Tag: Reach your fans

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How To Win Fans Without Annoying Your Audience [VIDEO]

Win Fans

Everyone wants to win fans online, but not everyone can grow their audience without alienating their listeners.

Digital promotion is a complicated proposition. On the one hand, it has never been easier to reach your audience and engage with fans regularly. At the same time, every attempt to grow that audience runs the risk of alienating the people who already love your music. As with many things in life, successful digital marketing it’s all about finding a balance, and we are here to help.

We believe it is entirely possible to steadily grow your audience without feeling tethered to social media at all times or driving yourself crazy trying to develop content ideas. Figuring out the right recipe for your career and audience will take time, but we can give you several things to consider when planning your future promotional efforts. 

The most important thing you need to know about digital promotion is that people are more intelligent than you think. Nobody needs to be told where your music is available because they assume that it’s available everywhere. Very few artists only post their music to one or two platforms, so you don’t need to tell people where to find your art. Your music, like the music created by everyone else, is available wherever people consume music. That is the world we live in.

The next thing to consider is what type of contact you are creating. Most social media managers will tell you that they try to balance different pieces of content that entertain, educate, or inform. Some posts can do all three, but others may only tackle one or two. Here are some quick examples:

Entertaining content makes people feel something. Artists often use song clips and video teasers to elicit an emotional response from their audience. 

Educational content teaches us something, such as how to pre-order your new record or follow your account on Spotify.

Informative content tells us something important, such as tour dates. 

Once you figure out the type of contact you want to post, you may wonder how frequently you should be posting to various digital platforms. You can find many tutorials on maximizing reach online, but we recommend prioritizing your mental health above all else. You should only post every day if you have the content and time to do so. If that feels too overwhelming, then maybe posting two or three times a week instead is a better approach. Your fans will adjust their expectations to match your output, so as long as you develop a routine, whatever you choose to do will work.

In the latest Music Biz update, host James Shotwell teaches you how to win fans without annoying your audience. He walks through things most musicians do not consider before posting online and offers advice to make all your promotional efforts more welcoming to everyone they reach. Check it out:

Music Biz is brought to you by Haulix, the music industry’s leading promotional distribution platform. Start your one-month free trial today and gain instant access to the same promotional tools used by BMG, Concord, Rise Records, Pure Noise Records, and hundreds more. Visit http://haulix.com/signup​ for details.

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Artist Advice Editorials Haulix Industry News

How To Reach Music Critics and Influencers [VIDEO]

Sharing music has never been easier, but reaching people in positions of influence is harder than ever before.

Despite reports that claim otherwise, music criticism is alive and well. There are more musicians than ever making and releasing more music than ever at a rate never anticipated, which is why people continue to turn to influencers and people they view as having authority for help with new music discovery. Most people do not have the time to constantly listen to artists they don’t know, but many are willing to listen to those that do. That is why influencers continue to matter, and it is why they will always have a role in music.

But there is a problem. The increased competition for attention has made reaching tastemakers in positions of influence difficult. For every new artist that receive a bit of recognition, there are dozens whose emails and DMs go unanswered. Having a great song doesn’t matter unless you can make people care about it, and sadly, most artists are incapable of accomplishing that task.

In the latest episode of Music Biz 101, our ongoing web series, host James Shotwell breaks down four tricks for engaging with tastemakers every artist needs to know. These tips are easy to follow, and they can be applied in every genre of music, but you will still need great music as well. Success in the music business today requires both business and creative skills. One without the other may get you far, but it won’t build a lasting career.

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Artist Advice Business Advice Haulix News

Fans matter more than listeners

You will never please everyone, so don’t bother trying to win over those who don’t care. One-thousand diehard fans are better than one-million casual listeners any day of the week.

One of the biggest lies that has been sold to us in business is the idea that constant growth is the only way to be successful. Take a look at the largest corporations around the globe, and you will find that they are obsessed with finding ways to increase their bottom line. They want to raise revenue and cut costs no matter what, year after year, until the end of time (or the end of their business).

We bought into this thinking for a long time as well. When we first started Haulix, our goal was to be the industry’s only promotional distribution platform. We had competition even back then, but we were headstrong and confident in our product. Ten years later and the competition has only increased, all while the industry has undergone one of the most radical changes in its one-hundred-year history. We’re still here, we’re bigger than ever, but you know what? We’re still not sure if we’re truly the biggest company in our market and we’re okay with that. Really!

