Independent Artistry - No-budget Marketing #001

With all of the technology at our disposal, we have an insane amount of outreach and visibility - so why is it so hard to get our music heard? I think there are numerous reasons for this, but I've been looking at one in particular.

How often do you check your facebook to see a slew of independent artists, shamelessly promoting their own shows, EP's, mixtapes, etc.? If you are active in your music scene as an artist or an avid listener, it probably happens all the time. It happens almost every day for me, and I started to look at what could be done more effectively.

Today I want to talk about self-endorsement vs. cross-endorsement.

Most artists have the 'me' endorsement. "Check out my stuff, my shows, my songs, my videos." This would likely be the most obvious route to success, because you need to increase your visibility to get plays, views, and sales. There are a couple problems with this though - the biggest problem being, the general public is getting tired of hearing self-endorsement. It also holds very little credibility, because why wouldn't you endorse your own product? This causes the social media passerby to keep on scrolling.

I really want to talk about cross-endorsement, for a few reasons. What I mean by cross-endorsement is, the pursuit of visibility and promotion for OTHER community artists other than yourself. The first reason being, let's start by picturing a scenario. We have six artists working together in a music scene. Rather than self-endorsement, they only ever endorse each other. They talk about the albums the other artists are dropping, they videos they made, and how insanely good their fellow artist is live and how you should go out to see them.

If everyone lived with this mindset, each artist would get a sizable amount of coverage, and to a much wider demographic. If each artist has 200 friends, self-endorsement would create visibility to 200 individuals, where as cross-endorsement would reach 800. Not only that, but each individual may see overlap from artist to artist, increasing credibility. While we're on the subject of credibility, there's also the fact that to the general public, there is no reason for one artist to support another unless they truly believe that their music is worth listening to. This voluntary endorsement by others holds much more weight and greatly increases the recipient's cred, while self-endorsement is obvious, redundant, and doesn't hold much weight at all. Lastly, what people fail to realize is, endorsing another artist STILL brings visibility to your social media! Just because you're not out there yelling "me, me, me!", it doesn't mean people will not show interest in what you are doing as well (especially when you seem to have such a solid grasp on your musical circle).

Now, as with every social concept, this is easier said than done. This requires multiple parties to agree to and uphold a lifestyle. But really more than anything else, I just wanted to get this idea out there. Successful music scenes are not random, and when you see this kind of cross-endorsement happening, you often times get a strong sense of community that follows. It's important that we realize what is important to an artist's success. You could do a phenomenal job self-endorsing in a cultural wasteland, and you will not be able to yield results. I've always thought it to be crucial to give back to the community first, and take second. If we could all adhere to this mindset, I think artists, producers, and songwriters would have a much easier time building the community around their art that they'd like to see.

Personally, I am just an artist/producer who has had enough time to see and analyze these situations. I am not a marketing professional. I just think it's important that we address some of these shortcomings in our own communities and attempt to better them. Let me know what you think in the comments.