Music Promotion Strategies for Indie Artists without a Music Manager

You don’t need a music manager to launch your music career. You may have trouble figuring out how to get a music manager if you have not already developed a fan base. So, with that in mind, here are some tips to help you promote your own music. Use these suggestions to begin building your fan base.

Why Artist Management is Not Essential

So, why should you not worry about having artist management? Because, unless you already have a large fan base and need to reach out to new markets or have trouble keeping up with the tasks involved in managing your own career, you simply don’t need music management.

You can summarize the most important tasks in managing a musical act as follows:

• Booking gigs


• Promoting your music


• Writing and recording


• Distributing your music

Early in your career, these are tasks that you should be able to handle on your own. In fact, you need to learn more about all these areas before you start working with professionals. This is important for two reasons.

First, a music manager may not want to work with an inexperienced musician that doesn’t understand what it takes to become successful. Second, it helps you avoid getting ripped off. Since you’ll already know what goes into booking gigs and have a basic understanding of the music industry, you are less likely to get taken advantage of.

Before finding a music manager, you’ll want to spend time on all these tasks. So, here’s a few ways to get started.

Practice Your Craft

Honestly, the first step in your career is practice. You need to practice your craft and get better. You’re going to be competing for attention with established acts in your area. Depending on the size of your local music scene, there is usually room for new acts. But, it helps if you actually sound good.

If you need to, you should take music lessons. If you’ve never taken a music lesson, a basic piano lesson can teach the basics of reading sheet music and understanding the structure of a song. It may seem like baby steps, but it all works towards helping to advance your career.

Release Your Music Online

Once you think that your music is good enough for other people to enjoy, you need to start recording and releasing your own music. If you know any budding music producers, you can work with them to record a few songs.

The other option is to record your own music. With a few hundred bucks, you should be able to buy the basic equipment needed to record your own music. This includes an audio interface, a microphone, and a digital audio workstation (DAW).

Record your music and begin sharing online. The first place to start is with SoundCloud. You can upload your music and decide whether you want to keep it private or make it public. With private tracks, you can invite people to listen to your songs and ask for their input. Though, you’ll reach more people by making your tracks public.

After you’ve uploaded your music to SoundCloud or other music streaming sites, you should begin promoting your music. This can be done through social media. Set up a Twitter and Facebook account for your band or your solo act. Share links to your uploaded music, along with any articles that you come across that you think your fans will like.

Start Booking Your Own Gigs

Start booking your own gigs. Contact local venues and find out how to book a gig. The first time that you try to do this can be scary. Don’t be afraid. The worst that will happen is that they are aren’t looking for new acts right now.

So, create a list of local venues. Write down the contact information and visit their websites. Call each of these locations, one at a time, to find out more information about booking gigs. You’ll eventually get your first gig.

Getting the first gig always seems to be the hardest. But, once you get this out of the way, you’ll gain the confidence that you need to book more gigs.

Playing live shows is the best way to start building your fan base. Though, it will help if you’ve already got music available. After people check out your show, they may want to share your music with their friends and family. So, they’ll search for you online. If your music can’t be found, then you are missing out on new opportunities to gain more fans.

Between the music that you’ve shared online and the live shows that you play, you should be able to start building your own loyal following.

Learn More About Artist Management

Along with these tips, you can find even more advice in our downloadable eBook – Music Management for the Indie Artist. Within this guide, you’ll find hundreds of tips and suggestions that will help you advance your career.

For additional input on finding a music manager, and whether you really need one, check out this short video:

The idea that you need a music manager in order to make a music career is a myth. You don’t need their help right away. At some point, they can be beneficial.

Here’s an analogy that can be used to paint a better picture. Imagine that you have a hot dog stand. You sell hot dogs every day. Eventually, you start selling out of hot dogs and are unable to keep up with demand. So, you decide to hire someone to work a second hot dog stand around the corner.

The same concept applies to your music career. When you first start out, you shouldn’t need help building your initial fan base. You should take matters into your own hands. Work on these tasks on your own.

The bottom line is that you shouldn’t worry about finding a music manager until you have trouble keeping up with these tasks on your own.  So, get out there and make a name for yourself. Then, you’ll be able to get music managers to come to you.

Source: ArtistPR Music Marketing