Low Budget Marketing - Everything You Need To Know!

 

Before we begin, let's get something very clear. You cannot fully establish a wonderful music career with absolutely no money. Maybe a reliable music career but not a great one. If you’re starting from scratch, it’s better if you keep your expectations very realistic. But don’t you worry, we’re going to try and give you the best ways to market your music with little to no money.

From Hobby To Career

 

If you are in the phase where making music is slowly starting to become a potential career option for you rather than just your hobby, then distributing your track is pretty simple. You could upload your tracks on YouTube, SoundCloud, BandCamp, and AudioMack for FREE. And the procedure is pretty simple too. 

 

The problem arises when you have to upload to more prominent streaming platforms that would get you more reach. Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music are DSPs (Digital Service Providers) where you can get your song released an as independent artist, and the best way to do that is to rely on third-party aggregators like CDBaby or Distrokid. This doesn’t cost a lot too. 

 

 

Now the amount you need to pay these distributors depends on the type of contract they are offering. Some charge just for distributing your music while others don’t charge anything for the actual job but will take some percentage of the revenue you’ll make from music royalties.

 

We recommend sending your songs to your preferred distribution company around four weeks before your official launch date. This guarantees that your songs are available on the announced date and allows you to pitch your track to the Spotify Editorial Playlist Team. Make sure that you also register for Spotify For Artists. Speaking of Spotify, read our article on Spotify Pay Per Stream: How Does It Work

Official Website

 

Yes, you need to make an official website for yourself as a music artist or for your band if you are a part of one. A good enough social media presence won’t do, because there should be some digital space on the internet that gives out official information about you, and that information should be coming from your website. A website indicates a sense of professionalism that alludes to the sincerity and authenticity of you as an artist as well as your music. 

 

 

Getting started with a website is very simple. All you need is a domain name, for example, www.greaserelease.co is a domain name and you need a simple website builder, there are plenty to choose and they’re very cheap too, you might want to check this article out for more info, Free Website Making For Music Bands.

A major plus point in having an official website is that once your music is picking up and has gained a reliable fanbase, you could introduce merch and sell your merch effectively on your website instead of putting it up on other third-party e-commerce apps such as Amazon, Flipkart and so on. You can also gather leads on your website and push emails out to them once you start touring or have a new release out. Speaking of which, check out our blog post on Why Every Musician Needs an Email List — Even in 2023

Your website should also be a space where you build and tell your story. A website makes the distance between your potential fans and you, a lot lesser and helps you interact with your listeners.

Speaking of websites, don’t miss our article on Do Musicians Still Need A Website in 2023.

Get Playlisted

 

We cannot stress just how important getting playlisted is. Playlists can help you reach a massive audience in your genre of music. In the era of digital streaming, playlists are the most reliable music streaming for music lovers especially when they want to listen to new music every day. For example, if your track is an afrobeat, your track will get playlisted beside Rema’s Calm Down in a playlist called ‘Afrobeats’ or ‘Afrodance.’ The more you get into popular playlists, the better chances you have at reaching more listeners and gaining more streams. You should check out our article on Top 5 Music Submission Platforms and Websites to know about platforms where you could submit your tracks at a very low cost. 

 
 

 

We, at Greaserelease, have our own submission platform that you should consider because you could reach more than 2 million listeners if you get playlisted with our playlists!  

Collaborations with content creators/influencers

 

Social media is booming with emerging content creators and influencers who want to increase their reach and following to earn revenue through paid promotions. These types of influencers, especially on Instagram, would be having followers of less than 10k, but will not back out of a barter collab, where you don’t need to pay the content creator, instead, you could give something in exchange for their service. 

 

 

For example, an emerging apparel brand gives a pair of jeans to the content creator in exchange for a video or photo shoot of them wearing the pants and advertising them on their Instagram feed. You could do something like this because such content creators are not looking for paid collaborations just yet, they are looking for more exposure, and experience that they could add to their resumes. Your music would reach their followers and they could reach yours. 

Cover Art and Graphics

 

Covert art of your singles and albums really does make a huge difference, and graphics on your website also tell how creative you are when it comes to presenting your music. Of course, not everyone can afford Adobe Photoshop, but we’ve got a magic tool for you: Canva.

 

Canva is probably the best tool out there that you could use that can fall within your limited financial resources. It is super easy to use, has a wide variety of tools and elements that you could use, and has so many project templates that you could pick from. If you get the hang o it on the first day, you won’t be able to stop experimenting with your projects on Canva.

 

 

Its illustrations are pretty great and designing becomes fun. It is far better than paying a hefty amount to a designer to make the design of the artwork of your single. Read our article on Canva, An Easy Album Cover Maker For Musicians to know more. There are numerous perks and additional features with their premium plan, but the free version enables users to do the major part of what you'll require without purchasing. 

 

Along with Canva, there is another website that allows you to make ‘jaw-dropping’ digital art that would give you more aesthetic options. Once DALLE 2 was first launched in April 2022, people were astounded by how precisely and pragmatically the pictures it generates imitate the verbal cues used to generate them (more often than not - like with all AI art developers, the outcomes can be extremely hard to get right). It has made the software contentious, with a few concerned that it could be abused to make artificial images that are passed off as genuine. It is a website that gives JUST what you want. Pretty awesome, eh? 

 

 

 

If you are still a little wary of how to go about the whole process, we suggest you check out our Rinse & Repeat Release Strategy from our Full-Time Musician Game Plan!