Want to learn to market your music like a record label? This article will teach you how to market your music by giving you information on how music labels market music.
It’s quite a convoluted process, so this post will also explain how we did it.
Let’s get started.
A record label is the biggest name in the business. Not many businesses benefit from such a large name, and a record label is no exception.
To work in the record label business, you have to go through a fairly rigorous training process. As an aspiring artist, you’ll have to go through this, as the training that artists need to work with record labels can be extensive.
In addition to learning the fundamentals of music theory, the art of making music, and a whole lot of other things, artists who work with record labels will spend a considerable amount of time outside of the studio learning marketing strategies.
For a proper marketing strategy to work, you need to understand how record labels approach music sales. Once you have a basic understanding of what a record label is, you can move forward in your marketing plan.
Let’s take a look at the activities that a record label promotes its artists’ work.
The music description is the music by a label that explains what to expect from the album it comes packaged with. You will usually hear something like, “Songs that bring you back to your glory days” or “a song about a summer love.”
A good description can make a huge impact on the marketability of a music album. By going into a lot of detail, record labels give potential listeners an idea of what they are getting into by buying the album.
Before music descriptions, there were promotional CDs, which were all about exposure. They were small- to medium-sized picture discs with a simple message and usually about 2–3 minutes long.
They usually came in attractive packages and were free. Nowadays, music descriptions tend to be much more detailed and full of information.
The next element to the music description is the “track description.” The track description usually is about 2–3 minutes of the music.
This is what the listener can expect from the music, and the listener will not be surprised by the style or sound of the music if it seems similar to other music they’ve heard before.
In other words, you don’t want to mistake a track description for an album description accidentally and think that the listener will not like it if they are familiar with the album.
After music descriptions come to the music stakeout, a music supervisor will listen to the music and analyze the potential commercial value of the music in the music stakeout.
If the music supervisor feels that the music fits into a category that the label wants to work in, it will be recorded in a studio for record release. Stakeouts are done to make sure that music will be commercially viable.
The last part of the record label’s marketing strategy is a promotional campaign, which is the work of record labels to get their product to the public's ears. Promotional campaigns are done in two parts, both of which are very important in selling and promoting the music.
The first part of the promotional campaign is the release of the music. To give you an example of a typical release, imagine a song from a new artist.
The single could be released on a Friday afternoon and then promoted for weeks through a steady stream of advertising. All of the work is done by the record label for the release.
The second part of the promotional campaign is the tour. When a band is promoting an album, they will often go on tour to promote it.
On tour, the band will usually be promoted by the record label, and there will also be a special program set up for the live audience. During the program, fans can meet and talk to the band, purchase a t-shirt or have them sign a poster for them.
The program could also be merchandise, like tickets to a show, which is a nice bonus for fans.
Promotional campaigns are a great way to get new listeners interested in the music, but the marketing campaign is only as good. With every release of music, there are several ways to measure success and improve the marketing program.
These are often referred to as ROI (return on investment).
The first form of measure of success is sales. Since a sale means a new listener, the most important part of the music marketing program is to sell music.
The exact amount of money made from a sale can vary, but it is common for the profit margin to be as high as 90% of the sales price. The main reason for that high-profit margin is because the other 10% can go to a marketing campaign.
The profit margin also depends on the genre of music and how big a name the music is compared to other music on the market.
Another important thing to keep in mind is that the profit margin doesn’t just help you with music marketing. There are several benefits that a music business receives from marketing and sales revenue, like profit from merchandise, tour tickets, and more.
Customer retention is also important for the music business. If your audience becomes saturated with the new music and stops purchasing it, your music marketing campaign will have a hard time since the revenue from the sales will be lost.
This is also why it’s important to have an unlimited supply of music. As long as your music is out there, the demand for it will be there.
Whether you’re just getting started or have been putting off marketing your music for a while, these tips can help you get the best return on your investment.
Once your music is on the market and you’ve released a few singles, it’s important to track your sales and listening figures. To do this, several online tools can track your sales.
Using one of these tools can help you better understand your target audience and identify which of your songs are most popular, which will help you with your next release.
You can use listening statistics to discover how your songs perform and learn more about your target audience.
