DIY Musician – How to market my music

Building and Implementing a Low-Budget Music Marketing Plan for the DIY Musician

It is your single biggest challenge as a musician to get your music in front of your target audience. Marketing your music effectively is as important as creating good music.

In addition, too many musicians rely on ad hoc marketing tactics and spur-of-the-moment actions. Rather than implementing a systematic music marketing plan, they make reactive decisions that don’t result in long-term success.

You will learn how to make a DIY music marketing plan that actually works in this guide. I’ll discuss branding, developing a marketing mix, and determining your target audience so that you can make better marketing decisions.

How do you create a music brand?

While this might not seem like a tough question, it is one of the most difficult to answer in marketing. It’s not uncommon for great brands to be amorphous and ephemeral. There’s something indescribable about them that can’t be described with words.

In order to craft a marketing strategy for musicians, they must first define their brand and understand what it means to them. During this exercise, you have to dig deep and identify your core values.

This is also an exercise in balance. It’s important to balance audience expectations with what you want the brand to be.

Below are some ways to define your brand:

1. Make a list of your favorite musicians.
Then make a list of adjectives you associate with them – bold, mature, youthful, vibrant.
Your description will then be based on these adjectives.
Collect images, logos, artwork or anything that inspires you to create a visual identity. It is a good idea to create a Pinterest board to collect images that are associated with your brand.
Find out what your audience likes and what makes them tick. Do your ideal listeners enjoy movies, music, fashion, and art? Can you use any of these elements in your branding?
As a musician, ask yourself what’s important to you. Which values do you hold dear? In hearing your name, how would you like your audience to feel?

When you have curated your inspiration, try to describe your brand in a few words. Think about your values and feelings. Don’t be afraid to be honest.

In the absence of that indescribable quality – heart – your brand will lack that indescribable quality.

What is a Music Marketing Plan?

According to Wikipedia, a marketing plan is:
“A comprehensive document outlining a company’s upcoming advertising and marketing efforts.”

Included in this document are:

Specifically what you are going to market, i.e. specific assets or products.
Why you are marketing, i.e. your short and long-term goals.
Market strategies, tactics, and budgets, i.e. how you will market.
Marketing channels, i.e. where you will market.
Your target audience is who you will market to.

A traditional marketing plan is not necessary for musicians. You can skip the executive summary, pricing strategy, competitor analysis, and mission statement, for example.

You should instead include:

An overview of the strategy
strategy
strategy, including subjective and objective goals
a SWOT analysis
an overview of your brand
Your target audience
Your marketing strategy
Your marketing mix

I’ll describe a step-by-step process for creating your marketing plan in the sections that follow.