Those of you who host music on music sites...

[dybbuk81]

bandcamp, soundcloud, reverbnation...

 

what are your secrets to getting more exposure? do you advertise?

I've had 2 album downloads for free in the past 60 days and I've posted everywhere. It's NOT bad music, check out continuum 1

 

http://noisebox1.bandcamp.com

 

are there other sites like audio social networks I'm leaving out? Review sites? Anything?

 

confused,

jerry

[dybbuk81]

Continuum in action with zero gaps:

All of the tracks connect just about, if they don't there's a fade out and another bpm starting.

[TimeOfDeath666]

I've got 3 downloads over the past 60 days. It has nothing to do with the quality of your music and everything to do with your social status. I refuse to pay money like a fuckin idiot for "exposure".

[geo]

Step 1. Promote. Everywhere.

 

Step 2. Be yourself. Talk with people. Mention that oh by the way, I am a musician. You will find plenty of people who might not be into your music, but they're into you, so they will promote it and you.

 

Step 3. Do covers. People don't know you, but they know bigger groups. It won't get as much exposure as "fan remake of Mario 64," but when it comes to unknown song from an unknown artist, people would chose known song covered from an unknown artist.

 

Step 4. Find a community of like minded musicians. Ask for feedback. It will get listeners and people will get to know you.

 

Step 5. Concerts. Crazy. I know. Make sure you have your own dot com that points people to your bandcamp or soundcloud. Why? Because I've been at concerts where the opening acts plug their bandcamp page and throughout dozens of concerts people think "that band's name is bandcamp," because I swear the majority of people have never heard of bandcamp or soundcloud. So they'll go to bandcamp, get lost and never find the band that was cool enough to visit their websites.

 

Step 6. Say your name 3 times between each song.

Edited August 12, 2018 by geo

[TimeOfDeath666]

Oh geo, my sweet summer child, so innocent.

[RightField]

Oh social status is holding you back ey? Well get on it and get better social status then. It does have to do with the quality of your music on some level, but what you define as quality is rather that it has to connect with the people you expose it to. Which means a great instrumental will normally never make as big emotional impact as a great singer. However, knowing this you can use it to your advantage. Here's some tips:

 

1. Know your craft, be specific in what you do and be great at it. Use time to refine your sound, mix and everything which goes faster with:

 

2. Team up, get a mentor, collaborate with people who are better than you and learn from them. Even those who aren't most likely have a quality you don't. In math 1+1=2, in music it can and most often is 1+1=50. We don't have the perspective to call out or own shit in real time. If you're working alone, you should at least take time to listen to your own stuff in other settings around other people to see how they react. It might make you discover faults about your own music you don't hear by yourself. Their feedback or lack of might piss you off and make it seem like "they don't get it" or "why doesn't it sound like home" but this is empathy and you're feeling what they are feeling as music connects people in such settings and failure is the only way to know what and how to improve.

 

3. Have a release-plan, make a proper press-release that's short and tasty and makes the reader curious. There are already pretty much many good examples of this in the wads section of this site. Look at the wads that receive the most traffic and look at how they're presented. It has to feel professional, like a commercial product and "finished" in its own right. Don't trust that people will discover subtle stuff, if it's not dead obvious it's not done. Have a story to tell that connects to the music. It needs to be fufilling on all fronts, this is 2018. If I read it, or click your site, I should understand everything it's about in 2 seconds.

 

4. When you feel you're getting the hang of all this, consider getting a producer that gets your stuff to get the best out of you, a great mixer to finish and make it uncluttered for the casual ear and the last finish of a good master, in that order. If the first is lacking here, don't bother with the rest. A bad mix can and will though ruin the emotional impact of your music on other speakers than the ones it was made on. This is expensive though so it all depends on how serious you are about it. Also get a private publishing deal to get your stuff up on spotify and suchlike. I run my own label and pay around 60$/year to release as much as I want.

 

5. if your stuff is done and kicks ass, try submitting through the many available sites at submithub.com . you get some credits every day to submit or you can buy them yourself. I buy about 50-100 for every single release. and for those who's yelling "it's a scam", many mails and "agencies" are and be vary of them, but this site really isn't. Promotion isn't free and never has been, the internet has just modernized the approach in how it is done. If you get a nice buzz on blogs or playlists you might get picked up by bigger sites.

 

6. Play live, as much as you can. Not only is the exposure good, but it makes you a much better musician which makes your music bolder, more focused makes it easier to record and it's hella fun and improves your life as well.

