WINNING NEW FANS: 3 techniques for providing quality access points for new listeners
Although getting new fans to hear your music through touring and live performances is currently still off the table, there are a number of other ways to pique the interest of listeners.
Guest post from the ReverbNation Blog
During a time when there are no concerts or tours, it might be difficult to get more listeners and fans for your music. However, thanks to social media and online promotion tools, it is not impossible. In fact, today as musicians we have many tools at our disposal to reach out to more people. One could even say that this is a great time to reach out to people and get more fans, as most people are at home, without the distractions of running around during the day, commuting, or traveling. Many people also listen to music while they’re working or studying, so why not use your music to get more fans during this time?
Yes, the market is saturated with new music and yes, there is plenty of competition. However, the resources are vast and it all depends on how creative you get with your promotion ideas and how hard you want to work in the end. Moreover, there are great reasons to differentiate yourself and bring context to your music.
Let’s take a look at this concept of building context around your music.
In today’s world, telling people ‘go check my music out!’ is simply not good enough. So, you need to give people a good reason to listen to your music and to follow your artistic journey. The key is to give quality access points to your potential new fans. Listeners have to be interested beyond the music itself.
So, what can you share with your potential listeners beyond your music? Perhaps it’s your personal story, your cultural or stylistic influences, a media feature, or a cool music video.
In this article, we’d like to provide three ways to provide access points to new listeners.
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1. Releasing a cover song
Releasing a cover song is a great way to get more fans. When you release a cover song, you can potentially tap into the fanbase of the artist you covered (assuming that you did a good job with the cover).
Moreover, with a cover song, you can find more fans who like a music style that you are inspired by. Let’s say that you typically release music in the jazz genre, and you would like more fans who listen to R&B. It might be a good idea to cover a song from an R&B artist, which might expose you to a completely new fanbase that you haven’t encountered before.
When you release your cover song, you can publish it on social media, and using tools like hashtags, you can expand your reach to a potential fan base that is out of your stylistic territory!
2. Getting published in media (interview, review, blog etc)
The second quality access point to get new fans would be through getting published in the media. When you get published in a newspaper, magazine, or blog, you get the chance to tell your story to listeners. You are able to show them what is there beyond your music.
Interviews are great for showing your personality to people. When you answer a question in an interview, you get to show the listeners your perspective on life and your way of thinking. In the interview, you are giving them reasons to follow you and your music.
3. Releasing a new music video
The third quality access point for obtaining new fans is by releasing videos of your music. The range of videos is vast: These include music videos, lyric videos, collaborative videos, and performance videos. The point is, as long as the video is good quality, and the audio sounds good, people will pay more attention to your music. People engage with visual content, so it is a great way to keep them interested in your music. Moreover, video content is more likely to get shared and perhaps even go viral, which should increase your reach even further.
With widely available tools such as smartphones, it is easy to make convincing and good quality videos. But I would suggest using an external microphone for the audio section.
Final Words
To sum up, these are the three quality access points you can use for reaching new listeners, who might be your potential new fans. These are just three suggestions and there are so many more ideas you can use depending on your style of music and artistry.
During a time when concerts do not exist and offline promotion is out of the window, using social media and your online presence is crucial for getting new listeners and fans for your music. These three ideas: releasing cover songs, getting published in media, and releasing music videos are great ways to get your music and your story out there.
