Promoting yourself online isn’t simply a matter of posting selfies with your bass with a caption that says something like “Hire me!”
To get good gigs or projects as a bass player, you need some internet and social media savvy to come up with a good strategy for marketing your music and playing skills online.
Your target audience, or market, should include fellow musicians, music distributors, record producers, music v-loggers and podcasters, radio stations and DJs, music journalists or bloggers, event organizers and of course, people who like the style of music you play. With a good online marketing strategy, you can reach out to all of these, make your bass-playing skills known and create a lasting impression that can lead to more money-making opportunities.
Follow these tips and tricks when doing self-promotion online and you may just land the gig that would change your life.
Update your website with new content regularly
Yes, you should already have a website or at least a page up on Facebook. Having a website is the most professional way of presenting yourself online, so make sure you’ve got one and that it’s regularly updated. By updated we mean it has new, informative content every day or at least three times a week.
Your content should include news about what you’re currently working on (like a new song or a video), gig or radio guesting schedules, educational posts about your genre, your music heroes, helpful tips and short lessons for beginning bass players, your favorite acoustic bass guitars and other related content that can help people discover you online.
What should your “About” page contain? Consider this page as the one where you make your pitch. It should have a brief bio, a list of projects, gigs or festivals that you’ve played in, bands you’ve done gigs or recording sessions with and your contact information.
Make your music available online
Well-crafted written content and photos aren’t enough to sell yourself as a bass player. People need to see and hear how you play professionally. This is why it’s often recommended for solo bass players to have their own music samples at the very least. If you’ve gotten into music production and have a track or two to show, upload it to your site and seek out music journalists or websites that feature the work of independent musicians.
It’s also ideal to look into music distribution companies so that your music gets delivered to the audience you’re targeting. Through digital distribution, you can get your music available online on digital music stores and streaming platforms. You can start building an audience, you get to keep 100 percent of your royalties and people in the music business can have a better idea of your bass playing skills.
Use social media wisely
Once you have good content up online, make connections with others so you can expand your reach and professional horizons. Start by following and introducing yourself to other musicians in your genre and in other genres where you think your music style can fit into. Send a message or email to organizations and festival organizers that may be looking for musicians for upcoming events. Strike up a conversation with content creators (vloggers, podcasters, music journalists to name a few). Like and comment on what other people in your niche are posting.
In short, put the social in social media and engage with others. Share content you find interesting, and people will do the same for you.
Those are just some of the many things you can do to promote your music online as a bass player. It may take a while to see the results of your efforts, so be patient. Keep at it, make your content consistent and keep creating new things for your audience to see. Most importantly, keep practicing to become the best bass player you can be. Good luck!