 

7. Prevail. The difference between those who succeed and those who don't is time and what you're able to put up with. If you can stay on course and get gradually better you can get where you want in 5-10 years. There's luck involved of course but consistent effort creates luck.

 

Good luck! ;)

Edited August 2, 2018 by RightField

[j4rio]

1 hour ago, TimeOfDeath666 said:

Oh geo, my sweet summer child, so innocent.

 

He is right, tho.

[dybbuk81]

Well, I do have the website: http://www.lehr.me it's just weird looking right now in places

 

I also made some more youtube collections and created a tumblr for them, soon to plug them into said site. https://lehrdotme.tumblr.com/

 

I got noticed by one dev team, hopefully more will follow through that one game.

[Ralphis]

Like mostly everyone successful in the history of the planet, networking is a huge component of success - not just talent.

[Nine Inch Heels]

11 hours ago, Ralphis said:

Like mostly everyone successful in the history of the planet, networking is a huge component of success - just not talent.

FTFY ;-)

[MaxTrevors]

If you just do 1 or 2 of the things suggested here you will notice a difference. If your stuff really is good and you find a few people who really dig it, it can get to a point where it spreads by word of mouth. So far I haven't done any live performances, mostly because it doesn't interest me that much, but talking to people about music and going to sites that encourage advertising art projects is good.

[MaxTrevors]

On 8/2/2018 at 8:09 AM, RightField said:

Oh social status is holding you back ey? Well get on it and get better social status then. It does have to do with the quality of your music on some level, but what you define as quality is rather that it has to connect with the people you expose it to. Which means a great instrumental will normally never make as big emotional impact as a great singer. However, knowing this you can use it to your advantage. Here's some tips:

 

1. Know your craft, be specific in what you do and be great at it. Use time to refine your sound, mix and everything which goes faster with:

 

2. Team up, get a mentor, collaborate with people who are better than you and learn from them. Even those who aren't most likely have a quality you don't. In math 1+1=2, in music it can and most often is 1+1=50. We don't have the perspective to call out or own shit in real time. If you're working alone, you should at least take time to listen to your own stuff in other settings around other people to see how they react. It might make you discover faults about your own music you don't hear by yourself. Their feedback or lack of might piss you off and make it seem like "they don't get it" or "why doesn't it sound like home" but this is empathy and you're feeling what they are feeling as music connects people in such settings and failure is the only way to know what and how to improve.

 

3. Have a release-plan, make a proper press-release that's short and tasty and makes the reader curious. There are already pretty much many good examples of this in the wads section of this site. Look at the wads that receive the most traffic and look at how they're presented. It has to feel professional, like a commercial product and "finished" in its own right. Don't trust that people will discover subtle stuff, if it's not dead obvious it's not done. Have a story to tell that connects to the music. It needs to be fufilling on all fronts, this is 2018. If I read it, or click your site, I should understand everything it's about in 2 seconds.

 

4. When you feel you're getting the hang of all this, consider getting a producer that gets your stuff to get the best out of you, a great mixer to finish and make it uncluttered for the casual ear and the last finish of a good master, in that order. If the first is lacking here, don't bother with the rest. A bad mix can and will though ruin the emotional impact of your music on other speakers than the ones it was made on. This is expensive though so it all depends on how serious you are about it. Also get a private publishing deal to get your stuff up on spotify and suchlike. I run my own label and pay around 60$/year to release as much as I want.

 

5. if your stuff is done and kicks ass, try submitting through the many available sites at submithub.com . you get some credits every day to submit or you can buy them yourself. I buy about 50-100 for every single release. and for those who's yelling "it's a scam", many mails and "agencies" are and be vary of them, but this site really isn't. Promotion isn't free and never has been, the internet has just modernized the approach in how it is done. If you get a nice buzz on blogs or playlists you might get picked up by bigger sites.

 

6. Play live, as much as you can. Not only is the exposure good, but it makes you a much better musician which makes your music bolder, more focused makes it easier to record and it's hella fun and improves your life as well.

 

7. Prevail. The difference between those who succeed and those who don't is time and what you're able to put up with. If you can stay on course and get gradually better you can get where you want in 5-10 years. There's luck involved of course but consistent effort creates luck.

 

Good luck! ;)

I agree with most of that. Some of the stuff about making it look "professional" not so much. I like stuff that sounds and looks like it was done independantly. I listen to a lot of post punk, noise, and other experimental stuff. It really depends on what the artist is trying to do.