Authored by Phil Dotree in Music 
Published on 11-01-2009

Starting a band is an exciting and fun way to pass the time. When you’re ready to take your music above hobby level, though, you’ll need to do some work. It can be difficult to market a band successfully. Your results will depend on the right approach. If you don’t take time to plan out how to market your band, you can’t expect to make enough money to get by.

Here are a few great tips for marketing your own independent band.

1. Concentrate on getting music out there. In the first stages of marketing a band, don’t worry about money. Worry about getting people to listen to you. Be ready to put songs on the Internet for free. You might even consider making your band’s entire album available for free. Be willing to take a small loss to get your music in circulation. Be sure to have a band mailing list. This can be an incredibly powerful tool.

2. Don’t take any fan for granted. You should never ignore your fans when marketing your band. You may be doing this without realizing it. If you’re not interacting with fans regularly, you’re ignoring them. This is a mistake, as they’re able to help your band with marketing. Don’t be afraid to ask for help from fans. Tell them to burn CDs. Ask if they’ll put up flyers. Whatever you ask, be ready to reward them, too. Give your dedicated fans free songs and other merchandise. They’ll be happy to help you in the future if you treat them well.

3. Tour. Touring is especially important for bands. If your band is serious on marketing, small tours are a great idea. National tours will lose money. However, by staying around your area, you’ll gradually build fans. You’ll find new places to play. You’ll find bands that you enjoy playing with. Most of all, you’ll grow your band’s influence. Your marketing will get easier as your fan base builds. There’s no better wayto get a fan interested in your music than to play it for him and talk to him.

4. Use the Internet as much as you can. The Internet is sort of a great equalizer for music these days. Regardless of what your band sounds like, you can get a huge following on the Internet if you’re good. You’ve simply got to be inventive and persistent. Set up websites for your band on social networking websites. Use band sites like Purevolume.com. Anything that will let your band get its music out there. Use YouTube. Be unique in every posting you make, and everything you do. If you try consistently, the fans will show up. It sounds magical, but think of the Internet as a giant stage. The only difference is that instead of playing for 30-40 people, you potentially play to millions. Most of them won’t like your music. But with that large of a sample size, if even a small percentage love your band, you’ll be marketing successfully. The only thing you have to do is make sure you’ve got that large sample size. Put your band out there. The Internet’s an incredibly powerful marketing tool.

If you have any other tips for marketing a band, we’d love to hear them. Post in the comments section below this article.