I’m open to ideas here? All us Frontliners have done in the past is made an album, burnt it off on a CD and flogged them at gigs. I’m keen to explore digital avenues but haven’t got a clue how to go about it. Looking forward to your responses…
You’re already doing doing the most optimal thing. Even if you were signed it wouldn’t get much better.
Focus on playing bigger gigs, with bigger audiences, therefore bigger merch sales.
Are you claiming your performance royalties? Is your merch table optimised to the full? (T Shirts, badges, vinyl, patches etc.)
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As @AJ113 mentioned, gigs are going to be one of your most effective tools. Curious to know what you’ve done via social media in the past also? Just throwing mentions of your album on social media doesn’t really work well, but if you can leverage social media to grow your local audience for gigs, THEN you’ll find some successes.
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+10 to that. Digital marketing is a bit like throwing a pebble into a the Atlantic and then hoping some swimmer will stumble on it, pick it up and take a listen.
But. Check out aggregators like Tunecore or CDBaby (which will move you out onto Itunes/spotify etc for a price). Join services like Radio Airplay, put your stuff up on Bandcamp (where you can sell without upfront charges).
Contact music review websites and sent them files for review (along with links to where they can buy the stuff). Aim at sites which you trurt and which review your style of music.
If you know any artists already doing this thing, sned them files, ask them to boost you up. Offer to do the same in return.
Hours and hours of work, so get ytourself a good one-sheet done (press release with ALL info on a single sheet of A4 paper).
Good luck
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Get an EPK online too. Not sure how much good they actually do in truth but any professional band is expected to have an active FB fan page and an EPK. If you use Reverbnation for the EPK, you can manipulate the figures so that you are top of the charts in your area (not very ethical but who cares).
Also, I don’t want to sound negative, but promising to have a Paypal facility soon on your website is not the same as actually having one. People expect to be able to click and make a purchase. You’re not going to sell much if people have to send you an email first to ask for it. While we’re on the subject, a Weebly website is not cool. Get a domain and set up your own website. If you want to sell stuff like a professional band you have to at least act like one.
Another thing you can try: Nobody buys downloads anymore so you might as well offer downloads for free, in exchange for an email address. At least that way you can build up your own marketing list. Who knows, if you utilise the ‘donate’ facility at Bandcamp you may even make a few bob.
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That’s the marketing equivalent of someone asking “What’s a good car to buy?”, or “What kind of mic do I need to record?”. You’re going to have to be a hell of a lot more specific in order for anyone to offer you any even remotely meaningful advice.
WATCH it you. 
I just offered meaningful advice. Well, I offered advice. Well, I generalised a lot. Oh all right then.
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I’ve acquired some good ideas to chew on. BTW, it might surprise you to know that I’m not a car salesman!
You are absolutely 100% right. Both you and AJ offered sound and meaningful advice.
What I meant to say was the question how can ‘YOU’ promote an album differs from how can ‘I’ promote ‘MY’ album. To which my answer was ‘I don’t know’ because I don’t know anything about his album, his market, his goals, his revenue, his experience, and I actually know very little (especially compared to you and AJ) about his country. I would think i’d be shit outta luck to offer any meaningful advice without even knowing that 
So point taken…I should have just been speaking for myself.
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No? Aww. That’s too bad. A highly successful car salesman could easily be in a better position (skill wise) to sell records than the musician who actually made the records. Maybe not you though… but @bozmillar readily admits that he struggles with the marketing/promo side of his business, even though he’s very good at making plugins.
I’ll offer ya some ideas at you if you want to take me up on it.
What do you need tips on? Marketing? promotion? publicity? Distribution? Advertising?
And the first question is: why do you think the product will benefit from the time, money, and effort you might invest in the promotion? And whats the specific benefit you want? Sales? Then do you want to promote the product directly, or is the smarter path to promote the band, which indirectly promotes the CD?
Sometimes products don’t benefit at all from promo. They get packaged to another more promotable product then ride the sales of a more promotable product or service. Everyone really needs to determine that unless you’re content to just kind of experiment with different strategies. Which is fair…and relatively low risk if you’re just getting a product launched.
A product can have no viable promotion strategy for any number of reasons. Doesn’t make it a bad product, just means the cost to reward ratio exceeds the efforts it would take to push it.
The wording in your original question seemed border more on distribution question more than a advertising question.
I’m not attempting to insult your intelligence. I too am looking forward to hearing others thoughts.
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It’s all ok! Jonathan, you’ll get to know me better over the forthcoming weeks/ months, and you’ll all get a chance to bash some tracks from the album, which is of an indie rock genre… Just watch this space, buddy
You know, its interesting you mention that. With @Ailwyn that seems to a solid inference. It does presuppose the band is gigging, and that not always the case. Sometimes the band needs to promote a CD in order to generate the interest to even get gigs. Believe it or not, rap guys seem to take this route. Again, this doesn’t appear to be the case with Ailwyn though.
I know you addressed that to Ailwyn, but I’m really interested in this area. I’m working really hard to get up to speed on social media analytics, and how they affect sales. I’m extremely well educated in the way the billboard charts work in the United States, how airplay and steaming stations affect artist position on the charts, the money and people it takes to get a song posted, and the FCC legislation that protects those charts from being tampered with. What I don’t really understand is how the tech companies and consulting firms that buy access into the back end of the social media platforms read the analytics and apply the data to the revenue models.
oh no! I just saw your ACTUAL webpage. I googled “The Frontliners” and this is what came up: https://www.facebook.com/The-Frontliners-Band-169035923181326/
I thought you were a cruise ship musician!! HAHA! …that does make a difference.
