Musicians gain an audience by basically selling themselves in instagram posts, ads and playing the long game. Though turns out that’s naive. It’s the consistent practice, building a brand, creating content and understanding your target audience that help a band to grow in popularity and fans. But since most artists don’t understand how to self-promote this usually means they will most likely never gain a mainstream audience.
Most artists don’t realize that when you are an independent artist, you won’t get much outside help. You might get some help from a close friend who likes your songs, but other than that, you can’t rely on record labels or fans to promote your music. The reason behind this is because record labels don’t work with unproven artists, most of the time those artists are a risk the labels aren’t willing to take.
So in order to move things forward, artists need to get to know the basics of marketing to increase their status all by themselves. A mistake most artists make is that they only promote their music online. If you only market online, you’re missing out on a whole lot of opportunities. Playing gigs is one of the biggest reasons why you shouldn’t stick to only promoting online (7 Music Marketing Truths ALL Musicians Should Know - MTT - Music Think Tank, z.d.). By gigging, you get to connect in real life with your audience and make money by selling tickets and merch. Trying to reach record labels also works a lot better offline. Sending an e-mail can be a slow process, but a phone call or getting an appointment and seeing them face-to-face can work a lot better.
References:
Gaetano, & Gaetano. (2025, 21 januari). Music Marketing for Independent Musicians: The 2024 Guide. Gaetano | Who Is Gaetano? A Proven Growth Marketer, Musician & Business Leader - All Rolled Into One. Get His Digital Marketing Tips And Music Industry Insights. https://officialgaetano.com/music-industry/music-marketing
7 Music Marketing Truths ALL Musicians should Know - MTT - Music Think Tank. (z.d.). https://musicthinktank.squarespace.com/blog/7-music-marketing-truths-all-musicians-should-know.html