Promotional strategies work

In this day and age it is getting both increasingly easier and harder to promote yourself as a band. Promotion is an essential part of being a band and earning money as it is the way people find out about you. While the mediums for accessing them are easier to access than ever (Itunes, youtube etc) the sheer amount of other bands using this exact same approach oversaturates the market and makes competition so fierce it inevitiably makes promoting yourself hard again. While back before the internet you would onlyhave poster and margazine ads about you, you didn't have as many people trying to barge into the industry by those methods. It has become almost a neccesity to advertise your band in the most up to date and creative ways possible. Here i shall outline some of the best ways to do so in the current market:

Social Networking:

Examples:
 - Facebook
 - Myspace
 - Twitter




Social networking is an integral part of getting your band known these days. It is almost impossible to find a band without a facebook page acting as THE source for all information regarding the band possible. A Facebook page allows anyone who is following to be on a pseudo mailing list very easily. Keeping anyone who likes you informed of all upcoming gigs, releases, and general notable things happening to the band. It also sereves as a place where fans of the band can gather and share thoughts and opinions either with the rest of the fanbase or directly to the band themselves, allowing a fantastically simple form of fan feedback.
Facebook also proves as a great way to introduce yourself to new people who might be looking for more music as the site allows you to host mp3 files with a playback feature, giving everyone an opertunity to listen to your music, alongside the link of how to buy it. This is what MySpace became practically famous from. A noteable example of social networking being a particularly effective means of obaining popularty is the ever loved Arctic Monkeys, who were the first band to utilize MySpace's capabilities and launch themselves from it. The difference between then and now is the saturation of bands there are around on facebook and other sites, the band would have to stand out an awful lot to be noticeable in he shoutin contest that is  band marketing.
While twitter doent have quite the capabilities of facebook it provides a unique window into the band's goings on, almost being a more personal look into the band, which gives the band a little more character. which is important for the band's image.


Video hosting websites:

Examples:
 - Youtube
 - Vimeo

As mentioned before Youtube is a fantastic way to get noticed because of the sheer amount of users constantly looking for new stuff and the easiness it is for someone to click your link. A band should aim to have a good image for youtube to allow for an enticing thumbnail that people will want to click. You should also have a good quality music video to provide the content that would go along with the music.









Photography:

A band's image is defined by, well, it's image and the only way to get across a bands image is through the us of....Images....As well structured as that sentence is it does actually hold true, album art has been known to make or break an artist so having a good theme with strong, eye-catching photography is crucial for the band.

 

If we hope to mimic something like this we should aim to think about colour schemes we want present in it along side costume, lighting, themes and even the font used. A good picture will leave good first impressions and make people want to listen to the songs.

Web Hosting
We felt as a group when looking online at other inspirational rock artists each and every one of them had there own website to post on information and new uncoming albums for the viewing public to look at. After looking at this we felt that having your own websit looks more professional to the music industry and companys. Websites are cheap to host and easy to build with a small budget on hand. However as a larger group we would have to ensure to update it as often as your social network profile though. One large advantage of a website is that they don't die out. Hosting through a social networking site means that your page can fade into obscurity and potentially be closed by the social network itself due to lack of activity. By setting up your own website it is there forever and anyone can find it.