50 tips for band promotion

January 31, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Band promotion is one of the keys to success in the music industry, you need to get your band out there and heard by potential fans, promoters, managers, labels etc…

Here are my 50 top tips to promoting your music!

  1. Follow and get the @unsignedguide for lists of venues, promoters venues and help
  2. Join Myspace, start a Myspace group, start a band fan group/profile to support the main band page.
  3. Do the same with facebook
  4. Do the same with Twitter
  5. Regularly change your profiles avitar
  6. Network a lot, add friends, comment and @ people
  7. Tell your fans and followers about your website and social networks
  8. Join relevant forums and interact
  9. Start a blog and keep it up to date with your activities, good practis stories new songs etc
  10. Get a proper website and use your bands name for the URL
  11. Use your URL and social network URLs everywhere and on everything, CDs t-shirts, stickers etc..
  12. Start a street team to help promote your band and upcoming gigs.
  13. Start a mailing list.
  14. Take part in #MusicMonday on Twitter.
  15. Give away something for free.
  16. Give away exclusive material in return for joining a group.
  17. Run competitions where you give away merch in return for promo activity such as RTs.
  18. Sell cheap CDRs of your gigs.
  19. Make a video and put it on Youtube or VimioLook for keywords related to your genre and use them on your Website.
  20. Start a e-newsletter about your band and/or genre.
  21. have a facebook Share button on your site
  22. Have a tweet this button on your site
  23. Keep it all local to start with, and from this grow your fanbase out.
  24. Design your fliers with a striking image/artwork and the minimum of legible text.
  25. Brand your band!
  26. Make an  PDF Promotion Package.
  27. Optimize your band websites front page
  28. Link to other bands from your Website and blogs.
  29. Write a controversial and or political song.
  30. Ask your fans to retweet, share and talk about your music, blog, site etc
  31. See if your local record/music shop will give away your free CD/demo.
  32. Make a Shared promo CD with other local bands of the same genre
  33. publish your lyrics and tabs in a blog or eBook.
  34. Trade links with other bands and appropriate websites
  35. post fliers and posters around your town in local shops and venues
  36. Dress for your music genre
  37. Give away band t shirts to popular and cool members of your fan club to wear when they are out and about.
  38. Get some good band photos
  39. Get a strong band logo
  40. Look around for E-zines as well as Magazines looking for content.
  41. Ask your Myspace fan page to target venues, music magazines, other bands, promoters.
  42. have a lot of photos of fans, gigs, practising, nights out even, let the fans know you.
  43. Sell your band with your personallities, so have member band Twitter accounts too.
  44. Sell your music online.
  45. Ask friends, fans and family to text your gigs and releases.
  46. Make a link page with with reviews
  47. Let people know the kinds of events/gigs you’re happy to play next to your contact information.
  48. Search the web and Myspace for similar bands, make friends.
  49. Network with other similar bands for gig swops.
  50. Follow me on Twitter @ASYLUMseventy7 I usually retweet and help out where I can :)

Filed Under: Advice and answers, ASYLUM adventures, Music industry Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

10 steps to great gig posters & flyer design

January 24, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Live gigs are pretty much essential in getting people to notice your band, and a key factor in how successful a gig will be is the promotion work you put in leading up to the event.

Posters and fliers, whether distributed offline (in the town, in pubs etc) or online (on your website, on Facebook invites etc), are a key promotional tool.

The idea is to create a flier that works: clear, informative and easy to read text, with interesting and eye-catching graphics.

Here are my top ten tips…

  1. Spend some time planning the wording. Make sure you highlight the selling points of the gig e.g. is there anything special about the lineup or venue?
  2. Think about the information fans and gig goers are seeking from your flyer e.g. venue address, start time, admittance.
  3. People love the word FREE, so if you’re not charging for the gig, make sure it’s very clear!
  4. Create some alternative posters/fliers/banners. Don’t stick with the same old design every time – mix it up and get attention.
  5. Design your flier to A6 (102mm x 152mm), postcard size fliers as these are easy & cheap to print. You can fit four A6 fliers on an A4.
  6. Don’t leave the design work until the last minute. Planning, creation, print and publicity is the order to work to.
  7. Avoid common design mistakes that make the flier too busy e.g. using to many different fonts, sizes or colours.
  8. Speeling mattrs. Keep proofing your work, then check it again. Once it’s printed, there’s no going back.
  9. Get a good, reliable printer. Your hard work will be wasted if it’s still sititng in the print queue come gig day.
  10. Get your work out there. It doesn’t matter how well designed it is if people don’t see it so hit the streets (and the net). Carry fliers with you to hand out to everyone you know and change your social media profile pics to reflect your latest promo.

