3 Common Music Marketing Mistakes To Avoid At All Costs!

OOk, so I’m guessing you know just how important marketing your music is if you want to be more then a bedroom musician. For those that don’t, let’s get you caught up:

It Is Essential!!!

Now that we’re all on the same wave length, let’s move on. :)

While promoting your music is important and should be done as much as possible, it’s still important to remember that not all promotion will benefit you evenly. Some will get you bigger results then others, and some may actually hinder your music career. That’s right; Do the wrong kind of promotion, and you could end up doing more harm then good.

With that in mind, today I’m going to share with you three marketing related mistakes that you should avoid at all costs. If you find this guide useful, please share it with your friends and fellow musicians so they too can avoid these common pitfalls.

1. Making The Promotions All About You

Image credit: ronulicny on Tumblr

One of the most common mistakes I’ve seen is people making any promotions all about them. “Now wait a minute…” I hear a load of you thinking, “… if I’m promoting MY, music shouldn’t it be all about me?”

Well, yes and no.

You see, while the final outcome of your promotions should be raising awareness and sales of your music, adopting a ‘me me me’ attitude usually has the opposite effect.

As with anything, people generally only give time to people and things that benefit their lives. They wouldn’t buy a book on money making to make the author more money for example, they’d buy it so they benefit from the knowledge inside. The author making money is just a by product, and not something that factors a lot into the buying process for most people.

Now, in the same way someone would buy a book on making money in order to learn how to increase their income, the only way they’d buy (Or listen to) your music is if it’d benefit them in some way. Therefore, it’s your job to convince them your music will benefit them.

So leave the “Buy my song as I’m really good” lines, and instead show people how your music can benefit them. I’m sure you’ll see an instant change in the way people respond to you.

2. Promoting Your Music To The Wrong Target Audience

Image credit: {CP} on Tumblr

The next common mistake I see musicians making is promoting their music to the wrong audience. Yes the internet has made it easier to connect with a load of diverse people all around the world, but that doesn’t mean that you should!

Just because 99.99% of the world likes music of some sort*, it doesn’t mean they’ll all be interested in you (*Disclaimer: Funnily enough, I don’t know the exact number of people in the world that like music). Try and get everyone to listen to your songs, and I guarantee you’ll come up against more resistance and rejection then you ever thought possible!

So who should you be targeting instead? Simple, people that have a proven interest in the type of music you make! Find where lovers of your genre hang out, and reach them there. This is the best way to get the most out of your efforts, and will have you reaching a much more open and receptive audience.

3. Not Promoting Enough (Thinking The Marketing Stops)

Image credit: cherrybam on Tumblr

Ok, the final mistake: Thinking the promotion ends!!

Let me get this out there now: The promotion never ends! I don’t care if you’re in the middle of recording your second album or you’re at the song writing stage; As long as you’ve got any material out there, you still need to promote in some form or other!

You may think you wrote a song a while ago so it’s not fresh anymore and shouldn’t be pushed. In most cases, this couldn’t be further from the truth. As long as that song is still good, there is still room for you to milk it for what it’s worth. After all, I’m sure not every person who’s into your genre has heard that song right? If not, you should find them and get them to listen.

Now I’m not saying you should spend years promoting one single or album. What I am saying though, is there should never be more then five days of the week when you don’t do any type of promotion. Whether it’s reaching out to a big YouTube channel to see if they’ll cover you, doing a local gig, or communicating with fans on Facebook.

It’s already hard enough to find all the time needed for promotion, so use all the time you can to get yourself out there. If you’ve got a high level of talent but you’re not as known as you want to be, it’s because you haven’t promoted yourself in the right ways enough.

Music Marketing Mistakes – Conclusion

So there you have it, three big music marketing mistakes you need to avoid. Are there any others you can think of? If so, leave them in the comments section below and we can talk.

Want to know a bit about me? No problem. :)

My name is Shaun Letang, and I’m the owner of advice websites Music Industry How To and Music Marketing World. I also created and run one of the top online music schools; the IMA Music Business Academy. Check out my Facebook page by searching ‘Independent Music Advice’ on FB for daily discussion and guides. I’ll see you there!