Advertising for Music Bands 101

Remember your school band? You and your friends wore headbands and tried to headbang while listening to Metallica — good old days. 

If the music band that you’d formed is the band you make songs with now, then you have officially won in life! But that’s not enough for bread, is it? You need to advertise your band in the best way possible to ensure your music has a wider and ever-growing reach, consistent fanbase, and maybe enough to make all your tour and show tickets sell out within a week! 

In this article, we will answer these questions of yours:

1. What is music advertising? How/why is it different for music bands?
2. What are some advertising strategies you could apply?
3. What are our final thoughts?

Let’s dive in!

Music Advertising 

No, it is not just about making a TikTok account and posting now and then but music advertising has more to do with the confidence and credibility of your band. It is about making not just an impression, but a long-lasting one. Music advertising consists of influencing and shaping the audience or viewers’ perspective about your music band and brand image, to gain more followers and increase your reach. Music advertising and music promotion are used synonymously and rightly so. The idea is to put out the best possible representation of your music band and what the band stands for, its vision, themes, and ideologies in a way that attracts viewers and keeps them engaged enough to not only know about your band (brand awareness) but also actively listen to your music. 

Music promotion for an individual artist is way different in comparison to music bands because there is more than 1 individual that contributes to the music being produced. With solo artists, the music brand has to do with their personality and artist vision, singularly. But with music bands, 2 or more artists come together as a whole; there is individuality and a collective sense of artist persona that work simultaneously. So when advertising for a music band, you try to establish the vision of the band and the individual thoughts that came together for the band, without singularing any member. For example, Alex Turner, as a solo artist has a different artist persona that goes along with the genre of music he makes, and the themes he engages in - it is more mellow and chill. But in the band ‘Arctic Monkeys,’ he is a lead vocalist who adds to the brand image of the band. The guitar riffs that the band makes in their music, are a distinct quality, unique to the band, Arctic Monkeys, not Alex Turner. Tricky business, we know!

5 advertising strategies for your music band 

Podcast 

For emerging music bands, this is a GREAT way to not only interact with one another but also show your listeners and followers, the process behind making a track as a band. It’s a great opportunity to play a teaser of your brand-new track. Podcasting is the radio for this immensely digitalized world, and music bands could engage in a podcast in different ways as well:

• Breakdown of a song: Your band could chat about the components that went into the making of a song, and interpret the lyrics and songwriting. 
• Fan interaction: You could go live with your podcast on YouTube chat with your followers, and have a Q&A session that will also help in bridging the gap between your followers and your band. It would be a great opportunity for your fans to get to know your band better, and for the band to analyze what your fans like and their expectations from you. 
• Collaborations: Bring in another artist that your band has collaborated with and talk about the process of making music together, and what made you guys work together, a great interview session would not only make your professional relationships stronger, but it would also attract the followers of the collaborated artist. 

Pssst…come here: Record a unique intro and outro music that would be distinctive and unique to your band. If your band has made a particular tune that has the potential to go viral, use it! 

Live shows into music videos

Music videos are an integral part of music advertising, it helps put different faces to all the elements we listen to on your band’s track. But instead of a conventional music video shoot, we recommend investing the same amount of time, energy, and equipment in getting your live performances recorded. Live performances by music bands give a different vibe when compared to solo artists and for good reason - it is more intense, and more visually satisfying because you’d perform with your people.

For the audience, music band performances have more to offer - there are more than 2 or 3 people to watch, and everyone on the stage is given an equal amount of limelight. If your music agent has discussed getting your band’s images clicked at the venue by a third party or in-house professionals, try to get a deal - get good-quality footage of your performance, from different angles. You could put them all together and edit for your next track - a mix of montages from live performances. It will not only look aesthetically pleasing but it will also push your potential viewers to buy tickets for your next show! 

Pssst…come here: You could also upload snippets and teasers of the music video before it is released on YouTube, on your social media like Instagram and TikTok. Repurposing content is another way you could advertise your band, instead of always trying to produce or make new content. 

