What NOT to do when promoting your music
Superlatives
Excessive use of superlatives is probably the most common mistake artists make when submitting or promoting their music.
Here are some classics that are huge turn-offs:
“Powerhouse”
“Legendary”
“Up-and-coming”
Stick with the facts and your story. You don’t need to tell them how good you are, as they’ll find out for themselves. Packing your press release and bio full of these will certainly turn people off.
Name-dropping
Industry people aren’t dumb. They know you paid for that feature or worked with that person just so that you could drop their name in your press copy. Again, speak about you, your story, your values, your music, and be humble.
Spamming
I get people spamming links to me in every medium I have online. The good thing is, there is a fine line between content and spam.
The key is to build rapport!
No one is going to care that you have a music link if they don’t know (of) you. If you want people to, you have to care about them first and not try and steal their time. People are busy and time is a non-renewable resource.
If you want to garner someone’s attention, you have to take yourself out of the equation and consider who they are and what makes them tick.
The good news is that’s pretty easy these days, as they are likely on social media and broadcasting their values regularly. Start by engaging with them publicly and slowly build up and impression with them over time. This strategy will increase the chances of them caring when you send them that email.
Got a release coming up but not sure what to do? Book a FREE strategy call to get you started
Christopher Carvalho runs Unlock Your Sound helping up-and-coming indie artists create and strategically release their music.
