Gili Trawangan

Advice needed on how to build an audience

10 posts in this topic

I’ve recently rediscovered my life purpose (or passion, or vision, if you will). It’s music. It was a part of my life before, but there was too much ego in it then, which created more anxiety than fulfillment. Now, years later, I feel like I can dedicate myself to it with freedom from outcome and just the enjoyment of creating. But of course, even though there is no attachment to results, I do want to eventually share with others, and connect with people through my music.

I’ve ‘built’ a small and basic home recording studio where I can pretty much make a whole record by myself. I’ve begun writing and arranging the first few songs and in six months I should have an EP ready to release. As far as the music goes, I’m confident that I’ll find my own way, though there is much to learn in the process. But I’m confused about how to actually build an audience and would love to get your advice, as many of you are YouTubers, artists, etc. and have experience with attracting people to your channels/websites.

I understand that building a website, establishing a presence in social media and YouTube, and putting out a lot of content is the way to do it (please correct me if I’m wrong). But I have no idea about the order in which to do these things. Should I only build a website once the EP is ready to release? Or the earlier the better? My day job does give me a lot of free time, so while working on the album I could also put out some videos playing random songs, talking about music, etc., there’s loads of ideas in my mind… but a part of me thinks it might be counterproductive, because I don’t have any original music to put out yet. It just isn’t clear to me how the process is usually supposed to go…

I would love to hear what you think :)


Alternative Rock Music and Spirituality on YouTube: The Buddha Visions

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What genre of music are you working with ? That is essential to know to building your target audience.

Create an apple music profile and find artists similar to your genre and follow people who follow that artist. Then release your music on Apple Music. 

I am not a musician, but I know a little bit about marketing when it comes to the music business. It can be super cut throat so you really need to know your niche and hit it hard. 

Good luck I am rooting for you xD

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   I recommend you check out Bob Proctor.

   When it comes to marketing, you go more specific. What is your ideal audience to benefit from your service/product? 

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11 hours ago, Chumbimba said:

What genre of music are you working with ? That is essential to know to building your target audience.

@Chumbimba Thanks, you've made me think about what the genre actually is, it's still a work in progress :)

I would say one of the following, in the order I would pick them:

- Alternative Pop/Rock (I hesitate to name it rock because I don't use electric guitars at all);

- Chamber Pop (highlighting the orchestral element, though it isn't always there);

- Indie Pop (I guess this one is broader, though a part of me doesn't resonate with it)

 

In case this doesn't help much, I'll just name a couple of my influences. Though, of course, I have my own style:

- David Bowie

- Radiohead

- Rufus Wainwright

- Scott Walker

- The Divine Comedy

- The Beatles

 

What would you say is the target audience for this?

 

11 hours ago, Chumbimba said:

Create an apple music profile and find artists similar to your genre and follow people who follow that artist.

I should follow my prospective audience? Not sure I understood...

Also, is it a good idea to create art work, and a band name, and a web domain as soon as possible? Or should I wait until I have music ready to release?

 

11 hours ago, Chumbimba said:

Good luck I am rooting for you xD

And thank you!! :D

 

10 hours ago, Danioover9000 said:

   I recommend you check out Bob Proctor.

   When it comes to marketing, you go more specific. What is your ideal audience to benefit from your service/product? 

@Danioover9000 Thanks for the tip :)

I gotta be honest with you, learning about marketing creates some resistance within me. I don't really think of the music as a product, though it most certainly is from a certain perspective. The ideal audience is people who love "good music", whatever that is. You know, good tunes, good songs. I know, it's all relative... in which case, I would refer to the musicians I mentioned above, my prospective audience is a part of their audience, I guess. Assuming I can make good music on my own, with professional quality sound, which is yet to be confirmed.


Alternative Rock Music and Spirituality on YouTube: The Buddha Visions

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I would focus in on the creation aspect of it mostly. I know it feels good to gain appreciation and such. But if you can work on honing your skills, when people do find you they will much more likely stick around. 

I will say though that just sharing your stuff around in general is good. Facebook groups for music, Reddit is amazing for sharing content, and building up a network of social media for your branding is good. You could buy ads if you really want it out there, but I would wait on that. I would have to say that social media is probably the most powerful for traffic though. 

If you can find something to produce off stuff you enjoy or something creative and share it on various platforms it would be good for your presence. If you just share your songs for example on those platforms, then it will be really hard for you to grow. 

One thing you can really consider doing is making some how to tutorials for music creation on your channel. Almost no one is going to search your song name, but I guarantee many are looking for how to make the song too. You can use those types of things on social media and share them into music making groups to generate more traffic since a lot of those people in there are looking for that stuff. But by doing that your music itself becomes more visible and suggested. 

There is a lot for you to work with here. I am no expert on it either. But consistency is key. 

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@Gili Trawangan Be so good they can't ignore you. Start producing quality music/content, and people will notice. Once you are confident in what you're producing then you can think of different ways of releasing the content. Walk before you run. The content is most important, so make sure you're actually producing quality content that people will enjoy and benefit from first.

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@Raptorsin7 I agree with you, absolutely. My OP was written assuming that will be the case. Assuming I make good music (which is a big assumption, I know), how do I get it out there? That was the gist of the post.


Alternative Rock Music and Spirituality on YouTube: The Buddha Visions

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@Gili Trawangan Youtube, spotify, etc. I would also contact popular youtube/spotify/etc channels that play music of your genre. They can play your music in their tracks and you will gain notoriety.

I would focus on content first. The other stuff will come once you have quality content.  

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