Top Ten Tips on How To Promote your Music Independently

Jeeni Blog

Helping the next generation of talent to build a global fanbase

Top Ten Tips on How To Promote your Music Independently

Let's set the scene. We believed there would be a load of "How to Videos..." giving expert advice to help musicians, artists and performers along their merry way. We thought just Google it and the rest would be simple. But the quality of what we have found raises the question, "how helpful are these videos really, and do musicians and performers use them"? Do these videos add real value?

To find out more, we're asking the new 400 Unsigned Artist Community members what they think. Maybe they have found a video or a blog which changed their fortunes, and they are willing share and let us know why it had such an impact. Let's see how far this forum opens new discussions and debate.

Having listened to Jasmine from Ditto in the video below, we started to think that our first job might be to start a discussion around "how to promote and market your work".

So you don't have to watch the whole 7 minute video, we have just listed the headlines to get a discussion going. (approx. 60 seconds read time)

1. Making great music, music always comes first.

2. Play as often as you can, make them remember you. Put on a killer live show and make an impact.

3. Start locally, go nationally and then head out on tour. Ed Sheeran says he played at least a thoiusand shows, before he became known in the music industry.

4. Create a website and build a mailing list - which links to your music, bio, promo images, tour dates, mailing list and sign-up form.

5. Get your social media sorted! Keep a consistent brand identity! Include competitions, polls, track snippets, press shots, backstage videos. Use targeted social adds, do not use mass advertising.

6. Check out what other successful performers are doing and learn from them, rather than starting from scratch.

7. Get your tracks PLAYLISTED.

8. Manage your own PR and contact journalists directly. Create an Electronic Press Kit, write a press release, upload your music, send to bloggers & journalists.

9. Surround yourself by the right people. Just because you are independent, that does not mean you have to do everything on your own.

10. Know your audience and focus on your niche!

So that's it folks, let's create our own list and add value to this vital conversation. If you would like to join the new Unsigned Artists Community check us out and send in a request to join today.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/2529935880656436/?source_id=459365401133253

https://vimeo.com/396502327

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11
Mar

A Legend, A Bus, A Fan and A New Chapter

A Legend, A Bus, A Fan and A New Chapter. In 2018, our chosen charity ‘Arms Around the Child’ reached out for Jeeni’s help. In their efforts to help their cause, the charity had acquired a vehicle with history, was completely unique and of significance to its previous owner and his fans. However, at this stage it needed serious help. That help sadly, became a burden to the charity and its finances, so the vehicle had to be sold. Here the story unfolds............... A Legend Back in 1970, Sir Paul McCartney had a life-changing moment. We’ve all had them. Life takes a turn and you find yourself going in a slightly, or very different direction. For legend Sir Paul, it was one door closing and another opening. A year later, he formed a band called Wings, with Denny Seiwell and Denny Laine, plus his wife, Linda. After an initial album release and some university gigging, McCartney was enjoying his simpler life away from the fast lane. He decided to take the band on the road for the summer, touring Europe. Sir Paul McCartney - A Legend Wings on their Tour Bus A Bus In 1972 the ‘Wings Over Europe’ tour took place – 25 dates over two months and 7,500 miles. All fairly standard stuff for any band, apart from the mode of transport. McCartney decided the band would be travelling in style, in the form of a vintage 1953 Bristol Double Decker ‘Open Topped’ bus, registration WNO 481. Carnaby Street boutique owner, Tom Slater was charged with fitting out the bus, giving it a bright paint job and livery announcing the tour and band had arrived. The band ate, slept and practiced on the bus, lying in the sun on the top deck writing their next album ‘Red Rose Speedway’ and even the track ‘Live and Let Die’ for the first James Bond movie for Roger Moore. WNO 481 - Wings Tour Bus A Fan(s) After the successful tour, a handful of other worldly adventures and a 2017 tweet from Sir Paul asking if anyone knew where the bus might be, WNO 481 (as it’s affectionately known) ended up being rescued and returned to the UK by ‘Arms Around the Child’ trustee Justin James. It was his difficult decision in 2018, to have to sell the bus and relieve the charity of the financial burden it had become. However, for Super-Fan Tom Jennings and his wife Rose, it was a dream come true and a life ambition fulfilled. Tom has since set about completing the restoration of the bus, bringing in fans from all over the world and setting up a fabulous site www.1972wingstourbus.com giving regular updates on progress of WNO 481, as well as the bus’s colourful history. It’s a fabulous read! A New Chapter On the back of this new connection, Jeeni are very pleased to have created a working partnership with Tom and Rose, and their merry band of ‘Busketeers’. We hope to work with them, their amazing bus, Sir Paul and our hefty music connections to create new and positive adventures for WNO 481. Jeeni have been granted access to the bus for a certain number of weeks per year and our intention is to use these weeks to create events and gigs for our Jeeni artists to perform. For Jeeni SuperFans there will be the chance to secure early tickets and memorabilia for the events and the bands performing. As with the emergence of Wings, the band and their music, we would like the bus to play a part in the launch of new music talent, giving performers the chance to thank supportive fans, share the experience and excitement of live performing, as well as creating new fanbases. Jeeni as a platform, has a large, growing audience of music lovers, as well as performers. The instant opportunities offered with their engaged social media, allows for followers to be ‘teased’ with where upcoming venues may be, before official announcements and tickets are released, creating a buzz and anticipating excitement. This cool, utterly unique piece of British rock and roll and engineering history has much to look forward to, as do the generations of music fans past and present, who will have the opportunity to be entertained by the Jeeni and ‘Wings Over Europe’ bus and events. www.jeeni.com www.1972wingstourbus.com www.armsaroundthechild.org