So sorry dude! I ignored the fact you weren’t in the main photo because I’ve worked for Royal Carribbean and I know how bad bands are at updating their pictures because internet can be a bitch in the middle of ocean!
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Spooky mate… I was in the Royal Navy for a few years, a long time ago! Hey, a cruise ship musician!! Now that would be a laugh!
We mainly play in the local pubs, audiences vary in size, and we often play a selection of 60s/ 70s/ 80s covers + some of our originals…
We somewhat deliberately stopped gigging every week to concentrate on putting together our double album Clichés, and that took some 3 years, as we all have our full time jobs! it’s only recently that we put together a demo CD to re-invent ourselves, and we now gig an average of 1-2 per month.
Admittedly, we’re not too hot on keeping our site updated, so taking on board initial advice, I think that’s our first port of call.
We did have a .net site a few years ago, but it didn’t prove to be that cost effective, and the social media outlets do prove to be more productive.
Rightly or wrongly we do quite a bit of charity work too at fund-raising festivals, etc., but that’s mainly because we’re a caring bunch who love our music!
I’ve never mixed a track in my entire life, never directly contributed to music projects online, know very little about digital music platforms and I’ve more or less been a bassist for the last 20 years plodding along in the background… I have a lot to learn…
I’ve popped some of our stuff onto Soundcloud, and they’ll be on here soon for a severe bashing. The earlier stuff we’ve done isn’t too top notch, but that will be up for a bashing too!
My profile picture is me leaning against a bass stack at the rehearsal studios we frequent, not doing a lot as usual!
Nice. lol. I’ll make some inferences based on what you mentioned…thinking out loud:
[quote=“Ailwyn, post:14, topic:1131, full:true”]
local pubs…vary in size… covers + some of our originals…double album Clichés, and that took some 3 years [/quote]
Double album? You’ve invested significant time and effort in the CD.
[quote] recently… demo CD to re-invent ourselves, and we now gig an average of 1-2 per month. [/quote] Why the effort to rebrand? And what’s the point of the demo if you have a finished full length project? Why not use to procure the jobs? Was it because the clubs want cover song EPKs?
[quote]
Admittedly, we’re not too hot on keeping our site updated, so taking on board initial advice, I think that’s our first port of call.
We did have a .net site a few years ago, but it didn’t prove to be that cost effective, and the social media outlets do prove to be more productive. [/quote] Makes sense. You tried the website and it wasn’t quite working as a promo tool…
[quote]
Rightly or wrongly we do quite a bit of charity work too at fund-raising festivals, etc., but that’s mainly because we’re a caring bunch who love our music! [/quote] That’s can be pretty good exposure too. Make sure you’re inviting venue owners and anyone who would possibly book you in the future to those things! You can turn those into a showcase lol.
[quote]
I’ve never mixed…never music projects online, know very little about digital music platforms…bassist for the last 20 years [/quote] we’re all trying to figure out those digital platforms! I don’t think anyone speak with the same level of certainly in the digital space as the traditional radio or CD distribution space (which are nearly dead now) because of how long the broadcast industry has been around. Analytics consultants have had ages to turn stats into a detailed science. Yes, the internet has been around for a while, but to the best of my knowledge, the analytics guys haven’t had enough time yet to observe the data patterns of successful money trails, then build those models into any reliable formula. Profitable strategies and systems in the music sector are only recently really starting to work again.
So…here’s the question…are you really promoting the band to play shows and sell CD’s at a gig?
Or are you promoting the CD to get the band booking at a gig?
Basically, the question is what do you want to be the identity of the band?
Recording artists want to be known for and known by their albums. That’s a huge part of the branding processes for them. The vision is different in a cover band. Cover bands do a lot better spending the time and resources procuring a steady stream of rotating work, rather than eat/sleep/breathing the promo, sales, and distribution of their record. If you want to what Sugar Ray and No Doubt did back in the 90’s where you start in the bars then transition to the artist world, the question is how are you gonna do it? Everything changes. Its a whole different world. An artist is an entire brand in and of itself. A bar band is a merely a part of the food and beverage service industry. Don’t pretend the market is more than what it is. The wedding band is its own unique service industry solution. With the possible exception of a high end party band (equivalent to a full scale Las Vegas show band), none of them should be mistaken as part of the entertainment industry. Like a church band or a high school marching band, they don’t draw income directly from a fan base. The key identifier: Those types of bands are pulling their PRIMARY revenue FROM a industry sector that is clearly not the entertainment industry.
This is awesome. This is something that forum members could really help each other with. If we were organized you could get groups of 50 or 100 people all commenting on each others stuff.
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One thing that seems to get lost is that this is a business. There is no business person on earth that intends to advertise their business without spending money. Since when does a person open a successful shoe store and say to themselves “how do I get the word out” and make a $0.00 advertising budget. Even if its small the successful bands that come through my studio have an advertising budget and spend wisely.
I disagree!!! I would LOVE to advertise my business without spending a dime! I’ve spent a crap ton already and have had terrible results, so I’d love to try this model 
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Over the years we’ve tapped into free resources to advertise our services, i.e., social media gig guides, local radio, local newspapers, local dab radio station interview, etc… However, when you add up the studio fees, cd production costs, and additional extras you do realise how much the venture costs. Add to that the cost of reasonable business cards, posters, t-shirts, key fobs and other souvenirs your £0.00 budget becomes non-existent! Just out of interest Paul, what do you recommend to your clients they spend their advertising budgets on, say, for example 50$… £40?
What’s an EPK mate?