|
Post by automatedhero on Jan 7, 2024 6:50:12 GMT -5
I accept that people are free to like or dislike or ignore what I write, and I'm grateful for anyone that takes the trouble to consider my work. It's never expected and always apprecaited.
With that in mind, I would like to reach more of an audience without spamming people who I'm sure get weary of endless bandcamp links time and again. I share my stuff here, on facebook DS groups and reddit as well as Threads/Mastodon (I quit X because it is a hatefest hellscape). Any ideas on what else or where else? Thanks
|
|
|
Post by arillius on Jan 8, 2024 10:10:18 GMT -5
This is a tough question that I think a lot of people struggle with, myself included. I absolutely loathe self-promoting my stuff and even promoting on social media. Not sure why, I just feel weird doing it. The thing with DS is that it is still a niche kind of thing, so it's hard to think outside the box as far as promotion. Obviously, some of the main labels in the genre promote the hell out of stuff, however if you're self-releasing or trying to get your music out there yourself, it can often find itself floating adrift in the daily sea of posts and music. I haven't formally released anything in 4 years for my main project, and basically went quiet on the social media stuff for a little while. I did notice a major drop in listens the less and less I posted about it. I think, perhaps, one of the best things you can do to promote your music right now is to take a stab at a live performance, if you haven't already. Live DS is blossoming right now and I believe it is a good way to promote your music. Obviously, it comes with a whole multitude of other issues, but if you can make it happen, it'll help. Good luck.
|
|
|
Post by andrewwerdna on Jan 9, 2024 22:47:29 GMT -5
automatedhero You seem very prolific and already have a large catalogue, all with a consistently high production quality. So one thing I think you could do is make long (1-4+ hour) youtube compilations focused around specific themes. Those kinds of videos seem to get a lot of attention. I think people seek those out as background music for tabletop rpgs and whatnot, and I think a lot of your music would work well for sci-fi themed games. Search "rpg music" on youtube and you'll see many examples with millions of views, although a lot of those channels have been around for a while and consistently putting out a bunch of that stuff, so there might a be large threshold for that sort of thing before people start noticing. Might be more work than it's worth, but worth considering at least I think.
|
|
|
Post by magicwillow on Jan 12, 2024 13:30:07 GMT -5
Uploading your albums to youtube with the usual format of "Artist - Album title (Genre)" with the album cover as the thumbnail works well, and I've had some limited success on subreddits and on facebook groups related to the genre I'm sharing. Most people don't mind if you're sharing your work.
|
|
|
Post by automatedhero on Jan 23, 2024 11:48:13 GMT -5
automatedhero You seem very prolific and already have a large catalogue, all with a consistently high production quality. So one thing I think you could do is make long (1-4+ hour) youtube compilations focused around specific themes. Those kinds of videos seem to get a lot of attention. I think people seek those out as background music for tabletop rpgs and whatnot, and I think a lot of your music would work well for sci-fi themed games. Search "rpg music" on youtube and you'll see many examples with millions of views, although a lot of those channels have been around for a while and consistently putting out a bunch of that stuff, so there might a be large threshold for that sort of thing before people start noticing. Might be more work than it's worth, but worth considering at least I think. Thank you for the complement. This is a great idea. Sadly my internet precludes this; uploading to youtube takes hours and hours thanks to my rubbish broadband. it might be possible to do single tracks, but I don't know how to turn songs into videos.
|
|
|
Post by automatedhero on Jan 23, 2024 11:49:07 GMT -5
Uploading your albums to youtube with the usual format of "Artist - Album title (Genre)" with the album cover as the thumbnail works well, and I've had some limited success on subreddits and on facebook groups related to the genre I'm sharing. Most people don't mind if you're sharing your work. what software do you need to upload music and do artwork?
|
|
|
Post by magicwillow on Jan 24, 2024 4:00:42 GMT -5
Uploading your albums to youtube with the usual format of "Artist - Album title (Genre)" with the album cover as the thumbnail works well, and I've had some limited success on subreddits and on facebook groups related to the genre I'm sharing. Most people don't mind if you're sharing your work. what software do you need to upload music and do artwork? To create videos I use CapCut, to make AI artwork I use Playground AI and then import the artwork into Canva to add my artist logo and album icon as well as do some last minute colour adjustment on the art. Alternatively you can hire an artist to make you some art and again use Canva to add your logo and title to the cover. Drag your songs and your album cover into CapCut and then drag your album cover into the timeline at the bottom. Drag in each of your songs to the timeline underneath the album cover and then stretch the album cover out to the end of your final song and you've created the youtube video, then you can use CapCut's export feature to upload directly to YouTube.
|
|
|
Post by starlitpath on Feb 22, 2024 3:55:45 GMT -5
Free Bandcamp codes seem to work, to an extent. Dropped some in the message to my BC fans, some on Instagram (IMO it's pointless to use this platform nowadays), some on Reddit. Promoting your own stuff is extremely tedious and frustrating. So I do only that, plus occassional promotion of my music on Reddit. Oh, and it seems that I also try to promote my creations here!
|
|
vandus
Townfolk
Exploring Aquaaris...
Posts: 26
|
Post by vandus on Mar 21, 2024 3:10:32 GMT -5
I think the above folks have covered it pretty well so far. I'm a bit newer to this stuff but I have family that makes music professionally and have read up and started experimenting myself. I also perform marketing duties for a small company as part of my day job.
I would first take a look at your work and say "What do I ultimately want to get out of this?" That will help ground you and will help frame your efforts. For example, while it would be awesome to reach Erang levels of notoriety, this is a fun creative outlet for me to make some things I think are cool, and to push my skills as an artist.
With the sheer quantity of stuff on the internet can be hard to stand out, so you sort of have to do it all. Social media is huge and can't be ignored, but also posting to forums, sending songs to playlist curators and Youtube channels, submitting albums for review, getting on with a label, and playing live shows or doing livestreams.
You can also hire a marketing firm if you want, but I would steer clear of that unless you are trying to do this professionally and have music that appeals to a wide audience. Synth music doesn't typically get that much attention (compared to more mainstream genres), so I see paying someone when you don't already have a decent following a waste of money.
I'm sure you probably already intuit this, but never pay to boost your posts or pay for adverts. Again, maybe worth it if you already amassed a following and want to get to the next level, but I have adblock and actively try to ignore anything that is an advert. I do believe it can damage your image as well.
Tactile things you can do right now that require no extra skill: -Create a YT channel and drop your audio files along with your album art into a video editor to create a full album stream. Post it. I use Davinci Resolve, but anything that lets you do basic video editing can work (Capcut was mentioned above). You said your internet is slow, so an alternative is to just upload individual songs. -Send your music to playlist editors and YT channels that promote similar or the exact same kind of music you are making. -Keep posting to forums & socials (reddit, here, facebook, etc)
Promoting can be fun, so keep at it! BTW I did look up your bandcamp, you have some great album art, do you make it yourself?
|
|