Building your initial fanbase requires different marketing tactics than more established artists, who need to continue pouring fuel on their success. Weir is one such producer who, over the past few years, has managed to navigate his way through the initial stages of his artistic career and knows full well what it takes to bust out of the eddy that keeps all too many producers from breaking out of the “>1,000” club.
So to celebrate his recent release, a track called ‘More Beautiful’ on New Something, we invited the Colorado-based producer to share his top five tips for producers and artists to amass their first thousand plays and elevate their careers.
“Although it was difficult to keep this list to 5 tips, I hope the information has been helpful. If you have any questions or want to chat more about marketing for independent artists, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me on Instagram @weirmusic as I am always happy to chat with other like-minded producers looking to learn and grow their projects.” – Weir
Follow Weir Online: Spotify // Instagram // Youtube
Make Sure The Music Is Good First
Build a bank of tracks you are genuinely proud of and resonate with your overall vision. Don’t rush this process – Take your time to develop your sound, and be sure to identify soft + hard boundaries for your sound & visual aesthetic. This will help guide your decision-making as you build your vision, collaborate with other artists, and develop your release strategies. I didn’t have my first official release until I had been producing for almost two years and even then, that felt early looking back on it.
Build a Strategy For Every Release
If you spend 60 hours making a track, why would you throw it online without a plan?
It is a complete waste of all of your creative efforts in the studio. I recommend spending at least 10 hours brainstorming & creating content, dialing your release dates and other relevant promotional dates & looking for relevant press coverage opportunities. Take your time to create a comprehensive strategy that lays out all your social media content and other longer-form content you can create for YouTube and other platforms to continue the promotion.
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Explore paid advertising on Facebook/Instagram via Meta Business Manager. You can target your ads toward people interested in artists, labels, and events similar to your sound and niche. I have found this to be the most crucial step in expanding your fanbase.
I typically only advertise for the first week the release is out, hoping the DSP algorithms will pick them up and continue growing the releases over time.
Get the Algorithms Moving In Your Favor
Once you have a bank of tracks you are certain you want to release, build out relevant dates for the next 6 months. Suppose you are releasing new music every 4-6 weeks and marketing your releases effectively through social media & paid ads.
In that case, platforms like Spotify will continue placing your music in algorithmic playlists like Release Radar and Discover Weekly, which can be huge for growing your fanbase. Please note that these algorithmic placements take time – I will often only see a few thousand plays in the first few weeks, and then out of nowhere, Spotify will start kicking and can often double your total streams on a release overnight.
Dial Your Online Presence Across All Platforms
Identify various types of content you want to create.
Use consistent language and imagery to minimize confusion for anyone visiting your Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Soundcloud, Beatport, etc. Beyond branding, ask yourself, “What kind of content do I want to put out?”. Not everyone wants to vlog or spend all their time on Tik Tok, and the good news is you honestly don’t have to. You can instead focus on photography, video recaps of shows, or even longer-form content like mixes and whatever else you can think of.
My biggest advice with any of this would be to try out different things – Find out what resonates with your audience while ensuring the content feels authentic to you.
Put In The Time
There is always more to learn and more to do. Seek out knowledge both for the studio and on the business side. Learn how the industry works, keep up to date with how various platforms change & seek out partnerships with creatives of other disciplines to create content and further scale your vision.
Also, be sure to engage with your community online and in person – Support other artists, collaborate, ask for feedback…Overall, do your best to be of service and stay active within your scene.
