if you don’t promote it, nobody is going to listen to your music.
What is the music industry looking for in an artist in 2020
A record label or industry executive is looking for certain factors in order to notice new artists with potential. They are looking for a particular set of strengths in which non of them are easy to achieve.
Quality, We already talked about this your music must be good and the post production in the same lines of any major release . This means more than music, this means all creative content such as videos and artwork.
Fan engagement, It is expected that an artist with potential should already have an engaged fan base with enough streams, views, followers, subscribers in their platforms such as Spotify, Soundcloud, Apple music, Youtube and social networks such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
Breaking through the noise, talent is also being searched in people that gets coverage from the media in magazines, newspapers, music blogs and so on.
To be boosted by the industry, labels and executives are looking for artists with a team behind. This team should actually consist of a Manager, a live agent, publicist, music publisher, lawyer etc.
A strong brand and this means the careful consideration of how you show uniformly your brand across different channels. Specially your website. Hoe searchable and discoverable you are in other words.
What if I’m an independent artist? Well, this are the traits expected from you. Did I mentioned how hard it is for a struggling musician to be noticed in the music industry?
As you can see, the music industry such as many others nowadays are shifting, evolving, changing and everybody is trying to fit in, but it is extremely difficult because if we as musicians are not making money to grow and fund this crucial areas, we just can’t cope with the requirements. Therefore the importance of playing live and having gigs, not only to make a few dollars but to actually build our fan base from the ground. The only problem is that it will take a long time and not every musical project could follow this path. Specially with solo artists.
In the case of solo artists like myself, is even harder because I do not have a band to play my music and I can’t hire a band to start gigging. Remember? We are struggling musicians!
My strategy is not make it big in the billboards or fill stadiums wherever I go. I want to show my skills as a composer and hopefully get hired to compose and produce other artists in their careers. I also have the advertising and marketing skills for the challenge but again, no budget = big problems.
Secondly, even if you are gigging in your city conquering one bloc after the other, you must provide your best game in social networks to gain exposure. With current trends and the frenzy in media consumption, this requires almost a full time job in order to grow your presence in the channels expected for you to succeed at by providing solid and varied content that will be digested or discarded by people in less than two seconds.
You must be aware that basically you need to beat the algorithms in every single channel you are supposed to be for exposition, while at the same time keeping your creative flow, practice sessions and recordings consistently. This means you are also expected to deliver new releases several times a year, around 12.
Wait a minute, if I have to beat algorithms and create fan base over the internet, this means I need a budget for social ads? And If I need to be constantly delivering to digital outlets new singles, this means I need budget for recording sessions, post production and so on? In a word: YES
And also let’s don’t forget that each single in digital marketing to gain traction needs its own campaign. Again more budget for the same social ads, blog features and so on.
Is anyone looking for you to blog about?
Labels and executives also expect you to be good at cutting through the noise over the internet. In this aspect, you must have solid network connections with bloggers, journalists and everyone willing to feature you and write a few lines about the music that took you very long hours to polish.
But the truth is that with technology and new platforms music journalists are not what they used to be, nowadays we have a bunch of impatient individuals that normally don’t have at all your training as a musician to actually analyze a composition before giving an expert opinion.
Platforms such as Submithub have very little success in promoting artists because bloggers comfortably sit and receive submissions (some good, some bad) and skip through them after a few seconds with the ego of Julius Caesar. If they are not pleased, most of the time they won’t even hear you sing.
Nobody is actually doing musical journalism any more searching for fresh underground talent or hitting local pubs to find it. They just sit and wait without realizing that they also have fierce competition and must provide actual value to their readers.
Many so called bloggers and influencers are chasing desperate unaware noob musicians like vultures offering features in their sites in exchange for a “donation”. Sites with very little traffic to be worth the consideration, and mentions in their social networks which many times, I’ve been approached, by people with less followers or engagement than the one I already have asking for money.
Truth is that free features are virtually unheard nowadays in the industry. I’m absolutely sure there is good, honest bloggers out there. But they are extremely difficult to run by. Obviously they are doing their thing to make money just like us musicians. But who is investing more and actually taking the risks here?
Nowadays for musicians, a song is so easily disapproved by bloggers. They want from us to move on, and release a new single until they like it. They don’t realize that their mentions, 99% of the time are just like our songs: Just another damn link in the enormous internet sea. So better climb down from your thrones people.
There is no point in maintaining the redundancy of how virtually impossible it is for independent musicians to on top of all of this, have a dedicated team working in every aspect of their careers. Same with branding and websites. In my case I have the knowledge and skills to do this last part myself, but most artists will struggle with this one more time.
So basically, record labels and executives are actually looking for artists which already have done all the work themselves, therefore minimizing the risks for them of getting involved with the project allocating funds.
You might be thinking: If I’m ever in the position of being able to obtain all the things expected by the industry all by myself. Why the hell do I even need a record label for? Well, you are not alone, and most experienced indie musicians think exactly the same.
The music industry is not working
Same as with many other industries around the world, in an era of fast pace changes, the music industry itself is struggling to cope with how things should be. Let’s don’t forget that everybody want to profit from artists and normally the ones doing all the work are the ones earning the dimes in exchange for connections.
Plus I have not even start to mention the amount of scammers out there profiting from unaware musicians in many other factors such as playlist placements and promotion with fake bots delivering unreal results that actually are against Spotify rules.
It’s a vicious cycle in which musicians can’t actually be concentrated making music. And in order to advance in the ladder, important budgets are required. The industry is not working, and opportunities are in the hands of just a very very small percentage of people.
Obviously, we are not in the renaissance anymore and musicians are expected at least be savvy project managers and understand the business as it is, but something is not working when the decisive factor in success is budget.
Filling all the requirements just by self efforts is impossible. And help must be hired, rather in the shape of a manager or a token for platform submissions to the high throne bloggers out there.
Many years ago the industry was very different and musicians were not required to fill so many gaps like it is mandatory today. New platforms will arise, more gaps will be expected to fill but the problem will remain the same. Who is actually helping the artists but themselves?
