How To Promote Your Hip Hop Music 

HOW TO PROMOTE YOUR HIP HOP MUSIC

 

Guide on How To Promote Your Hip Hop Music written by: Jimmy Conway

 
The music industry has over the years changed. There are new ways to create, effective ways to share and better ways to listen enabling thousands of individuals to release and make a living from music.

Sadly, unless you have a contract with a major music label, your passion in writing and releasing music may not be enough to propel you into fame.

Your passion alone may also not be enough to get you the high paying shows that you dream of as you write the music.

To overcome the challenges and succeed in this high paying industry, you will need to treat your music like a business. 


Thankfully, the development of digital marketing has given music creators with effective tools and freedom to compete with major music labels more effectively.

The new ways of digital distribution, music promotion, and sharing platforms have enabled creators to successfully make it in the industry. However, you must learn how to promote music online to make it a sustainable full-time job.

Learning how to promote music online in the right way will give you more freedom and time to focus on what really matters. In this self-promoting guide, you will learn what you really need to effectively promote your music including the things that you should focus on and the promotion channels. 

Essential elements that will help you effectively promote your music online.

Email Marketing

Well I'm not going to beat around the bush and let you know the absolute best form of marketing is email marketing

It's been around before social media, and will be around long after social media is gone. 

The #1 reason you should start your email list is because you OWN that list.  

When people subscribe to your social media accounts you do not own that list. Your social media network owns that list. 

Plus you're at the mercy of social media and how much reach they want to graciously give you. 

At least if you send an email to 1000 email subscribers through Aweber, you will reach  everybody's inbox.  

Provided you do not send a bunch of spam which will end you in the promotions tab.  

Another reason you should start an email list is because any social media site can disappear at anytime. 

This can kill your  music career if your career is strictly based on social media. 

Ask anyone above 40 about MySpace and how they  disappeared. 

I recommend you to check out AWeber email service provider.I

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A Marketing Plan 
Just like a business, you should start by stating your goals. You need to identify the target market and understand your fan’s habits and personalities.

The ideal target market is for individuals who enjoy listening to music with their friends at home and those who listen to music while working, jogging or working out.

To understand your potential fans, you can look at the fan profiles of other successful musicians in your genre.

You can also survey your already existing fan base to find out more about them. You can also join the conversation in the music forums or even read what people say about other music like yours on YouTube. 

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Target Market 
It would be ineffective to promote your album anyhow on the internet. You need to be smart. Equipped with the demographics and habits of your potential fans, you need to find out where they are looking for music.

The good thing about online is that you can easily see how your potential fans behave including what they like, activities they do and how they interact with the web by digging around for data.

Some of the tools that can help you get this data include Google, YouTube, Facebook Twitter analytics and one of the most important Email Marketing. 
Channels that you should use to successfully promote your music online.

Social Media 
Today almost everyone spends some time on social media. It could be on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or even the less popular platforms.

Using the popular social platforms will let you reach more potential fans.

However, you should choose the platform where your potential fans are and familiarize yourself with how to use it more effectively. Once you choose the right platform, you should then engage the potential fans. 


There are several ways you can engage the fan base including asking questions, holding contests, and offering giveaways and free downloads among others depending on the fan base preference.

You can also engage your fans through creative posts. For example, instead of only posting promotional conversations, you can capture more interest by giving a story behind your experiences.

Regular conversations in social media are necessary to successfully promote your music. The more people you talk to, the more fans you will attract. 

Promote on your Website 
Like a business, you also need a captivating and informative website to effectively promote your music online.

Your website should be changing and adapting to reflect new events and progress in your career.

The goal should be to make fans visit your website as frequently as possible. You should understand that the more regularly they visit your website, the more likely they have to buy your music and tickets.

If you have little events going on, you should consider running a blog on your homepage.

You should then use the blog to share inspirational posts such as the inspiration behind a certain song or even the new lyrical thoughts you are working on as well as the funny story behind your last practice among others.

First get yourself a Bandzoogle Account.  With Bandzoogle, you can create your own website with their beautiful themes.

Reach out to Tastemakers 

Practically, all big artists have not made it on their own irrespective of what they may want you to believe. In addition to a great music and a boost from fans, someone referred to as a tastemaker usually picks them.

It could be a blogger, a radio DJ, a producer, other musicians, a YouTube expert or an online curator, the list is endless.

