It is very easy to establish your own record label, but very hard to make it stand out hence the need to promote your record label.
And having took the pains and years to establish my own record label known as Taculia Records, I think I am in a better position to help you learn about those ways you can promote your record label and make it stand out.
Without much ado, let me show you how to promote your record label.
How to promote your record label.
You can promote your record label in the following ways:
- Build an official website.
- Build or add a forum to your existing website.
- Create an email list.
- Implement content marketing.
- Utilize paid adverts.
- Use social media.
- Run music contests or competition.
- Do auditioning for intended artists.
- Sign artists into your label.
- Network with established labels and music promoters.
1. Build an official website.
One of the ways to promote your record label is to build an official website, because your official website will help you to get your label’s mission on your about me page, contact details on your contact page as well as showcase the vital information’s about your record label in your homepage.
This will then make it easy for musicians and other music industry workers who might be interested in working with you gather all the information about your label in one place.
2. Build or add a forum to your existing website.
You can also promote your record label by building a forum s or adding a forum page to your existing official website.
Now the advantage of having a forum for your record label is that it will help artists to interact with each other and in so doing begin to spread the word about your record label.
3. Create an email list.
Creating an email list is another great way to promote your record label, because it will help you to reach out to your subscribers at any given point in time and give them updates on what’s ongoing in your record industry.
Typically, an email list can be added as a plugin to your website where it will make it possible for you to add a subscription form that will enable people sign up for your newsletter, and while signing up you would be able to collect their emails instantly.
One important thing with creating an email list is that you should add an option that will enable people opt out or rather unsubscribe whenever they want to.
4. Implement content marketing.
One thing I like about using content marketing to promote a record label is that you won’t have to spend any amount of money, but the downside is the time it will take for your content to start ranking in order to bring organic traffic to your blog.
I used content marketing as my main source of promoting Taculia Records, and presently I have so many keywords am ranking for that is bringing lots of traffic to this blog.
Now the most important thing to observe with using content marketing to promote your website is that you should choose topics that target record labels, deals, music production, promotion, distribution etc. This is because those are the things that every record labels focus on a lot.
You can check out the category on this blog to have an idea of the topics we are using on the content marketing strategy on this blog.
5. Utilize paid adverts.
Now since content marketing is going to take a considerable time to help you promote your website, you can utilize paid adverts to reach your target audience.
There are so many form of paid adverts you can utilize to promote your record label such as Google AdSense, Jetpack’s Blaze, Social media Ads etc.
But I always like to recommend social media ads, especially Facebook and Instagram ads because it is always less expensive. With a minimum of $1, you can advertise your record label on Facebook and Instagram.
Another great advantage of using Facebook and Instagram ads is that it will help you to target an audience based on a specific interest and location.
All you need to do to use this form of advert is to share your record label’s official website on your Facebook or Instagram page and boost t there to reach your target audience.
6. Use social media.
Social media platforms are great places to promote your record label, and what makes it even best is that you won’t have to pay anything to join a social platform and also you can even end up monetizing your social media accounts and make additional income from them.
All you have to do is to go to the most important social media platforms which are Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, TikTok and create a free account using your record label’s name across all of them.
Also ensure you optimize those social platforms by uploading a profile picture, providing your about and contact details as well as any other important information you are required to provide on any of those social media accounts.
7. Run music contests or competition.
Running a music contest or competition is another great way to promote your record label.
In the case of being a record label, the reward for the winner might simply be getting signed to your record label.
In order to not create limits for those who are willing to join, you can simply make it an online contest or competition where artists will be required to submit viral videos or demo songs and the best of it all will be the one to go home with the reward.
8. Do auditioning for intended artists.
Unlike a contest or competition, an auditioning is simply a means by which artists are expected to submit their musical content in order to prove they are capable of working with a record label.
And it is from those content that you will select the best artists and offer them a record deal in your label.
9. Sign artists into your label.
Signing artists into your record label is the biggest part or act of promoting a record label because it will prove to everyone out there that your record label is for real, and not a means by which artists will lose their hard-earned money to scammers.
It is true that so many people are hiding under the pretense of giving an artists an opportunity to join a record label to scam so many of them, and what will make you separate from this nonsense is when an artists who is already making progress in his musical career is signed to your record label.
It is worth mentioning that so many record label owners are not willing to sig artists into their label because they do not have money to pay the artist advance. But am here to assure you through my personal experience as a record label owner that there are so many artists out there who are willing to get signed into a record label even if they are not given any amount of money.
However, I wont advise you to sign an artist into your label without giving him anything, instead start with a royalty deal and look for a reasonable amount of money to offer the artists with the condition that subsequent payment will begin to roll in when the music is making progress in the market.
From then you can utilize your strategies to promote the artists and make him blow.
10. Network with established labels and music promoters.
Even though this usually comes with a price, networking with other record labels is a great way to promote your record label.
As a matter of fact, the price that usually comes with networking with an established record label is that they are going to get a percentage of what your record label will make from the artist who are signed into it.
The kind of record deal usually signed amongst record labels is a distribution deal, which means that it is the other record label that will distribute your artists music and get a percentage cut from the profit that will come from such distribution.
You must however be informed on the best percentage split before you get into this kind of deal with another record label.
