A Step-By-Step Plan To Market Your Music And Grow Your Fan-Base

The objectives of this music marketing plan are:

1. Reach 1000s of non-fans
2. Convert a percentage of those people into fans
3. Grow your email list

***PRE-RELEASE PREPARATION***

Being fully prepared to drop a new project is essential to its success. It’s better to take the time making every possible detail of your project as perfect as it can be than it is to take the time wondering what you could have done better. Remember, proper preparation prevents poor performance.

If you can say yes to all of these questions, then you are ready to go. If just one answer is “no”, you should highly consider delaying your release until your team is fully prepared.

• Have ALL songs been mixed and mastered?
• Has track-list been completed?
• Is album cover finalized?
• Has 1 single been chosen?
• Is single cover done?
• Has two outlets (blogs, Radio Stations, etc.) been chosen and confirmed?
• Has 1 music video been completed or close to completion?
• Has music distribution platform(s) been chosen? (NoiseTrade, Itunes, BandCamp, VibeDeck)
• Has all promotional material been designed and approved??

***PRE-RELEASE TASKS***

TASK 1: RECRUIT AT LEAST TEN DEDICATED PEOPLE TO JOIN YOUR DIGITAL PROMO TEAM.

• You can use Facebook groups as the medium to communicate with everyone.
• Only add people to your promo team who are willing to be dedicated to your cause for at least 30 days.
• When asking potential recruits, emphasize the fact that their tasks will be as simple as posting and sharing content on social media once every other day.

TASK 2. DESIGN MARKETING COLLATERAL FOR WEB AND PRINT.

• Create 1000x1000px album and single covers
  • This will be distributed to your digital street team to add as their profile picture on Twitter and Facebook.
• Create a 800x600px digital flyer depicting you, your album cover, and your website
  • This will be used for creating a Facebook ad.
• 100 8.5×11” (cheapest) or 11×17” flyers depicting you, your website and announcing your album release.
  • This will be used to post around your city at high traffic establishments

TASK 3. BUY YOUR DOMAIN NAME!

• Use Google domains or GoDaddy to buy your domain name.
• If you don’t have the time or budget to invest in a full blown website, that’s fine, but make sure you at least own a domain name.
• If you don’t have a dedicated website, forward your domain to the platform you plan on using to release your album. 

TASK 4. CHOOSE TWO(2) OUTLETS TO PREMIERE YOUR SINGLE AND MUSIC VIDEO ON

• The idea behind premiering your single and music video via third party is to gain access to a new audience.
• The outlets you choose to premiere your music on will also benefit, because you’ll be sending your existing fan-base to their website. Be sure to emphasize that when you’re reaching out.

TASK 5. CHOOSE THE BEST PLATFORM TO DISTRIBUTE YOUR ALBUM

• We recommend that you use NoiseTrade.com. It’ll allow you to build an email list while also giving your fans the option to tip you. Trust us, it works!
• The best strategy is to use SoundCloud in order to let people listen to your tracks, but add your NoiseTrade link to the download section. This way when someone goes to download your song/album they’ll be forwarded to your NoiseTrade account where they will have to input their email address in order to get the song.

TASK 6. CHOOSE YOUR RELEASE DATE (WISELY)

• Every task contained in this music marketing plan is centered around the date you plan on releasing your album or mixtape.
• We highly suggest you wait until you have EVERYTHING finalized before you choose a release date. We’ve seen countless artists announce their release date and then push it back, because they were still waiting on tracks to get mixed, the cover design to be revised and whatever else.
• Trust us, in the long run, it’ll be worth the wait knowing you have a complete project ready to be delivered.

TASK 7. CHOOSE A SINGLE AND SHOOT A MUSIC VIDEO

• You can release two singles if you want, but we recommend just releasing one in order to reduce the amount of time your fans have to wait for the full project.
• It’s very important that you pick a song that is going to appeal to the masses.
• This song is what you’re going to be sending to complete strangers (blogs, radio stations, etc.) so make sure it’s one of the best songs you’ve ever made, because it’ll be a determining factor of whether or not these music blogs and radio stations decide to feature you.

TASK 8. CREATE A MAILCHIMP ACCOUNT AND DOWNLOAD THE APP

• If you don’t already have an email list, you need to start one!
• Emails are a big deal, because they allow you to have constant and immediate contact with your fans.
• Create a subscription form on MailChimp that asks for an email and zip code.
• mailchimp.com
• Mail Chimp App: https://goo.gl/JyPI13 or https://goo.gl/d2rBFt
• If you don’t have a website to embed the form, you can just send fans a link to your subscribe form.

***PROMOTIONAL TIMELINE***

WEEK 1: DROP ALBUM COVER AND ANNOUNCE RELEASE DATE

Date: __________

Wk1 Goal: 50 EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS

Task 1: Ask promo team members to change their profile pics to album cover for exactly 7 days (Longer if they’re really committed to helping you).