The goal is to make the tastemakers talk about your music to their fans. 
Learning how to promote music takes a lot of time, trial and error. But if done properly, it can guide you to a lucrative music career. 
     
The Basic Social Media Rules 
The key factors of successful social media marketing are quality content, regular posts and communicating with your fan base. 
Your content must be the best it can be.

Make sure that your tracks are of high quality and that you have a constant flow of creative and fun images to post on

Facebook and Instagram 
Broadcast your content on a regular basis in a drip drop fashion. It is much more efficient and powerful to post 1 track once a week for one month than 4 tracks at once.

Communicating with your fans on a regular basis will help to built a relationship and have them return.

Respond to comments and partake in conversations. Communicating with industry leaders with allow you to forge important business relations and alliances. 

The Mechanics of a Post 
Your social media behavior should look like this: 
Create your music >>> Post your music Soundcloud and Youtube >>> Post links of these tracks on your blog >>> Post your content on Facebook and Twitter >>> Follow and take part in the conversation >>> Post the same content at a later date 

Note that you can posts links to any given song several times. For example, tweeting 20 times about one track within one month is fine. 

Jab Jab Right Hook 
The notorious social media guru Gary Vaynerchuk, who’s company manages social media marketing campaigns for huge accounts such a Coca-Cola, uses the mantra:jab-jab-right- hook.

This means that a business should be more focused on contributing advice, intelligence and content than selling something. Music should be seen as content, which brings pleasure in people’s life; it is therefore a Jab. For how long should you be jabbing before performing a right hook?

During your initial year on social media, you should only be jabbing. Concentrate your efforts on posting your content letting your fans enjoy your music for free and developing your relationships. 

Examples of Jabs and Right Hooks 
Jabs: Posting music and photos. Contributing to other artists’ pages with constructive and positive comments. Giving advice to budding musicians. 
Right Hooks: Asking strangers to follow you on social media. Asking people to buy your music. 

Social Media and Content Sharing Platforms For Hip Hop Artists 

Blog 
The most important part of any social media marketing is your own blog. A blog is a website which allows you to create posts on a regular basis and for readers to comment and use social media buttons to share your content on their own channels.

Facebook or Twitter may decide to close your account but your website is your digital real-estate and is the central element of your media tools. It can also help you to demonstrate that you are a serious contributor to the artistic community.

You can open a free blog at Tumblr and WordPress, the latter being by far the most popular blogging platform as well as the most respected. For $18 a year, WordPress will also provide you with your own domain name. 

Facebook 
“The mother of all social media”, Facebook is not a mystery. Opening an artist fan page is essential.

You easily do this from your personal Facebook page. 
Post links to your music and comment about your content and the industry at large.

Always post an image with any content; we are visual beings and Facebook posts with a photograph or a graphic goes much further in terms of getting attention.

Also post links from blog articles and online hip hop magazines. Stay relevant, positive and to the point.

Never & I mean never Spam another persons post with your music link. Facebook is cracking down hard on people who do this. Why risk being banned, don’t spam! 

Twitter 
Tweeting is now considered essential for business owners and artists.

Follow the Jab Jab Right Hook method with a strong focus on sharing news and info from your industry.

A dozen tweets a day will suffice at the beginning. Follow only people who are in your industry or that you know personally.

Be genuinely interested in the content of others and partake in conversations on a regular basis. 

Instagram 
This image sharing platform is now a real power house in the world of social media.

Anything from 5 to 10 images per week is plenty. Comment and like other people’s images on a regular basis. 

Soundcloud and Youtube 
You need a pure content sharing platform in order to host your music.

 
Soundcloud is a music specific platform which is great to promote your content to music fans and share it with hip hop industry players.

 
Youtube aims more to be a video sharing platform but many musicians use it to present their work to the public at large.

 
Pinterest, Vine and Snapchat can also be used once you will have mastered the most important platforms.

I hope my blog "How To Promote Your Hip Hop Music" helps you. 

It may all appear confusing and quite a bit of work, but the hardest part will be getting things started.

Once your accounts are properly launched and your blog is active, the next task at hand will be to create and follow a schedule.

Normally, you should spend an hour per day taking care of various aspects of your social media. 

Jimmy Conway 

https://Beats4Lyricists.com/