Being a musician is one of the most stressful and most rewarding jobs on the planet. It takes a lot to build a fanbase and have an actual following that can continue to support your craft.
Back in the day, amassing a following meant something completely different because you had to work harder to actually get the attention of people. You had to work even harder to stay relevant and become a household name.
Today the landscape is quite different when it comes to building a following. The reason for this is because the internet has become the centre of everything. It has revolutionized the way things are done and this can be an advantage for musicians.
This post will walk you through how musicians can get more followers and supporters for their music.
Make great music
One of the easiest ways to gain more followers and potential fans as a musician is to simply create good music. This is not spoken about enough but I assure you, it is the elephant in the room.
Before you get bombarded with various strategies, techniques and hacks about how to get more followers make sure the content you’re serving up is actually good content.
Your music will speak for itself and all marketing aside, it is the holy grail of having and adding to your existing fanbase.
So make sure you make good music and ensure that it’s relatable and sought after.
Find your own specific approach and be unique.
Your greatest selling point is your ability to be you and no one can do that better than you. Therefore, double down on your creative abilities and make some great music.
This will eventually translate to new followers that will want to keep following you because of the quality of your content.
Always remember that, high quality content always jumps the line.
Collaboration
Another great approach to getting new followers is collaboration.
Collaboration is an effective way to appeal to a new audience whilst creating good working and business relationships with other musicians.
Find artists and create connections so you can work on music together, it could either be features for your music or their music.
If your art is good enough, features will come to you naturally with little to no effort. If you’re still indie or have little recognition then you need to put some work forward and reach out to several artists and propose working with them on some projects.
This is a great way to reach new territory for fans and possibly get your name out there.
Collaboration is very underrated but it is an effective tool for promotion. This is why its essential to build a lot of industry relationships and connections that can put you in place.
The more you collaborate, the more your music reaches new people. The internet has made it so much easier to put your work in front of so many people at once.
Therefore, leverage the power of the internet to collaborate with musicians and share your work that much easier and faster into to tap into a new audience.
Social media Engagement
Social media is another great tool that can help you reach new followers and fans, but it will take some doing on your part.
Knowing how to effectively market your music online is crucial to the success of your brand. Therefore invest in a good social media strategist to help you plan and execute ideas that can help you bring in more followers.
The number one effective tool that you can use on social media is Engagement.
People don’t talk enough about engagement but it is essentially what all these social media platforms revolve around.
The key to having a great social media brand is being SOCIAL.
Therefore make sure to post content, interact and engage with your followers. The potential for your growth will increase with how often and how well you engage with people.
You can also use tools like social media ads on platforms like facebook, Instagram, YouTube and twitter to promote your brand further or promote your music.
Publish content consistently
Your job as a musician is to make music, that’s what people will know you for and that’s people will follow you for.
My first point was on the emphasis of creating high quality resonating music that can speak for itself. While that may be the primary goal, keep in mind that you also have to ensure that you’re consistent with your releases.
That’s just the nature of your job as musician.
Be consistent with the publishing of your content so you can keep your fans engaged long enough until you make your next release.
It’s always good to keep working as a musician and keep a lot of content at-the-ready so you can easily schedule it in a timely manner.
The more content you publish, the better the chances of you attracting and gaining new followers.
Fine tune your brand
As a musician, your brand is everything. Making and having great music is good but essentially the brand behind the music is just of equal importance.
The success of any musician will greatly depend on how well they carve out their brand. A good brand will attract business, relationships, connections, fans and followers.
With that said, it will be and is your duty to aim for a specific brand for yourself and alter it over time when your evolution as a musical artist calls for it.
Being intentional about your branding will attract the right following for you because people follow consistency and will do so willingly if your branding is done right.
Therefore, have a plan of approach and ensure that you plan all the way till the end.
Work with influencers
Influencer marketing is another great way of attracting and gaining new followers for your musician brand.
You can choose to work with an influencer that can help you by promoting, reviewing and elevating your music.
Influencers can help you take your music to the next level by creating those critical viral moments necessary to attract follower growth. This can lead to a trickle down effect that can increase sales, streams and merchandise sales.
Therefore it will be in your vested interest to reach out to some good social media influencers that have a good track record and a reasonable following.
Having a team or management can really help in these situations because they can sit down and plan on your behalf. Plus they can also help you the vet influencers and other crucial people that can help you gain a good and reasonable amount of followers.
Press runs
Press runs are a good way of reaching millions of people.
They include, radio and tv interviews and other press related avenues.
Press runs can help improve your follower growth organically. You should be sure to be as relatable as you can when carrying out such interviews because they have the power to bring massive awareness to your brand.
Be Authentic and relatable
With all these points discussed here, it is crucial that I emphasize being as authentic and relatable always.
People follow people they can relate to and feel they have a genuine connection with. Therefore, try not to be a robot. Be as human as you can be, especially on social media.
Engage with your fans, create content that is fan oriented.
This can really boost your reach and overall follower growth.