11
Mar

Weekly Round-Up # 11

The latest developments and additions to Jeeni’s mission! New Artists Join Jeeni’s database of talent! Prettyboyface: 'prettyboyface (Face for short) is an artist from London who doesn't really fit into a particular genre but for simplicity's sake lets go with 'underground rap'. Moved by an array of musical influences from a very young age, music has always been an integral aspect of his experiences and life in general. Being around producers in his later teenage years spurred Face into writing songs and eventually releasing them. He creates with the hope of making music that will make someone feel something.' Face has contributed five fantastic tracks to Jeeni’s hip-hop and rap channels so far and we can’t wait to review and promote them. Check out, ‘Escargot’, ‘HighSkool’, ‘Goddess’, ‘Alien’ and ‘Geneva’ on prettyboyface’s showcase here: https://jeeni.com/showcase/prettyboyface/ A Year In Provence: A Year In Provence consists of five members: Matt Potter (Lead Vocals/Guitar), Adam Bacon (Bass), James Fermer (Backing Vocals/Guitar), Dan Wing (Lead Guitar) and Jack Smith (Drums). Originally all from Kent, United Kingdom. We all met in 2016 but after undergoing a few line-up changes, 2020 produced the current line-up. Influences for our music include the likes of; Catfish and the bottleman, The Black Keys, Two Door Cinema Club, Oasis, Kings Of Leon, Circa Waves and many more. AYIP has added two brilliant tracks to Jeeni so far, check them out here: https://jeeni.com/showcase/a-year-in-provence/?view=about New Content Contributed to Jeeni’s Database of Talent! Julience - ‘Love Lies Cold’ Julience is a UK-based singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He draws inspiration from pop and rock music. His songs show his love for the 1960s until the early 2000s while updating traditional sounds to stay fresh and up-to-date. Julience’s songs have powerful hooks and harmonies. A heavy guitar sound is consistent throughout. “The only modernisation Julience grants himself is the clarity and up-to-date standard in his production and performances. Something specific that separates Julience from other modern rock groups is his truly guitar-centric compositions.” Check out the full review of this track here: https://jeeni.com/blog/julience-love-lies-cold-single-review-blog-jeeni/ And check out Julience’s Jeeni showcase here: https://jeeni.com/showcase/julience/?view=about Giack Bazz - ‘Gotta Kick It’ Giack Bazz is an explosive, relentless multi-instrumentalist songwriter based in London. The artist started igniting stages with his painfully honest lyrics and his screaming telecaster in 2015. He has since released three solo albums that were critically acclaimed (Blowup magazine, Decade, Rumore). “Outsider Music (Gotta Kick It) is Giack Bazz’s latest single. Arranged and produced by Deborah Verrascina and Sebastian Papa (The Royalty Instrumentality Project) provides the drums. It’s about finding it hard to give up on things. The title hints at the subgenre of misunderstood artists the likes of Daniel Johnston and Don Van Vliet.” Check out Giack Bazz’s amazing showcase here: https://jeeni.com/showcase/giack-bazz/ Other new blogs: Artist Focus: Nnaomi Portsmouth based Nnaomi has been an essential Jeeni artist for some time now and has most recently added her newest single, ‘Hate Me’ to one of Jeeni’s most rapidly advancing and growing channels, RnB. Describing her own music as “euphoric, experimental and nostalgic”, Nnaomi is paving her own exciting path in the RnB and neo-soul corner of music. Check out nnaomi’s showcase here: https://jeeni.com/showcase/nnaomi/ Check out the full blog here: https://jeeni.com/blog/artist-focus-nnaomi-jeeni-blog/ Artist Focus: RD Watson Considered The English voiceover artist, RD Watson is an indisputable legend of the recording industry whose voice has been heard by millions across the world. Roger Watson is an invaluable Jeeni ambassador. His showcase currently features over 40 examples of his first-rate voiceover performances including audio books like ‘Hairy London’ and commercials for ‘Diablo’ and ‘Jaguar’. His status as an industry icon has greatly broadened Jeeni’s representation of art and creativity and has meant that Jeeni’s mission is not limited to musicians but open to all artists that deserve worldwide attention. Visit RD Watson’s giant and fascinating showcase here: https://jeeni.com/showcase/rd-watson-audiobooks/. Check out the full blog here: https://jeeni.com/blog/artist-focus-rd-watson-blog-jeeni/ Jeeni’s Giant List of Channels! Jeeni welcomes and supports a giant range of talent and art from music, spoken word, dance and more. Jeeni’s channels help viewers find exactly what they’re looking for and as a result, artists can select up to four channels that their art covers to reach those audiences. Jeeni’s prime goal is to bring attention to artists that deserve it and luckily for all of our viewers, Jeeni is packed with them. Jeeni has over 100 channels of talent ripe for exploring and compiling. Anyone and everyone can create and share playlists from all of the channels that we offer and it’s absolutely free to sign up. Finding talent on Jeeni couldn’t be easier, simply choose a channel that interests you, from ambient, to death-metal, to slam poetry and begin unearthing Jeeni artists and their craft. Check out the full blog here: https://jeeni.com/blog/jeenis-giant-list-of-channels/ Julience - ‘Love Lies Cold’ Single Review Among the rock n roll hall of fame legends that Julience clearly looks up to, specific inspirations that come to mind from ‘Love Lies Cold’ include Billy Idol, Guns N’ Roses and most notably, Iron Maiden. This 80s era is where rock was at its most mainstream and so Julience’s decision to honour that time is a lot of fun. It’s also so satisfying to see him fill in a market for those that weren’t quite ready to say goodbye to those days. Check out the full review here: https://jeeni.com/blog/julience-love-lies-cold-single-review-blog-jeeni/ music news music new music news Reach out to the Jeeni marketing team at doug@jeeni.com or ella@jeeni.com. Make sure you’re following us on social media to keep up to date with new releases from our artists, our blogs and any job openings. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jeenimusic/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/jeenimusic Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jeenimusic Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/33222018/admin/

