Storytelling for Musicians

Whenever you ask yourself…

“How can I promote XYZ?”

The question should be…

“What’s the story behind XYZ and how can I tell it to my audience?”

It’s a simple change in lingo that amounts to a huge shift in mindset.

People often think that social media is about “making content”.

That's the wrong mindset to go in with.

Instead, the aim is to inspire you to tell captivating stories to your audience.

Document The Journey
Storytelling Tips
Finding Your Story
Write More By Writing Less
The Call-To-Action
Write In Your Voice
Further Reading

Document The Journey

Gary Vaynerchuck often says…

“Document, don’t create”

To me, this means taking a snapshot of where you are at any given moment.

As you share these moments on your channels, you build a body of work that future followers can dive into. An archive, if you will.

By doing this, you are telling your story as it happens, and inviting your audience to take part.

you can ponder about the strategy behind every post and fabricate yourself into this “influential person”… or you can just be yourself ~ Gary Vee
Gary Vee

Elisabeth Elektra shares the story behind ‘My Sisters’ at the two-year mark of its release.

Labi Ramaj shares a significant milestone.

Alan Chan telling a story from his journey on The Voice UK

Cheri Lyn reflects on her recent achievements

Storytelling Tips

Still not sure where to start?

The following tips will help you unlock the storyteller in you.

Stories can come in all shapes and sizes.

Not every post has to be your life story.

It can be a simple anecdote–a short chapter from the narrative of your musical journey.

It can be something that happened, or it can be an experience from the past.

It might not even be anything to do with you!

Here are some tips to help you discover and tell stories.

Finding Your Story

If you struggle to come up with a story, try doing a brain dump into a Google doc.

Start from the very beginning, as far back as you remember.

Take your time and write as much as possible.

From here you can use this as collateral from which you can slice and dice into marketing output.

If you are focusing on a specific release, write down everything that lead you to making it.

Is there a story to the lyrics?

Was there an interesting story behind the collaboration?

Did something happen in your life that motivated you to start writing again?

Dig into these stories and convey the emotions you experienced through them.

Write More By Writing Less

Get the story across in the fewest words possible.

Don’t fall into the trap of thinking more is better.

Use tools like Grammarly to keep your writing tidy and easy to read.

The Call-To-Action

If after reading your story, you want your fans to take some action, you need to tell them what to do and how to do it.

Here are some examples:

Don’t miss a beat — Join my mailing list

Pre-order our debut LP — Link in bio

Another kind of CTA would be to ask your audience if they can relate.

There's always someone who's been through it!

This will help garner engagement from your community and deepen individual connections.

Write In Your Voice

It has to sound authentic to you.

Don’t worry too much about making your writing correct, keep it real!

Use tools such as Hemingway Editor to keep your writing bold and clear.