Band Merchandise 

If you’re a rock band, we recommend producing merch of your cover art, graphic tees, and stickers. The idea is to sell your band and your band’s identity as one entity - not 4 different faces on a black shirt. So think more in terms of album art covers, band logos, band signs, band taglines, basically all the components that define your band as a single music persona. For example, hats work best for music bands that make country and indie music. Tote bags are great for dream pop music bands. Alternative rock bands like Arctic Monkeys have made clever designs with their merch - T-shirts that have doodles of their cover art, signature boots and hairstyles the band members have, and even lyrics of their famous songs. You have all the creative control when it comes to designing your band merch, just ensure that yours isn’t conventional and outdated. 

Pssst…come here: Printing band members’ faces for merch may seem like the obvious thing to do, but we do not recommend it because of the possibility of a member leaving a band. Bassist Andy Nicholson was also a part of Arctic Monkeys while releasing the debut album but soon after the tracks were out, he left the band, leaving a merch bunch of stock that wasn’t in line with the current version of the band. Although such possibilities with your band are unique and may not be applicable, it is always wise to reduce the risk of financial loss with your merch. 

Bandcamp is your best friend 

By bringing in new listeners, Bandcamp helps bands by immediately assisting with their marketing. According to the firm’s website, users have used the app enough for artists to get $738 million so far; with $20 million coming in just last month, October.​ Additionally, Bandcamp only takes a small commission (15 percent for downloads of the band’s tracks and 10 percent for merch products hosting my music bands).​ This is considerably less than other third-party streaming apps such as YouTube and Spotify. Bandcamp also acts as an online record store for your viewers and listeners who could also become customers - they will find your music, and your website if they want to learn more about you and also order a merch item all in one place.

Also, it is user-friendly - it allows listeners to stream your album or single before they intend to purchase it. This is also where your band will play a major role - you guys will get the option to control the number of streams allowed per user before he or she has to purchase the album. Artist-set rates can range from free downloads to an established minimum amount. With Spotify applying restrictions to its free account holders on streaming songs now, Bandcamp seems like a much better option. 

Pssst…come here: With Bandcamp, you could set up your own band’s website but it will still have the company as the domain name. Your website will be your-artist-name.bandcamp.com until you purchase a Pro subscription, but it feels like an independent website and allows musicians to make certain aesthetic choices such as including a header and altering the color scheme, font, and other tones. ​

Social Media Marketing 

We are well aware that everyone right now, can be an influencer and post content almost every day. But is that making a difference?

With social media, there is so much pressure on posting enough content to gain traction and make the ‘algorithm’ work. But what you really need to do is post quality content - stuff that people will engage with that works in line with your releases! It will make no sense if you post memes you make on your team members on your band page all the time, if you don’t post around your releases and interact with your fans post the release.

On Instagram, you can repost your TikTok videos, and share a funny clip or video of your band members having fun. Social media is a place for not just advertising, it is also a great medium through which you could show your listeners a glimpse of who you guys are as a band. The more human, and real you seem, the more relatable and engaged your audience will be. For example, consider the famous K Pop band, BTS. We know, they are super famous. But what they did excellently well, is to showcase their personalities and talk about how they all sum up and complement each other as band members in their RUN BTS episodes.

They do activities together, they tease each other, and it wouldn’t be a lie if one said they almost forgot there’s a camera recording them. You could do something of that sort and post those videos and clips on Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok where visual content flourishes. With a solo artist, the content ideas remain limited, but with a band, there is a wider range of possibilities given the different people who come together to make good music! 

Our final thoughts

Those were just some starters you could focus on, but there is so much more you could do such as get radio plays, try guerilla marketing strategies, and so on. Music advertising for bands is essential in the digital world, to keep your band’s presence relevant. The idea is to let people know what your band stands for, what is quintessentially your band, and make your band’s music reach people’s ears. 

We at GreaseRelease, have a bunch of curators on our network who are looking for new & exciting music to push on their massive playlists. If you make music and want to reach a wider audience, check out our submission platform and get a chance to reach millions of listeners! Submit your tracks now! 

 

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