Music Industry

Tips & Tools to Get Your Band off the Ground (Even if You’re Broke)

If you’re wondering how to get your band going on a small budget, there’s good news: Help is available. From smart Internet marketing tactics to the best tech tools to kick things off and gain momentum, we have some proven strategies you can borrow to get your band off the ground.

It Starts with Your Story

Tell a story. It’s a powerful way to build your brand and connect with your audience. Eminem built his brand by weaving events from his life story into his songs and creating lyrical stories that made listeners want to hear more.

Your story can be drawn from your life, the story of your band, observations about the world around you, your imagination, or a message you want to impart. With many artists, their off-stage activity also becomes a story in its own right — just think about Kayne West’s rumored presidential run, for instance. When your band tells a story or becomes a story, it makes you stand out from the competition and gets your audience interested.

Finding Funding

To get your band’s story out to your audience, you need to find funding. The first step towards successfully managing your financing is creating a realistic, manageable budget. You’ll need to set annual goals, estimate expenses, project your income and track your progress. Here’s a sample spreadsheet you can use for these purposes.

After you have an idea what your expenses will be, you can begin seeking funding. You can try crowdfunding; the independent band The Prowling Kind used Kickstarter to raise $8,215 in 42 days for their first album, all without a fan base. You could also ask for donations from family and friends, take out a songwriter or artist royalty loan, sell or auction your royalties and use music licensing agencies to place your songs where they will earn you revenue.

Launching From the Cloud

You used to need a recording label to launch a music career, but with today’s technology you can launch your own brand right from the cloud. YouTube is one of your most essential technological tools, providing a free publishing platform for sharing your songs and music videos. The DIY Musician provides a complete guide to using YouTube for your band, from setting up your channel and creating your video to using advanced tools such as video analytics.

GarageBand is another essential music technology tool that you can use with iCloud to help you create, record and share music. To keep your music consistent with your brand, digital asset management software such as WebDAM gives you a central digital library you can use to manage your music files along with any images and videos that go with them. Having a DAM tool also makes it easier to back up and share your files.

Promoting Yourself on a Budget

When it comes to promoting your music on a shoestring budget, one of your best friends is YouTube for Artists, which provides analytics tools to help you find fans. Billboard covers similar tools provided by other platforms, such as Spotify For Artists and Pandora’s AMP. Use these tools in conjunction with social media accounts and analytics to get your music shared with your target market.

Alan Cross

is an internationally known broadcaster, interviewer, writer, consultant, blogger and speaker. In his 40+ years in the music business, Alan has interviewed the biggest names in rock, from David Bowie and U2 to Pearl Jam and the Foo Fighters. He’s also known as a musicologist and documentarian through programs like The Ongoing History of New Music.

Alan Cross has 37956 posts and counting. See all posts by Alan Cross

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