Promoting Indie Music on Social Media.
Promoting indie music on social media has taken an interesting turn today, with social media and promotion being deeply and intricately intertwined. I have discussed about this in detail in my blog Digital Sales of Indie Music. Most indie artists are releasing some or all of their music online, free of charge and without needing a label or publisher to promote them. The free music published online is used to advertise relatively unknown acts which the consumers are not yet ready to pay for. These are also used by established groups or individuals around upcoming albums or tours, to build momentum. As discussed before, historically and traditionally, artists have majorly been earning from live shows as opposed to actual sales of recordings, income from which has mostly gone to record labels, releasing free music has served as a powerful promotional tool and has helped boost demand for concert ticket sales.
Lately, websites dedicated to music blogs and the digital curation of new music have been emerging and gaining popularity. This has become an effective platform for indie artists to promote and sell their work, because most of these are created and visited by music lovers. It is interesting to note that these platforms also serve as digital music magazines that have dedicated writers and generate a separate revenue stream. Because these sites have dedicated experts constantly writing about new trends and releases in the music industry, they also play an important role in building a reputation for an indie artist or indie band. New releases are shared, talked about and stamped ‘approved’ on such sites and are helpful for indie artists in expanding their fan-base and advertising new projects.
As discussed in my blog Indie Music and the Internet, in my recent blogs I am trying to understand and evaluate the live and recorded music business with regard to the more encompassing implications of the Internet. I hope to provide some insight on the future of music industry through this research, and share with the indies artists and bands some conclusions about the impact and related factors leading to this ‘absolute transformation’.
Max Miller, an independent hip-hop artist based in Pittsburgh is an outstanding example of the effective use of social media through latest technology to become commercially and financially successful. Miller became a multi-millionaire when he was just 20, and was featured in The Forbes Magazine’s ‘30 under 30’ list in 2011. He released free ‘mixtapes’ as they are called in the hip-hop community, creating clout online by posting music videos to YouTube. Gaining approval from several notable music blogs and websites, Miller built a steady fan base reaching nearly 400 million views on his YouTube channel. This buzz surrounding him was more than sufficient for Miller to get to play over 200 shows in 2011. This earned him an average gross of 40,000 dollars a night. His independent album released in 2011 was ardently supported by fans and 144,000 units were sold in the first week. This made it the first independent album to top the charts since 1995.
As I have written in my blog The Best Known Indie Artists and Bands, a similar English rock band called Arctic Monkeys formed in Sheffield in 2002. The band is known for being one of the first bands to come to public attention via the Internet, representing the possibility of a change in the way new bands are promoted and marketed. It also released a live album, ‘At the Apollo’ in 2008. Their debut album is the fastest-selling debut album by a band in British chart history, and in 2013 they were ranked as the 30th-greatest debut album of all time. The band has won several awards like the Mercury Prize in 2006 for their debut album, in addition to receiving nominations in 2007 and 2013, Best British Group and Best British Album three times, nominated for three Grammy Awards. The band also headlined at the Glastonbury Festival twice, in 2007 and again in 2013.
In my next blog I am going to write about why many artists, after gaining initial popularity through the internet still elect to sign on with a major record label. Please share your experiences in the comments section and I will add them to my future blogs.
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