Of course, if you’re not the designing type, it’s far easier to get a professional graphic designer to do the work for you leaving you free to shout about your gig and get the word out about your music. Get in touch with me about your project and get committed to creativity!

Filed Under: Advice and answers, Music industry Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

FREE! ASYLUMseventy7 wallpapers

January 19, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Commit your computer’s desktop to creativity with one these six FREE ASYLUMseventy7 Wallpapers!

Downloadthe full set of Standard screen 1600X1200 Wallpapers

Download the full set of Wide screen 1920X1200 Wallpapers

Filed Under: ASYLUM adventures, Graphic design Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Marketing your music

January 17, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Whether you’re in a band, a manager, producer, sound engineer, promoter, or in music marketing and PR, it all comes down to contacts, and the best place to start is with a marketing strategy.

There are several steps you should follow.

  • Step one: Have something to market!

“The fist bite is with the eye”

A band logo is a key factor in getting your band noticed and remembered. Think of the Iron Maiden logo, or Areosmith, Oasis, Megadeth, or NIN, their logos are known all over the world.

Band photos are also a strong visual element to band identification, Think of the press pictures from your favorite bands, you don’t need to listen to the music to know what style and sound they are going for. for example you wouldn’t see a photo of black metal band Emperor and think its going to be in the same style and sound as Mumford and sons and vice versa.

CD album artwork and design can all be tied into the look of the band and carry alot of weight in identifying with your fan base. think of Cannibal corpse, Fear factory and Queens of the stone age album covers and their strong visual relationship with the music genre they inhabit.

  • Step two: Get online.

Next you need a place to direct people to hear your music and see your band so sort out a band website and social media.  There are lots networking sites to choose from these are the 4 most popular and  therefore get your message to the largest audience.

Remember to include your band logo, Photos and music where possible, a small bio and of cause up to date contact information. If you don’t have a website yet, use MySpace or Facebook as your link, remembering to change it when you have a .com/.co.uk/whatever domain hosted site.

  • Step three: Get networking and find some good contacts!

You can have the best songs and the strong coherent look of a top signed touring band, but if you don’t have any decent contacts and fans you’re not going anywhere fast. The way to do this is with a good strong marketing plan, just like you would in any other business venture.

Here are some of the basic guidelines to help you get started.

  • Know who your future fans are.
  • Know where your future fans are.
  • Know who can help you.
  • Know where you can find help
  • Know who your competition is.
  • Know where your competition is.

There are many types of marketing you can use and you will need to focus on in your marketing plan. The three main types are…

  • Brand marketing,
  • Promotional marketing,
  • Online marketing.

I plan to go into these and other helpful tips and advice over the coming weeks in this new series of band/music promotion, information and advice.

If you have any questions on anything in this or future articles feel free to contact me.

Filed Under: Advice and answers, Music industry Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The blood, the sweat, the tears! Band promotion

January 14, 2011 By Leave a Comment

I have been designing artwork for bands, DJs and record labels for about 8 years now and I’m always getting questions about the music industry and how can bands get more exposure so after going through my emails and reply’s I decided this would be a good subject for a new series of blog articles explaining promotion, marketing and branding your band.

In this series starting on Monday 17th January I plan to cover various subjects from SEO (Search engine optimization) for band websites, the process involved in CD and logo artwork & design, places you can sell your music, ways to promote and advertise your music, press packs, band photography, good record labels to follow on Twitter and lots more…

If there is anything you would like to know about or read more on then get in contact or comment below.

Filed Under: Advice and answers, ASYLUM adventures, Music industry Tagged With: , , ,

Creative inspiration: Design Fetish

January 7, 2011 By 2 Comments

This week I have been worshiping Design Fetish a fantastic personal design blog you should all be checking out regularly. Here are some of my favorite posts so far …


Filed Under: Advice and answers, ASYLUM adventures, Graphic design, inspiration Tagged With: , , , ,

2011 the year of creativity

January 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Hi all,

I hope you had a great Christmas time and got all you want from Santa, stuffed yourself with lots of food & drink and generally had a fun festive time. I just wanted to say Happy New Year to you all and thank everyone I have had the pleasure of working with over this last year, I really enjoyed getting committed to creativity with you all.

That was starting to sound quite morbid and like the end, but of course it’s not and today is just the beginning of a new creative year full of new inspiring projects and plans begging the question …
What has ASYLUMseventy7 got in its creative targets for this new year?

The answer being more CD and album artwork, band photography, posters, fliers, logos as well as the more corporate logo ID branding and promotional work we have seen this last year along with some more interviews and magazine exposure thrown in.

If you are interested in any of the above and want to get committed to creativity then just get in touch.

Get committed to creative art, illustration graphic design and music photography.

Filed Under: ASYLUM adventures, News and updates