Original Composition: Yes! An Original Song is your basic Identity, as a band you may cover great many songs accurately to the note, but you are noted for your Original Cover. Make sure your band has an decently recorded original song before you set sail in this big bad world of promoting your band.
Website: This is where most of the Indian bands do the ‘classic’ mistake. Owning a website is good, but what happens when the band is dissolved and no one is willing to pay to keep the site running?
Myspace.com, reverbnation.com , soundclick.com, lastfm.com, garageband.com are some of the popular music sites used by most of the Indian bands where you can upload your music for free. But the trick is ‘interconnect’, this way it is easier for your fans to find you at the other location, just incase the music player isn’t opening. (myspace anyone? ).Put your band's video on YouTube
Fans: What would you do without them? Fan’s are mini gods, treat them like one (but don’t let them stalk you :P ) . Connect with your fans, interact with them, ask them for feedback, and receive criticism in constructive manner. And what place is better to connect with them other than social networks?..most importantly build your local fanbase.Get yourself a “group’ and a page’ on Facebook keep them updated regularly.
Marketing and Branding: Dont spare any oppurtunity to market your band..perform at colleges,feasts and other places where you think your target audience would normally hang out.influence the influencers..identify your loyal fans and treat them well..like awarding a signed cd or something like that..you can also come up with a controversial/political song to stir some waves.Brand your band with a product that's related to your band's genre.Brand your band with the help of a local fashion boutique.Always wear clothes that reflect your music.
Photographs: Remember the saying ‘Pictures speak a thousand words’? we have seen one too many Indian bands that junkyard grooveare shy to expose themselves, either because they think they are not photogenic or probably stupid. You can boost your bands image ten times more with a good photo shoot. It may cost a small amount, but it is all worth it. Add your recent photographs to the band profile, make sure your face is clearly seen, do not put murky picture where the band members are not visible. If you can’t afford a good photo shoot borrow a 2megapixel Cell phone , that works too .
Social Media: This is one super tool that keeps you connected to everyone,anypart of the world and its absolutely free..your band presence in this revolution is imperative and i cant emphasis any deeper on how important it is for a entity like a band to be actively present on the social media channels such as tweeter,facebook etc..and is vital to dedicate some of your time or take help of a consultant to keep your presence felt in this platform by constant updates and active conversations with your fans.
Free Downloads: Nothing works like a free download, ask JYG if you don’t believe :) . Junkyard groove had 3000 album downloads in just one week. Point is everyone likes free goodies, if you don’t give them they will ‘rip’ it anyways. In my personal opinion giving away free Mp3’s has never hurt any one. Now that gimmesound.com pays the bands for every download why not make best of it?
Blog: The most useful free tool to promote music, yet not many Indian bands seems to do the right thing. You are reading this article on a blog aren’t you?, so why not get yourself a blog? You will be surprised to know that blogs reach people where social networks don’t. A Blog is an essential ‘free’ tool if you want to promote your band. As the saying goes, if you let your guard down, you are out. As a band you ‘must’ constantly remind your fans that your band is ‘alive’, get your self as many live gigs as possible. Unless your band is a studio band live gig is the backbone of every band. Participate in rock competitions, free shows, pub shows, dog shows, where ever you get a chance. If your music is good, people will definitely remember you as ‘kya mast band tha yaar!’
Networking: Get to know your contemporaries, your seniors in the underground music industry. Most of Indian rockers are very much active on social networks like Myspace, Facebook and Orkut. Add them as friends, introduce yourself ‘personally’ and the band. If your music is good, you will definitely get noticed, and a good endorsement by a respected musician does more wonders than you could think of.
Album or Die: What good it is, if you are 20 years in the music industry and have not released even an 4 track album? what I’m saying? Unless you want to be ‘that’ band which no one remembers, release an EP, or an album. With internet by your side you don’t really have to release an album in CD format. If you can manage a decent art work, releasing an EP/Album isn’t really difficult..So these are the basic things that you could do to promote your band. Probably I missed some points please add them in the comments section. Take every opportunity you get to promote your band. It’s survival of the fittest, and yeah, make sure the music is good.
101 Band Promotion Ideas-check out this link ..it has some cool ideas on band promotion
http://www.unsignedbandpromotion.com/band-promotion-ideas/index.html
all the rocking best to all the rock bands in India
source:indianrockmp3.com
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