06
Jun

Lockdown lyrics and solo discos – finding fun and frivolity in the “new normal” by Sammie Venn.

By Sammie Venn Jeeni's Official Writer, Columnist and Blogger. Here at Jeeni.com we celebrate and support all musicians and performers, and poetry has its own dedicated channel for artists and performers to showcase their work and earn 100% of their sales, ticketing, merchandise and donations. Yesterday, Jeeni returned to Crowdcube to raise more funds for helping new talent and has raised £92K in 24 hours, our target is £100K and we have 29 days to go, so we are likely to overfund, which is just amazing. Thanks again to all our wonderful investors. If you want to see our pitch click HERE. Today we showcase Sammie Venn as a very talented and creative writer. The Dali Lama said that “there is soul music, soul food and soul love”. There is no expiration date for any of these, even an age old recipe is everlasting. It’s just about finding what sings to us as individuals. Whether it’s a solo disco or a full on rave, music resonates with us all in a plethora of ways. Long walks during lockdown have meant that my innumerable playlists have been given a good airing. My taste has always been eclectic and moods diverse. The tunes that emanate from the speakers in the kitchen or on my headphones are varied to say the least. Ranging from damn good hip jiggers to soulful chakra mediations, there are no boundaries when it comes to the world of music. Both of which are key to a happy harmonious life as well as ultimately mood enhancing. Music is to the soul what words are to the mind, each turn a cacophony of phrases into poetic verse. We can fall in love with music: it touches every part of our being in some way, triggering memories and taking us on a valuable journey. Melodies remind us that life is beautiful and should be embraced. As an early riser, the dawn chorus tends to be my preferred genre. However throughout the day I have made a point of experimenting with different sounds and beats. Finding fun and frivolity in this new world we have found ourselves in is key to our mental health and fitness. Apart from walking the South Downs, solo dance offs have been my go to entertainment. Amongst all the chaos I found a beauty in the calm of movement and all of my favourite songs. It also has the benefit of being an extraordinary workout, one morning my Health App showed that I had danced over 11,000 steps. Suffice to say I was happy with the fitness element of my grooves. The best part was loosing myself in music that made me dance both internally and externally. I’m not a selfie junkie by any stretch but I took a couple of photos to remind myself of how content I looked. My dance partner may have only been the mirror, but we certainly had fun. In my top ten tunes sits “Sunshine on a rainy day” by Zoe. It puts more than a spring in my step and sits comfortably with Imagine Dragons and the Rolling Stones under the banner of “The COVID-19 Collection”. Creating compilations for all seasons is a great way to assemble your music. Jeeni’s platform has been wonderful as it has helped me to experience a fresh realm of creativity. Not only have I discovered new artists but I have also embarked on a learning journey that supports genres that I had never heard of. Historically I am a rock chick through and through but I have welcomed ‘Bluegrass’, ‘Chant’, ‘Faith’ and ‘Funk’ as new soundscapes on my playlist. And that is all thanks to Jeeni. Click HERE to visit or return to jeeni.com

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