In this world of quarantines and stay-at-home orders you probably have been seeing a bunch of lists on what you can do as a band or musician during this time. Of course, the first thing they are likely to say is “practice” and “write new music” as if you somehow couldn’t think of that on your own. Now certainly, getting creative when you can’t play live is certainly a good thing but what else can you do when inspiration dries up? What’s next when your fingers start to bleed from repetition?
Many businesses and freelancers are familiar with the concept of “working ON your business instead of IN your business.” The idea is that if you just spend all your time working IN your business (making widgets, providing customers a service) you will never have the opportunity to get above the forest and start thinking strategically which can make your business grow even faster. OK, enough background. What I really want to do is apply this to musicians and bands in such a way that you can think of your music career in a whole new light. Writing music, practicing, playing shows, recording songs. Those are all areas where you are working “in” your music. But now that some of those options are removed from you, time is available to do the things where you work “on” your music.
So where do you begin? What things should you focus on? What I submit to you are three major areas you can work on that can have a major impact on your musical journey once you can begin. In addition, I also provide some specific tactics you can choose to employ. So for those of you who are bored with writing and practicing (at least for 8 hours a day) and feel guilty for so much Netflix and video game binging:
Build Your Online Presence
It’s so hard to keep up with social media and websites. You start with the best intentions but then you become addicted or bored and things go off the rails one way or another. This is a great time to take a step back and think strategically. Is your website or Facebook page up to date? Have you utilized all the pages to full effect? Maybe you have a bunch of photos from your last show or tour that never made their way online. Maybe you never really pushed that last single too hard on Spotify. Look into what is creating engagement on your social media accounts. Are there any useful trends? What types of content could you create that you never have before? I like to occasionally use Headliner to turn songs I have produced into short video clips on Instagram. Here are some specific things you can try:
Make a content calendar to plan out your social media posts. This will allow you to get organized around how often you show up. Consistency is a key for all of this (preaching to myself here). You don’t have to work on this every day. Spend a couple of hours making posts for an entire week, and then schedule them with a tool like Buffer.
Update the website or Facebook page with your latest material. This isn’t about making the usual social media posts but checking to make sure all the information is accurate. Do all the links work? Are the e-mail addresses correct? Maybe there are some other aesthetic changes you want to make like changing the profile picture or updating the band logo.
Claim that profile on Spotify and become a verified artist. You want to make sure that you have as much information as possible to reach new fans. Maybe there’s a pocket of them in Portugal and you had no idea. That information might come in handy later.
Grow Your Network
Being social is difficult in the age of social distancing. However, it’s near impossible to grow your opportunities without reaching out to new people on a regular basis. The good news is the same is true for many of the other people you could want to work with. Maybe schedule a video call for virtual coffee or just exchange some DMs via social media. Whatever it is, make a new connection and see if there are things you can do now or in the future together. Here are some ideas for the types of people to reach out to:
Booking agents / venue owners: these people are probably the most bored right now, although there are hints in some parts of the world that live music may be coming back soon. This is a great time to look for new places to play (maybe even in new cities). Ask how things are going and express an interest in bringing your fans to their place when possible.
Radio stations / music podcasts: these guys are still going strong in many cases and online radio stations never had a reason to stop. Go find places that might be able to play your music to the world. But go in prepared, don’t just spam them with a link to Spotify. Send a message first and tell them you really like their show and how you think you might fit in with their current catalog. Then ask if they are open to taking any new submissions. Independent online radio stations and college radio stations are always a little more free to choose what they play due to the model that they follow.
Recording studios / producers: you may already be sitting on a great catalog of music that you just need to get produced and published. Take some time to explore who might be a good fit for your music. Don’t just think about price but also consider the value that each place can provide you. And in today’s age many producers (myself included) have made arrangements to be able to work remotely. So geography may no longer be a challenge to working with someone you like. If you want to reach out to me just hit the quote page and we’ll get a video call going.
Other bands and artists: you can do this for any variety of reasons. Maybe you want to learn how they did something on their last record or tour. Maybe you want to plan future shows with them. You could even collaborate on future songs that could stretch you in new and creative ways.
Make Marketing a Thing
Let’s be honest for a moment. You probably spend very little time thinking about marketing. I mean, you make social media posts and hope to go viral at some point. But those take time and a bit of luck. However, most of the music you have ever been exposed to was advertised to you at some point. This is a great chance to think about how you can reach new fans and listeners. Go in with an open mind and experiment. I don’t recommend spending a lot of money on any one thing until you start to see that it’s working for you.
Boosted posts on social media: it’s well known that most of your fans and followers don’t see your content because the Facebook engine wants their money. But if you have some great content (like a new song or music video), hit that boost button and experiment. Even if it’s old it could still be informative to see what works. It can even draw in some engagement which could benefit other more organic posts.
Facebook pixel / Google analytics on your website: if you have an independent website you need to be tracking that sucker with Google analytics. It’s free and can give you details on how people are using your site. This can be helpful for both fixing problem areas on the site and getting more engagement. Additionally, if you have a good amount of traffic you can put on a Facebook Pixel and then use ads to get those specific people to like your Facebook page. Then your boosted social media posts could be even more effective.
Facebook / Instagram ads: again, I don’t recommend spending a lot of money until you see something that works very well, but everything is advertised to us. Spend time thinking about your fans and what else they like. Maybe there is a similar artist that you could target fans of. If you are a punk band you could target fans of Green Day or The Ramones and then create an ad that says “Do you love Green Day? Then check out our new release on Spotify!” You can drive those who click to Spotify / Apple music to listen, you can drive them to go like your page so you can advertise to them later. Experiment with different strategies to see what works. Also experiment with locations, it’s far cheaper to advertise to countries that aren’t in the U.S. or Europe. And adding fans all over the world can help when talking with those booking agents listed above about future gig opportunities. You know they are going to Facebook stalk you as soon as you send your first message.
Start reaching out to playlist curators: it’s pretty easy to get a free account on Chartmetric, and then you can start looking into independent playlist curators. Try to get contact information and then reach out and see if they would be willing to add your music to their playlist. Maybe focus on a specific song or two. One other trick is start with smaller playlists if you have fewer plays. Then be sure to promote that playlist a bunch to give them exposure as well. Once the number of plays you have grows then move up to the larger playlists.
Hopefully this list is helpful and gets the strategic creative juices flowing. This is far from comprehensive and there are a ton of other details and things to consider. Take the time to get yourself out of the weeds and starting to see the whole picture. But don’t make this a one time thing. Start to develop the habit of continuing to revisit some of these strategies that work for you. That’s when this will really change the game for your music career.