How To Become A Successful Hip Hop Artist: Music

In Part 3 of a series on how one can become a successful hip hop artist, this most recent installment looks how to first identify if your music is any good and, if it is, how to go about promoting and marketing said music to potential fans.

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Guest Post by Darius Burgan of ArtistShortcut.com

Part 3 of a 4 part series.

Welcome to article #3 of this 4 part series about becoming a successful Hip Hop artist.

Before we start, if you haven’t read the second article in this 4 part series, please do:

Becoming A Successful Hip Hop Artist: Image

In the article above, you’ll learn:

• Why your image is important
• What your image consist of
• How to dress in a way that compliments your brand
• How to improve your image

Anyhow, let's focus on today’s topic: The Music!

Does Your Music Suck?

No really, does it suck? Before answering that, let me ask you another question. How would you even know if your music sucked? Would you compare it to what’s hot and popular? Or, would you compare to the music you’d like to hear? Or, would you just rely on the feedback from family and friends?

All of the answers above could be helpful, but in most cases, there’s a better way.

How To Know If Your Music Sucks

Like I said above, all of those options could give you insight on if you’re making good (or bad) music. But, why not just ask the fans you’re going after?

They’re the only people that you need anyway, for you to become successful.

Here’s what I’d do if I wanted to see how good my music was:

1. Go on twitter
2. Post a tweet saying something like – Enter for a chance to win a free $10 Chipotle gift card (or whatever your audience likes) by giving me honest feedback on *Insert Best Song With A Youtube / Soundcloud Link*
3. Spend $40 on ads
4. $50 total cost and you’ll have some feedback that you can run with.

The strategy above can be used on other platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, or at live shows.

Or, you could just go where your target audience hangs out and offer them something in exchange for feedback.

How To Market Your Music Once You Know It’s Good

So many hip hop artists get caught up in trying to get more views and plays on their music. They work so hard to get an extra hundred views but, don’t realize they’re fighting an uphill battle. They forgot that views and song plays don’t make them successful.

People make you successful (Your fans, business connections, friends, etc..).

You can go on any social media platform and see a music artist spamming somebody with their music over and over again to try to get their views and plays up. What’s crazier, is that they probably think that’s the way to success.

Marketing your music is as simple as putting it in front of your audience. But, in today’s world, you can’t expect your audience to venture out and listen to your music; you have to give them a reason to listen. Make it worth their time to listen.

Join their conversations, hang out at the events that they’re at, and build relationships. Make them want to support you, because they think you’re an awesome person. Telling them to listen to your music, most times, will not do anything but get you 1 extra song view.

Below Are A Four Methods You Can Start Using Right Now:

Word of Mouth: Only use this method after you’ve given people a reason to support you or if they ask about your music or videos. Then feel free to promote via word of mouth.

Social Media: Promote your music less and interact with your potential fans in a genuine way. You want to build relationships with your fans because, they’re the biggest component of your career. Without them, you cannot be successful.

Your Website: Use your website to post your music, events, videos, build an email list, and to blog about your life and progress. By blogging you’ll not only get to connect deeper with your audience by being a genuine/relatable person, but you’ll get the benefits of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) as well. If you don’t have a website, here’s a step by step guide.

Networking: Success by association may be one of the quickest ways to success. By knowing popular and successful people, you’ll begin to be perceived as a popular and successful person. This will turn you into a magnet for attracting fans due to the attention. Go out to conferences, events, clubs, radio stations, studios, and connect with the influential people in your city.

Also…

There are so many different ways to market your music that it would be impossible for me to tell you with 100% certainty which methods would work for your situation.

Don’t be afraid to try different things. There’s never only 1 way to market your music and videos. Every audience is different. If you try something new and it doesn’t go as you planned, learn from it and try again.

So, What Did We Learn Today?

• How to figure out if your music sucks
• How to market your music once you know it’s good
• 4 methods you can use to market your music today

In the next article, we’re going to discuss:

• Why music videos matter
• How to make music videos for less $$
• A few ways to promote your music video