As a completely new artist, it can seem quite a daunting task to get fans. The major marketing power behind music is that people love talking about it. If you've already got fans, and they love your music, they will be out there talking to other people, telling them how much they love it. New artists do not have this luxury. Fortunately, assisted by the power of the internet, and specifically social networking, getting fans have never been easier.
The Music
The first thing you need to do, is get some music. It doesn't matter what you're genre is, whether you're a rapper, singer or a drummer in a rock band. If you want fans you need something for them to listen to.
Initially, anywhere between 3 and 5 songs should be enough to give people a taste of what you're capable of. You should try and make the songs fairly varied, demonstrating your various talents and abilities as best you can. For example, if you're a rapper and a singer, you should use different songs to highlight your different talents. This way each song feels like a unique experience, and if they listen to one song and like it, and then listen to another one, they can be surprised (hopefully pleasantly!) at your flexibility. (This is also important for talent scouts as they look for people who are adaptive, and willing to try new things.)
The Image
Once you have got a few songs completed, you need to decide on your image, and how you're going to portray it. If you haven't got a name for yourself/your band by now, this would be the time to start thinking. You should also decide on some basic colours you want featured on your promotional graphics/profile designs/album covers (and later on merchandise etc.). These should reflect your music, your attitude and what you represent. (So no pink and white for heavy metal bands!)
If you don't own a digital camera, you may wish to consider investing one. If you want to communicate with your fans well over the internet, you need to present them with some form of imagery. TV killed the radio for a reason. A picture is worth a thousand words. I could recite countless clever pun's about this but you get the idea.
What Next?
If you've got your songs done, decided on a name, decided on an image and got some photos of yourself, congratulations! You've come a long way since you started reading this article.  The next step is to start setting up profiles on all the major social networking sites. You've already got your colours ready so it should be fairly simple. If you do have any issues you can post here in the forums and I will be happy to help out.
Also, not an essential, but I do recommend at some point early on in your music career that you write a brief biography, detailing how you got into music, your ambitions and so on. Building fans is one thing, but keeping them is a whole other ball game (that we will get into in another article), but a point to keep in mind at all times is that if you want to be in the public eye (that is, you want to be known and recognised), you need to present yourself to the public eye. Set up an online blog, a video blog, a band website, a weekly E-Mail newsletter. Anything that will keep your fans coming back and wanting to know more.
In Conclusion
Make good music, and make it available and you will get fans. Don't be intimidated by anything. There's only you, and everything possible you can achieve. The rest is upto you. |