You don’t want to be for everyone. When everyone relies on you the opportunity to be unique is removed because you continuously have to appeal to the broadest possible audience. Creativity thrives in the margins. You want to appeal to people who get what you’re doing, and you want to empower them to spread the good word about your creative output to those who will listen. Anything beyond that, any attempt to cater to people who otherwise wouldn’t give you the time of day, is a hollow effort that will eventually burn out.

The artists who thrive in today’s industry do so because they understand the value of a fan. A single fan can do more for your career than a thousand people who hear your song on the radio and think it’s “pretty good.” You know why? Because real fans feel your success in music is somehow representative of their success in life. If you can make it, they can too, or vice verse. Real fans join you on the journey.

The only way to attract this type of fan is to be true to yourself. Make the music you want to make, and the fans will follow. It may only be a few at first, but if you engage with them and make it known their support is appreciated more fans will follow in time. You see, people like to be appreciated because it means they matter to someone or something, and when they feel that way they are inclined to promote whatever makes them feel as though they belong.

You don’t want to appeal to everyone. Those who appeal to everyone are destined to get lost in the shuffle when the next great artist or song comes along. You want to appeal to the people who feel the way you do right now. If you can manage that, the sky is the limit for your career. Maybe you won’t be an international star performing to sixty-thousand people a night, but you will find a way to earn money from your creativity while engaging with like-minded people. The value of that experience has no price. It is something rare and true and only allotted to those who chase their dreams to the fullest without sacrificing themselves in the process.

Stay who you are. The rest will follow.

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Artist Advice Editorials Industry News News

Why more musicians need their own podcast

With a growing global audience and low startup costs, podcasts are the next step in digital marketing and fan engagement.

Did you know that 50% of all US homes are podcast fans? How about the fact that over 44% of the entire US population, or roughly 124 million people, listened to podcasts over the last twelve months?

On a global scale, more than one in four residents of Japan, France, Canada, Italy, the United States, Australia, Sweden, and Spain listen to podcasts monthly. In South Korea, more than half of the entire population (58%) listens to podcasts on a monthly is.

These figures and other available online are growing with each passing month. Podcasts were practically unknown a decade ago, but today there are more than 500,000 shows offering millions of hours of entertainment for listeners. Studies show the average podcast fan commits to six or seven shows each week, and most (80%) listen to each episode in full. Podcast listeners are, on average, smart and loyal listeners who actively support the shows they enjoy through either digital promotion, crowdfunding, or engagement with sponsors who make their favorite programs possible.

All this data is impressive, but what is even crazier is how few musicians have decided to engage their fans through podcasts.

A podcast can be anything you want. Some choose to interview people they find interesting, while others stick to a theme or subject. Pop-punk band Waterparks host a series where they read fan fiction about their group. The possibilities are endless!

The perks of having a podcast are numerous, including:

  • Direct engagement with fans
  • Ability to deliver new content to fans regularly
  • A promotional vehicle for tours, albums, and anything else
  • Creates future promotional material (you can share clips on your social media)
  • Allows fans to know you better (they don’t have to stalk you, they just have to listen)
  • Provides a platform to discuss and dissect your art
  • Potential to create new fans for your music through conversation
  • Fill time while at home or on the road that is otherwise spent scrolling social media or staring out the window
  • Potential for extra income, either through fans buying merchandise or sponsors getting behind the show

Podcasts are also incredibly cheap to create. Many shows are recorded using a smartphone voice memo app, but others use the same microphones artists use to create demos in their home studios. Hosting is available through a number of providers, including several that have offers for free hosting to first-time users, as well as free distribution to major platforms such as Apple Podcasts and Stitcher.

Furthermore, with Spotify’s recent acquisition of Gimlet Media and Anchor the streaming giant — who already has a large stake in podcasting — is planning to promote podcasts heavily in the months and years to come. Artists with shows will not only be able to promote their music and vice versa through a single platform, but they will also be able to earn streaming royalties from their podcast. That’s money which, unless otherwise agreed to in a contract, goes directly to the artist behind the show. It’s a side hustle that helps the main focus of an artist’s career in many ways.

Competition is music is growing fiercer by the day, and most acts use the same tricks as every other artist or business or consumer to build their audience. But right now, for what will likely be a very short window of time, there is a market for musicians willing to open up in podcasting that is largely overlooked. Any artist would be foolish to not take advantage of this opportunity. Podcasting offers a chance to grow closer to fans, build an audience, and earn a few extra bucks. What more could you want?

Need more reasons to start a podcast? Watch this:

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