How to promote my first EP?

[Nadosa]

Hey guys,

finally, after lots of work which was actually just flawless fun, I am done filming and recording my first EP coming out soon. 

Now, I wanted to know if anyone here has experience in really teasing people for this project. Like promotion etc..

We have a total of 125 followers on instagram, my private acc round about 215, and my better half (the other musician) around 1000. We played some live shows and people love us although we havent been together for so long. It feels just like we attract the goodness and I live my dream, already played some shows which I've always dreamt of as a kid. 

Now I need some advice for teasing etc. We will actually produce some teasers for the 3 music videos we filmed. But now, I guess it is time to do some promotion on youtube ads or instagram?

What about a management?

Cheers

Edited March 3, 2022 by Nadosa

[VictorB02]

TikTok is the place to be if you have a low following but need massive attention.

[Arion]

Start with family and friends who support you; Let them share it on facebook, etc; 

[Michael569]

On 03/03/2022 at 11:17 PM, Nadosa said:

my private acc round about 215, and my better half (the other musician) around 1000

A word of caution (from someone who did that too) Make sure you do not start bombarding people with your thing just because they follow you. Many people, despite following, may not want to hear from you. This is no criticism or anything like that. This is something I had to learn the hard way and that i see a lot of people in my industry (nutrition) doing. Doing daily videos on their private Facebook and their private Instagram. It is not uncommon for a person with 800 followers to be getting 1-2 likes on average doing that. There is a reason why that happens.  Even people in your mailing list may not want to hear from you. (also learned this the hard way :D) Trying to convert a private channel to a business channel and expecting to get away with it is a dangerous strategy

Now if you have an Instagram channel for your art (not your private life) that's a different story and that may indeed be a good place to start.. also despite to what I wrote above, a gentle invitation (to people who may potentially care) on your private account to join a dedicated account is a good idea. But it has to be gentle and it should not be too frequent. 

On 03/03/2022 at 11:17 PM, Nadosa said:

But now, I guess it is time to do some promotion on youtube ads or instagram?

Be veeeeery careful with how you approach this. Adds should only be run in the groups of people who already know you, and who want to hear from you and who love your work. The purpose of adds shoudl really be you telling your people (who love your work) "hey, thanks for being an awesome listener. I just wanted to let you know I made this and thought you'd like it and I even put a little bit of money behind it to make sure you have some time to look at it at your own convenience".

The purpose of adds in the marketing of the 21st century for small businesses and small artists should never be "heeeeey youuu, yes you random person that did not know I exist 1 minute ago - here listen to my stuff!!!" Dropping adds to random people based on demographics & psychographics is "being ignored " at best and "being annoying and getting lot of snappy feedback that will absolutely shatter your self-confidence and motivation at worst, from people who may absolutely not want to hear from you and who will work hard to let you know that. 

Again, hope this does not come through too harsh. I applaud you for finding your thing and successfully going on your path to financial freedom. Congratulations!! This is a major step in life.  Next step is to figure out who your true audience is and how to speak to them without annoying everyone else.

It is about showing empathy for the people you're looking to serve (but also those you are NOT looking to serve) and understanding what they believe that you don't believe. What they want that you don't want and what they see that you don't see and then being able to cross that chasm by building your own unique bridge and inviting the person in. One by one, not by hundreds on TikTok. The masses like shallow entertainment and the masses like average stuff. By definition, if your art is unique you must never strive to get the attention of the masses. 

As a beginning artist, chances are that audience will be very very tiny in the beginning. Maybe 30 dedicated fans, maybe less. That's okay. Listen to them, let them help you produce better art. Their feedback will help you grow the most. Their feedback is important. Ignore everybody else and forget about the masses (anything > 500 people at this point are masses). Figure out how to reach out to the early adopters and let them spread the music like a virus to the early majority. Don't feed ads to random people who just like random music because they'll hate your guts. Basically you need to be able to look 99.999% of people in the eyes and say "this is NOT for you". 

Good luck & once again congrats!  You've got this! Patience and showing up regularly will be your main friends on this journey. 

[Value]

Nice to hear! If I were you I would make a clear measurable long term goal, how many followers do you want, what appearances and collaborations do you guys want to have made? etc. I would view this EP promotion as an exercise because in most cases it will take many EPs and projects before you get real traction with your music.

You could check out Leo's strategy video. 

[Phil King]

This guy on youtube Damian Keyes has good music promotion advice.

 

[mojsterr]

Ask also on reddit in https://www.reddit.com/r/WeAreTheMusicMakers/

Or check around, people have asked this before.

 

Much luck!