Task 2: Start promoting appropriate marketing collateral across all channels.  Include the link to your Mailchimp form. You can use Google URL Shortener to create a shortlink.

Task 3: Pay $10 to promote marketing collateral on Facebook. Make sure you target people in your locale and include the link to your MailChimp form.
Notes: Your campaign copy can read something like, “My album drops on December 5^th, if you want to be the first to hear the first single when it drops, Subscribe to my newsletter!”

WEEK 2: PREMIERE SINGLE VIA 3^rd PARTY

Date: ____________
Outlet: ____________________

Wk2 Goal: 50 EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS
Wk2 Goal: GET SINGLE FEATURED ON 10 DIFFERENT MUSIC BLOGS
Task 1: upload song to noisetrade.

Task 2: upload song to soundcloud and change download link to the noisetrade link.

Task 3: send outlet embed code for soundcloud.

Task 5: send the outlet link to email subscribers
Task 6: Post the link to the outlet on social media every day for 3 days. Your promo digital promo team should be doing this every other day.
Task 8: After 3 days start sending the soundcloud link with a short press release to 5 music blogs a day
Task 7: Pay $5 to $10 to promote/boost your post with the outlet on Facebook

Notes: The idea here is to reach a new audience via a 3rd party. In addition to that, by requiring people to download your song via noisetrade, theyre forced to give up an email. No free music! The effort you put into promoting your single will have a huge impact on the success (as far as downloads/purchases) of your album.

WEEK 3: PREMIERE MUSIC VIDEO VIA 3^rd PARTY

Date: ______________

Outlet: __________________

Wk3 Goal: 500 VIDEO VIEWS

Task 1: Upload your music video to YOUR OWN Youtube or Vimeo Account.

Task 2: Include the link to either noisedtrade or soundcloud in the video description.

Task 3: Send embed code to your outlet.

Task 4: Send the link to the outlet to your email subscribers.

Task 5: Post the link to the outlet on social media for 3 days straight. Your promo team should be doing this every other day.

Task 6: After 3 days upload the music video to facebook and pay $10 to $20 boost the post. Be sure to target your ideal age groups and locations as well as include a link to download the song.

Task 7: Send your youtube or vimeo link to any blogs that posted your single

Task 8: Start sending your music video to 5 music blog sites a day.

Notes: If people like your music you should be seeing multiple downloads every day.

WEEK 4: RELEASE YOUR ALBUM

Date: ______________
Outlet: YourDomain.com

Wk3 Goal: 100 DOWNLOADS OR PURCHASES

Task 1: Upload your album to NoiseTrade or whatever your platform you decide to sell it on

Task 2: Upload album to soundcloud

Task 3: Insert the link to your website in the download section for each song.

Task 4: Embed the album widget on your website or point your domain to the album download/purchase page

Task 5: Send the soundcloud link to the blogs who previously featured your music

Task 6: Send the soundcloud link to your email subscribers.

Task 7: Post the soundcloud link along with the album cover on social media every day. Your promo team should be doing this every other day.

Task 8: Pay to promote/boost the post with the link and album cover on your Facebook fan-page

Task 9: Start sending a press release to with the soundcloud link as well as an MP3 of your single attached to 10 music blogs a day.

Task 10: Start sending a press release to with the soundcloud link as well as an MP3 of your single attached to 5 radio stations a day.

Task 11: Start hanging your promotional flyers around your city

Notes: If you went the extra mile promoting your single and music video you should hit your download or purchase goal with ease.

WEEK 5: ONE WEEK AFTER ALBUM RELEASE

Wk5 Goal: 500 DOWNLOADS OR PURCHASES

This stage in your album release is crucial. Most artist’s promotion efforts will tend to fizzle out and thus downloads will start to decline. This is not the end of the road, it’s only the beginning!

Think about the majority of popular artists you listen to or know about, in most cases it was someone who already had a large following that shared their music and thus acted as a catalyst. If your music is good enough, just one influential person sharing your song can be a major factoring in your career finally reaching new heights. Use this knowledge to your advantage!

Task: 1: Reach out to influential people on social media and ask for their email unless they provide it in their profiles. This includes writers for big music blogs and any other random person on Twitter, IG, Youtube, Facebook, etc that have a significant audience.

Task 2: Email these people and tell them you admire their work/what they do (whatever that may be). Tell them it would be a honor for them to listen to your song and let you know what they think. Be sure to include an MP3 of the single and a link to the album on soundcloud.

Task 3: Continue sending your music to music blogs and radio stations.

Task 4: Have your promo team start sending the link to your album to the people in their network, whether that be on social media or through text message.

Notes: As an independent artist nothing is going to be handed to you.  There’s no multimillion dollar marketing budget that will get your music in front of millions of people, but that’s not to say you can’t do it on your own.