Why We Must Market Our Music

“There ought to be an artistic depot where the artist need only hand in his artwork in order to receive what he asks for. As things are, one must be half a business man, and how can one understand - good heavens! - that's what I really call troublesome.” - Ludwig van Beethoven

It’s very simple to make music.

Even if you spend a good budget on a professional music product, with amazing photos and graphics, the “making the music part” is kind of easy. And to be honest, it’s super fun!!

But the hard part comes after you make your dream recording. You’ve got this awesome representation of your music and ministry, but how in the world do you let the world know about it? How do you get the music out to the masses?

“And then….depression set in.” – Bill Murray, Stripes

This is the one place many artists fall down, and truly where artists who you see doing well are excelling. Sure, you’d think its easy for a major label artist to be seen and heard because they have a label behind them! But the real reason they succeed is that the label puts gobs of money and huge effort in the marketing of the music, not just in the making of a product.

Social Media Marketing - 3 Things to Know About Twitter

So far in our Social Media series we have tackled Facebook and YouTube, how they are useful, and how they best work for music artists and songwriters. Now let’s look at the platform you either love or hate: Twitter.

Personally, I think Twitter is right up there with YouTube as the most effective marketing tool, especially when you are trying to find an audience whom you may not know personally. Sometimes it’s even easier to market to this audience since they are usually not family or friends.

“Twitter is a very simple and immediate broadcast platform. Facebook is very personal when it comes to friends and when it comes to fan pages, (but Twitter is) a little bit less but still somewhat personal way to communicate.” - Mark Cuban

Also, you can hit Twitter way harder on a daily basis than you can Facebook, as the Twitter feed goes by much faster and is less intrusive than Facebook.

So here are three basic things to know about Twitter for the artist or songwriter trying to get it working for them.

What to Post on Social Media

"Good social media is authentic. What makes social media work is actually having something to say." - Steven Levitt

Ah, the age old question philosophers have been asking throughout time: What do I tweet about today?

This may seem trivial, but it actually is an important concern for many of you who post to something, or many things, to social media (sometimes every day) in order to assist to grow your music ministry.

Content Marketing

It's not enough anymore to just have an album out, or a single, and send Facebook and Twitter messages out to folks hoping they will buy it. Guess what, they will likely not.

What social marketing has become for music artists or any small business, is building a following who falls in love with your content. What is content? Your music sure, but also your experiences. Your funny pictures; your videos from the road; your blogs about God, life, and art; news about interesting things that are happening or already happened.

This could be a Twitter or Facebook post, but this also applies to using LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, and even your blog. What and how do you post to keep the people paying attention to your music and ministry on these social media sites?

I know this a concern to many of you because you feel silly posting about yourself. It seems overly self-serving and gratuitous. Or maybe you are running out of ideas to post everywhere.

Well, here is a list we have put together to help you think of things to post regularly on your social media accounts.

The State of the Music (Ministry) Business

Every single day, folks call, email, or get in touch with us through social media about how to get started in Christian Music Ministry and what that means. They want to know what they might be getting themselves into, can they still get signed, how, where, and even if they should record music, and mostly, how they can find success in the new, kind of confusing world of music.

The music business itself is in a state of turmoil, yet still thriving if that makes any sense. People may not be paying what they used to for music, but they are listening as much as ever. Apps like Pandora, Spotify, and Apple Music are the new radio, and people are listening in this new way. Music is everywhere we are, from restaurants, to movies & TV, all over our phones and mobile computing devices, and in our cars.

True Outreach or Shameless Promotion?

So where is the line?

How far are we willing to go to get the word out about our music or art? You know, the creative thing we feel God has given us to do?

I am absolutely a socialmedia-holic. To me it's one of the great inventions of our time, and allows us to reach millions from the comfy seat of our computer.