5 strategies to gain exposure as an independent artist

1. Utilize Social Media

With so much web traffic going through social media sites today, it is only logical to promote yourself through sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and more. These sites allow you to target your friends and people that share similar interests with you, incubating a group that genuinely cares about the content you put out. These sites also enable artists to maintain consistent communication with their fan bases, generating an up-to-date audience that feels more connected to you and your music. If a fan of yours shares your content on a social media platform, they can help organically grow your audience and create a chain of distribution that will give you exposure. Finally, major music sites such as iTunes do a large part of their consumer research on social media, enabling artists to forge natural partnerships with these music services with relative ease.

2. Play live shows

Live shows determine your musical skill better than recordings. If you play at a local bar and blow the audience away, you create and generate interest in your name and music. When other bars hear that you drew a great audience, they will inevitably invite you to play at their bar, as it draws a crowd and allows them to sell their product and be more profitable. This will also create a chain of distribution. People feel a stronger connection to a band after seeing than live than just hearing the audio of a recording. Live shows can create a larger and more loyal fan base.

3. Be consistent yet current

With tons of aspiring artists all competing to get outreach and develop their fan bases, it’s important to be consistent with the output of your content. Simply releasing one single will not allow your career to take off. You will need to release new songs on a fairly consistent basis in order to maintain interest and engagement from your audience. Inconsistency in production as well as producing the same old thing will cause your fans to lose interest and get bored. You should always be working to improve your craft and not be afraid to get ouside your comfort zone. That is a recipe for success.

4. Know your audience and reward your biggest fans

Knowing who likes your music is undoubtedly the most important aspect of music promotion. If you know where people are listening to your music, how old your audience is, and other demographics about them, you can better and more effectively market yourself. Not everyone is going to be your biggest fan. What you need to do is find out who will be, so that you can drive your content to them and increase your profitability as a result. At the same time, make sure you don't solely focus on recruiting new fans while forgetting about your existing ones. The most important thing you can do in terms of fan interaction is stay engaged with your most loyal fan base and reward them in any way possible. The people who love your music most are the most important people to the band's growth and success. They are the ones besides you who will be sharing and shouting your music out to the world. One of the most common ways people stay up to date with new music is through friends and family.

5. Be proactive and persistent

As talented as you may be, the likelihood of being discovered is not very high. It is therefore important to make connections within the music industry, and get your music out there. Don’t assume that your fanbase will automatically grow itself just because you put out amazing content. Rather, take the necessary steps to grow your fanbase on your own. If you put the effort in, your music will get out there. Be aggressive.