If you have completed the basic step of forming your band, the next step would be to promote your band and make it popular so that people get to notice and attend the concerts. You would have to do this on your own until your get noticed by some recording company who will sign you up and promote your band. Follow the guidelines given below to plan your promotions.
The first important thing is to be in local public eye. For this you would have to be frequently seen playing in local as well as regional music events and be present in all shows. People should get used to your presence and begin to expect good music from you.
Now a days you can get a lot of publicity through word of mouth contacts as well as social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube etc. Make sure you give out your ids on all your CD covers and promote your band everywhere.
You could begin a promotional campaign by giving away free downloads to one of your most popular numbers or latest tunes. This will get a huge response form those interested in your music. Once they listen and like your music, they are likely to take further interest in buying your CDs. Look at the free music give away as a promotional expense and not a sales opportunity to earn money.
With free downloads, it is not only that the people who have downloaded will listen to your music but they will pass it on to others as well including their family and friends who are interested in similar music. You should encourage people to share your music and invite comments.
You could also give out CDs at cost price and ensure all of your IDs are printed on every CD label. Encourage them to share the CD or rip the music on to another CD and share it with others. You can grow the number of listeners in this way.
You must and should put up your music on You Tube and while the music is playing do put up the short video or pictures of the band and give a listing of your upcoming events and shows. Make sure your publicize your social networking IDs every where.
Always check out the scene with other bands and competition. They could be doing something new to promote their band, in which case you can pick up and improvise on the same idea too or they could be doing the same thing that you are doing too. But then you will always get more ideas to develop.
