10 Tips To Build A Dedicated Fanbase For Your Music.

In this article, I am going to show you the 10 tips to build a dedicated fanbase for your music.

If you want to be a successful musician, your number one goal should be to build a dedicated fanbase for your music.

After making great music, you’ll also need to focus more on marketing, branding, fan interaction, and lots more.

Below, therefore, are the 10 effective tips that will help you build a dedicated fanbase for your music in a short while.

How do artists grow their fan base?

Artists can grow their fanbase in the following ways:

1. Building a brand
2. Feature on music discovery websites.
3. Get your songs featured on Spotify playlists.
4. Promote your songs on music blogs.
5. Host competitions or giveaways.
6. Perform live shows.
7. Create video content.
8. Distribute your music and merchandise.
9. Build your official website.
10. Collaborate with other artists, especially the big ones.

1. Building a brand.

Lots of upcoming artists do not understand the necessity of building a brand.

It is your brand that will determine your music career decisions. It will guide you to set your marketing strategy, as well as help you present yourself online, and understand how to interact with and convert your listeners and admirers to fans. Your brand reflects your style as much as your music!

It’s also crucial to have a vision of where you want your music career to go. So, take the time to discover what’s unique about you, your artistry, and your story. Then build your brand identity from there.

2. Feature on music discovery websites.

Music fans and industry influencers are always searching music discovery websites regularly to connect with new artists who are taking at their game.

Music discovery websites are great platforms for connecting with new fans.

Many of them can also help you to be discovered by music bloggers, Spotify curators, record labels, and much more.

Check out sites like Hype Machine, NoiseTrade, SubmitHub, Pitchfork, TopSpin, ToneDen, Bandcamp, SoundCloud, and ReverbNation.

Some of them will also provide you with tools and services that will help you engage with fans, promote and sell your music, view your analytics, and much more.

3. Get your songs featured on Spotify playlists.

Spotify is one of the major music streaming platforms on planet Earth right now.

You can take advantage of Spotify to grow your fan base, discover new artists, as well as promote your music.

If you can get your music featured on popular Spotify playlists, you will quickly be able to introduce your music to the world. Most fans in the world discover new music through curated playlists.

Though Spotify is not available for users in Nigeria at the moment, there are several Nigerian playlists on Spotify, and all you have to do is Google for Nigerian playlist curators on Spotify and contact them to get your songs in their playlists.

4. Promote your songs on music blogs.

Getting your music heard is one of the biggest challenges when starting out your music career. But one of the effective ways to do that is to promote your songs on music blogs because it will help you to reach new audiences.

If you can get your music on at least 5 music blogs, it will really help you to reach a wider audience.

5. Host competitions or giveaways.

Running a competition or a giveaway is a great way to hook up your potential and existing fan base. You need to give your fans something in return for downloading, listening to, and streaming your music.

6. Perform live shows.

Performing live is one of the best ways to reach and connect with new fans.

When you perform live, your fans will get to experience your music rather than stream it. Playing your music live will have a more powerful impact.

However, gigging needs a strategy. For instance, you need to avoid playing live too often, especially, in the same city or venue; because if you do your shows will lose value. Most importantly, don’t forget to meet people in the audience and engage with them!

Another great way to increase your fans is to perform alongside artists who have a larger fan base.

7. Create video content.

Video contents are an effective medium for promoting your music. YouTube has become one of the must-use media platforms for musicians.

Beyond being a video platform, YouTube has other advantages. For example, it has a very effective search engine. People visit YouTube to search for and find songs, and with the right keywords, your song can get discovered on YouTube easily.

But then, you must not limit yourself to YouTube. Several other video hosting platforms are also effective. For instance, Vimeo, Facebook Live, Instagram, etc

8. Distribute your music and merchandise.

Digital music distribution services help independent artists and labels to get their music on major online music stores and streaming sites.

These aggregators can distribute music to iTunes, Apple Music, Spotify, Beatport, Amazon, Google Play, Pandora, and other leading music platforms.

Getting your music on these platforms is therefore a sure way to reach new and potential fans.

Leading digital music distributors such as Symphonic Distribution, TuneCore, and DistroKid also offers a variety of services and tools that enables artists to prepare, sell, and market their music online.

9. Build your official website.

Building an official website for your brand is another effective way to offer music and merchandise.

An official website should feature your artist’s bio, music, tour dates, images, relevant media, achievements, social media links, merch, and contact details.

A successful website will represent you as an artist, your brand, and your musical identity.

10. Collaborate with other artists, especially the big ones.

You must leverage the fans of artists, venues, and brands to increase your fan base. That is to say, you need to collaborate with other artists, especially the top ones in the industry.

Collaborating with other artists will help you tap into other people’s audiences, and in so doing easily reach and acquire new fans.